Place Name
The street was already named Bredstrate sometime around 1165, presumably because this is where many bakers were situated. By 1204 it was Bredstret and 1223 Bred Strate but it wasn’t turned into an official bread market and named Bread Street until 1302. Edward I announced that the bakers of Bromley and Stratford-le-Bow, and ones already living on the street, were forbidden from selling bread from their own homes or bakeries, and could only do so from here. This was a way that the authorities could control weights and ingredients to protect customers. The Liber Albus; the White book of the City of London, compiled when Dick Whittington was Lord Mayor, says: “Of Bakers… that no baker shall sell bread before his oven, but only in the market of his Lordship the King.” This place was an open market in 1302 for bakers of Bromley and Stratford-le-Bow who were forbidden to sell bread in their shops or homes. This is one of several nearby roads named after produce or goods that were sold near Cheapside during the Medieval period.
