| Shoreditch | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Shoreditch Location withinGreater London | |
| OS grid reference | TQ325825 |
| • Charing Cross | 2.5 mi (4.0 km) WSW |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | EC1, EC2 |
| Postcode district | E1, E2 |
| Postcode district | N1 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°31′34″N0°04′41″W / 51.526°N 0.078°W /51.526; -0.078 | |
Shoreditch is an area inLondon, England and is located in theLondon Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts ofTower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north-east of the border with theCity of London and is considered to be a part of London'sEast End.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an important centre of theElizabethan theatre, and it has been an important entertainment centre since that time. Today, it hosts many pubs, bars and nightclubs.[1][2] The most commercial areas lie closest to the City of London and along the A10 Road, with the rest mostly residential.[3]
Early spellings of the name includeSoredich (c. 1148),Soresdic (1183–4),Sordig (1204),Schoresdich (1220–21), and other variants.[4][5]Toponymists are generally agreed that the name derives fromOld English "scoradīc", i.e. "shore-ditch", the shore being a riverbank or prominent slope;[6] but there is disagreement as to the identity of the "shore" in question. A suggestion made byEilert Ekwall in 1936 that the "ditch" might have been one leading to the "shore" of theThames continues to enjoy widespread currency.[7][8][9] Other scholars, however, have challenged this interpretation on the grounds that the City of London lies between Shoreditch and the Thames.[5][10] A variant spelling used byJohn Stow in 1598,Sewers Ditche, raises the possibility that the name might originally have referred to a drain or watercourse.[11][12] Certainly the area was once boggy, and the name might bear some relation to the main branch of theWalbrook, which rose in Hoxton, ran along what is now Curtain Road, flowing past the formerCurtain Theatre. The river was known in this area as theDeepditch,[13]Flood Ditch or justThe Ditch.
Folk etymology holds that the place was originally named "Shore's Ditch", afterJane Shore, the mistress ofEdward IV, who is supposed to have died or been buried in a ditch in the area. This legend is commemorated today by a large painting, atHaggerston Branch Library, of the body of Shore being retrieved from the ditch, and by a design on glazed tiles in a shop in Shoreditch High Street showing her meeting Edward IV.[14] However, the area was known as Shoreditch long before Jane Shore lived: theSurvey of London, for example, lists some 26 deeds dating from betweenc. 1148 and 1260 which use some version of the name.[4]
In another theory, also now discredited, antiquarianJohn Weever claimed that the name was derived from Sir John de Soerdich, who waslord of the manor during the reign ofEdward III (1327–77).[15]
Though now part ofInner London, Shoreditch was previously an extramural suburb of the City of London, centred onShoreditch Church at the old crossroads whereShoreditch High Street andKingsland Road are crossed byOld Street andHackney Road.
Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road are a small sector of the RomanErmine Street and modernA10. Known also as the Old North Road, it was a major coaching route to the north, exiting the City atBishopsgate. The east–west course of Old Street–Hackney Road was also probably originally a Roman Road, connectingSilchester withColchester, bypassing the City of London to the south.[16]
Shoreditch Church (officially known asSt Leonard's, Shoreditch) is of ancient origin. It is featured in the famous line "when I grow rich say the bells of Shoreditch", from the English nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons".
Shoreditch was the site of a house of canonesses, theAugustinianHolywell Priory (named after a Holy Well on the site), from the 12th century until itsdissolution in 1539. This priory was located between Shoreditch High Street and Curtain Road to east and west, and Batemans Row and Holywell Lane to north and south. Nothing remains of it today.[17]
In 1574, the City authorities banned the building of playhouses in the City of London area. Consequently, theatres were built in the suburbs, beyond its jurisdiction.[18]
The first of these came in 1576, whenJames Burbage built the first playhouse in England, known as "The Theatre", on the site of the Priory (commemorated today by a plaque on Curtain Road, and excavated in 2008, byMoLAS).[19]
William Shakespeare lived nearby in a property overlookingSt Helen's churchyard in theBishopsgate Within area of the City. His early plays were first performed in Shoreditch, at The Theatre and at the nearbyCurtain Theatre, built the following year[20] and 200 yards (183 m) to the south (marked by a commemorative plaque in Hewett Street off Curtain Road).Romeo and Juliet was first performed here, gaining "Curtain plaudits",Henry V was performed within "this wooden O" and an early version ofHamlet was also first staged in Shoreditch.[21]
Shakespeare's Company moved the timbers of "The Theatre" toSouthwark at the expiration of the lease in 1599, in order to construct theGlobe. The Curtain continued performing plays in Shoreditch until at least 1627.[22]
The suburb of Shoreditch was attractive as a location for these early theatres because, likeSouthwark, it was outside the jurisdiction of the somewhat puritanical City fathers. Even so, they drew the wrath of contemporary moralists, as did the local "base tenements and houses of unlawful and disorderly resort" and the "great number of dissolute, loose, and insolent people harboured in such and the like noisome and disorderly houses, as namely poor cottages, and habitations of beggars and people without trade, stables, inns, alehouses, taverns, garden-houses converted to dwellings, ordinaries, dicing houses, bowling alleys, and brothel houses".[23]
During the 17th century, wealthy traders and FrenchHuguenot silkweavers moved to the area, establishing a textile industry in Shoreditch, Spitalfields and surrounding areas. This industry is now commemorated by the name of theWeaver Line railway which serves the area.[24] By the 19th century, Shoreditch was also the locus of the furniture industry,[25] now commemorated in theMuseum of the Home on Kingsland Road. These industries declined in the late 19th century.
