It is formed from the Old English north and tūn, with the affix "Folgate" perhaps derived from the manorial family name Foliot.

[2] An alternative explanation found in The National Gazetteer from 1868 describes Folgate as derived "from the Saxon word Foldweg, a highway, in allusion to the old Roman Road (Ermine Street) which passed through this place".

Norton Folgate originated as the land occupied by the inner precinct of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital.

The priory was dissolved during the Reformation, but the land, which reverted to the Crown, retained its status as an extra-parochial liberty.

Performances included The Pickwick Papers between March and April 1837; and Nicholas Nickleby in November and December 1838.

[9] In 2008, in opposition to a plan to demolish the Light Bar (built as a power station for the Great Eastern Railway)[10] in order to build an office block, local activists claimed that documents in the council archives showed that the abolition of the Liberty of Norton Folgate in 1900 was technically invalid and that it still existed.

These twenty trustees were responsible for establishing and maintaining civic amenities such as sewerage, lighting and the maintenance of pavements.

In 1897 the trustees contemplated agitating, together with the neighbouring Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground, for inclusion in the City of London, but did not do so.

In 1900 the liberty became merged in the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney and the last meeting of the trustees took place on 24 October of that year.