Salmons Brook - Edmonton Green

Salmons Brook
Salmons Brook flows southwards and then eastwards
Saddlers Mill Stream also flows south eastwards through the area albeit unseen.

Busy urban area with some rough edges

Post to the east Marsh Side
Post to the south Edmonton

Church Street
Railway bridge and Edmonton Green station entrance.  The current bridge was installed in the 1990s and has four separate spans for the track.
D and J. Pegrum Memorials. Little brick built hut and  a one room office
15 The North London Clinic, private mental health care. It was previously St. Joseph’s Hospice
17 LTs. This pub was previously The Jolly Farmers which name dates from around 1773.  From 1700 it was a pub belonging to Hoddesdon brewers, Christie and Co. and was called the Dukes Head. It later became a Taylor Walker pub and the current building is interwar. In 2005 it became one of the Tittlemouse pub group changing the name to LTs. It has since closed again,
19 – 21 Early 19th in stock brick with iron porch.
20, 20A, 22, 22A 1800 terrace in stucco
24 18th cottage in red brick
43-45 houses
80 Kervan Sofrasi Turkish restaurant in what was the Rose and Crown. This was a 17th pub rebuilt in the 19th. The current building is 1930s. It was later called Rosie’s and then the Rat and Carrot and for a while Rosie's Pickled Newt. Taken over by Greene King it was Rosies of Edmonton – but that too closed.  
Lamb Inn. This is a Wetherspoons pub in two converted houses.
Post Office Sorting Office – jolly Edwardian baroque
Charity school. Founded 1778, this simple yellow brick building has a narrow front with central door, and an inscription with the date 1784. . In a niche on the facade is the figure of a charity girl and the words a structure of Hope founded in Faith on the basis of Charity. The school was initially elsewhere but Obadiah Legrew had the original school demolished, drew £170 from the trust, and built another school where he couldn’t hear it. Pupils between 7 and 14 were clothed and educated and trained for domestic service. The school closed in 1904. A red brick cottage which adjoins it was for the schoolmistress.
All Saints Church Hall 1982 by John Phillips
Keats Parade. This is the site of the house where Keats was apprenticed. There is a plaque. 1811-1815
Bay Cottage where Mary and Charles Lamb lived. It contains a cupboard in which his sister is said to have been put. Late 17th cottage. Charles died here in 1834 and Mary in 1847.

