Clerkenwell Area Guide

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. It was an ancient parish and from 1900 to 1965 and formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watch making and watch repairing trades were once of great importance in Clerkenwell. The south-western part of the area was once known as London's "Little Italy" because of the large number of Italians living in the area from the 1850s until the 1960s.

Clerkenwell used to be a part of London's industrial heartland. Now, the warehouses are home to design agencies and magazines, the factories have become exclusive bars and restaurants, and the slum housing has been turned into flats for professional twenty-something’s. As the local population moved out, the pubs found a new way of making money, and many of London's oldest and best gastro pubs are in this area, supplied with top quality ingredients by Exmouth and Smithfield Markets.

Pubs that serve the Smithfield Market meat workers are allowed to open at 5.30 am! These include Nicholson's Brewery's former gin palace the Fox & Anchor, The Hope, and the Cock Tavern (which is situated under the market itself). London's first gastro pub, the Eagle, opened in Clerkenwell in 1991. The Eagle has been joined by, among others, the Peasant, the Coach and Horses and the Gunmakers and the Green, which as part of a nationwide evolution of the traditional public house have since converted to gastro pubs. It is even said that Vladimir Lenin and a young Joseph Stalin met in the Crown and Anchor pub (now known as the Crown Tavern) on Clerkenwell Green when the latter was visiting London in 1903.

With few tourists and hotels, Clerkenwell can feel a little deserted at weekends, that is until you stumble across the areas around Farringdon and Smithfield’s, which have been popular for so long that they've generated their own local economies of bars, shops and restaurants. In the North, Sadler's Wells is London's flagship venue for contemporary dance.

 A general revival and gentrification process began in the 1990s, and the area is now known for loft-living young professionals, nightclubs and art galleries. It also houses many business offices as an overspill area for the nearby City of London and West End, alongside council housing. Amongst other sectors, there is a notable concentration of design professions around Clerkenwell, and supporting industries such as high-end designer furniture showrooms, with many of London's leading architectural practices located in the area.