THE GREEN: BETHNAL GREEN VILLAGE. (fn. 26)
The earliest area of settlement was
probably around the green, particularly in the
north-east near St. Winifred's well and St.
George's chapel, the area possibly identifiable
with the original 'bright or Blitha's corner'
(Blithehale). (fn. 27) The village was defined on the
east by Rushy (Russia) Lane and the Back Lane
(Globe Road), which separated it from the demesne lands and open fields. Besides medieval
cottages around Barnard's Lane (Old Ford
Road), (fn. 28) St. George's chapel stood by 1512 in an
inclosure on the green at the western corner of
the lane and what later became Victoria Park
Square. (fn. 29) There were added, by the 16th century
and probably earlier, a few larger houses, the
retreats of courtiers or merchants from London.
The Corner House, the capital messuage of
Pyott's estate, stood by 1538 on the eastern
corner of Barnard's Lane opposite the chapel; it
was later rebuilt and extended. (fn. 30) By c. 1550 Sir
John Gresham's house, rebuilt as Kirby's Castle
in the 1570s, adjoined the green just south of
Green Street. (fn. 31) The estate included a farmhouse
which had dwindled to a cottage by 1577. (fn. 32)
Most of the green itself was preserved by the
purchase in 1678, by Thomas Rider and other
owners and occupiers of neighbouring houses,
of 11 a. of waste east of Cambridge Heath Road
and ½ a. to its west to prevent any new building.
It was let out as three closes of farmland, (fn. 33) and
in 1690 was settled in trust for the poor. (fn. 34) The
purchase apparently succeeded in keeping humble building at bay while encouraging gentry,
several of whom were said in 1688 to have come
to live there since the inclosure. (fn. 35)
Though from the late 16th century piecemeal
development began to fill in the empty plots
around the green, eventually extending back from
it in all directions, even in the 18th century,
while much of the rest of Bethnal Green was
being covered with small houses for weavers, the
area around the green remained socially superior.
Contemporary descriptions and illustrations
suggest that Gascoyne in 1703 confused two
houses at the northern end of the green, the
capital houses respectively of the Dickens and
Pyotts estates. The large, winged house depicted
at the northern corner of Cambridge Heath
Road and Old Ford Road should probably have
been shown on the site of the Corner House at
the north-east corner of Old Ford Road and
Victoria Park Square, while the smaller threegabled house depicted there (fn. 36) was probably
Lyons Hall, demolished c. 1794. (fn. 37)
BETHNAL GREEN
THE DISTRICTS IN 1826
In 1751 there were some 65 houses around the
green on the eastern side of Cambridge Heath
Road and 93 on the western side. Those on the
western side were overwhelmingly small houses,
84 per cent being rated at £5 or less a year,
compared with 53 per cent on the eastern side;
11 per cent were rated at £6-£10 compared with
33 per cent on the east. There were two houses
on the west rated at £11-£15 compared with five
on the east, and only one large house on the west,
rated at £16 compared with one house rated at
£16 and two at £30 on the east. (fn. 38)
The following paragraphs trace the piecemeal
expansion of settlement round the green beginning
at its northern end. North of the green and the
later Old Ford Road were copyhold houses
belonging to the Dickens family, probably by
1614, on a site bounded west by Cambridge
Heath Road, north and east by Conduit Close. (fn. 39)
In 1637 Nicholas Dickens (d. 1653), a London
haberdasher, built a house on the green south of
his copyhold property (fn. 40) and by 1661 the estate
contained two tenements and five cottages. (fn. 41) In
1763 it had a large house on the corner site, a
house with a large garden north of it, and five
houses running eastward from the corner house
along the north side of Old Ford Road. (fn. 42) The
Dickens estate experienced the first extensive
building: Aaron Eele, of Mile End New Town
and Daniel Bowyer of Whitechapel were building in Patriot Square in 1792-4 (fn. 43) and, joining it
to the west where it fronted Cambridge Road,
Patriot Row was built about the same time. (fn. 44)
Among those buying the new houses were an
employee of East India House, a Whitechapel
brandy merchant, a Covent Garden coal merchant,
and a City gentleman. (fn. 45)
East of the Dickens estate lay Conduit close,
part of Pyotts. In 1643 that estate included
several cottages, tenements, and tofts which
were probably old (fn. 46) and in 1734 six ruinous
wooden houses stood north of Old Ford Road. (fn. 47)
One was the Hampshire Hog, probably the Hog
and Pye licensed in 1722. (fn. 48) The others perhaps
included three old houses on the estate leased to
the Revd. John Lawrence and Roderick
Patcheco, one of the Jews living in the vicinity
who gave rise to the name Jews' Walk for the
western end of Old Ford Lane. When Pyotts was
broken up and sold in 1753, the houses were
bought and pulled down by Anthony Natt. (fn. 49) He
replaced them with a three-storeyed terrace
(originally 10-12, renumbered in 1875 as nos.
