’T was August, and the fierce sun overhead
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal
Green,
And the pale weaver, through his windows
seen
In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited.'
Matthew Arnold. East London (1822–1888)
Norton Folgate was a liberty within the
metropolitan area of London, England, located between the Bishopsgate ward of
the City of London to the south, the parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch to the
north and the parish of Spitalfields to the east.
The name is recorded circa 1110 as Nortune
and means 'north farmstead'. It is formed from the Old English 'north' and
'tūn', with the affix 'Folgate' perhaps derived from the manorial family name
Foliot.