Lee, Pymmes, Moselle - Tottenham Hale
River Lee, Pymmes
Brook, Moselle River
The River Lee and the Lea Navigation continue to flow southwards, and are met from the north east by Pymmes Brook. Moselle River flows in a convoluted course south and east – and is here called the ‘old’ Moselle
Gospel Oak to Barking Railway
The Gospel Oak to Barking Railway running from South Tottenham Station goes north eastwards
Post to the north Tottenham
Post to the east Blackhorse Lane
Post to the south Markhouse
Post to the west Tottenham
Antill Road
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church built for a group of six young German bakers. In the early 1890’s a group of German Lutheran immigrants six young German bakers wrote to Concordia Seminary in Missouri, asking for a pastor. Initially this was in Camden. In 1898 a second preaching station and Sunday School was established which developed into a congregation and in 1900 they opened a Christian Day School, and a church at 53 Antill Road.
Ashley Road
Lee Valley Technopark
18 Restore Community Project
Eagle Pencil works. The Company was founded by Daniel Berolzheimer, a Bavarian who opened Yonkers in the U.S.A. in 1894 a London office was opened and the Tottenham plant became operational in 1907. In the Second World War the factory produced military equipment but Pencil manufacture restarted in 1946. There were a number of take overs of other companies and a diversification of product so in 1969 the name changes to Berol Limited. All pencil production was consolidated at Tottenham and senior management was also there. However from 1978 there was a gradual move to Kings Lynn. The works closed in 1992
Ever Ready. The company had several sites in the Tottenham area. The company was called Berec – taken over by Hanson in the early 1980s and closed down. They were on the site here of what had been a woollen factory.
Cannon Advent building, Futon Company who introduced the futon to Europe in 2000 and is now the world's largest producer of futons
Cannon Street Jersey Fabrics. Established in 1968 as a knitted fabric manufacturer.
Broad Lane
The old Moselle ran south from The Hale here staying east of Markfield Road. This stretch was open in the 1920s.
Gestetner Works. David Gestetner, was a Hungarian who came to London in 1859 and patented a copying machine. He set up the Gestetner Cyclograph Company to produce duplicating machines, stencils, styli, ink rollers and related products. The works opened in 1906 and became the centre of an international chain. The company passed through the Gestetner family and was sold to a Japanese firm in 1996. The site is now a trading and retail estate
Boot and shoe factory in the 1950s north of the Gestetner Works
Bicycle factory 1900s south of the Gestetner Works
St. Peter. A mission hall was built by the Drapers' Company in 1884 to serve the area. The church of St. Peter was opened in 1900. It was in brick and designed by J. S. Alder. It was bombed and restored but closed c.1970. There is now housing on the site
Springfield Hall. People’s Christian Fellowship Hall – with a famous gospel choir. They have been in the building since the mid-1970s.
Mannions - Prince Arthur pub
Chesnut Road
The old Moselle turned eastwards here; the line of the old Moselle can be seen on the line of conifers at the boundary of the flats. The river was joined by the drain with effluent from the rubber works near the junction with The Hale.
131 The Volunteer pub
Welbourne Community Centre
Dawlish Road
The old Moselle ran southwards near this road
Fawley road
J.M.Kronheim & Co. colour printers from the late 19th. Kronheim had a licence for the Baxter colour print process which are now collectors’ items
Ferry Lane,
Tottenham Lock. These were originally built in 1776 and then resited in 1845. They were doubled in 1960. They were originally sited below the mill so as not to interfere with water flow and they were originally alongside the mill so it was called Tottenham Mills Lock until 1877
Ferry Lane Wharf. This handled timber in the 1950s and has been a trading estate since – although the name has been applied to other sites.
Bridge. This was rebuilt in 1760 using money from tolls and it was again repaired in the 1850s. The East London Water Company bought out the ferry and the tolls in 1869 and the City of London took over responsibility in 1877. A New bridge was buitr in 1915 slightly downstream
Paddock Nature Park. It was originally a water meadow which became a sports field and then a dump. There is a raised circular viewing platform giving a view of the two Maynard Reservoirs to the east
Victoria Line ventilation shaft
Hale Garage. Used by private buses in the 1930s. This later became Reg Powell’s, including an old garage yard and workshop.
