Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Paternoster Row, now famous as the headquarters of the publishing houses, was at this time chiefly inhabited by mercers. “This street, before the Fire of London, was taken up by eminent Mercers, Silkmen and Lacemen; and their shops were so resorted to by the nobility and gentry in their coaches, that oft times the street was so stop’d up that there was no passage for foot passengers” (Strype’s “Stow,” book iii., p. 195)
from L&M Companion
A ‘very considerable’ street, famous for its mercers. When Pepys bought ‘things’ there (iii.65, v.145) he would be buying at the silk and lace shops.
West from Cheapside, to Warwick Lane and Ave Maria Lane . In Farringdon Ward Within and Castle Baynard Ward.
Paternoster Row.
Although a little later than Sam’s time the Book of Days says of the Lord Mayor’s Show…
Royalty generally viewed the show from a balcony at the corner of Paternoster Row, as depicted in the concluding plate of Hogarth’s ‘Industry and Idleness,’ which gives a vivid picture of this ‘gaudy day’ in the city. Afterwards Mr. Barclay’s house, opposite Bow Church, was chosen for the same purpose.
For the plate…
http://www.lordmayorsshow.org/visitors/history/literature/hogarth
More from the Book of Days on Paternoster Row…
Ave-Maria Lane, Creed Lane, and Paternoster Row, were occupied principally by the writers and publishers of books containing the alphabet, ayes, creeds, and paternosters.
In the Augustan age of Queen Anne, the passion for collecting old books and manuscripts began to develop itself among the nobility. Among the most noted bibliophilists of the aristocracy were the Duke of Devonshire, and the Earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchelsea. A favorite Saturday pastime of these noblemen was to make their rounds through the various nooks of the city in which booksellers congregated, and then reassemble at noon at the shop of Christopher Bateman, a bookseller in Paternoster Row. About this time, Thomas Britton would make his appearance, having finished his round, and, depositing his sack of small-coal on the ledge of Mr. Bateman’s window, would go in and join the distinguished company. Here his skill in old books and manuscripts was no less conspicuous than the correctness of his musical taste, and rendered him a most useful acquisition.
Mercers in the vicinity of St. Paul’s.
As noted a couple of years ago, there was a shop (Nicholson’s?) that sold fabric, haberdashery etc. in St. Paul’s Churchyard well into the 20th century. I recall being taken there as a child to choose fabric for a dressing-gown in the 1950s.