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Notes on Whitechapel and Spitalfields

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  • Notes on Whitechapel and Spitalfields

    Hi all
    I found this file of miscellaneous notes I compiled some time back - thought it might be useful
    Chris

    CHRIST CHURCH
    Church built 1723-29 by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. White ashlar tower and spire dominate the Spitalfields area. Western portico of 4 giant Tuscan columns. Central semi-circular arch, a theme repeated in the facade below tower.

    No. 7 Puma Court
    No. 7 Puma Court is one of a group of four houses with origins in the early eighteenth century. The one-room-plan three storeys, garret and basement brick house of that time was refronted, extended to the rear and remodelled internally to incorporate a shop in the early nineteenth century.

    BISHOPSGATE
    An ancient thoroughfare, Bishopsgate's east side to the north adjoins Spitalfields with commercial and institutional buildings of the 1890s and later.

    Widegate Street
    Widegate Street has C16 origins. Its buildings date from the C18 onwards.

    SPITAL YARD
    Spital Yard was a mews of C17 or earlier origins, serving the backs of houses on Norton Folgate and Spital Square.

    BLACK EAGLE BREWERY
    Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Company's Black Eagle Brewery was one of London's great historic breweries. It grew from late 17th century origins to become London's largest brewery around 1850. It closed in 1988-9. Several 18th and 19th century buildings survive.

    FLOWER AND DEAN WALK
    Street of social housing created in the 1980s. The appartments, houses and maisonettes are of red brick.

    Parliament Court
    Parliament Court was laid out in the 1680s as part of the development of the Old Artillery Ground.

    Brick Lane
    The Director's House Black Eagle Brewery. This is a complex and unusual building that appears to have grown from a counting-house core of circa 1719. It was extended and altered in 1745 and circa 1770 by Sir Benjamin Truman to provide a grand entertainment suite, perhaps part of his house.
    Vat House Black Eagle Brewery. This vat house of 1803-4 retains evidence for a wide-span roof. A ground-level barrel store was inserted circa 1850 with dense structural cast iron.
    Head Brewer's House Black Eagle Brewery. This house was built circa 1834, probably to designs by Robert Davison. It was substantially remodelled circa 1970.
    Engineer's House Black Eagle Brewery. This house of 1831-6 was built by and for Robert Davison, resident engineer at the Black Eagle Brewery.
    Stables Black Eagle Brewery. This large stable block was built in 1837 to designs by Robert Davison for 114 brewery horses. It was largely converted to be a boiler house in 1929.

    SPITALFIELDS MARKET
    Market buildings built of iron with glass roof contructed between 1883 and 1893, and expanded between 1926 and 1928, by which time the market was selling wholesale fruit and vegetables. In 1991 this trade moved to Hackney and a weekend market has continued on the site. In 2003 the Western block was partially demolished.

    ARTILLERY LANE
    A street with 16th-century origins, part laid out in 1682, that retains some 18th-century fabric, but more of the late 19th century and the 1980s.

    ARTILLERY PASSAGE
    Artillery Passage was built up in the 17th century, redeveloped from 1682 and again in the mid/late 19th century.

    BELL LANE
    Bell Lane has late C16/early C17 origins, dividing the Halifax estate from a tenter ground.

    BLOSSOM STREET
    Blossom Street has late-C17 origins and was developed in the C18. It is now dominated by late-C19 warehouses.

    BRUNE STREET
    Brune Street was laid out in 1810-24 and redeveloped in the early 20th century.

    BRUSHFIELD STREET
    Brushfield Street was laid out in 1672-3 (east) and 1784-5 (west). It is dominated by Spitalfields Market (1885-93 and 1928-9) and late C20 office blocks.

    BUXTON STREET
    Street developed in the early- and mid-nineteenth century. Extensively bomb-damaged 1939-1945.

    CALVIN STREET
    Part of the Wheler Estate. Built in the mid-seventeenth century as Great Pearl Street. Houses and workshops.

    COBB STREET
    Cobb Street was laid out in 1899-1904 by Sir Algernon Osborn

    COMMERCIAL STREET
    Commercial Street was laid out in 1843-5 (south) and 1849-57 (north). It was built up in the late C19.

    CORBET PLACE
    An L-shaped street, onto which back several large industrial buildings of the early-/mid-twentieth century.

    CRISPIN STREET
    Crispin Street was developed in the late C17 as part of the Wheler estate.

    ELDER STREET
    Elder Street was laid out from c1722 as part of the St John and Tillard estate.

    FASHION STREET
    Street built as part of the Fossan Estate in the mid-seventeenth century. "Fashion" is a corruption of "Fossan".

    FLEUR DE LIS STREET
    Fleur de Lis Street was laid out in the 1720s as part of the St John and Tillard estate. It has been redeveloped and cleared.

