Weaving Silk Stories - research - cream in spitalfields - Part I
- Stephanie Smart
- May 28
- 18 min read
Updated: Jun 4
This post is part I of the four that are connected to the dress Suppôt des pensées
"The original Priory of St. Mary Spittle was founded...in the year 1197. It was surrendered at the dissolution to King Henry, and at that time the hospital which belonged to the priory was found to contain one hundred and eighty beds. In place of the hospital many large mansions were built, and among these...that of Sir Horatio Pallavicini, an Italian merchant, who acted as ambassador to Queen Elizabeth; and in the reign of James I we find the Austrian ambassador lodging there. In the year 1559 Queen Elizabeth came in state from St. Mary Spittle, attended by a thousand men in harness, and ten great guns, with drums, flutes, and trumpets sounding, and morris-dancers bringing two white bears in a cart."
The view from a beautiful attic room of the others along the length of Fournier Street, Spitalfields, London
"In 1743, there were approximately 1800 houses and 15.000...weavers and their family. This number...multiplied a few times before the end of the 17th century. In the last quarter of 18th century, 12-15.000 looms were in use in Spitalfields. Each loom represented the employment of at least 3 operatives in various processes of production. That estimates the number of approximately 30.000 silk workers at that time".
As part of my research for Weaving Silk Stories I was fortunate to be able to visit Charlie de Wet who lives in Fournier Street, Spitalfields. Hers is an ex weavers house that has been lovingly restored; the others in the row likewise. They are now valuable real estate but at one point the terrace houses packed tightly along each side of Fournier Street, Princelet Street and Wilkes Street in particular would have been lived and worked in by Huguenot weavers. These three roads connect to Brick Lane and form the central U shape of what was once a hive of silken industry with Princelet and Fournier streets where the master weavers more likely lived. Charlie set up the charity Huguenots of Spitalfields which sadly closed during the Covid pandemic but you can hear her talking to Emma Cox here: https://emmacox.co.uk/huguenots-in-spitalfields-and-beyond/
The attic rooms were where the looms were located because of the availability of light and ventilation.
As you will have read in the first quote (above) this area has a history that dates back to the 12th Century. Knowing that Elizabeth I visited is a nice early connection between Historic Royal Palaces and the area that would become the centre of the British silk industry in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was the area of London from whence future royalty would source silk for their interiors and dress.
"This is the great district for silk-weavers. "Spital Square," says Mr. Timbs, "at the south-east corner, has been the heart of the silk district since 'the poor Protestant strangers, Walloons and French,' driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settled here, and thus founded the silk manufacture in England; introducing the weaving of lustrings, alamodes, brocades, satins, paduasoys, ducapes, and black velvets. In 1713 it was stated that silks, gold and silver stuffs, and ribbons were made here, as good as those of French fabric, and that black silk for hoods and scarves was made actually worth three hundred thousand pounds."
The history of the area of Spitalfields has been written of in many sources. I won't attempt to cover it all here but would recommend: https://woolmerforest.org.uk/E-Library/L/LIFE%20AND%20DEATH%20IN%20SPITALFIELDS%201700%20TO%201850.pdf
What I want to do here is to focus on some of the links I have made between this area, its wider geographical setting, its silk history specifically and the pieces in the Weaving Silk Stories collection.
When designing Fading Glory, the ballgown, which I made as part of The Regency Wardrobe collection, my aim was to create a dress that suitably and richly symbolised the power of the history of the British Empire but which had, incorporated into it details of the painful life and death nature of the involvement of ordinary soldiers and sailors in the empire building process.
Silk could be said to reflect the disjunction between wealth and poverty better than any other material. Wearing of it has been, for many centuries, the privilege of the wealthy. Since its inception it has been thought of as the most luxurious of textiles. But creating it has involved much hardship.
Though the silk industry was less concentrated than it had been in the Spitalfields area by the Victorian era nevertheless Charles Dickens gives us a wonderful impression of the "unwholesome" nature of a home in which silk was being made. As you can read here in the wonderful online magazine Spitalfields Life.
Whilst mills such as Whitchurch Silk Mill were being established even in the Regency era the history of silk weaving in Britain has involved a lot of home working.
"During the reigns of Queen Anne, George 1 and George II, the Spitalfields weavers greatly increased; in 1832, 50,000 persons were entirely dependent on the silk-manufacture, and the looms varied from 14,000 to 17,000"
That's a lot of attic room looms, with the men of the family often responsible for the weaving and the women and children completing all the accompanying tasks.