17-21 (odd) Old Ford Road), (fn. 50) still there in 1988.
The Hampshire Hog continued to be licensed
until 1775, perhaps not in its old building. (fn. 51)
Natt (d. 1756), a carpenter who had built on
Nichol and Carter estates in the 1720s and
1730s, (fn. 52) bought what was described as the chapel
house in 1748 and shortly afterwards built two
houses adjoining it to the west. (fn. 53) In 1772 his son
Anthony Natt, rector of Netteswell (Essex),
bought the freehold from the lord of the manor (fn. 54)
and in 1790 employed Ruby, a carpenter, to
replace the two houses with four, forming the
Terrace, Old Ford Road. (fn. 55)
On the east side of the green and south of the
Corner House, at least by the 17th century and
probably earlier, several houses faced the green,
with their tofts and crofts stretching to Back
Lane. By 1703 a lane (later Victoria Park Square)
ran from Old Ford Road to Green Street in front
of the houses. (fn. 56) Three houses were built on the
ground next to the Corner House, probably
fronting Victoria Park Square, c. 1736. (fn. 57) The
Corner House itself was renamed Aldgate House
after 1753, later occupied by prominent Jews,
and demolished in 1806. (fn. 58)
On the site later occupied by nos. 21-23 Victoria Park Square stood, possibly by 1621, the
Wheatsheaf, in 1662 two cottages associated
with another tenement as part of John Stonier's
estate. (fn. 59) Two houses were associated with Markhams by 1654: (fn. 60) the Blind Beggar at the southern
end and, possibly on the site of no. 18, the house
then occupied by Edward Pratt and in 1659
perhaps by one of the joint owners, Waldrof
Lodowick, a London merchant. (fn. 61) South of the
Blind Beggar, between it and Green Street, were
two tenements and a cottage by 1647: (fn. 62) they were
four tenements by 1683, (fn. 63) held with 4 a. stretching eastward to Back Lane. (fn. 64) North of the Blind
Beggar were, by 1668, a tenement and three
cottages, (fn. 65) which by 1688 had become six tenements. (fn. 66) Nearby houses in 1688 included five
tenements associated with Eastfields (fn. 67) in 1657
and a messuage and three tenements belonging
to Hawes in 1659. (fn. 68) Both estates passed through
the hands of the Grunwins before they were
divided at the beginning of the 18th century. (fn. 69)
In 1692 James Grunwin, a merchant tailor,
leased to Peter Causton, another London merchant,
a house with nine rooms, a banqueting house
which was probably separate, a summer house,
and a two-seated latrine. (fn. 70) The house may have
been that occupied by Robert Edmunds, assessed
for 4 hearths in 1664, (fn. 71) which, together with
cottages, occupied the site later known as nos.
