Seething Lane is a 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 ...

. It connects

All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows-by-the-Tower, at one time dedicated jointly to All Hallows (All Saints) and the Virgin Mary and sometimes known as All Hallows Barking, is an ancient Anglican church on Byward Street in the City of London, overlooking the Tower of L ...

, Byward Street, with St Olave's Church, Hart Street. The street is named after an Old English expression meaning "full of

chaff Chaff (; ) is the dry, scaly protective casing of the seeds of cereal grains or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material (such as scaly parts of flowers or finely chopped straw). Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it. In agri ...

", which was derived from the nearby corn market in

Fenchurch Street Fenchurch Street is a street in London linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many corporate offic ...

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mari ...

lived there and is buried in St Olave's Church at the junction with Hart Street. A bust of Pepys, created by Karin Jonzen, sits in the public garden at the south end of the street.

Etymology

The term 'seething' originated from 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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

word ''sifeða'' that meant bran, chaff, or siftings. The street was named prior to the thirteenth century, when the lane was a narrow path, and grain was threshed there.

History

Bust of Samuel Pepys, Seething Lane, London EC3 - geograph

In the 14th century, the street contained several houses owned by the Lords Grey of Codnor, with records suggesting ownership dating back at least a century. The Knollys Inn, on the west site of Seething Lane, was established in 1370 when Sir Robert Knollys purchased the estate from Thomas de Brandon.

Sir Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...

lived on Seething Lane from 1580 until his death ten years later.

Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (''née'' Devereux; 30 September 1599 – 24 April 1674) was an English noblewoman who lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I and Charles II. Her father was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of ...

was born at the house in 1599. The Navy Office building here was constructed in 1656.

moved into a house on the lane in 1660 when he became Clerk of the Acts of the Navy. The office was destroyed by fire in 1673 and rebuilt over the following two years, designed by

Sir 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 ...

. It was demolished in 1788. Catherine Court, also by Wren, was a combined office and residential building on the east side of Seething Lane constructed between 1720 and 1725. It supported two large doorways flanked by four large

Roman Doric The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of ...

columns. The property was demolished in 1913 and replaced with offices for the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and it ...

Samuel Pepys

Seething Lane was

's home when he became the Navy Board's Clerk of the Acts, and is mentioned in his diaries as the site of an erotic encounter with a Mrs Daniels, after which he bought her eight pairs of gloves at a nearby milliner's shop. He is buried in St Olave's Church which is at the north-western end of the street at its junction with Hart Street. A bust of Pepys, created by Karin Jonzen, sits in Seething Lane Gardens at the south end of the street.

Knollys Rose Ceremony

An annual tradition held on the

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist The Nativity of John the Baptist (or Birth of John the Baptist, or Nativity of the Forerunner, or colloquially Johnmas or St. John's Day (in German) Johannistag) is a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. It is observed ...

in June, is that a single red rose is cut in Seething Lane Gardens by the

Company of Watermen and Lightermen The Company of Watermen and Lightermen (CWL) is a historic City guild in the City of London. However, unlike the city's other 109 livery companies, CWL does not have a grant of livery. Its meeting rooms are at Waterman's Hall on St Mary at Hil ...

and carried in procession to the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

at the Mansion House. It commemorates the fee of one rose annually, charged by the city to Sir Robert Knolles or Knollys, in compensation for his wife having constructed a wooden footbridge over Seething Lane in 1381.

References

Citations Sources {{Coord, 51, 30, 38, N, 00, 04, 45, W, display=t Streets in the City of London