This is London EC1, EC2 and The City fringes
London EC1, Clerkenwell, Finsbury, Barbican, Smithfield, City Fringe areas
CLERKENWELL took its name from the Clerk’s Well in Farringdon Lane, part of the well remains visible and has now been incorporated into a building called Well Court, which Jarvis Keller sold for clients in 2001 The Well is visible through a window of 14/16 Farringdon Lane.
Clerkenwell has a long history, the nuns of St Mary's, Clerkenwell, lived on the site of the present St James’ church in Clerkenwell Green. The Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem has its English headquarters in Clerkenwell and St John’s Gate (now rebuilt as Priory Gate) is a gateway erected in 1504 in St Johns Square, which is now the headquarters of the St John Ambulance Associated.
The London Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London, England, to the north of what is now Charterhouse Square. Charterhouse Square houses a beautiful private garden and a mix of residential and commercial buildings. It also now houses the Malmaison Hotel which has been built behind the original Victorian façade of 18-21 Charterhouse Square.
During the Industrial Revolution Clerkenwell became a centre for breweries, distilleries and the printing industry, many of the buildings were later converted into luxury loft apartments. Clerkenwell also became a centre for the making of clocks and watches, there are still many workshops carrying on the tradition, such as Pennybank Chambers and of course the jewellery district in Hatton Garden.
CLERKENWELL TODAY
In the 1990s developers took advantage of the low capital values and the large warehouses and began converting the warehouses into New York style loft apartments and trendy studio offices. These studios and offices attracted the rising dot com industry and area saw tremendous growth which effectively spread out towards City Fringe locations such as Shoredtich, Hoxton and Brick Lane.
Along with this commercial and residential growth came a wealth of nightclubs, restaurants and art galleries. London’s first gastropub, The Eagle opened on Farringdon Road in 1991 and has since been joined by others such as The Well on St John Street, The Green on Clerkenwell Green and The Peasant on St John Street.
Several award winning restaurants are based in Clerkenwell such as St John which opened in 1994 and specialises in "nose to tail eating". More recently Smiths of Smithfield has become another landmark restaurant in Clerkenwell with four floors of restaurants overlooking the Smithfield Meat Market. Below Smiths is Fabric Nightclub, which is one of the largest and most popular night clubs in the UK and widely regarded as one of the best dance music venues in the world.
Clerkenwell has long attracted the creative industries. During more recent years the commercial property market in Clerkenwell has seen an increase in occupiers from Soho and Covent Garden moving into the area.
The refurbished buildings command rents that are within the reach of design firms, yet are well located to service clients in the City and the West End. It is believed that Clerkenwell has the highest concentration of architects of anywhere in the world. Nearly 2000 architects work in the area, almost 10% of the UK’s profession.
SMITHFIELD MARKET
Smithfield Market is located on Charterhouse Street. Meat
has been traded at Smithfield Market for over 800 years, making it one
of the oldest markets in London. Some of the buildings formerly
associated with the meat market have now been put to other uses.
The public park comprises the centre of the only part of Smithfield
which is still open space — this is in effect a large square with the
market forming one side and mostly older buildings the other three. The
south side is occupied by St Bartholomew's Hospital (known as Barts), and part of the east side by the church of St Bartholomew the Great. The church of St Bartholomew the Less is just inside the hospital's main gate.
TRANSPORT LINKS
Farringdon Station serves the Clerkenwell and Smithfield area. The station was opened on 9 January 1863 as the terminus of the original Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground metro line.
The station is due to become one of the most important transport interchanges in Central London, when the Crossrail project is developed. Under current plans the Crossrail station will be located between Farringdon Road and Charterhouse Square,
south of the existing ticket hall. The Farringdon ticket hall will be
located at the junction of Farringdon Road and Cowcross Street. The
area between the current and new stations is intended to be
pedestrianised.
A further ticket hall will be located to provide an additional interchange with Barbican tube station. Numerous buses link Clerkenwell to the west end, the city, east, south and north London. Bus stops are found on Farringdon Road, St John Street, Clerkenwell Road, Goswell Road and Old Street.
SHOREDITCH & HOXTON
A similar story to that of Clerkenwell in the
90s. Shoreditch and Hoxton have seem tremendous growth during the
past decade with the many warehouses and tanneries being converted into
commercial studio offices.
Artists were attracted to the cheap studio spaces and in typical
fashion numerous galleries and showrooms opened including the White
Cube Gallery opened in Hoxton Square after which many bars and
restaurants followed and Hoxton Square became a hip and arty place to
be and to been seen.
AMENITIES
Amenities in the area are better than ever with cafes, restaurants and bars in abundance. Office workers are spoilt for choice at lunchtimes and after work for places to socialise and in the evenings and weekends the area known as Shoreditch Triangle (the area bounded by Great Eastern Street, Old Street and Shoreditch High Street) is now home to more than 150 bars. Given Shoreditch’s proximity to Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate and the Broadgate Development the area now attracts a wide mix of office users. Old Street station provides excellent transport links and Liverpool Street station is a short walk.