This is a slip of a passage near Holborn that provides little today other than back doors and rubbish bins, but once lead to a grand mansion house. The alley is named after a mansion house that stood on the site – Weld House, which was the mansion house and gardens owned by the lawyer and public…

This is a yard and narrow alley that snakes around the sides of a City of London church that’s over 800 years old. The church, of St Mary Abchurch dates to at least the 12th century, and as its name suggests, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Abchurch is unclear but thought to be the name of an…

This is a wide and often very busy alley just off Leicester Square that is now surrounded by theatres and a famous oyster bar. The area developed in the early 1600s when Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury was granted 5 acres of land in the area for building. It was initially lined with large houses…

This is a brand new alleyway and courtyard in Vauxhall that runs through the middle of a modern mix-use development in an area that’s never had public access before. This patch of south London was still fields in 1746, but you can start to see some early housing development along the streets around…

This is a narrow alley that sits right next to the main entrance to the BBC’s Broadcasting House, and there’s some unexpected art and heritage down here. The alley is roughly 200 years old, as it owes its origins to the construction of Regent Street to the south. However, it nearly didn’t exist, as…

The lane is one of the earlier London roads to be laid out, and the area shows up as fully developed by the 1300s, with houses along the lane, and St Swithin’s church at the southern end. The church was first recorded in the 13th century and was dedicated to Saint Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of…

This is a courtyard space hidden behind a fairly distinctive building at Holborn Circus, which will soon not be there. The area is likely named after John Thavie, a local armour maker who lived in the area in the middle of thre 14th century. In his will, he left a considerable sum of money and land…

This is a new alley that runs underneath a railway through a long line of brick arches that have been polished up to become a row of posh shops. The alley is part of Borough Yards, an upmarket development that has been turning a few yards and the railway arches into a cluster of shops and cafes. The…

This is an alley that slips behind the back of the modern Outernet building and was the scene of a disaster in 1980 that killed 37 people. Denmark Place runs behind the shops that front onto Denmark Street, and both were developed in the late 17th century and are named after Prince George of…

This is a modern looking alley next to Oxford Street, that thanks to ancient debts, is owned by the City of London, but is also the site of possibly the most expensive clerical error in human history. The alley crops up early in the development of Oxford Street and may have originally been called…

This is a former stables mews that’s now expensive homes a stones through from South Kensington’s museums. This part of Brompton was originally bought by William Methwold in the 1630s after he became rich trading on behalf of the East India Company. The estate stayed in the family until William…

This is a cobbled yard in Holborn surrounded on most sides by old warehouse buildings and may have been named after an old pub, or a murder. The murder legend is that the yard’s name commemorates the murder of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, the wife of Sir William Hatton, or maybe Elizabeth Hatton, Sir…

This avenue in Holborn is a modern addition to the area – by London’s standards that is, as it dates from 1910. Before that, the area was a conventional block of shops and houses having been developed by the 1670s. The impetus for demolishing the block of small buildings and building this baroque…

This is a fairly new open courtyard and alleyway that replaced a small sealed off cul-de-sac as part of a large redevelopment of the former Foyles bookstore. This part of London developed from fields from the 1700s onwards, but until the 20th century, was mainly a cluster of small shops and…

This is a fairly new alley that opened up a route across land that had been closed to the public for over 140 years. It sits behind the British Library on land that had been housing but the housing was swept away in the 1880s to construct a huge railway goods yard sitting next to St Pancras station.…

This is a grand-looking mews that sits close to the Natural History Museum and is unusual in that it’s one of the widest mews in South Kensington. As with mews everywhere, once home to horses and servants for the grand houses on the other side, now it’s a row of luxury homes. However, it’s also home…

This tree lined alley in Parson’s Green is quite annoying as hardly anything seems to be known about it. The alley may be a legacy of ancient paths though, as it shows up as part of a rough road in John Rocque’s map of London from 1746, when all around here were still fields. A large swathe of land…

This is an alley that passes through a block to the north of Oxford Street, and half of the block is owned by a single family. The area owes its origins to Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice to King Henry VIII, who leased the land in this part of London when it was still fields. Fields it…

This is a small alley just off Fleet Street in the City, but one that’s richly decorated with historic tiles telling the story of the newspaper trade that used to dominate the area. The alley passes through the long since vanished White Friars monastery that used to occupy this part of London…

This is a mixed mews near Oxford Street and hidden behind a 1970s office block that boasts some very odd architecture, and some Wombles. Jacob’s Well Mews is named after a local resident, Jacob Hinde, who named many of the local streets after members of his family. It was developed in the early…

