London's Little Italy

Librarians Andrea Del Corno and Tudor Allen explore the rich historical legacy of the city's lost Italian quarter.

The Salon will be held online via the Zoom platform. Details of how to join will be emailed you before the event.

The old area around the meeting point of Bloomsbury, Clerkenwell and Holborn still reveals many traces of London's Latin past - including St Peter's church, which forms the centre of the annual Processione Madonna del Carmine, and the nearby Terroni of Clerkenwell, London oldest delicatessen, which opened in 1878.

Italians have settled in the capital for centuries. Camden archivist TUDOR ALLEN tells the history of London’s Italian quarter from the time of the first settlers up to the last days of the community in the later 20th century. Ice-cream, organ-grinders and monkeys, hokey-pokey men, murder, gangsters and spectacular processions are just some of the ingredients that make the story of Little Italy one full of colour, incident and drama.