minute read
On July 4th, 1996, Hurford Salvi Carr became the first estate agent to open in Clerkenwell.
Whilst we certainly don’t expect our humble beginnings to be chronicled in the history books of Clerkenwell, so much has changed in the past 30 years, we thought it may be an opportune time to revisit Clerkenwell’s rich and eclectic history in a series of posts over the coming weeks.
Time & Type: The Gritty Genius of Victorian Clerkenwell
If you could step back into the smog-filled streets of 19th-century Clerkenwell, your ears would be met by a distinct symphony: the rhythmic metallic clatter of printing presses and the delicate, high-pitched "tink-tink" of watchmakers' hammers.
For over a hundred years, this square mile of London wasn’t just a neighbourhood; it was the precision engine room of the world.
The Watchmakers: A Micro-City of Masters
In the 1800s, Clerkenwell was the global capital of horology. But you wouldn't find many massive factories. Instead, the area ran on the "Chamber System." Behind the soot-stained windows of ordinary houses in Clerkenwell Close and St John’s Square, hundreds of independent specialists worked in tiny workshops.
One man might spend his entire life only cutting "fusees" (gears), while his neighbour across the hall did nothing but polish hands. This hyper-specialisation created unrivaled quality.
The Heavyweights - Firms like John Moore & Sons built the massive turret clocks that still hum in cathedrals today, while J. Smith & Sons became celebrities of the 1851 Great Exhibition.
The Resistance - When mass-produced American watches threatened the trade, the British Horological Institute was founded right here in 1858 to defend the art of the handmade.
The Printers: Ink, Type, and Revolution - While the watchmakers were obsessed with time, the printers were obsessed with ideas. Clerkenwell was the loud, ink-stained heart of London’s commercial and radical press.
The Pioneers - At St John’s Gate, Edward Cave launched The Gentleman’s Magazine, effectively inventing the modern magazine format. Nearby, William Caslon’s foundry was casting the typefaces that would define British typography for centuries.
The Radicals - Clerkenwell Green became a magnet for political firebrands. In a small print shop that is now the Marx Memorial Library, a Russian exile named Lenin spent 1902 printing Iskra (The Spark), smuggling the revolutionary newspaper back to Russia to ignite a fire that would change the 20th century.
A Fading Echo
By the early 20th century, the "hand-crafted" era began to stall. Clerkenwell’s refusal to abandon its traditional methods meant it couldn't compete with the machine-driven factories of Switzerland and the US.
Today, the workshops have been traded for sleek loft apartments and tech offices, but the architecture remains. If you look closely at the old brickwork around the Green, you can still see the ghosts of the artisans who once told the world what time it was—and what to think about it.
