From a drawing by W. G. Herdman in the Liverpool Free Public Library.
WHITECHAPEL is built over a portion of the bed of the Pool, and at one time received the drainage of the fields which lay to the east of it, including, of course, the stream which flowed from the Moss Lake, which was a bog occupying most of the district between the modern Hope Street on the west, Brownlow Hill Workhouse and part of Paddington on the north, Crown Street and Kimberley Street on the east, and Croxteth Road and South Street on the south. Of this stream of water Edward Moore observes: “Therefore I hope the town will never lose the advantage of the water coming that way, for if they do, all they are worth cannot procure a stream to cleanse this Pool, as above said.” Small wonder that Whitechapel was at one period called Frog Lane, for there would be ample accommodation for the frogs on the marshy ground on either side of the Pool which ran along its entire length; and in the map published by R. Williamson in 1766,and in Perry’s map, 1769, it is designated “Frog Lane.” John Eyes’ plan of 1765 spells it “ Frogg Lane.”
Boats are said to have been built in Whitechapel on the banks of the Pool, and in the “Annals of Liverpool” for 1663 there is a note stating “ordered that no more boats be built in Whitechapel” ; but on consulting the Town Records of that date no such order is recorded, and it seems improbable that it ever was made, for the name Frog Lane appears constantly in plans and documents, and was not altered to Whitechapel until a much later date. In the Directory of 1781 it assumes the name of Whitechapel.
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Muir, Ramsay, et al. Bygone Liverpool. Liverpool: Young, 1913. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 29 September 2022.
Last modified 28 September 2022