The Worst Street in London

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Introduction

On a cold February night in 1960, 32-year-old nightclub manager Selwyn Cooney staggered down the stairs of a Spitalfields drinking den and collapsed on the cobbled road outside, blood streaming from a bullet wound to his temple. Cooney’s friend and associate William Ambrose, otherwise known as ‘Billy the Boxer’, followed seconds later, clutching a wound to his stomach. By the time he reached the street, Cooney was dead.

The true facts surrounding Cooney’s violent death are shrouded in mystery – investigations following his murder revealed gangland connections with notorious inhabitants of the criminal underworld such as Billy Hill and Jack Spot. Newspapers suggested his death was linked to a much further reaching battle for supremacy between rival London gangs. However, the mystery surrounding Cooney’s murder is just one of the many strange, brutal and perplexing tales connected with the street in which he met his fate.

Halfway up Commercial Street, next to Spitalfields Market, stands an uninspiring office block. The average pedestrian would pay little attention to it as they passed by. But unlikely though it may seem, underneath this characterless building lies a strip of land that was once Dorset Street, the most notorious thoroughfare in the capital. The worst street in London. The resort of Protestant fire-brands, thieves, con men, pimps, prostitutes and murderers – most notably Jack the Ripper…

I first discovered Dorset Street by accident. Like many others who share a passion for this great city, its streets have always provided me with far more than simply a route from one location to another. They are also pathways into the past that reveal glimpses of a London that has long since vanished. A stroll down any of the older thoroughfares will reveal defunct remnants of a world we have lost. Boot scrapers sit unused outside front doors, hinting that before today’s ubiquitous tarmac and concrete paving, the streets were often covered with mud. Ornate cast-iron discs set into the pavements conceal the holes into which coal was once dispensed to fuel the boilers and ovens of thousands of households. On the walls of some homes, small embossed metal plaques remain screwed to the brickwork confirming long-expired fire insurance taken out at a time when fire was a much bigger threat to the city than it is in today’s central-heated and electronic-powered world. For the history enthusiast, London’s streets provide a wealth of treasure and their exploration can take a lifetime.

I had made many investigative sorties onto the streets of London before I ventured into Spitalfields, but what I found in this small, ancient district was unique and alluring in equal measure. At its centre lay the market. A far cry from the over-developed gathering place for the über-fashionable it is today, at the time of my visit it was a deserted hangar filled with a jumble of empty market stalls. Across from the abandoned market, Hawksmoor’s masterpiece, Christ Church, loomed over shabby Commercial Street, looking decidedly incongruous next to a parade of burger bars, kebab houses and old fabric wholesalers whose window displays looked as though they hadn’t been changed for at least twenty years. In the churchyard, tramps lounged around on benches searching for temporary oblivion in their bottles of strong cider.

On the other side of the church lay the Ten Bells pub. Paint peeled off its exterior walls and the interior was almost devoid of furniture save for a couple of well-worn sofas and some ancient circular tables near the window. However, despite its rather unwelcoming façade, there was something about the place that made it seem utterly right for the area. Moreover, it looked as though it hadn’t altered a great deal since it was built, so I decided to go in. Once inside the Ten Bells, the feature that became immediately apparent was a wall of exquisite Victorian tiling at the far end of the bar, part of which was an illustration of eighteenth-century silk weavers. Next to the frieze hung a dark wood board that reminded me of the rolls of honour that hung in my old secondary school listing alumni who had achieved the distinction of being selected head boy or girl. However, the names on this board had an altogether more horrible significance. They were six alleged victims of ‘Jack the Ripper’. A discussion with the barman about this macabre exhibit revealed that all six women on the list had lived within walking distance of where we were standing and may even have been patrons of the Ten Bells. They had earned their living on the streets, hawking, cleaning and when times were really tough, selling themselves to any man that would have them, often taking their conquest into a deserted yard or dark alley for a few moments of sordid passion against a brick wall. Unluckily for them, their final customer had in all probability been their murderer.

