Moorfields
, Moorgate, Moorfields and Bethlem Royal Hospital from John Rocque's Map of London, dated 1746.
In London, the Moorfields were one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near the Moorgate. The fields were divided into three areas, the Moorfields proper, just north of Bethlem Hospital, and inside the City boundaries, and Middle and Upper Moorfields to the north. Much of Moorfields was developed in 1777, when Finsbury Square was developed; the remainder succumbed within the next few decades. Moorfields was the site of the first hot air balloon flight in England (and the first outside France), when Italian Vincenzo Lunardi took off on 15 September 1784. Today the name survives in the names of Moorfields Eye Hospital (since moved to another site); St Mary Moorfields; Moorfields the short street parallel with Moorgate (and containing some entrances to Moorgate station); and Moorfields Highwalk, one of the pedestrian "streets" at high level in the Barbican Estate.
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