Brick Lane
So named because it
lead to the Spitalfields area where the clay was suitable
for making bricks in the 16th century.
In spite the increase in
the number of churches the churchyards soon became full
and the Reverend Stone, Vicar of Spitalfields made the following
observations which give us a good picture of conditions
in Spitalfields in 1843.
'The eastern part of
my parish ...... abuts upon Brick Lane, one of our most
crowded and noisy thoroughfares, and at one corner stands
a public-house, which, of course, is not without its
attraction to all orders of street minstrels.'
'In performing the
burial service, I have left the church, while the organ
has been playing a beautiful and impressive requiem
movement, and proceeded to the grave, where it was purely
accidental if I did not hear very inappropriate tune ...
'
'Indeed, as my church
extends along one side of a very crowded street, I have
the most inappropriate musical accompaniments, even
during that part of the service which is performed within
the church.'
'My burial ground is
partially exposed to the street at the west end also; and
there, as at the east, it is liable to be invaded by
sounds and sights of the most incongruous description.
Boys clamber up the outside of the wall, hang upon the
railing, and, as if tempted by the effect of contrast,
take a wanton delight in the noisy utterance of the most
familiar, disrespectful, and offensive expressions.'
'To this wilful
disturbance is added the usual uproar of a crowded
thoroughfare, the whole forming such a scene of noisy
confusion as sometimes to make me inaudible.'
'Amidst such a
reckless din of secular traffic, I feel as if I was
prostituting the spirituality of prayer, and profaning
even the symbolic sanctity of my surplice. The ground is
hardly less desecrated by the scenes within it; ... I
generally have to force my way to a grave through a crowd
of gossips, and as often to pause in the service, to
intimate that the murmurs of some or the loud talk of
others will not allow me to proceed.'
'I hardly ever witness
in any of these crowds any indication of religious
sentiment. If, in such a case, the corpse is brought into
my church, this sacred and beautiful structure is
desecrated and disfigured by the hurried intrusion of a
squalid and irreverent mob, and corpse, and mourners are
jostled and mixed up with the confused mass, by the
uncontrollable pressure from without.'
'I will not, as a
clergyman, indeed, venture to say that, on these
occasions, the mourners always feel and dislike this
uproar, for I believe that among the working classes they
often congratulate themselves upon it.'
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