Holborn commemorates the River Fleet, also known as the Holbourne stream.
The road was once lined with coaching inns with the Bull and Gate being particularly noted for being the terminus of stagecoaches from the north. These in turn attracted costermongers who would sell travellers fruit. The sixteenth-century Staple Inn is one of London’s few surviving timber-faced buildings. Otherwise the inns of Holborn were swept away with the coming of the railways.
Two nineteenth century granite obelisks stand on both sides of Holborn at the junction with Gray’s Inn Road marking the entrance to the City.
