LowdowN

Know London

There’s plenty you might not know about your city.  We bring you the quirky, unusual, thought provoking and sometimes, the downright disturbing.
Think you Know London?  Find out…

The Cultural Coalman

Cultural life in London in the early 1700s was much encouraged by a humble coalman called Thomas Britton. Arriving in London in 1677, he established a coal business in Clerkenwell Green, living over ‘the shop,’ and it was in his simple rooms that he held musical evenings every week for 40 years.

The concerts attracted the likes of Handel as well as society leaders and dignitaries, who enjoyed a very high standard of entertainment, including a few turns by Handel on the five-stop organ. Britton also collected rare books and was helped in his business by the Earl’s of Oxford and Winchelsea, who would take their finds to a bookshop in Paternoster Row, where Britton would meet them after he had finished shifting his bags of coal. Britton’s expertise and interest was such that he helped form the Harleian Library, which became part of the British Library.

Sadly after such a cultural life, he was killed by a practical joke in which a ventriloquist pretended to be the voice of God and warned Britton that he would die unless he immediately recited the Lord’s Prayer. The superstitious coal merchant was taken ill and died a few days later.  His portrait hangs in the National Gallery - in which he is dressed as a coalman.

The Name of the Road

The origin of some of London’s street names

Canon Street, EC4
Originally Candle Street, filled with candle makers.

Herne Hill, SE24
Once the home of a heron or herne, as the River Effra ran through here.

Houndsditch, EC3
A ditch full of dead dogs.

King Edward Street, EC1
Once called Blowbladder Street after the fraudulent practise of inserting an animal’s bladder into a dead animal and blowing it up to make it seem larger before selling it. Renamed when King Edward opened the General Post Office here.

Maiden Lane, WC2
Named after middens, which are rubbish heaps.

Pall Mall, SW1
Named after ‘paille maille’ a French ball and mallet game once played there.

Pudding Lane, EC3
‘Pudding’ in this case was not the treacle sponge kind but another word for offal.

Scotland Yard, SW1
The original Yard, Great Scotland Yard, was where the King of Scotland would stay when visiting his English counterpart.

Brompton Road, SW7
Once a country lane full of broom plants, the name derives from Broom-ton.

Cloak Lane, EC4
Open Sewer Street, as in the Roman’s Cloaca Maxima (the Great Drain).