East Smithfield
| East Smithfield | |
|---|---|
 East Smithfield
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| East Smithfield shown within Greater London | |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | E1 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| London Assembly | |
East Smithfield is the name of a road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London, part of the A1203 road. It was historically part of the parish of St Botolph without Aldgate.
The route of both the London Marathon and the London Triathlon pass along East Smithfield. The Royal Mint, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are located in the vicinity.
John Stow recounts the origin of the area from the Liber Trinitae, where the Saxon King Edgar was petitioned by 13 knights to grant them the wasteland to the East of the city wall, desiring to form a guild. The request was said to be granted on condition that each knight should
"accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one below the ground, and the third in the water; after this, at a certain day in East Smithfield, they should run with spears against all comers; all of which was gloriously performed; and the same day the King named it Knighten Guilde, and so bounded it from Ealdgate [(Aldgate)] to the place where the bars now are toward the east, &c. and again toward the south unto to the river of Thames, and so into the water, and throw his speare; so that all East Smithfield, with the right part of the street that goeth by Dodding Pond into the Thames and also the hospital of St Katherin's, with the mills that were founded in King Stephen's daies, and the outward stone wall, and the new ditch of the Tower, are of the saide fee and liberbertie."
The strip of land to the north of Aldgate came to be Portsoken, an extramural ward of the City of London. The open ground south of Aldgate was known as East Smithfield — derived from smoothfield. Later, Edward the Confessor confirmed the liberties upon the heirs, and these were again confirmed in the reign of William Rufus. By 1115, during the reign of Henry I, the entire soke, or liberty, was given to the church of Holy Trinity within Aldgate, which had been founded in 1107 by Matilda, Henry's Queen. The prior of the Abbey was then to sit as an ex officio Alderman of London. The gift was not without problems. The Constable of the Tower, Geoffrey de Mandeville had cultivated a piece of ground in East Smithfield, adjacent to the Tower, as a vineyard. He refused to give it up and defended it with the garrison.
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Wikipedia