Skip to main content

Fair Fields, Stepney

Tag this record

Venue Type & Location

Fair Grounds

Overview

  • Address: Bow Street (north side, just west of Fair Field Place). For a current map, Click Here. For an historical map showing the venue (in addition to the one excerpted at right), Click Here.

  • Alternate Names: Bow Street Fair Fields.

  • Performance Space Description: Information about this venue has not yet been compiled; however, some sense of the performance space may be gleaned by following the links at right. In particular:

  • See the 'Bibliographic Sources' link for a provisional list of venue-relevant resources (both primary and secondary). Wherever possible (i.e. when the pertinent text is relatively short and/or easily condensed) this material has been transcribed, and appears beneath the appropriate bibliographic citation.

  • See the 'Events at venue' link for a listing of blackface/minstrelsy-related events that took place in this performance space (with attached bibliographic references).

    Beth Marquis

    • Troupes at Fair Fields, Stepney

    Film Affiliated people Film Type # of event(s)
    Adams (Jim Crow & His Granny, Powell's Circus, 43) Adams, Circus Definite Adams (Jim Crow & His Granny, Powell's Circus, 43)

    Events at Fair Fields, Stepney

    Event Date Venue Location Film
    Circus - London, London (city-county) Adams (Jim Crow & His Granny, Powell's Circus, 43)
    Circus - London, London (city-county) Adams (Jim Crow & His Granny, Powell's Circus, 43)

    Bibliographic Sources

    View a list of abbreviations.



    • ” Market and fair.

      In 1664, at the Earl of Cleveland's request, King Charles the Second instituted a weekly court of record within the manor of Stepney (fn. 11) . The same patent contains the grant of a weekly market at Ratcliffe-cross, and an annual fair on Michaelmas day at Mileend-green, or any other convenient places, within the manor. The keeping of the market and fair, with all profits arising from tolls, &c. was given under the same grant, at the Earl of Cleveland's request, to Sir William Smith, Bart. and his heirs. The market is now held in Whitechapel, and known by the name of the Hay-market. The fair is kept at Bow. Sir William Smith's right is now vested in the lord of the manor.” (Ch. 19 – ‘Stepney’)