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 Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

word for market, with the prefix 'East' distinguishing it from Westcheap, another former market street that today is called Cheapside. In medieval times, Eastcheap was the main meat market in the City of London, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street. It is also notable as the former location of Falstaff's Boar's Head Inn, featured in William Shakespeare's ''

Henry IV, Part 1 ''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 ...

'' and '' Henry IV, Part 2''.

History

The history of Eastcheap dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. The name is first attested on an Anglo-Saxon

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

of King Harold I (reigned 1035–1040) that was minted in London by the moneyer Eadwold between 1035 and 1037. The mint signature on the coin reads "EADǷOLD ONESTCEPLV" which is interpreted as "Eadwold on Estcep Lu dene, meaning "Eadwold, on East Cheap, London". It is believed that this is the earliest known instance of a street-name on Anglo-Saxon coinage. At its western end, the modern Eastcheap begins at Monument junction where Gracechurch Street, Cannon Street, and King William Street converge by

Monument tube station A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

. It continues eastward into Great Tower Street. It lies within the

City ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

of Bridge. Police box, London EC3 - geograph

Billingsgate Cartographer; Blome, RichardSurveyor; Stow, John 1720

The street formerly extended further to the west, where it was called Great Eastcheap, but this section was eliminated when King William Street was built to provide new access to

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

in the early 19th century. Falstaff's famed tavern, which stood on the Great Eastcheap section of the road, was demolished at this time. The old eastern portion and what is today's Eastcheap, was known as Little Eastcheap. The erased western portion of Eastcheap is recalled in the name of the church of St. Clement Eastcheap, which, despite its name, is to the north of King William Street and to the west of present-day Eastcheap. Eastcheap formed part of the marathon course of the 2012 Olympic and

Paralympic Games 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 impaire ...

. The women's Olympic marathon took place on 5 August and the men's on 12 August. The Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September.

Notable structures

On Eastcheap's north side is St. Margaret Pattens' church at the corner with Rood Lane. All Hallows-by-the-Tower is visible looking east down Eastcheap and Great Tower Street. On the south side, in the side-road Lovat Lane, is St. Mary-at-Hill. Also on the south side is Botolph Lane, where a

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

church,

St. George, Botolph Lane St George Botolph Lane was a church off Eastcheap, in the ward of Billingsgate in the City of London. The rear of the church overlooked Pudding Lane, where the fire of London started. It was first recorded in the twelfth century, and destroye ...

, stood until it was demolished in 1904. West of Botolph Lane is Pudding Lane, where the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

was started. At 16 Eastcheap is the Monument branch of

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

; this was the site of St. Andrew Hubbard church, where the economist Thomas Mun was baptised, but the structure was later destroyed by the Great Fire. It was replaced by the King's Weigh House where foreign merchants were required to weigh their goods, although the law was not strictly enforced. In 1695 it became a chapel for dissenters. In 1834 they moved to larger premises in Fish Street Hill, at the western end of Eastcheap, now occupied by an exit of the modern Monument tube station. In 1891, Alfred Waterhouse built another Weigh House church, on Duke Street. The building was deemed so magnificent that nearby Robert Street was renamed Weighhouse Street in its honour. During excavation of the site the foundations had stones that had the character of Roman workmanship, and Samian pottery was discovered. On the Philpot Lane side of 23 Eastcheap is one of London's smallest statues, of two

mice A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

eating or fighting over a piece of cheese. The statue's exact origin is unclear but it is thought to date from 1862 and was possibly made for the spice merchants Hunt and Crombie by John Young & Son. Another theory surrounding its existence is that it commemorates an incident where an argument broke out between two construction workers when one accused the other of eating some of his lunch, and during the ensuing altercation one of the men fell from the building to his death. It was later found that mice were the culprits responsible for the missing food. The building at

33-35 Eastcheap Robert Lewis Roumieu (1814 – 1877) otherwise R.L. Roumieu, was a 19th-century English architect whose designs include Milner Square in Islington and an idiosyncratic vinegar warehouse at 33–35 Eastcheap in the City of London. A pupil of Be ...

is a notable example of

Victorian Gothic architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

References

* Smith, A. (1970) ''Dictionary of City of London Street Names''. David and Charles: Newton Abbot.

External links

Photographs of the areaWeigh House church in Duke Street1773 description of Eastcheap
{{coord, 51, 30, 39, N, 0, 5, 10, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Streets in the City of London