Of course, I had known a little about the career of Jack the Ripper before my visit to the Ten Bells. However, I had never previously stopped to consider the reality behind the story. The magnificence of Christ Church suggested that at one time, the area had been a prosperous and optimistic district. How had Spitalfields degenerated into a place of such deprivation and depravity that several of its inhabitants could be murdered in the open air, in such a densely populated area of London without anyone hearing or seeing anything untoward? My interest piqued, I returned home and began my research.

What intrigued me most about the Jack the Ripper story was not the identity of the perpetrator but the social environment that allowed the murders to happen. As I delved deeper into the history of the Spitalfields, I began to uncover a district of London that seemed almost lawless in character. By the time of the murders, the authorities seemed to have almost entirely washed their hands of the narrow roads and dingy courts that ran off either side of Commercial Street, leaving the landlords of the dilapidated lodgings to deal with the inhabitants in whatever manner they saw fit. The area that surrounded the market became known as the ‘wicked quarter mile’ due to its proliferation of prostitutes, thieves and other miscreants who used ‘pay by the night’ lodging houses, where no questions were asked, as their headquarters. These seedy resorts flourished throughout the district during the second half of the 1800s and were places to which death was no stranger. Even one of the landlords, William Crossingham, described them as places to which people came to die.

The sheer dreadfulness of the common lodging houses prompted me to investigate them further. During a particularly fruitful trip to the Metropolitan Archive, I uncovered the nineteenth-century registers for these dens of iniquity, which gave details of their addresses and the men and women that ran them. As I turned the pages of these ancient volumes, one street name cropped up time and time again: Dorset Street. By the close of the nineteenth century, this small road comprised almost entirely common lodging houses, providing shelter for literally hundreds of London’s poor every night of the year. Most intriguingly, I remembered that the street’s name also loomed large in the newspaper reports I had read about the Ripper murders; in fact the only murder to have occurred indoors had been perpetrated in one of the mean courts that ran off it. Dorset Street now became the focus of my research and as I uncovered more of its history, what emerged was a fascinating tale of a place that was built at a time of great optimism and had enjoyed over 100 years of industry and prosperity.

However, with the arrival of the Victorian age came an era of neglect that ran unchecked until Dorset Street had become an iniquitous warren of ancient buildings, housing an underclass avoided and ignored by much of Victorian society. Left to fend for themselves, the unfortunate residents formed a community in which chronic want and violence were part of daily life – a society into which the arrival of Jack the Ripper was unsurprising and perhaps even inevitable.

The Worst Street in London chronicles the rise and fall of Dorset Street, from its promising beginnings at the centre of the seventeenthth-century silk weaving industry, through its gradual descent into debauchery, vice and violence, to its final demise at the hands of the demolition men. Its remarkable history gives a fascinating insight into an area of London that has, from its initial development, been a cultural melting pot – the place where many thousands of immigrants became Londoners. It also tells the story of a part of London that, until quite recently, was largely left to fend for itself, with very little State intervention, with truly horrifying results. Dorset Street is now gone, but its legacy can be seen today in the desolate and forbidding sink estates of London and beyond.

Part One

The Rise and Fall of Spitalfields

Chapter 1

The Birth of Spitalfields

By the time of Selwyn Cooney’s murder, Dorset Street’s final demise was imminent. Within less than a decade, all evidence of its prior notoriety would be swept away, replaced by loading bays and a multi-storey car park. What remained of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century housing stock was dilapidated and neglected. The general impression gained from a visit to the area – especially after dark – was of a seedy, rather threatening place with few, if any, redeeming features. However, Dorset Street, and indeed the whole district of Spitalfields, was not always a den of iniquity.

A closer inspection of the crumbling, filthy houses that lined its streets in the early 1960s would have revealed elaborately carved doorways, intricate cornices and granite hearths – clues from a distant past when the area had been prosperous with a thriving and optimistic community. Its location was excellent for business as it was close to the City of London, Britain’s commercial capital, and the docks, the country’s main point of distribution. Ironically, Spitalfields’ main asset, its location, was to prove the major factor in its decline.

