Mackenna Swing

English 4523

April 27, 2015

Pissing Alley

LOCATION

The term pissing alley is applicable to multiple alleyways and passages located in early

modern London. This is because indoor toilet facilities were rare, and a high majority of the male

population resorted to relieving themselves in the streets. In an urban street men could, and did,

turn to the nearest wall (Astington 1). More specifically, Pissing Alley is the passage which ran

from Friday Street to Bread Street (Sugden), and was located in the Breadstreete Ward, just north

of River Thames, run[ing] West out of Basing Lane to Friday Street (Jenkins). Bredstreete

Ward beginneth in the high streete of west Cheape, to wit, on the south side, from the Standard to

the great Crosse (Stow 344). Pissing Alley is visible on the Agas map, where it is labeled

Piing La. On the Agas map it is the alleyway between Fryda Streat and Bread Streat,

beginning at the end of Maidenhed Lane and stopping where Basing Lane begins. Nearby

landmarks included the Wood Warf , Milford Lane, Bread Street, Greyhound Court and the

Crown Tavern. Readers can picture themselves walking out from Pissing Alley through Strypes

Survey, which described the route: And out of [Pissing Alley] there are two Passages into

Milford Lane, the one towards the bottom very small and the one towards the bottom very small

and bad, being descended by Steps, very ill built and inhabited; the other is called Greyhound

Court already mentioned in the Discription of Milford Lane. At the upper End of this Street is

the Crown Tavern, a large and curious House with good Rooms and other conveniences fit for

Entertainment (Strype 117).

NAME AND ETYMOLOGY

Pissing Alley has undergone a multitude of name changes as history progressed. The

earliest reference to Pissing Alley was during the Middle Ages, when the passage was known as

Gropecuntelane. Variations included Gropecunte, Gropecountelane, Gropecontelane,

Groppecountelane and Gropekuntelane. At the time, the passage was located near St. Pancras

Church, a church that existed by the late 11th century (Keene). Gropecuntelane ran from the W.

end of the church to Cheapside, and Popkirtle Lane through, or by the side of, 18, from St.

Pancras Lane to Cheapside; both of these were extremely narrow (Keene). Much of this area

was destroyed by fires during the Middle Ages, and during the rebuilding the name

Gropecuntelane was abandoned. There is also speculation that many streets in London once had

equally vulgar names, all of which were removed and given ones more appropriate (Holt).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, grope is defined as to use the hands in feeling,

touching, or grasping; to handle or feel something, or in indecent sense. The word cunt is

defined as the female genitals; the vulva or vagina. This street name directly alludes to the

prostitution occurring in the alleyway during the Middle Ages. The name Pissing Alley then

originated, as a tamer version of the once Gropecuntelane, and was first used in the mid-

sixteenth century (Jenkins). As previously stated, in early modern London public urination was

not heavily regulated, nor unusual. Even playhouses lacked indoor toilet facilities, and according

to a recently published survey of the archeological excavations at the sites of the Rose and the

Globe betters 1988 and 1990 found no evidence of privies or other permanent toilet facilities at

either playhouse (Bowsher and Miller 132). In 1989 a timber drain was discovered running

across the yard of the Rose; and in a factious sketch Walter Hodges drew it as what the

contemporary records of the royal Office of the Works call a pissing trough (Bowsher and

Miller 133). Spelling variations include Piing La with long, descending s, as seen on the Agas

map. Pissing Alley then changed names once more to Little Friday Street, which first appeared

in Stows Survey of London (1603). Variations of this name included Little Fryday Street

(Jenkins) and Little Friday Lane (Jenkins). In John Strypes A Survey of the Cities of London,

he noted Pissing Alley, a very proper Name for it (Strype 117), meaning that the name

pissing was very applicable, due to the vulgarity of behavior as well as pungent stenches that

could be found in the alleyway.

SIGNIFICANCE

The name Pissing Alley was most likely derived from the actual smell of urine and

sewage in the streets, as well as a general atmosphere of filth and grime associated with the

prostitutes who continued to hover around the streets since the Middle ages, carrying with them a

multitude of venereal diseases. Stow claims in his Survey of London in 1603 that Now in

Friday streete, so called of fishmongers dwelling there (Stow 344-352). By interpreting the

word fishmonger through its early modern London context, fishmonger may mean pimp,

as it did in Shakespeares Hamlet (1603). This idea of pimps dwelling in Friday Street, which

was directly connected to Pissing Alley, supports the notion that prostitution flourished.

