HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links
St. Martin's Le Grand St. Martin's Le Grand is a former liberty within the City of London, and is the name of a street north of Newgate Street and Cheapside and south of Aldersgate Street. It forms the southernmost section of the A1 road. College of canons and col ...
with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where it becomes Poultry, is Mansion House, the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
, and
Bank station Bank and Monument are interlinked London Underground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) stations that form a public transport complex spanning the length of King William Street in the City of London. Bank station, named after the Bank of Engla ...
. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St Paul's tube station and square. In the Middle Ages, it was known as Westcheap, as opposed to
Eastcheap Eastcheap is a street in central London that is a western continuation of Great Tower Street towards Monument junction. Its name derives from ''cheap'', the Old English word for market, with the prefix 'East' distinguishing it from Westcheap, ...
, another street in the City, near London Bridge. The boundaries of the
wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of Cheap,
Cordwainer A cordwainer () is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather. The cordwainer's trade can be contrasted with the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. This usage distinction is ...
and
Bread Street Bread Street is one of the 25 wards of the City of London the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the City's bread market; already named ''Bredstrate'' (to at least 1180) for by the records it appears as that in 1302, E ...
run along Cheapside and Poultry; prior to boundary changes in 2003 the road was divided amongst
Farringdon Within Farringdon Within is one of the 25 wards of the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It was formed in the 14th century from the sub-division of the pre-existing Farringdon Ward into ''Farringdon Within'' (inside the line ...
and
Cripplegate Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London. The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into t ...
wards in addition to the current three. The contemporary Cheapside is widely known as the location of a range of retail and food outlets and offices, as well as the City's only major shopping centre,
One New Change One New Change is a major office and retail development in the City of London. It comprises of floor space, including of retail space and of office space and is the only large shopping centre in the City of London, the historic nucleus and mo ...
.


Etymology and usage

''Cheapside'' is a common English street name, meaning "market place", from Old English ''ceapan'', "to buy" (cf. German ''kaufen'', Dutch ''kopen'', Danish ''købe'', Norwegian ''kjøpe'', Swedish ''köpa''), whence also ''
chapman Chapman may refer to: Businesses * Chapman Entertainment, a former British television production company * Chapman Guitars, a guitar company established in 2009 by Rob Chapman * Chapman's, a Canadian ice cream and ice water products manufacture ...
'' and ''
chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklet ...
.'' There was originally no connection to the modern meaning of ''cheap'' ("low-priced" or "low-quality", a shortening of ''good ceap'', "good buy"), though by the 18th century this association may have begun to be inferred. Other cities and towns in England that have a Cheapside include Ambleside, Ascot,
Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...
,
Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
,
Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, Derby, Halifax,
Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...
,
Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenar ...
, Lancaster, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Nottingham,
Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...
,
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...
, Wakefield and Wolverhampton. There is also a Cheapside in
Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Ci ...
, Barbados; Lexington, Kentucky, US; Greenfield, Massachusetts, US;
Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; french: Saint-Hélier) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St Helier has a population of 35,822 – over one-third of the total population of Jersey – ...
, Jersey; and London, Ontario, Canada.


