Colourful characters & quirky shops
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Clerkenwell 101
78 George Cruikshank was one of the most famous caricaturists of the 19th century, often poking fun at the hypocrisy of politicians and royals. He lived and worked in Amwell Street (close to what is now Cruikshank Street) between 1824 and 1849. He also provided drawings for Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Pickwick Papers. During his second marriage he became a teetotaller and Christian moralist. On his deathbed at the age of 86, however, he revealed he’d got his servant girl pregnant 25 years ago, and had gone on to father another 10 children with her. The last when he was 82. A touch of hypocrisy?
79 Joseph Grimaldi lived at 56 Exmouth Market
from 1818 until 1828. He was the original ‘Clown Joey’, the term ‘Joey’ being used to describe clowns since his day. His career began at the age of three at the Sadler’s Wells theatre. He became the most famous and popular of all the clowns in harlequinade and pantomime. Recognised as the founding father of modern day clowns, to this day he is commemorated annually by clowns in their own church, Holy Trinity in Dalston, East London.
80 The International Magic Shop on Clerkenwell Road was founded by the current owner’s magician father Ron MacMillan in the late 1950s. Dynamo started coming into the shop when he was around 13 years old. Tommy Cooper went in every two weeks. Paul Daniels, Ali Bongo and The Great Soprendo were all regulars. Now Derren Brown, Troy and Dynamo are the biggest clients and regulars at the International Magic Convention, an annual event set up by Ron in the 1970s and now run by his son and daughter.
81 During the 1930s, Charles ‘Derby’ Sabini ran a gang based in Clerkenwell’s Little Italy area and was one of the biggest names in the London underworld. With their Sicilian heritage the gang became well known for ‘razoring’ their victims with barbershop blades. The gang’s HQ was The Griffin pub, on Clerkenwell Road which is now a strip club. When a mob from the Elephant & Castle came to The Griffin, Sabini broke the rival leader’s jaw. Sabini is one of the few real people featured in the TV show ‘Peaky Blinders’. Incidentally, he always wore a flat cap. He later moved to Brighton and is said to have been the inspiration for Colleoni in Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock.
82 Embassy Electrical Supplies at 76 Compton Street sells electrical hardware alongside what is reputed to be the finest olive oil in England (according to New Yorker magazine). The owner, Mehmet Murat, is of Turkish Cypriot extraction and after inheriting olive groves from his parent’s small farm in Louroujina, started selling the oil and olives from his small shop under the name Murat Du Carta.
83 London charcoal dealer Thomas Britton (The Musical Coal Man) held concerts in Jerusalem Passage between 1678 and 1714, which attracted the composer Handel and visitors including Horace Walpole and the Duchess of Queensbury. Britton died when a practical joke went horribly wrong. A local blacksmith who practiced ventriloquism was induced to throw his voice, pretending to be a supernatural messenger. It scared poor Tom literally to death. A plaque can be found in Jerusalem Passage.