laid out N of Old Street. During the C18 market gardens further N disappeared as development spread up Hoxton Street, and in the early C19, along New North Road. Only a few traces of this period remain. Industry and crowded working class housing took over, the latter now almost entirely replaced by C20 flats.
The perambulation begins at HOXTON SQUARE. Laid out shortly after 1683. The square itself (relandscaped in 1995) is still pleasantly spacious, with some of the buildings set back behind what were once front gardens. An impression of its original character can be gained from No. 32 on the E side, whose two storey red brick frontage is a recreation of a late C17 house. But by the mid C19 the residential character had been replaced by furniture workshops. On the W side No. 8, and No. 9 dated 1897, have workshop windows extending full width between the party-walls. The quirky Gothic No. 10, with angular oriel, was built as a vicarage in the 1870s, probably by R.W. Drew, the architect of the now demolished St Peter's. The N side is dominated by St Monica's R.C. church, 1864-6 by E.W. Pugin, and its attendant buildings. The newcomer near the S end is by Maccreanor Lavington Architects, 1997; gallery and cimema behind a bold grid of squares. In the lane to the SW, No. 56 C18, with later bowed shopfront.
W of Hoxton Square, CORONET STREET, a narrow cobbled lane with C19 workshops, leads into HOXTON MARKET, whose character was re-established by new buildings and conversions of the 1990s. On the E side, the former Christian Mission, (Shaftesbury House), with a tall rear facade of 1913 added to an earlier building; well detailed Neo-Georgian, the windows freely grouped. On the N side circus space occupies the former shoreditch borough refuse destructor and generating station, 1895-7, consultant engineer E. Manville. The facade to Hoxton market in Fletton brick and terracotta, dated 1896, has the motto e pulvere lux et vis ("Out of the dust light and power"). It refers to the use of a refuse destructor to raise steam for the municipal electricity station, the first successful works purpose-built to combine these two functions. The waste heat was used for the nearby public baths (now demolished). Sympathetically converted to a circus training school by Philip Lancashire, 1994, with a gymnasium in the old generating hall, and a training space in the former Combustion House, a large brick building on the yard to the E, its gable end with blind arches. The flattened W side of Hoxton Square was filled in 1995 by plain yellow brick student lodgings, alexander fleming halls. The S side was rebuilt in 1997-8. In front, a sculpture, Juggling Figure, by Simon Stringer, 1994. Further W, CHARLES SQUARE, whose early character is represented by one good survival, No. 16, quite an ambitious house of c. 1725, five bays and three storeys, formerly with lower wings. Red brick with the middle bay a little projected. Brick cornice above the first floor, stone keystones, doorway with fine carving.
PITFIELD STREET leads N with a few early C19 houses (Nos. 8-10, 17-21), and the HOP POLE, with green glazed ground floor and bold cornice lettering of c. 1900. Further N, the former central library, part of the ambitious civic group between Pitfield Street and Hoxton Market. 1895-7 by H.T. Hare. A Passmore Edwards building, of red brick and terracotta, in the fanciful semi-Loire, semi-Baroque style derived from Shaw's new Scotland Yard, with a bold striped corner turret. Interior restored after war damage, 1955-6 by J.L. Sharratt.
Opposite are the former haberdashers' almshouses, 1825-7 by D.R. Roper, and very different from their predecessors, which had been built by Robert Hooke in 1690-95. By the early C19 a big four column Greek Doric portico seemed necessary to add status to the otherwise plain stock brick building. Flanking ranges of four bays; slightly projecting wings with tripartite windows. Extended with wings for National Schools in 1873; taken over by the L.C.C. for use as Shoreditch Technical College, 1898. No. 55, the former Varieties Picture Palace of 1914-15, with light-hearted classical detail, then the george and vulture, with tall striped gable, c. 1900, at the corner of HABADASHER STREET. This was rebuilt around the same time with artisan flats of c. 1900 of an interesting design: red brick three storeyed terraces enlivened by shallow bay windows and circular windows at the tops of the staircases. Unusually long back extensions with roof gardens to the upper flats. They keep in scale with the modest early C19 development of the haberdashers' estate around the former Almshouses.
Turning E, BOWLING GREEN WALK leads back to Hoxton Square. Further E is HOXTON STREET, running N from Old Street, the centre of the former hamlet. It remains an intimate shopping street; 1970s-80s infilling is indifferent but not out of scale. The principal contribution of the 1990s is the shoreditch community college on the E side, substantial but not unpleasantly dominant, its pale brick masses enlivened by decorative gates and successfully broken up by short wings. A public library facing the street, also with lively iron grille, is part of the same complex. All by Hampshire County Architects and Perkins Ogden Achitects, 1992-7. Ironwork by Matthew Fedden; other interesting art work within. Nos. 124-6 on the E side, hidden behind built-out shops, are good houses of c. 1740 (original fittings, especially well-preserved in No.126). hoxton hall (No.130a) is hidden behind a former shop, but has pilasters and pediment to WILKS PLACE. Built as a Music Hall in 1863, an early example of the type, with an additional storey and other alterations as McDonalds Music Hall in 1867. Tall narrow hall with small stage and two tiers of balconies on three sides, supported on iron columns. Acquired by a temperance group in 1879, and in 1893 by the Quaker Bedford Institute. Community rooms added to the rear in 1910 by Lovegrove & Papworth. Opposite on the W side Nos.173 and 175, survivors from a group built after 1767; the last part of Hoxton Street to be built up. On the E side a public garden of 1983 whose special feature is a cupola brought from the former C19 Fever Hospital at Homerton. Further N, No.237, probably c.1700, of five bays; windows with thick glazing bars and a canopied and bracketed doorcse concealed behind shops. Upper part rewindowed in the mid C18.
C20 slum clearance around Hoxton Street obliterated the dense poverty-stricken streets of the C19; only some of the big churches and the institutional buildings remain. On the E side St Leonard's poor relief offices, 1863, two storeys with central pediment, two further floors were added later. The grim workhouse buildings behind, later part of St Leonard's Hospital, were demolished in 1993. Among the council flats, the most noteworthy is the L.C.C.'s largest enterprise in Shoreditch, the WHITEMORE ESTATE between Hoxton Street and Kingsland Road; decent neo-Georgian, 1924-37, sixteen blocks arranged loosely in three sided courts opening off the original streets.
