London’s Alleys: Bridle Lane, W1

A long narrow passageway in Soho that owes its origins to the era of horse-drawn carriage and the grand houses on the other side of the lane.
When all around here was still fields, its fields were owned by Eton College until taken by the Crown in the 1530s, and was known as Windmill Fields. In around 1575, the land was leased to Thomas Poultney, and his descendants later chopped the land up to be sublet to developers.
The first major laying out of roads and housing comes from just after the Grea