But I'd like us to take a step back and consider where Spitalfields is located.
The East End
"The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have universally accepted boundaries to the north and east, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the eastern boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London (though that term too has no precise definition)...The East End began to emerge in the Middle Ages with initially slow urban growth outside the eastern walls, which later accelerated, especially in the 19th century, to absorb pre-existing settlements. The first known written record of the East End as a distinct entity, as opposed to its component parts, comes from John Strype's 1720 Survey of London, which describes London as consisting of four parts: the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, and "That Part beyond the Tower". The relevance of Strype's reference to the Tower was more than geographical. The East End was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the Tower Division, which had owed military service to the Tower of London since time immemorial. Later, as London grew further, the fully urbanised Tower Division became a byword for wider East London, before East London grew further still, east of the River Lea and into Essex..The wider East London area might be said to comprise, or approximate to, the two eastern wards of the City, the former Tower Division and those parts of London east of the Lea.."
To try to sum up:
Beyond the small eastern extramural wards, the narrowest definition restricts the East End to the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets. A more common preference is to add to Tower Hamlets the former parish and borough of Shoreditch (including Hoxton and Haggerston), which is now the southern part of the modern London Borough of Hackney. Other commentators prefer a definition broader still, encompassing districts such as West Ham, East Ham, Leyton, Walthamstow, parts or all of Hackney (the district, rather than the larger modern borough) and Ilford..."
Note: Hackney has a long history of producing satin ballet shoes
they are still made there today. A swan shaped pointe shoe
is therefore part of the Weaving Silk Stories collection.
Moorfields
"...the modest eastern suburb separated from the much smaller northern extension by Moorfields adjacent to the wall on the north side. Moorfields was an open area with a marshy character due to London's Wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the Walbrook and restricting development in that direction. Moorfields remained open until 1817, and the longstanding presence of that open space separating the emerging East End from the western and small northern suburb must have helped shape the different economic character of the areas and perceptions of their distinct identity...Shoreditch's boundary with the parish of St Luke's (which, like its predecessor St Giles-without-Cripplegate served the Finsbury area ran through the Moorfields countryside. These boundaries remained consistent after urbanisation and so might be said to delineate east and north London. The boundary line, with very slight modifications, has also become the boundary between the modern London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington."
Note: Moorfields gave its name to Moorfields Eye hospital, which
moved from it's original site at the end of the 19th century. I will
be exploring the issue of sight loss in relation to silk weavers
across the Weaving Silk Stories collection.
Trade
"Geography was a major factor influencing the character of the developing East End; prevailing winds flow, like the river, west to east. The flow of the river led to the maritime trades concentrating in the east and the prevailing wind encouraged the most polluting industries to concentrate eastwards. Metal working industries are recorded between Aldgate and Bishopsgate in the 1300s and ship building for the navy is recorded at Ratcliff in 1354, with ship fitting and repair carried out in Blackwall by 1485[35] and a major fishing port developed downstream at Barking to provide fish for the City. These and other factors meant that industries relating to construction, repair, and victualling of naval and merchant ships flourished in the area but the City of London retained its right to land the goods, until 1799...Closure of the last of the Port of London's East End docks in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration...Paradoxically, while some parts of the East End are undergoing rapid change and are amongst the areas with the highest mean salary in the UK, it also continues to contain some of the worst poverty in Great Britain..The continued strength of the City's financial services sector has seen many large office buildings erected around the City fringe, with indirect benefits accruing to local business. The area around Old Spitalfields Market has been redeveloped...
Note: The links between silk, textiles, sea born trade and money
(the financial service sector) are explored further in
my post about Admiral Sir Robert Smart
Poverty
"The East End has always contained some of London's poorest areas. The main reasons for this include:
- The medieval system of copyhold, which prevailed throughout the Manor of Stepney into the 19th century. There was little point in developing land that was held on short leases.
- The siting of noxious industries, such as tanning and fulling downwind outside the boundaries of the City, and therefore beyond complaints and official controls. The foul-smelling industries partially preferred the East End because the prevailing winds in London travelled from west to east (i.e. it was downwind from the rest of the city), so that most odours from their businesses would not go into the city.
- The low-paid employment in the docks and related industries, made worse by the trade practices of outwork, piecework and casual labour.
- The concentration of the ruling court and national political centre in Westminster, on the opposite, western side of the City of London.
