Hart Street
Names
- Hart Street
- Hartstreate
- Herthstrete
- Herestrete
- Hertestrete
- Hertstrete
- Smythen strete
Street/Area/District
- Hart Street
Maps & Views
- 1553-59 London (Strype, 1720): Hartstreet
- 1553-9 Londinum (Braun & Hogenberg, 1572): Hart Street
- 1553-9 London ("Agas Map" ca. 1633): Hart Street
- 1560 London (Jansson, 1657): Hart Street
- 1666 London after the fire (Bowen, 1772): Hart Street
- 1720 London (Strype): Hart Street
- 1736 London (Moll & Bowles): Hart Street
Descriptions
from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)
Hart Street
East out of Mark Lane to Seething Lane and Crutched Friars (P.O. Directory).
Earliest mention: "Hartstreate" (Lond. I. p.m. 9 Eliz. 1551, II. 66).
Former names or forms of name: "Herthstrete," 1351–2 (Ct. H.W. I. 659). "Herestrete," 31 H. VIII. 1539 (L. and P. H. VIII. D.S. XIV. Pt. 2, p. 34). "Hertestrete," 35 H. VIII. 1543 (ib. XVIII. Pt. 1, pp. 535, 543).
"Hertstrete," also called "Smythen-strete," in will of Tromy, 1463, P.C.C., quoted by Povah, p. 3, but no other reference found.
In Stow's time Hart Street seems to have extended to Woodroff Lane (Cooper's Row), along the present Crutched Friars (q.v.).
The name Hart Street is not given at all in Horwood's map 1799, the whole street from Mark Lane to Cooper's Row being called "Crutched Friars."
Derivation of name: Povah says there is a tradition in the parish of St. Olave that "Hart" stands for "Heart" Street and that there are four old pewter alms basons engraved thus: O♡SS with an ornamental border surrounding it (p. 3).
But the earliest form of the name "Herth" suggests the A.S. "Heorth," a hearth, rather than "heart," the earlier form of which would be "herte."
The mansion of Sir Richard Whittington stood in the lane.
from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)
Hart-Street, Crutched-Friars,—at 64 Mark-lane, the first on the L. about sixteen doors from 55, Fenchurch-st. it leads towards America-sq. and the Minories.
from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)
Hart-St.—is in Crutched-friars, the first turning on the left hand from Fenchurch-street.
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Hart Street, Crutched Friars to Mark Lane. Here is the church of St. Olave [see St. Olave], and here formerly stood the mansion of the renowned Sir Richard Whittington. It was approached by a gateway four doors from Mark Lane. There is an engraving of it in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1796, and the correspondent who sent the drawing mentions the fact that the old leases expressly state it to be the Palace of Whittington. The best engraving is one by J.T. Smith. Hart Street is now chiefly tenanted by wholesale wine merchants.
I was born in St. Olave's, Hart Street, London, in a house that my father took of the Lord Dingwall, in the year 1625.—Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs, p. 50.