Petticoat Lane Market (picture right) is a fashion and clothing market located on Wentworth Street and Middlesex Street in East London. It is one of a number of traditional markets, lying to the east of the City of London. A few hundred yards to the north is Old Spitalfields market, and across Commercial Street, to the east lies Brick Lane Market. A half mile further east is the Columbia Road Flower market. Petticoat Lane Market was not formally recognised until an Act of Parliament in 1936, but its long history as an informal market makes it possibly one of the oldest surviving markets in Britain.
In Tudor times, Middlesex Street was known as Hogs Lane, a pleasant lane lined by hedgerows and elms. It is thought city bankers were allowed to keep pigs in the lane, outside the city wall; or possibly that it was an ancient droving trail. The lane's rural nature changed, and by 1590, country cottages stood by the city walls. By 1608, it had become a commercial district where second hand clothes and bric-a-brac were sold and exchanged, known as 'Peticote Lane'. This was also where the Spanish ambassador had his house, and the area attracted many Spaniards from the reign of James I. Peticote Lane was devastated in the Great Plague of 1665, the rich fled and London lost a fifth of its population.
In Tudor times, Middlesex Street was known as Hogs Lane, a pleasant lane lined by hedgerows and elms. It is thought city bankers were allowed to keep pigs in the lane, outside the city wall; or possibly that it was an ancient droving trail. The lane's rural nature changed, and by 1590, country cottages stood by the city walls. By 1608, it had become a commercial district where second hand clothes and bric-a-brac were sold and exchanged, known as 'Peticote Lane'. This was also where the Spanish ambassador had his house, and the area attracted many Spaniards from the reign of James I. Peticote Lane was devastated in the Great Plague of 1665, the rich fled and London lost a fifth of its population.
From the mid-18th century, Petticoat Lane became a centre for manufacturing clothes, and the market served the well to do in the City, selling new garments. About 1830, Peticote Lane's name changed again to Middlesex Street, this was to record the boundary between Portsoken Ward, in the City of London and Whitechapel, which coincided with the Lane. However, the old name continues to be associated with the area.
Left: Petticoat Lane in the 1920's.
From 1882 a wave of immigrants, Jews, fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, settled in the area. Jewish immigrants entered the local garment industry and maintained the traditions of the market. The severe damage experienced throughout the East End during World War II, served to disperse the Jewish communities and the area suffered a decline. The market, however, continued to prosper and a new wave of Asian immigration beginning in the 1970s restored the areas vitality - centred on nearby Brick Lane.
The market was always unpopular with the authorities, being largely unregulated and in some senses illegal. The rights of the market were finally protected by Act of Parliament in 1936. A prominent businessman, Alan Sugar, got his start as a stall holder, in the market.