Edmonton Green

Salmons Brook crosses the Green flowing north to south and historically it widened into a pond here. It now runs underground.  In the 17th houses were built around the green and it was an area where fairs and so on were held. Civic buildings were developed round it in the late 19th.  In 1960 redevelopment was undertaken by the local authority using plans by Frederick Gibberd  and Partners. This was for a pedestrian shopping area, car parking, flats, and plus new civic and amenity buildings.  This included a district heating scheme with a prominent chimney. However Edmonton then became part of the Borough of Enfield who then dropped the plans for new civic buildings and built only the leisure centre and car park – making it the largest municipally owned shopping centre in London.  It was bought from the borough in 1999 by St. Modwen Properties plc, and they are redeffeloing and upgrading the area.
South Mall. This is lined with shops and has a translucent roof. The Exhibition pub relocated here from Hertford Road in the 1970s. It was a Taylor Walker pub and closed in 2000
Library – this leads off South Mall and is a London Co-operative Society department store refurbished by Rivington Street Studio, 1990-2 to include social services, a careers office and other similar outlets. Inside are memorial boards removed from the demolished Town Hall.
Market Square. This is now a covered area with permanent stalls. Mosaic of Marie Lloyd on the wall – she collapsed on stage here in 1922. The Railway Tavern. It was previously on the Green as a Whitbread pub from the 1830s. At one time it had been The Jolly Sailor. Rebuilt in 1899.
North Square. Sculpture and pond. The Circus pub. It dates from 1974, but was built to replace The King's Head.
North Mall. This has two levels of shops in brutalist style. Above are system built flats.
Health Centre and Clinic. Built in early 21st
Edmonton Green Bus Station. Built in 2007
Baptist Church. Built in 1974 as a contrast to the shopping centre.  The Church on the Green
War memorial. Unveiled in 1924. It says that it was erected by the people of Edmonton 'in loving and grateful memory of her sons who fell'.  It is on the site of the pond on Salmon’s Brook
Kings Head. This stood at the north end of the Green and was demolished in 1974. It had a 19th frontage with an older building behind.
Golden Lion. This pub was first noted in 1521 and stood on the east side of the Green and in the 18th and 19th it was coaching inn and a Barclay Perkins house. It was demolished in 1970.
Cross Keys pub. This was at the west side of the Green on Salmons Brook. It dated from the 17th and was rebuilt in 1886 as a Mann, Crossman and Paulin house, changing to Watney Mann in 1958.  In 1970 it was called Reflections and then became the Empire variety theatre 1972 -76. Was gutted by fire in the 1980s and after the licence expired in 1988 it was demolished. This dates back to 1808 and eventually became part of Watney Mann in 1958.  Burnt down in the 1980s
Edmonton Green Station.  Opened in 1872 and now lies between Bush Hill Park and also Southbury and Silver Street. Built by the Eastern Railway with a double track line from Liverpool Street to Enfield. This joined the earlier line from Angel Road at a point north of Lower Edmonton Station and then went to the new "High Level Station".  In 1883 it was renamed ‘Lower Edmonton (High Level)’ and in 1992 renamed ‘Edmonton Green’.  New buildings built on the up side to face the new shopping centre and the entrance from Church Street was closed in 1977.  GER canopies remain on the platforms
Lower Edmonton Low Level Station.  Opened in 1848 when the Eastern Counties Railway opened a branch from Edmonton (Angel Road) to Enfield with this as an intermediate station.  It did not do well and the company opened a new direct line to a high-level station called ‘Edmonton Green’. The first station was renamed ‘Edmonton Low Level’ and in 1883 ‘Lower Edmonton Low Level’. It had saw-toothed platform canopies and cast-iron work on its single platform and there was a two-storey yellow stock brick building by C.F.Cheffins.  Steps went from the platform to a crossing, and there was a public footpath which linked Church Street and The Green - when a train was at the platform there was a hinged iron cover which covered the gap caused by the footpath.  In 1899 another platform was added and an office for workmen's tickets.   In 1957 it was reopened at weekends because of engineering works on the other line. In 1964 it was closed.
Signal box at the London end of the Low Level platform.  This was next to the level crossing. It remained as a brick base
Edmonton Junction.  Where the two lines merged which was to the north of the current station.
Goods yard – this lay in the area before the two lines met. There were a number of sidings. Two sidings immediately next to the high level line serves coal yards
Roundabout. This is on the site of the level crossing for the Low Level Station. It also covers the site of one of the platforms of the Low Level Station. .
Car park between the Green and New Road is the site of the second platform of the Low Level Station which lay between The Green and New Road.
Pedestrian subway which marks the site of the bridge between the platforms on the Low Level Station. Demolished in 2005
Multi storey car park south of New Road is on the site of the southern end of the platform of the Low Level Station.

Fore Street
This was once called Duck Lane. It became a turnpike road which was divided by the railway from Angel Road.
313 Faith House. United Reform  Church
321 Shop in the The Steps pub. This Whitbread pub in 2002 was Kelly's Bar. Before 1983 it was the Crown and Horseshoes from the 1850s. In 2004 it was Pub Art and then Murray's Bar.  Closed in 2008.
337 Sachkhand Nanak Dham Darshan Darbar in what was the Passmore Edwards Library Built in 1897.  The library commemorated Lamb and Keats and contained the Lamb Society collection. Inside were two portrait plaques by George Frampton, 1908, to John Keats and Charles Lamb.
339 Salvation Army. Edmonton Corps
353 Department store building of the Edmonton Co-operative Society Ltd. Built 1903 in red terra cotta. The society had been established in 1888 by tramway men and this is reflected in the carved shield on the gable. Now in use by non-co-op shops.
363 Turkish Food Centre in The Edmonton Cinematograph Theatre which opened in 1911. It was a purpose built cinema building, which was closed in 1927.It has been used as a shop ever since.
462 Metropolitan Police HQ. This is a large red brick block built in the 1980s.

