Great Eastern Railway from Liverpool Street to Chingford. Upper Clapton
Great Eastern Railway to Chingford. The line running north from Hackney Downs station swings north eastwards to Clapton Station and beyond
Post to the south Hackney Downs
Post to the north Springfield
Post to the east Lea Bridge
Charnwood Street
This was once called Caroline Street. It was built on Conduit Field and The LCC declared housing here damp and unhealthy in the 1920s, bought the site and built the current flats in 1936-7
2 Duke of York. 19th pub named after the then commander of the British Army. It was also known as Pudlocks. Demolished in 2003 and the site is now housing.
Comberton Road
10 Comberton Children’s Centre
Ferron Road
Baden Powell Primary School. Opened 1970
Fountaine Road
This was originally Foulden Road
1a Health Centre
Ickborough Road.
Ickborough School. This was opened in 1970 for children with severe learning difficulties. The original building had been acquired from Hackney Council’s Health Department and built by the London County Council in the early 1960s. It had been used as a training centre by the Borough and replaced a sports area. For the school a replacement prototype for disabled children was designed by Foster Associates in 1972. It was the result of a research project undertaken by what was then known as the Spastics Society. In order to test out the ideas of this research this prototype was built. It is a long, single-storey steel-framed building with a protruding covered roof deck. It resembles an industrial shed and is made of corrugated steel. There s a central service core running the length of the building, creating a barrier between the public and private areas. It is set back behind trees and grass. However the school is now moving from this site.
Kenninghall Road
St Scholastica. The Parish of Clapton was founded in 1862. The church was built in 1962 It was designed by J.E. Sterret & B.D. Kaye in pale grey brick with white windows. The front entrance has circular chapels on either side. The church originated with Fathers of Charity (Rosminians) from Kingsland at St. Scholastica's Retreat on part of a site given by Elizabeth Harrison in 1862. It was intended the church would form one side of a garden. However it was later decided that a school. chapel would be built instead of a church plus a presbytery for a parish priest. In 1887 a temporary church was registered in the north east corner of the garden. In the 1960s this permanent church was built next to the new school following the demolition of the Retreat and was eventually consecrated in 1987.
St. Scholastica Retreat. This was founded by brother and sister William and Elizabeth Harrison from the estate of their brother Robert who had died in 1852 and his widow,Charlotte Scholastica. It was for 40 poor Catholics aged over 60.and with a professional or wholesale background and had lived for ten years in England. They each had a self-contained home in a block around a garden which had been blessed by Cardinal Wiseman. The buildings were by E. W. Pugin and occupied from 1863 and ministered to spiritually by Fathers of Charity. It was demolished in 1972, but continues as a home for aged gentlefolk in Princes Risborough
St. Scholastica Roman Catholic.Primary School. This opened in 1868 as Clapton Roman Catholic School in a building which was also the chapel for the Retreat. A new building was provided in 1879 and received a parliamentary grant by 1890. It became voluntary aided by 1951 and Called St. Scholastica from 1972.
Gooch House. 17-storey tower block built for Hackney Council by Harry Moncrieff in 1955- the first of many. It is concrete-framed with projecting balconies.
Nightingale Estate. Built by the Greater London Council to replace housing in roads north of Hackney Downs, between 1967 and 1972. It was later seen as a bleak concrete expanse with six point blocks of up to 21 storeys plus linked slabs framing them. These blocks were called Seaton, Embley, Farnell, Rachel, Rathbone, and Southerland Points. Five of them have since been demolished. During the 1990's the flats fell into disrepair and the Hackney Council decided it get rid of them. Farnell Point was the first to be felled by controlled explosion in 1998 but at the same time Seaton Point, which still remains, was refurbished and painted white. Embley and Southerland were demolished next in December 2000 with Christmas trees painted on the banners. The last of flats to go were Rathbone and Rachel in 2003.
45 Al Falah Primary School. Al-Falah is an Islamic faith school opened in 2001 as a school for boys only and moved here in 2004. In 2005 it extended its to cater for girls’ also and has expanded successfully
BSix Brooke House Sixth Form College was opened on the site of the of Brooke House school in 2002. Itself built on the site of Brooke House. It was set up by the then Secretary of State for Education, and was part of a plan to build eleven new sixth form colleges in London. BSix offers courses at all levels and across a wide range of subjects. Hackney education authority, The Learning Trust, introduced a programme to create City Academies in the borough, all with sixth forms and other schools followed. The college has however been seen as making good progress. In 2009 it became Representative Organisation of the Year by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) for its work on student voice and has since won other awards.
Lea Bridge Road
Lea Bridge Roundabout. This area used to be the centre of Clapton. It was a crossroads where a fountain surmounted by a statue stood in the centre. The statue has disappeared, but the drinking fountain was moved to the corner of Rectory and Amhurst Road in 1908 then to next to the Public Library in Homerton High Street where it remains. In 1974 the roundabout was built by way of a grant of £834,800 from the Department of the Environment to the Greater London Council. The roundabout had an underpass which proved dangerous and the subways were closed in the 1990s and traffic lights reinstalled. The plans for dual carriageways off the roundabout were never implemented. The centre has now been adapted into a bus stand to replace the now disused subway network and this was originally used for the bendy buses on route 38 which terminated at Clapton Pond and which was opened in November 2006. This includes a rest area for the bus drivers. There have also been some Landscaping improvements. A semi-circle of pear trees was planted on the stand to screen vehicles and new grass banks and verges added.
