MORE LIGHT MORE POWER
In 1897, Shoreditch became the first locality in the country to combine refuse disposal and electricity generation in a single municipal undertaking. Massively forward thinking, the Shoreditch Vestry established its own power company, with the motto “More Light, More Power”, and brought reasonably priced electricity to the neighbourhood.
In 1899, the workmen’s dwellings in Nile Street, Shoreditch became the first municipal housing to be lit by electricity, with Shoreditch ‘one of our model vestries’. For this reason, the motto ‘More Power, More Light’ was happily embraced by the new Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch on its foundation (until 1965).
The motto remains appropriate to this day.
BOUNDARY ESTATE
The Boundary Estate in the East End of London, constructed from 1890, was one of the earliest social housing schemes built by a local government authority. Arguably, the world's first council housing, the estate's brick tenement block radiate from the central garden. Each block bears the name of a location along the River Thames.
The Jago was one London’s worst slums – nearly 6,000 individuals crammed into packed streets, a death rate four times that of London, one child in four dead before their first birthday. The Boundary was conceived to literally take people out of darkness.
Today the estate is Grade II listed, and remains an active community with hundreds of families and children, businesses, a school and a bandstand. It is light, airy and full of trees. The Boundary Estate lies immediately north of the proposed Goodsyard Development.
BRICK LANE
The Brick Lane neighbourhood has for centuries been – and today remains – one of London’s most vibrant communities. It derives its name from brick and tile manufacture started in the 15th century, which used the local brick earth deposits.
Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. The Brick Lane Market first developed in the 17th century for fruit and vegetables sold outside the City.
A microcosm of London's shifting ethnic patterns, the area around Brick Lane was once associated with poor slums but has seen significant generation in recent years. Successive waves of immigrants settled in the area: in the 17th century, French Huguenots expanded into the area for housing; the master weavers were based in Spitalfields. Starting with the Huguenots, the area became a centre for weaving, tailoring and the developing clothing industry. In the 19th century, Irish and Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the area. In the later 20th century, Bangladeshis comprised the major group of immigrants and gradually predominated in the area.
More recently the area has also broadened to being a vibrant art and fashion student area, with considerable exhibition space. Brick Lane is world famous for its graffiti, which features artists such as Banksy, Stik, ROA, D*Face and Ben Eine.
SPITALFIELDS
Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, partly in Central London and partly in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to several markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market and Cheshire Street.
The land belonged to St Mary Spital, a priory or hospital erected in 1197, and the name is thought to derive from this. The area that is now Spitalfields was mainly fields and nursery gardens until late in the 17th century when streets were laid out for Irish and Huguenot silk weavers. The late 17th and 18th centuries saw an estate of well-appointed terraced houses and grand urban mansions built around the newly created Spital Square. By the Victorian era, Spitalfields became a by-word for urban deprivation: By the later 19th century inner Spitalfields had eclipsed rival claimants to the dubious distinction of being the worst criminal rookery of London. In the late 20th century the Jewish presence diminished, to be replaced by an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants, who also worked in the local textile industry and made Brick Lane the curry capital of London.
From the 1960s onwards, a campaign to save the housing stock of old merchant terraces to the west of Brick Lane has led to a regeneration of the area and its current vibrant reputation. Current 'urban regeneration' has also seen the erection of large modern office blocks, between Bishopsgate and Spitalfields Market. These represent, in effect, an expansion of the City of London, northwards, beyond its traditional bounds, into this area.
SHOREDITCH
Shoreditch has proud working class roots and hundreds of years of commercial history. It has been transformed over recent years into a bustling international creative centre, where literally thousands of creative individuals, from artists to musicians, designers and filmmakers live and work alongside the hundreds of technology-centric companies based in the area around Old Street. It still maintains a character of its own, full of hidden bars, galleries, parties, art, dissent, good food and a true international presence.
Shoreditch boomed in the 19th century: Shoreditch High Street was the main artery into the City, a daily street market, tradesmen and their families living above the shops. Later the area became dominated by industries including printing, clothing, tobacco and food processing, and massive transport improvements made it a real commercial hub.
Shoreditch has always been a mecca for music and entertainment. Shakespeare's early plays were performed at some of the first purpose-built theatres in the area. In the 19th and 20th centuries Shoreditch's theatres rivalled those in the West-End, with Charlie Chaplin treading the boards before finding fame in America. Today there is a sprawling mass of galleries, restaurants and bars stretching from and along Old Street, to the Shoreditch Triangle, Redchurch Street, Bethnal Green Road, Brick Lane and Columbia Road.
Shoreditch’s distinctive architectural character is a mix of multi-storey show rooms and warehouses located on the wide main streets, combined with the smaller commercial buildings that line the tangle of streets behind. The area has changed dramatically over the last 20 years with perpetual renovation and rebuilding. Its derelict industrial building stock has been refurnished into loft apartments and offices for creatives; its night-life has moved from red light to street food, and its shops from carpentry to fashion. Its Victorian warehouses will soon be interlaced with new residential developments, sleek offices, luxury hotels and city homes.