The Red Cross, Cripplegate

A Dictionary of London by Henry A Harben.

Probably a house with this sign, for in an Inquisition 2 Ed. I. Alicia de Batonia is said to have died at the Red Cross without Crepelgate (Ch. I. p.m. I).


The same description might, of course, have been used to indicate a house situated near to an actual cross of wood or stone, of which there were many to be found in the streets of medieval towns in England, as there are to this day in the towns of France and Italy and other parts of the Continent. But whether the name and sign were used to indicate a house or a cross the Red Cross appears to have been situated at the junction of Beech Street and Redcross Street, for in 14 Ed. I. houses of Robert de Meldeburn in the parish of St. Giles without Crepelgate are described as opposite the Red Cross and in the street called "Bechestrete" (Ct. H.W. I. 74), while tenements in Redecrouche strete extra Barram Rubee Crucis" are described as "juxta rubeam Crucem" (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. p.11).

Stow places the cross at the north end of the east side of Red Cross Street (S. 304).

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