Origin of Pall Mall

[barmy]

There is a Pall Mall in London, and I have just discovered another one in Manchester.

Are there many others around Britain and what is the meaning of Pall Mall>

Thanks

[squarebear]

I believe Pall Mall used to be a kind of ball game but I'm maybe wrong.

[smartowl]

You are right squarebear, Pall Mall was a ball game.

[andy-hughes]

This was a street game played in the 1700's on a thousand-yard-strip of land known as the mall. Players would hit a ball with a mallet as hard as possible to run it down the mall, and at the end, a specially shaped spoon-like stick was used to hoike it through a raised metal ring.

The origins of the word are French, and it leads to the expression 'pell mell' meaning a group of people running in confusion.