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industry. The silk weavers’ houses were built tall and thin
rather like the houses that line the old canals of Amsterdam.
The windows had French style shutters and an attic with a
large window where the weaver could work and many of
the new streets were given French names – Fournier Street,
Nantes Passage, Fleur-de-Lys Street. In Spitalfields French
was heard more than English. Visitors to London would be
taken to Spitalfields to see this French enclave and to buy
silk goods – even Mozart visited and bought a Spitalfields
silk waistcoat. Nicholas Hawksmoor’s beautiful Christ
Church Spitalfields was built right alongside the new
estate during the reign of Queen Anne to demonstrate the
might of the Church of England to all these uppity French
and dissenting Huguenots!
The Huguenots would dominate the weaving industry for a
century or two but their industry began to fall into decline
as early as the mid 18
th
century when machines began to
arrive. By the mid 19
th
century cheaper silk goods were
arriving in London’s Docks from China and India. The
story of the Huguenots is of the riches to rags variety and
by the 19
th
century those that could had moved on and the
old silk weavers houses, now in poor repair and sub-divided
became cheap housing for the next waves of arrivals – first
the Irish fleeing the starvation of the Potato Famines and
later Jews escaping Pogroms in Poland and Russia.
Over time the Huguenots were absorbed into the broader
English life and quite often simple clerical errors anglicised
their French surnames. Jon Pertwee is of Huguenot descent
although his family had stepped off the boat three centuries
ago with the name de Perthuis de Laillevault. The first
Governor of the Bank of England was a Huguenot as were
the Dollonds of Dollond & Aitchison. The Courtaulds are
undoubtedly the most famous surviving name of
Huguenot silk weaving families and while Daphne du
Maurier and Laurence Olivier retained recognisable
Huguenot names Winston Churchill, Joan Crawford,
Judy Garland and Johnny Depp didn’t and haven’t.
In 1985 to mark the tercentenary of the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes some of the Spitalfields Huguenot houses
were marked by the addition of a wooden weaving spool
hung above the front door. Today the old Huguenot
houses of Spitalfields are very fashionable with artists,
writers, film makers and actors. Residents include
Jeanette Winterson, Tracey Emin, Gilbert & George,
Siân Phillips and Dan Cruikshank. If you’d like to join
them there is a four bedroom Huguenot house currently
for sale in Wilkes Street Spitalfields for £3.25 million,
take a little tour around the property
You can see the Huguenot Houses of Spitalfields on our
tour which also visits the Bank
of England Museum and
Jewish London
tours. Jewish
London is described here on page 18. Huguenot history is
also explored on our
which visits the
Warner Silk Archive in Braintree, Essex. The Warner
family’s connections with the textile industry date back
at least to the late seventeenth century, when William
Warner worked as a scarlet dyer in Spitalfields, London.
We also delve into this fascinating world on our new
ay where the Art
Deco mansion we visit was built by Stephen Courtauld
of the Huguenot silk weaving family.
Also see
One To Do On Your Own
on page 24 which
describes visits to Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields.