Milton Street

Milton Street

North out of Fore Street, at No. 96, to 56 Chiswell Street (P.O. Directory). In Cripplegate Ward Without, except a few buildings at the northern end, which are in the borough of Finsbury.

First mention: Elmes, 1831.

Former name: "Grub Street." Milton Street is not properly Grub Street any further than the Post and Chain; the other part in the Freedom or Liberty of the City is called Grape Street (W. Stow, 1722).

Forms: "Grobstrat," 1217–43 (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. p. 8). "Grobbestrate," 1277–8 (Ct. H.W. I. 29). "Grubbestrate," 1281 (ib. 43). "Grubbestrete," 1298 (ib. 134). "Grubbelane," 1336 (Cal. L. Bk. E. p. 289). "Grubstrete," 41 Ed. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 11855). "Crobbestrate" (Cal. L. Bk. D. p. 186). "Grub Street" (Stow–Lockie, 1816).

As to the derivation of this name, it has been suggested in N. and Q. 8th S. XII. 251, that it occurs frequently as a name for a Roman way, but no evidence is given in support of the statement.

"Grapan," "gropian," A.S. = to grope. "Grube" = a ditch or drain (Halliwell). Denton adopts the latter word as the true origin of the name.

The name Milton Street was adopted (1830) in memory of the carpenter and builder who owned the building lease of the street at the time (Elmes).

Grub Street has long been associated with poverty and prostitution (in the sense of the literary hack or scribbler).

In the mid-17th century Grub Street or Grubstreet became synonymous with literary hack writers and the crass commercialism associated with writers-for-hire who scribbled out drivel to appeal to the lowest tastes of the public. Samuel Johnson famously defined it as "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called grubstreet." The street was home to few writers known today, however. John Foxe, author of Acts and Monuments (popularly known as the Book of Martyrs), lived on Grub Street after the book was published in 1563, from 1568 until his death in 1587. It is often noted that John Milton lived near Grub Street, but he was in fact several streets distant in Jewin Street and Barbican. Johnson was reputed to have lived there, though he may have never actually set foot in the street.

Moreso than the Grubstreet hacks who were supposed to have lived there, the street's reputation in this sense could be derived from the activities of printers Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcett, located there from the 1620s to the 1650s. Notorious for the seditious and libelous pamphlets they had printed, they were summoned before the High Commission in 1626 for being involved in printing Sir Robert Cotton's Short View of the Long life and reign of Henry the Third, and years later were briefly committed to Fleet Prison "for printing and publishing false and scandalous Pamphlets" (Journals of the House of Lords v. 5, 1642, p. 532).

Pat Rogers has delineated the literary association of hack writers with the prostitutes through which Grub Street had earned its notoriety:

...the Hack is an archetypal figure, Everyman under the Grub Street aspect.
     Let us think for a moment what the term connotes. Johnson's Dictionary entry for 'hackney' moves from the sense of a hired horse (with an example from Hudibras) to that of a prostitute to 'any thing let out for hire' (both the latter illustrated from Pope) to 'much used or common'. 'To hack' is defined as 'to turn hackney or prostitute'. We notice at once the sexual innuendo in the word and its derivatives: something lost, I believe, to most present-day readers. To be a hack, then, was to traffic commercially in something fundamentally admirable, and thus to sully it. It was to do for literature what prostitution did for sex. Hence the great advantage to the satirist in being able to suggest that the scribbling profession lived cheek by jowl with the whores. (Rogers, Grub Street: Studies in a Subculture, 219)

Grub street, betn Fore str. (near Cripplegate) Sly and Chisel str. Nly, L. 320 Yds.

Grubstreete, of late yeares inhabited, for the most part, by Bowyers, Fletchers, Bowstring makers, and such like, occupations, now little occupied, Archerie giuing place to a number of Bowling Allies and dycing houses in all places are increased, and too much frequented.

Grubstreet, very long, coming out of Foresteet, and running, Northwards, into Chiswel street; but some small part, to wit, from Sun Alley to Chiswell street, is not in the Ward, but in the Liberty of Finsbury. This Street, taking in the whole, is but indifferent, as to its Houses and Inhabitants; and sufficiently pestered with Courts and Alleys.