History

Cheapside is the former site of one of the principal produce markets in London, ''cheap'' broadly meaning "market" in medieval English. Many of the streets feeding into the main thoroughfare are named after the produce that was once sold in those areas of the market, including Honey Lane, Milk Street,
Bread Street Bread Street is one of the 25 wards of the City of London the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the City's bread market; already named ''Bredstrate'' (to at least 1180) for by the records it appears as that in 1302, E ...
and Poultry. In medieval times, the royal processional route from the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
to the Palace of Westminster would include Cheapside. During state occasions such as the first entry of Margaret of France (second wife of King Edward I), into London in September 1299, the conduits of Cheapside customarily flowed with wine. During the reign of Edward III in the 14th century, tournaments were held in adjacent fields. The dangers were, however, not limited to the participants: a wooden stand built to accommodate
Queen Philippa Philippa of Hainault (sometimes spelled Hainaut; Middle French: ''Philippe de Hainaut''; 24 June 1310 (or 1315) – 15 August 1369) was Queen of England as the wife and political adviser of King Edward III. She acted as regent in 1346,Strickla ...
and her companions collapsed during a tournament to celebrate the birth of the
Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...
in 1330. No one died, but the King was greatly displeased, and the stand's builders would have been put to death but for the Queen's intercession. On the day preceding her coronation, in January 1559, Elizabeth I passed through a number of London streets in a pre-coronation procession and was entertained by a number of pageants, including one in Cheapside. Meat was brought in to Cheapside from
Smithfield market Smithfield, properly known as West Smithfield, is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Smithfield is home to a number of City institutions, such as St Bartho ...
, just outside Newgate. After the great Church of St. Michael-le-Querne, the top end of the street broadened into a
dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
known as the Shambles (referring to an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market), with butcher shops on both sides and a dividing central area also containing butchers. Further down, on the right, was Goldsmiths Row, an area of
commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a co ...
dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...
s. From the 14th century to the Great Fire, the eastern end of Cheapside was the location of the
Great Conduit The Great Conduit was a man-made underground channel in London, England, which brought drinking water from the Tyburn to Cheapside in the City. In 1237 the City of London acquired the springs of the Tyburn and built a small reservoir, a head of ...
.


Literary connections

Cheapside was the birthplaces of John Milton and Robert Herrick. It was for a long time one of the most important streets in London. It is also the site of the 'Bow Bells', the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, which has played a part in London's
Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
heritage and the tale of
Dick Whittington Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale ''Dic ...
. Geoffrey Chaucer grew up around Cheapside and there are a scattering of references to the thoroughfare and its environs throughout his work. The first chapter of Peter Ackroyd's ''Brief Lives'' series on Chaucer also colourfully describes the street at that time. William Shakespeare used Cheapside as the setting for several bawdy scenes in ''
Henry IV, Part I ''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at ...
''. A reference to it is also made in ''
Henry VI, Part II ''Henry VI, Part 2'' (often written as ''2 Henry VI'') is a Shakespearean history, history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas ''Henry VI, Part 1'' ...
'', in a speech by the rebel
Jack Cade Jack Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladmin ...
: "all the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass". Thomas Middleton's play ''
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside ''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'' is a city comedy written c. 1613 by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. Unpublished until 1630 and long-neglected afterwards, it is now considered among the best and most characteristic Jacobean comedie ...
'' (1613) both satirises and celebrates the citizens of the neighbourhood during the Renaissance, when the street hosted the city's goldsmiths. William Wordsworth, in his 1797 poem ''The Reverie of Poor Susan'', imagines a naturalistic Cheapside of past: Jane Austen, in her 1813 novel '' Pride and Prejudice'', characterises Cheapside as a London neighbourhood frowned upon by the landed elite: Charles Dickens Jr. wrote in his 1879 book ''
Dickens's Dictionary of London Charles Culliford Boz Dickens (6 January 1837 – 20 July 1896) was the first child of the English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine '' All the Year Round'', and a ...
'':
Cheapside remains now what it was five centuries ago, the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London. Other localities have had their day, have risen, become fashionable, and have sunk into obscurity and neglect, but Cheapside has maintained its place, and may boast of being the busiest thoroughfare in the world, with the sole exception perhaps of London-bridge.
Hugh Lofting Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was an English American writer trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician to talking animals, based in a ...
's book ''
Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 '' The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in t ...
'', published in 1951, names a quarrelsome London sparrow with a Cockney accent Cheapside. He lives most of the year in St. Edmund's left ear in St. Paul's Cathedral and is invited to the African country of Fantippo to deliver mail to cities because the other birds are not able to navigate city streets. Cheapside is also depicted in
Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...
's 1951 children's historical novel ''
The Armourer's House ''The Armourer's House'' is a children's historical novel by Rosemary Sutcliff and first published in 1951. It is set primarily in London during the reign of King Henry VIII. It is Sutcliff's third book, and is acknowledged by her as being 'a li ...
'', along with other parts of
Tudor London Henry Tudor, who seized the English throne as Henry VII in 1485, and married Elizabeth of York, put an end to the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII was a resolute and efficient monarch who centralized political power in the crown. He commissioned the ...
. In a more contemporary treatment, the Cheapside of the Middle Ages was referenced in a derogatory sense in the 2001 movie ''
A Knight's Tale ''A Knight's Tale'' is a 2001 American medieval adventure comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher, a peasant squire who poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, win ...
'' as being the poor, unhealthy and low-class birthplace and home of the unlikely hero. Nineteenth century Cheapside is presented as the home of Mary "Jacky" Faber in '' Bloody Jack'' by L. A. Meyer. Additionally, Cheapside is depicted as a major setting in the bestselling novel by
Maria McCann Maria McCann is an English novelist. Biography McCann was born in Liverpool in 1956 and worked as a lecturer in English at Strode College, Street, Somerset since 1985, until starting work with Arden. Her first novel, ''As Meat Loves Salt'', was ...
, ''As Meat Loves Salt'', a historical feature set against the English Civil War. William Gibson's mystery novel ''
The Peripheral ''The Peripheral'' is a 2014 science fiction mystery-thriller novel by William Gibson set in near- and post-apocalyptic versions of the future. The story focuses on a young rural-town American woman who lives in the near future, and on a London ...
'' depicts a 22nd-century Cheapside converted to a Victorian-era
cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, a ...
zone where only 19th century costume is allowed.


