Cross Lane

   1) East out of St. Mary-at-Hill to Harp Lane (P.O. Directory), crossing St. Dunstan's Hill. In Billingsgate and Tower Wards.

   First mention: O. and M. 1677.

   Former name : "Fowle Lane."

   The western end, between St. Mary at Hill and Idol Lane is so named by Stow (S. 126).

   2) Out of Love Lane, Little Eastcheap (P.C. 1732-Boyle, 1799).

   Not named in the maps.

   Could this have been the western continuation of Cross Lane, St. Mary at Hill?

   3) East out of Bush Lane at No. 27 to No. 2 Suffolk Lane (P.O. Directory). In Walbrook and Dowgate Wards.

   First mention: Mortgage deed, 1706 (see below) and Strype, 1720 ed.

   Former names : "Gopher lane" (Hatton, 1708). "Gofair lane" (14th century) (q.v.).

   "Goefair," alias "Cross Lane," is mentioned in an indenture of Mortgage 1706 in Wilson's History of St. Lawrence Pountney, p. 213.

   It is interesting to note in connection with the name of this street that there was in the Ropery near to the inn of John de Northampton in Gofair lane and the Ropery, in 1384, a tenement called "le Brewehous de la Crosse." The name suggests that there may have been a wayside cross in this neighbourhood from which the brewhouse derived its appellation. If so, the name may have survived as a street sign, and suggested the change of name from Gofair to Cross lane, which took place in the 17th or 18th century.