This area is the junction of two Roman roads, now Kingsland Road and Old Street, and the settlement grew up at the crossroads.  This was the site of the first playhouse or theatre in England, built by James Burbage in 1576.  In 1598 it was taken to bits and re-erected as the Globe Theatre in Southwark.  But this was clearly a theatre area because another famous theatre, the Curtain, was built here as well in 1577.  The attraction was that it was outside the City walls. The mainly puritan City did not allow theatres within the City limits.  In 1590 Ben Johnson killed a fellow actor, Gabriel Spencer, in a duel in Hoxton Fields.  It became a residential area for the middle classes in the 17th century.  Many of the original Georgian houses had been replaced by modern council blocks erected after the Second World War.

Shoreditch is right on the edge of the City. It is separated from Liverpool Street station by Shoreditch High Street; on the other side is Bethnal Green. West of Commercial Street, the area is mainly commercial. To the east, Brick Lane runs through the centre of Shoreditch. There are many Georgian and early Victorian merchant houses in the streets off Brick Lane. Further east towards Bethnal Green there are council estates, including the Boundary Estate, which is now a conservation area and contains some of the best council properties in the country, built in the late 19th century. There are not many schools, so this is an area for single people and young couples, not families.