Hatton Garden

Hatton Garden is a shopping street and commercial area in the London Borough of Camden. The area, which is London's principal diamond and jewellery quarter, is located in Holborn, on the fringe of London's West End. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who gained possession of the garden and orchard of the Bishops of Ely and established a mansion on the site. It remained in the Hatton family and was built up as a stylish residential development in the reign of King Charles II. For some decades it often went, outside of the main street, by an alternative name St Alban's Holborn, after the local church built in 1861. St Etheldreda's Church in Ely Place, all that survives of the old Bishop's Palace, is one of only two remaining buildings in London dating from the reign of Edward I. It is one of the oldest churches in England now in use for Roman Catholic worship, which was re-established there in 1879. The red-brick building now known as Wren House, at the southeast corner of Hatton Garden and St Cross Street, was the Anglican church for the Hatton Garden development. It was taken over by the authorities of a charity school, and the statues of a boy and girl in uniform were then added. Surrounding streets including Hatton Place and Saffron Hill were improved during the 20th century and in modern times have been developed with blocks of 'luxury' apartments, including Da Vinci House (occupying the former Punch magazine printworks) and the architecturally distinctive Ziggurat Building.