Focus on Clerkenwell - Where small is beautiful
The subject of a new book, Clerkenwell is one of the few shopping centres left where small specialist firms have not been driven out by the relentless march of big supermarkets. As Peter Gruner discovered, concentrated in this modest area are thousands of craftsmen and designers who are heirs to the vibrant artisan crafts of 17th and 18th century
Published: 25th February, 2011
HISTORICALLY famous for its reformers and revolutionaries, including Wat Tyler and The Chartists, Clerkenwell has now become a model of “modern European renaissance”, according to a colourful new book about the area.
In Clerkenwell Change and Renewal, author Alan Ainsworth traces the history of the location back to when it was a fertile meadow, and on through the arrival of the monasteries and early developments.
Just 30 years ago, the area was an industrial wasteland in slow decline. Today it is marked by new loft conversions, stylish apartments, creative studios and renovated and restored historic buildings. Access to the City and a vibrant night life and a booming club and pub scene has attracted a growing number of young, professional residents.
Ainsworth quotes veteran politician and former MP Tony Benn on the importance of Clerkenwell Green for British radical and socialist movements.
Campaigner for the poor, Wat Tyler took his followers to Clerkenwell in 1381, as did the early trade unionists, the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The Chartists fought for political reform in clashes with police and Horse Guards on Clerkenwell Green in 1848. Lenin plotted against his capitalist foes by printing his underground journal The Spark in 1903 opposite the Green, in a former Welsh school that was to become – and remains – the Marx Memorial Library.
The library was established in 1933.
A commemoration committee was set up through the Labour Research Department, Marxist publishers Martin Lawrence Ltd, and the trade union movement, with the aim of creating it.
Until the mid-1960s, the communist daily newspaper the Morning Star was printed in nearby Farringdon Road.
Clerkenwell began in the Middle Ages as a settlement along the River Fleet, based around three religious communities.
Islington in the 17th century was the first independent village north of London. The high street was a busy halting point for travellers and traders on a medieval main route linking Hertfordshire and the North with the cattle market at Smithfield and the City.
At the same time, Clerkenwell had become a playground resort and spa, where people could escape London’s growing urban sprawl. Activities included sampling the alleged miracle mineral waters at Sadler’s Wells, and jolly blood sports such as bear and bull-baiting, cock-fighting and duck- hunting with dogs.
Britain’s famous dance theatre started out as an entertainment area for those visiting the spa. It was opened by vintner Thomas Sadler in 1683.
The well waters were thought to have medicinal properties and soon became popular with the aristocracy.
Thomas Rosoman, theatre manager from 1746 to 1771 (and after whom the nearby Rosoman Street is named), established the Wells’ pedigree for opera production.
New skills brought into the area by domestic and foreign immigrants like the Huguenots turned Clerkenwell into a centre for clock and watch-makers, jewellers, printers, enamellers, engravers, gunsmiths, furniture and cabinet makers.
The Labour Party in Finsbury was strongly socialist in the 1930s and forged a relationship with the modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin – famous for designing the penguin pool at London Zoo. He also built the Finsbury Health Centre, which prior to the setting up of the NHS was the most sophisticated and modern in Britain, containing a TB clinic, foot and dental specialists, and even a solarium for the poor.
• Clerkenwell Change and Renewal, by Alan Ainsworth, is published by Oblique Image.
www.obliqueimage.com
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