Wood Street

Wood Street

North out of Cheapside, at No. 122, to London Wall (P.O. Directory). In Farringdon Ward Within and Cripplegate Ward Within.

First mention: "Wodestrata," 1156–7 (Cal. Doc. in France, p. 156).

Other forms: "Wude-strate," Rich. I. (Anc. Deeds, A. 2124). "Wdestrate," 5 John (ib. A. 2502). "Wodestrete," 24 H. III. (Ch. I. p.m.).

Afterwards called Great Wood Street and Little Wood Street (S. 292), and down to the 19th century.

Great Wood Street was the southern portion from Cheapside to Addle Street, and Little Wood Street the northern portion to London Wall.

Stow makes the following suggestion as to the origin of the name: first that the houses in this street had always been built of timber and not of stone. (This hardly seems a sufficient explanation when so many other houses must have been built of timber.) Secondly, that it was named after Thos. Wood Sheriff, 1491. But as shown above, the street received its name long before this date.

Kingsford suggests (ed. Stow II. 338) that wood was sold here, and this is quite a possible explanation, other streets in the locality such as Milk Street, Honey Lane, being named after the commodities sold in them, or in the great market of Cheap to which they were adjacent.

Pavements of tesseræ were found here in 1843 and 1848, and fragments of Gaulish pottery beneath the foundations of the Old Crosskeys Inn in 1865. Roman bricks said to have been found in St. Alban's Church in 1632.

Wood street, a very spacious str. betn Cheapside S. and Cripplegate Nly. L. 470 Yds; and from P C. NEly, 320 Yds. The end from Addle str. to the Gate, is called Little Wood str. Stow says this str. was probably called so from its being Wood, contrary to the Order in the Reign of Richard the I. which enjoined Houses to be built of Stone, as used for 200 Years. Or else from Thomas Wood, one of the Sheriffs in 1491, who was a great Benefactor toward the Building of St. Peter's church, then in Wood str.

Woodstreet, of which there is the Great and the Little; Great Woodstreet beginning on the South, at Cheapside, and falling into Little Woodstreet, runs up to Cripplegate. Both Streets in this [Cheapside] Ward, except a small part next to Cheapside, as already taken Notice of.

Wood street, a long street extending from Cheapside to Cripplegate; in this street is one of the two city compters.

Wood-Street, Cheapside,—at 122, the third on the L. from Newgate-st. it extends to London-wall.

Wood-St.—is in Cheapside, the third turning on the left hand from Newgate-street, and extends from Cheapside to Cripplegate.

Wood Street, Cheapside, runs from Cheapside into London Wall. Stow has two suppositions about the origin of the name: first, that it was so called because it was built throughout of wood; and secondly, and more probably, that it was so called after Thomas Wood, one of the sheriffs in the year 1491, who dwelt in this street, an especial benefactor to the church of St. Peter-in-Cheap, and the individual at whose expense "the beautiful front of houses in Cheap over against Wood Street end were built." "His predecessors," says Stow, "might be the first builders, owners, and namers of this street."¹ Entering Wood Street from Cheapside, the yard on the left, with a tree in it, marks the site of the church of St. Peter-in-Cheap. For many years a pair of rooks built their nest in this tree. The Cross Keys Inn derives its name from the church of St. Peter. A little higher up, on the right-hand side (where the street indents a little), stood Wood Street Compter. At the corner of Hugin Lane (so called of one Hugan, who dwelt there) is the church of St. Michael, Wood Street, the final repository of the head of James IV., who fell at Flodden. Gresham Street, lying to the right, was called Lad Lane, or Ladle Lane; and that part lying to left, Maiden Lane, from a sign of the Virgin. Still higher up on the right, and at the corner of Love Lane, is the church of St. Alban, Wood Street. In 1569 the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's leased three houses in Wood Street to the Corporation in reversion for ninety-nine years after 1602, at the rent of £8 per annum.² In Strype's time the street was famous for the manufacture of wedding-cakes.³

February 29, 1663–1664.—To one Royall, a stone cutter, over against the Spur, at the upper end of Wood Street. I eat for my dinner a Wood-street cake, which cakes are famous for being well made.—Journal of Sir Thomas Browne's Son, Edward (Browne's Works, i. 52).

The street is now largely occupied by warehouses (drapery, lace, silk, and hosiery), many of the warehouses being spacious and costly structures. Sir John Cheke, who taught "Cambridge and King Edward Greek," died from shame at his own moral cowardice in renouncing Protestantism on September 13, 1557, at the house of his friend, Mr. Peter Osborne, in Wood Street. There is a letter from him of July 16, 1657, "from my house in Wood Streete." In 1645–1648 Dr. Wallis and other eminent scientific men used to meet weekly at the house of Dr. Goddard in Wood Street, "on account of his having a workman skilled in grinding glasses for microscopes and telescopes." Thomas Ripley, the architect (d. 1758), kept in early life a carpenter's shop and a coffee-house in this street.⁴ Cheapside Cross stood at Wood Street end. Here proclamations continued to be read long after the cross was taken down. The Castle here, on the east side, is mentioned in 1684 as one of the most important of London inns. It is still standing, and is used as an office for Pickford vans.

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning, the song of the Bird.

'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her?
She sees A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.
Wordsworth, The Reverie of Poor Susan, 1797 (Works, vol. ii. p. 95).

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¹ Stow, p. 3.
² Cal. State Papers, 1547–1580, p. 327.
³ Strype, B. iii. p. 91.
⁴ Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 375.

Wood Street. See Great Wood Street and Little Wood Street for map views of those segments.