Clarks' Alley

Like most alleys it is named after the occupants of the front house. Miss Clark ran a dame school there in 1849, when alley names were fixed by the council, and signs erected. Clarks Alley is unusual in having raised brick strips in the walkway. Some say to enable horses to climb, others say to stop barrels rolling away. The walls are still chalky from many decades of being coated with limewash, initially as a means of preventing the spread of cholera, but also a way of throwing light through shaded cottage windows. The four cottages which used to be here have been demolished and replaced with Tudor House Hotel extensions. New cottages have been built on the other side; where front doors of the past opened into Bray’s Court, the next alley.