19 (fn. 72) and 20 Victoria Park Square (fn. 73) and passed to
the Goulds. (fn. 74) A Jew, Jacob Cohendezevedo,
occupied it before 1769. (fn. 75) The rest of the property
was sold in 1701 to Joseph Blissett, (fn. 76) who from
1693 accumulated fractions of Markhams (fn. 77)
which by 1687 included a house called the Sugar
Loaf. (fn. 78) Blissett may have built nos. 16-18, a
brick and tiled range of two storeys with cellars
and attics and pilastered doorways of c. 1700. (fn. 79)
Bethnal Green village: principal estates
1 Dickens, 2 Pyott, 3 Poor's Lands, 4 Kirby's Castle, 5 Penn, 6 St. Paul's. The boundary is that of the district in 1826
Sugar Loaf Walk, which joined Victoria Park
Square to Back Lane by 1703, (fn. 80) probably
marked the boundary of Blissett's and Gould's
estates. Goulds, to the north, was split up in
1769. Cohendezevedo's house passed to Peter
Mestear, who built another in the garden and
enfranchised both in 1772. (fn. 81) In 1779 Mestear
acquired, on the south side of Sugar Loaf Walk,
from Blissetts four houses (fn. 82) which had existed
by 1744 (fn. 83) and were probably those depicted in
the alley in 1703. (fn. 84) An old garden of Goulds was
bought by David Home, a peruke maker, who
had bought two houses on the neighbouring
Stonier estate in 1757. (fn. 85) He built a new house
and obtained the enfranchisement of all three
houses, probably on the site of no. 21, in 1772. (fn. 86)
Further south three houses were built 'near the
Blind Beggar' in 1788. (fn. 87)
Two or more tenements in Back Lane in 1653
had become six wooden cottages by 1674. (fn. 88) They
were split into two estates in 1720, (fn. 89) the northern
three with an added one becoming nos. 11-14. (fn. 90)
The southern three had been replaced by two
partly brick houses by 1734 (fn. 91) and there were
another two by 1766. (fn. 92)
South of Green Street Kirby's Castle had
wealthy occupants throughout the 17th century. (fn. 93)
From 1726 the house, by then misleadingly
called the Blind Beggar's House, was a private
lunatic asylum. (fn. 94) It was extended and by 1777
was called the White House. (fn. 95) In 1685 the owner
James Alpha agreed to build a two-storeyed and
garretted house for John How, lessee of the
former home farmhouse, then a cottage. (fn. 96) By
1698 the old farmhouse had been replaced by
five brick tenements fronting the green south of
Kirby's Castle, a terrace of four small houses,
and almost on the southern border a detached
house with 14 rooms, a brewhouse, and coach
house, occupied in 1703 by the estate's owner
Col. Joseph Jorey. (fn. 97) Jorey's house was by 1760
a workhouse (fn. 98) and, of the terrace of four houses,
one had been pulled down by 1802 and the
others converted into two, owned by the widow
of the 'keeper of lunatics'. (fn. 99)
The western side of the green apparently had
no settlement before the 16th century. Shortly
before 1581 John Soda, a London grocer, built
a house on the waste west of Cambridge Heath
Road, slightly south of Cambridge Heath, (fn. 1) for
which his widow Joan obtained a 500-year lease
from Henry, Lord Wentworth, in 1585. (fn. 2) It
remained the most northerly of the houses on
the west side of the green in the 17th century,
and in 1652 was a 'great messuage' with an
adjoining tenement, courtyards, gardens, and 1
a. of pasture containing fruit trees and 32 elms. (fn. 3)
Called the City of Nineveh in 1713, when
William Coleman owned it, (fn. 4) it may have been
the winged house depicted in 1703 opposite Old
Ford Road or a smaller house to the north. (fn. 5) In
1722 William Spering's daughters conveyed at
least part of Coleman's estate to George Colson,
a London carpenter. (fn. 6) Colson probably built
George Street, which ran southward from Old
