Cookes Row

   Fitzstephen, writing in the reign of Henry II. c. 1174, says that there was in London on the banks of the river, where the wines are for sale in ships and wine cellars, a public kitchen for the sale of cooked viands of all kinds.

   Stow describes this as Cookes row in the Vintry, which would be a natural place for the cooks to establish themselves in, as being close to the ships and taverns where their customers could obtain wine, which in those days would only be sold in the taverns, etc. by those trading in wines, and not by the cooks, who exercised a separate trade ; these distinctions were scrupulously observed in early days, when almost every trade had its special quarter in the City (S. 240).