Gropecunt Lane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gropecunt Lane (
pron.: /ˈɡroʊpkʌnt ˈleɪn/) was a
street name found in English towns and cities during the
Middle Ages, believed to be a reference to the
prostitution
centred on those areas; it was normal practice for a medieval street
name to reflect the street's function or the economic activity taking
place within it. Gropecunt, the earliest known use of which is in about
1230, appears to have been derived as a compound of the words
grope and
cunt.
Streets with that name were often in the busiest parts of medieval
towns and cities, and at least one appears to have been an important
thoroughfare.
Although the name was once common throughout England, changes in
attitude resulted in its replacement by more innocuous versions such as
Grape Lane. A variation of Gropecunt was last recorded as a street name
in 1561.
Toponymy
Variations include Gropecunte, Gropecountelane, Gropecontelane,
Groppecountelane and Gropekuntelane. There were once many such street
names in England, but all have now been
bowdlerised.
[1] In the city of
York, for instance, Grapcunt Lane—
grāp is the
Old English word for grope
[2]—was renamed as the more acceptable Grape Lane.
The first record of the word
grope being used in the indecent sense of sexual touching appears in 1380;
cunt has been used to describe the
vulva since at least 1230, and corresponds to the
Old Norse kunta, although its
etymology is uncertain.
[3]
Prostitution
A 1720 map of
Bread Street and
Cordwainer wards included in a 19th-century edition of
John Stow's
Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster.
The routes of three extinct streets are highlighted in blue,
Puppekirtylane on the left, "Grope Countlane" in the middle, and
Bordhawlane on the right. The location is opposite the modern-day
Mercers' Hall.
[4] Little Fryday Street [sic] (Pissing Alley) is visible on the left.
Under its entry for the word
cunt, the
Oxford English Dictionary reports that a street was listed as Gropecuntlane in about 1230, the first appearance of that name.
[3] According to author Angus McIntyre, organised prostitution was well established in
London by the middle of the 12th century, initially mainly confined to
Southwark in the southeast, but later spreading to other areas such as
Smithfield,
Shoreditch,
Clerkenwell, and
Westminster.
[5]
The practice was often tolerated by the authorities, and there are many
historical examples of it being dealt with by regulation rather than by
censure: in 1393 the authorities in London allowed prostitutes to work
only in Cocks Lane,
[nb 1] and in 1285 French prostitutes in
Montpellier were confined to a single street.
[6]
It was normal practice for
medieval
street names to reflect their function, or the economic activity taking
place within them (especially the commodities available for sale),
hence the frequency of names such as
The Shambles,
Silver Street, Fish Street, and Swinegate (pork butchers) in cities
with a medieval history. Prostitution may well have been a normal aspect
of medieval
urban life;
[6] in
A survey of London (1598) John Stow describes Love Lane as "so called of Wantons".
[7] The more graphic Gropecunt Lane, however, is possibly the most obvious allusion to sexual activity.
[8]