Grub street, Fore street, Cripplegate.

Grub-Street, Cripplegate,—at 97, Fore-street, the third on the R. from Moorfields, or fifteen doors on the L. from the N. end of Wood-street, Cheapside, it extends to Chiswell-st.

Grub-St., Cripplegate, is the third turning on the right hand from Finsbury-place South. It was celebrated in the days of Pope, for a class of writers, who were denominated Grub-street authors. It is now called Milton-street, not after the great poet of that name, as some persons have asserted, but from a respectable builder so called, who has taken the whole street on a repairing lease.

Grub Street, Cripplegate, called as early as 1307 Grobbestrete, runs from Fore Street to Chiswell Street. The name was changed in 1830 to Milton Street.

Grub Street, the name of a street in London much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Grub Street.—Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, under "Grub Street."

In the east end of Fore Street, is More Lane; then next is Grub Street, of late years inhabited for the most part by bowyers, fletchers, bow-string makers, and such like occupations, now little occupied; archery giving place to a number of bowling alleys, and dicing houses, which in all places are increased, and too much frequented. —Stow, p. 160.

Grub Street, very long, coming out of Fore Street, and running, northwards, into Chiswell Street; but some small part of it, to wit from Sun Alley to Chiswell Street, is not in the Ward [of Cripplegate] but in the Liberty of Finsbury. This street, taking in the whole, is but indifferent, as to its houses and inhabitants, and sufficiently pestered with courts and alleys.—Strype, B. iii p. 93.

The occupation of the street by bowyers and the like is explained by its proximity to the Artillery Ground and Finsbury Fields, the chief places for the practice of archery. It was from its notoriety in this respect that it first found a place in our popular literature.

Let Cupid go to Grub Street and turn archer.

Hey for Honesty—Randolph's Works 1651, p. 475.

Her eyes are Cupid's Grub Street: the blind archer
Makes his love-arrows there.—Ibid. p. 471.

And arrows, loos'd from Grub Street bow
     In Finsbury; to him are slow.

Charles Cotton's Virgil Travestie, B. iv. (1667).

The first use of the term Grub Street in its present offensive sense was made by Andrew Marvell. Before the close of the 17th century the term as a synonym for the lowest class of literature had passed into common use, but Pope and Swift and their associates and imitators gave to it its most rancorous intention and fullest currency.

He, honest man, was deep gone in Grub Street and polemical divinity.—Andrew Marvell, The Rehearsal Transprosed.

Oh, these are your Nonconformist tricks; oh, you have learnt this of the Puritans in Grub Street.—Ibid.

I am told, that preparatory to that, they had frequent meetings in the City; I know not whether in Grub Street, with the divines of the other party.—Ibid.

May'st thou ne'er rise to History,but what
Poor Grub Street Penny Chronicles relate.
Memoirs of Tyburn and the mournful state
Of cut-purses in Holborn cavalcade.
Oldham, A Satire upon a Printer, 1679.

Those wretched Poetitos who got praise,
For writing most confounded Loyal Plays,
With viler coarser jests than at Bear Garden,
And silly Grub Street songs worse than Tom Farthing.
Shadwell, Prologue to Bury Fair, 4to, 1689.

It seems also to have been used as a synonym for false intelligence. Thus Congreve writes on March 12, 1707: "I hear a paper crying now in the street, but it sounds too like Grub Street to send it to you." "I believe," writes Swift (June 29, 1710), "it is so perfect a Grub Street piece it will be forgotten in a week."

January 31, 1710–1711.—They are intending to tax all little printed penny papers a half-penny every half sheet, which will utterly ruin Grub Street.—Swift, Journal to Stella, vol. ii. p. 161.

When the Stamp Act was passed, he writes:—

Mrs. Hill says it was a very idle thing in you to send such a present to a man [himself] who can neither punish nor reward you since Grub Street is no more; for the Parliament has killed all the Muses of Grub Street.—Swift to General Hill, August 12, 1712.

O Grub Street how do I bemoan thee
Whose graceless children scorn to own thee!
Their filial piety forgot,
Deny their country like a Scot!—Swift, On Poetry, 1733.

