History and description of the Parish of Clerkenwell / ... With ... engravings, by J. and H.S. Storer. The historical dept. by T. Cromwell.

  • Cromwell, Thomas, 1792-1870.
Date:
[1828]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History and description of the Parish of Clerkenwell / ... With ... engravings, by J. and H.S. Storer. The historical dept. by T. Cromwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Route V. FROM OLDHAM PLACE, BY BAGNIGGE-WELLS ROAD, TO BATTLE-BRIDGE : AND THENCE, BY THE NEW ROAD, CLAREMONT SQUARE, AND AM WELL STREET, TO THE NEW-RIVER HEAD, AND ISLINGTON SPA. The first object of interest in or near the line of the present route., is Wilmington Square, which lies a little to our right, and takes name from one of the titles of the Marquess of Northampton, who is Baron Wilmington. This Square was commenced when the Spa Fields in general began to be covered with erections, but is still unfinished. It will be completed in a form more circumscribed than was at first determined on, and with houses of a less lofty character. The Plan of the Parish will show both its now intended extent, as marked by the enclosure nearest Tysoe and Yardley Streets, and its dimen- sions as originally contemplated. On this spot, and in the immediate neighbourhood, were held the cele- brated Spa-Fields Meetings of Nov. 15th and Dec. 2nd, 1816 3 the site being then literally fields, and perfectly qualified for the reception of assemblages amounting to many thousand persons. The focus of the proceedings, on both occasions, was a public- house contiguous, called the Merlin's Cave, which, as well as a few adjoining dwellings, then stood with the fields directly in its front, and commanded a very pleasing prospect. This house, from which Merlin Place is called, has existed upwards of a century; but the origin of its sign is unknown. Here, Henry Hunt, of radical celebrity, presided at the meetings