Bear Garden
Names
- Bear Garden
- Bear Gardens
- Bear Alley
Street/Area/District
- Bear Garden
Maps & Views
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - British Library): Bear Alley (?)
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - Folger): Bear Alley (?)
- 1720 London (Strype): Bear Alley
- 1761 London (Dodsley): Bear Garden
Descriptions
from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)
Bear Garden, see Rore Lane, Southwark.
from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)
Bear Alley runs into Maiden Lane. Here is a Glass House, and about the middle is a new built Court well Inhabited called Bear Garden Square: so called as Built in the Place where the Bear Garden formerly stood, until removed to the other side of the Water: Which is more convenient for the Butchers and such like, who are taken with such rustick Sports as the baiting of Bears and Bulls.
from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)
Bear Garden, Bank side, Southwark.
from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)
Bear-Gardens, Bankside, Southwark, is about half a mile westward of London-bridge, and leading into Maid-lane, the first turning east from Thames-street. It derives its name from the ancient bear garden, "wherein," says Stow, "were kept bears, bulls and other beasts to be bayted, as also mastiffs in several kennels, nourished to bayt them. These bears and other beasts are there kept in plots of ground, scaffolded about for the beholders to stand safe." The safety of this scaffold was by no means so certain, for in 1582, one of them fell suddenly, and many more lamed and wounded.