Carnaby Street

Before the bright colors and boutiques of the nineteen-sixties, this street held a far more somber purpose. During the plague year of sixteen-sixty-five, the area served as the site of a pesthouse, a quarantine facility for victims of the bubonic plague. It was a bleak location, far removed from its modern identity, and even hosted a mass grave for those who did not survive the disease. This grim chapter is a part of the deep historical foundation upon which the later, more vibrant culture of the street was built.