PLACE NAME
Along with the nearby Burghley Place, this commemorates William Cecil (September 13, 1520 – August 4, 1598), 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Elizabeth I for most of her reign. It was under his direction that many of the foundations of English policy were laid down including the subjugation of Ireland, the execution of the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, and the strengthening of the Royal Navy. He spent his early career in the service of the Duke of Somerset, Jane Seymour’s brother before serving as Secretary of State between 1550 – 1553, and again between 1558 – 1572, and Lord High Treasurer between 1555 and 1587. He has long been considered a likely model for the character of the king’s calculating minister Polonius in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is one of small group of local streets with connections to Elizabeth I on account of her having visited the Mitcham home of lawyer, Sir Julius Caesar, in 1598. The other streets in the cluster include Caesar’s Walk, Burghley Place, Walsingham Road and Hatton Gardens, they were built on the former Cranmer estate by Sir Isaac Wilson from 1926.
