Carter Lane
Names
- Carter Lane
- Carterstrete
- Cartereslane
- Carterslane
- Carterelane
- Carterislane
- Great Carter Lane
- Little Carter Lane
Street/Area/District
- Carter Lane
Maps & Views
- 1553-59 London (Strype, 1720): Carter Lane
- 1553-9 Londinum (Braun & Hogenberg, 1572): Carter Lane
- 1553-9 London ("Agas Map" ca. 1633): Carter lane
- 1560 London (Jansson, 1657): Carter Lane
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - British Library): Carter Lane
- 1593 London (Norden, 1653 - Folger): Carter Lane
- 1666 London after the fire (Bowen, 1772): Carter Lane
Descriptions
from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)
Carter Lane
West out of Old Change to Water Lane (P.O. Directory). In Castle Baynard Ward and Farringdon Ward Within.
First mention: "Carterstrete," 1295 (Ct. H.W. I. 122).
Other forms: "Cartereslane," 1349 (Ct. H.W. I. 587). "Carterslane," 20 Rich. II. (Anc. Deeds, C. 3055). "Carterelane," 1397 (Ct. H.W. II. 328). "Carterislane," 1 H. V. (ib. C. 3245). "Great Carter Lane" and "Little Carter Lane" (O. and M. 1677 to O.S. 1848–50).
Great Carter Lane extended from Creed Lane to Paul's Chain, forming the western end of the street, while Little Carter Lane extended to Old Change, forming the eastern end.
The western end from Creed Lane to Water Lane was called formerly: "Shoemaker Row," 1653 (L. and P. Common. V. 82–Elmes, 1831). "Shoemaker Lane" (O.S. 1848–50).
The names: "Great Carter Lane," "Little Carter Lane," and "Shoemaker Row, or Lane" were abolished in 1866 and the whole street named Carter Lane.
The early forms of the name suggest that it was intended to commemorate a former owner of property there.
from the Grub Street Project, by Allison Muri (2006-present)
Carter Lane. See also Great Carter Lane and Little Carter Lane.
from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)
Carter lane, of which there is the Great and the Little. The Little comes out of the Old Change, and falleth into the Great Carter lane, but severed by Pauls Chain; and thence runs Westwards to Puddle dock and Creed lane. The Great Carter lane is the broadest, best built and inhabited.
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons. The division into Great and Little was abolished by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1866. Great Carter Lane was the western, Little Carter Lane the eastern portion of Carter Lane. Carter Lane was the dwelling-place of the Merry Cobler of Tarlton's Jests. The Hart's Horn in Carter Lane was the compotation house of the Guy Faux conspirators.1 Here is Bell Yard, so called from the Bell Inn, from whence in 1598 Richard Quyney directs a letter "To my loveing good ffrend and contreymann, Mr. Wm. Shackespere deliver thees," the only letter addressed to Shakespeare known to exist. Mr. R. Bell Wheler, of Stratford-upon-Avon, has the original. The Pell Records contain an entry, 2 Henry VI. (1424), of a payment to "John Kyllyngham, master of the house called the Bell."
March 16, 1560.—Went to burying from the Bell, Carter Lane, one Master Bodeley, a gentleman of the Temple, that was slain in Powle's Churcheyard by one of Alkoke's servants, and there fetched him a hundred gentlemen and over to bring him to the Temple, and twenty clerks singing, and after buried.—Machyn's Diary, p. 228.
Over against Bell Yard stood a large house inhabited by Sir Joseph Sheldon.2 Carter Lane Meeting-House, founded by Matthew Sylvester, in the ministry of which Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy succeeded him, was long celebrated among Dissenters; most of the great dissenting ministers have preached in it. The first edition (A. D. 1600) of "The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, with his battell fought at Agin Court in France, togither with Auntient Pistoll," was printed by Thomas Creede for T. Millington and J. Busby, and sold "at his house in Carter Lane next the Powle Head."
1 Sir Edward Hoby to Sir Thomas Edmondes, November 19, 1600; Court of King James, vol. i. p. 41.
2 See map in Strype.