Great Tower Street, originally known just as Tower Street, is a street in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, the historic nucleus and modern financial centre of London, England. It forms an eastern continuation of

Eastcheap Eastcheap is a street in central London that is a western continuation of Great Tower Street towards Monument junction. Its name derives from ''cheap'', the Old English word for marketplace, market, with the prefix 'East' distinguishing it from ...

starting at Idol Lane, and leads towards Byward Street and

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...

. On Byward Street, opposite Great Tower Street, is the historic church All Hallows-by-the-Tower.

History and buildings

A public house called the Czar's Head used to stand at No. 48, so named because

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

used to drink there when he was learning shipbuilding at

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

. Somewhere on Tower Street in 1688, Edward Lloyd opened

Lloyd's Coffee House A 19th-century drawing of Lloyd's Coffee House Lloyd's Coffee House was a significant meeting place in London in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was opened by Edward Lloyd (c. 1648 – 15 February 1713) on Tower Street in 1686. The establi ...

, where the insurance market

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

originated. In 1691, Lloyd relocated his shop to nearby Lombard Street; today Lloyd's is based on Lime Street. Great Tower Street is home to a number of restaurants and offices, including the southern entrance to No. 3 Minster Court, and Plantation Place South. It formed part of the marathon course of the 2012 Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. The women's Olympic marathon took place on 5 August and the men's on 12 August. The Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September.

Governance

Prior to boundary changes in 2003, Great Tower Street formed the centre of the City ward of

Tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

. Today it lies mostly in Billingsgate ward, but a short portion of the easternmost end of the street is still within Tower ward.

Transport

The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

stations are

Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

and

and the closest mainline railway station is

Fenchurch Street Fenchurch Street is a street in London, England, linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many cor ...

References

{{coord , 51, 30, 35.8, N, 0, 4, 53, W, type:landmark_region:GB-LND, display=title Streets in the City of London Odonyms referring to a building