Contemporary Cheapside

Cheapside today is a street of offices and developments of retail outlets. It can no longer be described as "the busiest thoroughfare in the world" (as in Charles Dickens, Jr.'s day) and is instead simply one of many routes connecting the East End and the City of London with the West End. Cheapside was extensively damaged during The Blitz in late 1940 and particularly during the
Second Great Fire of London The Second Great Fire of London in December 1940 was caused by one of the most destructive air raids of the Blitz during World War II. The Luftwaffe raid caused fires over an area greater than that of the Great Fire of London in 1666, leading o ...
. Much of the rebuilding following these raids occurred during the 1950s and 1960s and included a number of unsympathetic contemporary attempts at recreating the centuries-old architecture that had been destroyed. In recent years many of these buildings have themselves been demolished as a programme of regeneration takes place along Cheapside from Paternoster Square to Poultry. The draft Core Strategy of the City's
Local Development Frameworks A local development framework is the spatial planning strategy introduced in England and Wales by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and given detail in Planning Policy Statements 12. In most parts of the two countries, maintaining th ...
outlines the vision and policies for the Cheapside area, aiming to increase the amount of retail space along and near the street, and make the area a good environment for visitors and shoppers. The plan is to re-establish the street as the City's "High Street", including as a weekend shopping destination (until recently many retail units in the City were closed on Saturday and Sunday). A major retail and office development at the heart of the scheme,
One New Change One New Change is a major office and retail development in the City of London. It comprises of floor space, including of retail space and of office space and is the only large shopping centre in the City of London, the historic nucleus and mo ...
, opened 28 October 2010. It is sited on Cheapside at the intersection with New Change, immediately to the east of St. Paul's Cathedral. To address the anticipated rise in the number of shoppers as a result of the regeneration, the street itself has undergone reconstruction works to make the area more sympathetic to pedestrian traffic; the works are expected to make Cheapside the main shopping area in the City of London. Cheapside formed part of the marathon course of the 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...
Games. The women's Olympic marathon took place on 5 August and the men's Olympic marathon took place on 12 August. The four Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September.2012 London Olympics Men's Marathon: course map
an
Women's Marathon: course map


See also

*
Eleanor cross The Eleanor crosses were a series of twelve tall and lavishly decorated stone monuments topped with crosses erected in a line down part of the east of England. King Edward I had them built between 1291 and about 1295 in memory of his beloved wi ...


References

Sources * ''A Glossary and Etymological Dictionary: Of Obsolete and Uncommon Words'' William Toone (Bennett: London, 1834) * ''Kings and Queens of Britain'', Williamson, D. (1986), Salem House, . Endnotes


External links


View, looking eastwards, of Cheapside in early Stuart times, showing the Cheapside Cross and the Standard

The Cheapside Initiative official website
{{Authority control Streets in the City of London History of the City of London