St Giles

There has been a church at St Giles since Saxon times, located beside a major highway. The hospital of St Giles, recorded as Hospitali Sancti Egidii extra Londonium The parish was known as St Giles in the Fields and it is recorded in 1563 as Seynt Gyles in the Field. The first post-Catholic parish church was built in 1631 and from the mid-seventeenth century church wardens note "a great influx of poor people into this parish". After the Restoration, the area was populated by Huguenot refugees who had fled persecution and established themselves as tradesmen and artisans, particularly in weaving and the silk trade. The southern area of the parish, around present day Shaftesbury Avenue, was a…

The rookery originally stood on a five-acre plot in the north west of the parish, bounded by Great Russell Street in the north, Tottenham Court Road in the west, St Giles High Street in the south, and Dyott Street in the east. The Centrepoint homeless charity and Google now have their offices on the site. Originally, it was a plot of land owned by the Bainbridge family who installed roads and leased plots to individual developers in the late 17th century, many of whom put up high density lodging houses. The area had fallen into disrepair by the 18th century, made worse by debts held by the landowner at the time, and by long leases held by developers who had no incentive to improve the…