Bethnal Green Road, parallel with Cambridge
Heath Road, where in 1726 he leased building
plots fronting east onto it. (fn. 7) In 1740 he leased to
a butcher a shop 'lately built' and ground called
'the Grove'. (fn. 8) By 1750 nine houses stood near the
watchhouse, seven fronting east and two south
on 'the Grove near Bethnal Green'. (fn. 9) The Grove
may have been the belt of trees depicted running
north alongside Cambridge Heath Road from
the watchhouse in 1703. A row of houses already
existed there in 1703, possibly the northern part
of the later-named Paradise Row. (fn. 10) The group
of very small houses opposite Old Ford Road,
Little George Street and Peacock Court or Place,
apparently existed by the mid 18th century, (fn. 11)
possibly earlier as the Peacock inn was there by
1730. (fn. 12) By the end of the century Paradise Row
extended to Bethnal Green Road and Hollybush
Place had been built to the west. (fn. 13) Another three
houses were 'nearly finished' at nos. 7-9 Paradise
Row in 1814. (fn. 14) From 1788 no. 3 Paradise Row
housed Daniel Mendoza, the Jewish boxer. (fn. 15) In
1783 Capt. Jonathan Punderson was building
Punderson's Place and Gardens on the narrow
2-acre strip running north from Bethnal Green
Road to the west of Stainer's estate, (fn. 16) which had
belonged to Nicholas Dickens. (fn. 17)
Other pieces of waste south of Soda's were
granted as copyhold to London butchers in
1581. (fn. 18) They were probably the two parcels of
waste which were leased by Thomas, Lord
Wentworth, in 1614 for 50 years after the death
of Lady Anne Wentworth (d. 1625), with a
covenant to maintain buildings. By 1652 they
contained three cottages and farm buildings, all
built by the lessee, Timothy Rushbrook. (fn. 19) The
property was sold in 1654 to John Spering, a
local man (fn. 20) who let out one house in 1666 to
John Harwood and in 1669 to Robert Hudson. (fn. 21)
A second house, to the east of the first, was leased
or sold shortly before 1667. In 1671 Spering left
1 a., a house in his own possession, one occupied
by Hudson, two tenements, and cottages. (fn. 22)
Also west of the green William Sebright (d.
1620) occupied a house separated from St. Paul's
estate to the south by 1½ a. of attached land. In
1625 Ellis Crisp, alderman, held the freehold.
Dame Hester Pye, probably his widow, and
his son Sir Nicholas Crisp leased the house
and 2 a., and a further ½ a. of exotic trees
beyond a little lane, to Balthazar Gerbier, (fn. 23)
who opened his academy in the house. (fn. 24) Gerbier had started his English career when
presented to James I by the Dutch ambassador
Noel de Caron, who had earlier lived in
Bethnal Green. (fn. 25) In 1655 Crisp sold his property to Robert Stainer, (fn. 26) who was assessed for
as many as 12 hearths in 1664 (fn. 27) and 15 in
1671. (fn. 28) He was dead by 1678 when his land
contained one or more houses west of the
green. By 1703 there were two houses there,
witheast of them a terrace of houses and gardens
fronting the Poor's Land. (fn. 29)
From 1620 Walter Cooke, Master of Trinity
House (d. c. 1656) (fn. 30) held 3 a. south of the lane
which became Bethnal Green Road. By 1686 the
land was used as a nursery by Matthew Penn, (fn. 31)
who had a house at its northern end by 1696. (fn. 32)
On the adjoining estate to the east terraced
houses fronting Cambridge Road ran southward
from the lane by 1703. (fn. 33) On the corner of the
lane and Cambridge Road the Salmon and Ball
stood in 1733. (fn. 34) The Green Man existed by 1750
in the middle of the terrace. (fn. 35) By 1764 five houses
fronted Bethnal Green Road. (fn. 36)
As in other districts, the Napoleonic era saw
piecemeal building make way for the development of whole estates. East of the green the 4 a.
