Civil and ecclesiastical administration Portsoken Ward John Stow recounts the origin of the area from the
Liber Trinitae, where the
Saxon King Edgar was petitioned by 13 knights to grant them the wasteland to the East of the
city wall, desiring to form a guild. The request was said to be granted on condition that each knight should "accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one below the ground, and the third in the water; after this, at a certain day in East Smithfield, they should run with spears against all comers; all of which was gloriously performed; and the same day the King named it
Knighten Guilde, and so bounded it from Ealdgate (
Aldgate) to the place where the bars now are toward the east, &c. and again toward the south unto to the river of Thames, and so into the water, and throw his speare; so that all East Smithfield, with the right part of the street that goeth by Dodding Pond into the Thames and also the hospital of St Katherin's, with the mills that were founded in
King Stephen's daies, and the outward stone wall, and the new ditch of the Tower, are of the saide fee and liberbertie." The strip of land became known as the
Portsoken, an extramural ward of the City of London which originally extended as far south of the Thames. The name East Smithfield - derived from
smoothfield - was applied to an area corresponding, either exactly or approximately, to the Portsoken. Portsoken later lost its southern, riverside, section and the term East Smithfield was subsequently applied only to the part taken out of the Portsoken.
Land ownership and privileges Later,
Edward the Confessor confirmed the liberties upon the heirs, and these were again confirmed in the reign of
William Rufus. By 1115, during the reign of
Henry I, the entire
soke, or
liberty, was given to the church of Holy Trinity within Aldgate, which had been founded in 1107 by
Matilda, Henry's Queen. The prior of the Abbey was then to sit as an
ex officio Alderman of London. The southern part of East Smithfield was given by
Holy Trinity Priory as a site for the
Hospital of St Katharine, founded by
Matilda (wife of
Stephen of England), in 1148. Further foundations were bestowed by
Eleanor (widow of
Henry III) and
Philippa (wife of
Edward III). The importance of the hospital was such that the whole of East Smithfield came to be deemed within the Precinct of St Katharine. ,
St Katharine Docks and the
Royal Mint. The latter moved from the Tower of London to new premises
c.1809 A further monastic house was the
Abbey of St Mary Graces (or Eastminster), but this seems not to have had an administrative unit associated with it. From 1855, the whole area of the former East Smithfield was reunited under the administration of the
Whitechapel District.
County functions The area was part of the
historic (or ancient) county of
Middlesex, but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the
Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets), under the leadership of the
Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets (the post was always filled by the Constable of the Tower of London). The role of the
Tower Division ended when East Smithfield became part of the new
County of London in 1889. The County of London was replaced by Greater London in 1965.
Plague Between 1347 and 1351, the
Black Death struck the City. Two cemeteries were opened in East Smithfield to take the dead from London. During the epidemic, 200 bodies a day were buried, in mass graves, stacked five deep. In 2007, a study led by the
University of Albany, NY exhumed and examined 490 skeletons – finding that the disease afflicted disproportionately the already weak and malnourished.
Migration By 1236 Jews were settled in the area for protection by the Tower garrison — until their expulsion in 1290. It's not entirely clear if the settled in East Smithfield, St Katharine's or both. They appear to have arrived as a result of the
war with Spain, being freed from Spanish slave ships, or slavery in Spanish colonies, by English warships. These free black Londoners, some of whom had mixed African and Spanish ancestry, often found work as sailors or interpreters. Many were servants and one appears to have worked at the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The parish records from that time also reveal the presence of French, Dutch and Indian residents as well as at least one Persian and one East Indian (Bengali). Around 1821 the writer
Pierce Egan wrote a semi-autobiographical account of a visit to the
Coach and Horses public house on
Nightingale Lane (now called Sir Thomas More Street) in East Smithfield. The story tells of three upper class friends who tiring of high society events decide to “see a bit of life at the East End of Town”. Egan compares the East Ends informal egalitarian nightlife favourably to the formality of the
West End.
Poverty and philanthropy In 1844, "An Association for promoting Cleanliness among the Poor" was established, and they built a
bath-house and laundry in Glasshouse Yard. This cost a single
penny for bathing or washing, and by June 1847 was receiving 4,284 people a year. This led to an
Act of Parliament to encourage other municipalities to build their own, and the model spread quickly throughout the
East End. Timbs noted that "... so strong was the love of cleanliness thus encouraged that women often toiled to wash their own and their children's clothing, who had been compelled to
sell their hair to purchase food to satisfy the cravings of hunger".
Economic Activity A
Pentecost fair was granted in the district in 1229. The
Royal Mint moved from the
Tower of London, to a site at the end of East Smithfield in 1809. Today, this building, by
Robert Smirke and its gatehouse are all that remain; the rest being swept away by continual expansion, until in November 1975, the London Mint was closed and production transferred to
Wales. The site is intended to become the new Chinese Embassy. In 1828, the entirety of Katharine's district, as well as southern East Smithfield were swept away to allow the construction of
St Katharine Docks. Around 11,000 people were evicted and had to find new homes. ==Notable people==