Place Name
Named after the 13thCentury church of St Laurence Pountney, one of 34 medieval churches destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 never to be rebuilt. The name Pountney derives from Sir John de Poulteney (died June 8, 1349), also spelt Poultney or de Pulteney, a wealthy merchant and four times Lord Mayor in the 1330s. He was also the founder of the nearby Corpus Christi College for priests in the parish of St Lawrence, also razed by the conflagration. Following the destruction the churchyard was used as a burial ground.
