London’s Alleys: Harp Alley, EC4

This is a fairly wide modern looking alley just off Fleet Street that follows a path which is traceable back to Tudor times.The alley runs alongside what was once fenced off pasture land and lead down to now buried Fleet River. The Faithorn and Newcourt map of 1658 shows a bridge over the Fleet at roughly the end of the alley, suggesting that it was of some significance at the time.
John Rocque’s map of London was the first to give it a name, Harp Alley (although it shows up as Harp Street