Written for Brown Bros. In-house magazine in 1964

AWAY FROM IT ALL SERIES
This Issue - Holiday in Shoreditch

Well, it's holiday time again, and in the canteen, the lifts and all over the building, you can hear exciting words like "Riviera, Austrian Tyrol, Cornwall, Costa Brava and Southend-on-Sea".

It occurred to me that there might be some others who, like me, are not going anywhere special this year, and are perhaps feeling a little depressed at the prospect. Now follows a special travel talk for those of you in this category.

Come to unusual Dingy Shoreditch for your summer spree and explore the fascinating historic sights (and sites) far away from the rush of babbling tourists (and even further away from the golden beaches and sunny skies!)

Begin your tour at Liverpool Street Station - Gateway to the East End - and if you walk up Bishopsgate, you will soon pass the Great Eastern Hotel. This would be your first mistake. Do NOT pass it. Stand and gaze and think. This great building stands on the site of the original Bedlam and believe me, if you stand starting long enough at it, you might well end up as mad as the original inmates were.

On the other side of Bishopsgate, walk up New Street and let your eyes feast on the architecture of the original East India Company's warehouse which was built in 1782. You will see something which very few London holidaymakers ever see as they row on the Serpentine or walk up and down Shaftesbury Avenue!

More excitement is in store! Down Artillery Lane (also off Bishopsgate) is the site of the original ground where Tudor gunners used to practise. Also in this lane is an original 1756 shopfront (No. 56). In fact this lane is so original that to the uncultured inexperienced eye of the average man in the street, it appears to be a narrow backstreet with crumbling dirty buildings with shabby doorways.

Proceeding Northwards up Bishopsgate, the holiday atmosphere may have whetted your appetite, so you could pop in to some greasy café for egg and chips and a "cuppa", and thus refreshed, turn into Great Eastern Street until you come to Curtain Road. It derived its name from an Augustinian priory for women, which had a big wall around it, forming a "curtain" to hide the women from the world outside. The well known firm of Brown Brothers Limited is now more or less on this spot.

Nearby is Holywell Lane, near which at one time there used to be a well, which in medieval times was supposed to have some biblical powers. However, in 1731, the religious significance of the well appeared to cease, and it was advertised as "a new cold bath, larger and more commodious than any in or about London, being 30 ft long, 20 ft broad and 4'6" deep, where ladies and gentlemen may depend upon suitable accommodation and attendance".

Also in this area is New Inn Yard, originally called Dirty Lane on all the old Title Deeds. Its name has changed, but little else has, in spite of the fact that cars and vans now roar where dusty coaches must once have clattered.

On up Curtain Street now, towards Old Street, and on your right is a school which stands on the site of the oldest theatre in England, built by James Burbage. Shakespeare is connected with the history of this theatre but soon after he came to London, the use of this theatre was discontinued and the players started up at Southwark.

Once you cross Old Street, you are in Hoxton, which was a Tudor country village quite separate from Shoreditch at one time. There are still a few very interesting really old houses there, crumbling perhaps, but genuine relics of the past, as no one has ever spent money in this area, on demolition and re-building.

The Tresham family who were associated in the Gunpowder Plot lived in what is now Myrtle Street, running between Hoxton and Pitfield Street, and at the corner of Pitfield and Ivy Street is an early Victorian shop which has been a chemist for generations. As Hoxton Street was the high street of the original village, it is probable that there has always been a market there, and the natives are still calling out their wares as their families have done for generations and modern life has done little to change the ways of these busy hard-working people, or at least that's what one is supposed to say at some point in a travel article.

When you return from your holiday, refreshed and eager to begin work again, you will have holiday snaps quite different from any of your workmates. "George engulfed by smoke from a Broad St/Richmond Line train", "the kids playing near a drain in Holywell Lane", "Some people we met who were also lost in Artillery Lane", "View of Spitalfields Vegetable Market from a disused building" etc etc. Your holiday will have been very economical and while the others around you are complaining of their debts and their sunburn, you will be showing off the new shoes, dress or sports jacket you have managed to buy, and the colours of your clothes will glow next to your interestingly pallid complexion, and the rich grey hues of your surroundings.

COME TO THE SHADY STREETS OF SHOREDITCH for a fantastic vacation and have a holiday which you will never, never, NEVER forget!