Broadgate is a large, 32-acre (13 ha) office and retail estate in the City of London, owned by British Land and the Blackstone Group and managed by Broadgate Estates. The original developer was Rosehaugh: it was built by a Bovis / Tarmac Construction joint venture and was the largest office development in London until the arrival of Canary Wharf in the early 1990s.

The modern and mainly-pedestrianised development is located on the original site of Broad Street station (closed in 1986) and beside and above the railway approaches into Liverpool Street station.

The perimeter of the managed estate is Bishopsgate to the east, Sun Street, Appold Street and the eastern part of Worship Street to the north, the southern part of Wilson Street to the west and Eldon Street and Liverpool Street to the south. Included in the estate are Broadgate Circle and Exchange Square. Boundary changes which came into effect in 1994 now place the entire estate within the City of London - previously a part was in the London Borough of Hackney. It lies within the ward of Bishopsgate.

Godiva (Old English: Godgifu, "god gift"), often referred to as Lady Godiva, was an 11th century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

Lady Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. They had one proved son Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia.

Lady Godiva's name occurs in charters and the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies. The Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant "gift of God"; Godiva was the Latinised version. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name.