Pudding Lane

Pudding Lane is a small street in London widely known as the location of Thomas Farriner's bakery where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. It is off Eastcheap, near London Bridge and the Monument, in the historic City of London.

Pudding Lane
Pudding Lane in 2008
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
Postal codeEC3
North endEastcheap
South endPedestrianised to Lower Thames Street
Other
Known forOrigin of the Great Fire of London

The site of Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane is within the roadway of Monument Street (created 1886-7), on the east side of Pudding Lane. The oven and the small yard where Farriner stored the brushwood for the oven were at the back of the site.[1] A plaque on the wall of the nearby Faryners House, presented by the Company of Bakers in 1986, commemorates the fire.

According to the chronicler John Stow, it is named after the "puddings" (a medieval word for offal) which would fall from the carts coming down the lane from the butchers in Eastcheap as they headed for the waste barges on the River Thames. In Stow's words, "the Butchers of Eastcheape have their skalding House for Hog there, and their puddings with other filth of Beasts, are voided down that way to their dung boats on the Thames."[2] The original name of the lane was "Offal Pudding Lane", which changed to the current name in the 15th century.[3]

Pudding Lane was one of the world's first one-way streets.[4] An order restricting cart traffic to one-way travel on that and 16 other lanes around Thames Street was issued in 1617, an idea not copied for over 180 years until Albemarle Street became a one-way street in 1800.

The nearest Underground station to Pudding Lane is Monument, a short distance to the west. The closest main-line railway stations are Fenchurch Street and Cannon Street.

Name variants

According to Stow, the lane had also been known as Rother Lane or Red Rose Lane. Variants include: Red Roſe Lane,[Stow, 1598] Rotherlane. [Stow, 1603] Rother (Pudding) Lane.[Ekwall, 1954] The lane was formerly an alley associated with Rothersgate, which was named after a watergate located there;[5][6] suggesting river access for cattle.[7][8]

In the 2016 musical show Bumblescratch, Pudding Lane and the Farynor Bakery are primary featured locations.[9]

References
  1. Dorian Gerhold, 'Where did the Great Fire begin?', Transactions, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, vol. 66 (2015), pp.1-7
  2. Billinsgate warde, from A Survey of London, by John Stow. Reprinted from the text of 1603. original spelling: "... commonly called Pudding Lane, because the Butchers of Eastcheape haue their skalding House for Hogges there, and their puddinges with other filth of Beastes, are voided downe that way to theyr dung boates on the Thames."
  3. Sukhadwala, Sejal (21 June 2016). "How London's Food And Drink Streets Got Their Names". Londonist. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  4. "One-way streets are a surprisingly old (and dangerous) idea". The Spectator. 2 May 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  5. Fairfield, Sheila (1983). The streets of London : a dictionary of the names and their origins. Macmillan. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-333-28649-4.
  6. Ekwall, Eilert (1954). Streets Names of the City of London. Claredon Press. p. 103.
  7. Stone, Peter (2017). The History of the Port of London: A Vast Emporium of All Nations. Pen and Sword. p. 166. ISBN 9781473860391.
  8. See:rother, Etymology 1
  9. Bumblescratch: Adelphi Programme "Synopsis", pp. 23–24, (September 4, 2016)

Bibliography
  • Collins, Amy (2016). "Pudding Lane". Map of Early Modern London. University of Victoria. Retrieved 16 December 2018.

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