Great Eastern Railway to Chingford. Hackney

Great Eastern Railway to Chingford
The Line running north from London Fields curves North West to Hackney Downs Station, then curves north east and north

Post to the south Hackney Central
Post to the north Hackney Downs

This post covers only the south east corner of this square


Amhurst Road
90 Pembury Tavern. This pub was built in 1866 - with an address of Medina Terrace, Dalston Lane. In the 1990s it closed and re-opened in 2006. This very handsome building is now owned by Individual Pubs, with a tie in to Milton Brewery.  They take bitcoins.
Apsland and Marcon Estates Community hall
Lower Clapton Congregational Church, Hall and School. This was a new church built in 1864 in Kentish rag stone. Replaced by shops and flats after the church closed in 1951

Bodney Road
1 Bodney Road Joinery.  In the 1930s this was a branch office for the British Union of Fascists.
2 this site was bought for a fire station in 1912.  The building has now been converted to flats. At the rear is a Caretakers lodge or wardens house.  In the Second World War this was the American Ambulance Station
58 Palestine House site of the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution.  Demolished and now under part of the housing estate.

Brett Road
Brett Manor.  A small block of maisonettes by Edward Mills built in 1946 by Manor Charitable Trustees to provide affordable housing for ex-servicemen and older members of the Eton Manor Boys' Club and their war widows. This was the first reinforced concrete, box frame building to be completed in London and it was designed in conjunction with Ove Arup and Partners. The building has nine flats – eight maisonettes and a roof penthouse with roof garden. Built on the site of Manor Assembly Rooms, later a cinema and a club
Temple Works.  Offices and flats on what was a construction firm site
Brett Road Mission. In the 1950s this became a Government Office.

Clarence Mews
40 studio space and house, designed by architect Ed Frith of Moving Architecture. A double height glazed wall provides natural light and there is a private courtyard garden. The site was the garden of a Georgian house until the 1960s, but was used most recently as a mechanic’s yard.  The house includes square dance studio and on the ground floor a design studio and family living spaces.
Clarence Mews Mixed Developments. This incorporates flats, a house, workshops and studios. There is a secure front entrance overlooking the street, while the rear elevation faces onto private gardens.
48 19th brick warehouse standing near the corner with Clarence Place. This is now housing

Clarence Place
1a the Episcopalian Church of Archangel Michael. In 1975, Beatrice Butler started a mission in her home. From 1987 Beatrice encouraged her son Matthew to be came the leader.When her brother in law, Bishop Austin McDowell, visited from St Vincent and the Grenadines, he ordained Matthew and Beatrice and Matthew was later consecrated as Bishop. In 2001 The Episcopalian Church of Archangel Michael diocese was established.

Clarence Road
This was originally called Back Lane
78 Duke of Clarence Pub. First recorded in 1851 this pub closed during the 1990s and is now flats.
51a Hackney Church of England Grammar school. This school was functioning by 1829 and had connection with King's College, London.  The building was on the west side of the road and had been designed by William MacIntosh Brookes. In 1888s its debts were cleared and it became known as King's College or Hackney Collegiate School until 1895. It was then used as a mineral water factory and beer bottling plant. The buildings were demolished in 1903. The site is now part of the Pembury Estate


Dalston Lane
A busy route connecting Dalston to central Hackney, with scattered remnants of c18 and earlier C19 terraces and villas.  An industrial area developed in the c19.
236 Academy Apartments. This is in the buildings of what was Hackney Community College.  The college dates back to 1790 when an institution for 30 boys opened in Shacklewell, which moved in 1803 to Dalston Lane and were joined by a girls department in 1810. By 1819 it was known as the Hackney School of Industry and financed through donations and the sale of sermons. A new building on the corner with Amhurst Road was erected by James Edmeston in 1837. This was later acquired by the North-East London Institute. Which was a school of music, science, and art based at 236 and 238 Dalston Lane. This was taken over in 1897 as a central site for Hackney Institute becoming its northern branch and as such transferred to the London County Council in 1909 and amalgamated with other relevant institutions in the area. The buildings were enlarged by the London County Council in 1925 and the building dates from this time with with restrained detail of an Arts and Crafts kind. In 1928 it was the London County Council's Hackney Technical Institute and in 1947 Hackney technical college. In due course it became administered by the Inner London Education Authority.  In 1974 after further amalgamations it became part of Hackney College. The administrative headquarters were moved away from here in 1974. . When the Inner London Education Authority was abolished it was run by, by Hackney Council, when it was again renamed.  It later became an independent institution, mainly funded through public funds. For a few years it was known as The Community College but then reverted to Hackney Community College.  Since then this site has been sold off for housing
Hackney Downs Station.  The station lies between Clapton and London Fields and was built in 1872 by the Great Eastern Railway. It was enlarged as early as 1876 when though lines though the station were opened.  The station was originally opened as Downs Junction Station and the original entrance was on the south side of Dalston Lane under the bridge. . The ticket hall was rebuilt in the early 1980s along with changes to the roofs on the platforms. The island platforms wooden roof was replaced with steel sheeting on the existing frames whilst the side platforms were left unaltered other than the removal of their 'dog-tooth' fascia boards. Until Hackney Central's closure in 1944, a passenger connection linked the two stations and a special building called the Exchange Building was staffed by Great Eastern but sold tickets for both lines.   A new entrance building was installed in 1980 and designed by British Rail architect Sandy Boal. The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia.
Signal Box. This was named Hackney Downs North junction renamed Hackney Downs junction in 1935 and close din 1960.
Signal Box. This was installed in 1960 when the line was electrified but closed in the early 2000s when signalling on the line was centralised.

