Wood Street, EC2

Although it now runs from Cheapside in the south, crossing Gresham Street and London Wall on its journey north until it joins Fore Street, a shorter street ran through the Roman Fort in Londinium, from its northern gate which became Cripplegate to its southern gate, near what is now Love Lane. It is one of London’s most venerable streets. Unsurprisingly, it appears in the Civitas Londinum, a woodcut bird’s-eye view of London, erroneously attributed to Ralph Agas, and produced in 1561, as Wood Streat.

The antiquarian, John Stow, was never averse to speculating upon the origin of a street name. He came up with two theories: “[i]t ſéemeth therefore that this ſtréet hath béene of the later building, all of timber, or it take[s] the name of an ancestor of Thomas Wood, whose predecessors might bee the builders, owners and namers of this streete after their owne name”. Others suggest that it may owe its name to the fact that timber was sold there. There is no definitive answer.

The self-declared Water Poet, John Taylor, wrote a pamphlet around the turn of the 17^th century entitled The Praise and Vertue of a Jayle and Jaylers. In it he listed London’s eighteen prisons, one of which was the Counter located in Wood Street. Provided you had the money for food and other creature comforts, life in prison was tolerable but for those who either had no money, many were imprisoned indefinitely for debt, or had run out, they were often transferred to a subterranean area in the Counter known as The Hole. Prisoners were kept in crowded conditions and either died through starvation and cold or from lack of exercise and the insanitary conditions. What food they were provided with was provided by charities and gifts from the Lord Mayor and the City guilds.

There are a couple of unusual sights in the modern-day street. First, sitting somewhat forlornly on a traffic island in the middle section between the intersections with Gresham Street and London Wall and overshadowed by modern office blocks, is a tower, the remains of the church of St Albans. Named after Britain’s first Christian martyr, Alban was killed in the 3^rd century CE, its origins are thought to be Saxon and to be sited on the spot where King Offa’s palace once stood. By the early 17^th century it was in a state of disrepair, the antiquarian, John Strype, describing it as “wonderfully decayed and perished”, and was rebuilt to a design by Inigo Jones in 1634.

Sadly, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 but rebuilt once more, this time under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren in the Gothic style, work being completed in 1685. Opposite the pulpit was positioned an hourglass by which a commentator wryly noted, “the preacher could measure his sermon and test his listeners’ patience”. The building was further restored in the 1850s and the pinnacles on the tower were added in the late 19^th century.      

Alas, on December 29, 1940 St Alban’s was hit directly by a Luftwaffe bomb, one of 18 London churches destroyed that night and the nave and apse were gutted. The rest of the building was finally demolished in 1955, leaving the tower remaining as a rather sad testament to one of London’s most historic churches.

Second, surrounded by iron railings on the corner with Cheapside is a London plane tree, once a familiar sight on the capital’s streets. It is subject to a tree protection order and stands in what was once the churchyard of St Peter Cheap, one of the 89 churches that were not rebuilt after the \Great Fire. It is probable that the tree is over 250 years old, it being bought by the City of London for sixpence. No one knows for certain whether it was already in situ or how large it was. Known once as the “lungs of London”, plane trees are a rare sight indeed.