Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SHOREDITCH

SHOREDITCH, a quondam village, a parish, and a district, in Middlesex. The quondam village occupied the site of the present Shoreditch-High-street, in the E part of the metropolis, 1½ mile NE of St. Paul's; stood on the Roman road from London-wall to the ford at Hackney; is proved, by recently discovered traces of a Roman camp, to have been at least temporarily settled by the Romans; was long held by the family of Soredig, and bore their name; took afterwards the name of Shoreditch, from a great common sewer, or ditch, which passed through it; had a seat of Edmund Duke of York, at Shore-place, in the 14th century; was the residence of Bailo, the archer, whom Henry VIII. styled his "Duke of Shoreditch,'' and who presided over a great fete in the adjoining fields in 1583; and was the retreat of some conspirators seized by Cromwell in 1658.

The parish includes the site of the ancient village, and lies all around it; forms, for the most part, a compactly edificed portion of the metropolis; extends, in a general view, from the Regent's canal to Finsbury-circus, and from Hackney-road to the City-road; includes Hoxton, Charles, and Nicholl's squares, and the Curtain, Kingsland, Old Street, and other roads; is traversed by the Great Eastern and the North London railways; contains the original or Bishopsgate terminus of the Great Eastern railway, and a station on the North London railway opposite St. Leonard's church; has post-offices‡ under London E; carries on a great trade in furniture-making, and considerable trade in brewing, silk-weaving, drug-making, and other departments; had 35 places of worship and 195 schools in 1851, and acquired increase of them in subsequent years, somewhat proportionally to its increase of population; has a public hall in the Grecian style, erected in 1867, at a cost of £20,290, two theatres, the Independent and Imperial gasworks, the Hoxton-House lunatic asylum, the St. Luke's and Shoreditch workhouses, eleven suites of almshouses, and £345 a year of school endowments; and is cut ecclesiastically into 19 sections, 13 of which are noticed in our articles Hoxton and Haggerstone. Acres, 646. Pop. in 1851, 109,257; in 1861, 129,364. Houses, 17,072. The head living, or St. Leonard's, and also most of the other livings, are vicarages in the dio. of London. Value of St. Leonard's, £656. Patron, the Archdeacon of London. St. Leonard's church was rebuilt in 1735, by Dance; and is a stone structure, 130 feet by 70, with a Doric portico and a tower and spire 192 feet high. St. Mark's church is in the pointed style, and has a tower and spire. St. James' church was built in 1839; St. Michael's church, in 1864.

The district is conterminate with the parish; and is divided into the sub-districts of Holywell, St. Leonard, Hoxton-New-Town, Hoxton-Old-Town, Haggerstone-West, and Haggerstone-East. Poor rates in 1863, £41,698. Marriages in 1863, 2,002; births, 5,328,-of which 200 were illegitimate; deaths, 3,330,-of which 1,602 were at ages under 5 years, and 45 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 16,343; births, 47,316; deaths, 28,911. The places of worship, in 1851, were 9 of the church of England, with 8,089 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 3,810 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 2,410 s.; 2 of Wesleyans, with 1,200 s.; 2 of New Connexion Methodists, with 250 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 198 s.; 1 of Bible Christians, with 400 s.; 2 of the Wesleyan Association, with 400 s.; 1 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 822 s.; 1 of Brethren, with 30 s.; 3 undefined, with 630 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 250 s. The schools were 24 public day-schools, with 5,029 scholars; 144 private day-schools, with 3,868 s.; 24 Sunday schools, with 6,329 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 121 s. The workhouse is in Haggerstone-West; and, at the census of 1861, had 737 inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a quondam village, a parish, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Shoreditch Vest/CP/AP       Shoreditch RegD/PLPar       Middlesex AncC
Place: Shoreditch

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