Little London Court is today a complex of smart, new apartments and offices, but the area once had the dubious reputation of being the meanest street in Old Swindon. The area was named after a small community from London who settled there at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By 1807 it was known as London Lane and in 1855 as London Street. Photographs exist of a thatched cottage still standing shortly before the area was flattened during the 1960s. In 1850 George T. Clark, an officer from the Board of Health, made his damning inspection of Old Swindon. There he found the town lacked a sewer system with the effluent from houses draining into cesspools. All the town’s wells were contaminated while the public water supply was the dirty church pond. Inspector Clark’s report and accompanying map published in 1851 noted blood flowing down Newport Street from one of three slaughter houses in the vicinity, tainted water on Prospect Place and a filthy ope...