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GERMANY authentic Antique Times of London Map BERLIN 40x53cm 117 years old 1895
6 Jan 2012 at 11:12am
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Antique Nautical Sextant with Leather Box Kalvin 1917 london + Special xmas Gift
29 Jan 2012 at 11:35am
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W. J. Loftie, adding to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Holborn with this look at Saffron Hill:

We can easily picture it, the courts swarming with thieves and rogues who slipped from justice by this back-way, which made the place a kind of warren with endless ramifications and outlets.

All this district is strongly associated with the stories of Dickens, who mentions Saffron Hill in Oliver Twist, not much to its credit.

In later times Italian organ-grinders and ice-cream vendors had a special predilection for the place, and did not add to its reputation.

Curiously enough, the resident population of the neighbourhood are now almost wholly British, with very few Italians, as the majority of the foreigners have gone to join the colony just outside the Liberty, in Eyre Street Hill, Skinner's Street, etc.

Within quite recent times (1903) the clergyman of the parish dare only go to visit these parishioners accompanied by two policemen in plain clothes.

Now the lower half is a hive of industry, and is lined by great business houses.

Further north, on the east side, the dwellings are still poor and squalid, but on one side a great part of the street has been demolished to make way for a Board school, built in a way immeasurably superior to the usual Board school style.

Opposite is the Church of St. Peter, which is an early work of Sir Charles Barry.

This is in light stone, in the Perpendicular style, and has two western towers.

It was built at the time of the separation of the district, about 1832.

In Hatton Wall an old yard bore the name of Hat in Tun, which was interesting as showing the derivation of the word.

Strype mentions in this street a very old inn, called the Bull Inn.

The part of Hatton Wall to the west of Hatton Garden was known as Vine Street, and here there was "a steep descent into the Ditch, where there is a bridge that leadeth to Clerkenwell Green" (Strype).

In Hatton Yard Mr. Fogg, Dickens' magistrate, presided over a police-court.

Next: Holborn: Brooke Street