4 Silver Street

Shakespeare's Lodging House

Make sure that you are standing at position (4) on the map.


On the corner of London Wall and Noble Street is a churchyard, St Olave Silver Street.  St Olaves church burned down in the Great Fire of 1666, and Silver Street itself now no longer exists, as it was destroyed in the Blitz. Here is a link to a photo taken before WW2 from the churchyard that shows Silver Street. 

Shakespeare lodged in Silver Street, Cripplegate with the Mountjoys, a Huguenot family who were tire (decorated headdress) makers.


This is one of the two places in London where there is a record that Shakespeare lived there. The evidence is a legal record where Shakespeare was called to give evidence in a law suit where Stephen Bellot, Christopher Mountjoy's ex-apprentice, sues for non-payment of a promised dowry after marrying Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. 


Looking north across the London Wall road, you can see remains of the Roman Fort, part of the London Wall and the Barber-Surgeons Hall. Barber-Surgeons were given permission to dissect bodies here (or rather in the previous incarnations of the hall). The bodies were buried, after dissection, in St Olave Silver Street Churchyard.


In Noble Street there is also part of the London Wall exposed with explanatory panels that are interesting to read. This could also be part of a London Wall walk on another day.

Continue up Noble Street looking at the remains of the London Wall.  Then turn left into Oat Lane. At the turn in Oat Lane, go straight across through the gap in the building, past the bike rack. Go through St Albans Court (an alley) and continue straight ahead into Love Lane.

At the end of Love Lane is a small garden.  In it is a bust of Shakespeare as part of a monument (marked 5 on the map).  

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