Trump Street north of Cheapside in the City of London is a boring old back street lined with modern office blocks and little else. Nobody paid it much attention until 2016, when a certain Donald J Trump became the most talked about person on the planet.
Suddenly, Trump Street found itself all over our social feeds. Not for the name alone, but because Trump Street coincidentally leads into Russia Row. It was like international politics had written themselves into the London street plan.
With a second Trump presidency underway, and tensions with Russia still high, the pair of streets are likely to be foregrounded once again. But where do their names come from?
Russia Row... older than Wikipedia tells us
Russia Row is relatively easy to explain. The Russia Company, also known as the Muscovy Company was based in a courtyard off this street from the 16th century. This was an important enterprise with a monopoly on trade between England and Russia. The name Russia Row came later, though. It first makes it onto maps in the early 19th century, as a new name for the northern part of Honey Lane Market.
Wikipedia and the sources it cites place the name change to 1804, but I've found several earlier citations in the newspaper archives that go back further. For example, The Observer notes a dividend payment to three drapers on "Russia Row, Milk Street" as early as 1793. It may be that the name "Russia Row" was used informally for a row of businesses on Milk Street, before gaining a promotion to a full street name a decade later.
The alternative facts of Trump Street
Trump Street is more ambiguous. According to Wikipedia, the road first enters the records as Duke Street in 1720. However, it's easy enough to find earlier mentions in online databases, including a reference to Trump Street as early as 1714.
The origins of that name are uncertain. Wikipedia suggests that it is a shortening of "Trumpadere Street". It's a curious word, isn't it? A search of the newspaper archives finds zero hits for "Trumpadere". Indeed, a Google search for the term only brings up the Wikipedia entry and those who quote it. I'm not sure we can trust this.
One theory on the name is that it's a reference to trumpet making, perhaps for those instruments used by the city watch to call attention, rather than for musical purposes. The evidence is circumstantial, but persuasive. According to Henry Riley's 'Memorials of London and London Life' (1868) a coffin found in the adjacent churchyard of St Mary Magdalene was inscribed with the legend "Godefrey the Trompour lies here". He would almost certainly have lived in the parish, perhaps where Trump Street now runs.
If you don't like that explanation, then I have some "alternative facts". The street may simply have been named, like so many streets and alleys, after a local tavern — the Trumpeter's Inn, for example.
Or perhaps we could start a rumour that it got its name from an actual Mr Trump, one of Donald's ancestors. That would be fake mews.
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