Every old city, wherever it is, is characterized by a web of crossings, consisting of numerous side streets, large and very small, short and long, straight and winding, wide and narrow. To see this, just look at the map of any ancient settlement. In the historical center of each of them, whether it is European, Asian or otherwise, a large number of small crossings, branches from streets and squares will be found.
What it is?
By definition, an alley is a small passage connecting two larger urban “arteries”. That is, it is a transverse connecting path between two longitudinal streets.
The location of such transitions is sometimes quite unusual and even sudden, as well as their other characteristics. Such features are explained quite simply. In fact, any lane is a former path laid by people independently for the convenience and speed of moving between the places of concentration of any buildings.
In other words, these transitions occurred completely spontaneously; they were not planned by architects. Moreover, they were often completely absent on old maps, schemes of cities or other types of settlements. It is thanks to this peculiarity of occurrence that each lane has its own, unique and inimitable atmosphere, filled with the color inherent only to this particular place. The passages may be similar, but they will never be the same.
What can they be?
All lanes are divided into two types:
The way the passage became was determined spontaneously over the centuries, just as it arose. However, some patterns were still present here.
The greater the distance the passage spontaneously trodden by people covered, the higher were his chances to turn into a large lane. As a rule, similar formations arose between large and significantly remote streets. They also walked from neighborhoods with buildings of various industries to residential areas. Alleys also appeared in places where trade was constantly going on in the squares. That is, they connected the market, trade or fair ranks with the streets built up with residential buildings.
The small lane, as a rule, connected a pair of closely located, larger urban "arteries". It could be streets, squares, and even others, spontaneously formed, transitions from one place to another.
How did they evolve?
In fact, an alley is a convenient road for people from one place to another. Of course, such a demand did not go unnoticed by people, as they say now, "with a commercial vein." In the alleys appeared various apartment buildings, retail shops, taverns, inns, stables, warehouses and much more. Of course, residential buildings, churches and chapels were also built in them.
By the beginning of the last century, lanes were the most common address facility. For example, only in Moscow there were about 936 of them. By the middle of the past century, the very word “lane” had become obsolete and practically went out of use, preserved only on old information address plates. This is a completely natural process. After all, once there was no such term in speech at all, and transitions were called lanes, and then they became lanes. And later they were replaced by a more concise name - travel.
With the rapid development of cities, lanes also grew. Some of them disappeared from the maps, merging with the streets during redevelopment, demolitions and other changes. Part, on the contrary, grew and turned into independent streets. However, in all the old cities, in their historical areas, to this day address signs with the word "lane" flicker everywhere.