Place Name
Previously George Street. After the official house of the Lord Mayor of London, which was completed in 1752 some 13 years after the foundation stone had been laid and nearly 85 years after the idea had first been proposed by John Evelyn following the Great Fire of 1666. It was built on the site of the old Stocks Market. It was named sometime in the late 18thCentury. Micajah Perry, the Lord Mayor who laid the foundation stone, noted in his diary of October 25, 1739: “Went to the Stocks Market preceded by the City Musick and my Officers with the Sunday Sword and Mace and laid the chief corner stone of the Mansion House.” The story is taken up in Valerie Hope’s history My Lord Mayor: “Much of the money for the Mansion House had been raised by fines imposed on those who refused office, particularly the office of sheriff. It was said it was built for those who wanted to be Lord Mayor out of the pockets of those who did not. Sir John Barnard had named several Non-conformists knowing they would not serve, and Perry hardly seemed to get through a dinner in the spring and summer of 1739 without ‘naming a Sheriff.'”