In medieval times trades were carried out in workshops in and around the owners' premises in the City. By the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666 these were becoming industries, and some were particularly noisome, such as the processing of urine for the tanning industry, or required large amounts of space, such as drying clothes after process and dying in fields known as tentergrounds. Some were dangerous, such as the manufacture of gunpowder or the proving of guns. These activities came to be performed outside the City walls in the near suburbs of the East End. Later, when lead-making and bone-processing for soap and china came to be established, they too located in the East End rather than in the crowded streets of the City.
In 1817 the Lower Moorfields was built on and the gap with Finsbury was fully closed, and in the late 19th century development across the Lea in West Ham began in earnest."...notorious for its deep poverty, overcrowding and associated social problems. This led to the East End's history of intense political activism and association with some of the country's most influential social reformers."
Note: I will also be looking more at how Poverty has
been illustrated and mapped, in the piece titled Poverty Mapped
And the advocation of social reform is a matter reflected on in
relation to the inspiration for the dress Cloth of Gold
You can read more about social unrest, and how silk weavers were involved, on this site:
Migration
"Another major theme of East End history has been migration, both inward and outward. The area had a strong pull on the rural poor from other parts of England, and attracted waves of migration from further afield, notably Huguenot refugees, Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and in the 20th century, Bengalis...Immigrant communities developed primarily along the river. From the Tudor era until the 20th century, ships' crews were employed on a casual basis. New and replacement crew would be found wherever they were available, local sailors being particularly prized for their knowledge of currents and hazards in foreign ports. Crews were paid at the end of their voyages. Inevitably, permanent communities became established, including small numbers of lascars from the Indian subcontinent and Africans from the Guinea Coast. Chinatowns in both Shadwell and Limehouse sprang up in response to Chinese emigration to London, where they opened and operated opium dens, brothels and laundries. It was only after the devastation of the Second World War that this predominantly Han Chinese community relocated to Soho...Weaving was a major industry in areas close to the City but remote from the Thames; the arrival of Huguenot (French Protestant) refugees, many of them weavers, alongside large numbers of their English and Irish counterparts contributed to rapid development in Spitalfields and western Bethnal Green in the 17th century".
Of Spitalfields itself suffice to say:
"For nearly 500 years Spitalfields was the first port of call for many different migrant groups arriving in London"
- Immigrants of Spitalfields, Festival leaflet
"Protestant Huguenot refugees came from France in the time of Henry VIII in the early 16th century. This migration gathered pace in the 17th century..."
My visit to Spitalfields
While I was visiting Charlie de Wet we took a tour
The area inspires not only art but writing, for example Liz Trenow's The Silk Weaver, which you can read about here
For an interesting take on how this area of London links with other textile linked locations I have looked at in my research for Weaving Silk Stories please click here
And for a modern materials based project linking to this area: https://rawmaterials.bowarts.org/about/
The following is a quote from some information compiled by Charlie de Wet who is extremely knowledgeable about where she lives. It gives a little history about a particular example of a property in this area but every neighbouring house has its own similarly rich interwoven history.
"No.3 Fournier Street was built in 1754 by the senior member of the LeKeux family which had been established in Spitalfields since the period of the revocation of the treaty of Nantes and in Canterbury since the period of the Saint Bartholemews Massacre. It would appear that their removal to Spitalfields in the 1670s was commercial to expand their trade and to take advantage of the most recent influx of skilled French emigres.
Captain Peter LeKeux, was amongst the longest established and most prosperous Spitalfields Silk weavers. His great uncle Colonel LeKeux had settled close by in the 1670s, from Canterbury...Captain LeKeux (1716-1768) became head of the Weavers Company and was a major patron of the silk designs of Anna Maria Garthwaite. He caused the design of No. 3 to reflect its Hawksmoor neighbour opposite by being larger in structure and more careful in construction than the earlier houses on Fournier Street. The house was built as a pair to No. 1, which was built for the minister of the French Church on Threadneedle Street. It is possible there was once adjacent warehousing as the LeKeux family are known to have owned some. In the second room on the first floor the fireplace is tiled with Delft Manganese tiles all with biblical references as would have been common in the area...
