Shoreditch

Shoreditch is a place in the London Borough of Hackney.

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Shoreditch is 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north east of Charing Cross and is located at the point where five postcode areas converge. Before 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch.

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It was the site of an Augustinian priory in the 12th Century until its dissolution in 1539. In 1576 the first playhouse (theatre) in England was opened, and in 1577 The Curtain theatre was opened in the middle of what is Curtain Road today.

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During the 17th Century wealthy traders and Huguenot silk weavers moved to the area, establishing a textile industry centered to the South around Spitalfields Market. The area declined along with the textile industry and from the end of the 19th Century to the 1960s, Shoreditch was a by-word for crime, prostitution and poverty.

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In 1993, Jay Joplin opened the White Cube gallery on Hoxton Square, leading to an artistic and social renaissance as artists and, later, City professionals flocked to the area.

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Today Shoreditch is a busy and popular district, noted for its large number of galleries, bars and media businesses (although the prostitution and, to a lesser degree, the textile industry still remain).

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Charing Cross: The name Charing Cross, now given to a district of central London in the City of Westminster, comes from the original hamlet of Charing, where King Edward I placed a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile....

1965: 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar)....

Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch: The Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch was a metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1899 and 1965, when it was merged with others to form the London Borough of Hackney....