London has such a long and colorful history that it’s no wonder that some of the street names are as equally interesting. Many of the names are a product of the area they are in as are the districts of the city. Some of them have the ability to conjure up quite graphic connotations, such as Spitalfields which is where old plague hospital fields used to be in Victorian Britain. Some of them are also pretty blue! Here are 12 funny london street names.

1. Gropecunt Lane

Excuse me for opening with such a name but you’ve got to admit as well as being a funny street name it tells you exactly what used to go on here. The C word was the most common word used for women’s naughty bits in the middle ages (along with Quim) so this really isn’t that an unusual name for a medieval red light district. Many towns in England had this as a street name although all of them have now been renamed – mainly to gropecount, grapecount, grape lane etc. The etymology of the word is the Norse word Kunta. There is also debate as to whether Cock Lane refers to the same purpose or whether it is because of cock fighting, a sport long since banned.