Shoe Lane

Shoe Lane

North out of Fleet Street to Charterhouse Street, west of Farringdon Street (P.O. Directory). In Farringdon Ward Without.

First mention: Street called "Sholand" in parish of St. Andrew of Holeburne, 56 H. III. (Hust. Roll 4, No. iii).

Mention made previously of a certain well called "Showelle" at the upper head of the lane which lay between the house of the preaching friars and the Court of Richard Lunghespeye, 46 H. III. (Ch. I. p.m. No. 42). This lane seems to occupy the position of Shoe Lane.

Other forms: "Sholane," 9 Ed. I. (Ch. I. p.m.). "Scholane," 1283 (Ct. H.W. I. 67). "Scholaunde," 1285 (ib. 72). "Schof lane," 12 Ed. II. (Hust. Roll 47, No. 76). "Sholaneend," 1433–4 (Ct. H.W. II. 469). "Showe Lane," 36 H. VIII. (L. and P. H. VIII. XX. (1), p. 123). "Shoe Alley" alias "Shoe Lane," 7 Eliz. (Lond. I. p.m. II. 31).

The street has been considerably altered at its northern end by the formation of Holborn Viaduct and its extension further north to Charterhouse Street.

There was a "Sholane" in the parish of St. Nicholas, Calais (Anc. Deeds, A. 12348), also a tenement called the "Shewe," 1461 (Ct. H.W. II. 547).

It may have been named after the "Showelle," in the lane above mentioned.

Shoe lane, a considerable one, betn Fleetstr. (near St. Brides) S. and Holbourn hill N. L. 420 yds.

Shoe lane; which runneth out of Oldbourn, unto the Conduit in Fleet street.

These two Cross Lanes, Shoe Lane and Feater or [Fewter] Lane, with the third, called Chancery Lane, (all which lie between the two high Streets, Fleetstreet and Holborn, and are Passages from one to the other) were foul for Passengers and unpaved, until the 9 Edw. 2. An. 1315. When that King granted an Imposition upon Commodities brought to the City, for the mending and paving those Lanes, and likewise to pave and mend the High way from Portpole Bridge to Tyburn, and to Highgate. And also the same Grant extended from the paving between Temple Bar and Westminster.]

Shoe lane, extends from Fleet street to Holborn.

Shoe-Lane, Fleet-Street,—at 130, about twenty-four doors on the R. from Fleet-market, extending to Holborn-hill by St. Andrew's church.

Shoe-Lane, Fleet-street, is about twenty-four houses on the right hand side, above Farringdon-street; it extends from Fleet-street to Holborn-hill.

Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, runs due north from Fleet Street into Holborn, by St. Andrew's Church. The earliest mention of Shoe Lane in the City records is in 4 Edward II. (1310), when a writ is sent from the King on the 8th of July commanding that "you cause to come before us, or the person holding our place, at the church of St Brigit without Ludgate, on the Saturday next after the Feast of the Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr, eighteen good and lawful men of the venue of Scolane in the ward without Ludgate; to make inquisition on oath as to a certain tenement with its appurtenances in Scholane, which the Abbot of Rievaulx is said to have appropriated without leave of our Lord the King," etc.¹ This writ was not in accordance with custom and was evaded by the City authorities. A similar one was sent on the 10th of October, but the result is not recorded. The next notice is in the 19th of Edward III. (1345), when Thomas de Donyngtone is condemned to be hanged for stealing one furred surcoat and two double hoods, value 4s., and two linen sheets, value 40d., in Sholane near Holbourne. The name again occurs in the 21st of Edward III. (1347), when John Tournour of Sholane is ordered not to make his wine-measures for the future "of any wood but dried," and to stamp his name, or his mark, on the bottom of them.

In this Shoe Lane, on the left hand [the east side] is one old house called Oldborne Hall; it is now letten out into tenements.—Stow, p. 145.²

1610.—Thomas Penkithman of Warrington, Co. Lancaster, has expended money in building houses in Shoe Lane, on the ground of the Earl of Derby. They have been taken possession of by one Shute under pretence, etc.—Cal. State Pap., 1611–1618, p. 132.

In the 17th century there was a noted cock-pit in Shoe Lane. It was sometimes visited by persons we should not have expected to meet there. Writing to his nephew from "St. Martin's Lane by the Fields," June 3, 1633, Sir Henry Wotton says: "This other day at the Cock-pit in Shoe Lane (where myself am rara avis) your Nephew, Mr. Robert Bacon came very kindly to me, with whom I was glad to refresh my acquaintance, though I had rather it had been in the theatre of Redgrave."³ Thirty years later the company was less refined.