Harrison Lebus factory site. They were the largest furniture manufacturers in the world and ‘Lebus’ meant quality and affordability. In the 1840s Louis Lebus, a cabinet-maker, came to Britain from Breslau. He settled in Hull before coming to London in 1857 and opened a Whitechapel furniture workshop and in 1875 moved to larger premises in Stepney. His son Harris Lebus took over in 1879. By 1885 the firm was in soon becoming the largest furniture manufacturer in Britain, with a workforce of 1,000 people. In 1900 the works moved to Tottenham where a market garden site was acquired alongside the Lea, where wood could be barged from the London Docks – and the factory included drying and seasoning sheds. There was also a saw mill – and other departments included a design team. In two world wars Lebus factory made aircraft – in 1917 they made the Handley Page 0100, V1500 bi-planes and the Vickers-Vimy monoplane. In the Second World War they made the Albemarle bomber, the Hotspur Glider and the Mosquito. They also built replica Sherman tanks out of wood. From 1941 Lebus produced Utility furniture. There were extensive underground shelters for the staff built in 1939 to house 6,000 workers during air raids. The network, of twelve tunnel shelters of pre-cast concrete sections extends to an estimated 2.5km.The tunnels form pairs with interconnecting passages, access areas and vent shafts. Post war demand for furniture was high and the firm turned to mass production methods, However as family members died the firm became less productive and eventually closed. The site was sold to the GLC – the Ferry Lane Estate is on the south portion, and the north became the GLCs supplies department.
GLC Supplies Department. The department was responsible for buying all goods and services for the Greater London Council, which included the majority of schools in London as well as many other areas of local government. The motor transport division which was responsible for repairing and maintaining over 1,000 different vehicles
Four trolley bus traction standards. These are unique relics because they do not stand at the edge of the footpath. They are outside the parapet bridge structure, rising straight out of the ground thus being about 12ft taller than usual.
Giant Gillette. Street light. Built as a "signature" feature near the borough
Fountayne road
Imperial works. This was the works of Mills Equipment Co., Ltd. who made military webbing. Now one unit is The Celestial Church Of Christ Hephzibah Parish
7 Ros John reproduction 18th furniture makers
Tudor Leaf Centre - this and some other trading estate sites in the area were part of the Basildon Works.
Basildon Works – This was the home of Millington stationery firm, who invented the Basildon Bond brand – a form of high quality water marked writing paper. Millington’s were founded in 1824 by William Leschallas, a paper and rag dealer in Bishopsgate. They began with ready folded and then became a major manufacturer of envelopes using the first high-speed rotary machines in the country. From 1896 they made strong and in 1905 the OUTLOOK envelope – the earliest window envelope. A factory was built at Tottenham in 1903. This was linked to the railway but inside the works transport was undertaken by a horse called Peter.
John Dickinson and Co., merged with Millington in 1918, transferred its London warehouse to the enlarged Basildon works, formerly Crowne works. Basildon works was bombed and many employees moved to Dickinson’s main works at Apsley. They were still there in the 1980s.
4 Loewe Radio Co. There in the 1920s
Hale Gardens
Housing. Site of a post war showpiece estate by Tottenham Borough council plus a 19th terrace which survived redevelopment.
Warren Court nine storey tower. The centrepiece of the 1956 development –
High Cross Road
This is now curtailed and by passed by Monument Way
162 housing in a building which was the City Arms pub,
Hostel and development. Existing buildings on the site were demolished and spoil used for an ‘Environmental Bund’ - two storeys high with planting on its northern slope. Behind the bund a courtyard development of 14 houses, a care home and a four storey hostel
Welbourne Primary School
Holcombe Road
The Old Moselle crosses the eastern end
Jarrow Lane
The Willows Nature Reserve on old railway land
Ferry Lane Estate. GLC estate on the site of some of the Harris Lebus site. Low-rise housing in terraces and flats
Lockwood reservoir
Valve tower
Markfield Road
The old Moselle ran to here from Broad Lane and crossed under a yard between here and Fountayne Road.
Mill Mead Road
Now running to a series of trading estates, some on an old sports ground.
Mitchley Road
A drain ran along the north side of the road in the 19th bringing effluent from the rubber works and elsewhere into the Moselle
Mission Room – Built in 1910 as a daughter church and Sunday School for the Church of St Mary the Virgin.