2 Hi Metals. In the 1950s and 1960s this site was an aluminium stockholder.
2a Madina Mosque. The mosque was set up in 1984 by people from a Guajarati background in what had been a warehouse. This is an adaptation of 1987 by Hackney Environmental Action Resource and opened in 1991. It is in red brick with standard Islamic features - paired ogee-headed windows, domes and a minaret.
Lower Clapton Road
Clapton House was to the north of the pond opposite St. James’ Church and built around 1680. It was the home of Bishop Thomas Wood (who endowed the nearby almshouses) and then it was home to Sir William Chapman of the South Sea Company. Israel Levin Salomons, a silk merchant, had it between 1779 and 1781, calling it Leozhards and spent lavishly on a building which in 1799 formed a 'chapel or private synagogue' . It was later owned by members of the Powell family. In 1858 it was used leased by the St. John’s Foundation School for Clergy Sons. It was demolished in 1881 and Thistlethwaite Road built on the site.
St. John's School for the sons of the Clergy, was established first in St. John's Wood in 1852, and then moved to Clapton from 1858 to 1872, and later moved to Leatherhead. While at Clapton the head was Rev, Edward Connerford Hawkins, his wife Jane Grahame was an aunt of Kenneth Grahame, author of Wind in the Willows and their son, born in Clapton, was Anthony Hope, author of the Prisoner of Zenda.,
St. James. The church is opposite Clapton House the Revd. T. B. Powell gave a cottage and land called the strawberry garden as a site for it in 1840 . It was built in 1840 by E. C. Hakewill in stock brick and stone with a polygonal turret and passage to the porch. The Vestries were added in 1902 by W.D. Caroe as well as the organ case, cross and candlesticks. In 1978 the nave became a centre for handicapped children. It has also been used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
The Clapton Cinematograph Theatre on Lower Clapton Road was originally built in 1896 to be used as an assembly/function room for the pub next door. It had an ornate facade to match that of the pub and elaborately decorated plaster decorations on the beams of the barrel vaulted ceiling of the auditorium. 14 years later it was converted into a cinema Designed by George Duckworth called the Clapton Cinematograph and later as the Kenninghall Cinema. It was and converted for sound pictures in 1929. In the late 1930s, it was taken over by Odeon and the frontage was modified. It closed in 1979 and re-opened in 1983 as a nightclub called “Dougie’s”. It later re-opened as the Palace Pavilion nightclub and became the focus for a number of stabbings and shootings. In 2011 the local Ethiopian Orthodox St Mary of Zion Church – which is currently housed in the St James’ Anglican church bought the building
217a ABC cinema. This opened as The Ritz Cinema in 1939. It was built by Associated British Cinemas and designed by their house architect William R. Glen in typical Art Deco style. In 1962 its name was changed to ABC and it closed in 1973. The building was quickly demolished and in 1994 a block of flats was built there.
6 The Clapton Hart Pub. Built as the White Hart Hotel in 1722, it was rebuilt in the 1830s after it was burnt down and again in 1890 perhaps as the result of a gas explosion. It was then a Reid’s house and called the White Hart. by the 1980s it was a Bass Charrington house and by 1983 the pub was trading as Schnapps, It has also been called Stagecoach Inn, and had several identities as a nightclub up to 2001 developing a bad reputation. It reopened as Chimes - a late-night bar and music venue and the former pub part of the building became unused and derelict before it closed in 2008. It reopened in 2012 as the Clapton Hart Public House
Mount Pleasant Lane
St.Matthew. The church opened in 1866 in an Iron Church and the foundation stone of a new church was laid the following year, the architect of which was Francis Dollman. This church was declared redundant in 1977 having been badly damaged by fire and the Church Hall next door was converted into a church. In 1972 it became part of a group ministry with other local churches.
Patchwork Farm. Food growing site behind the church
86 Sheltered housing for Newlon Housing Trust. Built on part of a church site. By Anthony Richardson & Partners. This is in concrete block work and grey aluminium,
Muston Road
Rigby, Battcock Brush factory. This company, originally based in Bethnal Green, made a wide range of brushes and related items.
Ablex Pyjamas Factory. This was here in the 1930s
Frenchs Case factory in the road 1920s- 1940s. They made luggage of all kinds
Narford Road
Narford Road took a direct hit from a VI Flying Bomb during the Second World War and the Northwold Road end was largely destroyed, being replaced during the 1950s and 1970s by low blocks of Local Authority flats.
Northwold Road
This was once called Dow’s or Kate’s Lane
22-24 St Michael and All Angels. Church built in 1885 on the corner with Fountaine Road. It is in red brick and designed by J.E.K. Cutts. There is also a bell set into the top of the main front wall
Vicarage to the north dates from 1885 and is in brick to match the church
64 Royal Sovereign Pub. Dates from before 1871
Northwold Primary School. There appears to have been a girls' industrial school here in the 1890s. Northwold Road Board School was opened in 1902 and became separate secondary modern and primary schools by 1949. The secondary school had closed by 1955. The primary school is now applying for academy status.
