Spitalfields
1197: The
name of the area Spitalfields goes back to 1197 when a
Hospital (or spital) was founded on land owned by St Mary
Without Bishopsgate and it was called St Marie Spitle.
This was in the fields and so the area became known as
Spitalfields.
1560:Musters:
100 men were required for the ceremonial entry of the
Queen. They escorted her from St Mary Spital through the
City to the Court on 10 April 1560.
1598: On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
numerous Walloon and French weavers came over to England
and settled in and around Spitalfields. "God's
blessing is surely not only brought upon the parish [of
Spitalfields] by receiving poor strangers," wrote
Stowe, "but also a great advantage both accrued to
the whole nation by the rich manufactures of weaving
silks and stuff and camlet, which art they brought with
them.''
1670: The Rev
Sir George
Wheeler
found, upon inheriting
the Spitalfields Wheeler estate in 1670, that there was
no church. He provided a chapel at Spitalfields in 1692
on his estate. Pettycoat Lane also had a private chapel.
The first general market in Spitalfields received
its charter in 1682. It later became a fruit and vegetable
market. It is a large open market area on Commercial Street,
Spitalfields.
In Queen Anne's reign
about 50, 000 were employed in the Spitalfields silk
weaving industry. They were mostly English workmen
working under Huguenot direction.
In 1856 the old Spitalfields market site was acquired by an ex-market
worker, Robert Horner. He redeveloped the market to its present design
in the 1880s and 1890s.
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