(origin Hoc's farm) is an area of
London (UK) in the
London Borough Of Hackney , immediately north of the financial district of the
City Of London . The area of Hoxton is bordered by Great Eastern Street to the south, City Road to the west, Regents Canal on the north side and Shoreditch High Street on the east.
Hoxton's first notable entry into history came in
1576 when
James Burbage built
The Theatre , the city's first purpose built public
Theatre , on what is now Curtain Road.
William Shakespeare performed at The Theatre, perhaps also its successor,
The Curtain , which opened in the same area, and remained in operation until the 1660s (there is a commemorative plaque on Curtain Road). Apart from the theatrical links the area was notorious for its brothels and 'stews' and generally had a poor reputation. The area was also traditionally the home to furniture craftsmen and shoemakers.
In the late 1980s the development of Bishopgate created a surplus of office space and many admin businesses relocated out of Hoxton. At the same time the industrial lofts and buildings were occupied by young artists as live/work spaces while art happenings,
Raves and clubs occupied former office and retail space at the turn of the 1990s. For a time the pubs on Rivington Street were the nexus for the
Young British Artist scene,
Curtain Road Arts was founded and
Joshua Compston established his Factual Nonsense gallery on Charlotte Road and organised art fetes on Hoxton Square. Their presence gradually drew other creative people into the area (especially magazines, design firms, and
Dot-com s) so that by the turn of the century, Hoxton had become a vibrant arts and entertainment district boasting a large number of bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and art galleries. In this period, the new Hoxton residents could be identified by their obscurely fashionable (or "
Ironically " unfashionable) clothes and their hair (the so-called "
Hoxton Fin ", as exemplified by
Fran Healy of
Travis ).
Hoxton has long been the home of Hoxton Market, a once popular market that has declined over many years. It has lost its status to neighbouring markets such as
Bethnal Green and
Dalston . Parts of the area have recently been
Gentrified . As a result of attempts at regeneration, hostility has been aroused among some local residents. These projects have invested millions of pounds in new housing close to the City. However most of the area is still vastly deprived with council housing dominating the landscape.
Although Hoxton and neighbouring
Shoreditch were once separate places, the two now have ill-defined borders and are often deliberately or unwittingly conflated into "Hoxton" or "Shoreditch", though the
Portmanteau word "Hoxditch" is also used. The confusion originates from prior to
1965 when both areas formed part of the
Metropolitan Borough Of Shoreditch and is compounded by some street signs in the area which still bear this name instead of the
London Borough Of Hackney which replaced it.
Hoxton (and Shoreditch) denizens have been satirised in the
Satirical magazine ''Shoreditch Twat'', on the
TVGoHome website, and in its
Sitcom incarnation ''
Nathan Barley ''. In recent years, Shoreditch and Hoxton have been home to pop musicians
Jarvis Cocker and
Future Sound Of London ,
Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen , and artists
Tracey Emin ,
Gavin Turk ,
Jake And Dinos Chapman and
Gilbert And George , along with actor and heartthrob
Gael Garcia Bernal . The focal point in the area is Hoxton Square, a small park bordered by industrial buildings, one of which was home to
Dr James Parkinson , the 19th century physician who first diagnosed
Parkinson's Disease .
As private developers moved in to cash in on the area's trendy image, property prices rose steeply. In response, the local council formed a not-for-profit corporation, Shoreditch Our Way (ShOW), to buy local buildings and lease them out as community facilities and housing.