Tower works. This was initially Bernard Brock’s piano factory on the site of Bridgeford Close. Brock made upright pianos but is said to have invented the ‘baby’ grand. The factory made about 400 pianos most after Brock’s death. Tower Works later became a furniture factory remaining untold at least the 1950s.
Amherst works. Greaves and Thomas furniture factory. This lay between Gelderson and Narford Roads and is now the site of modern housing. Greaves & Thomas were the inventors of the Put-U-Up settee-bed and were on site from 1911 until 1965.
161 Sam and Annie Cohen Wellbeing Centre. Day Centre for disabled people and many others. With a sparkly design over the door.
Clapton Library. Designed by Edwin Cooper in 1913. The most domestic of three Hackney libraries designed by the distinguished him. It was intended to build a tower, but this did not happen. The library was refurbished in 2012
Powell Road
St. James National School. This opened by 1846 for girls with land settled in trust by the Powell family in. 1853. It had a parliamentary. grant by 1870. The nearby boys' school probably opened before 1863, and a new infant school was built next to the girls’ school. It closed as a day school in 1876, following an inspector's report, (but reopened by 1880. It Closed after 1938
Prout Road
The Alf Partridge Community Hall
Rendelsham Road
90 London Tavern. Named for a road opposite which was called London Lane but which was lost following the building of the Nightingale Estate.
Rossendale Street
Previously named Conduit Street and built on Conduit field. The LCC declared housing here damp and unhealthy in the 1920s, bought the site and built the current flats in 1936-7
16 United Pentecostal Church. The church has been on this site since the 1970s
Second World War bunker. Built in 1938 a rectangular semi-basement under concrete over 6ft thick. The original equipment inside includes an electric generator powered by a twin bicycle frame. It is hidden from the road by some converted civil defence garages and forms the basement of a Second World War gas decontamination and cleansing station. In 1988 there were plans to restore the bunker and there was a public open day but since then its condition has deteriorated.
Rossington Street
30 This was the Hope and Anchor pub. It closed in 1993 and the premises are now flats and offices
Stellman Close
44-56 Growing Communities. Food growing site
Thistlethwaite Road
19 plaque to writer Harold Pinter who grew up here.
25 plaque to the site of the first synagogue in the present-day London Borough of Hackney, built 1779-80 in the grounds of Clapton House.
Upper Clapton Road
18 Old King’s Head. This was the oldest pub in Upper Clapton and featured an Imperial Stout mirror. Closed and apparently flats.
Brooke House. This was a courtyard house of medieval origin and a Dower House for the Queen’s of England. The earliest recorded house on the site was in 1409. The home of William Worley, Dean of St.Paul’s in 1479, it was rebuilt in 1560 by Lord Hunsdon. It became known as Brooke House when it was owned by the Greville family. During the 16th century the house was held by amongst others, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. In 1536 it was the scene of a reconciliation between Henry VIII and his daughter Mary. Much still was left of this original house in the 1890s – medieval remains in the cellar, stones by the entrance showing the date of 1573 and marble remains of the hall pavement and much more. Later in the 16th it was the home of Lady Margaret Lennox.
Brooke House. Private asylum. In 1758 William Clarke, leased and converted Brooke House into a private lunatic asylum. When Clarke died in 1777, he left the asylum to his two brothers - John and the Revd Charles Clarke. In 1781 the lease was bought by Dr John Monro who had been a friend of William Clarke. Dr Monro, came from a long line of doctors who specialised in mental disorders and fFrom 1728 to 1853 family members were the principal physicians at Bethlehem Hospital.. Under the 1774 the Madhouses Act a licence for Brooke House was granted to Dr John Monro. One of Monro's sons, Thomas took over the licence for Brooke House in 1790. The patients came from the middle and upper classes but their treatment did not differ from patients at Bethlem, except that they were not restrained by chains. In 1820 Dr Thomas Monro and purchased the freehold of Brooke House. During the Second World War the patients were evacuated and the asylum closed. In 1940 the north courtyard and its buildings were destroyed by a high explosive bomb. The asylum did not reopen after the war. In 1944 the London County Council bought the house and estate. Further bomb damage ensued. Brooke House was demolished in 1954
Brooke House School - was built on the site in 1960. This was built as a secondary school in 1958-60 by Armstrong & MacManus. It was had two curtain-walled slabs, the taller one with curved staircase drums and then reclad in the 1980s. It took secondary boys previously pupils at Joseph Priestley and Mount Pleasant schools. It amalgamated with Upton House School to form Homerton House School in 1982.
Hackney College. Brooke House School was extensively altered and became the administrative head quarters of Hackney College in 1990. It has subsequently become Bsix Sixth Form Centre with an address in Kenninghall Road.
Milestone. It is said that the 3rd milestone from Shoreditch stood outside Brook House
The Mount. The Mount was a grand castellated house standing in grounds in the area which is now Mount Pleasant Road.
