Grub Street

Grub Street (later known as Milton Street) was a street located in the Cripplegate Without suburb, immediately north of London's defensive wall. The street ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate, north to Chiswell Street.

The street was later renamed Milton Street, which was heavily damaged by World War II bombing and then partly swallowed up by the Barbican Estate development, but still survives in part. The name Grub Street has survived as a pejorative term for impoverished hack writers and writings of low literary value.

Grub Street was pierced along its length with narrow entrances to alleys and courts, many of which retained the names of early signboards. Its bohemian society was set amidst the impoverished neighbourhood's low-rent dosshouses, brothels and coffeehouses.

Famous for its concentration of impoverished "hack writers", aspiring poets, and low-end publishers and booksellers, Grub Street existed on the margins of London's journalistic and literary scene.

According to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, the term was "originally the name of a street... much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet". Johnson himself is said to have lived and worked on Grub Street early in his career, but this is doubtful. The contemporary image of Grub Street was popularised by Alexander Pope in his Dunciad.