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Coleman Street Ward

Coordinates:51°31′01″N0°05′20″W/ 51.517°N 0.0889°W/51.517; -0.0889
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Ward of Coleman Street
A ward plaque, with acock,the emblem of Coleman Street Ward.
Location within the City, using post 2003 boundaries
Ward of Coleman Street is located in Greater London
Ward of Coleman Street
Ward of Coleman Street
Location withinGreater London
OS grid referenceTQ328815
Sui generis
Administrative areaGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLONDON
Postcode districtEC4
Dialling code020
PoliceCity of London
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London
51°31′01″N0°05′20″W/ 51.517°N 0.0889°W/51.517; -0.0889

Coleman Streetis one of the25 ancient wardsof theCity of London,England, and lies on the City's northern boundary with theLondon Borough of Islington.

The ward, which includes land lying on either side of the formercity wall,takes its name from a road linkingGresham Streetwith theLondon Wallroad.

The ward

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Modern ward boundary changes, particularly those of 2003, have much altered the extent of city wards, so that many no longer closely correlate to their historic areas.

Coleman Street is a very busy ward,[1]it has its own long established ward club[2]and newsletter.[3]

Etymology

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The ward takes its name from Coleman Street, which took its name from the charcoal burners who occupied the area in medieval times.[4]

Historic ward

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Traditional extent of the City of London Wards.

The first mention of the ward appears to have been in 1130, but at that time it was common practice to use the name of the ward Alderman to refer to the ward. In the 1130 survey, Coleman Street Ward is thought to correspond toWarda Haconis.[5]

The ward contains areas both outside and inside the line of the City'sformer defensive walls.There was no local gate through the wall untilMoorgate,previously a small postern, was built in 1511.Abraham Cowley's 1661Restoration comedyThe Cutter of Coleman Streetrefers to the area.

Moorgate in 1650

It appears that the area outside, the once very marshyLower and Little Moorfields(now mostly occupied byFinsbury Circusand the surrounding buildings), previously part of theSoke of Cripplegateand then theManor of Finsbury,was added in the 17th century,[6]though it was not developed until 1817.

TheWalbrook,known at this point asDeepditchand running on the line of modernBlomfield Street,formed the eastern boundary ofLower Moorfieldsand the line continues to form the eastern boundary of the part of the ward lying north of the former wall,[7]with the extra-mural ward ofBishopsgate Withoutlying east of the brook, and the road which now covers it. This section of the Walbrook, around Blomfield Street, was the focus of the phenomena of theWalbrook Skulls,resulting from theimmense quantitiesof Roman-era human heads that were deposited in the river.[8]These are still regularly uncovered during building work.

Post 2003 ward

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Coleman Street borders six other wards[9]and occupies an irregular shape of land bounded to the north byChiswell Streetand Eldon Street; to the east by Blomfield Street, Copthall Avenue and a section ofMoorgate;to the south byLothburyand Gresham Street; and to the west byBasinghall Street,Coleman Street itself, Moor Lane andSilk Street.

Politics

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Coleman Street is one of 25wardsin the City of London, each electing analdermanto theCourt of Aldermenand commoners (the City equivalent of acouncillor) to theCourt of Common Councilof theCity of London Corporation.Only electors who areFreemen of the Cityare eligible to stand. The Alderman isPeter Estlinand the Common Councilmen are Michael Cassidy, Sophie Fernandes,Stuart Fraserand Andrew McMurtrie.[10]

Warren Stormes Hale,Lord Mayor of London in 1864, was the ward's most notable civic dignitary.

Features

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Finsbury Circus,in the north of the ward, is the largest public park in the City.
Coleman Street, from which the Ward takes its name
St Margaret Lothburychurch.

Coleman Street is a one-way road that runs fromGresham StreettoLondon Wall.The church ofSt Stephen Coleman Streetused to stand at the southern end of the street, on the western side, until it was completely destroyed inthe Blitzand was not rebuilt. In the 17th century, St. Stephen's became aPuritanstronghold.[11][12][13]On the night of 5 January 1642, after the king's failed attempt to arrest them,five MPs,Pym,Hampden,Haselrig,StrodeandHolles,hid on Coleman Street utilising the support for parliament that tended to be afforded by sympathisers in the City of London.

At the northern end of the street stands the livery hall of theWorshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers,[14]and the pineapple-shaped headquarters ofLegal & General.

Despite the bustle of business, the ward also contains the City’s "finest oasis of calm",[15] Finsbury Circus,an elliptical square with its own bowling club, is located within the ward, as isMoorgate station.[16]

References

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  1. ^City of London Police OverviewArchived13 October 2007 at theWayback Machine
  2. ^Details of Organisation
  3. ^Ward Newsletter[permanent dead link]
  4. ^Book 2, Ch. 16: Coleman Street Wardin A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark,Noorthouck, J.:London, R. Baldwin & Co., 1773
  5. ^Referring to an 1130 survey of the lands of St Paul's, from "London, its origins and early development" by William Page, 1923
  6. ^The Ward did not extend beyond the wall at the time of John Stows survey of 1603 – but it did by the time of Ogilby and Morgans map of 1676
  7. ^BHO source on the Moorfields areahttps://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp88-90
  8. ^London's Hadrianic War? Dominic Perring
  9. ^Bishopsgate,Broad Street,Walbrook,Cheap,BassishawandCripplegate
  10. ^Sheriff Peter Estlin (Alderman).City of London. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  11. ^D.A. Kirby,The Radicals of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, 1624-1642(Corporation of London, 1970).
  12. ^D.A. Williams, 'London Puritanism: the parish of St Stephen's, Coleman Street',The Church Quarterly Reviewvol 160 (1959), pp. 464-82.
  13. ^A. Johns, 'Coleman Street',Huntington Library Quarterly,71 part 1 (2008),pp. 33-54(University of Chicago pdf).
  14. ^Al Smith (1970)Dictionary of City of London Street Names:47
  15. ^Betjeman's BritainBetjeman,J: London, Folio Society, 1999ISBN1-85848-170-8
  16. ^Description of Locale
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