place name
Gillian Bebbington in London Street Names says this well-established route is likely named after Abraham Bridle, a carpenter who leased land and built houses here in the 1680s. Pre-dating many of its surrounding streets, it originated as an ancient route between different parcels of lands. By Tudor times, it was the boundary between two estates called Windmill Field, owned in the 1580s by Widow Golightly and named after a windmill on the site of what is now Ham Yard, and Gelding Close, an area of boggy field land which later the site of Golden Square. It was developed by the Pulteney estate in the late 17thCentury. Dan Cruickshank in Soho says, “the cramped scale and sometimes tortuous pattern of these west Soho streets, alleys and courts are due, in part at least, to the irregularly shaped boundaries of the fields, closes and numerous estates that echo in the existing urban layout.”