Back in the twelfth century, the area that would become Spitalfields was undeveloped farmland, situated a relatively short distance from London. It was known locally as Lollesworth, a name that probably referred to a one-time owner. Amid the rolling fields that stretched out towards South Hertfordshire and Essex, farmers grew produce, grazed cattle and lived a quiet, rural existence. Unsurprisingly, the area was a popular retreat for city residents seeking the calm of the countryside and many rode out there at weekends to enjoy the unpolluted air and wide open spaces.

Two regular visitors were William (sometimes referred to as Walter) Brune and his wife Rosia, the couple responsible for putting Spitalfields on the map. The Brunes appreciated the tranquillity of the area so much that they chose it as the location for a new priory and hospital for city residents in need of medicines, care and recuperation. In the mid-1190s, building work began by the side of a lane that led to the city, and by 1197 the area’s first major building was completed. The priory was constructed from timber and sported a tall turret in one corner. It must have been an imposing site in a district that was otherwise open farmland. The Brunes dedicated their creation to Saint Mary and the building was known as the Priory of St Mary Spital (or hospital). Sadly, nothing of Spitalfields’ first major building remains today, but it was known to stand on the site of what is now Spital Square. Until the early 1900s, a stone jamb built into one of the houses on the square marked the original position of the priory gate. The Brunes’ efforts were recognised 800 years later in the creation of Brune Street, which occupies an area that would have once been part of the priory grounds.

To the rear of the priory hospital was the Spital Field, which was used by inmates as a source of pleasant views and fresh air. Our modern definition of a hospital is a place that tends the sick. However, in the twelfth century, a hospital would have taken in anyone who was needy and could benefit from what the establishment had to offer. Consequently, the poor were attracted to the hospital and the Spital Field began a centuries-long reputation for being a place to which the underprivileged gravitated. By the sixteenth century, the hospital had become so popular that the chronicler John Stow noted ‘there was found standing one hundred and eight beds well furnished for the poor, for it was a hospital of great relief’.

Over the next 200 years, a small community gradually developed around the hospital. As the priory’s congregation grew, it developed a reputation for delivering enlightening and thought provoking sermons that could be heard by all who cared to listen from an open-air pulpit. At the time, religion in Britain was an integral part of everyday life and the Spital Field sermons became a popular excursion for city residents. By 1398, the sermons preached at the priory during the Easter holiday period had acquired such a reputation that the lord mayor, aldermen and sheriffs heard them. By 1488, the lord mayor visited the priory so frequently that a two-storey house was built adjacent to the pulpit to accommodate him and other dignitaries that might attend.

Such was the popularity of the Easter Spital sermons that they survived Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1534. Twenty years later, Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, travelled to the Spital Field to hear the sermons. The sermons continued to be preached outside the Spital Field until 1649 when the pulpit was demolished by Oliver Cromwell’s army.

The remainder of the Priory of St Mary Spital was not spared during the Dissolution and all property was surrendered to the Crown. In 1540, Henry granted a part of the priory land to the Fraternity of the Artillery. This land had previously been known as Tasel Close and had been used for growing teasels, which were then used as combs for cloth. The fraternity turned the land into an exercise ground, primarily used for crossbow practice. Agas’s map of London in 1560 clearly shows the ‘Spitel Fyeld’ complete with charmingly illustrated archers and horses being exercised.

By 1570, the lane next to the erstwhile priory had become a major thoroughfare known as ‘Bishoppes Gate Street’ and the area around Spital Field was redeveloped. The first new houses to be built were large, smart affairs with extensive gardens and orchards. These properties were occupied by city residents who could afford country retreats that were accessible to their place of work. As the old priory site became an increasingly popular residential area, the Spital Field was broken up and the clay beneath the grass was used to make bricks for more houses.

In 1576, excavators working in the Spital Field made a fascinating discovery. Beneath the topsoil were urns, coins and the remains of coffins, indicating that the site was once a burial ground for city folk during Roman times. Luckily for them, the excavators were not working under the same constraints that exist today and their discovery did not halt the breaking up of the field. Subsequently, the bricks made from the Spital Field clay were used to construct the first major development of the area.

