Editing Shoreditch (section)

==Toponymy==
Early spellings of the name include ''Soredich'' ({{Circa|1148}}), ''Soresdic'' (1183–4), ''Sordig'' (1204), ''Schoresdich'' (1220–21), and other variants.<ref name="sol">{{cite book |editor-first=James |editor-last=Bird |chapter=Historical introduction: General |title=Survey of London: Volume 8, Shoreditch |location=London |publisher=[[London County Council]] |year=1922 |pages=1–5 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp1-5 |access-date=17 June 2019 }}</ref><ref name="epns">{{cite book |first1=J. E. B. |last1=Gover |first2=Allen |last2=Mawer |first3=F. M. |last3=Stenton |author3-link=Frank Stenton |title=The Place-Names of Middlesex apart from the City of London |series=[[English Place-Name Society]] |volume=18 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1942 |pages=145–46 }}</ref> [[Toponymist]]s are generally agreed that the name derives from [[Old English]] "''scoradīc''", i.e. "shore-ditch", the shore being a riverbank or prominent slope;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Greater%20London/Shoreditch |title=Key to English Place-names |access-date=9 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107201319/http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Greater%20London/Shoreditch |archive-date=7 January 2018 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> but there is disagreement as to the identity of the "shore" in question. A suggestion made by [[Eilert Ekwall]] in 1936 that the "ditch" might have been one leading to the "shore" of the [[Thames]] continues to enjoy widespread currency.<ref>{{cite book |first=Eilert |last=Ekwall |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1936 |page=399}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Victor |editor-last=Watts |editor-link=Victor Watts |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521362092 |page=547 }}</ref><ref>Mander 1996, p. 13.</ref> Other scholars, however, have challenged this interpretation on the grounds that the City of London lies between Shoreditch and the Thames.<ref name="epns"/><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Field |title=Place-Names of Greater London |location=London |publisher=Batsford |year=1980 |isbn=0713425385 |page=85 }}</ref> A variant spelling used by [[John Stow]] in 1598, ''Sewers Ditche'', raises the possibility that the name might originally have referred to a drain or watercourse.<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Stow |author-link=John Stow |title=A Survay of London |location=London |year=1598 |pages=349–50 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Stow |author-link=John Stow |editor-first=Charles Lethbridge |editor-last=Kingsford |editor-link=Charles Lethbridge Kingsford |title=A Survey of London |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1908 |orig-year=1603 |volume=2 |pages=73–75 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/survey-of-london-stow/1603/pp69-91 }}</ref> Certainly the area was once boggy, and the name might bear some relation to the main branch of the [[River Walbrook|Walbrook]], which rose in Hoxton, ran along what is now Curtain Road, flowing past the former [[Curtain Theatre]]. The river was known in this area as the ''Deepditch'',<ref>BHO covers Moorfields and surrounding area https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp88-90</ref> ''Flood Ditch'' or just ''The Ditch''.

[[Folk etymology]] holds that the place was originally named "Shore's Ditch", after [[Jane Shore]], the mistress of [[Edward IV]], who is supposed to have died or been buried in a ditch in the area. This legend is commemorated today by a large painting, at [[Haggerston]] Branch Library, of the body of Shore being retrieved from the ditch, and by a design on glazed tiles in a shop in Shoreditch High Street showing her meeting Edward IV.<ref name="Clunn">Clunn, H. P. (1970) ''The Face of London''. Spring Books: London. pp.&nbsp;312, 493</ref> However, the area was known as Shoreditch long before Jane Shore lived: the ''[[Survey of London]]'', for example, lists some 26 deeds dating from between {{Circa|1148}} and 1260 which use some version of the name.<ref name="sol"/>

In another theory, also now discredited, antiquarian [[John Weever]] claimed that the name was derived from Sir John de Soerdich, who was [[lord of the manor]] during the reign of [[Edward III]] (1327{{ndash}}77).<ref name=Timbs>{{cite book|first=John|last=Timbs|author-link=John Timbs|title=Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis |url=https://archive.org/stream/curiositiesoflon00timbrich#page/729/mode/1up |year=1855|publisher=D. Bogue|page=729}}</ref>