Finsbury
Names
- Finsbury
- the Moor
- Fensbury
Street/Area/District
- Finsbury
Descriptions
from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)
Finsbury
In old times this was a manor or lordship, forming one of the prebends of St. Paul's Cathedral, now a Metropolitan borough outside the city boundary.
It occupied the site of the "Moor" so called in early records, without the postern of Moorgate and Cripplegate.
The name survives in Finsbury Circus, Finsbury Pavement, etc.
A court baron of the Mayor and citizens for the Manor of Finsbury was held in 1636; Grub Street, Golden Lane, and Whitecross Street were included within the manor (L. and P. Chas. I. 1636–7, p. 389).
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Finsbury, properly Fensbury, from the fenny or moorish nature of the ground. In early City documents it is called the Moor, whence Moorfields.1 Finsbury is a lordship without the posterns of Cripplegate and Moorgate. In the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. it was a favourite walk with the citizens of London on a Sunday, hence Hotspur's allusion to Lady Percy:—
And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths.
As if thou ne'er walk'st further than Finsbury.
Shakespeare, First part of Henry IV., Act iii. Sc I.
The name survives in "Finsbury Square," "Finsbury Pavement," "Finsbury Place," and "Finsbury Circus." [See Moorfields.]