In 1886, the parish of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch, was created to meet the needs of a growing population; the first vicar was theAnglo-Catholic priest, Arthur Osborne Montgomery Jay, son of William James Jay, chaplain toDuleep Singh. By 1889, Holy Trinity church, with a church hall and school, had opened on Old Nichol Street.[26] Controversially, the church hosted a boxing club and gymnasium, which Father Jay saw as vital to reclaiming local men from street brawls.[27] In 1894, the church opened a lodging house, Trinity Chambers.[26]
In 1893, work began on building theBoundary Estate, as aslum clearance project.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Shoreditch was a centre of entertainment to rival theWest End and had many theatres andmusic halls:
None of these places of entertainment survives today. Music hall was revived for a brief time in Curtain Road by the temporary home of theBrick Lane Music Hall.[31] This too has now moved on.
A number of playbills and posters from these music halls survive in the collections of both theBishopsgate Institute and theVictoria and Albert Museum.
In theFirst World War, the Mayor, Henry Busby Bird, andBorough of Shoreditch raised apals battalion of volunteers from around the borough who would serve together as the20th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Shoreditch). The battalion was also known as the 'Boxers' Battalion' (the parent Middlesex Regiment was nicknamed the 'Die-hards'). The volunteers were enlisted at Shoreditch Town Hall and trained atVictoria Park andColumbia Market. The unit served on theWestern Front from 1916 to 1918 as part of121st Brigade of40th Division, seeing action against theHindenburg Line and atBourlon Wood. After the huge casualties it suffered during theGerman spring offensive of March–April 1918, the battalion returned to England to be reconstituted from men of lower medical category. It then went back to Flanders as part of14th (Light) Division, and served during the final victorious advance.[32][33][34][35] The battalion's memorial is inSt Leonard's Church in Shoreditch High Street.[36]
Syd's coffee stall was established in Calvert Avenue in 1919 and operated continuously until 2019.[37]
In the 1930s, Shoreditch, Holy Trinity parish united with that of St Leonard.[38][26]
Shoreditch was heavily bombed during theSecond World War, with around 495 of its civilian residents killed.[39]
The area was hit by at least 279 high explosive bombs, 6parachute mines 7V-1 'doodlebugs', 2V-2 rockets and many thousands of 1 kg incendiary devices.[40] The destruction of housing and industry caused by the two V-2s contributed to the opportunity to createShoreditch Park andHaggerston Park.[41][42]
Post-war, Shoreditch declined in conditions, as did both textile and furniture industries with competition elsewhere. This situation was exacerbated by the extensive devastation of the housing stock in theBlitz during theSecond World War, and by insensitive redevelopment in the post-war period.[citation needed]
A south-west to north-east tube line called theChelsea-Hackney line was proposed in 1970 by the thenLondon Transport Board's London Rail Study as the next project after the completion of theVictoria line and theFleet line (now theJubilee line) but was not carried forward, it would have had a new tube station near Shoreditch Church if it was built.[43]
Formerly a predominantly working-class area, since the 1990s Shoreditch has become a popular and fashionable part of London, particularly associated with the creative industries. Often conflated with its neighbouring sub-district of Hoxton, the area has been subject to considerablegentrification, with accompanying rises in land and property prices.[44][45]
Former industrial buildings have been converted to offices and flats, while Curtain Road and Old Street are notable for their clubs and pubs which offer a variety of venues to rival those of the West End. Art galleries, bars, restaurants, media businesses and the building of theHackney Community College campus are features of this transformation.[citation needed]
In the mid-1960s, the main streets of Shoreditch (Old Street, Shoreditch High Street and Curtain Road, Great Eastern Street) were formed into a one-mile-long (1.5-kilometre) one-way system, which became associated with traffic congestion, poor conditions for walking and cycling, high speeds, high collision rates, and delays for bus services. The gyratory system came to be seen as "the main factor holding back the cultural regeneration of South Shoreditch"[46] and "a block to economic recovery".[47] Following a lengthy campaign,[48] the then newly formedTransport for London agreed to revert most of the streets to two-way working, a project which was completed in late 2002.
