Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell
Middlesex
Clerkenwell Green and St James's Church
Location
Grid reference:	TQ315825
Location:	51°31’34"N, 0°6’13"W
Data
Post town:	London
Postcode:	EC1
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Islington
Parliamentary constituency:	Islington South and Finsbury

Clerkenwell in Middlesex stands just to the north of the City of London, bounded on the south by Smithfield. The Smithfield market until Victorian days not the covered market known today but a large field, soon surrounded by houses, serving as a cattle market, between Clerkenwell and the City.

Clerkenwell (the "Clerks' Well") was the home of Middlesex government for centuries, but also a home for dissenters. Clerkenwell lies just north of the City of London and so was a natural home for those who could not afford to live in the City and those who wished to avoid the strictness of the City's government.

Middlesex government

The Castle

The justices' records report that until King James's time the justices of Middlesex met at inns in Clerkenwell. Immediately before the first county hall was opened, they were meeting at the Castle near Smithfield Bars, a site not identified.

Hicks Hall

In 1610 King James I gave the justices of Middlesex a plot on which to build a new sessions house. The house itself was built from funds donated by Sir Baptist Hicks, a wealthy mercer in the City and a justice of Middlesex. When the justices moved in, they resolved that in gratitude their new all should be named "Hicks-hall".

Hicks Hall stood in the middle of St John Street, Clerkenwell, just north of Smithfield. It served for more than 160 years as the centre of justice and administration in Middlesex.

By the 1770s Hicks Hall's condition had begun to deteriorate and it was judged too small. Hicks Hall was closed in 1778, and demolished. All that remains of Hicks Hall is a fireplace surround, taken to its successor sessions house in 1780, and in turn to the Inner London Sessions House in Newington Causeway, Surrey in 1921.

The Sessions House

The next sessions house was built in 1780 on Clerkenwell Green, where it still stands. It was also referred to as "Hicks Hall" at first as a mark of continuity, but became known simply as the Middlesex Sessions House. On the division of Middlesex government in 1889, the Sessions House fell to the new "London County Council" who occupied it until 1928.

Clerkenwell Green

Clerkenwell Green has a delightful village atmosphere, a wedge-shaped open space flanked with houses, shops and offices. There is no green as such; just a few London Plane trees. The old Middlesex Sessions House stands here.

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