St Luke's

St Luke's is an area in the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, close to the borders with the London Borough of Hackney and the City of London, near the Barbican and Shoreditch. The closest tube station is Old Street. The area includes City Road, Finsbury Square, Whitecross Street, and part of Old Street. The name is rarely used today.

It is named after the parish and church of St Luke Old Street. St Luke's was created in 1733 (with the construction of the church) as both a civil and ecclesiastical parish, from the part of the existing parish of St Giles Cripplegate outside the City of Londonweb cite|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10100021|title=Old Street St Luke EP Middlesex through time|work=A vision of Britain] .

Being outside the City boundaries, the parish had a large non-conformist population. John Wesley's house and Wesleyan Chapel are in City Road, as is Bunhill Fields burial ground.

In 1751, St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, an asylum, was founded. Rebuilt in 1782 – 1784 by George Dance the Younger. In 1917, the site was sold to the Bank of England for St Luke's Printing Works producing banknotes and which was relocated in 1958 to Debden in Essex. It was damaged by the Blitz of 1940 [web cite|url=http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/4_13_TA.htm|title=Institutions with Pauper Lunatics in 1844|work=Middlesex University resources] .

The civil parish became officially known as "St Luke's Middlesex". The parish was historically in the county of Middlesex, and was included in the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855. From 1889 it was part of the County of London. The vestry administered local government in the area until the civil parish became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury in 1899. In 1965, this borough was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington.

The eponymous parish church is now home to a concert hall and rehearsal space used by the London Symphony Orchestra. The parish has been reabsorbed by St Giles-without-Cripplegate, since the closure of the church [web cite|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/feature/0,1169,892444,00.html|title=Invasion of the bodysnatchers|work=The Guardian] .

Whitecross Street Market

Whitecross Street Market is a daily general market. Stalls are set upon Whitecross Street, and the road closed to traffic. It has occasional food festivals. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2107996,00.html "Whitecross Street Food Festival" Matthew Fort, June 23, 2007] "The Guardian" accessed 10 Nov 2007]

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