Ward of Coleman Street | |
---|---|
A ward plaque, with a cock, the emblem of Coleman Street Ward. | |
Location within the City, using post 2003 boundaries | |
Location within Greater London | |
OS grid reference | TQ328815 |
Sui generis | |
Administrative area | Greater London |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | LONDON |
Postcode district | EC4 |
Dialling code | 020 |
Police | City of London |
Fire | London |
Ambulance | London |
UK Parliament | |
London Assembly | |
Coleman Street is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London, England, and lies on the City's northern boundary with the London Borough of Islington.
The ward, which includes land lying on either side of the former city wall, takes its name from a road linking Gresham Street with the London Wall road.
Modern ward boundary changes, particularly those of 2003, have much altered the extent of city wards, so that many no longer closely correlate to their historic areas.
Coleman Street is a very busy ward, [1] it has its own long established ward club [2] and newsletter. [3]
The ward takes its name from Coleman Street, which took its name from the charcoal burners who occupied the area in medieval times. [4]
The first mention of the ward appears to have been in 1130, but at that time it was common practice to use the name of the ward Alderman to refer to the ward. In the 1130 survey, Coleman Street Ward is thought to correspond to Warda Haconis. [5]
The ward contains areas both outside and inside the line of the City's former defensive walls. There was no local gate through the wall until Moorgate, previously a small postern, was built in 1511. Abraham Cowley's 1661 Restoration comedy The Cutter of Coleman Street refers to the area.
It appears that the area outside, the once very marshy Lower and Little Moorfields (now mostly occupied by Finsbury Circus and the surrounding buildings), previously part of the Soke of Cripplegate and then the Manor of Finsbury, was added in the 17th century, [6] though it was not developed until 1817.
The Walbrook, known at this point as Deepditch and running on the line of modern Blomfield Street, formed the eastern boundary of Lower Moorfields and the line continues to form the eastern boundary of the part of the ward lying north of the former wall, [7] with the extra-mural ward of Bishopsgate Without lying east of the brook, and the road which now covers it. This section of the Walbrook, around Blomfield Street, was the focus of the phenomena of the Walbrook Skulls, resulting from the immense quantities of Roman-era human heads that were deposited in the river. [8] These are still regularly uncovered during building work.
Coleman Street borders six other wards [9] and occupies an irregular shape of land bounded to the north by Chiswell Street and Eldon Street; to the east by Blomfield Street, Copthall Avenue and a section of Moorgate; to the south by Lothbury and Gresham Street; and to the west by Basinghall Street, Coleman Street itself, Moor Lane and Silk Street.
Coleman Street is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an alderman to the Court of Aldermen and commoners (the City equivalent of a councillor) to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation. Only electors who are Freemen of the City are eligible to stand. The Alderman is Peter Estlin and the Common Councilmen are Michael Cassidy, Sophie Fernandes, Stuart Fraser and Andrew McMurtrie. [10]
Warren Stormes Hale, Lord Mayor of London in 1864, was the ward's most notable civic dignitary.
Coleman Street is a one-way road that runs from Gresham Street to London Wall. The church of St Stephen Coleman Street used to stand at the southern end of the street, on the western side, until it was completely destroyed in the Blitz and was not rebuilt. In the 17th century, St. Stephen's became a Puritan stronghold. [11] [12] [13] On the night of 5 January 1642, after the king's failed attempt to arrest them, five MPs, Pym, Hampden, Haselrig, Strode and Holles, hid on Coleman Street utilising the support for parliament that tended to be afforded by sympathisers in the City of London.
At the northern end of the street stands the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers, [14] and the pineapple-shaped headquarters of Legal & General.
Despite the bustle of business, the ward also contains the City’s "finest oasis of calm", [15] Finsbury Circus, an elliptical square with its own bowling club, is located within the ward, as is Moorgate station. [16]
The City of London, also known as the City, is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the ancient centre, and constitutes, along with Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London and one of the leading financial centres of the world. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the modern area referred to as London has since grown far beyond the City of London boundary. The City is now only a small part of the metropolis of Greater London, though it remains a notable part of central London. The City of London is not one of the London boroughs, a status reserved for the other 32 districts. It is also a separate ceremonial county, being an enclave surrounded by the ceremonial county of Greater London, and is the smallest ceremonial county in England.
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the southeastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate's name is traditionally attributed to Earconwald, who was Bishop of London in the 7th century. It was first built in Roman times and marked the beginning of Ermine Street, the ancient road running from London to York (Eboracum). The gate was rebuilt twice in the 15th and 18th centuries, but was permanently demolished in 1760.
The London Wall is a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in c. AD 200, as well as the name of a modern street in the City of London, England.
Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London, England.
Moorgate was one of the City of London, England's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the River Walbrook and its tributaries.
St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations.
The Walbrook is a subterranean river in London. It gives its name to the Walbrook City ward and to a nearby street. It played an important role in the Roman settlement of Londinium.
Finsbury Pavement is a short length of street in England connecting Moorgate with City Road in the London Borough of Islington. It forms a part of the London Inner Ring Road, and before the introduction of the ring of steel around the City of London it formed a major through-route towards London Bridge and south London.
Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London. Small, it is bounded by wards: Coleman Street, east; Cheap, south; Cripplegate, north; Aldersgate, west.
St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, also called "St Stephen's in the Jewry", was a church in the City of London, at the corner of Coleman Street and what is now Gresham Street, first mentioned in the 12th century. In the middle ages it is variously described as a parish church, and as a chapel of ease to the church of St Olave Old Jewry; its parochial status was defined permanently in 1456.
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, and also, by virtue of lying outside the city's eastern walls, part of London's East End.
Portsoken, traditionally referred to with the definite article as the Portsoken, is one of the City of London, England's 25 ancient wards, which are still used for local elections. Historically an extra-mural ward, lying east of the former London Wall, the area is sometimes considered to be part of the East End of London.
Broad Street is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London.
Cheap is a small ward in the City of London, England. It stretches west to east from King Edward Street, the border with Farringdon Within ward, to Old Jewry, which adjoins Walbrook; and north to south from Gresham Street, the border with Aldersgate and Bassishaw wards, to Cheapside, the boundary with Cordwainer and Bread Street wards. The name Cheap derives from the Old English word "chep" for "market".
Castle Baynard is one of the 25 wards of the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London, England.
The City of London is divided into 25 wards. The city is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and sui generis form of local government, which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern English local authorities, the City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen, and the Court of Common Council.
Blomfield Street is a road in the City of London, close to Liverpool Street railway station. It was known as Broker Row, until 1860.