Cheapside

Street running from St Paul's Cathedral to Poultry, in the City of London, England. Now a business district, it was the scene of the 13th‐century ‘Cheap’, a permanent fair and chief general market in the city. The church of St Mary‐le‐Bow in Cheapside, designed by Christopher Wren, has the Bow Bells.

Various side lanes were named after their services in the market, including Milk Street, Bread Street, and Wood Street, while Cheapside itself was a centre of the goldsmiths and silversmiths trade. In the Middle Ages Cheapside was the scene of ceremonies and pageants and a place of penance and punishment. Royal tournaments were held in the open ground on the northern side, the king and nobility watching from a balcony on Bow Church. An Eleanor Cross, erected by Edward I in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile, stood at the junction with Wood Street until its destruction by Parliament in 1643. Cheapside extends to the east as far as Poultry, formerly the poultry‐selling area of the market, which was noted for its numerous inns before the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The English priest and politician St Thomas à Becket was born here in 1118.

Cheapside suffered severely from bombing in World War II. The Mercers' and Saddlers' halls were destroyed, but have since been restored.