Spitalfields: 800 years of hospitality.

The 25,000 or so visitors who descend on Spitalfields Market every week are greeted warmly by the artists, craftsmen and street-food traders who have rented space in the 120-year old market building. But they’re just the latest travellers to be welcomed to this fashionable and quirky district of London.

The story starts with William and Rose Brown who in 1197 founded The New Hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary without Bishopsgate. The hospital or priory tended to the poor of the area, and provided food and lodging for pilgrims. The unwieldy name was quickly shortened to St Mary Spital – and the land around it became known as Spitalfields.

Since then, and over more than 800 years, Spitalfields has sheltered French protestants, Irish weavers, Jewish refugees and Bangladeshis fleeing war and poverty. Each community brought aspects of their own culture, which are still visible today – from the elegant homes of the Huguenot protestants who arrived in 1685, to the curry houses of Brick Lane, the first of which opened in 1968. In Spitalfields, you can find mosques, synagogues and Huguenot chapels as well as Nicholas Hawksmoor’s beautifully restored 294-year old Christ Church.

La Chapelle has its own place in the history of Spitalfields. It sits within the magnificent 130-year old, Grade II listed, St Botolph’s Hall. The building was originally part of the Central Foundation Girls’ School, which had its roots way back in 1726 when it was St Botolph’s Charity School for Children of the Poor.

St Botolph is, appropriately enough, the patron saint of wayfarers and travellers – all of whom will find a welcome at La Chapelle, in the City of London’s most welcoming district.