Old Street

Old Street, looking west.

Old Street Promenade of Light.

Old Street is a street in Central and East London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, to the crossroads where it meets Shoreditch High Street (south), Kingsland Road (north) and Hackney Road (east) in Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney.

The nearest London Underground station is Old Street on the Northern Line. It is also on the National Rail Northern City Line.

History

Old Street was recorded as Ealdestrate c.1200 and le Oldestrete in 1373. As befits its name there are some suggestions that the road is of ancient origin: part of an old Roman road connecting Silchester and Colchester, by-passing the City of London. The western part was widened 1872-7, but it narrows east of Coronet Street and here survive, at Nos. 340-342 on the south side of the street and Nos. 323 and 325-329 on the north side, some domestic buildings from the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, though somewhat battered and altered in function. At the east end of Old Street on the south side is the old Shoreditch Town Hall.

The eastern half of the road is on the London Inner Ring Road and as such forms part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone. Old Street and the surrounding areas of Hoxton Square and Great Eastern Street also hosts a thriving night life. Old Street station is located under Old Street roundabout, the junction with City Road.

Within the past few years Old Street has become a favoured location for notable graffiti artists such as Banksy and Jef Aérosol. Banksy especially has featured several pieces on "Shoreditch Bridge".

The eastern end of the street has attracted a great number of IT companies and start-ups and has been dubbed the Silicon Roundabout.

Notes

• Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner (1998) London: North. London: Penguin Books.
• Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (1983) "Old Street" in The London Encyclopedia.