Mount Works. This was the factory where Alfred Pridge made Sphinx Ink. Pridge moved into the manufacture of inks in the late 19th. The firm had a branch in Paris, and an emphasis on his export trade. They made blue- black and jet-black non-corroding writing and copying inks, school ink, indestructible marking ink for linen and other fabrics. Ink was also sold in pellet form – just add to water.
Mount Works. Puckridge and Nephew, Ltd. This firm made goldbeaters skins here in the 1890s. They went out of business in 1951
Lea Bridge Tram Depot. This was the North Metropolitan Tramways horse tram shed opened in 1873, with it and associated stables. It closed in 1907. The building retains many original features, granite setts in the yard, tramlines running through the ground floor of the central tram shed building, cast iron colonnades, and stable flooring on the first floor where the horses were originally housed. From 1872 to 1907 trams took commuters to and from the City and West End. One of the horse-trams, which operated from here, is currently displayed in the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.
Clapton Station. Opened in 1872 by the Great Eastern Company it lies between Tottenham Hale and Hackney Downs and also St. James Street Stations. Stairways descend to platforms in a cutting. It was remodelled in 1982 with a new office and bridge done with GLC money and not changing many Great Eastern Railway Company features
85a Congregational Church now United Reform. Services in Upper Clapton began as early as 1812 in a house opposite Brooke House. This was followed by a building on the west side of the road registered in 1813. It is thought this was opposite Mount Pleasant field and on the site of the Conduit field .It closed in 1850. Another building was erected on an enlarged site by T. Emmet in 1851 with nave, aisles, corner pinnacles and with an assembly hall at rear for Sunday schools. This was damaged in Second World War bombing and services were held in the hall from 1950. A new chapel was built in 1988 by W. B. Attenbrow.
Crooked Billet. The pub was present at least by the early 18th and rebuilt with a tea garden and covered bowling alley after 1840. It was rebuilt again `in the 1950s in brown brick and pitched roofs and an Arts and Craft style. It has a very large rear garden.
Sources
Benthal Primary School. Web site
British History Online. Hackney
Bsix College. Wikipedia. Website
Cinema Treasures, Web site
Clarke. Glimpses of Ancient Hackney and Stoke Newington
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Hackney Society Newsletter
Ickborough School. Web site
JewishGen. Web site
London Borough of Hackney. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Lost Pubs. Web site
Mosque Directory. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Summerson. Georgian London
St. Scholastica. Web site
St. Scholastica’s Retreat. Web site
St. Scholastica Primary School. Web site
The Clapton Hart. Web site
Post to the south Hackney Downs
Post to the north Springfield
Post to the east Lea Bridge
Post to the west Stoke Newington
Benthal Road
Benthal Primary School. The site of the school was a brick field in 1868, probably where the bricks were made for the surrounding houses. The school opened in 1876 as Rendalsham Road School and the name changed to Benthal Road School in 1903. In the Second World War closed because of 1940 bombing. Rebuilt 1949 and in 1966 a new infant school added by the GLC - later used as the junior school. The first school to be designed by Paul Maas with archways like caves.
Benthal Road
Benthal Primary School. The site of the school was a brick field in 1868, probably where the bricks were made for the surrounding houses. The school opened in 1876 as Rendalsham Road School and the name changed to Benthal Road School in 1903. In the Second World War closed because of 1940 bombing. Rebuilt 1949 and in 1966 a new infant school added by the GLC - later used as the junior school. The first school to be designed by Paul Maas with archways like caves.
Island Mural. This is on the west side of the road on the corner with Evering Road.
Brooke Road
Previously called World’s End. The street name recalls Brooke House which stood in Upper Clapton Road at the end of Brooke Road and which was demolished after war damage.
Hunsdon Estate. This Hackney estate was built in the mid-1960s in the grounds of what had been Brooke House.
Clapton Sorting office. This was built in 1892 by the Royal Mail’s then job architect.
Casmir Road
Beecholme Estate. The estate dates from the late 1940s. It appears to be designed to face onto North Millfields. It was designed by Frederick Gibberd, working with Borough Engineer, G.L.Downing. The site may be part of the site of Beecholme House, which may have been the home of Maj. John André who was executed in the American War of Independence in 1780.
Cazenove Road
The road was named after a house called ‘The Cazenoves’ that once stood in Upper Clapton Road.
124 Nelson Mandela House. This was originally called Morley House and built in 1938. It was renamed Nelson Mandela House in 1984, It is a long five-storey range by Joseph and the planning of the individual flats was generous at the time. There is a plaque on the building about the renaming and a quotation from Mandela.
122 Chasidey Gur (Avreichium) Beth Hamedrash. This synagogue dates from 2005 and is Ashkenazi Orthodox associated with the `Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. This was one of the first seven houses built in the street before 1868
120 one of the first seven houses built in the street before 1868
118 Kol Yehuda Synagogue. The name is also given as Yotzei Teimon Beis Hamedrash as a synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in 2005. It is more recently listed as Bais Pinchas Serench
116 College and Synagogue at the rear
112 Talmud Torah Education. School for 120 pupils with staff from the local Orthodox Jewish community. In the 1940s this was Rosener Synagogue which seems to have become Chabad Synagogue from 1948. This was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. In 1962 it was home to a Polish ritual slaughterman.
