Petty Cury
A pedestrian shopping street with a name that goes back to the medieval cooks' row.
Petty Cury is a car-free shopping lane in the middle of the city. Its western end opens onto Market Hill, home of the daily market, and Guildhall Street, and at the far end it meets Sidney Street and the start of St Andrew's Street. Hobson Street turns off northwards there, beside Christ's College.
An old street with a food name
Documents mention the street from about 1330, and by 1396 it appears as Petycure, the home of a couple named Thomas and Agnes. The name probably combines the French word for "little" with "cury", meaning cooks' row, and the street first held bakers' stalls. Samuel Pepys, who studied at Magdalene College, mentions the derivation in his diary.
From the fifteenth century inns lined the street, with yards behind them. In the nineteenth century those yards degenerated into slums: Falcon Yard may have housed as many as 300 people before the Medical Officer of Health ordered its demolition in 1903.
The 1960s clearance
The whole south side was pulled down in the 1960s to make way for the Lion Yard shopping centre. Walking east from Market Hill and Guildhall Street, the street brings you out among the shopping streets around St Andrew's Street and Sidney Street.
Historical names: Petycure
Sources: Wikipedia: Petty Cury · Wikidata: Petty Cury (Q7179379)