This covered late Victorian alley sits next to what was once the heart of England’s noisy and boisterous newspaper trade, but today is a rather quieter space.

The alley sits on the southeastern corner of the large junction where Fleet Street, Farringdon Street, New Bridge Street and Ludgate Hill meet. The corner plot was once the site of the Abbot of Winchcombe’s Inn, and later the Bishop of St David also built an inn next door.

However, the alley quickly appeared as the area began to fill with houses and workshops, and it is clearly shown on the Ogilby and Morgan map of 1676, although it was then called Greens Rents.

It has been renamed Brides Court by at least 1799, when it appears on the R. Horwood map under that name.

The buildings around it were still low-rise and had back gardens, but that was swept away when the area was redeveloped with Victorian offices and warehouses.

That’s when the alley took on its current appearance, of a passage lined with shops and semi-covered over at either end.

Thanks to its location next to Fleet Street, many of the businesses trading out of the alley in the 19th century were associated with publishing. It was also home, for a while, for the peripatetic Press Club, founded in 1882 for journalists to indulge in their favourite pastime… getting drunk.

The alley just about missed being destroyed during WWII, with two bombs very close, one just to the south and one to the west that destroyed St Bride’s Church. The current church is a 1950s reconstruction. Yes, really. Also has a good museum in the basement.

Today, the alley itself is a mix of back entrances to the restaurants and shops on either side, and a few small shops clinging on inside the alley as well.

Heavily lined with white tiles to help reflect some of the daylight down into the deep light wells, it’s also quite easy to wash down and keep clean.

Well, cleanish.

A nice touch is the old metalwork signs at either end. A rare thing these days.