Middlesex Street - Jews’ Free School
The view shows the juncture of Sandys Row and Middlesex Street close to the northern end of Middlesex Street (near Liverpool Street Station) with one of the entrances to the Jews’ Free School on the left. Some of the young men at the centre of the image were presumably pupils of the school. Printed in Germany, publisher and date of publication unknown.
Located on the border between the City and Whitechapel, Petticoat Lane, where the Huguenots of Spitalfields had established a textiles market, was renamed Middlesex Street in the mid-nineteenth century, but the Petticoat Lane Market, which in fact takes place on Middlesex Street and Wentworth Street, has retained its name. From the late nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century, most of the tradesmen and women and many of the customers were Jewish. The area was frequently referred to simply as “the Lane”.
Postcard from the book: Jews in Old Postcards and Prints