While building work around the Spital Field continued, the area welcomed its first extensive influx of immigrants. During the 1580s, Dutch weavers, fleeing religious troubles in their homeland, arrived in the capital. Looking for a suitable place to live and carry out their business, they were immediately attracted to the new developments around the Spital Field. The area provided ample space to live and work, and was sufficiently close to the city for them to trade there. Thus, the area received the first members of a profession that was to dominate the area for centuries to come: weaving.

In 1585, as the Dutch weavers were moving into their new homes, Britain faced a threat of invasion from Spain. Queen Elizabeth I hastily issued a new charter for the old Artillery Ground and merchants and citizens from the city travelled up Bishoppes Gate Street to be trained in the use of weaponry and how to command common soldiers. Their training was exemplary and produced commanders of such high calibre that, when troops mustered at Tilbury in 1588, many of their captains were chosen from the Artillery Ground recruits. They were known as the Captains of the Artillery Garden. The training centre at the Artillery Ground was so efficient that it continued to be used by soldiers from the Tower of London as well as local citizens long after the Spanish threat passed.

As fate would have it, the Spanish threat of invasion inadvertently introduced the area around the Artillery Garden to a new wave of city dweller with the means to purchase a country retreat. By 1594, the entire site that had previously been occupied by the priory and hospital was redeveloped and, as Stow noted, it contained ‘many fair houses, builded for the receipt and lodging of worshipful and honourable men’. This influx of new residents, combined with the constant presence of builders, allowed inns and public houses to flourish. The Red Lion Inn stood on the corner of the Spital Field and proved to be a popular meeting place as it was considered the halfway house on the route from Stepney to Islington. In 1616, the celebrated herbalist and astrologer Nicholas Culpeper was born in this inn. While a young man growing up in rural surroundings, Culpeper developed a fascination with the healing properties of plants and flowers and, after studying at Cambridge and receiving training with an apothecary in Bishopsgate, he became an astrologer and physician. He also wrote and translated several books, the most famous being The Complete Herbal, published in 1649.

While Nicholas Culpeper was enjoying his youthful love affair with nature, businesses around the Spital Field were gradually evolving from small, individual enterprises into organised companies. One skill much in demand was the preparation of silk for the weavers, otherwise known as silk throwing. In 1629, the silk throwsters were incorporated and put together a strict programme of apprenticeship whereby no one was allowed to set up a business unless they had trained for seven years. This move raised standards of silk throwing immeasurably and weavers were assured that they would receive quality goods and services from their suppliers. The silk weavers became more organised and the quality of their work was recognised when the Weavers’ Company admitted the first silk weavers into their ranks in 1639.

The year before the silk weavers were accepted into the Weavers’ Company, King Charles I had granted a licence for flesh, fowl and roots to be sold on the Spital Field. This licence marked the beginning of a market that would exist, with only one brief interruption, on the same spot for over 300 years. The increase in traffic to and from the new market also played its part in introducing more people to the area and a thriving community was established. The Spital Field and the surrounding area became a prosperous hamlet on the outskirts of the city, populated by affluent workers, market gardeners, weavers and suppliers to the weaving industry. ‘Bishoppes Gate Street’ became a major trade route and the inns rarely had room to spare.

Chapter 2

The Creation of Dorset Street and Surrounds

In 1649, William Wheler of Datchet, a small town in Berkshire, put ‘all that open field called Spittlefield’ in trust for himself and his wife. On their death, the land was to be passed to his seven daughters. Wheler had acquired the freehold to the land in 1631 after marrying into the Hanbury family, who had purchased the freehold to the Spital Field from the Church in the late 1500s. At this point in time, the Spital Field was still very rural.

A small development of houses, shops and market stalls had sprung up along the east side of the field and two local residents named William and Jeffrey Browne had recently employed builders to develop the land they owned along the north side of the field. The resulting road was named Browne’s Lane in their honour and exists today as Hanbury Street. The south and west sides of the Spital Field remained open pasture, used by the locals for grazing cattle when it was not too boggy. In addition to the grazing areas, a series of footpaths stretched across the field, providing routes to and