Glasshouse Yard
| Glasshouse Yard | |
|---|---|
 Civil parish (3) within the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury in 1911 |
|
| Area | |
| • 1801–1911 | 5.6 acres (0.023 km2) |
| • Coordinates | 51°31′17″N 0°05′53″W / 51.5214414°N 0.0979435°WCoordinates: 51°31′17″N 0°05′53″W / 51.5214414°N 0.0979435°W |
| Population | |
| • 1801 | 1,221 |
| • 1841 | 1,415 |
| • 1881 | 931 |
| • 1911 | 463 |
| History | |
| • Created | Seventeenth century |
| • Abolished | 1915 |
| • Succeeded by | Finsbury |
| Status | Civil parish, liberty, extra-parochial area |
The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard was an extra-parochial liberty adjacent to the City of London. The liberty took its name from a glass manufacturing works established there. The area now forms part of the London Borough of Islington.
The area that became the liberty was originally an outlying part of the parish of St Botolph without Aldersgate. Most of the parish lay within the boundaries of the City of London, with a small part lying in the adjoining county of Middlesex. Over time the population of the Middlesex portion of the parish increased as it became a suburb of London, and when the Elizabethan Poor Law was introduced, a separate administration was formed.
The liberty became the site of a "glasshouse" or glass-making factory, probably in the reign of Elizabeth I, whose government pursued a policy of encouraging new industries. Such activities were banned from the area of the City itself, and so were set up in the area immediately adjoining it. By 1661 the factory was manufacturing crystal glass. By the end of the century, however, it appears to have been closed.
The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard was bounded to the south by the City, to the east by the parish of St Sepulchre to the northeast by the Liberty of Charterhouse and to the north and north west by the parish of St Luke's. It had an area of 5.6 acres (0.023 km2), and by the 19th century was covered by parts of Goswell Street and Pickaxe Street.
The liberty formed part of Ossulstone Hundred, one of six administrative divisions of the County of Middlesex. Ossulstone was the hundred nearest the City, and saw great population growth. By the 17th century it was found necessary to divide the ancient hundred into three autonomous divisions, and Glasshouse Yard became part of the Finsbury Division.
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