The Widegate name comes from the former ‘white gate’ entrance into the Old Artillery Ground, which had been established in the 16th century. Areas of the Artillery Ground were sold off for development in subsequent centuries, with its legacy living on today in names such as Fort Street, Gun Street, Artillery Passage and Artillery Lane.
Widegate Street has 16th century origins but its buildings date from the 18th century onwards. Established in 1710, Levy Bros, Matzo bakers was named in 1928 as the oldest shop in London. 24 and 25 Widegate Street are town houses dating from c.1720.
Widegate Street used to be longer – its western section leading to Bishopsgate was absorbed by an extension of Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane) during the 1890s.
One of the more curious happenings involving Widegate Street was the arrival on Saturday 20 April 1912 of the photographer CA Mathew. He stepped off the train at Liverpool Street Station in London and spent the day photographing the streets and local Jewish community around Spitalfields market. These photographs are now in the care of the Bishopsgate Institute.
Mathew only started as a photographer in the previous year. Nobody knows why he chose this day to wander through that area. The Gentle Author theorises: “(perhaps) he was waiting for the train home to Brightlingsea in Essex where he had a studio … and simply walked out of the station, taking these pictures to pass the time. It is not impossible that these exceptional photographs owe their existence to something as mundane as a delayed train.”
In Mathew’s photographs, Spitalfields streets are full of crowds even though this was a Saturday and the photographs were taken on the Sabbath.