The houses at this end of Fournier Street were re-configured in the 1840s in response to the driving through of Commercial Street which connected the Bishopsgate railway depot to London Docks but bisected Spitalfields, with the installation of a shopfront. No. 3 became a pawnbrokers and jewellery shop owned by the Jones family and their signage is still visible. The last Jones resident were local benefactors, and trustees of local charities including the London Dispensary, further down Fournier Street, which functioned as a local hospital until the founding of the Heath Service." - Charlie De Wet
You can read about No. 4 here and about No. 13 here Also about the blue plaque to Anna Maria Garthwaite at No. 2 Princelet Street here
Note: Anna Maria inspired a gown that is named
after her as part of the Weaving Silk Stories collection
Though reading about the area of Spitalfields is fascinating in itself I also really needed to look at example of the silk that came from there, for inspiration. So on the same day that I visited Spitalfields I went on to the Museum of London (of which I have fond memories as a child).
One of the most impressive gowns made from Spitalfields silk is held at The Museum of London, dating from 1752 which you can see here
You can read more about the dress at::
or
Created in 1752 for Ann Fanshawe, daughter of the Lord Mayor of London, the pattern of the silk it is made of has an interesting design feature - the Rococo S-curve.
"The most distinctive feature of the Rococo was the S-curve line known as the Line of Beauty, promoted by William Hogarth in his treatise, Analysis of Beauty (1753) as well as the influential manual Laboratory or School of the Arts (1756). This meandering line can be found as early as 1743 in Garthwaite designs Though a connected line is not always present, the curving motifs draw the eye on a sinuous path, seemingly turning and greeting each other in mimicry of partnered dances such as the minuet"
In this woven silk mantua gown, from the National Museum of Scotland, again from the 1750s, you can see the same 's' shape: https://www.nms.ac.uk/discover-catalogue/luxury-in-fashion-the-18th-century-court-mantua
I found examples of this curve in silk designs by Anna Maria Garthwaite from the 1720's, 1740's and 1750's in the book Silk Designs from the Eighteenth Century, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London Edited with an introduction by Clare Browne. You can see an example here
And by a certain stage in my research I was spotting curves that look like curling ribbon or trailing botany all over the place, including in other aspects of the interiors at Hampton Court
It's interesting to compare the dresses of woven silk mentioned above with this very beautiful dress from roughly a decade earlier, held at the V&A and made of English (not specifically stated but likely Spitalfields) silk. For instead of being woven into the body of the fabric the decoration here is applied using silk thread embroidery.
This is an alternative design style, the dress has nature growing up from the ground instead of twisting over it likewise reflects the fact that:
"botanically accurate flowers were a feature of Rococo embroidery, patterned silks and printed textiles of the1740s and 1750s in England."
“The shell, the quintessential Rococo motif, constitutes the basis of the embroidery pattern, Leafy scrolls, latticed arcades and tassel are also featured…worn by the Duchess of Queensbury in 1740: ‘her clothes were embroidered upon white satin…’ Seven panels of ivory-ribbed silk made up the petticoat. Silver thread delineates the leaves and the non-floral components of the pattern. Some of the scrolls and border elements have a backing of parchment, for solidity and regularity of line. The tassels and bases of the shells have been thickly padded underneath. Varying the height of the padding under the embroidery of the silver leaves gives the surface of the stitching a rippled effect."
I then saw in an exhibition called Dressing the Georgians at The Queens Gallery this next gown:
"While the wearer of this mantua is not known, it is recorded as having been worn at court in the 1760s. The embroidery is of the highest quality with coloured silks creating naturalistic shading in the flowers and leaves, and metallic thread representing serpentine stems and three-dimensional ears of corn. The style of the fabric suggests it might have been made in the 1740s and altered later..."
- Dressing the Georgians exhibition description
Note: to see other stunning examples of mantua's from across Europe from the previous decades please see: https://my18thcenturysource.tumblr.com/post/619940865953169414/which-was-more-seen-at-court-a-court-mantua-or-a
By now I wasn't just looking for similar curves in the weaving or embroidery, I was also spotting a common colour theme. The description above suggests a white gown so I wondered if it was merely age that had added an ivory hue to some of the fabric pictured. But when you look at original drawings for designs of silk from the time such as the one shown here by Anna Maria Garthwaite you can see that the silk was meant to have a creamy background.
Finally I saw another, made of woven silk from Spitalfields (dated 1750-1753) on display at Kensington Palace as part of the exhibition Court to Couture
To learn more about this mantua click here
Many examples of British silk design from the middle of the 1700's, including many examples from Spitalfields, seem also to integrate small sprays of flowers in shades of pink and red. The lovely effect of white work (where part of any embroidery is the same colour as the background) can see catching the light behind scattered coloured flowers on this piece (above).
I found later pieces too, for example on a visit I made to Worthing Museum. A polonaise dress in this instance, from the 1770s made of Spitalfields silk the repeating downward curve is gone but the cream remains.
