Prescot Street is a street in Aldgate in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Central London. It runs between Goodman's Yard and Mansell Street in the west and Leman Street in the east. The area, including Ayliff Street, Leman Street and Mansell Street as well as Prescot Street, was built up in the seventeenth century as part of the development of Goodman's Fields by William Leman. [1] Prescot was the maiden name of Leman's mother Rebecca. [2]
In the early 2000s, the street was part of a large archaeological dig which uncovered large quantities of remains from the Roman period. [3] The finds were on the site where the Leonardo Royal Hotel now stands, and formed part of the East London Roman Cemetery. Roman funeral urns were first discovered here in 1678. [2]
Of the original 18th Century housing only one has survived, at number 23. [4] The London Infirmary was on the south side of Prescot Street, and the north side of Chamber Street, until it moved to Whitechapel Road in 1757 and became the London Hospital. [5] The Magdalen House for Reception of Penitent Prostitutes which opened in 1758, took over the building. [6] [7] An old alleyway, Magdalen Passage, survives to commemorate the name, just west of number 16. [8] [9]
In the Regency era (by 1800) the street was known as Great Prescott Street and there was an adjoining Little Prescott Street. [10]
The Roman Catholic English Martyrs Church, designed by Edward Welby Pugin and built between 1873 and 1876, is at number 30. [11] At number 15 is a Victorian pub, The Princess of Prussia, built around 1880. [12] It is adjoined to another Victorian building, number 16, once the Whitechapel County Court, built in Italianate style in red brick on the site of the old hospital. [2] [13]
At number 1 Prescot Street (on the corner of Leman Street) is the Grade II listed former Cooperative Wholesale Society building, once known as The Tea House (1930–33). [14] Designed by L G Ekins, [15] the building is "..an unusual example in Britain of the German Expressionist style." [16]
During World War II, the area was severely damaged during The Blitz [17] (a bomb site can still be seen in Magdalen Passage). All of the buildings on the north side are modern. On the south side (at number 21) is the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which moved from its previous location in Belgrave Square to the new building in October 2013. [18]
Whitechapel is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough town centre. Whitechapel is located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross.
The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the East End of London, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by members of the British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley, and various anti-fascist demonstrators including local trade unionists, communists, anarchists, British Jews, and socialist groups. The anti-fascist counter-demonstration included both organised and unaffiliated participants.
Mansell Street is a street in Central London, which is part of the London Inner Ring Road. For most of its length from the north, this street marks the boundary between the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. However, the southernmost part is entirely in Tower Hamlets.
The Strand is a major street in the City of Westminster, Central London. The street, which is part of London's West End theatreland, runs just over 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where it becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4, a main road running west from inner London.
Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were initially Protestant but later mostly Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, ostensibly to house "fallen women". The term referred to female sexual promiscuity or sex workers, young women who became pregnant outside of marriage, or young girls and teenagers who did not have familial support. They were required to work without pay apart from meagre food provisions, while the institutions operated large commercial laundries, serving customers outside their bases.
Minories is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in the Aldgate area of the City of London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate.
The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. The current hospital building has 1248 beds and 34 wards. It opened in February 2012.
Sir John Leman (1544–1632) was a tradesman from Beccles, England who became Lord Mayor of London.
St Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall is a Church of England guild church in the City of London on Gresham Street, next to the Guildhall. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It is the official church of the Lord Mayor of London.
Wellclose Square is a public square in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south.
Whitechapel Road is a major arterial road in Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It is named after a small chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary and connects Whitechapel High Street to the west with Mile End Road to the east in Stepney. The road is part of the historic Roman road from London to Colchester, now the A11.
St George's German Lutheran Church is a church in Alie Street, Whitechapel just to the east of the City of London. From its foundation in 1762 until 1995 it was used by German Lutherans. Today the small vestry serves as an office for the Historic Chapels Trust and the church is available for hire for secular events.
Whitechapel High Street is a street in the Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is about 0.2 miles long, making it "one of the shortest high streets in London". It links Aldgate High Street to the south-west with Whitechapel Road to the north-east, and includes junctions with Commercial Street to the north and Commercial Road to the east.
Leman Street was a railway station on the main line from Fenchurch Street to Blackwall in east London. It was 38 chains (0.76 km) down the line from Fenchurch Street, situated on the east side of Leman Street, near Cable Street, in the parish of Whitechapel.
Alie Street is a 400-metre-long street located in Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It links Mansell Street with Commercial Road in the East End of London. For much of its history, the western part was known as Great Alie Street, with the eastern part called Little Alie Street.
Leman Street, once known as Lemon Street, is a street in Tower Hamlets. It was built in the seventeenth century as part of the development of Goodman's Fields. It is named after John Leman who was responsible for this development, which also included Ayliff Street, Mansell Street, and Prescot Street.
Trump Street is a street in the City of London that was originally known as Trumpadere Street, probably after the trumpet or horn makers who once worked there or in the adjacent Trump Alley. It was built after the Great Fire of London (1666) but completely destroyed by bombing during the Second World War and has since been entirely rebuilt.
Stephen Peter Godin was an English insurance broker in the City of London and a land-owner in Middlesex. He acquired Cullands Grove in Southgate in what is now north London and may have built the first house on the land. He played an active part in public life and was an officer of a number of charitable organisations.
Chamber Street, once known as Chambers Street, is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London. It runs between Mansell Street in the west and Leman Street in the east, parallel with Prescot Street to the North and the London, Tilbury and Southend line to the south.
Whitechapel Mount was a large artificial mound of disputed origin. A prominent landmark in 18th century London, it stood in the Whitechapel Road beside the newly constructed London Hospital, being not only older, but significantly taller. It was crossed by tracks, served as a scenic viewing-point, could be ascended by horses and carts, and supported some trees and formal dwelling-houses. It has been interpreted as: a defensive fortification in the English Civil War; a burial place for victims of the Great Plague; rubble from the Great Fire of London; and as a laystall. Possibly all of these theories are true to some extent.
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