Gould Terrace
This was previously called Kenmure Terrace

Institute Place
3 Five Points Brewing Co, small independent brewer based in railway arches

Kenmure Road
Previously known as Coldbath Lane and adjacent to Hackney Brook.
Manor Assembly Rooms. These were licenced from 1849 and lay behind Tyssen's Manor House in Mare Street. They could be reached by a covered way from Mare Street and were later used by Hackney Literary and Scientific Institution. In 1877 they included a concert hall and a skating rink. They were demolished by 1894 and were by the Manor Feature Film Theatre
18 The Manor Feature Film Theatre opened in 1909 in what had been the Manor Assembly Rooms. It operated until at least 1915. The site is now the Brett Manor flats.

Mare Street
Called Church Street between Dalston Lane and Amhurst Road . It is also called The Narrowway.
Hackney Brook crossed the road a few yards south of  Bohemia Place
347-357 the site of the current Marks and Spencer was Hackney’s leading department store Matthew Rose and Sons
359-361 McDonald’s was once the National Penny Bank. It was previously the Three Cranes Inn
387 known as the Manor House this was built in 1845 for the manor steward, J.R.W. Tyssen. It is in plain yellow brick, with Shops on the ground floor. Site of the New Mermaid Theatre  1773
418 Crown Pub.  Said to have been on the site of Templars House, a brick built house from the 17th, which became tenements.  It had a projecting centre bay with columns and broken pediments once capped by domes suggesting that it was built new in the late 16th. . The Templar's name came from their  estate in Hackney, later Kingshold Manor . The house was demolished in 1825.  It was then the Blue Posts Pub, which was used by the vestry as a meeting place to conduct parish business and from where the stagecoach ran to Holborn via Dalston Lane.  It then became Bob’s Hall and then a stonemason’s yard. . A pub called the Crown was here by 1856. In 2002, it was called the Wishing well and in 2013 a branch of Tommy Flynn's
354 Old Town Hall.  The vestry had met in Church House but by the end of the 18th this was no longer usable and was replaced by this building. This is described in its pediment as ‘the old Town Hall of Hackney’. It is a house of 1802 house, converted to use as Town Hall. It is now a betting shop having previously been a bank.
356 St John’s Rectory.  In the late 17th The Vicarage was north of the churchyard. in 1705, when no vicar had lived there for more than 60 years,  a new vicar was licensed to replace the buildings with a brick residence, set back farther from the road. As the Rectory, it was refronted and extended to the design of James Spiller in 1828-9 and survived, as. 356 Mare Street, in 1952. It was demolished and a smaller house was built on the site in 1956.
354 Mermaid Fabrics. The Mermaid Tavern was here in 1856 and the premises are now in retail use. In 1895 this was the headquarters of the Clapton Orient Football Club, predecessors of Leyton Orient Football Clubs. 
The original Mermaid Inn was on the other side (west) of Mare Street and associated with the Assembly Rooms to its rear.   It closed and was demolished in 1845. It had been present by 1636 and is where Samuel Pepys came to play shuffleboard and eat cherries.  In the 18th it was used for local court proceedings and had extensive pleasure gardens – used for some early balloon ascents.

Pembury Road
Pembury Estate. London County Council housing built in 1938.

Sources
British History Online. Hackney. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Clarke. Glimpses of Ancient Hackney and Stoke Newington,
Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
East London Record
The Episcopalian Church of Archangel Michael. Web site
Field. London Place Names,
GLC. Home Sweet Home
Hackney  Society Newsletter
London Borough of Hackney. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry.  London North
Robinson, Lost Hackney
Summerson. Georgian London
Walford.  Highgate and Hampstead to the Lea,
Watson. Hackney and Stoke Newington Past

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