Portsoken Ward Life

Portsoken, occasionally viewed from Guildhall, the seat of the City of London Corporation, as the poor man at the door, is actually the leading edge of the City, in the 21st Century pointing the way to the towers of Canary Wharf and the emerging economies of the Far East.

The ancient hub of the Ward, Petticoat Lane was once where the City met the countryside. Over the stile from the fetid Houndsditch  and you were into green fields and artillery grounds.

The Ward of Portsoken has seen the influx of refugees over the centuries, accepted and encouraged them, and been rewarded with a vibrant life and an abundance of eccentrics.

The editors realised that a time of plague and lockdown demanded a record of our friends and neighbours in this most exciting of City Wards.

As the great Samuel Johnson nearly said, "When a man is tired of Portsoken, he is tired of life."