 In a cottage behind Priestley's house, in the closing years of the 18th century, lived a Huguenot widow, Louisa Perina Courtauld, a designer of gold plate who married a silversmith.Their son, Samuel Courtauld (junior), founded the Courtauld dynasty of silk and artificial fibre manufacturers and a descendant founded the Courtauld Institute now in Somerset House.5 Clapton Square - home of Thomas Briggs, chief clerk of Robarts, Curtis Bank, Britain's first railway murder victim on 9 July 1864 (Mr Biggs Hat, Kate Colqhhoun, 2011)

Clapton Square is near the centre of the London Borough of Hackney its south side has long been part of a kink in north–south Lower Clapton Road where the road took over from today's pedestrianised north end of Mare Street.