Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digital and design) arts and media hub, as well as hosting entertainment, with globally eclectic musicians, actors and dancers. Most of the square's buildings, quite tall for the Victorian age, diverge in use, with many floors converted to bars, restaurants and offices and at least one live music club of note.
One of the square's 18th-century residents, Rev. John Newton, [1] composed the popular hymn "Amazing Grace".
Hoxton Square was laid out by Samuel Blewitt and Robert Hackshaw, who leased the land from the Austen family in 1683. [2]
Hoxton and Charles Squares, while upper-middle class, housed many non-conformists (with Anglicanism). From 1699 to 1729 an academy, offering a wide curriculum and also allowing "free enquiry" by its students, stood against the square. Samuel Pike, who lived in one of houses, offered theological teaching from 1750. Samuel Morton Savage opened his Hoxton Square Academy there. The academy closed in 1785. [3]
Hoxton Square is home to the Augustinian Priory, school and Church of St Monica (architect: E. W. Pugin) built 1864-66 and the first Augustinian House in England since a brief attempt at revival under Mary I of England.
Since the 1990s the square has become the heart of a nationally notable Hoxton arts and media scene, as well as being a hub of the thriving local entertainment district. It would be home to the Blue Note (formerly The Bass Clef), which was a key club for both the acid jazz and drum and bass scenes. [4]
Between 2000 and 2012, the south side of the square was home to the White Cube art gallery, which primarily showcased newer artists such as from the movement Young British Artists.
Since the year 2000 the square's buildings, largely of Victorian vintage, have become host to bars, restaurants and offices - such as Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium. The insurance group Aviva increasingly have purchased property on the square to redevelop into what has been dubbed a "corporate campus". [5]
In 2020 a sculpture designed by the graffiti artist Stik was installed in the square. [6]
The Christian theologian John Thomas, founder of the Christadelphian movement, was born at Hoxton Square in 1805, [7] and in 1810 the square was home to Peter Durand, who filed the first patent nationally for tinning food.
One of the square's 18th-century residents, Rev. John Newton, [8] composed the popular hymn "Amazing Grace". The parish church of St John's Hoxton is nearby, where one of Prince George's ancestors was married in the mid-19th century.
James Parkinson (1755–1824), the physician and author of An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, the subject of which is now known as Parkinson's disease, was in practice at No.1, which is commemorated with a blue plaque on the site.
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779, written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both religious and secular purposes.
John Newton was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and was himself enslaved for a time in West Africa. He is noted for being author of the hymns Amazing Grace and Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.
The Olney Hymns were first published in February 1779 and are the combined work of curate John Newton (1725–1807) and his poet friend William Cowper (1731–1800). The hymns were written for use in Newton's rural parish, which was made up of relatively poor and uneducated followers. The Olney Hymns are an illustration of the potent ideologies of the Evangelical movement, to which both men belonged, present in many communities in England at the time.
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, its principal district. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly regarded as being part of east London that spans some of the traditional East End of London with the northwest belonging to north London. Its population is estimated to be 281,120.
Dalston is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney. It lies in North East London and is four miles northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas including Kingsland and Shacklewell, all three of which being part of the Ancient Parish of Hackney.
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England, and on the north-western fringes of the East End, the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It lies immediately north of the City of London financial district, and was once part of the civil parish and subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, prior to its incorporation into the London Borough of Hackney.
Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north-east of the border with the City of London and is considered to be a part of London's East End.
The Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch was a metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1899 and 1965, when it was merged with the Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington and the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney to form the London Borough of Hackney.
London Fields is a park in Hackney, London, although the name also refers to the immediate area in Hackney surrounding it and London Fields station. It is common land adjoining the Hackney Central area of the London Borough of Hackney. The park covers an area of 12.65 hectares, and includes sporting and recreation facilities. The park's history is recorded as early as the 13th century, and it has been known as London Fields since the mid-16th century.
Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopædia.
Hackney South and Shoreditch is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Meg Hillier of Labour Co-op.
Kingsland was a small road-side settlement centred on Kingsland High Street on the Old North Road, around the junction with Dalston Lane. It is no longer discernable as a separate settlement, though the historic street pattern remains. Since the opening of Dalston Junction station in 1865, the area has become known as Dalston, which was originally a separate hamlet further east. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, the area is within the London Borough of Hackney.
St Leonard's, Shoreditch, is the ancient parish church of Shoreditch, often known simply as Shoreditch Church. It is located at the intersection of Shoreditch High Street with Hackney Road, within the London Borough of Hackney in East London. The current building dates from about 1740 and is Grade I listed. The church is mentioned in the line ""When I grow rich", say the bells of Shoreditch" from the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons.
Clapton Square is the second largest garden square in the London Borough of Hackney, located in Lower Clapton, Clapton. It is lined by buildings on three sides. Its Conservation Area designated in 1969 – extended in 1991 and 2000 – takes in a larger green space separated by a stretch of open road: St John's Gardens. Those gardens have the tallest and largest building visible from all parts of the square's garden, the Church of St John-at-Hackney, rebuilt in 1792-97 which contains older monuments. Two sides of the square are lined with tall, partly stone-dressed, classical, Georgian terraced houses.
William Coward (1648–1738) was a London merchant in the Jamaica trade, remembered for his support of English Dissenters, particularly his educational philanthropy.
The Church of St John the Baptist, Hoxton, usually known as St John's Hoxton, is an Anglican parish church in the Hoxton area of Hackney, London N1.
Henry Forster Burder, D.D. (1783–1864) was an English nonconformist minister.
Stik, stylised as STIK, is a British graffiti artist based in London. Born in 1979, with no formal art school training, Stik to known for painting large stick figures that are six-lines, and two-dot figures.
New City College (NCC) is a large college of further education with campuses in East London and Essex. The college was formed in 2016 with the amalgamation of separate colleges, beginning with the merger between Tower Hamlets College and Hackney Community College, followed by the gradual additions of Redbridge College, Epping Forest College, and both Havering College of Further and Higher Education and Havering Sixth Form College. It is the second largest provider of post-16 education in the country since 2019.