88 Satmar Trust School.
84-86 Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev synagogue managed by The Trustees of the Congregation of the Yetev Lev. It is an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Mesifta Synagogue was registered here from 1960 and Beth Hamedrash Yetiv Lev registered here by 1962. It was also Chassidim Synagogue until about 1948.
111 Yetev Lev (Satmar) School for Boys. Independent Secondary School. Beth Israel synagogue was registered here 1942-7.
Jubilee Primary School. Based in the square to the north in Filey Avenue. In Cazenove Road Fountayne School built by GLC1970
79-83 Beis Rochel Satmar Girls School. Independent School.
Brooke Road
Previously called World’s End. The street name recalls Brooke House which stood in Upper Clapton Road at the end of Brooke Road and which was demolished after war damage.
Hunsdon Estate. This Hackney estate was built in the mid-1960s in the grounds of what had been Brooke House.
Clapton Sorting office. This was built in 1892 by the Royal Mail’s then job architect.
Casmir Road
Beecholme Estate. The estate dates from the late 1940s. It appears to be designed to face onto North Millfields. It was designed by Frederick Gibberd, working with Borough Engineer, G.L.Downing. The site may be part of the site of Beecholme House, which may have been the home of Maj. John André who was executed in the American War of Independence in 1780.
Cazenove Road
The road was named after a house called ‘The Cazenoves’ that once stood in Upper Clapton Road.
124 Nelson Mandela House. This was originally called Morley House and built in 1938. It was renamed Nelson Mandela House in 1984, It is a long five-storey range by Joseph and the planning of the individual flats was generous at the time. There is a plaque on the building about the renaming and a quotation from Mandela.
122 Chasidey Gur (Avreichium) Beth Hamedrash. This synagogue dates from 2005 and is Ashkenazi Orthodox associated with the `Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. This was one of the first seven houses built in the street before 1868
120 one of the first seven houses built in the street before 1868
118 Kol Yehuda Synagogue. The name is also given as Yotzei Teimon Beis Hamedrash as a synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in 2005. It is more recently listed as Bais Pinchas Serench
116 College and Synagogue at the rear
112 Talmud Torah Education. School for 120 pupils with staff from the local Orthodox Jewish community. In the 1940s this was Rosener Synagogue which seems to have become Chabad Synagogue from 1948. This was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. In 1962 it was home to a Polish ritual slaughterman.
88 Satmar Trust School.
84-86 Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev synagogue managed by The Trustees of the Congregation of the Yetev Lev. It is an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Mesifta Synagogue was registered here from 1960 and Beth Hamedrash Yetiv Lev registered here by 1962. It was also Chassidim Synagogue until about 1948.
111 Yetev Lev (Satmar) School for Boys. Independent Secondary School. Beth Israel synagogue was registered here 1942-7.
Jubilee Primary School. Based in the square to the north in Filey Avenue. In Cazenove Road Fountayne School built by GLC1970
79-83 Beis Rochel Satmar Girls School. Independent School.
Charnwood Street
This was once called Caroline Street. It was built on Conduit Field and The LCC declared housing here damp and unhealthy in the 1920s, bought the site and built the current flats in 1936-7
2 Duke of York. 19th pub named after the then commander of the British Army. It was also known as Pudlocks. Demolished in 2003 and the site is now housing.
Comberton Road
10 Comberton Children’s Centre
Ferron Road
Baden Powell Primary School. Opened 1970
Fountaine Road
This was originally Foulden Road
1a Health Centre
Ickborough Road.
Ickborough School. This was opened in 1970 for children with severe learning difficulties. The original building had been acquired from Hackney Council’s Health Department and built by the London County Council in the early 1960s. It had been used as a training centre by the Borough and replaced a sports area. For the school a replacement prototype for disabled children was designed by Foster Associates in 1972. It was the result of a research project undertaken by what was then known as the Spastics Society. In order to test out the ideas of this research this prototype was built. It is a long, single-storey steel-framed building with a protruding covered roof deck. It resembles an industrial shed and is made of corrugated steel. There s a central service core running the length of the building, creating a barrier between the public and private areas. It is set back behind trees and grass. However the school is now moving from this site.
Kenninghall Road
St Scholastica. The Parish of Clapton was founded in 1862. The church was built in 1962 It was designed by J.E. Sterret & B.D. Kaye in pale grey brick with white windows. The front entrance has circular chapels on either side. The church originated with Fathers of Charity (Rosminians) from Kingsland at St. Scholastica's Retreat on part of a site given by Elizabeth Harrison in 1862. It was intended the church would form one side of a garden. However it was later decided that a school. chapel would be built instead of a church plus a presbytery for a parish priest. In 1887 a temporary church was registered in the north east corner of the garden. In the 1960s this permanent church was built next to the new school following the demolition of the Retreat and was eventually consecrated in 1987.
