Chiswell Street and Mr. Whitbread’s Brewery

Two tickets have just become available for my walk next Saturday, the 13th of June, with the cheerful name of “Wapping – A Seething Mass of Misery”. Click here for details and booking. Chiswell Street runs from Beech Street (which passes under part of the Barbican estate) to Finsbury Square. It is an old street. Harben states in “A Dictionary of London” that the first mention of the street was between 1217 and 1243, when the name Chysel Strate was in use. By the time of Rocque’s map of 1746, the name Chiswell Street was in use, and in the following extract, Chiswell Street can be seen running from White Cross Street on the left, to Finsbury and the open space of Moor Fields on the right: In a few years after the above map was published, the western part of Chiswell Street would change significantly, and the small courts to the south of the street, including Swan Court and Boar Head Court would be lost under a major development – the Whitbread Brewery. Samuel Whitbread was born in…