Charles Dickens wrote about the “hovels, discontent, filth and misery” in Pottery Lane. 150 years ago it was part of a notorious slum known as “The Potteries and the Piggeries.”
The potteries was home to brick makers who wanted to make the most of the area’s abundant clay. Pig farmers, evicted from Marble Arch, also moved in and the road became famous for its lack of sanitation. Pools of stagnant water, pig slurry and sewage surrounded the lane and one was so large it became known as “The Ocean.”
