Wood Street

   North out of Cheapside, at No.122, to London Wall (P.O. Directory). In Farringdon Ward Within and Cripplegate Ward Within.

   First mention: "Wodestrata," 1156-7 (Cal. Doc. in France, p.156).

   Other forms : "Wude-strate," Rich. I .(Anc. Deeds, A. 2124). " Wdestrate," 5 John (ib. A. 2502). "Wodestrete," 24 H. III. (Ch. I. p.m.).

   Afterwards called Great Wood Street and Little Wood Street (S. 292), and down to The 19th century.

   Great Wood Street was the southern portion from Cheapside to Addle Street, and Little Wood Street the northern portion to London Wall.

   Stow makes the following suggestion as to the origin of the name: first that the houses in this street had always been built of timber and not of stone. (This hardly seems a sufficient explanation when so many other houses must have been built of timber.) Secondly, that it was named after Thos. Wood Sheriff, 1491. But as shown above, the street received its name long before this date.

   Kingsford suggests (ed. Stow II.338) that wood was sold here, and this is quite a possible explanation, other streets in the locality such as Milk Street, Honey Lane, being named after the commodities sold in them, or in the great market of Cheap to which they were adjacent.

   Pavements of tesseræ were found here in 1843 and 1848, and fragments of Gaulish pottery beneath the foundations of the Old Crosskeys Inn in 1865. Roman bricks said to have been found in St. Alban's Church in 1632.