Frying Pan Alley is an indication of the businesses that used to operate here.
Ironmongers and braziers used the frying pan as the emblem of their trade and they would hang a pan outside their shop so people could see what their business was. Over time, the name stuck, but the frying pans are long gone.
According to folklore, a shopper was once hit on the head by a pan here as it dropped down and nearly flattened him. From that time on, people walked by the shop on the opposite side of the path in an attempt to avoid another incident.
It is unknown so far just how old Frying Pan Alley is – but it was already appearing on the oldest detailed London-wide map – that of John Rocque in the 1750s/1760s.
