|| St. Lawrence’s Quarter

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Location
Historic core on high ground by the river’s bend, surrounding the medieval parish church (St. Lawrence’s Spire) and market square. Major city streets radiate from this old nucleus.
  Land use
Mixed commercial and civic. A busy market area with shops, guild halls (e.g. Cutlers’ Hall), and public buildings; many small workshops and back-room manufactories at street level. Some residences (tenements) interspersed.
  Socioeconomic Profile
Mixed. Wealthier merchants, lawyers and clerks live in better houses along broad streets, while artisans and laborers occupy small flats and lodging houses behind the shops.
  Built Environment
Tight medieval street pattern with narrow, winding alleys. Houses are often tall and close-set, their brick and stone facades blackened by industrial soot. Daniel Defoe noted that Cabinet’s streets in the early 1700s were “narrow, and the houses dark and black, occasioned by the continued smoke of the forges”. Public buildings like the church and the small Timas Market cross anchor the quarter.
  Infrastructure
Main city roads and bridges converge here; early gas streetlighting is introduced on principal streets. No major factory is located in this quarter, but small canal arms and cobbled lanes serve goods carts.
  Key industries
Artisanal cutlery and tool-making workshops occupy rear courtyards and upper floors. Small forges and grindstones are common on alleyways, producing knives, scissors, and nails (“all sorts of cutlery-ware” as Defoe described). These neighborhood shops complement larger mills elsewhere.
  Vice economy
Numerous taverns, inns and beerhouses line the main streets to serve traders and travelers. The winding courts off the square harbor low-end pubs and a few brothels. The dense, poorly lit lanes encourage petty crime and gambling dens among working-class youths.