One Day in Petticoat Square : Stanley Ley Suits
Two seconds after I step in to Stanleys Suit shop he is waving his hands in the air shouting I GOTTA HORSE!
“Henry Cooper, the boxer, told me the story of Prince Monolulu, a big black man - six foot two, in flowing robes and feathers. He would be selling horses, and whoever bought the horse would win the next race!”
Petticoat Lane used to be the land of an eccentric mix of people. It was not always a safe place to be. Described as “long, narrow and filthy” and a “modern Babel”, many Victorians saw the market, and its surrounding area, as a place that respectable people avoided.
Im being told tales about 4 generations of bakers, jazz bands, The Prince Monolulu himself, the biggest gangsters in England; Jack Spot - The King of Aldgate, and a diary where you could milk your own cow in the back of house.
While Stanley is fairly busy with his main line of work; making legal outfits and wigs, he does get a special glimpse in his eyes talking about the happenings of Petticoat Lane back in the days.
One could say this is the OG of the block. Stanley has been selling suits for more than 30 years and paints a picture of the days strolling Petticoat Lane with a topcoat and silver stick.
The stalls of Petticoat Lane marked would not bring home any less than £2000 on a Sunday and it would take 30 minutes to walk from one end of the street to the other. Today Stanley doesn’t even bother opening up on a Sunday and you can easily skip down the road in two minutes.
There was a saying being that “you will lose your watch on one end of the street and get it back at the other.”
This tells a story of the vibrant market road it once used to be.
Petticoat Lane was the original name of a street running north/south in the Ripper district.
In Victorian times it was considered indelicate to name a street after a ladies undergarment, so the name was changed to Middlesex Street.
The name was acquired in the late middle ages or renaissance period because Middlesex Street or Petticoat Lane as it was then called was the site of a huge ongoing flea market which bought and sold all kinds of things but primarily second hand clothing.
Middlesex Estate was finalised in 1970 and was planned to have a walkway stretching over to The Barbican.
This never came to fruition and Middlesex Estate was left as the “poor mans Barbican Estate”.
If you are in to brutalist architecture and good stories about old times, swing by our street and digest all your newfound information with a cuppa and cake at ours why dont you!
...Oh, and if you wonder what the site of Benk + Bo once was? The best handbag shop in all of London by Stanleys words.
