Huguenot Gate

The Huguenots were French Protestants who began arriving in Spitalfields during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, in the late sixteenth century. Many French Protestants came here because Spitalfields had already been developed as a commercial area and King Louis XIV of France had declared that Protestantism was illegal - so the Huguenots were forced to flee France. Thousands fled, doctors, merchants, jewelers, bakers, but most of them were Mercers. Until the 1930s houses of this neighborhood has weapons of the silk guilds. Most Huguenots lived in poverty but some had great influence. This gate in Spitalfields bears their name, remembering the importance of their role in the area's history.