The Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields

The Huguenots came to Spitalfields from France bringing their highly skilled silk-weaving traditions with them and helping to establish it as a center of luxury textile production. Initially welcomed for their craftmanship, they enjoyed periods of great prosperity, supplying fashionable patterned silks for the wealthy and elite. But their fortunes eventually declined as competition increased and the silk trade struggled, leaving some weavers destitute and, tragically, dying in poverty at their looms.