Holborn, UK

The Holborn district in central London covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area extends west from Farringdon Street, for three-quarters of a mile, roughly as far as Southampton Row and Holborn tube station. The station was originally named Holborn (Kingsway) as it was on the junction of those two roads.

Holborn has long been associated with the legal professions, notably in the Lincoln's Inn area and was also a major centre of the old British newspaper industry before the advent of new publishing technology. Administratively, Holborn was once a London borough in its own right until 1965 - some older street signs which haven't been replaced still state the now defunct Borough of Holborn; today the district straddles the Borough of Camden and the City of Westminster. Ne

ighbouring Clerkenwell is full of architects and publishers, and as a result many new bars and restaurants have cropped up, and continues to be a target for more development. The bars vary from family orientated wine bars, to huge clubs and cool underground bars, and it compares well to its more artistic, trendier neighbour, Shoreditch (in the East End).

The now buried River Fleet formed the historic eastern boundary of the ancient parish of Holborn, a course now marked by Farringdon Street, Farringdon Road and other streets. The northern boundary with St Pancras was formed by a tributary of the Fleet later known as Lamb’s Conduit.

The district is serviced by the following tube stations:

Holborn (Central and Piccadilly lines) is at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway.
Chancery Lane (Central line) is the best station for accessing Lincoln's Inn and the other Inns of Court.
Farringdon (Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines) is the best station for accessing most of Clerkenwell's nightlife.

Plan and Book:

About Holborn

The area has its roots in the ancient parish of Holborn, which lay on the west bank of the now buried River Fleet. The area is sometimes described as part of the West End of London or of the wider West London area. The name "Holborn" may derive from the Middle English hol for "hollow", and bourne, a "brook", referring to the River Fleet as it ran through a steep valley (hollow) in places. However, the 16th-century historian John Stow attributes the name to a different watercourse: the Old Bourne ("old brook"), a small stream which he believed ran into the Fleet at Holborn Bridge.

The westward growth of London beyond the City Wall, and towards the seat of government in Westminster, took place along the banks of the River Thames and along the roads leading from Ludgate (Fleet Street and The Strand) and Newgate (Holborn and High Holborn). This growth, initially limited to Farringdon Without (which includes a part of Holborn) was well underway in the 12th century, leading to the Ward being retrospectively described as the capital's original West End.

Henry VII paid for the road to be paved in 1494 because the thoroughfare "was so deep and miry that many perils and hazards were thereby occasioned, as well to the king's carriages passing that way, as to those of his subjects". Criminals from the Tower and Newgate passed up Holborn on their way to be hanged at Tyburn or St Giles.

Hatton Garden, the centre of the diamond trade, was leased to a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Christopher Hatton, at the insistence of the Queen to provide him with an income. The area was not damaged by the Great Fire of London in 1666, though the area of destruction reached its south-eastern boundary. Back then, the built-up area stopped at the brook which formed the parish boundary with St Pancras (modern King’s Cross) to the north.

The three of these were Inns of Chancery. The most northerly of the Inns of Court, Gray's Inn, is off Holborn, as is Lincoln's Inn: the area has been associated with the legal professions since mediaeval times, and the name of the local militia (now Territorial Army unit, the Inns of Court & City Yeomanry) still reflects that. The unit is nicknamed the Devil's Own, a name given by George III, not due to ferocity in battle, but rather to his dislike of lawyers.

In the 18th century, Holborn was the location of the infamous Mother Clap's molly house (meeting place for homosexual men). There were 22 inns or taverns recorded in the 1860s. The Holborn Empire, originally Weston's Music Hall, stood between 1857 and 1960, when it was pulled down after structural damage sustained in the Blitz. The theatre premièred one of the first full-length feature films in 1914, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, a 50-minute melodrama filmed in Kinemacolor.

Subsequently, the area diversified and become recognisable as the modern street. A plaque stands at number 120 commemorating Thomas Earnshaw's invention of the Marine chronometer, which facilitated long-distance travel. At the corner of Hatton Garden was the old family department store of Gamages. Until 1992, the London Weather Centre was located in the street. The Prudential insurance company relocated in 2002. The Daily Mirror offices used to be directly opposite it, but the site is now occupied by Sainsbury's head office.

Behind the Prudential Building lies the Anglo-Catholic church of St Alban the Martyr. Originally built in 1863 by architect William Butterfield, it was gutted during the Blitz but later reconstructed, retaining Butterfield's west front.

On Holborn Circus lies the Church of St Andrew, an ancient Guild Church that survived the Great Fire of London. However, the parochial authority decided to commission Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild it. Although the nave was destroyed in the Blitz, the reconstruction was faithful to Wren's original. Just to the west of the circus, but originally sited in the middle, is a large equestrian statue of Prince Albert by Charles Bacon, erected in 1874 as the city's official monument to him. It was presented by Charles Oppenheim, of the diamond trading company De Beers, whose headquarters is in nearby Charterhouse Street.

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Nearby Places of Interest:

Lincoln's Inn Fields | University of The Arts London | /Museum of Freemasonry | Sir John Sloane's Museum | Charles Dickens Museum.