Pudding Lane is a small street in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, widely known as the location of

Thomas Farriner Thomas Farriner ( – 20 December 1670) was a British baker and churchwarden in 17th century London. Allegedly, his bakery in Pudding Lane was the source point for the Great Fire of London on 2 September 1666. Career Farriner joined the B ...

's bakery, 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 th ...

started in 1666. It runs between

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, ...

and Thames Street in the historic

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 f ...

, and intersects Monument Street, the site of Christopher Wren's Monument to the Great Fire. Farriner's bakery stood immediately opposite the Monument, on the eastern side of Pudding Lane. The site was paved over when Monument Street was built in 1886–7, but is marked by a plaque on the wall of nearby Farynors House, placed there by the Bakers' Company in 1986. Pudding Lane was given its name by the butchers of Eastcheap Market, who used it to transport "pudding" or

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle. Offal may also refe ...

down to the river to be taken away by waste barges. There was a wharf at its lower end called Rothersgate (from the " rothers" or cattle that were landed there), and it was also known as Rother Lane. Another name for it was Red Rose Lane, from a shop sign that once hung in it. Pudding Lane was one of the world's first one-way streets. An order restricting cart traffic to one-way travel on Pudding Lane and 16 other lanes around Thames Street was issued in 1617, an idea not copied until

Albemarle Street Albemarle Street is a street in Mayfair in central London, off Piccadilly. It has historic associations with Lord Byron, whose publisher John Murray was based here, and Oscar Wilde, a member of the Albemarle Club, where an insult he received ...

became a one-way street in 1800. The nearest Underground station to Pudding Lane is

Monument 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 ...

, a short distance to the west. The closest main-line railway stations are Fenchurch Street and

Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City. It is the site of the ancient London ...

In popular culture

Tom Canty, the protagonist of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

's ''

The Prince and the Pauper ''The Prince and the Pauper'' is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547 ...

'', lives on Pudding Lane.

Sara Addington Sarah Addington (1891–1940) was an author of children's books and a newspaper journalist. Early life Addington was born in 1891. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1912. She then studied at C ...

was the author of some children's books referring to the lane: *''The Boy Who Lived in Pudding Lane.'' Illustrated by '' Gertrude Alice Kay.'' Boston:

Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...

, 1922. *''Pied Piper of Pudding Lane''. Illustrated by Gertrude Alice Kay. Boston:

, 1923. *''Round the Year in Pudding Lane.'' Illustrated by Gertrude Alice Kay. Boston:

Little, Brown, and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

, 1924. *''Pudding Lane People''. Illustrated by Janet Laura Scott. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1926. Pudding Lane and Farriner's bakery feature prominently in the 2016 musical show ''

Bumblescratch ''Bumblescratch'' is an original sung-through musical with book, music and lyrics by Robert J. Sherman. The musical premiered at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 4 September 2016 as a one night, celebrity gala charity event in aid of Variety, ...

''.''Bumblescratch:'' Adelphi Programme "Synopsis", pp. 23–24, (September 4, 2016) In the 1982 ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'' episode " The Visitation", aliens visit 17th century London and cause an explosion in Pudding Lane, which is revealed to be the true source of the Great Fire.

References

Bibliography

* {{coord, 51.5102, -0.0853, type:landmark_region:GB-LND, display=title Streets in the City of London History of the City of London Great Fire of London