Fleet Street began as the road from the City of London to the City of Westminster. The length of Fleet Street marks the expansion of the City in the 14th century. At the east end of the street is where the river Fleet flowed against the medieval walls of London; at the west end is the Temple Bar which marks the current city limits, stretched to that point when the land and property of the Knights Templar were acquired. To the south lies the complex of buildings known as The Temple, formerly the property of the Knights Templar, which houses two of the four Inns of Court, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple.
Publishing started in Fleet Street around 1500 when William Caxton's apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, set up a printing shop near Shoe Lane. In March 1702, the world's first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, was published in Fleet Street from premises above the White Hart Inn. At Temple Bar to the west, as Fleet Street crosses the boundary out of the City of London, it becomes the Strand; to the east, past Ludgate Circus, it evolves into Ludgate Hill.
In the mid 1840's most of London's sewers still discharged their contents into the Thames. It took 25,000 deaths from cholera and the summer stinks of the 1850's before the Metropolitan Board Of Works was empowered to create an efficient system of intercepting main drainage. Before this, a new Fleet Street sewer, was constructed at a depth of around 21 feet from the surface, at a cost of 2000 pound - but, it only served to carry the sewage of the area at a faster pace into the river.
When Dr. Johnson said, "Come and let us take a walk down Fleet Street," he proposed a fairly difficult task. The streets in his early days, in London, had no pavements, were unevenly paved and had deep gutters running down the centre. From these gutters the rumbling coaches, scattered mud all over the unfortunate pedestrians who happened to be crossing the street at the time. The sedan-chairs, too, took up much of the space and the more vulnerable people were forced to keep to the wall.
In 1766, when Lord Eldon came to London as a schoolboy, and stayed at the White Horse, in Fetter Lane, he describes returning home from Drury Lane with his brother in a sedan. Turning out of Fleet Street into Fetter Lane, some rough men pushed against the chair at the corner and overturned it, in their eagerness to pass.
Dr. Johnson's curious repetitive habit of touching every street-post he passed was cured in 1766, by the laying of side-pavements.
Long ago, Fleet Street could have been described as "picturesque" because of its many gable-ended houses adorned with quaint carvings and countless, colourful signs, which hung above the shop-fronts. On a windy day these large masses of painted wood creaked and waved overhead, to the alarm of nervous pedestrians; which meant accidents were not a rare event.
In 1718, during Queen Anne's reign, a signboard in Fleet Street, loosened the brickwork by its weight and movement and suddenly gave way, falling, and bringing the house down with it, killing four people, one of whom was the queen's jeweller. It was not, however, till 1761 in George II's reign that these unsafe signboards were ordered to be placed flat against the walls of the houses.
The nearest tube stations are Temple, Chancery Lane and Blackfriars.
Places to see on Fleet Street:
Temple Church - Prince Henry's Rooms (see description below) Dr.Johnson's House and Hodge
Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities: (Setting of the Tellson's Bank is on Fleet Street).
