Ave Maria Lane is a street in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, to the west of

St. Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Gr ...

. It is the southern extension of Warwick Lane, between Amen Corner and Ludgate Hill. On the feastday of Corpus Christi, monks would say prayers in a procession to St. Paul's Cathedral. They set off from Paternoster Row chanting the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

(''Pater noster'' being the opening words of the prayer in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

). They would reach the final "Amen" as they turned the corner into Ave Maria Lane, after which they would chant Hail Mary (Ave Maria in Latin). Ave Maria Lane is home to the Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Stationers' Hall, the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers since 1670. According to Colsoni's 1693 guide to London (''Le Guide de Londres'') Ave Maria Lane was a gathering place for German expatriates ("... à l'Enseigne du ''Black-boy'' au Latin Coffee-house ..."). The

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair di ...

route of the 2012 Summer Olympics passed along Ave Maria Lane.London 2012
Proposed Marathon Route

References

Streets in the City of London Odonyms referring to religion {{London-road-stub