Guildhall Yard - Guttige's Rents

Guildhall Yard

North out of Gresham Street to the Guildhall, at No. 23 King Street (P.O. Directory). In Cheap Ward.

First mention : "Guildhall Court or Yard" (Strype, ed. 1720, I. iii. 52).

Contains the offices, etc., of the City Corporation, the Guildhall being on the north side.

Guilds

Associations formed to promote special objects, the members being bound together to observe certain rules and regulations for the attainment of these objects.

Formed in early times more especially for religious and trade purposes. The religious guilds were often termed fraternities, and there was hardly a parish in London in the 13th and 14th centuries without one or more of such associations. The trade guilds were formed by the individual craftsmen of a particular trade to protect the interests of the trade by mutual assurance, and they developed into very powerful associations.

Their ordinances were directed to the organisation and perfection of their craft, to the exclusion of foreigners from their ranks, to the training and admission of apprentices, etc., and to other useful regulations tending to the security and improvement of their particular craft or trade.

These guilds were the predecessors of the present City Companies.

In the earlier Letter Books the word "guild," except as forming part of the compound "Guildhall," is rarely to be met with, the word "mistery" being generally employed to denote these trade associations.

Various theories have been formulated from time to time as to the origin of the guilds existing in Anglo-Saxon times. Perhaps the most reasonable is that which identifies them with the Roman "collegia privata," which were established in this country during the Roman rule, and to which the Anglo-Saxon guilds show a striking similarity, both in origin and composition, as well as in their regulations.

Guillam's Wharf

On the Thames in St. Katherine's precinct (Strype, ed. 1755).

Not named in the maps.

Site now occupied by the St. Katherine's Docks.

Named after the owner.

Gully Hole

South from Thames Street to the river. In Bridge Ward Within, west of London Bridge (O. and M. 1677-Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 182).

Former names : "Water Gate," "Oyster Hulle" (q.v.).

In Strype's maps called "Gally hole."

See Hole (le).

Here "hole" probably=alley.

Site now occupied by New London Bridge.

Gulston's Court

West out of Creed Lane, in the parish of St. Martin's Ludgate, in Farringdon Ward Within, 21 Chas. II. 1669 (L.C.C. Deeds, Harben Bequest, 1600-1700, No. 33).

Not further identified.

Named after the owner.

Gun Alley

West out of Moorfields, in Cripplegate Ward Without (O. and M. 1677-Elmes, 1831).

In Rocque, 1746, and the later maps had a passage into Sugarloaf Court and Moor Lane.

The site is now occupied by New Union Street.

Gun Alley

See Gun Yard, Little Tower Hill, East.

Gun Square, Houndsditch

East out of Houndsditch, at 150 and 151. In Portsoken Ward (P.O. Directory).

Former name : "Gun Yard" (O. and M. 1677-Strype, 1755).

Gun Yard

Out of Fore Street, in Cripplegate Ward Without (P.C. 1732).

Not named in the maps.

Gun Yard

West out of Bishopsgate, near the northern boundary of Bishopsgate Ward Without (L.C.C. List, 1912).

First mention : 1670 (L. and P. Chas. II. 1669-70, p. 177).

Perhaps named after "Gonne Powder House" (q.v.).

Site now occupied by the Great Eastern and other railway lines.

Gun Yard, Houndsditch

See Gun Square, Houndsditch.

Gun Yard, Little Tower Hill, East

East out of Little Tower Hill. In St. Katherine's precinct (O. and M. 1677-Lond. Guide, 1758).

Also called : "Gun Alley" (Strype, ed. 1720, and P.C. 1732).

The site is now occupied by the St. Katherine's Docks and adjacent warehouses.

Gun Yard, Little Tower Hill, North

North out of Little Tower Hill (O. and M. 1677).

Site has been rebuilt.

Gunne (The), Sign of

Two tenements in the parish of St. Magnus (Anc. Deeds, A. 644).

Not further identified.

Gunpowder Alley

West out of Shoe Lane, at No. 92, to 8 East Harding Street, in Farringdon Ward Without (P.O. Directory).

First mention : O. and M. 1677.

Gunpowder Alley or Court, Crutched Friars

East out of Crutched Friars, north of John Street (Wheatley).

First mention : "Gunpowder Alley" (Westward Ho, 1607, quoted by Wheatley).

Oxford's Almshouses there in 1720 (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 83).

Not named in the maps.

Site now occupied by business houses.

Gutheronslane

See Gutter Lane.

Gutter Lane

North out of Cheapside, at 133, to Gresham Street (P.O. Directory), In Farringdon Ward Within.

First mention : "Godrunelane," temp. K. John (Anc. Deeds, A. 11681).

Other forms : "Gotherun lane," 40 H. III. (ib. A. 2061 and A. 1998). "Goderone lane," 40 H. III. (ib. A. 2240). "Godron lane," 40 H. III. (ib. A. 2136). "Godronelane," 1258-9 (Ct. H.W. I. 2). "Goderunelane," 1278-9 (ib. 38). "Goderones lane," "Goderes lane," 1284-5 (ib. 69 and 70). "Godrunes lane," 1285 (MS. D. and C. St. P. Lib. L. 93). "Godrenelane," 1291 (Ct. H.W. I. 98). "Godrun lane," 1293-4 (ib. 112). "Goderon lane," 1303-4 (ib. 161). "Goderonne Lane," 1323 (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. 1). "Gudrunlane," 1322-3 (Ct. H.W. I. 300). "Gother lane," 1351 (ib. 652). "Goder lane," 1385-6 (ib. II. 253). "Godurn lane," 1378 (ib. 202). "Goderounlane," 1388 (Ct. H.W. II. 269). "Goterlane," 1410-11 (ib. 390). "Goderene lane" or "Goterenelane," 1405 (ib. 361). "Gutterlane" alias "Good Roone lane," 5 and 6 P. and M. (Lond. I. p.m. I. 166). "Gutheron's lane," "Gutherans lane," (S. 159 and 293).

Gutherans lane, so called of Guthurun, sometime owner thereof (S. 316).

Stow is wrong as to the original form of the name, which is certainly : "Godrune" or "Goderune."

It is generally supposed to be named after Godrun or Guthrum, the Danish king of East Anglia, but the earliest forms suggest the personal female name "Godrun," "Goderun," which occurs in Domesday Book as the name of a tenant of land.

Roman relics found in the lane embedded in loam at a depth of 18 ft. from the present surface (Arch. XXVII. 150).

Gutteridge Rents

See Guttiges Rents.

Guttige's Rents

North-east from Still Alley to Meeting House Yard on the northern boundary of the ward. In Portsoken Ward (Rocque, 1746-Lond. Guide, 1758).

Former name : "Gutteridge Rents" (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 27).

Site now occupied by the Clothes' Market.