ABSTRACT
Popina, like coquina, has given London many a name, but in the case of popina the names are mostly of alleys and courts. Popina, as one might have expected, has left its mark on London names. The Italians have always been a race of small, fiercely independent businessmen, and in no branch of industry are the famed Italian qualities put to better use than in the conduct of small cook-shops. Pincock Alley, for instance, positively affirms the existence of a pinacotheca, ‘art-gallery, museum of paintings’. Latin caupona means ‘retail shop, inn, tavern’, and the London names, Cooper’s Row, Cooper’s Yard, Coppedhall, Copt Hall, Cowface and Cowper’s Court, all derive from this Latin word for shop and/or tavern.
