Site of the City of London School - Milk Street London EC2V 6DN

Milk Street in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, England, was the site of London's

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

milk market. It was the location of the parish church of St Mary Magdalen which was destroyed in 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 ...

in 1666 and then of Honey Lane Market and the City of London School. The street was seriously damaged by German bombing during the Second World War and has since been completely rebuilt. Nothing remains of its former buildings.

Location

The street runs between Gresham Street in the north and

Cheapside 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 with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...

in the south. The southern end beyond Russia Row is pedestrianised. On its western side it is joined to Wood Street by Compter Passage (pedestrianised). On its eastern side it is joined by Russia Row.Multiple Ordnance Survey maps,

Digimap Digimap is a web mapping and online data delivery service developed by the EDINA national data centre for UK academia. It offers a range of on-line mapping and data download facilities which provide maps and spatial data from Ordnance Survey, Bri ...

. Retrieved 6 February 2018.

Early history

Archaeological investigations of a site on the corner of the modern Milk Street and Russia Row by the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...

in 1976–77 found Roman remains.Schofield, John, et a
"Medieval buildings and property development in the area of Cheapside"
'' Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society'', Vol. 41 (1990), pp. 39–237. A medieval Jewish

mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...

(ritual bath) was excavated here, and is now displayed in the

Jewish Museum London The Jewish Museum London is a museum of British Jewish life, history and identity. The museum is situated in Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, North London. It is a place for people of all faiths to explore Jewish history, culture, a ...

. Milk Street is first mentioned as "Melecstrate" in a source dating from c. 1132–1150.Milk Street.

British History Online ''British History Online'' is a digital library of primary and secondary sources on medieval and modern history of Great Britain and Ireland. It was created and is managed as a cooperative venture by the Institute of Historical Research, Universi ...

. Retrieved 6 February 2018. It was the site of medieval London's milk market and is also recorded as "Melchstrate" (1227), "Melkestrate" (1231), "Melcstrate", "Melkstrete", "Milkstrate" (1278–79), "Milcstrate" (1279), and "Milkestretende". Sources record that there was a "great Fire in Milkstrete and Bread Street" in 1264.

Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

, author of ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'' (1516) was born in Milk Street in February 1478"Milk Street"
in and a plaque at the north end of the street marks the approximate spot. Sir Thomas Gresham was also in 1519, born in Milk Street. The south end of the street was the site of the parish church of

St Mary Magdalen Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

before the church was destroyed in the

in 1666. The parish was then merged with the adjacent St Lawrence Jewry and

Honey Lane Market Honey Lane Market was an historic market near Cheapside in the City of London. It was built at the south end of Milk Street on the site of the parish church of St Mary Magdalen and All Hallows Honey Lane after the areas destruction in the Gr ...

built on the site which at one time had 105 butchers' stalls. Edward Hatton noted in 1708 that the market was known for its meat, fish and poultry.

Later history

By 1835 the market had closed and the City of London School was built on the market site on the corner with Russia Row."Honey Lane Market"
in Hibbert et al., ''The London Encyclopaedia'', p. 413. It was paid for with money bequeathed for the purpose by John Carpenter, city clerk in the reign of King Henry V. It outgrew this site and in 1883 the school moved to the

Victoria Embankment Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...

. The street was seriously damaged by German bombing on 29 December 1940"Milk Street EC2" in Al Smith (1970) ''Dictionary of City of London Street Names''. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 139. at its southern end and at the north end on the western side. It has since been completely rebuilt with offices and some retail premises at ground level. The east side between Gresham Street and Russia Row is an office building of known as

30 Gresham Street 30 Gresham Street is an office building in Gresham Street in the City of London of 386,000 sq ft developed by Land Securities in 2002-03 and occupied by Commerzbank and Investec. When built, it was described as "the biggest speculative office dev ...

that was developed by Land Securities in 2002–03. It was described at the time as "the biggest speculative office development in the capital". As a result of Second World War bombing and post-war redevelopment, nothing remains of Milk Street's original buildings or of the small courts and alleys that once joined it on both sides: Mitre Court and Feathers Court on its western side, and Mumford Court and Honey Lane Market on the eastern side. Robin Hood Alley, which has also been called Robinson's Court, Robin Hood Court and Robin Court, once joined it to Russia Row but that alley also no longer exists.

Gallery

File:City of London School J.Woods after Hablot Browne & Garland publ 1837 edited.jpg, City of London School, Milk Street. Hand-coloured engraving by J. Woods and

Hablot Knight Browne Hablot Knight Browne (10 July 1815 – 8 July 1882) was an English artist and illustrator. Well-known by his pen name, Phiz, he illustrated books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever, and Harrison Ainsworth. Early life Of Huguenot ancestry, Hablot ...

after a sketch by Robert Garland. Published 1838. File:Morley's warehouses, corner of Milk Street and Gresham Street, c. 1840.jpg, I & R Morley's warehouses, corner of Milk Street and Gresham Street, c. 1840. Lithograph by Martin & Hood after an original by William Wallen. File:Milk Street 1875 Ordnance Survey map.jpg, Milk Street (centre, vertical) on an 1875 Ordnance Survey map.Ordnance Survey, 1875. Digimap. Retrieved 6 February 2018. File:City of London Bomb Damage Map Wood Street and Milk Street.jpg, London Blitz bomb damage map, c. 1945 (purple: damaged beyond repair; scarlet: seriously damaged, doubtful if repairable; other colours: lower levels of damage)The meticulously hand-coloured bomb damage maps of London – in pictures.
''The Guardian'', 2 September 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2018.

References

External links

{{coords, 51.5150, -0.0936, display=title Streets in the City of London