To the north of Clerkenwell Road lies the industrial district of Clerkenwell, noted especially as the quarter of watchmakers, jewellers, and opticians. Near the intersection of Clerkenwell Road and Farringdon Road is Clerkenwell Green. The Clerkenwell House of Detention, a prison which stood here from 1775 to 1877, was in 1867 the scene of an attempt to rescue two Fenian prisoners by blowing up the prison-walls. In Clerkenwell Close, north of the Green, is the church of St. James, rebuilt in 1792 on the site of an ancient Benedictine nunnery. On its west front is an iron tablet, set up in 1878, with the spout of a pump from the old clerks' well at 18 Farringdon Rd. (permission to view on application at the Public Library in Skinner St.), where the parish-clerks of London used to perform their miracle-plays. This well gave its name to the whole district.
Among former residents of Clerkenwell were Izaak Walton (1650-61) John Wilkes (born here in 1727), Christopher Pinchbeck, inventor of the alloy that bears his name (1721), and Emanuel Swedenborg, who died in 1772 at 26 Great Bath St. (off Farringdon Road). The Red Bull Theatre, mentioned by Pepys, stood in Woodbridge St. from the reign of Elizabeth till 1663. Edward Alleyn played there in 1617.
In St. John St., farther north, is the Martyrs' Memorial Church, built in 1870 in honour of the Smithfield martyrs. Adjoining it, on the site of the old manor-house belonging to the Marquises of Northampton, is the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, opened in 1897. To the left from St. John Street, farther on, diverge Rosebery Avenue (see below) and then Chadwell St. The latter leads to Myddleton Square, the west side of which was known as Myddleton Terrace when Carlyle visited Edward Irving at No. 4 in 1824. Thomas Dibdin lived next door (No. 5).
In ROSEBERY AVENUE, by which we may return to Gray's Inn Road, is Old Sadler's Wells Theatre, where Grimaldi played and where Samuel Phelps produced thirty-four of Shakespeare's plays in 1844-64. After a period of eclipse it is proposed to convert it into an 'Old Vic' for north London. Farther south, beside New River Head, are the offices of the Metropolitan Water Board, with some old rooms, and an overmantel attributed to Grinling Gibbons. A little farther south, at the corner of Rosoman St. and Exmouth St., once stood the pump-room of the London Spa, in Spa Fields, a place of amusement in the 17th and 18th centuries.