Swift has also "A Grub Street Elegy on the supposed death of Partridge, the almanack-maker," and a poem entitled "Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers." Pope has many references to this locality of the Muses.

Let Budgell charge low Grub Street on his quill.
And write whate'er he pleased—except my will.

In another place he commemorates what he calls the "Grub Street Choir."

Why do therefore the enemies of good living, the starve-gutted authors of Grub Street, employ their impotent pens against Pudding and Pudding-headed, alias Honest Men?—Arbuthnot, A Dissertation on Dumpling, Works, vol. i. p. 71.

Johnson, Warburton, Walpole, and their contemporaries continued the banter.

Mr. Hoole told him he was born in Moorfields, and had received part of his early instruction in Grub Street. "Sir," said Johnson, smiling, "you have been regularly educated." ... In pleasant reference to himself and Mr. Hoole, as brother authors, he often said, "Let you and I, Sir, go together, and eat a beef-steak in Grub Street."—Boswell.

A libeller is nothing but a Grub Street Critic run to seed.—Bishop Warburton, Notes to Dunciad.

September 2, 1757.—Not being in town, there may be several new productions, as the Grubbaea frutex blossoms every day.—Walpole to Conway (Letters, vol. iii. p. lOl).

In process of time it was shortened to Grub. Thus Gilly Williams writes to the Earl of March (December 18, 1764), "There might be a good Grub composed for his dying speech."

Of the Grub Street printers, perhaps the most noteworthy is Bernard Alsop, by whom we have works printed in 1618, and who was "dwelling in Grub Street near the Upper Pump" as late as 1656. But more memorable men have dwelt in Grub Street. John Foxe, the Martyrologist, came to live here in 1571. There is a letter extant, dated November 20 in that year, addressed to "the Worshipfull and his singular good frende Mr. Foxe dwellinge at Grubb Street; "also one from Foxe himself to one of his neighbours who had so built his house as to darken Foxe's windows.¹ Here he died (as far as can be ascertained), April 18, 1587, and was buried in the neighbouring church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, of which he was vicar. A curious pamphlet, of the time of Charles I., is entitled "The Phoenix of these Late Times; or, the Life of Henry Welby, Esq., who lived at his house in Grub Street forty-four years, and in that space was never seen by any; and there died (October 29, 1636), aged eighty-four." He possessed large estates in Lincolnshire. The only assigned reason for his long seclusion originated in an attempt made on his life by a younger brother. Welby, whose whole life and wealth while here seem to have been devoted to deeds of benevolence, was interred in St. Giles Church, Cripplegate. He is mentioned by Taylor, the Water Poet, who also speaks of "the Quintescence of Grub Street," whatever that may mean, which is probably nothing, as it occurs in his Sir Gregory Nonsense in which he tells us "it was far from his purpose to write to any purpose," and in that for the most part he was successful.

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¹ Harl. MS. 416, Art. 83.

Grub Street [CripE; north out of Fore Street; since 1830 Milton Street from an early owner]: Grubbstrete early 13th PaulsCh 249, -strat c. 1250 ADA 11863, -strate 1281 CW i. 55, Grobstrat a 1243 PaulsMSS 8 a, Grobbestrate 1277–8 CW i. 29, le Grubbestrete 1331 (1332) CW i. 376. It is possible, though not very probable, that the first element is ME grub 'larva of an insect, caterpillar, maggot, worm' (c. 1420 &c. OED), the name meaning 'street infested by caterpillars or worms'. More likely the street was named from an inhabitant. Grubbe is a known surname in London. The will of one Edward Grobbe, probably of Tower ward, was enrolled in 1277–8 (CW i. 32), and a Peter Grubbe, fishmonger of London, is mentioned in 1378 (MxFF i. 153). A Grub Lane (Grubbeslane 1460) is found in Hitchin. From this was possibly taken the surname (William de) Grubbelane 1328 LBE 233, 1332 Subs (of Cheap), but Grub Street seems to have been alternatively called Grub Lane (Grublane without Cripplegate 1373 Pat). The surname Grubbe may be derived from ME grub 'a short, dwarfish fellow' (a 1400–50 OED) or more likely from the well-evidenced Danish surname Grubbi (1284 &c.).