Cheapside

Elle relie Newgate Street avec Queen Victoria Street, Cornhill, Threadneedle Street, Princes Street, Lombard Street et King William Street (via le tronçon de Poultry Street). Au Moyen Âge, elle était connue comme le marché de Westcheap, à l'opposé de Eastcheap.

L'église St Mary-le-Bow se trouve dans la rue.

La station de métro la plus proche est St. Paul's, desservie par la ligne Central.

Une vue de Cheapside en 1837, avec, au fond, l'église St Mary-le-Bow.

Du vieil anglais chepe qui signifie marché[1].

Cette rue était la principale rue marchande du Londres médiéval[2].

Dans le roman de 1813 de Jane Austen, Orgueil et Préjugés, Cheapside est un quartier dédaigné par l'élite[3] :

« – I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton.
– Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.
– That is capital, added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.
– If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside, cried Bingley, it would not make them one jot less agreeable.
– But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world," replied Darcy. »

Dans le livre de 1879 du fils de Charles Dickens, Dickens's Dictionary of London :

« Cheapside remains now what it was five centuries ago, the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London. Other localities have had their day, have risen, become fashionable, and have sunk into obscurity and neglect, but Cheapside has maintained its place, and may boast of being the busiest thoroughfare in the world, with the sole exception perhaps of London-bridge. »[4].

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