Duck Lane

Duck Lane is a short mews street off Broadwick Street in the western part of Soho, within the City of Westminster. It is one of the small service lanes that lie behind the larger Soho frontages, narrow and low in scale, and it connects through to Broadwick Street.

The lane sits in the part of Soho laid out from the late seventeenth century onwards, where the district's name itself, first recorded in the 1600s, is widely thought to come from an old hunting cry. The 'duck' of the street name belongs to a once-common London usage tied to the old pastime of duck hunting with dogs, the same association behind the nearby Dog and Duck public house on Bateman Street, which has been licensed since 1734 and whose present building dates from 1897.

Duck Lane has kept its working character, given over to small premises and back entrances rather than shopfronts. It stands close to Broadwick Street and the streets running towards Berwick Street market, a quiet corner of an otherwise busy quarter.