Friday Street

FRIDAY STREET runs from the riverside through to Duke Street (see map), and from the Middle Ages to the 1890s formed the town's southern boundary. Houses on the north side were included in Henley town and parish, while those on the south side lay in Rotherfield Greys. The arrangement suggests that the street may have been built up piecemeal during the town's earliest stages, rather than forming an integral part of the street plan laid out in (probably) the late 12th century. The street's name may reflect the presence of medieval fish ponds at its east end, which were attached to the adjacent rectory house. In the Middle Ages Friday was a fasting day, when people were expected to eat fish rather than meat.

By the 15th century Friday Street had some relatively large timber-framed houses, fragments of which survive behind later frontages on the street's north side. A slightly later survival is No. 14 on the south side, part of a much larger house which probably dates from around 1580-1650.   By the 18th century the street seems to have had a more working-class character. A run of artisans' cottages on its north side was adapted from semi-derelict houses and malthouses belonging to the corporation, and in the 19th century Greys Brewery was established on the south side, and an ironworks and paper bag manufactory on the north. In 1901 (see Assets) the street housed a mixture of shopkeepers, craftsmen and workers, among them a butcher, baker and grocer, a fisherman, a stoker, an iron-foundry labourer, and a postman. The Anchor pub, established by 1847, had a household of seven, including 2 domestic servants.   By then part of the street's south side had been demolished to make way for Queen Street, a new suburban road leading through to the station. Several other buildings on the south side, including the brewery buildings, were demolished later in the 20th century. The street retains a mixed character today, combining attractive timber-framed buildings with more nondescript modern and 19th-century ones, and upmarket bookshops with more run-down premises towards Duke Street.   Read the censuses for Friday Street (see Assets opposite).