Greek Street – 1600 BC – First Greeks Arrive in Britain

Inspiration for today’s post hit me straight between the eyes after seeing a picture of a street sign for “Greek Street”.

 I did know that most major British cities have one, Leeds certainly does and so I was informed, does Liverpool.

 

 

I wondered why there was a Greek Street in so many British cities, the most logical reason was that it was in the area where Greeks had settled.

I decided to look into it and so spent most of the day enthralled reading all about Greeks in the U.K; what had brought them here and the origin of the name ‘Greek Street’.

 

 

I read pages and pages, way too much to write about here, so I’ll just give you the bare bones.

Amazingly, Greek was spoken in England hundreds of years before the English language or Anglo Saxons ever reached the shores of Britain.

The first traces of Greeks in Britain were from the Mycenaean Civilization, era 1600 BC to 1100 BC; who arrived in Britain as traders or soldiers.

 Eventually they spread through the Mediterranean and Europe.

 

The Rillaton Barrow

 

 

 Mycenaean Bronze artifacts were found at Rillaton Barrow, a Bronze Age round barrow in Cornwall, England, excavated in 1837, when human remains, along with burial artifacts, including the Rillaton Gold Cup, beads, pottery, glass and other items were discovered, dating from the thirteenth century BC.

 

 

 

The Rillaton Cup is one of only seven others in Northern Europe, it’s similar to the Ringlemere Cup, another early Mycenaean gold cup, found at Ringlemere, in the county of Kent, England in 2001, also in the British Muesum, which is sadly, rather crumpled, maybe by farm machinery.

 

 

Below are cups displayed in the museum at Mycenae, Greece.

See how similar they are to the Rillaton Cup?

 

 

The first known Greek in Britain

 

The first known Greek in Britain was Pytheas, a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France), who explored northwestern Europe in about 325 BC and called Britain by the name of Pretannia (one of the oldest known names for Great Britain), Pretani and later, Britannia.

 

 

Greek inscriptions found in Britain

 

Many inscriptions found on gravestones, in both Greek and Latin, are to be found in The Museum of London.

Here are some examples:

 

A ALFID POMP OLVSSA EX TESTAMENTO HER POS ANNOR LXX NA ATHENVI H S EST

“Aulus Alfidius Pompolussa, as stated in his will, his heirs placed this. Seventy years old, a native of Athens, he lies here.”

 

I O M TEMPLVM VETVSTATE CONLABSVM AQVILINVS AVG LIB ET MERCATOR ET AVDAX ET GRAEC RESTITVER

“For Jupiter (Zeus) Best and Greatest, this temple, collapsed through old age, was restored by Aquilinus, freedman of the emperor, a trader, a man of courage, a Greek.”

 

There are also two plaques, found underneath what is now York railway station:

ΩΚΕΑΝΟΙ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΘΥΙ ΔΕΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ

“To Oceanus and Tethys, Demetrius dedicates this.”

 

THEOIS TOIS TOU HEGEMONIKOU PRAITORION SCRIBONIOS DEMETRIOS

 

 “To the gods of the governor’s headquarters, Scribonius Demetrius dedicates this.”

In Cumbria “The Brough Stone” was found with Greek inscriptions dedicated to Hermes of Commagene and, judging by inscriptions found there the Roman city of Carlisle had a large Greek community.

 

 

The Greeks certainly did get around didn’t they?

 

Other early Greek settlers known to have resided in Britain

 

According to The Venerable Bede, Theodore of Tarsus (a Greek born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a Greek-speaking diocese of the Byzantine Empire), was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690, bringing with him greater unity to English Christianity.

 

 

Byzantine emperor (from 1391 to1425), Manuel II Palaiologos, visited England in 1400 and was received at Eltham Palace by King Henry IV.

He was the only Byzantine emperor ever to visit England where he stayed until mid-February 1401.

 

 

More Greeks turned up, including two brothers; Andronikos and Alexias Effomatos, recorded as “Grekes” from Constantinople; residents of London in 1440.

In 1445 Henry VI granted the brothers permission to stay in London, where they remained for many years, living first in Cripplegate and later, Broad Street, before settling in the Italian quarter.

 

 

Over the next two hundred years more and more Greeks arrived, some as visitors, such as, in 1545, Nikandros Noukios of Corfu.

