Origin of street names in London district of Southwark
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Southwark (also called Borough). The area has no formally defined boundaries – those utilised here are: the river Thames to the north, Tower Bridge Road to the east, Bricklayers Arms/New Kent Road/Elephant and Castle to the south, and London Road/St George's Circus/Blackfriars Road to the west.
Bedale Street – after Bedale, Yorkshire; it was formerly York Street after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany but was changed in 1891 to avoid confusion with similarly named streets; further back still it was Foul Lane, a descriptive epithet[15]
Bedford Row
Bell Yard Mews
Belvedere Buildings and Belvedere Place
Bermondsey Square and Bermondsey Street – understood to mean 'Beornmund's island'; but, while "Beornmund" represents an Old English personal name, identifying an individual once associated with the place, the element "-ey" represents Old English "eg", for "island", "piece of firm land in a fen", or simply a "place by a stream or river". Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is as likely to have been a higher, drier spot in an otherwise marshy area.[16][17][18]
Bickels Yard
Bittern Street
Blackfriars Road – named after Blackfriars Bridge in 1769/70; it was formerly Great Surrey Street, reflecting the traditional county it is in[19][20]
Black Horse Court – after a former inn here of this name[19]
Black Swan Yard – after a former inn here of this name[19]
Emerson Street – after Thomas Emerson, 15th century local benefactor[51][52]
English Grounds – thought to be after the English workers here during the railway boom, who were kept separate from the Irish ones nearby at Irish Grounds[53]
Ewer Lane
F
Fair Street – after the former Horselydown Fair held here[54]
Falmouth Road
Farnham Place
Fenning Street
Flatriron Square and Flatiron Yard
G
Gaitskell Way
Gambia Street – unknown; formerly William Street[55]
Great Guildford Street – after Suffolk House, owned by Lady Jane Guildford in the early Tudor period; possibly also in allusion to Guildford, county town of Surrey[60][61]
Great Maze Pond – after the Medieval Maze Manor here, named for a prominent maze in its grounds[60][62]
Green Dragon Court – after a Tudor-era inn here of this name[64]
Green Walk
Grotto Court – after Thomas Finch's Grotto Grounds, 18th century pleasure grounds located near here[65]
Guildable Bridge Street – the term ‘Guildable’ is first recorded in 1377, refers to the collection of taxes there and was adopted to distinguish this from the other manors of the Southwark area[66]
Haddon Hall Street – after Haddon Hall, local religious mission named for Charles Haddon Spurgeon, noted Victorian-era preacher[68]
Hamlet Way
Hankey Place – after Donald Hankey, prominent member of the local Edwardian-era charitable organisation the Oxford and Bermondsey Club[69]
Hardwidge Street – after James Hardwidge, local 18th century needlemaker and church benefactor[70]
Harper Road – unknown; it was changed from Union Road to avoid confusion with similarly named streets, and before that it was Horsemonger Lane, after the local horse dealers[71]
Hatchers Mews
Hay's Lane – after the Hays family, who owned nearby Hay's Wharf[72][73]
Holland Street – after a former manor house here called Holland's Leaguer, possibly named from its owner's family name[74]
Holyrood Street – after the former Rood (cross) of Bermondsey located here; it was destroyed in 1559[41][75]
Hopton Street and Hopton's Gardens – after Charles Hopton, who funded the local almshouses here in the 18th century[74][75]
Horsemongers Mews – probably by association with the nearby Horsemongers Lane (now Harper Road)[71]
Kentish Buildings – after 17th century property owner Thomas Kentish; formerly it was Christopher Alley, after an inn of this name named in 1977 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II[76]
Newcomen Street – after the local Newcomen Charity, named for its 17th century founder; it was formerly King Street, after a local inn of this name[98]
Newington Causeway and Newington Court – Newington is a now almost obsolete name for the Elephant and Castle area; it means ‘new village/farmstead’ and dates to the early Middle Ages[99][100]
New Kent Road – as this formed the traditional route down to Kent; the ‘New’ section dates from 1751, and is an extension of the Old Kent Road[101]
Pilgrimage Street – as this formed part of the ancient pilgrimage route to Canterbury[106][14]
Plantain Place
Playhouse Court
Pocock Street – after the locally prominent Pocock family[107]
Porlock Street
Porter Street
Potier Street
Potters Fields – so called as it was previously a burial ground - a potter’s field - for unknown, unclaimed or indignant people. Coincidentally, there was also Roman pottery found near here[108]
Price's Street – after a local builder of this name[109]
Prioress Street – after the character of the prioress in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by reference to the adjacent Pilgrimage Street[14]
St Margaret's Court – named for the former St Margaret's church here; it was for a period known as Fishmonger's Alley, as it belonged to the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers[119]
St Olaf Stairs – probably for the former St Olave's grammar school located here
Sanctuary Street – as the local mint formerly here claimed the local area as a sanctuary for debtors[121][122]
Sawyer Street – after Bob Sawyer, a character in the novel The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, by association with Dickens Square[123]
Scoresby Street – unknown; formerly York Street[55]
Scovell Crescent and Scovell Road – after the Scovells, local business family[124]
Shand Street – after Augustus Shand, member of local Board of Works in the late 19th century; it was formerly College Street, by association with the nearby Magdalen Street[125]
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Compare Simpson, Jacqueline (2 June 2011). "Elephant and Castle". Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names. Random House (published 2011). pp. 90–92. ISBN9780099520177. Retrieved 11 February 2015. The most famous pub of this name has long been demolished, but the area of London where it once stood is still known as the Elephant. [...] In the Middle Ages the elephant was regularly linked with the 'castle' both in the written descriptions in Bestiaries and in visual art, e.g. in church carvings.