Concept    From 1600  To 1850

Spitalfields weaving industry

Categories: Commerce, Craft / Design

Many of the Huguenots that arrived here in the 16th and 17th centuries were skilled silk weavers and set up looms in their homes in Spitalfields. The Spitalfields textile trade thrived until the mid 18th century when the importation of foreign wrought silks damaged the local business. By the early 19th century machinery was being invented which heralded the end of the hand-weaving industry.

British History On-line has a very useful page. And, of course, Spitalfields Life, the source of our photo (held at the Tower Hamlets Local History Collection) is interesting on the topic.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Spitalfields weaving industry

Commemorated ati

Bowler plaque - Shuttle and Bobbins

The plaque shows a shuttle and two bobbins, representing the local weaving tr...

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Bowler plaque - Silk Design (A)

The plaque shows a detail from a design for the silk fabric produced in Spita...

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Other Subjects

Provident Life Office

Provident Life Office

A savings bank launched by Barber Beaumont in 1806. We think this went on to become part of Friends Provident. Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Group, Commerce

1 memorial
W. H. Smith

W. H. Smith

William Henry Smith. Bookseller and politician. The son in "W. H. Smith and Son".  He introduced the W. H. Smith stalls at railway stations and the business thrived. Entered politics in 1868.  Appo...

Person, Commerce, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, OM, GBE, CVO, FRCA, FBA, FKC

Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, OM, GBE, CVO, FRCA, FBA, FKC

Investment banker. We cannot find any specific connection between Lord Rothschild and Laurence Olivier, upon whose statue his name as a benefactor appears. We asked our colleague, Andrew Behan, to...

Person, Benefactor, Commerce

1 memorial
Freedom Press

Freedom Press

Anarchist publishing house in Whitechapel. Co-founded by Peter Kropotkin as an outlet and meeting place for the radical and anarchist thinkers of the day and has operated, with short breaks, ever s...

Group, Commerce, Community / Clubs, Politics & Administration

3 memorials
East India Company

East India Company

Formed as a trading company but went on to effectively rule India, on behalf of the British. Was involved in the slave trade.

Group, Commerce, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Indian Sub-continent

5 memorials

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Lilian Lindsay

Lilian Lindsay

Dentist. Born Lilian Murray at 29 Hungerford Road, Holloway. After being refused training in London (for being a woman), she was accepted by the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School. On qualifying ...

Person, Medicine, Scotland

2 memorials
Fawcett frieze - 13, Ford

Fawcett frieze - 13, Ford

SW1, Parliament Square

Most statues have plinths, which often carry the identity of the statue but little more. The plinth for this Millicent Fawcett statue is ...

1 subject commemorated
Temple of Mithras / London Mithraeum

Temple of Mithras / London Mithraeum

The photo shows visitors at the excavation site in 1954. Alamy have another shot from above. Martins Bank and Great Wen both have photos of the temple in its Queen Victoria Street home, 1962-2011. ...

Building, Romans

1 memorial