    FOLGATE STREET
    Folgate Street, formerly White Lion Yard and White Lion Street, has C17 origins. It was redeveloped in the early C18 as part of the St John and Tillard estate.

    FORT STREET
    Fort Street was laid out in 1682 in the development of the Old Artillery Ground.

    FOURNIER STREET
    One of the last streets built as part of the Wood-Michell Estate. Houses largely date from the 1720s. Built as homes and workshops. At the east end is a mosque, formerly a synagogue, and before that a Huguenot church.

    FRYING PAN ALLEY
    Frying Pan Alley has late-C16 origins, but is now surrounded by late-C20 office blocks.

    GREY EAGLE STREET
    Part of the Wilkes Estate. Building leases granted in 1761. Largely overshadowed by brewery buildings.

    HANBURY STREET
    Formerly known as Brown's Lane. First developed in the mid-seventeenth century. Current use is mixed - shops, homes, offices and social services.

    LEYDEN STREET
    Leyden Street was laid out in 1899-1904 by Sir Algernon Osborn.

    MIDDLESEX STREET
    Middlesex Street has C16 origins as Hog Lane, later Petticoat Lane and Sandy's Row. In 1892-6 it was widened, diverted at its north end and renamed.

    NATHANIEL CLOSE
    Close of houses and flats built in the early 1980s.

    NORTON FOLGATE
    Norton Folgate links Bishopsgate and Shoreditch High Street. Its east side was developed in the C18 and subsequently redeveloped.

    PRINCELET STREET
    Formerly known as `Princes Street'. Most of the buildings are of the early C18th. There are nineteen listed properties in the street.

    PUMA COURT
    Formerly known as Red Lion Court. Mid-late-seventeenth century origins with almshouses in the centre, but largely developed during the 1730s. Some 1980s social housing at east end of street. Some buildings undergoing refurbishment in the 1990s.

    SANDYS ROW
    Sandy's Row has C16 origins as the north end of Hog Lane, later Petticoat Lane. Renamed in the 1840s it survived when the rest of the road was remade as Middlesex Street.

    SPELMAN STREET
    Formerly John Street. Built up in the C19th.

    SPITAL SQUARE
    Spital Square was laid out from c1705 at the heart of the St John and Tillard estate. Built up by c1740 much was cleared in the C20. Only the east arm survives.

    STEWARD STREET
    Steward Street was laid out in 1682 as part of the development of the Old Artillery Ground. It is dominated by Spitalfields Market as extended in 1926-8.

    STRYPE STREET
    Strype Street was laid out in 1899-1904 by Sir Algernon Osborn.

    TENTER GROUND
    Tenter Ground was formerly Tenter Street, laid out in 1810-24 on the site of a tenter ground. Largely obliterated its north end survives with buildings of c1900.

    THRAWL STREET
    Street originally laid out in the mid-C17th. Street re-routed during the 1980s. Part of the Flower and Dean Estate.

    TOYNBEE STREET
    Toynbee Street, formerly Shepherd Street, was laid out in 1810-24 and redeveloped in 1927-36 as part of the London County Council's Holland estate.

    WENTWORTH STREET
    Wentworth Street has its origins in the late-C16/early-C17. Its north side to Spitalfields has buildings of predominantly C19 date.

    WHITES ROW
    White's Row was built up in the second half of the 17th century. Surviving buildings are of various later dates.

    WILKES STREET
    Street of early eighteenth century houses, some of which have been refronted in the early nineteenth century. High proportion of Grade II listed buildings.

    WOODSEER STREET
    Formerly known as Pelham Street, and part of the Halifax Estate. First developed in the late-seventeenth century. Earliest surviving buildings between Brick Lane and Spital Street date from the mid-nineteenth century.

    JEROME STREET
    Formerly Vine Street, part of the Wheler estate.

    QUAKER STREET
    Formerly Westbury Street. Part of the Wilkes estate. Extended westward 1858-62.



    WHITECHAPEL AND SPITALFIELDS UNION WORKHOUSE
    Whitechapel and Spitalfields Union Workhouse was built in around 1842 on the site of the former Spitalfields Parish Workhouse at the corner of Charles Street (later Baker's Row, now Vallance Road) and Thomas Street (later Foulbourne Street, now Lomas Street). It comprised a long block, which ran along Charles Street with a separate A-shaped block to the rear. In 1859, most of the workhouse was rebuilt. It was redesigned to an H-shaped plan and comprised a five storey entrance block on Charles Street with inmates wards, a hall and committee room connected by a two storey central wing to a six storey block providing more accommodation, a dining room and a chapel. Smaller buildings to the rear provided a psychiatric ward block and laundry. The architect was Thomas Barry. Between the buildings were exercise yards for different categories of inmates (e.g. male/female, old/young). After 1872, the workhouse became the Union infirmary when a new building was built at South Grove. Several additions were added in the late 1880s, including a dispensary and mortuary. A children's ward and operating theatre were added sometime after. In 1930, the site became a general hospital known as St Peter's Hospital. It was demolished in the 1960s.

