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Love Lane (Wood Street)

roseAgas Map
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Love Lane, Wood Street ran east-west, connecting Aldermanbury in the east and Wood Street in the west. It ran parallel to Addle Street in the north and Lad Lane in the south. It lay within Cripplegate Ward, and is labelled as Lone la. on the Agas map.
There were, according to Ekwall, at least four Love Lanes in early modern London: the first, Love Lane, Wood Street, another east from Coleman Street, a third by Lower Thames Street (see Love Lane, Thames Street), and a fourth in St. Christopher [Broad St], now lost (165). Love Lane, Wood Street was, as Stow tells us, so called of wantons (1:296). The London Encylopaedia deems it A haunt of prostitutes in the middle ages (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 516). Harben records Stow’s explanation for the name, but questions whether or not the street might have been so called after an owner named Love (Harben; BHO). Rawlings similarly questions Stow’s suggested lewd etymology, noting that at least some of the London streets and lanes with love in the title might have been named from innocent everyday romances (73).
Important sites stood at each end of Love Lane, Wood Street. At its west end, intersecting with Wood Street, stood St. Alban, Wood Street church. At the east end was the Aldermanbury conduit, which appears as a small building with a crenellated roof and two entrance arches on the Agas map. At the east intersection of Love Lane with Aldermanbury (heading south) and Gayspur Lane (heading north) was the church of St. Mary Aldermanbury.
Love Lane still exists in modern London.

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