Huguenot London
Huguenots were French Protestants forced to leave France from the 16th century in order to practise their religion freely. When the Huguenots left, the French lost thousands of talented businessmen and craftworkers.
The Huguenots brought their skills to London, settling primarily around Spitalfields, and by the end of the 18th century they had assimilated into the general population.
The French communities in the capital differed markedly from one another. The largest, in Spitalfields, depended heavily on the weaving trade. The most remote, at Wandsworth, was notable for its hatmakers...the common factor bringing them together was their market, for the English gentry coming to Parliament or the royal courts welcomed the opportunity to acquire the latest in French fashions.
Tessa Murdoch (ed.) 'The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685 to 1985',
The Huguenots were French Protestants who began to migrate to London from the 1550s, to escape persecution in their Catholic homeland.
The community expanded greatly after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. By revoking this edict, the French King denied the Huguenots the right to practise their religion freely.
A few years previously, King Charles II had issued a proclamation offering England as a place of refuge. About 20,000 Huguenot refugees benefited by settling in London. They had a major impact on the life of the capital.
Like many earlier immigrants, the Huguenots mainly settled outside the City, in Spitalfields and Soho. 18th century Soho was described as 'abounding with French so that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France'.
Amongst the Huguenots were aristocrats, businessmen and craftworkers. They were renowned for their skill in silk-weaving, making watches, clocks and guns, bookbinding, gold and silver smithing and enamelling.
Despite a general welcome, they suffered from the occasional hostility of other craftsmen, who saw them as an economic threat.
By the mid 18th century the Huguenot community began to fragment. Its members assimilated into the mainstream of the London middle classes and gave up speaking French. Of 23 Huguenot churches in existence in 1700, only the French Church in Soho Square survives today.
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