HISTORY

After the Great Fire, there is evidence that Pissing Alley rebuilt, and even broadened.

That Pissing Alley and Queens-head Alley in Pater-noster-Row shall be severally Enlarged to be

of the Breadth of Nine Foot (Commune). Later, the alleyway was absorbed into Cannon

Street, at its western extension, in 1853-4 (Jenkins). The grimy, prostitution-filled back

alleyway previously known as Pissing Alley became known as the The Goldsmiths Buildings.

The buildings were first erected in 1861, and presently stand today in London (Harben). The

name Goldsmith derives from Thomas Wood Goldsmith, an early modern Londoner who built

Goldsmith Row in 1491 (Stow 344-352), and whose grave the building has been said to contain

(Harben).

LITERARY REFERENCES

In one of Thomas Middletons early city comedies, The Family of Love (1608), there is a

direct reference to Pissing Alley and its prostitutes. The line reads so that the wise woman in

Pissing Alley nor she in Do-Little Lane are more famous good deeds than he (Middleton V.iii.).

The speaker of this line is a lawyer, defending his fraudulent client, and implying that his clients

worst deed is still better than a prostitutes from pissing alleys best deed, same being for the

woman of Do-Little Lane.

English poet and playwright John Dryden also references Pissing Alley in his poem Mac

Flecknoe (1682). The poem is Drydens satirical slam about another poet of the time, Thomas

Shadwell. Dryden depicts Shadwell as his unintelligent, dimwitted son, whom he has just

appointed as king of nonsense. This aged prince now flourishing in peace//And blest with

issue of a large increase (Dryden 7-8) is a description of Shadewell, whom has many heirs due

to his frequent sexual encounters with prostitutes. Dryden later taunts Shadewell, saying echoes

from Pissing-Alley, Shadewell (Dryden 47).

REFERENCES

Astington, John H. Going at the Theatre: Toilet Facilities in the Early Playhouses. Theatre

Notebook. 2010.

Bowsher, Julian, and Pat Miller. The Rose and the Globe playhouses of Shakespeares

Bankside, Southwark. Excavations 1988-90. London: Museum of London Archaeology,

2009.

City of London. Commune Concilium tent' in camera Guild-hall. 1667.

Colvin, Christina, Janet Cooper, N H Cooper, P D A Harvey, Marjory Hollings, Judith

Hook, Mary Jessup, Mary D Lobel, J F A Mason, B S Trinder and Hilary Turner.

'Banbury: Origins and growth of the town.' A History of the County of Oxford: Volume

10, Banbury Hundred. Ed. Alan Crossley. London: Victoria County History, 1972. 18-28.

British History Online. Web. 28 March 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/

vol10/pp18-28.

"cunt, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 30 March 2015.

Keene, D J and Vanessa Harding. 'St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/37.' Historical Gazetteer of

London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin

Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane. London:

Centre for Metropolitan History, 1987. 791-796. British History Online. Web. 31 March

2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-gazetteer-pre-fire/pp791-796.

Dryden, John. Mac Flecknoe, or, A satyr upon the true-blew-Protestant poet, T. S. by the author

of Absalom & Achitophel. London: D. Green, 1682. Print.

"grope, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 30 March 2015.

Harben, Henry A. 'Golden Lyon Inn - Goodman's Gate.' A Dictionary of London. London: H

Jenkins LTD, 1918. British History Online. Web. 29 March 2015. http://www.british-

history.ac.uk/no-series/dictionary-of-london/golden-lyon-inn-goodmans-gate

Holt, Richard; Baker, Nigel, "Indecent Exposure sexuality, society and the

archaeological record", in Bevan, Lynne, Towards a geography of sexual encounter:

prostitution in English medieval towns, Glasgow: Cruithne Press, 2001. Print.

Jenkins, Henry. A Dictionary of London. London: Henry Jenkins, 1918. Print.

Middleton, Thomas. The Family of Love. London: John Browne and John Helm. 1608. Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. Vol. XLVI, Part 2. The

Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 190914; Bartleby.com, 2001.

www.bartleby.com/46/2/. [Date of Printout].

Stow, John. A Survey of London. Oxford: Clarendon. (1598)

Strype, John. A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster. London. (1720)

Sugden, Edward H. A Topographical Dictionary To The Works Of Shakespeare And His

Fellow Dramatists. Manchester: The University Press. 1925. Print.