Old Street
Names
- Old Street
- Eald Street
- Old Street Road
- Ealdestreet
- Oldstreet
Street/Area/District
- Old Street
Maps & Views
- 1553-9 London ("Agas Map" ca. 1633): Olde street
- 1677 A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London (Ogilby & Morgan): Old Street
- 1720 London (Strype): Old Street
- 1736 London (Moll & Bowles): Old Street
- 1746 London, Westminster & Southwark (Rocque): Old Street
- 1761 London (Dodsley): Old Street
Descriptions
from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)
Old street, a very spacious str. betn Rotten row W. and the Road to Hoxton E. L. 500 Yds, and from P C. near N. 1260 Yds.
from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)
| [Old Street.] On the left Hand [of Shoreditch] is Ealdestreet, [or Oldstreet] which reacheth West to a Stone Cross overagainst the North End of Golding Lane, and so to the End of Goswel street. On the Right Hand of this Ealdestreet not far from Soersditch, but on the North side thereof, is Hoxton, a large Street with Houses on both sides, and is a Prebend belonging to Pauls Church in London, but of Soersditch Parish. | Oldstreet. *Grubstreet First Edition. Hoxton. |
from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)
Old street, a street of great length, beginning at Goswell street, and extending east towards Shoreditch. It received its ancient name of Eald street, or Old street, from the Saxons, as being situated along the Roman Military Way, at a considerable distance north of London, though it is now joined to this metropolis. Maitland.
from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)
Old-Street, St. Luke's,—the second on the L. about ¼ of a mile from the N.W. corner of Finsbury-sq. it extends to Goswell-st. where the numbers begin and end, viz. 1 and 150.
from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)
Old-St., St. Luke's, is the second turning on the left hand side of the City-road, going from the north-west corner of Finsbury-square. It begins at Goswell-street, opposite the Charter-house wall, and extends eastward to the City-road. It derives its name from the Saxons, who called it Eald or Old, as being an ancient Roman military road.
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Old Street, St. Luke's, runs from Goswell Street to Shoreditch, opposite Shoreditch Church.
Eald Street, so called, for that it was the old highway from Aldersgate for the north-east ports of England, before Bishopsgate was built, which street runneth east to a smith's forge, sometime a cross before Shoreditch church, from whence the passengers and carriages were to turn north to King's land, Tottenham, Waltham, Ware," etc.—Stow, p. 160.
The choicest fruits of the kingdom were reared in King James I.'s time by John Milton, in his Nursery in Old Street.Oldys on Trees (MS.)
Here, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, was "The Rose Ground," of about 3 acres area; and here, in a garden house, where, says Langbaine, "in private he composed most of his dramatic pieces," lived, in the reign of James I., Samuel Daniel, the poet (d. 1619). George Psalmanazar lived and died (1753) in a house in Old Street. Here he was frequently visited by Dr. Johnson, who long years afterwards pronounced him emphatically to be "the best man he had ever known."
That portion of Old Street which extends from St. Luke's Church to Shoreditch Church used to be called Old Street Road, but the name is now abandoned, and it is called Old Street throughout. By the opening of the new road west through Clerkenwell, Theobald's Road and into Hart Street, Bloomsbury, a broad way is made from Oxford Street to the Kingsland and Hackney Roads. [See Alleyn's Almshouses; Golden Lane; Ironmonger Row; St Luke's Church; St Luke's Hospital]