    WHITECHAPEL UNION WORKHOUSE
    Whitechapel Union Workhouse was built in around 1872 on a narrow site between South Grove (now Southern Grove) and Lincoln Street (now Brokesley Street). It replaced a workhouse on Charles Street (now Vallance Road), which became the Union Infirmary. By 1930, the workhouse could accommodate nearly 700 inmates. It had an entrance block facing onto South Grove with an entrance archway and receiving wards. Behind this was the three-storey administrative building with a refectory at the rear and kitchens attached. It was flanked by accommodation blocks, which were connected to it via escape bridges. There was also a workshop and bakery on the site. After 1930, the workhouse became South Grove Institution a Public Assistance Institution. It later became South Grove Hospital. The main workhouse administrative building was still extant in 2007. It was a day centre known as Southern Grove Lodge.

    WHITECHAPEL PUBLIC MORTUARY AND CORONERS COURT
    Mortuary buildings and coroner's court, Whitechapel. Opened on 17 March 1892, the structure was built by the District Board of Works with W. La Riviere as the Board's surveyor and architect. The building closed in 1901 and was subsequently demolished.

    WHITECHAPEL STATION
    The original station was opened by the East London Railway on 10th April 1876 with Metropolitan Line services commencing on 31 March 1913. It became the terminus station for the East London Line in November 1939 when services to Hammersmith and other Metropolitan Line termini ceased. The District Railway platforms opened as Whitechapel (Mile End) on 6 October 1884 and served as the eastern terminus until February 1902. It closed for four months for reconstruction prior to the extension of District services to Upminster. At this time the ticket hall for the two services was combined. The Hammersmith and City section of the Metropolitan Railway used Whitechapel as a terminus between 3 December 1906 and 13 March 1913, and as a through service from 30 March 1936; the Hammersmith and City Line assumed its own identity in 1988. The majority of the upper levels of the station date from the 1902 rebuilding. There is a three-storey station building faced with white faience which was built for the East London Railway platforms. The platforms were refurbished in 1979-82.


    MILE END OLD TOWN WORKHOUSE
    Mile End Old Town Workhouse was built between 1858 and 1859 at a total cost of £32,000. It could accommodate 600 adults and 300 children. The architect was William Dobson. All the buildings were of red brick, in a plain neo-Tudor style. It was a large site comprising an entrance block with a board room, offices and waiting room, casual wards with a stone breaking yard, a three-storey T-shaped workhouse block with a refectory and chapel, a psychiatric ward block and an infirmary block. There was a three-storey school with its own laundry, workshops and playgrounds, and a children's infirmary. The site was set within attractive gardens. The main workhouse block was an imposing building with rendered bay-window projections and shaped gables, and some sculptural detailing on the rendered sections. A larger infirmary, designed by J.M. Knight was built between 1880 and 1883. The children's school became a nurse's home in 1910. In 1925, Mile End Old Town became part of a new Stepney Union. After 1930, it became Mile End Hospital and several additions were built including an out-patients department, sun-balconies and a pathological laboratory. In 1991, the hospital was known as Mile End Accident and Emergency Hospital. In 2007, it was called The Royal London Hospital. Several of the old workhouse buildings had been demolished however part of the main block was Grade II listed.

    WILTONS MUSIC HALL
    Wilton's Music Hall, the first and one of the most successful of London's music halls, was opened in what had previously been a public house, the Prince of Denmark. The first incarnation of the building seen today dates from 1828 when Matthew Eltham first held the licence of the Prince of Denmark. By 1839 Eltham held a licence for public music and dancing in a concert room built at the rear. John Wilton rebuilt it as his first music hall in 1853. He then acquired adjoining properties in order to obtain the rear land, over which he built a vastly enlarged music hall, opening in 1858. Mirrors covered much of the walls of the main hall, and light was provided by a gas-burning chandelier made from 27,000 cut crystals. In 1877 the building was gutted by fire. Reopened in 1878, Wilton rebuilt the hall on closely similar lines to the original building, but with a proscenium stage in place of the former apsidal platform. Typically of its period, the hall was originally completely landlocked by the surrounding property and it therefore had no external elevations apart from that of its parent pub, through which it must still be entered. The hall itself is a large, rectangular room with an apse at the back and a high stage. There is a single balcony on three sides supported on barley sugar cast-iron columns. WIlton's became the mission hall for the East End Mission of the Methodist Church in 1888 and remained in use as such until 1956. After this it was sold and used as a rag sorting depot and warehouse. In 1964 John Betjeman led a successful campaign to save Wilton's from demolition and in 1966 it was bought by the Greater London Council who subsequently transferred it to a Trust. Although standing in a near-derelict stage for many years Wilton's was used as a set for a range of film and television productions including 'The Krays' and Richard Attenborough's 'Chaplin'. In 1999 the hall was returned to theatrical life by the Broomhill Opera Company.

