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Birchin Lane was a short street running north-south between Cornhill Street and Lombard Street. The north end of Birchin Lane lay in Cornhill Ward, and the south end in Langbourne Ward.
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Birchin Lane was a short street running
north-south between Cornhill Street and Lombard Street. The north end of Birchin Lane lay in Cornhill Ward, and the south end in Langbourne Ward. Stow tells us that Birchin
Lane was named after Birchover, the first builder and owner thereof,
now corruptly called Birchin lane
(1:198–99). However, Eilert Ekwall
rejects this etymology. He postulates that the name means lane of the barbers
,
from an unrecorded Old English word, beardceorfere. He points out that the
Middle English cherven (from OE ceorfan), meaning to cut
, was used
specifically for the cutting of hair (113). His theory is generally accepted (Bebbington 47; Weinreb and Hibbert 66); Smith, however, seems to prefer Stow’s
etymology (23).
Kingsford records many variant spellings of the name: Bercherverelane, Bercheners lane, Berchernerelane, Berchenes-lane, and Berchen lane (2:306). Stow shows a preference for
Birchouer
.
In the Middle Ages, Birchin Lane was famous for
(Smith 23). It became the home of the hosiers
sometime before or during the sixteenth century (Stow 1:81). In her
105–08I hose do leave in Birchin Lane, of any kind of size, For women stitched, for men both trunks and those of Gascon guise[.]
See Bow Lane for more information about the hosiers.
In the seventeenth century, Birchin Lane housed
men’s ready-made clothes shops
(Weinreb
and Hibbert 66), and in the eighteenth century a famous coffee house.
David Garrick, the eighteenth-century actor famous for his
Shakespearean roles, often visited Tom’s Coffee House (Weinreb and Hibbert 66).
Birchin Lane still survives in modern London, in its original location between Lombard and Cornhill.