Saffron Hill

Saffron Hill is the name of a street in the south eastern corner of the London Borough of Camden, between Farringdon Road and Hatton Garden. The name of the street derives from the fact that it was at one time part of an estate on which saffron grew.

In 1850 it was described as a squalid neighbourhood, the home of paupers and thieves. In Charles Dickens's 1837 novel "Oliver Twist" (Chapter 8), the Artful Dodger leads Oliver to Fagin's den on Saffron Hill: "a dirty and more wretched place he [Oliver] had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours".

Saffron Hill formed a liberty which became part of the County of London in 1889. It was abolished in 1900 and formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn until 1965.

External links

* [http://www.boilerbill.freeuk.com/saffronhill.html Photographs of Saffron Hill]