[seanhunter]

Yes. Additionally you realise the original purpose of streets (eg “love lane” in the city of London near the old guildhall is a particular favourite of mine).

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/8431660 Happens to be near "wood lane". Make of that what you will.

I studied on "Silk Street" which is nearby. Nearby are also "Oat Street", "Bread Street", "Milk street", "Gutter lane", "Goldsmith street", "Poultry" and many more who have old names relating to their function.

[riffraff]

The "odd" location names in London are a fun plot point in Garman's "neverwhere" novel, tho he focuses on tube stops (black friars, shepherd's bush, kings cross etc).

I like those but IME most people have no clue what old names mean, they are just sounds associated with a place most of the time.

[gnabgib]

Niel Gaiman's Neverwhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere_(novel)

[bcraven]

Imagine finding this in the US...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gropecunt_Lane

[Freak_NL]

Sounds like a good name for renaming the President Donald J. Trump Boulevard leading up to Mar-A-Lago when the current bout of totalitarianism over there ends.

[finghin]

> In "The Miller's Tale", Geoffrey Chaucer writes "And prively he caughte hire by the queynte" (and intimately he caught her by her crotch),[14] and the comedy Philotus (1603) mentions "put doun thy hand and graip hir cunt."

It turns out “grab her by the pussy” has surpringly robust precedent.

[seanhunter]

Indeed.