Liberty of Wellclose

Wellclose Square lies in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south.

The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was called Neptune street. On the north side is Graces Alley, home to Wilton's Music Hall. The centre of the square is occupied by St Paul's Whitechapel Church of England Primary School. On the western edge is another primary school.

The abbey of St Mary Graces stood near Tower Hill until the dissolution of the monasteries. An old map shows a river running down each side of "Nightingall Lane" (now called Thomas More Street). In 1954 Kenneth Reid suggested this was one of London's "lost rivers" and that it ran from Well Street into the Thames.

Daniel Defoe mentions the square is his book "A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain" (1724). He says that there used to be a well in the centre of the square. It was also known as Goodman's Field's Well.

Wellclose Square was part of the ancient parish of Stepney. This was later divided into Whitechapel (by 1329), Wapping (1694) and St George in the East (1729). The boundaries of the parishes met in Wellclose Square.

In 1686 the Tower Liberty was extended beyond the Tower of London to include Minories, the Old Artillery Ground and Wellclose. The word "Wellclose" was used to indicate the whole area until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Caius Gabriel Cibber was the architect of the Danish church, built in the centre of the Square in 1696. He was the father of the playwright Colley Cibber. According to the website www.poetsgravesco.uk, Colley Cibber was buried in either this church, or Grosvenor chapel, Mayfair. The church was demolished in 1870. The Danish Church was depicted in paintings many times.

The scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) lived in the square during the last year of his life. When Swedenborg came from Sweden to London in 1710 he went to the Swedish church in Princes Square, which used to be located to the east of Wellclose Square. The area is now called Swedenborg Gardens, and the tower block overlooking Wellclose Square is called Stockholm House. Swedenborg arrived in the same year as the Ulrika Eleanora Church was built in Princes Square. He was buried there. It closed in 1910, and in 1912/13 his remains were transferred to Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden. The church was demolished in 1921.

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Wikipedia