Old River Lea
France Weir. This was in place in the 17th and 18th~ ~
Tottenham or Hilliard’s Turnpike in place, 16th and 17th. This included a weir and a fishery.
Park View Road
The drain from the rubber works ran south along here to the Moselle. In 1968 water from the Moselle in this area was culverted from a junction with Scales Road into Pymmes Brook.
Railway
Gospel Oak-Barking Line. The old Moselle runs under this from Markfield Road
Tottenham and Forest Gate railway. The old Moselle runs under this from Markfield Road
Scales Road
The line of the old Moselle follows the back garden walls on the south side of the road
Station Road
The road used to access the station but is now cut off by Monument Way
Tottenham Hale Station. This station stands at a crucial point between a number of rail and tube line to which it acts as an interchange. It was built by the Northern and Eastern Railway and opened in 1840 as Tottenham Station. In 1969 the Victoria Line was opened next to the Eastern Region Line, with escalators to the Cambridge Line and to Ferry Lane. It thus provides a link between the underground system and BR Liverpool Street and is also used by Stansted Airport trains. It was rebuilt in a white-painted steelwork, with glass walls and silver aluminium roof sheeting'. The waiting room, a buffet, shop, toilets, etc are in a curved building which includes painted friezes by Bruce McLean and three sculptures – Tower of Time, Bridge of Sighs, and Path of the People
Tamar Way
This footpath covers the course of the Old Moselle
The Hale
The Old Moselle ran along the east side of this road from Chestnut Road to High Cross Road and then going south into Broad Lane
Tottenham Hale began as a hamlet by the River Lee. There was a paper mill in the late 18TH but nursery gardens remained,. It became overwhelmingly industrial in the early 20th since replaced by retail and light industrial units
51 White Hart Pub
Sources
Baxter web site
Berol history web site
Crocker Gunpowder Gazetteer
Day, London Underground
Dickinson web site
English Lutheran Church web site
Gestetner History web site
Graces Guide web site
Industrial Archaeology Review
Lea Valley Walk
Lebus web site
London’s Water Supply, Metropolitan Water Board
Middlesex Churches,
Nairn. Modern Buildings,
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Smyth City Wildspace
Vestiges
Victoria County History. Essex,
The River Lee and the Lea Navigation continue to flow southwards, and are met from the north east by Pymmes Brook. Moselle River flows in a convoluted course south and east – and is here called the ‘old’ Moselle
Gospel Oak to Barking Railway
The Gospel Oak to Barking Railway running from South Tottenham Station goes north eastwards
Post to the north Tottenham
Post to the east Blackhorse Lane
Post to the south Markhouse
Post to the west Tottenham
Antill Road
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church built for a group of six young German bakers. In the early 1890’s a group of German Lutheran immigrants six young German bakers wrote to Concordia Seminary in Missouri, asking for a pastor. Initially this was in Camden. In 1898 a second preaching station and Sunday School was established which developed into a congregation and in 1900 they opened a Christian Day School, and a church at 53 Antill Road.
Ashley Road
Lee Valley Technopark
18 Restore Community Project
Eagle Pencil works. The Company was founded by Daniel Berolzheimer, a Bavarian who opened Yonkers in the U.S.A. in 1894 a London office was opened and the Tottenham plant became operational in 1907. In the Second World War the factory produced military equipment but Pencil manufacture restarted in 1946. There were a number of take overs of other companies and a diversification of product so in 1969 the name changes to Berol Limited. All pencil production was consolidated at Tottenham and senior management was also there. However from 1978 there was a gradual move to Kings Lynn. The works closed in 1992
Ever Ready. The company had several sites in the Tottenham area. The company was called Berec – taken over by Hanson in the early 1980s and closed down. They were on the site here of what had been a woollen factory.
Cannon Advent building, Futon Company who introduced the futon to Europe in 2000 and is now the world's largest producer of futons
Cannon Street Jersey Fabrics. Established in 1968 as a knitted fabric manufacturer.
Broad Lane
The old Moselle ran south from The Hale here staying east of Markfield Road. This stretch was open in the 1920s.
