North from No. 1 Fore Street to Barbican at No. 31 (P.O. Directory). In Cripplegate Ward Without.
First mention: " Redecrochestrete," 1274-5 (Ct. H.W. I. 23).
Other forms: " Redecrouchestrate," 22 Ed. I. (MS. D. and C. St. Paul's, Press A, Box 10, 1013-14). " Redcrouchestrete," 1353 (Riley's Mem. XV.). Redecruchestrete," 1368 (Ct. H.W. II. 110). " Red Cross Street " (S. 293).
There was a tavern called the " Redcrosse" in Barbican at the end of Redcrosse Streete, 31 Chas. II. (L.C.C. Deeds, Harben Bequest, 1600-1700, No. 18).
This may have occupied the site of an older house of the same sign, named from a cross there.
A School founded here in 1709 by Dame Eleanor Hollis for fifty poor girls was kept the same house with that of the parish boys of St. Giles, Cripplegate (Dodsley, 1761). Denton suggests that the names of the street and of Whitecross Street were derived from the armorial bearings of the Abbey of Ramsay and of the Priory of Holy Trinity spectively, who both possessed houses in these streets. But it seems more probable that the name was derived from the Red Cross standing at the north end of the street, hether a house bearing this sign or an actual wayside Cross, it is not easy to determine.
A Dictionary of London. Henry A Harben. 1918.