St. Scholastica Retreat. This was founded by brother and sister William and Elizabeth Harrison from the estate of their brother Robert who had died in 1852 and his widow,Charlotte Scholastica. It was for 40 poor Catholics aged over 60.and with a professional or wholesale background and had lived for ten years in England. They each had a self-contained home in a block around a garden which had been blessed by Cardinal Wiseman. The buildings were by E. W. Pugin and occupied from 1863 and ministered to spiritually by Fathers of Charity. It was demolished in 1972, but continues as a home for aged gentlefolk in Princes Risborough
St. Scholastica Roman Catholic.Primary School. This opened in 1868 as Clapton Roman Catholic School in a building which was also the chapel for the Retreat. A new building was provided in 1879 and received a parliamentary grant by 1890. It became voluntary aided by 1951 and Called St. Scholastica from 1972.
Gooch House. 17-storey tower block built for Hackney Council by Harry Moncrieff in 1955- the first of many. It is concrete-framed with projecting balconies.
Nightingale Estate. Built by the Greater London Council to replace housing in roads north of Hackney Downs, between 1967 and 1972. It was later seen as a bleak concrete expanse with six point blocks of up to 21 storeys plus linked slabs framing them. These blocks were called Seaton, Embley, Farnell, Rachel, Rathbone, and Southerland Points. Five of them have since been demolished. During the 1990's the flats fell into disrepair and the Hackney Council decided it get rid of them. Farnell Point was the first to be felled by controlled explosion in 1998 but at the same time Seaton Point, which still remains, was refurbished and painted white. Embley and Southerland were demolished next in December 2000 with Christmas trees painted on the banners. The last of flats to go were Rathbone and Rachel in 2003.
45 Al Falah Primary School. Al-Falah is an Islamic faith school opened in 2001 as a school for boys only and moved here in 2004. In 2005 it extended its to cater for girls’ also and has expanded successfully
BSix Brooke House Sixth Form College was opened on the site of the of Brooke House school in 2002. Itself built on the site of Brooke House. It was set up by the then Secretary of State for Education, and was part of a plan to build eleven new sixth form colleges in London. BSix offers courses at all levels and across a wide range of subjects. Hackney education authority, The Learning Trust, introduced a programme to create City Academies in the borough, all with sixth forms and other schools followed. The college has however been seen as making good progress. In 2009 it became Representative Organisation of the Year by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) for its work on student voice and has since won other awards.
Lea Bridge Road
Lea Bridge Roundabout. This area used to be the centre of Clapton. It was a crossroads where a fountain surmounted by a statue stood in the centre. The statue has disappeared, but the drinking fountain was moved to the corner of Rectory and Amhurst Road in 1908 then to next to the Public Library in Homerton High Street where it remains. In 1974 the roundabout was built by way of a grant of £834,800 from the Department of the Environment to the Greater London Council. The roundabout had an underpass which proved dangerous and the subways were closed in the 1990s and traffic lights reinstalled. The plans for dual carriageways off the roundabout were never implemented. The centre has now been adapted into a bus stand to replace the now disused subway network and this was originally used for the bendy buses on route 38 which terminated at Clapton Pond and which was opened in November 2006. This includes a rest area for the bus drivers. There have also been some Landscaping improvements. A semi-circle of pear trees was planted on the stand to screen vehicles and new grass banks and verges added.
2 Hi Metals. In the 1950s and 1960s this site was an aluminium stockholder.
2a Madina Mosque. The mosque was set up in 1984 by people from a Guajarati background in what had been a warehouse. This is an adaptation of 1987 by Hackney Environmental Action Resource and opened in 1991. It is in red brick with standard Islamic features - paired ogee-headed windows, domes and a minaret.
Lower Clapton Road
Clapton House was to the north of the pond opposite St. James’ Church and built around 1680. It was the home of Bishop Thomas Wood (who endowed the nearby almshouses) and then it was home to Sir William Chapman of the South Sea Company. Israel Levin Salomons, a silk merchant, had it between 1779 and 1781, calling it Leozhards and spent lavishly on a building which in 1799 formed a 'chapel or private synagogue' . It was later owned by members of the Powell family. In 1858 it was used leased by the St. John’s Foundation School for Clergy Sons. It was demolished in 1881 and Thistlethwaite Road built on the site.
St. John's School for the sons of the Clergy, was established first in St. John's Wood in 1852, and then moved to Clapton from 1858 to 1872, and later moved to Leatherhead. While at Clapton the head was Rev, Edward Connerford Hawkins, his wife Jane Grahame was an aunt of Kenneth Grahame, author of Wind in the Willows and their son, born in Clapton, was Anthony Hope, author of the Prisoner of Zenda.,
St. James. The church is opposite Clapton House the Revd. T. B. Powell gave a cottage and land called the strawberry garden as a site for it in 1840 . It was built in 1840 by E. C. Hakewill in stock brick and stone with a polygonal turret and passage to the porch. The Vestries were added in 1902 by W.D. Caroe as well as the organ case, cross and candlesticks. In 1978 the nave became a centre for handicapped children. It has also been used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
The Clapton Cinematograph Theatre on Lower Clapton Road was originally built in 1896 to be used as an assembly/function room for the pub next door. It had an ornate facade to match that of the pub and elaborately decorated plaster decorations on the beams of the barrel vaulted ceiling of the auditorium. 14 years later it was converted into a cinema Designed by George Duckworth called the Clapton Cinematograph and later as the Kenninghall Cinema. It was and converted for sound pictures in 1929. In the late 1930s, it was taken over by Odeon and the frontage was modified. It closed in 1979 and re-opened in 1983 as a nightclub called “Dougie’s”. It later re-opened as the Palace Pavilion nightclub and became the focus for a number of stabbings and shootings. In 2011 the local Ethiopian Orthodox St Mary of Zion Church – which is currently housed in the St James’ Anglican church bought the building
217a ABC cinema. This opened as The Ritz Cinema in 1939. It was built by Associated British Cinemas and designed by their house architect William R. Glen in typical Art Deco style. In 1962 its name was changed to ABC and it closed in 1973. The building was quickly demolished and in 1994 a block of flats was built there.
