Clerkenwell is an area in central (London, England), in the modern borough of Islington. Clerkenwell is named after the Clerks' Well in Farringdon Lane, and in the Elizabethan era was a site of general debauchery and a notorious brothel quarter due to its location outside of the City of London walls. During the Industrial Revolution, Clerkenwell became a centre for breweries, distilleries, printing and manufacturing. Clerkenwell has also been associated with radicalism, including the Chartists movement of the 19th century. In Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Clerkenwell Green, a square without any actual greenery, is the setting of the market where Fagin and the Artful Dodger force Oliver to pickpocket shoppers.

In London Labour and the London Poor edition: 

Phase 1

Watercress Girl. (Volume 1): "She knew no more of London than that part she had seen on her rounds, and believed that no quarter of the town was handsomer or pleasanter than it was at Farringdon-market or at Clerkenwell, where she lived."

Of Groundsel and Chickweed Sellers. (Volume 1): "I visit Clerkenwell, and Russell-square, and round about there, on a Monday."

Of the Publishers and Authors of Street-Literature. (Volume 1): "The present street literature printers and publishers are, Mrs. Ryle (Catnach’s niece and successor), Mr. Birt, and Mr. Paul (formerly with Catnach), all of the Seven Dials; Mr. Powell (formerly of Lloyd’s), Brick-lane, Whitechapel; and Mr. Good, Aylesbury-street, Clerkenwell."

Of the Street Sellers of Live Birds. (Volume 2): "The bird-catcher’s life is one essentially vagrant; a few gipsies pursue it, and they mix little in street-trades, except as regards tinkering; and the mass, not gipsies, who become bird-catchers, rarely leave it for any other avocation. They "catch" unto old age. During last winter two men died in the parish of Clerkenwell, both turned seventy, and both bird-catchers—a profession they had followed from the age of six."

Phase 2

Of a Blind Female Seller of “Small-Wares.” (Volume 1)

OF THE WOMEN STREET-SELLERS. (Volume 1)

Of Two Runaway Street-Boys. (Volume 1)

Of the Trades and Localities of the Street-Jews. (Volume 2)