 From his diaries we know that he followed the English invasion of Scotland (As a non- combatant) where forces included Greeks from Argos under their leader; Thomas of Argos.

 

 

During the reign of Henry VIII Greeks arrived in Britain from the Greek island of Rhodes, following the Knights Hospitaller, after the island was conquered by the Ottomans.

 

 

Descendants of the imperial Palaeologus dynasty came as mercenaries to Britain, their tombs can be seen in locations as far apart as Westminster Abbey and Landulph Parish Church in Cornwall.

Some of the Palaeologi even fought against each other in the English Civil War.

Theodorus Palaeologus was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Parliamentary army and fought at the battle of Edgehill during the English Civil War.

There was no gravestone for him until the one was laid down by Dean Stanley in the late 19th century which simply stated his name and date of his deat which states he died in 1644, other sources have him dying in 1636.

 

 

 

 

Early Greco-Britons were not only soldiers but settled permanently; one was Konstantinos Benettos, recorded as living in Clerkenwell from 1530 to 1578.

As yet, there were not enough Greeks to form a Greek community in Britain; also, at this time, there was no Greek Orthodox Church, very important to the Greeks, their faith is one of the things which make a Greek a Greek

 

Greeks seeking refuge from Ottoman rule

 

Many more Greeks arrived as refugees as a result of Ottoman rule and by the late seventeenth century a large number of Greeks held high positions in London Life, one Constantinos Rodocanachi of Chios became physician to King Charles II.

Georgos Constantinos, from Skopelos, established the Grecian Coffee House in Devereaux Court (Greeks are still establishing coffee houses all over the world!) and had noteworthy customers such as Sir Isaac Newton and other members of the royal society.

 

 

Britain’s overseas trade with the Levant brought merchant ships to The Port of London, manned by Greeks and by now there were enough resident Greeks in London to justify a Greek Orthodox Church.

 

The Greek Orthodox Community:

the first Greek Street

 

In 1676 about a hundred families from the islands of Samos and Melos, under bishop Joseph Gerogarinis, migrated to England and were welcomed by King Charles II.

King Charles gave Greeks land in Crown Street Soho, later named Greek Street; at last, we have come to the origin of Greek Street!

If only the first few Greeks to settle in London’s Greek Street could see it now, Greek Street WI is packed from end to end with some of the best restaurants and eateries in London.

 

 

The first Greek Orthodox Community was founded in the 1670s and a church was built in Soho in 1677 at the corner of Charing Cross Road and Greek Street, dedicated to The Dormition of the Virgin.

Two more events brought Greeks to Britain in the nineteenth century; commercial potential, after the defeat of Napoleon and the Diaspora; when The Greek War of Independence (1821) caused many émigrés to settle in Britain.

Most families, who were from from Chios and Constantinople, made their homes around Finsbury Circus, close to the heart of the shipping industry and were later joined by Greeks from the Aegean, Ionian, Athens and the many Greeks who fled to Britain after “The Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922”

Others settled in the commercial cities of Liverpool, Manchester and later, Cardiff and Glasgow, who, as they prospered, were drawn to settle in Bayswater.

 

The Greek Orthodox Church of Aghia Sophia

 

  In 1842 a Greek school, a Greek necropolis at Norwood and later (1877) Aghia Sophia, Bayswater were established.

 

 

From a few hundred to a few thousand in twenty years

 

The Greek population of London in 1850 was only a few hundred but in only twenty years, by 1870, the number had swelled to several thousand.

The 2001 census shows 35.169 British residents born in Greece And 77.673 born in Cyprus.

 

Today

 

Recent estimates show that 300,000 ethnic Greeks may reside in the U.K, 12.360 Greeks live in London, mostly around Hyde Park, Regents Park, Chelsea and Kensington.

Other large Greek communities are to be found in Sunderland, Manchester, Birmingham and Colchester.

According to the official UK Higher Education Statistics Agency, 16,050 Greek students attended UK universities in 2006/07, making Greece the fourth most common country of origin for overseas students after China, India and the Republic of Ireland.

MGG (My Greek God) was way ahead of his time; he was one of them way back; from 1972 to 1977!

 

Related Posts:

 

10 Well-Known Cities (Outside of Greece) Which Originated As Ancient Greek Colonies

How and Why Roman Architecture Essentially Became a Reproduction of Ancient Greek Architecture