] Sorry for any confusion, but you are refering to the area around St Giles (in-the-fields) which I understand was a Victorian slum, although I don't know about JA's time.

] However I was refering to St Giles Cripplegate, immediately west of Ludgate Hill. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Aha that explains it! Yes St Giles in the Fields was a notorious rookery by the 1780's mostly inhabited by refugees from Irish poverty. I have read a fictional account of it being there in restoration times too, but that is not exactly evidence (contemporary fiction).