Shoreditch

Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"SHOREDITCH, a parish and populous metropolitan district, in the Tower division of Ossulstone hundred and parliamentary borough of the Tower Hamlets, county Middlesex, 1½ mile N.E. of St. Paul's cathedral. It is the terminus of the Great Eastern railway, which terminus is soon to be moved to Liverpool-street, City. The Metropolitan railway has a station opposite the parish church. This parish, which is extensive, lies for the most part between the Regent's canal, Hackney-road, Finsbury Circus, and the City-road. It comprises Hoxton Old and New Town, Holywell, Moorfields, Church-End, and Haggerston, covering 620 acres, and containing a population in 1861 of 129,364. " (There is more of this description).

"EAST HAGGERSTONE, (and West Haggerstone) a district parish in the parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, 2 miles N.E. of St. Paul's Cathedral. It is mentioned in Domesday Book under the name of Hergotstane, when it belonged to the Gernons. In this district, which adjoins the Regent's canal, are many wharves, factories, and gasworks. There are several chemical works on an extensive scale, manufactories for japanned leather, floor-cloth, hearth-rugs, and bone ashes, also lime-works, tile-kilns, and dye-houses. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of London, value £450, in the patronage of the archdeacon. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, was erected in 1827, at an expense of £15,000, defrayed by a grant from the parliamentary commissioners. The Independents, Wesleyans, and other Dissenting bodies, have places of worship. There are six almshouses for members of the Company of Goldsmiths, founded in 1705, in Goldsmiths-place; fourteen others, with a chapel in the centre, for members of the Company of Ironmongers, in Kingsland-road; and near them others for the Companies of Drapers and Framework Knitters. Halley was born here in 1656.

"HOLYWELL (SHOREDITCH), a district in the parish of Shoreditch St. Leonard, London, in the Tower division of Ossulstone hundred, county Middlesex so named from a well in Holywell-street, near the Benedictine nunnery of St. John Baptist."

"HOXTON, a district parish in the parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, half a mile N.E. of London, of which it forms a populous suburb. It is mentioned in Domesday Survey as Hocheston, and occupies the space extending from the old Roman road, now called Old Street-road, to the Regent's canal, on the banks of which are numerous lime and coal wharfs. This place, formerly a hamlet in the parish of St. Leonard's, has within the last half century become an extensive and populous district, and was constituted a parish by Act of Parliament in 1830. " (There is more of this description).

"MOORFIELDS, a district in the parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, Tower division of Ossulstone hundred, county Middlesex, 1½ mile N.E. of St. Paul's, London. It is a populous suburban district of London, forming part of the borough of the Tower Hamlets, and lies between the Regent's canal, the Hackney-road, and Finsbury-circus. It is chiefly inhabited by silk weavers, drug makers, general dealers, and other industrial classes. See Shoreditch.

[Moorfields was just outside the city wall, Moorgate led from it into the city.]

Description(s) from "The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland" (1868), transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003; intended for personal use only, so please respect the conditions of use.

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