Circus, EC3N

Road in/near Tower Gateway, existed between 1768 and 1976.

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(51.51006 -0.07542, 51.51 -0.075) 
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Road · * · EC3N ·
JANUARY
9
2022
Circus was built between 1768 and 1774 to the designs of George Dance the Younger.

The land here was owned and managed by the City Lands Estates of the Corporation of London. They might have been in use as allotment gardens.

London was enjoying an economic boom in the late 18th century partly due to trade with the Americas. There was a demand for quality housing for wealthy merchants.

Sir Benjamin Hammett, a city alderman and property developer acquired the lease for this land. He commissioned the architect George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) to design a speculative residential development to appeal to merchants to reside in the City, near the docks.

It was successful and other architects, such as John Nash’s proceeded to link circuses, crescents and squares in the same way in the West End.

America Square and Crescent were built at the same time as Circus. George Dance was probably influenced by John Wood’s development at Bath and was responsible for the introduction into London of squares, circuses and straight streets.

Dance would repeat this idea a decade later with Finsbury Circus and Finsbury Square some ten years later.

In 1841, the City of London’s first railway station - Fenchurch Street - opened. A railway viaduct sliced across the area between America Square and The Crescent. In 1884, the Metropolitan District Railway sliced diagonally through the southern half of The Crescent causing the loss of five of the eleven houses.

In the Second World War, America Square was devastated with the total loss of its original houses. In Crescent, four of the remaining six were destroyed. In Circus just one house survived the war.

After the war, the surviving house continued in commercial use.

In 1962, the Tower Hill Improvement Trust acquired the local leases which were then sold to the Greater London Council in 1975.

The GLC converted the land to open space as part of the road widening scheme at Tower Hill.



Citation information: The London Encyclopaedia – The Underground Map
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY


The Underground Map   
Added: 20 Sep 2020 13:01 GMT   

Pepys starts diary
On 1 January 1659, Samuel Pepys started his famous daily diary and maintained it for ten years. The diary has become perhaps the most extensive source of information on this critical period of English history. Pepys never considered that his diary would be read by others. The original diary consisted of six volumes written in Shelton shorthand, which he had learned as an undergraduate on scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge. This shorthand was introduced in 1626, and was the same system Isaac Newton used when writing.

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Gillian   
Added: 17 Feb 2024 00:08 GMT   

No 36 Upper East Smithfield
My great great grandfather was born at No 36 Upper East Smithfield and spent his early years staring out at a "dead wall" of St Katharine’s Docks. His father was an outfitter and sold clothing for sailors. He describes the place as being backed by tenements in terrible condition and most of the people living there were Irish.

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

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Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

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NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

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Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

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Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

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Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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Byward Tower, 1893
TUM image id: 1556882285
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

Click an image below for a better view...
The Great Synagogue of London (1810) The Great Synagogue of London was, for centuries, the centre of Ashkenazi synagogue and Jewish life in London. It was destroyed during the Blitz.
Credit: Thomas Rowlandson
Licence:


The Boar’s Head was located on the north side of Whitechapel High Street. The Boar’s Head was originally an inn, which was built in the 1530s; it underwent two renovations for use as a playhouse: first, in 1598, when a simple stage was erected, and a second, more elaborate renovation in 1599.
Credit: Unknown
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The Aldgate Pump (1874) Aldgate Pump is a historic water pump located at the junction where Aldgate meets Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street. The pump is notable for its long, and sometimes dark history, as well as its cultural significance as a symbolic start point of the East End of London. The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is used as a synonym for the East End or for East London as a whole.
Credit: Wellcome Images
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Bevis Marks Synagogue
Credit: John Salmon
Licence: CC BY 2.0


St Katherine Cree, City of London St Katharine Cree is a Church of England church on the north side of Leadenhall Street near Leadenhall Market. The present church was built in 1628–30, retaining the Tudor tower of its predecessor. The church escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666 and suffered only minor damage in the London Blitz.
Credit: Prioryman
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St James Duke’s Place The church survived the Great Fire of London, but fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1727, retaining much of the original woodwork. The poverty of the Aldgate area made it increasingly difficult to raise funds to maintain the church; Godwin described it as being "in a very dirty and dilapidated state". In 1874, under the 1860 Union of Benefices Act, it was demolished and the parish joined to that of St Katherine Cree. The site of the church is now occupied by the Sir John Cass School.
Credit: Robert William Billings and John Le Keux
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The Third Goodmans Fields Theatre, Great Alie Street (1801)
Credit: W. W. Hutchings
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) addressing a "smoking debate" at Toynbee Hall (1902)
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A drawing published in 1907 of the west front of the Church of Holy Trinity, Minories
Credit: Uncredited
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Whitechapel Gallery
Credit: LeHaye/Wiki Commons
Licence: CC BY 2.0




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