Place Name
It comes from a former term for a rubbish dump as this led to Mount Pleasant, which itself was a joke name, there being nothing pleasant about it. Mount Pleasant got its name in 1732 as the area began to be developed. Michael Cooper in A More Beautiful City: Robert Hooke and the Rebuilding of London After the Great Fire suggests that the name goes back to 1666: “A laystall was a place where cattle going to market could be held, and by extension became a term for a place where detritus (particularly dung) was accumulated awaiting its removal. The siting of laystalls was a contentious issue during the rebuilding of London after the fire of 1666, due to the noise and nuisance they created. Several streets in the UK bear the name Laystall Street, such as in Clerkenwell, London.”