Bizarre Street Names in London: Top Ten

London has had a long and colourful history. On one hand are areas such as Hyde Park and Paddington, for instance, which are considered a modern, cosmopolitan setup. You can find hotels near Hyde Park, which accommodate all kinds of comfort and price range, while Paddington has great places such as Shaftesbury Premier London Paddington Hotel. It’s a mix of old and the new. On the other hand, the city has street names that evoke its quirky past. As many visitors find, the city not only brims with history and culture, but also amuses with its quirks and eccentricities. Many of the names are a product of the area they are in as are the districts of the city. Some of them have the ability to conjure up quite graphic connotations, while some are plain funny or deplorable to pronounce.  

We list here a number of bizarre names that will make up the most unusual places to visit in London:

1. Hanging Sword alley:  The story goes that there was a dagger suspended by a horse’s hair above the heads of people walking through this passageway between Whitefriars Street and Salisbury Court off Fleet Street. But it actually gets its name from a sign which marked the location of a house called Hanging Sword, home to a sword-fighting school – apparently it was quite necessary to be tooled up when walking around this part of the City several centuries ago, although nowadays the only stabbing you might get would be from a banker’s umbrella. Fun fact, before Hanging Sword it was called Blood Bowl Alley

2. Ha-Ha Road: Believe it or not, the ‘ha ha’ in Ha-Ha Road comes from Londoners laughing at people falling into a ditch which used to run alongside this street in Woolwich. It was installed in 1774 to stop the sheep and cattle grazing on the common during stopovers on their way to the city’s meat markets from wandering into the Royal Artillery gun range across the road.

3. Crutched Friars: This City of London street is named after a Roman Catholic religious order which moved east from Jerusalem to Italy, and then on to England. They set up home near Tower Hill in London, and although they were dissolved by Henry VIII along with the other Catholic orders, the name remains. Today the road is home to a popular pub of the same name – which comes from the unusual staff members of the order carried.

4. Crooked Usage: A bizarre short loop off the A504 just near the junction with Great North Way between Hendon and Finchley Central. The crooked part of it name comes from the straightening of Hendon Lane in 1912 - which it runs off - and the usage part is from an Anglo Saxon word which denoted a strip of grass between fields.

5. Poultry: Short in both name and length, this strange name for a street comes like many others in the City of London from what was historically sold there (such as nearby Bread Street and Milk Street). Running as a continuation of Cheapside towards Bank, Poultry was also home to a number of taverns destroyed during the great fire, and a small prison called Poultry Compter.

6. Shoot-Up Hill: Shoot-up Hill is in Kilburn, north west London and Shooter’s Hill, south of the river in Greenwich. The latter reputedly gets its name from being a place of medieval archery practice. It’s likely therefore that the Kilburn #street is the equivalent. Shoot-up Hill causes some jocularity with locals as it is an area where there are quite a large number of homeless hostels (associated with drug abuse)

7. Mount Pleasant: So, not particularly amusing in itself but when you learn of its history you’ll see why it was included in this list of funny London street names. Mount Pleasant was the site of one of the city’s largest cess pits. It was obviously named by someone with a sense of humor as was one of the street’s connecting lanes – Laystall #Street which comes from Laying a stool into Mount Pleasant.

8. Knightrider Street: Not a homage to the man who caused the Berlin Wall to fall – David Hasselhoff, as if you didn’t know. Rather, reputedly a reference to the procession of knights from the Tower of London to Smithfield, where jousting tournaments were held.

9. Shoulder of Mutton Alley: Sounds appetising doesn’t it? Back in the day it was anything but. The Tower Hamlets area where this alley is located was one of the most notorious districts in the Capital

10. Bleeding Heart Yard: Not dedicated to a collection of overly sympathetic liberals, but this favourite of Charles Dickens (it features in Little Dorrit) is said to mark a more grisly history. The wife of Sir William Hatton was found brutally murdered here in 1626 – with her heart still beating.