CORNHILL

Ward of Cornhill

Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	TQ327811
Administration
Local government:	Corporation of London
Region:	London
Country:	England
State:	United Kingdom
Other
Police force:	City of London Police
Ceremonial county:	City of London
Historic county:	Middlesex
Post office and telephone
Post town:	LONDON
Postcode:	EC3
Dialling code:	020
Politics
UK Parliament:	Cities of London and Westminster
London Assembly:	City and East
European Parliament:	London

Cornhill is one of the principal streets of the City of London, the historic nucleus of modern London.

The standard near its junction with Leadenhall Street was the mark from which distances to and from London were measured from Anglo-Saxon times (see also the London Stone). At its other end it joins Threadneedle Street, Poultry, King William Street and Lombard Street.

The hill from which it takes its name is one of the three ancient hills of London, the others are Tower Hill, site of the Tower of London, and Ludgate Hill, crowned by St Paul's Cathedral.

Cornhill Ward was one of the traditional divisions of the City of London. The street contains two of the City churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren: St Michael's, Cornhill, on the site of the Roman forum of Londinium, and St Peter upon Cornhill (1680), reputed to occupy the oldest Christianized site in London. Sir Thomas Gresham's original Royal Exchange fronted onto Cornhill, but its successor on the site, designed by William Tite, faces towards the Bank of England across the junction with Threadneedle Street.

Cornhill in the 1830s. The Royal Exchange is on the left.

The street is commonly associated with opticians and makers of optical apparatus such as microscopes and telescopes.

In 1652, Pasqua Rosee, a native of Ragusa, opened the first London coffee-house, in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill.

The publishers Smith, Elder and co, based at 65 Cornhill, published the popular literary journal Cornhill Magazine (1860 - 1975) as well as the "Dictionary of National Biography". The magazine was first edited by William Makepeace Thackeray.

A statue of James Henry Greathead was erected in 1994 outside the Royal Exchange.

In 2006, Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh became Baron Sheikh of Cornhill.

External links

• "The English coffee houses"
• Cornhill, after a London map of 1750

London postal district | London East Central

EC1 Head District | EC2 Bishopsgate | EC3 Fenchurch Street | EC4 Fleet Street