Dorset Street

Dorset Street once stood in Spitalfields, a short and narrow lane running between Commercial Street and Crispin Street. It measured only 400 feet long and 24 feet wide, with lodging-houses packed close on both sides. An alley called Little Paternoster Row linked it to Brushfield Street, where many of the street’s residents passed through. The road began in 1674 as Datchet Street, later renamed Dorset Street, and was sometimes called Dosset Street by locals. By the 1880s it had become notorious for common lodging-houses run by landlords like Jack McCarthy and William Crossingham. The street gained its grim reputation through crime and poverty. Mary Jane Kelly was murdered in her room at No. 13 Miller’s Court in 1888, one of several killings tied to the area. Crossingham’s lodging-house at No. 15 was where Annie Chapman was last seen before her death. A 1901 article in the Daily Mail described Dorset Street as a place where hunger and violence thrived, with police patrolling in pairs. By 1904 the street was renamed Duval Street, though its reputation did not improve. Later redevelopment erased most of its buildings, leaving little trace of its past. Today the site lies beneath modern structures near Old Spitalfields Market. Archaeologists uncovered remains of numbers 7 to 12 and 15 Dorset Street during excavations in 2015–2016. Fragments of pottery, glass and brick soakaways from the 17th century were found beneath the ground. The area once dominated by lodging-houses and pubs is now part of a busy market district. Only the memory of Dorset Street’s notorious history remains, recalled in books and local accounts.