Some Mkt. Place lanes.

CORNHILL LANE.

Cornhill Lane when it was named Cockbourne Lane.

This street name is comparatively modern, it was formerly called Cockbourne Lane and once was the site of the Post Office.

DOLPHIN LANE.

Jessop's of Dolphin Lane in 1936.

Dolphin Lane has been a busy thoroughfare since Boston's early history. The ancient name of the street is lost but the present name was, in all probability, taken from an inn called The Dolphin that stood near the east end of the narrowest part of the lane. In the 1880's this inn had an unenviable reputation and, some years later, the licence was revoked and the premises used by Mr. Charles Small as a mission room. The old buildings were ultimately destroyed by fire along with the furniture stores previously occupied by Mr. W. Scrimshaw.

Scrimshaw's of Dolphin Lane.

PETTICOAT LANE.

Some believe that the name of Petticoat Lane (like that of Threadneedle Street) was copied from the street of that name in London, others have another explanation. In a map of 1742 Petticoat Lane is called Smock Alley and what is now called Mitre Lane (in Strait Bargate) was then called Petticoat Lane. When these names were given it is just possible that these lanes, leading as they did, from the central area to walks through fields and pastures, may have been a favourite meeting place for the wearers of smocks and petticoats.

M & S Corner

In the far corner of the Market Place, next to Petticoat Lane is Marks and Spencer’s modern shop which takes up three sites (see inside blue square of picture below) of Boston’s past.

The Corn Exchange Hotel was on the first site, a nice old building with Mr. Fountain’s tobacconist shop incorporated into it.

Next door, and occupying site two was Hildred’s piano shop who boasted that they had the “best selection in the Eastern Counties”

The Green Dragon public house (no known pictures and dating from at least 1590) occupied the third site and this was demolished in the 1850’s. On its site was built the Athenaeum Rooms, pictured below.

 The first floor contained a reading-room, library, etc. and the second floor a lecture room, apparatus, and instruments. The Athenaeum building occupied an area of sixty feet by thirty-six feet, with a height of fifty-three feet. Twenty-six feet of the ground-floor was occupied as a shop, and the remaining ten feet formed an entrance which can still be seen today. Later on in time this building became the New Theatre.

Above: The New Theatre.

Below: Mark's and Spencers today, covering the three sites.