Hertford Road
Edmonton United Services Club
84-132 The Crescent. An early 19th urban sweep of three-storey houses set back from the main road. It was an unsuccessful speculation by a London solicitor, built 1826-51.      
The Cock.  This older pub was rebuilt in 1900 in “gross Jacobean”, with a little dome. It is said to have been even more ornate until blasted by a V1 in 1944. In 2002 it was the 'The North London Venue Bar’ and then the Pitch & Pint.
The Exhibition Pub dated from the 1850s .When the area was rebuilt in the late 1960s it was demolished and reopened in the South Mall

Logan Road
St.Demetrios. Greek Orthodox church. This was built as St. Martin’s church which was paid for by Mrs. Elizabeth Mason and designed in 1909 by E. L. Warre. 

Montague Road
Jewish cemetery. Opened in 1889 and owned by the Federation Burial Society. The land was previously owned by Montague Samuel Ist Baron Swaythling and was presented to the Federation of Synagogues as a burial ground. Managed by the Federation of Synagogues Burial Society.
The Western Synagogue Cemetery – this replaced one in Fulham which closed in the 1800s. The Western Synagogue is in Westminster.

New Road
The railway line from Angel Road passed directly under this and the station was immediately adjacent.
2 Granada Cinema – this lay towards the south west end of New Road – now fundamentally under the shopping centre. The cinema opened as The Empire Theatre in 1908 – a music hall theatre. It was designed by Bertie Crewe with a brick facade and the auditorium parallel to the road. Marie Lloyd collapsed on stage here in 1922. In 1922 it was leased to Sydney. Bernstein and in 1927, was re-decorated by Theodore Komisarjevsky and became a full time cinema, still named Empire Theatre. It had a Christie 2Manual theatre organ which. In 1933 it was again redecorated by Komisarjevsky in an Art Moderne style based on the Dutch cubism style ‘Die Stijl’. The organ was replaced by a Wurlitzer 3Manual/10Rank organ with a Grand Piano attached. It was re-named Granada in 1950 and live stage shows were occasionally held. It closed in 1968 and became a bingo club closing in 1969. It was demolished in 1970 for re-development which never happened. There are said to be bricks along the edge of the pavement which were the lower part of the front wall.

Newdales Close
Andrews Pictures. Cinema was on Edmonton Green. Built as the Kings Hall at the rear of the Kings Head pub. If was rebuilt in 1908 and again in 1910. It closed in 1917 and was demolished in the 1960’s for redevelopment. Housing now on the site.

Plevna Road
The railway line between Angel Road and Edmonton continued in a north-westerly direction, and passed over the course of Salmon's Brook. The footpath from Plevna Road to Montagu Road occupies the old track bed

The Broadway
2 Leisure Centre. New facility opened early 21st
Town Hall – this was built in 1884 designed by George Eachus, engineer to the local board, and F A. Ram in an unusual style for a suburban town hall.   It was extended 1902-3 by W. Gilbee Scott, and public baths were added at the rear. The baths were replaced in 1970.  The Town Hall was demolished in 1989.
ASDA replacing the old Leisure Centre. The baths had been designed in 1970 by Borough architect. T.A. Wilkinson. It was demolished in 2007

Sources
Pevsner & Cherry London North
Middlesex Churches
Clunn. The Face of London
History of Middlesex. Middlesex CC
Walford. Highgate to the Lea
Stevenson. Middlesex
London Encyclopedia
Connor. Forgotton Stations of London
London Railway Record articles.
Field. Place Names of London
Lower Edmonton. An idea. web site
History of the County of Middlesex web site
Edmonton Baptist Church web site
Domesday reloaded web site
Enfield Youth Observatory web site
Disused stations. web site
Graham Dalling. Southgate and Edmonton Past
Cinema Treasures web site
London Town Halls. English Heritage
Park explorer web site

Comments

Anonymous said…
very interesting

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