December 21, 1663.—To Shoe Lane to see a cocke-fighting at a new pit there, a spot I was never at in my life: but Lord! to see the strange variety of people, from Parliament man by name Wildes that was Deputy Governor of the tower when Robinson was Lord Mayor, to the poorest 'prentices, bakers, brewers, butchers, draymen, and what not; and all these fellows one with another cursing and betting. I soon had enough of it.—Pepys.⁴

About this time Shoe Lane appears to have been the centre for the designers of the rude woodcuts which figured at the heads of ballads and broad-sheets.

A ballad-monger is the ignominious nickname of a penurious poet, of whom he partakes in nothing but in poverty. ... For want of truer relations, for a need, he can find you out a Sussex dragon, some sea or inland monster, drawn out by some Shoe Lane man, in a Gorgon-like feature, to enforce more horror in the beholder.—Whimzies: or a New Cast of Characters, 1631.

The sign-painters, a busy race when every shop in London had its painted sign, also congregated here, and Harp Alley, Shoe Lane, was the great mart for ready-made and second-hand signs.⁵ Thackeray, in his Lecture on Steele, repeats a story "as exceedingly characteristic" of the men and times, narrated by Dr. John Hoadley, of his father, when Bishop of Bangor, being present by invitation "at one of the Whig meetings held at the Trumpet in Shoe Lane, when Sir Richard [Steele] in his zeal rather exposed himself, having the double duty of the day upon him, as well to celebrate the immortal memory of King William, it being the 4th of November, as to drink his friend Addison up to conversation pitch." But the meeting, if not fabulous, must be transferred to the Trumpet in Shire Lane, where the Tatler's Club met. [See Shire Lane.] George Colman makes Dr. Pangloss say—

I'm dead to the fascinations of beauty: since that unguarded day of dalliance, when being full of Bacchus,—Bacchi plenus—Horace—Hem! my pocket was picked of a metal watch at the sign of the Sceptre in Shoe Lane.—Heir at Law, Act iv. Sc. 3.

At the back of Walkden's ink manufactory an extensive range of vaulted cellars still remain. They belonged apparently to some large house which stood upon the spot.

Eminent Inhabitants.—John Decreetz (or De Critz), serjeant painter to James I. and Charles I. "Resolute" John Florio, author of the well-known Dictionary which bears his name. His house in Shoe Lane is mentioned in his will. In 1676 Praise-God Barebones was paying £25 a year for a house in Shoe Lane. He states himself to be eighty years of age, and to have resided twenty-five years in the parish of St. Dunstan in the West.⁶ In an obscure lodging, near Shoe Lane, died, in 1749, Samuel Boyce, the poet. When almost perishing with hunger he is said to have been unable to eat some roast beef that was brought for him because there was no ketchup. Oliver Goldsmith mentions Shoe Lane as though he had himself lived in it:—"Nor will I forget the beauties of Shoe Lane in which I myself have resided since my arrival."⁷

Observe.—No. 3, the Ben Jonson Tavern, with the poet's head for a sign. Nos. 103–105, the Standard newspaper printing and publishing office, a large and massive new building. On the site of Farringdon Market, on the east side of Shoe Lane, in what was once the burying-ground of Shoe Lane workhouse (added during Hacket's ministry, and by Hacket's interest), Thomas Chatterton was buried. The northern half of Shoe Lane has been greatly changed in appearance by the construction of the Holborn Viaduct and its approaches, and Farringdon Market, or what remains of it, is destined to be cleared away as soon as the new City Fruit and Vegetable Market is completed. [See Bangor Court; Farringdon Market; Gunpowder Alley; Harp Lane.]

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¹ Riley,Memorials, p. 75.

² See a view of the exterior (circ. 1800) in Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata. The same work contains a chimney piece and ceiling in the old hall, the latter with the date 1617.

³ Reliq. Wottonianæ, p. 463.

⁴ See also Anecdotes and Traditions, by Thoms, p. 47.

⁵ Edwards, Anecdotes of Painting, p. 118.

⁶ Notes and Querries, 3d S., vol. i. p. 253.

⁷ Citizen of the World, Letter 122.