In 2005, funding was announced for theEast London Line Extension, to extend the existing tube line fromWhitechapel tube station bypassingShoreditch tube station, and to create a new station namedShoreditch High Street closer to central Shoreditch. This is now served byLondon Overground services on part of the site of the oldBishopsgate Goods Yard, which was demolished in 2004.[49][50] The station was built on a viaduct and is fully enclosed in a concrete box structure. This is so future building works on the remainder of the Bishopsgate site can be undertaken keeping the station operational.[49][50]
Tower Hamlets Council made proposals to transfer the Boundary Estate to ahousing association and upgrade the accommodation in 2006. A full refurbishment of one of the blocks, Iffley House was carried out by Sprunt Architects to demonstrate how this might be achieved but the proposal was rejected by a ballot of tenants in November of that year.[51]
More recently, during the second "dot-com" boom, both the area and Old Street have become popular with London-based web technology companies who base their head offices around theEast London Tech City district. These includeLast.fm,Dopplr,Songkick, SocialGO and7digital. These companies have tended to gravitate towardsOld Street Roundabout, giving rise to the term "Silicon Roundabout" to describe the area, as used by Prime MinisterDavid Cameron in a speech in November 2010.[52]
As a result, the name of Shoreditch has become synonymous with the concept of contemporary "hipsterfication" of regenerated urban areas. As a pioneer among similar transformations across the UK, various phrases have been coined, from "Shoreditchification" to "Very Shoreditch".[53]
In 2014, theBoundary Estate and the nearby area came under the East Shoreditch Neighbourhood Forum. Forum status ceased to have effect on 5 February 2019 but the Neighbourhood Area designation is unaffected by the expiry.[54]
The Stag's Head public house wasGrade II listed in 2015 byHistoric England.[55]
South Shoreditch has undergone an enormous transformation. Several five- or six-storey buildings have been knocked down in the area of Shoreditch that borders the City of London. In their place will be erected a variety of very tall buildings, mirroring the architectural styles in the City.[56] The developments will result in more residential units being available for sale in Shoreditch than were produced by theOlympics athletes' village.[56]
One landmark development is thePrincipal Tower in Worship Street, designed by the architectsFoster and Partners,[57] and next to it isPrincipal Place, also designed by Foster and Partners. In July 2014, it was reported that the internet retailerAmazon.com was close to signing a lease to move its UK headquarters there. The project had been on hold since January 2012, when the anchor tenant, the law firmCMS Cameron McKenna pulled out. Soon after, the developerHammerson sold its interest in the scheme toBrookfield.[58]
There has been some consideration of creating an interchange with theCentral line betweenLiverpool Street andBethnal Green at Shoreditch High Street, where the line runs almost underneath the station. However, this could not be seriously contemplated before the completion of theCrossrail project, owing to extreme crowding on the Central line during peak hours.[59][60]
London Overground began running 24-hour trains on Friday and Saturday nights betweenDalston Junction andNew Cross Gate which called at Shoreditch High Street from 15 December 2017.[61] but bypassesWhitechapel and continues on toShadwell due to ongoing Crossrail construction work for (Elizabeth line) until 2019.[62]
TwoHuguenot workers' houses on Club Row on the corner of Redchurch Street, which developers had wished to knock down, were saved from demolition. They were deemed of special historic interest, giving the houses protection from destruction from 2019.[63]
Shoreditch covers a wide area, but its historic heart lies south of Old Street, aroundShoreditch High Street andShoreditch Church. The districts ofHoxton andHaggerston have been historically part of Shoreditch since the medieval period and occupy the north-west and north-east of Shoreditch respectively; however, their extent has never been formally defined.
Although Shoreditch has been consistently defined, perceptions have blurred in recent years; something that became possible after theMetropolitan Borough of Shoreditch amalgamated with some of its neighbours to become the southern part of theLondon Borough of Hackney in 1965.
The location of the formerShoreditch tube station (closed 2006), 400 metres outside Shoreditch proper, in nearbyBethnal Green,Tower Hamlets, influenced this shift. Its replacement,Shoreditch High Street station, straddles the borough boundary.