between Victoria Park Square and Back Lane
had been fragmented by 1797 (fn. 37) and houses were
being built in 1807 in Chester Place on the north
side of Green Street, partly by Thomas Seares,
a local bricklayer. (fn. 38) Thurlow Street existed by
1809, (fn. 39) as by 1826 did houses behind Chester
Place in Helen's Place and the beginnings of
Bernham or Burnham Square in the corner
between Globe Street (Back Lane) and Sugar
Loaf Walk. (fn. 40) Joseph Merceron accumulated
property to the north between 1810 and 1833
but did not build. (fn. 41) On Peter Mestear's estate,
centred on Sugar Loaf Walk, the White Hart
brewery had been built by 1819. (fn. 42) At the northwest corner of Victoria Park Square and Old
Ford Road Aldgate House was replaced by 1811
by Ebenezer or Park chapel and small tenements, (fn. 43) which by 1813 covered the whole
frontage on Old Ford Road as far as Back Lane
and Gretton Place. (fn. 44)
At the northern end of the green the houses at
the end of Old Ford Road, on the Dickens estate,
were rebuilt in the early 19th century as plain,
three-storeyed houses in what was called Jews'
Walk or North Side. (fn. 45) Pyotts to the east was
leased for building in the 1820s when Bates Place
fronting Old Ford Road, the west side of Russia
Lane, and the new Providence Place were built. (fn. 46)
At the southern end the Kirby's Castle estate,
occupying the whole area south of Green Street
and west of Globe Road, was split up in 1809.
Houses were soon built, some by Charles Pike,
on the west side of Globe Road and fronting the
new James or North Street and Cornwall
Street. (fn. 47) A factory existed by 1817. (fn. 48) Kirby's
Castle (the White House) remained an asylum;
the Red House, a house designed for the insane,
had been built to the south of it by 1831. (fn. 49)
St. John's church was built on the green at the
junction of Cambridge Road and Green Street
in 1828. (fn. 50)
On the west side of Cambridge Road the St.
Paul's estate, bounded south by Three Colts
Lane and long held on leases for lives by the
Boon family, was 'in the hands of Blake and
Mead in 1809. (fn. 51) Thomas Blewett Mead, a
Shoreditch victualler, was involved in leasing
new houses in Bath, Parliament, and Coventry
streets and Cambridge Road in 1811 and 1813; (fn. 52)
Blake was probably James Blake, an auctioneer
from Bishopsgate Without and a developer of
Nag's Head Field near Hackney Road in 1807-
8. (fn. 53) Part of the St. Paul's estate was acquired c.
1818 by John C. Severne, who gave his name to
Severne or Abingdon Street. (fn. 54) Building was
complete by 1826. There were 207 houses and
one public house, the Queen Adelaide, on the
estate in 1836. (fn. 55)
The Penn's Garden estate, a strip of 3 a. west
of St. Paul's estate from the south side of Bethnal
Green Road to Three Colts Lane, passed to the
Lucas family in 1789. In 1811 Joseph Lucas
leased it to Ann Potts (fn. 56) who granted 56-year
leases of plots to local builders, among them
William Timmins, John Pitt, and Francis
Fuller. (fn. 57) By 1822 there were, besides the 17thcentury farmhouse fronting Bethnal Green
Road, 106 houses in Lucas, Potts, Pitt, and Fox
streets. (fn. 58) By 1836 there were 25 houses and the
Lord Wellington on the southern part of the
estate, on the north side of Three Colts Lane
and in Primrose Street. (fn. 59) On the north side of
Bethnal Green Road, Hollybush Gardens existed between Hollybush Place and Punderson's
Gardens by 1818 (fn. 60) and contained four houses by
1836. (fn. 61) Rebuilding included the construction by
John Litchfield of five houses on the site of old
wooden houses, possibly George Colson's, on
the north side of George Street, once called
Nineveh Corner, after 1824. (fn. 62)
By 1836 Bethnal Green village had c. 289
houses, a public house, a brewery, and a factory
on the east side of Cambridge Road and 401
houses and seven public houses on the west
side. (fn. 63)