Urban growth The westward growth of London beyond the
City Wall, and towards the seat of government in
Westminster, took place along the banks of the
River Thames and along the roads leading from
Ludgate (
Fleet Street and
The Strand) and
Newgate (
Holborn and
High Holborn). This growth, initially limited to
Farringdon Without (which includes a part of Holborn) was well underway in the 12th century, leading to the Ward being retrospectively described as the capital's original
West End. but as the street leads from Roman
Newgate, and the church was sited on it by the 10th century, it is probably considerably older. In 1394 the population had grown so large that the Ward of Farringdon had grown too large for effective governance and was formally divided into the separate Wards, (rather than separate named areas within the same Ward) in 1394. The westward growth towards Westminster accelerated in the Tudor period. The westerly ribbon development through the parish was complete before the
Great Fire of 1666, with the displacement of people accelerating the development of the rest of the area. The northern fringe the last area to be developed, with this process finalised in the 18th century.
Medieval St Etheldreda's Church, in gated
Ely Place, was originally the chapel of the
Bishop of Ely's London palace. This ecclesiastical connection allowed the street to remain part of the county of
Cambridgeshire until the mid-1930s. This meant that
Ye Olde Mitre, a pub located in a court hidden behind the buildings of the Place and the Garden, was licensed by the Cambridgeshire Magistrates. St Etheldreda's is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Britain, and one of two extant buildings in London dating back to the era of
EdwardI.
Tudor and Stuart periods Henry VII paid for the road to be paved in 1494 because the thoroughfare "was so deep and miry that many perils and hazards were thereby occasioned, as well to the king's carriages passing that way, as to those of his subjects". Criminals from the
Tower and
Newgate passed up Holborn on their way to be hanged at
Tyburn or
St Giles.
Hatton Garden, the centre of the diamond trade, was leased to a favourite of Queen
Elizabeth I, Sir Christopher Hatton, at the insistence of the Queen to provide him with an income. (modern King's Cross) to the north. The area was not damaged by the
Great Fire of London in 1666, though the area of destruction reached its south-eastern boundary.
Legal profession Charles Dickens took up residence in
Furnival's Inn (later the site of "
Holborn Bars", the former
Prudential building designed by
Alfred Waterhouse). Dickens put his character "Pip", in
Great Expectations, in residence at
Barnard's Inn opposite, now occupied by
Gresham College.
Staple Inn, notable as the promotional image for
Old Holborn tobacco, is nearby. The three of these were
Inns of Chancery. The most northerly of the
Inns of Court,
Gray's Inn, is off Holborn, as is
Lincoln's Inn: the area has been associated with the legal professions since mediaeval times, and the name of the local militia (now
Territorial Army unit, the
Inns of Court & City Yeomanry) still reflects that. The unit is nicknamed the ''Devil's Own'', a name given by
George III, not due to ferocity in battle, but rather to his dislike of lawyers.
Historic points of interest In the 18th century, Holborn was the location of the infamous
Mother Clap's
molly house (meeting place for homosexual men). There were 22 inns or taverns recorded in the 1860s. The
Holborn Empire, originally
Weston's Music Hall, stood between 1857 and 1960, when it was pulled down after structural damage sustained in
the Blitz. The theatre premièred one of the first full-length feature films in 1914,
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, a 50-minute
melodrama filmed in
Kinemacolor. Subsequently, the area diversified and become recognisable as the modern street. A plaque stands at number 120 commemorating
Thomas Earnshaw's invention of the
Marine chronometer, which facilitated long-distance travel. At the corner of Hatton Garden was the old family department store of
Gamages. Until 1992, the London Weather Centre was located in the street. The Prudential insurance company relocated in 2002. The
Daily Mirror offices used to be directly opposite it, but the site is now occupied by
Sainsbury's head office. Behind the Prudential Building lies the Anglo-Catholic church of St Alban the Martyr. Originally built in 1863 by architect
William Butterfield, it was gutted during the Blitz but later reconstructed, retaining Butterfield's west front. On
Holborn Circus lies the Church of
St Andrew, an ancient
Guild Church that survived the
Great Fire of London. However, the parochial authority decided to commission
Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild it. Although the nave was destroyed in the Blitz, the reconstruction was faithful to Wren's original. Just to the west of the circus, but originally sited in the middle, is a large equestrian statue of
Prince Albert by Charles Bacon, erected in 1874 as the city's official monument to him. It was presented by Charles Oppenheim, of the diamond trading company
De Beers, whose headquarters is in nearby Charterhouse Street. building, now the
Rosewood London == Geography ==