More significant has been the gentrification of the Shoreditch area since the millennium, leading to a marked increase in the area's prestige, which has led businesses in theBethnal Green andSpitalfields areas ofTower Hamlets to include the name Shoreditch in their company's name and marketing material. This is also seen to a lesser extent in theSt Luke's area of theLondon Borough of Islington.
Shoreditch was an administrative unit with consistent boundaries from theMiddle Ages until its merger into theLondon Borough of Hackney in 1965. Shoreditch was based for many centuries on theAncient Parish ofShoreditch (St Leonard's), part of the county ofMiddlesex.
Parishes in Middlesex were grouped intoHundreds, with Shoreditch part ofOssulstone Hundred. Rapid Population growth around London saw the Hundred split into several 'Divisions' during the 1600s, with Shoreditch part of theTower Division (aka Tower Hamlets). The Tower Division was noteworthy in that the men of the area owed military service to theTower of London – and had done even before the creation of the Division[64] – an arrangement which continued until 1899.
TheAncient Parishes provided a framework for both civil (administrative) and ecclesiastical (church) functions, but during the nineteenth century there was a divergence into distinct civil and ecclesiastical parish systems. In London the Ecclesiastical Parishes sub-divided to better serve the needs of a growing population, while the Civil Parishes continued to be based on the same Ancient Parish areas.
For civil purposes, theMetropolis Management Act 1855 turned the parish area into a newShoreditch District of the Metropolis, with the same boundaries as the parish. TheLondon Government Act 1899 converted these areas intoMetropolitan Boroughs, again based on the same boundaries, sometimes with minor rationalisations. The Borough's areas of modern Shoreditch,Hoxton andHaggerston were administered fromShoreditch Town Hall, which can still be seen on Old Street. It has been restored and is now run by the Shoreditch Town Hall Trust.
Holy Trinity, Shoreditch in the Old Nichol was for ecclesiastical purposes in Shoreditch from 1866 but was administratively part ofBethnal Green.[65]
In 1965, Shoreditch was merged withHackney andStoke Newington to form the newLondon Borough of Hackney.
Shoreditch is home to theBaron Wei of Shoreditch, who lives in the area and sits as aConservativelife peer andLords Temporal as a member of theHouse of Lords.[66] He wasintroduced on 3 June 2010.[67][68]
The Hackney borough part of Shoreditch is part of theHackney South and Shoreditch constituency, represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament since 2005 byMeg Hillier of theLabour Party and of theCo-operative Party
The eastern part of Shoreditch, in Tower Hamlets, lies within the constituency ofBethnal Green and Bow, represented since 2010 byRushanara Ali of the Labour Party.
Shoreditch High Street station is nearBoxpark, onBethnal Green Road. The station is served byLondon Overground (
) trains on theEast London line, and is inLondon fare zone 1. Trains link the area directly toDalston andHighbury & Islington to the northwest, whilst to the south, trains travel directly to major destinations likeCanada Water,Clapham Junction,West Croydon,Crystal Palace,New Cross,Peckham andWhitechapel.Hoxton station is to the north of Shoreditch, on the same line.[71]
There is a nearby Overground () station atBethnal Green, with services towardsHackney Downs,Seven Sisters,Chingford,Enfield, andCheshunt.[71]
Liverpool Street (
) andOld Street (
) tube stations are also nearby. Both stations are also on theNational Rail network.
Until 2006,Shoreditch tube station was served byLondon UndergroundEast London line trains. The line and station closed to make way for the London Overground.
London Buses provides all local bus services across the district: routes8,135,205,388,N8 andN205 on Great Eastern Street and Bishopsgate; routes26,35,47,48,67,78 andN26 on Shoreditch High Street; and routes55,149,242,243 andN55 on Old Street.[72][73][74]
TwoTransport for London (TfL)Cycleways pass through Shoreditch.
Cycle Superhighway 1 runs north-south along the western perimeter of the area, through the Old Street junction. The route is signposted, and links the area toMoorgate andFinsbury southbound, and toDalston,Stoke Newington, andSeven Sisters to the north.
Quietway 13 runs east-west through Shoreditch, primarily on quiet streets. The route is signposted, and runs from Finsbury in theCity to theRegent's Canal nearCambridge Heath.
The Regent's Canaltowpath runs along the northernmost edge of the district, close toShoreditch Park. The towpath is ashared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists and runs unbroken fromAngel inIslington toLimehouse nearCanary Wharf. Eastbound, the path links the area toVictoria Park andMile End.[75][76]
TheLondon Cycle Hire Scheme operates in Shoreditch.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Shoreditch".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1003.
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