Place Name
One of the oldest streets and oldest named streets in Richmond. It was named after a former resident William Brewer who held a copyhold cottage in the street in 1576 until 1625. So well known were he and his son, who took over the cottage, that from 1608 it came to be referred to as Brewers Lane. And that name lasted until the 18thCentury when it began to be called Magpie Lane (or Magpye) after a pub, now called the Britannia. But this was only temporary, when the Charity School trustees, the first in Richmond and founded in 1713, took over from the Vestry they decided to revert to the old name and from May 13, 1769 it had remained Brewer’s Lane – although the apostrophe has long gone.