Gestetner Works. David Gestetner, was a Hungarian who came to London in 1859 and patented a copying machine. He set up the Gestetner Cyclograph Company to produce duplicating machines, stencils, styli, ink rollers and related products. The works opened in 1906 and became the centre of an international chain. The company passed through the Gestetner family and was sold to a Japanese firm in 1996. The site is now a trading and retail estate
Boot and shoe factory in the 1950s north of the Gestetner Works
Bicycle factory 1900s south of the Gestetner Works
St. Peter. A mission hall was built by the Drapers' Company in 1884 to serve the area. The church of St. Peter was opened in 1900. It was in brick and designed by J. S. Alder. It was bombed and restored but closed c.1970. There is now housing on the site
Springfield Hall. People’s Christian Fellowship Hall – with a famous gospel choir. They have been in the building since the mid-1970s.
Mannions - Prince Arthur pub
Chesnut Road
The old Moselle turned eastwards here; the line of the old Moselle can be seen on the line of conifers at the boundary of the flats. The river was joined by the drain with effluent from the rubber works near the junction with The Hale.
131 The Volunteer pub
Welbourne Community Centre
Dawlish Road
The old Moselle ran southwards near this road
Fawley road
J.M.Kronheim & Co. colour printers from the late 19th. Kronheim had a licence for the Baxter colour print process which are now collectors’ items
Ferry Lane,
Tottenham Lock. These were originally built in 1776 and then resited in 1845. They were doubled in 1960. They were originally sited below the mill so as not to interfere with water flow and they were originally alongside the mill so it was called Tottenham Mills Lock until 1877
Ferry Lane Wharf. This handled timber in the 1950s and has been a trading estate since – although the name has been applied to other sites.
Bridge. This was rebuilt in 1760 using money from tolls and it was again repaired in the 1850s. The East London Water Company bought out the ferry and the tolls in 1869 and the City of London took over responsibility in 1877. A New bridge was buitr in 1915 slightly downstream
Paddock Nature Park. It was originally a water meadow which became a sports field and then a dump. There is a raised circular viewing platform giving a view of the two Maynard Reservoirs to the east
Victoria Line ventilation shaft
Hale Garage. Used by private buses in the 1930s. This later became Reg Powell’s, including an old garage yard and workshop.
Harrison Lebus factory site. They were the largest furniture manufacturers in the world and ‘Lebus’ meant quality and affordability. In the 1840s Louis Lebus, a cabinet-maker, came to Britain from Breslau. He settled in Hull before coming to London in 1857 and opened a Whitechapel furniture workshop and in 1875 moved to larger premises in Stepney. His son Harris Lebus took over in 1879. By 1885 the firm was in soon becoming the largest furniture manufacturer in Britain, with a workforce of 1,000 people. In 1900 the works moved to Tottenham where a market garden site was acquired alongside the Lea, where wood could be barged from the London Docks – and the factory included drying and seasoning sheds. There was also a saw mill – and other departments included a design team. In two world wars Lebus factory made aircraft – in 1917 they made the Handley Page 0100, V1500 bi-planes and the Vickers-Vimy monoplane. In the Second World War they made the Albemarle bomber, the Hotspur Glider and the Mosquito. They also built replica Sherman tanks out of wood. From 1941 Lebus produced Utility furniture. There were extensive underground shelters for the staff built in 1939 to house 6,000 workers during air raids. The network, of twelve tunnel shelters of pre-cast concrete sections extends to an estimated 2.5km.The tunnels form pairs with interconnecting passages, access areas and vent shafts. Post war demand for furniture was high and the firm turned to mass production methods, However as family members died the firm became less productive and eventually closed. The site was sold to the GLC – the Ferry Lane Estate is on the south portion, and the north became the GLCs supplies department.
GLC Supplies Department. The department was responsible for buying all goods and services for the Greater London Council, which included the majority of schools in London as well as many other areas of local government. The motor transport division which was responsible for repairing and maintaining over 1,000 different vehicles
Four trolley bus traction standards. These are unique relics because they do not stand at the edge of the footpath. They are outside the parapet bridge structure, rising straight out of the ground thus being about 12ft taller than usual.
Giant Gillette. Street light. Built as a "signature" feature near the borough
Fountayne road
Imperial works. This was the works of Mills Equipment Co., Ltd. who made military webbing. Now one unit is The Celestial Church Of Christ Hephzibah Parish
7 Ros John reproduction 18th furniture makers
Tudor Leaf Centre - this and some other trading estate sites in the area were part of the Basildon Works.
