| The Columbia Market In 1869 Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (Baroness Road in Bethnal Green is
named after her) paid for the building of the great
Columbia Market (for fish) between Hackney and Bethnal
Green Roads on the site of Nova Scotia Gardens, a squalid
area of tenements and hovels and dust heaps. The cost of
building the market was estimated at £200,000.
It was a
philanthropic enterprise to make a clearance of the slum
dwellings which clustered so thickly in the area but also
to help the local people to have supplies of cheap fresh
produce.
Lack of
support from wholesalers and small traders who preferred
the open streets ensured its failure and it closed in
1885 and eventually became a bit of a white elephant and
was demolished between 1958 and 1966.
She also paid
for the building of 4 blocks of model lodging houses 3 of
which covered 3 roads around the market and the other the
block known as Colombia Square, Bethnal Green. Burdett St
was constructed in 1862 and named after her.
Additionally
when the silk trade started to decline she began sewing
schools in Spitalfields.
She was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet,
but her wealth came from her grandfather, Thomas Coutts, the
banker. She joined the two names together to make Burdett-Coutts.
She gave help to various communities in Ireland,
Scotland, Turkey as well and at home.
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