E8 Dalston, Hackney
Broadway Market |
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The Porters' Path was a drovers' route into the Old London Town from Epping Forest and south eastern Essex. Livestock for the city's ever growing appetite would be led on foot through to London Fields, the last common grazing area before the final journey, through what is now Broadway market, to Brick Lane's Slaughter Street or further on to East Smithfield. The well-worn path would be as old as time itself, at least as long ago as the foundation of London, for some 3,000 years according to the ancient legends. Interestingly, this route bisects the planned roads in the same way as the old Native American trackway, better known today as Broadway, in New York! |
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Broadway Market seems to be the beaten track itself historically. It is only centuries of subsequent development and traffic diversion from Hackney Road to Cambridge Heath Road that has fortunately left Broadway intact. |
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The Ancient Town of Hackeneye is first mentioned in 1252, during the reign of Henry III, but coins found near Temple Mills, date back to Julius Caesar who visited in 55BC. |
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While the name Hackney Carriage is associated with the town all over the world for taxi cabs, the name is more likely to have been borrowed from the French haquenée. Meaning a slow horse! |
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John Rocque's map of 1745 (available for purchase at Off Broadway) shows the Porter's Path distinctly, and identifies such hostelries as 'The Leg of Mutton & Cat' (now The Cat and Mutton in Broadway Market), and 'The Nags Head' on Hackney Road. The Flying Horse in Mare Street, (by the BP service station) was said to be one of the old posting-houses on the old road to Cambridge and Newmarket in the days of old Queen Bess. For those eating away from home were usually travelers. Restaurants as we know them today would have only existed in major cities. |
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The diet has changed considerably in the last three hundred or so years. In Samuel Pepys' Diaries (1659-69), detailed references to the menu, whether at home or prepared in the many hostelries, were recorded for posterity. A 'pretty' dinner March 26th 1662, comprised a brace of stewed carps, six roasted chickens and a jowl of salmon followed by a tanzy, two neats' tongues and cheese for the second course. Protein and fats would be 95% of a wealthy mans intake, fruit and green vegetables a mere 5%. For the poor it would be the reverse. Had malnourishment, bad living conditions, disease and long hours been absent from the latter, the poor would have long outlived their paymasters when it came to diet. Pepys' recorded visits to Kingsland, May 12 th 1667, one year after the Great Fire. |
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Hackney (Danish Hacon's Eye or island) was home of the Knight Templers, (Viz. the listed Temple Mills on the River Lea). Later the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. Ancient records show the residence to be at The Priory in Wells Street. It former name was Beaulieu in 1352 when it was sold by the Prior of St John to John Blaunch and Nicholas Shordych. During Stowe's time it was called Shoreditch Place (now Shore Road.) |
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There has been a cycle of architectural events in this world, where large houses are turned into institutions and eventually redeveloped with changing needs. This started to occur in Hackney many centuries ago, leaving now only two ancient buildings for aesthetic posterity, namely what are now the Geoffrye Museum, Shoreditch and Sutton House in Lower Clapton. Fortunately today there is a far greater respect for history, bringing a halt to the ambitions of developers. So when we re-look at the extended borough of Hackney, there is still a wealth of Georgian and Victorian squares and terraces to remind us of our heritage. Most of all, our riches are measured by every days events, the atmosphere of a place, and particularly a good meal. Broadway Market in particular, boasts friendliness and good reason for its hospitality. |
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