Basildon Works – This was the home of Millington stationery firm, who invented the Basildon Bond brand – a form of high quality water marked writing paper. Millington’s were founded in 1824 by William Leschallas, a paper and rag dealer in Bishopsgate. They began with ready folded and then became a major manufacturer of envelopes using the first high-speed rotary machines in the country. From 1896 they made strong and in 1905 the OUTLOOK envelope – the earliest window envelope. A factory was built at Tottenham in 1903. This was linked to the railway but inside the works transport was undertaken by a horse called Peter.
John Dickinson and Co., merged with Millington in 1918, transferred its London warehouse to the enlarged Basildon works, formerly Crowne works. Basildon works was bombed and many employees moved to Dickinson’s main works at Apsley. They were still there in the 1980s.
4 Loewe Radio Co. There in the 1920s
Hale Gardens
Housing. Site of a post war showpiece estate by Tottenham Borough council plus a 19th terrace which survived redevelopment.
Warren Court nine storey tower. The centrepiece of the 1956 development –
High Cross Road
This is now curtailed and by passed by Monument Way
162 housing in a building which was the City Arms pub,
Hostel and development. Existing buildings on the site were demolished and spoil used for an ‘Environmental Bund’ - two storeys high with planting on its northern slope. Behind the bund a courtyard development of 14 houses, a care home and a four storey hostel
Welbourne Primary School
Holcombe Road
The Old Moselle crosses the eastern end
Jarrow Lane
The Willows Nature Reserve on old railway land
Ferry Lane Estate. GLC estate on the site of some of the Harris Lebus site. Low-rise housing in terraces and flats
Lockwood reservoir
Valve tower
Markfield Road
The old Moselle ran to here from Broad Lane and crossed under a yard between here and Fountayne Road.
Mill Mead Road
Now running to a series of trading estates, some on an old sports ground.
Mitchley Road
A drain ran along the north side of the road in the 19th bringing effluent from the rubber works and elsewhere into the Moselle
Mission Room – Built in 1910 as a daughter church and Sunday School for the Church of St Mary the Virgin.
Old River Lea
France Weir. This was in place in the 17th and 18th~ ~
Tottenham or Hilliard’s Turnpike in place, 16th and 17th. This included a weir and a fishery.
Park View Road
The drain from the rubber works ran south along here to the Moselle. In 1968 water from the Moselle in this area was culverted from a junction with Scales Road into Pymmes Brook.
Railway
Gospel Oak-Barking Line. The old Moselle runs under this from Markfield Road
Tottenham and Forest Gate railway. The old Moselle runs under this from Markfield Road
Scales Road
The line of the old Moselle follows the back garden walls on the south side of the road
Station Road
The road used to access the station but is now cut off by Monument Way
Tottenham Hale Station. This station stands at a crucial point between a number of rail and tube line to which it acts as an interchange. It was built by the Northern and Eastern Railway and opened in 1840 as Tottenham Station. In 1969 the Victoria Line was opened next to the Eastern Region Line, with escalators to the Cambridge Line and to Ferry Lane. It thus provides a link between the underground system and BR Liverpool Street and is also used by Stansted Airport trains. It was rebuilt in a white-painted steelwork, with glass walls and silver aluminium roof sheeting'. The waiting room, a buffet, shop, toilets, etc are in a curved building which includes painted friezes by Bruce McLean and three sculptures – Tower of Time, Bridge of Sighs, and Path of the People
Tamar Way
This footpath covers the course of the Old Moselle
The Hale
The Old Moselle ran along the east side of this road from Chestnut Road to High Cross Road and then going south into Broad Lane
Tottenham Hale began as a hamlet by the River Lee. There was a paper mill in the late 18TH but nursery gardens remained,. It became overwhelmingly industrial in the early 20th since replaced by retail and light industrial units
51 White Hart Pub
Sources
Baxter web site
Berol history web site
Crocker Gunpowder Gazetteer
Day, London Underground
Dickinson web site
English Lutheran Church web site
Gestetner History web site
Graces Guide web site
Industrial Archaeology Review
Lea Valley Walk
Lebus web site
London’s Water Supply, Metropolitan Water Board
Middlesex Churches,
Nairn. Modern Buildings,
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Smyth City Wildspace
Vestiges
Victoria County History. Essex,
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