Turnbull Street (now Turnmill Street near Farringdon Station) was regarded as one of the most disreputable thoroughfares in London, infamous for its thieves and brothels – as mentioned in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2. This area lay outside the City walls, and became notorious for its alehouses, bowling alleys and dicing houses. The Knights Hospitallers of St John originally had their headquarters at Clerkenwell Priory. The area attracted a diverse variety of residents, including Jewish physicians. It was a venue for popular festivals and tournaments including the annual St Bartholomew’s Day celebrations, but also for the public executions of heretics and traitors.

During Tudor times the area was home to St Bartholomew’s Hospital and key livery companies including the Haberdashers. Smithfield is the site of London’s oldest market, which has operated here since the Middle Ages and is still trading today. London: the 16th-century city that never sleptįive districts that offer a flavour of the vibrant, often dangerous, Tudor capital

London a global city video