Mincing Lane borrowed its name from the Minchens or nuns of St. Helen, and this order once owned all the ground hereabouts.
The Elephant, a tavern of great note, stood where is now the northwest corner of Fenchurch Street at Ironmonger's Alley. It was a massive building of stone, and one of the few in this neighbourhood sturdy enough to resist the Great Fire. When the flames rushed by leaving a desert of ruins on every side, the Elephant was a refuge for many who were left homeless. It was taken down in 1826. At the Elephant lived the great picture satirist, William Hogarth, in 1697, at a time when he was very poor indeed.
At the northern end of Mark Lane, crowded about by business houses, may be seen a fine old church tower. In the Great Fire of 1666, this tower of All Hallows, Staining, escaped though the church itself was destroyed. It is reached by narrow Star Alley, on the west side of Mark Lane, and stands in a bit of the old churchyard which is now the court of the Clothworkers' Hall. It was to All Hallows that Queen Elizabeth came to offer up thanks after her deliverance from the Tower.
Hart Street is very short, which makes it easy to discern where once was the house of Richard Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London, on the north side of the road where the fourth house east of Mark Lane now stands. Here, in "Whittington's Palace," Henry V. visited the Mayor, and here Whittington destroyed the king's note for a debt of 60,000 pounds. At which the king cried out: "No other king has had such a subject." To which Whittington bowed low and made answer: "Sire, never had subject such a king." Perhaps they were both right.
The picturesque gateway decorated with skulls, in narrow Seething Lane by Hart Street, is an entrance way to the old church of St. Olave, which escaped the Great Fire. This is the church frequented by Samuel Pepys, who lived close by in Seething Lane. The pew he occupied is still to be seen here, facing the memorial to Mrs. Pepys on the north side of the church. It was from the tower of St. Olave that Pepys watched the great City burn. Both he and his wife were buried here. The skulls surmounting the gate were in remembrance of the plague of 1665, when 100,000 persons died, and many of the victims were buried in this churchyard. In the register yet may be seen entry of the burial of Mary Ramsey, with the fatal letter "P" beside it, for she it is who was supposed to have brought the plague into London.