thestreetnames

After yesterday’s post involving swans, I thought I would revisit London’s street and pub swan names but, on reflection, I decided to look instead at connections to today’s elephant in the room. I refer, of course, to the impending US election.

To that end, let’s start with a different bird: the eagle. According to the Birdlife International, “Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in Central and South America, and three in Australia.”

One of the two eagle species is, of course, the bald eagle, designated as the national emblem by the US Congress in 1782. Much to Benjamin Franklin’s apparent disgust: in a letter to his daughter dated 1784, he wrote: “For my own part, I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character.” Franklin’s preference was for the turkey, which he felt the bald eagle resembled. “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America… He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Let us then go to Eagle Court in Clerkenwell. But is it? You say Eagle, I say Egle. The court is just near the Museum of the Order of St John, an ancient religious military order that developed from its origins of caring for sick pilgrims in 11^th-century Jerusalem to its modern-day role with St John Ambulance, the international first aid charity. The symbol for St John is the eagle; the Bailiff of Eagle is an important office in the Order of St John and the bailiff’s house once stood just outside the Priory of Clerkenwell on the site now commemorated by Eagle Court.

However, according to at least one source, it should properly be Egle Court. In The Streets of London, S Fairfield states, “The Commanderie of Egle in Lincolnshire was formed by the Order of Knights of St John of Jerusalem in the 14^th century when their possessions were augmented by much land formerly belonging to the suppressed order of Knights Templar.”

There are various other ‘eagles’ in London street names, usually taking their names from an inn sign: the eagle has been used as an inn sign since the 15th century. One memorable tavern in Islington, the old Eagle tavern near Eagle Wharf road, featured in ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’:

Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes –
Pop! goes the weasel.

As with so many jolly songs and nursery rhymes, there is a darker side to this. When the song was written, ‘pop’ meant to pawn, and a weasel was a leather-making tool, something easy to pop, or pawn, after too much time and money spent in the pub.

Not all pubs called Eagles are to do with the birds, however: a pub in Ross-on-Wye was renamed the Eagle following the moon landing and others were named after an aircraft carrier.

Moving on from eagles, there is an America Square in the City, the building of which began in the 1760s and finished in the early 1770s. As one source points out, “Ironically, it must have been finished just before the American War of Independence broke out in 1775.” The origin of the name is unknown, according to The London Encyclopaedia, though another source says it was dedicated to the colonies. The houses were destroyed by bombing in 1941.

The architect behind the development of America Square was George Dance the Younger, Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of London. His public works included the rebuilding of Newgate Prison in 1770 and building the front of the Guildhall. America Square’s other claim to fame is that Baron Meyer de Rothschild lived at No 14.

There is also an America Street in Southwark but I haven’t been able to find out anything about that.