Bucklersbury Passage, EC4N

Place Name

A public right of way, that survived new development. The name can be traced as far back as 1104, when one Warinus Bucherel is mentioned in City Records, and again in 1129, when the names Ricardo and Stephano Bucherello are recorded. These gentlemen were clearly of Italian origin and probably of the Boccherelli family, of Pisa. By the 13thCentury the Bukerel family was one of the leading City families, and Andrew Bukerel held the position of Lord Mayor from 1231 to 1236 – during which time he paid the expenses of the Coronation of Queen Eleanor when she married Henry III in 1236 (In return he secured gifts of deer from the Royal Forests and negotiated that City traders would be granted exemptions from certain taxes). His residence, Bukerel’s Bury, stood here and gave the name to the street in 1270 as Bukerelesbury and Bokerelesberi in 1278. The spelling of bury varies from time to time, but originates from the Anglo-Saxon burgh, which signified a fortified place, but in the 12thCentury it simply meant a house or a mansion. Different forms of spelling bury are beri, bery, and bere. Broadly speaking burgh is the Northern form, as in Edinburgh; borough the Midland form and bury the Southern.

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