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The family of Frances de Brissac (1760-1854) lived in Spital Square,
Spitalfields, London. In April 2013, I go in search to see what there is now. |
The family of Frances de Brissac (1760-1854) lived in Spital Square,
Spitalfields, London.
In April 2013, I go in search to see what there is now.
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Spitalfields lies outside of the old walls of the City of London on the east
side of the Roman Ermine Street (now Bishopsgate Street.) This road ran from the
Port of London on the Thames, to Lincoln and York. Spital Square is very close
to Bishopsgate Street, thus useful for travel and really close to the City of
London where the Banking quarter is. We know that the de Brissac family had
banking connections from their time in Utrecht. Threadneedle Street (now
London’s banking quarter) is within easy walking distance and was also a family
home address. |
Spital Square is where the Master Silkweavers lived. They were the masters of
the trade who oversaw the ordering of raw silk cocoons from Italy to the
finished product – glorious coloured floral silks for the gowns and waistcoats
of London’s high fashion seekers.
The whole area of Spitalfields would have had an air of prosperity. Even as you
walk further east towards Brick Lane, where it is possible to see how the houses
become less opulent, there is still a feeling of the 1700’s being a time of
success. Fifty years ago this was a slum area; houses now sell for four to six
million pounds each!
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Joan Evans in Time and Chance writes – “The
grandfather, whose, father had escaped from France, had become one of the
Spitalfields weavers, and a comparatively wealthy man. His wife, born Jeanne
Loy, was a daughter of a silk weaver of 18 Spital Square………” (Chapter 2, Page 20.) |
During the Huguenots of
Spitalfields Festival 2013, I visited Spital Square several times, knowing this
was where the Loy and Brissac ancestors lived and worked. Today the Square is a
hotchpotch of old and new. Alas number 18 no longer exists.
However a good number of eighteenth century houses do – miraculously surviving
the WW2 bombing of London and the ravages of developers.
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Although houses of this time
look like terrace houses, they were all built separately, so their individual
preservation was enhanced. The way the Huguenots built houses was to build each
individually by bricklayers. Then the carpenters came along and put in floors
and wooden partitions by way of interior walls. With such thin divisions, family
life must have been exposed. To finish the houses, each family chose front door
fittings, so all are a bit different. Around
the corner from Spital Square is Folgate Street where today we can still see
many Huguenot houses. Not as grand as those remaining in Spital Square but
perhaps better preserved, one can visit
Denis
Severs’ House. This is a most worthwhile
thing to do as you feel you slip into the 1700’s atmospheric house and almost
feel you’re back in those times. Denis Severs’ House would have been similar to
18 Spital Square.
In the basement the cook and servants prepared meals and boiled water; fuel was
stored and washing done. On the ground floor was the hallway, main reception
rooms and dining room. Upstairs on the first floor, a further family drawing
room or morning room and a gentleman’s smoking room which might also be a study.
On the next floor the family slept. The floor above might have the nursery but
also the rooms for the live-in servants. In other (lesser) houses, weaving rooms
were built at roof top level. Here workers worked on their looms with plenty of
daylight. |
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18 Spital Square is third house from bottom right. |
These
houses to the right show the remains of lofts for weaving with big windows,
right at the top of the house. Hot in summer and probably very cold in winter.
English houses used to have shutters behind the glass window. Here we see the
French influence of shutters outside the windows.
Judith
F Hubbard
April
2013