Shoreditch Life

Oranges and Lemons - when I grow rich say the bells of Shoreditch

Maurice Collins - shows his eccentric contraptions at V&A

Looking back in time - a turbulent history

Shoreditch Town Hall - now it's a show piece

Shoreditch Town Hall - design show comes home ...

Environmental Green Mark gives chance for ultimate savings

SmartWater to flush out those thieves ...

SECURITY TIPS 'top ten' from local police

Looking back in time

1st century: The Romans build Ermine Street from London to Lincoln, passing through what will one day be Shoreditch.

12th century: The area is still mostly fields. St Leonard's church is founded.

16th century: A prosperous village. Richard Burbage opens "The Theatre" in Shoreditch (because performing has been banned inside the City). One of the actors in his company is a young William Shakespeare, and Romeo and Juliet is first performed here.

17th century: Burbage is buried in St Leonard's, known as "the actors' church".

The site has been occupied by a church since the 1100s, but the present building, by George Dance, dates from 1740: the village stocks and whipping post are in the gardens

18th century: St Leonard's church is rebuilt (see picture). The spire is an imitation of Wren's steeple on St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside.

19th century: Shoreditch descends into poverty, crime and prostitution.

1900: A huge area of slums to the east of the High Street is reborn as the magnificent Boundary Estate.

1940s: The area is heavily bombed in the Blitz, and later heavily redeveloped.

1990s: Artists move into Shoreditch seeking cheap studio space. The White Cube gallery opens in Hoxton Square, trendy bars, clubs and restaurants follow, and Shoreditch is suddenly the hip arty place to be and to be seen.

21st century. A new mecca of social and business enterprises.

Mary Kelly, the Ripper's last victim

Mary Kelly, the last of the victims of Jack the Ripper, was taken to a mortuary attached to St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch. It was from here that her funeral cortege left to begin the journey to St Patrick's Cemetery in Leyton. A crowd several thousand strong arrived to pay their respects to the last of the victims of Jack the Ripper.

She was the only one of the victims of Jack the Ripper to be photographed at the scene of her murder. Even today this one of the Jack the Ripper photos is very disturbing and the words of her landlord, John McCarthy, that her murder looked "...more like the work of a devil than the work of a man..." still ring true.

She was heard singing in her room in the early hours of the morning of the 9th November 1888. Around 2am she was seen to bring a man back to her room. At around 4am several of Mary's neighbours claimed to have heard a faint cry of "Murder!" However, Dorset Street was a very violent street and drunken brawls were commonplace in which the people often made similar cries. So Mary's neigbours ignored what was probably a cry for help as the Ripper struck in that tiny room in Miller's Court. The site of Miller's Court is now occupied by a food warehouse. ...JAY