6 The Clapton Hart Pub. Built as the White Hart Hotel in 1722, it was rebuilt in the 1830s after it was burnt down and again in 1890 perhaps as the result of a gas explosion. It was then a Reid’s house and called the White Hart. by the 1980s it was a Bass Charrington house and by 1983 the pub was trading as Schnapps, It has also been called Stagecoach Inn, and had several identities as a nightclub up to 2001 developing a bad reputation. It reopened as Chimes - a late-night bar and music venue and the former pub part of the building became unused and derelict before it closed in 2008. It reopened in 2012 as the Clapton Hart Public House
Mount Pleasant Lane
St.Matthew. The church opened in 1866 in an Iron Church and the foundation stone of a new church was laid the following year, the architect of which was Francis Dollman. This church was declared redundant in 1977 having been badly damaged by fire and the Church Hall next door was converted into a church. In 1972 it became part of a group ministry with other local churches.
Patchwork Farm. Food growing site behind the church
86 Sheltered housing for Newlon Housing Trust. Built on part of a church site. By Anthony Richardson & Partners. This is in concrete block work and grey aluminium,
Muston Road
Rigby, Battcock Brush factory. This company, originally based in Bethnal Green, made a wide range of brushes and related items.
Ablex Pyjamas Factory. This was here in the 1930s
Frenchs Case factory in the road 1920s- 1940s. They made luggage of all kinds
Narford Road
Narford Road took a direct hit from a VI Flying Bomb during the Second World War and the Northwold Road end was largely destroyed, being replaced during the 1950s and 1970s by low blocks of Local Authority flats.
Northwold Road
This was once called Dow’s or Kate’s Lane
22-24 St Michael and All Angels. Church built in 1885 on the corner with Fountaine Road. It is in red brick and designed by J.E.K. Cutts. There is also a bell set into the top of the main front wall
Vicarage to the north dates from 1885 and is in brick to match the church
64 Royal Sovereign Pub. Dates from before 1871
Northwold Primary School. There appears to have been a girls' industrial school here in the 1890s. Northwold Road Board School was opened in 1902 and became separate secondary modern and primary schools by 1949. The secondary school had closed by 1955. The primary school is now applying for academy status.
Tower works. This was initially Bernard Brock’s piano factory on the site of Bridgeford Close. Brock made upright pianos but is said to have invented the ‘baby’ grand. The factory made about 400 pianos most after Brock’s death. Tower Works later became a furniture factory remaining untold at least the 1950s.
Amherst works. Greaves and Thomas furniture factory. This lay between Gelderson and Narford Roads and is now the site of modern housing. Greaves & Thomas were the inventors of the Put-U-Up settee-bed and were on site from 1911 until 1965.
161 Sam and Annie Cohen Wellbeing Centre. Day Centre for disabled people and many others. With a sparkly design over the door.
Clapton Library. Designed by Edwin Cooper in 1913. The most domestic of three Hackney libraries designed by the distinguished him. It was intended to build a tower, but this did not happen. The library was refurbished in 2012
Powell Road
St. James National School. This opened by 1846 for girls with land settled in trust by the Powell family in. 1853. It had a parliamentary. grant by 1870. The nearby boys' school probably opened before 1863, and a new infant school was built next to the girls’ school. It closed as a day school in 1876, following an inspector's report, (but reopened by 1880. It Closed after 1938
Prout Road
The Alf Partridge Community Hall
Rendelsham Road
90 London Tavern. Named for a road opposite which was called London Lane but which was lost following the building of the Nightingale Estate.
Rossendale Street
Previously named Conduit Street and built on Conduit field. The LCC declared housing here damp and unhealthy in the 1920s, bought the site and built the current flats in 1936-7
16 United Pentecostal Church. The church has been on this site since the 1970s
Second World War bunker. Built in 1938 a rectangular semi-basement under concrete over 6ft thick. The original equipment inside includes an electric generator powered by a twin bicycle frame. It is hidden from the road by some converted civil defence garages and forms the basement of a Second World War gas decontamination and cleansing station. In 1988 there were plans to restore the bunker and there was a public open day but since then its condition has deteriorated.
Rossington Street
30 This was the Hope and Anchor pub. It closed in 1993 and the premises are now flats and offices
Stellman Close
44-56 Growing Communities. Food growing site
Thistlethwaite Road
19 plaque to writer Harold Pinter who grew up here.
25 plaque to the site of the first synagogue in the present-day London Borough of Hackney, built 1779-80 in the grounds of Clapton House.