This is a very narrow and steep alley in the side streets of Greenwich, which was longer and steeper than it is today. The alley came into existence with the development of the area from fields into housing in the early 1850s running behind a long row of houses from Maidenstone Hill at the south to…

This is a narrow passageway off bustling Whitehall leading to a large quiet courtyard and is reputed to be the location for a secret tunnel, and a parliamentary mishap. The alley, just to the south of modern-day Trafalgar Square was originally the site of the Hermitage of St Katherine. The hermitage…

It’s hard to believe it, but last week was the 300th in a surprisingly long-running series on the history and description of London’s alleys and passages. Outer Temple So this week, I’m having a day off, so sorry, no alley, but time to a take a pause, reflect a little and look back at what’s been…

This is an alley in Belsize Park that slips in between St Dominic’s Priory Church and the neighbouring school, and dates from when they were built. All was fields around here until 1862, when the Dominican Order purchased the land in this part of London for a church and school to be built. The…

This is a long narrow alley near Richmond that’s hemmed in with tall walls and certainly looks at first glance to be very deserving of its name of Cut Throat Alley. As it happens, the alley’s name may be a corruption of a more mundane name — Cut Through Alley. It apparently owes its origins as a…

A section of the Thames riverside in the City of London that has been closed for 20 years reopened today removing a diversion that’s been in place since 2003, and in doing so has completed a long desire to open up the Thames path along the entire width of the City of London. The closed section of…

A short walk from Forest Hill station is this old mews that’s now a haven for artists who have taken its long row of former warehouse buildings. It’s a long cobbled* passageway that leads off the main street, and ends at the far end in a narrow pedestrian only gap between the houses. It first seems…

This is a modest alley that can be found in the back streets of Holborn, and is notable apart from the varied history for having one of the few remaining painted road signs in the City. When all around here was still fields, it was part of the Manor of Portpoole, owned by the Dean and Chapter of St…

This is a tiny dead-end alley just around the corner from Liverpool Street station with a broad name, but narrow countenance. As an alley, it’s named after nearby Broad Street, which was created in the 1730s to improve access through an area of narrow lanes. The alley first appears as a defined…

This is a short alley in Marylebone that used to be a lot longer and lead to lots of terraced housing that no longer exists. The alley and much of the surrounding area owes its existence to the property development of farmland owned by the Portman family who had owned the land since the 16th…

This is a short alley halfway between Euston and St Pancras station that offers a convenient link between two busy roads. When all was fields, this patch of not-yet-London was known as The Bruel. What’s quite remarkable though is that this alley popped up when most of the area was still fields, and…

Clarges Mews is a curiously mixed mews just to the north of Piccadilly that ranges from charmingly narrow and cobbled to wide open and yard-like spaces. The area of the mews was originally a farm, Brick Close, on the banks of the Tybourne, and acquired by the first Lord Berkeley of Stratton, and…

This is a former alley that’s now a large courtyard space surrounded by City offices and a Wren-built church, and sits in the centre of a cluster of smaller surviving alleys. George Yard is named after the George Inn that stood on the site in Tudor times as a large coaching inn for travellers. By…

This is a tiny stump of an alley to be found in Islington that used to be much longer than it is today. Penton Grove leads off White Lion Street, which is named after the former White Lion inn on the corner with Islington High Street. Penton Grove, as with the wider Pentonville area is named after…

Despite its name, this is not a large square but a narrow passageway that leads off from Ludgate Hill in front of St Paul’s Cathedral and winds around the back of buildings to a cluster of narrow streets. This part of London is just inside the ancient Roman Wall, and the gatehouse into the City –…

This is a short mews in posh Mayfair with a posh pub and grand flats on the entrance and squalor behind. The alley and the surrounding lands were turned from fields into the rich estate it is by the Berkeley family, and by 1746, while much of the area around the alley had been developed into the…

A short passageway close to St Paul’s Cathedral which is dominated by offices on one side and a nearly 200-year old livery hall on the other. Originally known as Kyrone Lane in medieval times, but had changed to Carey Lane by the 1670s. The origins of the name are lost, although John Stow suggested…

This is a charming little passageway in north London that is famous for the row of Georgian houses that line it with their bow windows and cobbled street. OK, it’s arguable if this is an alley, but it’s short and narrow — and much more important to me, it’s charming. This wasn’t originally a…

This is a pedestrianised street close to Southwark tube station that was renamed a year ago as Marion’s Way after the local resident and campaigner, Marion Marples, who died in 2019. This length of the street was pedestrianised 20 years ago when it was closed to local traffic, but still retained its…