Editing Holborn (section)

=== Toponymy ===

{{See also|Street names of Holborn}}

The earliest surviving written record of the area occurs in a charter of 959, in which [[Edgar the Peaceful|King Edgar the Peaceful]] granted [[Westminster Abbey]] an area of land (much larger than the later parish of Holborn) stretching from the Abbey, on [[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]], to the [[River Fleet]]. The charter mentions "the old wooden church of St Andrew" ([[St Andrew, Holborn]]).<ref name=lethaby>{{cite book|last= Lethaby|first= William|author-link= William Lethaby|title= London before the conquest|url= https://archive.org/details/londonbeforeconq00lethrich|publisher= Macmillan|location= London|year= 1902|page= [https://archive.org/details/londonbeforeconq00lethrich/page/60 60]}}</ref><ref>Citadel of the Saxons, Rory Naismith, p130</ref> The name Holborn is used in the charter, but it refers to the River Fleet rather than the district.

The name "Holborn" may derive from the [[Middle English]] ''hol'' for "hollow", and ''bourne'', a "brook", referring to the [[River Fleet]] as it ran through a steep valley (hollow) in places.<ref name=lethaby /><ref name=besant>{{cite book|last= Besant|first= Walter|author-link= Walter Besant|author2= Mitton, Geraldine|title= Holborn and Bloomsbury|publisher= [[A & C Black|Adam and Charles Black]]|location= London|year= 1903|edition= Project Gutenberg, 2007|series= The Fascination of London|url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21411/21411-8.txt|access-date= 13 August 2008}}</ref>

However, the 16th-century historian [[John Stow]] attributes the name to a different watercourse: the ''Old Bourne'' ("old brook"), a small stream which he believed ran into the Fleet at Holborn Bridge. This structure was lost when the river was [[culvert]]ed in 1732. The exact course of the stream is uncertain, but according to Stow it started in one of the many small springs near Holborn Bar, the old [[City of London|City]] toll gate on the summit of Holborn Hill.<ref name=besant /><ref>{{cite book|last= Strype|first= John|author-link= John Strype|title= Survey of London|publisher= Online edition: University of Sheffield 2007|year= 1720|series= The Stuart London Project|chapter= Rivers and other Waters serving this City|url= http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book1_024&display=print|access-date= 2 November 2008|archive-date= 12 August 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140812203926/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book1_024&display=print|url-status= dead}}</ref> Other historians, however, find the theory implausible, in view of the slope of the land.<ref>Lethaby (1902:48)</ref>