HOLYWELL, a parochial division and a sub-district in Shoreditch parish and district, Middlesex. The division is in the metropolis, around Holywell street, 1½ mile NE of St. Paul's; and took its name from a well, of superstitions repute in Romish times, on the site of Holywell street.—The sub-district includes also the parochial division of Moorfields, and comprises 68 acres. Real property, in 1860, £537, 010; of which £479, 849 were in railways. Pop. in 1861, 17, 313. Houses, 2, 154.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))