Petticoat Lane Market, London - Clothes Auction. A street clothes market on Wentworth Street and Middlesex Street. Secondhand clothes and bric-a-brac had been sold in an area known as Peticote Lane since the early 17th century. An influx of immigrant Huguenots and later immigrants Jews developed the manufacturing in the area and maintained the traditions of trade. Despite a severe decline following WWII, a further influx of Asian immigrants in the 1970s once again restored the areas vitality.