Cheapside

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This article is about the street in London. For other uses, see Cheapside (disambiguation).

A view of Cheapside published in 1837. The church is St Mary-le-Bow.

Cheapside is a street in the City of London, which links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street, Cornhill, Threadneedle Street, Princes Street, Lombard Street and King William Street (via a small section called 'Poultry'). In mediæval times it was known as 'Westcheap', as the opposite to Eastcheap.

1 History
2 Literary connections
3 Contemporary Cheapside
4 Etymology and usage
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Cheapside is the former site of one of the principal produce markets in London, cheap broadly meaning "market" in mediæval English (see below Etymology and usage). Many of the streets feeding into the main thoroughfare are named after the produce that was originally sold in those areas of the market, for example, Honey Lane, Milk Street, Bread Street and Poultry.

Meat was brought in to Cheapside from Smithfield, just outside Newgate. After the great Church of St Michael le Querne, the top end of the street broadened into a dual carriageway known as the Shambles (referring to an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market), with butchers shops on both sides and a dividing central area also composed of butchers shops. Further down, on the right, was Goldsmiths Row, an area of commodity dealers. From the 14th Century until the Great Fire, the eastern end of Cheapside was the location of the Great Conduit.

[edit] Literary connections

It was the birthplace of John Milton and Robert Herrick. It was for a long time one of the most important streets in London. It is also the site of the 'Bow Bells', the church of St Mary-le-Bow, which has played a part in London's Cockney heritage and the tale of Dick Whittington. Thomas Middleton's play A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613) both satirizes and celebrates the citizens of the neighbourhood during the Renaissance, when the street hosted the city's goldsmiths.

Geoffrey Chaucer grew up around Cheapside and there are a scattering of references to the thoroughfare and its environs throughout his work. The first chapter of Peter Ackroyd's Brief Lives series on Chaucer also colourfully describes the street at that time ^[1]

Jane Austen in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice characterizes Cheapside as a London neighbourhood frowned upon by the landed elite:

"I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton"

"Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside."

"That is capital," added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.

"If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside," cried Bingley, "it would not make them one jot less agreeable."

"But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world," replied Darcy." ^[2]

Charles Dickens, Jr wrote in 1879:

"Cheapside remains now what it was five centuries ago, the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London. Other localities have had their day, have risen, become fashionable, and have sunk into obscurity and neglect, but Cheapside has maintained its place, and may boast of being the busiest thoroughfare in the world, with the sole exception perhaps of London Bridge". ^[3]

Hugh Lofting's book Doctor Dolittle, published in 1951, names a quarrelsome London sparrow with a Cockney accent Cheapside. He lives most of the year in St. Edmund's left ear in St. Paul's Cathedral and is invited to the African country of Fantippo to deliver mail to cities because the other birds are not able to navigate city streets.

In a more contemporary treatment, Cheapside was referenced in the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale as the unsalubrious birthplace and home of the unlikely hero.

Also, Mary "Jacky" Faber lived there in Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

[edit] Contemporary Cheapside

Cheapside is today one further street of offices and occasional small retail outlets among many in the City of London, which itself is to a large extent simply the centre of the financial services industry. Moreover the street is no longer a primary traffic route.

Cheapside was extensively damaged during Luftwaffe Blitz raids in late 1940 and particularly during the The Second Great Fire of London. Much of the rebuilding following these raids occurred during the 1950s and 1960s and included a number of unsympathetic contemporary attempts at recreating the centuries-old architecture that had been destroyed. In recent years many of these buildings have themselves been demolished as a programme of regeneration takes place along Cheapside from Paternoster Square to Poultry.

[edit] Etymology and usage

Cheapside is also a common English street name, meaning "market-place", the word "cheap" referring to the Old English "ceapan" meaning "to buy" or "market" as opposed to "low price".

Other cities and towns in England that have a Cheapside street include Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Derby, Halifax, Lancaster, Leicester, Luton, Manchester, Nottingham and Reading.