Note: You can see more images and read more about
the visit I made to Worthing Museum and the details of the
dress here
That trip would help inspire a 1770s polonaise called Looming
as part of the Weaving Silk Stories collection.
Here you can see similar examples on mannequins from the National Trust collection:
and
And one from the V&A
And again from the Rijks Museum
And here you can see a similar silk being woven in Lyon, where many of the Huguenot migrants who settled in Spitalfields came from: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-maison-des-canuts-silk-workers-museum
I think this is such a lovely picture of the back of such a fabric:
During research in The Royal Ceremonial Dress collection at Hampton Court I saw this piece (below):
Open Robe Court Dress with petticoat - 3500001:
"Silk dress, Ivory silk taffeta brocaded with flowers, made with English silk, Spitalfields c 1745, the fresh colours and botanically well observed flowers are very typical of the mid 1740’s. The dress was entirely remade c. 1845. May have been made and worn at the fancy dress ‘Bal Poudre’ which Queen Victoria and Albert gave in 1845."
- catalogue of Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection
For more details about this dress please click here
You can hear Matthew Storey, chief curator of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, talking about this dress on the Historic Royal Palaces podcast here
There is a portrait of Victoria and Albert at another costume ball in the series of three of which this one was a part which you can see here: https://www.rct.uk/collection/404540/queen-victoria-and-prince-albert-at-the-bal-costume-of-12-may-1842
In fact looking at linen and cotton garments from the 1700's we see similar colour combinations which were obviously fashionable and popular rather than specific to silk: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/84571
Silk and silk thread were sometimes combined with/applied to a linen background. The panel below is English but with much more exotic imagery. I love this little dragon, set amongst the thorns of roses. So I decided to incorporate him into the design I was to create for the large cream mantua I planned to make as part the Weaving Silk Stories collection to be titled Support Thoughts of Roses: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90745/dress-panel-unknown/
In this post, I'm trying to give an overview of the twists and turns my mind took during the designing of the different pieces in the Weaving Silk Stories collection. That embroidered dragon reminded me of a cast iron head on show at Hampton Court. It was made by the Huguenot ironworker Jean Tijou whose work I will talk further about in a post titled Queen Anne Silver
This creature was also to become part of the design of Support Thoughts of Roses.
Similarly exotic creatures and colours appeared on textile items made in silk for interior decoration such as this bed cover: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O316239/bed-cover/
As I love being able easily to combine writing and imagery on the garments I make from paper I wanted to include a link to this original silk design with a cream background: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1104969/design/?carousel-image=2006AL2038 The design is from the 1720s, though I think it looks more modern. Although the style of the flowers is different from those shown above (from 20 years later) the design again has a cream ground. The V&A's accompanying text suggests it was typical of its period which makes its colourway: "...not so surprising for the patterns drawn in any one year all conform to the general style dictated by the prevailing fashion...since the designers in question were working in the same city at the same time and for the same mercers, they would have all used the same professional conventions. Both the methods of drawing and the colour schemes used would be necessarily very similar." This suggests that cream stayed fashionable for decades. I'm very intrigued by the text on design. I imagine it is notes concerning the design but it feels like it could equally be something much more personal and it's lovely to see the designer's hand writing.
Of course there were Spitalfields silks made in every other colour imaginable, I've just been noting a colour theme that particularly caught my eye and which I decided I wanted to reproduce. Here are some examples of dresses made of Spitalfields silk in other colours:
I've noted relatively few dresses from the 18th century that are one block colour but when I have seen them the piece in question has tended to be a cheerful golden yellow:
Here you can see a robe á la Française c. 1770:
"Open robe and matching petticoat of yellow silk (probably Spitalfields 'lustring') trimmed with narrow bands of self material in scallops on front of robe, and self material bows within each scallop. Some alteration around 1900 with addition of cream chiffon 'front'."
- collection catalogue Worthing Museum.
And a:
"Court Gown from 1760...This is the widest surviving court gown in Britain at nearly three metres wide. At Court, most people chose to make an impact wearing expensive brocaded fabrics. This is a plain silk and so would have been cheaper to buy. However its size and the sheer quality of workmanship and design make up for the less expensive fabric."
- exhibition label at Court to Couture at Kensington Palace
Similar colourways were of course being made and worn abroad: https://emuseum.history.org/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:99552
Weaving Silk Stories is a new project in partnership with the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, which is due to launch in 2027.
Paper sponsorship by Duni Global