Upper Clapton Road
18 Old King’s Head. This was the oldest pub in Upper Clapton and featured an Imperial Stout mirror. Closed and apparently flats.
Brooke House. This was a courtyard house of medieval origin and a Dower House for the Queen’s of England. The earliest recorded house on the site was in 1409. The home of William Worley, Dean of St.Paul’s in 1479, it was rebuilt in 1560 by Lord Hunsdon. It became known as Brooke House when it was owned by the Greville family. During the 16th century the house was held by amongst others, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. In 1536 it was the scene of a reconciliation between Henry VIII and his daughter Mary. Much still was left of this original house in the 1890s – medieval remains in the cellar, stones by the entrance showing the date of 1573 and marble remains of the hall pavement and much more. Later in the 16th it was the home of Lady Margaret Lennox.
Brooke House. Private asylum. In 1758 William Clarke, leased and converted Brooke House into a private lunatic asylum. When Clarke died in 1777, he left the asylum to his two brothers - John and the Revd Charles Clarke. In 1781 the lease was bought by Dr John Monro who had been a friend of William Clarke. Dr Monro, came from a long line of doctors who specialised in mental disorders and fFrom 1728 to 1853 family members were the principal physicians at Bethlehem Hospital.. Under the 1774 the Madhouses Act a licence for Brooke House was granted to Dr John Monro. One of Monro's sons, Thomas took over the licence for Brooke House in 1790. The patients came from the middle and upper classes but their treatment did not differ from patients at Bethlem, except that they were not restrained by chains. In 1820 Dr Thomas Monro and purchased the freehold of Brooke House. During the Second World War the patients were evacuated and the asylum closed. In 1940 the north courtyard and its buildings were destroyed by a high explosive bomb. The asylum did not reopen after the war. In 1944 the London County Council bought the house and estate. Further bomb damage ensued. Brooke House was demolished in 1954
Brooke House School - was built on the site in 1960. This was built as a secondary school in 1958-60 by Armstrong & MacManus. It was had two curtain-walled slabs, the taller one with curved staircase drums and then reclad in the 1980s. It took secondary boys previously pupils at Joseph Priestley and Mount Pleasant schools. It amalgamated with Upton House School to form Homerton House School in 1982.
Hackney College. Brooke House School was extensively altered and became the administrative head quarters of Hackney College in 1990. It has subsequently become Bsix Sixth Form Centre with an address in Kenninghall Road.
Milestone. It is said that the 3rd milestone from Shoreditch stood outside Brook House
The Mount. The Mount was a grand castellated house standing in grounds in the area which is now Mount Pleasant Road.
Mount Works. This was the factory where Alfred Pridge made Sphinx Ink. Pridge moved into the manufacture of inks in the late 19th. The firm had a branch in Paris, and an emphasis on his export trade. They made blue- black and jet-black non-corroding writing and copying inks, school ink, indestructible marking ink for linen and other fabrics. Ink was also sold in pellet form – just add to water.
Mount Works. Puckridge and Nephew, Ltd. This firm made goldbeaters skins here in the 1890s. They went out of business in 1951
Lea Bridge Tram Depot. This was the North Metropolitan Tramways horse tram shed opened in 1873, with it and associated stables. It closed in 1907. The building retains many original features, granite setts in the yard, tramlines running through the ground floor of the central tram shed building, cast iron colonnades, and stable flooring on the first floor where the horses were originally housed. From 1872 to 1907 trams took commuters to and from the City and West End. One of the horse-trams, which operated from here, is currently displayed in the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.
Clapton Station. Opened in 1872 by the Great Eastern Company it lies between Tottenham Hale and Hackney Downs and also St. James Street Stations. Stairways descend to platforms in a cutting. It was remodelled in 1982 with a new office and bridge done with GLC money and not changing many Great Eastern Railway Company features
85a Congregational Church now United Reform. Services in Upper Clapton began as early as 1812 in a house opposite Brooke House. This was followed by a building on the west side of the road registered in 1813. It is thought this was opposite Mount Pleasant field and on the site of the Conduit field .It closed in 1850. Another building was erected on an enlarged site by T. Emmet in 1851 with nave, aisles, corner pinnacles and with an assembly hall at rear for Sunday schools. This was damaged in Second World War bombing and services were held in the hall from 1950. A new chapel was built in 1988 by W. B. Attenbrow.
Crooked Billet. The pub was present at least by the early 18th and rebuilt with a tea garden and covered bowling alley after 1840. It was rebuilt again `in the 1950s in brown brick and pitched roofs and an Arts and Craft style. It has a very large rear garden.
Sources
Benthal Primary School. Web site
British History Online. Hackney
Bsix College. Wikipedia. Website
Cinema Treasures, Web site
Clarke. Glimpses of Ancient Hackney and Stoke Newington
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Hackney Society Newsletter
Ickborough School. Web site
JewishGen. Web site
London Borough of Hackney. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Lost Pubs. Web site
Mosque Directory. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Summerson. Georgian London
St. Scholastica. Web site
St. Scholastica’s Retreat. Web site
St. Scholastica Primary School. Web site
The Clapton Hart. Web site
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