Spitalfields is known for many things. Its market; its nightlife; its curry houses; its beigels. Between Nicholas Hawksmoor’s famous Christ Church and Old Spitalfields Market, it is home to another architectural point of note: London’s largest collection of early Georgian Huguenot houses.
The Huguenots were a group of French Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who fled the country after persecution by the Catholic church. In total, an estimated 200,000 Huguenots left France for non-Catholic Europe, with around 50,000 people moving to England. Considered to be the UK’s first refugees, many settled in London, including areas like Soho, Greenwich and, of course, Spitalfields.
