Great Shire Lane

Great Shire Lane

North from Temple Bar to Carey Street, the south-eastern corner only being in Farringdon Ward Without, the remaining portion lying outside the City boundary (Elmes, 1831).

Other names: "Sheere Lane" (O. and M. 1677). "Shyre Lane" (S. 375). "Shear Lane or Shire Lane" (Strype, ed. 1720). "Lower Serle's Place and Searle's Place" (O.S. 1848–51).

So called because it divideth the Cittie from the Shire (S. 375).

Named Serle's Place after Henry Serle, whose arms are over Carey Street Gateway.

Sheer lane, just within Temple bar, between Fleetstr. S. and Cary str. N. Stow calls it Shire lane because here the City is parted from the County of Middlesex.

Shear Lane cometh out of Little Lincolns Inn Fields, and falleth into Fleetstreet by Temple Bar: the upper part hath good old Buildings, well Inhabited; but the lower part is very narrow, and more ordinary. In this Lane is a certain small Court.

... To proceed to the Alleys, Courts, and Passages in Fleetstreet. And first on the North side is Shear lane, or Shire lane. This Lane gives passage into Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, formerly called Fickquet's Field; but this Lane being without the Freedom, is spoken of under St. Clement's Parish.

... Then hard by the Bar, is one other Lane, called Shire lane, because it divideth the City from the Shire; and this turneth into Ficquetes Field.

Sheer lane, Temple Bar.

Shire-Lane (Great), Fleet-Street or Temple-Bar,—on the E. side of Temple-bar, extending to 5, Carey-st. Chancery-lane.

Shire-Lane, Great, Fleet-street on the east side of Temple-bar, and tends into Carey-street.

Shire Lane (vulgarly Sheer Lane), Temple Bar. In James I.'s time, as appears from a list of houses, taverns, etc., in Fleet Street and the Strand, it was known by the name of Shire Lane, alias Rogue Lane.¹ Despite the name it had respectable inhabitants. In it lived Sir John Sedley, and here his son Sir Charles Sedley, the dramatic poet, was born. "Neere the Globe in Sheer Lane"² lived Elias Ashmole, the antiquary; here Antony à Wood records his having dined with him;³ and here Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, sought him out in February 1677 to apprise him that Garter King-at-Arms was dead. At the upper end of Shire Lane Steele placed the residence of Isaac Bickerstaff, who dates many of his Tatlers from it. The Tatler Club met at the Trumpet⁴ in Shire Lane; and from it he led his company of Twaddlers on their immortal march. In Shire Lane is said to have originated the famous Kit-Cat Club, commemorated on Kneller's most famous canvases. [See Kit-Cat Club.] But whatever Shire Lane may have been in its prime, in its later days it became utterly abominable. So disreputable a place had it become that at one time a man was employed to stand at the end of it, with a lanthorn lighted in broad day, warning passengers not to enter it. In July 1845, in the hope that by another name it would lose some of its evil fragrance, the name was changed to Lower Serle's Place, as the Tempest for a like reason had altered its sign to the Duke of York. Under the supervision of the New Police there was some improvement, but it remained a disreputable place. Happily the last vestige of it was cleared away for the New Law Courts.

Then hard by the Bar is another lane called Shire Lane, because it divideth the City from the Shire.— Stow, p. 139.

Shear Lane cometh out of Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, and falleth into Fleet Street by Temple Bar: the upper part hath good old buildings, well inhabited; but the lower part is very narrow and more ordinary.—Strype, B. iv. p. 72.

Even then at the same time he sounds another trumpet than that in Sheer Lane, to horse and hem in his auditory.—Andrew Marvell.

In this order we marched down Sheer Lane, at the upper end of which I lodge. When we came to Temple Bar, Sir Harry and Sir Giles got over; but a run of the coaches kept the rest of us on this side the street: However we all at last landed and drew up in very good order before Ben Tooke's shop, who favoured our rallying with great humanity.—Tatler, No. 86, October 25–27, 1709.

And oft repuls'd, as oft attack the great
With painful art, and application warm,
And take at last some little place by storm;
Enough to keep two shoes on Sunday clean,
And starve upon discreetly, in Sheer Lane.—Young, Sat. iii.

In the dwelling and spunging-house of a sheriff's officer of the name of Hemp in this lane, Theodore Hook, while under arrest for a defalcation in his accounts as Treasurer of the Mauritius, made the acquaintance of Dr. William Maginn.¹ The time passed "pleasantly," he said, and there was "an agreeable prospect, barring the windows."

---

¹ Harleian MS., 6850.
² Hamper, p. 393.
³ Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood, vol. ii. p. 234.
⁴ Tatler, No 132.

¹ Quarterly Review, No. 143, p. 86.