Maiden Lane

Names

  • Maiden Lane
  • Maydenlane
  • Engaine Lane
  • Mayden Lane
  • Englenelane
  • Inggelenelane
  • Ingelane
  • Engleslane
  • Inggenelane
  • Ingenelane
  • Ingenlane
  • Ingestrete
  • Inge Lane
  • Inge Street

Street/Area/District

  • Maiden Lane

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)

Maiden Lane

West from Wood Street, at No. 110, to Foster Lane. In Cripplegate Ward Within and Aldersgate Ward (Elmes, 1831).

Re-named Gresham Street West (q.v.) in 1845, and Gresham Street (q.v.), 1877.

First mention: "Maydenlane," 26 H. VIII. 1534 (Lond. I. p.m. I. 49). "Engaine lane or Mayden lane" (S. 307).

Former names: "Englenelane," 1282 (Cal. L. Bk. A. p. 154). "Inggelenelane," 1310–11 (Ct. H.W. I. 217). "Ingelane," 1320 (Cal. P.R. Ed. II. 1317–21, p. 516). "Engleslane," 1332–3 (Ct. H.W. I. 380). "Inggenelane," 1339 (ib. 433). "Ingenelane," 1349 (ib. 560). "Ingenlane," 1383 (ib. II. 236). "Ingestrete," 13 H. IV. (Anc. Deeds, A. 2460).

See Gresham Street West, Maden Lane, Inggelene lane.

The original name of the street may either be derived from the M.E. "engel" = angel, which would give the genitive "englene," or from "Engel" = English, with a similar form, "Englene," in "Englene-lond," etc.

As the word "angel" has always been a favourite street name in London, it seems most probable that that would be the origin of the word here. The later name, "Maiden Lane," was derived from the sign.

from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)

Maiden-Lane.—is in Wood-street, Cheapside, the third turning on the left hand going from Cheapside, and extends into Foster-lane.

from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)

Maiden-Lane, Wood-Street, Cheapside,—at 110, the third on L. from 122, Cheapside, it extends to Foster-lane.

from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)

Maiden lane, Wood street, Cheapside.

from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)

Maiden Lane, Wood Street. Since 1845 it has been called Gresham Street West.

On the north side of St. Michael's Church [St. Michael's, Wood Street] is Mayden Lane now so called, but of old time Ingene or Ing Lane.—Stow, p. 112.
At the north-west corner, over against Goldsmiths' Hall, stood the parish church of St. John Zachary, which since the dreadful Fire is not rebuilt, but the parish united unto St. Ann's Aldersgate; and the ground on which it stood inclosed with a wall, serving as a burial-ground for the parish.—Strype, B. iii. p. 120.