    POPLAR INSTITUTION
    A typical metropolitan poor-law institution, comprising a series of plain brick buildings of various date. A classical entrance block, a ward wing and a workshop range were erected in 1815-17 on a site occupied by the local workhouse since 1757. The new buildings were designed by James Walker. Children's accommodation, sick wards and casual wards were added at a later date. The workhouse was completely rebuilt in 1869-72 to a simple pavillion plan designed by John Morris and son. Subsequent additions were made in the 1880s and the 1890s, designed by Walter A Hills. The buildings were damaged during the Second World War but were not demolished until 1960.

    STEPNEY UNION WORKHOUSE
    Stepney Union Workhouse was built between 1861 and 1863 at a cost of over £30,000 and could accommodate 800 inmates. The architect was Henry Jarvis, of Trinity Square, Southwark and the builder was James Hart, of Bowling Green Lane, Southwark. Just over two weeks after the workhouse opened additional work was carried out to prevent inmates escaping over the south wall, across the railway lines. The workhouse was a three storey building with a T-shaped layout. It was built of stock brick with stucco dressings and a hipped slate roof. It had an impressive main facade facing south. This comprised an imposing classical central feature surmounted by an open cupola with an elegant fleche which housed a bell. It provided an administrative office and Master's quarters at the centre with male and female accommodation wings either side. There was a dining hall and chapel at the rear. Internally, it was decorated with Tuscan colonnades. A separate hospital block was erected to the west of the workhouse. Between 1893 and 1897, several additions and repairs were carried out including the erection of casual wards, an engine-house, a new hall and dispensary. In 1922, several hundred unemployed inhabitants of Stepney stormed the building in protest at the lower rates of outdoor relief given to the poor in Stepney compared to the neighbouring Poplar Union. The buildings suffered bomb damage during the Second World War. After the war it was renamed Bromley House Institution and was used to accommodate homeless families. The building closed in 1966 and was demolished to be replaced by a new nursing home.

    STEPNEY GASWORKS
    Gasholders erected by the Commercial Gas Company at its principal works. The site has four gas holders, 3 built between 1850-53 (one of which was rebuilt in 1925) and the fourth in 1864. Although the works closed in 1946 the gasholders continued in use until 1990.

    ALDGATE EAST STATION
    Aldgate East underground station, opened 31st October 1938, was the second station of that name to open. The first station, which was opened on 6th October 1884, was sited some 155 metres to the west. However, the need to enlarge the triangle containing the Minories, North Curve and Aldgate East junctions lead to it being resited to the east. For the construction of the new station the existing track level had to be lowered by 2 metres to allow sub-surface ticket halls to be built.
    The site of the original Aldgate East underground station, opened on 6th October 1884 by the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways. It was sited on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, a short distance to the west of the present Aldgate East (see TQ 38 SW 2168). In 1914 the street level building was rebuilt to the designs of Harry Wharton with a Lyons tea house incorporated on the ground floor. In 1938 this station was moved 170 yards eastwards to allow the enlargement of the triangle containing the Minories, North Curve, and Aldgate East junctions. Following closure after the last train had ran on 30th October 1938, the street level building survived in a derelict condition until it was demolished in the 1950s.

    ST MARYS (WHITECHAPEL) STATION
    The site of a former railway station, situated between Aldgate East and Whitechapel stations. St Mary's (Whitechapel) station opened 3rd March 1884 to serve South Eastern Railway trains from Addiscombe Road, a service which was withdrawn seven months later on 1st October 1884. A week later, on 6th October 1884, the station was first served by Metropolitan and District line trains when their services were extended from Mansion House to Whitechapel. St Mary's closed on 1st May 1938, some six months before the resited Aldgate East station opened to the west. In 1940 it was decided that the disused platforms should be used as air-raid shelters, but while alterations were under way, the streel level building was destroyed by a bomb. A new shelter entrance was constructed, but this was also destroyed by a bomb in 1941. A further entrance was then constructed.

  • #2
    Kudos Post for the work!

    --J.D.

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    • #3
      I am once again impressed Chris, I spent hours trawling through trade directorys and newspapers in Hull yesterday, and went to bed having nightmares about Robert D'Onston Stephenson and family!!

      Keep up the great work
      Regards Mike

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      • #4
        Hi Chris

        I seem to remember that the previous location of Aldgate East played a part in the story of the Bruce Partington Plans. I vaguely remember some Holmes buffs discussing the layout of the track, but I'm jiggered if I can recall the details.

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        • #5
          Note sign for Frying Pan Alley

          Click image for larger version

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