Brewer's: Rotten Row

Muster row. Camden derives the word from rotteran (to muster); hence rot, a file of six soldiers. Another derivation is the Norman Ratten Row (roundabout way), being the way corpses were carried to avoid the public thoroughfares. Others suggest Route du roi; and others the Anglo-Saxon rot, pleasant, cheerful; or rotton, referring to the soft material with which the road is covered.

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