​SPITALFIELDS, a district of London, England, in the western part of the metropolitan borough of Stepney. The name is derived from the fact that the land belonged to a priory of St Mary Spital, founded in 1197. Excavations have revealed a Roman burial-place here. The name is well known in connexion with the silk industry established here by French refugees after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685.