Beer Lane
Names
- Beer Lane
- Beere Lane
- Berelane
- Beare Lane
- Bear Lane
- Bear Lane
Street/Area/District
- Beer Lane
Maps & Views
- 1553-59 London (Strype, 1720): Bear Lane
- 1553-9 Londinum (Braun & Hogenberg, 1572): Beer Lane
- 1553-9 London ("Agas Map" ca. 1633): Burre lane
- 1560 London (Jansson, 1657): Beer Lane
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - British Library): Bear Lane
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - Folger): Beer Lane
- 1666 London after the fire (Bowen, 1772): Beer Lane
- 1677 A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London (Ogilby & Morgan): Beer Lane
- 1720 London (Strype): Beer Lane
- 1736 London (Moll & Bowles): Beer Lane
- 1761 London (Dodsley): Beer Lane
Descriptions
from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)
Beer Lane
South out of Great Tower Street at No. 36 to No. 52 Lower Thames Street. In Tower Ward (P.O. Directory).
"Beere Lane" (Leake, 1666).
Early forms: "Berelane," 1539, 31 H. VIII. (Lond. I. p.m. L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. VII. p. 64). "Beare Lane" (S. 135). "Bear Lane," 1661 (L. and P. Chas. II. I. p. 568). "Bear Lane," 1657 (Howel, p. 49).
Derivation of name: Maskell suggests that it was so called either as the highway to Brewer's Quay, or else from the sign of the Bear there (All Hallows Barking, p. 184). It has been suggested that Beer Lane is to be identified with Berewards Lane, All Hallows Barking (q.v.).
Roman patera found here.
from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)
Beer Lane, betn Tower str. N. and the end of Thames str. S.
from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)
Beer lane, a crooked lane leading from Tower street into Thames street, opposite the Custom house.
from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)
Beer-Lane, Great Tower-Street,—at 37, the first on the L. from Tower-hill, op. Seething-lane, leading to 53, Lower Thames-st. op. the Custom-house.
from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)
Beer-Lane, Great Tower-street, is the first turning on the left from Tower-hill opposite Seething-lane, and leading to No. 53, Lower Thames-street, opposite to the Custom-house.
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Bear Lane, now Beer Lane, leading from Great Tower Street to Lower Thames Street, opposite the Custom House.
At the east end of Tower Street, on the south side, have ye Beare Lane, wherein are many fair houses, and runneth down to Thames Street.—Stow, p. 51.
By the river, opposite the end of Bear Lane, was Bear Quay (divided later into Great Bear Quay and Little Bear Quay), appropriated chiefly to the landing and shipment of corn.
Bear Key is between Wiggins Key and the Custom House Key. Here is a very great market for wheat and other sorts of grain, brought hither from the neighbouring counties; the market-days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.—Hatton, New View of London (1708), vol. ii. p. 784.