Situated in the centre of the City of London, this area sits to the south of Chancery Lane and the north of Fleet Street. The historical Fetter Lane splits the area in two and provides many quick lunch places for the several corporate offices present in the Lane. Less than half a mile from Chancery Lane tube station, City Thameslink, Temple and St. Paul’s Stations, this area could not be easier to reach. The city heart is located less than 10 minutes walk to the East, with Clerkenwell and Covent Garden equidistant to the north and west respectively. With a perfect mix of three storey Georgian buildings, Victorian terraced houses and modern glass and steel office buildings, this neighbourhood is the epitome of the central London landscape. Bream’s Building hosts HM Courts & Tribunal Service, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, and several offices in stunning four-storey Victorian and modern buildings. In the southern part of the area there is the King’s College Maughan Library, a historic building once referred to as the ‘strong box of empire’ because of its former status as the Public Records Office. The neighbourhood is driven by a multi-cultural population of students, tourists and commuters because of its fantastic transport links and central location close to all London landmarks.

The name of the main street of this area, Fetter Lane, is supposed to come from the Old French “faitor” meaning lawyer, even though by the 14th century this had turned into synonymous with an idle person. It is known that in 1590 a gibbet was present in the middle of the area, at the junction of Fleet Street and Fetter Lane. Among the people hanged, there was the English catholic priest Christopher Bales. In the 15th century, the important poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, used the word to refer to the beggars and vagrants who were seen around the lane. The area hosted another writer in 1651, the famous English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who lived in Fetter Lane. It was in 1738 that the Moravians became involved in English religious life for the first time, and their impact was dramatic. The Fetter Lane Society was formed when four Moravians arrived in London on February 7, 1738, which opened a new chapter in the history of Moravian dealings with England. Many have described the Fetter Lane Society as a Church of England society and rejected any Moravian identity, questioning if the doctrine of stillness was a novelty introduced into London by them.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded in Bartlett’s Passage, off Fetter Lane, in 1904. Also, from 1920 to 1961 the Daily Mirror newspaper was initially located in Geraldine House but then moved to the north end of Fetter Lane, at Holborn Circus, and remained there until 1990, when it finally moved to the Isle of Dogs.

The British Museum has a story related to this area called the mystery of Fetter Lane hoard. In 1908 workmen excavating foundations for a house in Fetter Lane found 46 coins in a pot. However, by the time the coins were bequeathed to the British Museum in 1914, there was no trace of the pot and no description of it either. There is no full account of exactly how the hoard was found and the Fetter Lane hoard remains something of a mystery as how these coins minted in Alexandria, Egypt between AD 58 and AD 284 ended up in Roman Britannia.

As with many tourist areas, it can be tricky to get a good bite to eat in this neighbourhood. Indeed, on TripAdvisor, many customers complained about the quality of food, service and price. Similar could be said of the properties on offer around here too with most of the flats sold for a minimum of one million pounds.

A couple of years ago work concluded on a new glass fronted office building at 12 New Fetter Lane, with retail space on the ground floor. High real estate prices continue to make this a sought after place for investors. The Edenica development between 100 and 108 Fetter Lane is a prime example, containing over 12,000 square metres of office space designed by Fletcher Priest Architects. Current plans include new pedestrian routes, a sunken garden, and new vibrant retail frontages, with plans set to conclude in 2024.