Lovat Lane

Lovat Lane in London is a historic cobblestone alley featuring a medieval central drainage system and architecture rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666. Originally named Love Lane, it was renamed in 1939 after Lord Lovat, who supplied nearby Billingsgate Market with salmon. The street also features St Mary at the Hill, a church designed by Robert Hooke under Christopher Wren with a Greek cross plan.

London Β· from the walk β€œSecret London: Hidden Alleys, Ancient Stones & Forgotten Stories” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Lovat Lane, London EC3R 8DT

Why was Love Lane in London renamed to Lovat Lane in 1939?

Look down at your feet. See those cobblestones? You're standing on one of the very few remaining examples of what London's streets and alleys once looked like. This is Lovat Lane... and it has a secret past hiding right there in its name.......... You see, this lane is a Lot older than its name. It was originally called Love Lane... and the reason? Well, that depends who you ask. Some say its dark, secluded nooks and crannies were ideal locations for ladies of the night. The Elizabethan historian John Stow had a rather more colorful phrase for them. But various early references may have wrongly confused this lane with Another Love Lane, which Stow described as "so-called of wantons." The truth? The connection here was actually to Salmon... and to Lord Lovat, whose fisheries supplied the nearby Billingsgate Market with copious amounts of fish.......... The name was changed in nineteen thirty-nine to avoid confusion with another Love Lane near the Guildhall. And just like that... Love Lane became Lovat Lane.......... Now, look at the slope beneath you. Unusual for modern streets in London, the gutters and drains here run down the Middle of the lane... exactly as they would have in the Middle Ages. You're literally walking in a medieval drainage system!......... This spot sits just a few streets down from the famous Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire began in sixteen sixty-six. Lovat Lane got badly damaged in that inferno, and the church you can see rising above you... Saint Mary at the Hill... was severely damaged as the fire tore through the neighboring streets. It was then rebuilt under the program managed by Christopher Wren, though it was probably Wren's brilliant assistant Robert Hooke who was responsible for much of the actual design.......... And here's something most people miss entirely. Wren designed this church as a Greek cross with a dome at its center... and later put forward an almost identical design for Saint Paul's Cathedral, which was Rejected! So in a way, this humble church on Lovat Lane is a preview of the Saint Paul's that never was.......... The lane took another massive hit from German bombers during World War Two... but because most of the buildings here are protected by Grade Two Listed status, the reconstructed buildings had to be replicated to their original designs... preserving this extraordinary time-warp feeling.......... Before you move on, glance down toward the bottom of the lane. If you look up above the pub called The Walrus and the Carpenter, you'll see a weather vane in the shape of a Bawley fishing boat... the kind that once plied the Thames catching whitebait for Billingsgate Market, right here at the foot of this lane. A tiny golden boat, still sailing above the rooftops of London... a last echo of the fishermen who gave this ancient alley its name.

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