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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—B

Birchin Lane

I must send you to Birchin Lane, i.e. whip you. The play is on birch (a rod).

A suit in Birchin Lane.
Birchin Lane was once famous for all sorts of apparel; references to second-hand clothes in Birchin Lane are common enough in Elizabethan books.

“Passing through Birchin Lane amidst a camp-royal of hose and doublets, I took ... occasion to slip into a captain's suit- a valiant buff doublet stuffed with points and a pair of velvet slops scored thick with lace.” —Middleton: Black Book (1604).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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