"There is no part of the metropolis which presents a more chequered aspect, both physical and moral, than Westminster. The most lordly streets are frequently but a mask for the squalid districts which lie behind them, whilst spots consecrated to the most hallowed of purposes are begirt by scenes of indescribably infamy and pollution; the blackest tide of moral turpitude that flows in the capital rolls its filthy wavelets up to the very walls of Westminster Abbey."
"Although today it's a mixed area of social housing and offices, at one time it was a poor slum known as the Devil's Acre. So notorious was it, that the reforming Charles Dickens featured it in his first edition of Household Words in 1850 as an area that needed help. It was his article that popularised the nickname of the Devil's Acre, and worked to shame the government into improving the lives of the people crammed into the slum housing."
St Ann's Lane runs parallel to St Ann's Street and appears on William Morgan's 1682 map as Little St Ann's Lane, later shown on R. Horwood's 1799 map as a narrow passage with small houses and Pipemakers Alley. The Little and Great prefixes were dropped, leaving St Ann's Street and St Ann's Lane. The area became the notorious Devil's Acre, notable for extreme overcrowding and proximity to Westminster's wealth and power. Construction of Victoria Street worsened conditions by displacing more people into the slum; an 1861 census recorded over 120 people in one building. Redevelopment eventually took place, led in part by Peabody philanthropic housing, and Charles Dickens publicised the area's plight in 1850, pressuring improvement efforts.
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