"Originally called Ratoneslane, during Tudor times it was known as Ratten Lane, suggestive of deliveries of rushes and fibres from farms for London's furniture makers. Sadly, it's actually a derivative of "Lane infested with rats". Charming! It seems to have gone even further downmarket, as by the 1650s it was known as Dunghill Lane. The name though, offers a hint as to the area's usage."
"The Worshipful Company of Butchers owned the land next to the lane, and often the unwanted remains from butchered animals sold in markets was taken to the river and dumped. So this was an offal lane, infested with animals that feasted on what fell off the carts. It seems to have achieved its current, more wholesome name of Gardner's Lane by the 1650s."
"There used to be stables here, and a bas-relief on the wall, dated 1670, may have shown a gardener (or a dung clearer?), and a print from 1791 says there might have been gardens in the area. However, that seems unlikely as the land was far too valuable for wharves, and if there were gardens, they would have been tiny. More likely, a landowner was called Gardener."
Gardner's Lane runs off High Timber Street in the City of London and descends toward the riverside but now ends as a dead-end blocked by a building. The lane began as Ratoneslane and Ratten Lane, names linked to rats, and by the 1650s was called Dunghill Lane. Adjacent land owned by the Worshipful Company of Butchers was used to dump unwanted butchered remains into the river, creating an offal lane. The name Gardner's Lane appeared by the 1650s. Historical features include stables and a 1670 bas-relief; the area later hosted long narrow warehouses with Brook's Wharf and Lyons' Wharf. WWII bombing destroyed the eastern half while the western side survived, and the decline of river cargo trade led to wharves being abandoned and converted as the City shifted toward office uses.
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