This tiny court of nine houses was known variously (even in official documents and maps) as Myring or Myrings or Mirings Place. It stood on the north-east edge of the Old Nichol slum, approximately where the small 1970s houses are today at the top end, eastern side, of Swanfield Street.

The London County Council described it as “old, decayed and with no back-light or through-ventilation”. Sunlight and fresh air were the prerequisites of healthy living, the wisdom went; and so Myring Place’s days were numbered.

Residents of the court in the early 1890s included Alfred Cook, a labourer; blind James Schofield; Thomas Wilkins, described as a housebreaker; John Sage, a hawker; George Cook, ditto; George Barracks, no trade given; Thomas Lampey, carpenter; James Edwards, a shovel maker; and an elderly couple called Castle, who were “living on charitable assistance”.

The photographs below were taken for the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor, a campaigning body, and were published in their Report for the Year Ending 31 December 1890; they seem to have been taken on a rainy and foggy day. Note the huddle of youngsters in the corner; and the upturned costermonger barrows. The illustration was in the Daily Graphic newspaper, edition dated 3 November 1890.

The London County Council bought up and demolished the toxic court, and built Streatley Buildings (now themselves demolished) on their site, the first block to open as part of the Boundary Street Estate.