Place Name
This cut through a network of small courts, yards and alleys and has been considerably extended over the years. It featured as an unnamed alley in William Horwood’s Plan of 1799 but by 1868 the road was named and had two unnamed small alleys running off of it, one disappeared, the other was named Short Street. There have been two possible explanations as to the name, the first is that it was named after the late 18thCentury builder who laid out the street. The other is that it was after the silk trade which was previously based here. The latter is more likely, given that in 1868 it was adjacent to a Haberdashers Street previously Haberdashers’ Square, now gone, and nearby was Glovers Hall. The area was flattened during the Second World War.
