Hoxton
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Baches Street
Sturt Estate
rebuilt with warehouses from the 1890s. The most
interesting of these are by Ernest Newton, whose
father was agent to the estate:
Baldwin
Street
Old
Fountain pub,
an isolated modest Georgian survival.
Baltic Street
Named for the timber trade
Hatfield House
White
Lyon Court,
with a crane, and a building with cast-iron
windows.
Banner Street
Banner Estate 1965 L.C.C. housing 'scissor blocks'.
Quaker
Court the
best part of the estate. Quite pleasant
four-storey maisonettes with a rhythm of
boxed-out bays, with an intriguing
variety
of customized doors as recent counterpoint.
An opening through to a garden
made from part of a former Quaker Burial Ground.
Bartholomew Square
Centre of new St.Luke’s Estate and revival of old name
Bastwick Street
Finsbury and Heyworth Halls for the City University, by
Sheppard Robson & Partners, 1971
Peartree Court, by Geoffrey Reid &' Associates, 1991
for City University
Bath Street
Called after ‘peerless’ or ‘perilous pool’ between here and Peerless Street. Originally
called Pest House Lane. Banner family owned land 1789 - carpenters, and
plumbers. Another healing well.
Site of first Turkish bath
Institute of Ophthalmology 1989-92 by GMW Partnership.
Alleyn Almshouses
Girdlers Almshouses
Hospital for French Protestants 1708 in Bath Street/Pest
House Row, for the relief of distressed French Protestants. Like an almshouse and called ‘La
Providence’. Now at Horsham. Behind the hospital was the spring and
‘perilous pool’. 1598 W.Kemp, jeweller.
Peerless Pool. This was an existing pond,
which was converted in 1743 by Jeweller William Kemp. It was behind St.Luke’s
hospital. Used for swimming, by the Bluecoat boys, etc. It was 262 ft long and used as a fishpond and
as a reservoir. Trials took place here
in 1762 by the Royal Society of Arts on the resistance to rolling of ships’
hulls. The Pond was railed off. In 1860
it was built over
Drinking fountain
19 Kelpra Studios, Prater silkscreen printer
Cope House
Godfrey House
26 Swedenburg lived
Bonhill Street
1-3 industrial survivor.
Bunhill Fields
Cemetery. A non-parochial
cemetery, which was in use until 1853 where there were some 18,036 burials in
its three parts. It is the most celebrated
Nonconformist burial ground in England, crowded with monuments and the only
cemetery left in the City. The site was
originally
part of one of the three great
fields of the Manor of Finsbury, which was part of the prebendal estate of St.Paul’s. Three fields of Finsbury
Farm were called Bonehill, Mallow, and High and there were three windmills
here. It is named after ‘Bone Hill’ but
there is no hill. It was also called
‘Tindall’s burying place’ – does this mean it was a prehistoric burial
mound? The earliest version also says
this is where Whittington stopped. It became a burial ground
after bones from the Charnel
House in St.Paul's Churchyard were
brought here in 1549. In 1665 an area was put aside for plague victims, but it was not used
so it was given to the dissenters as a burial ground. The cemetery was extended in 1700 and taken over by the
Corporation of London in 1781. The gates and railings
to City Road date from 1869, with big granite piers and gateposts which list
the dissenters buried here. . It was left as pre-Victorian style burial
ground. Memorials: near the centre is
the Bunyan Memorial of 1862, by Papworth; a stone obelisk erected to Daniel
Defoe in 1870; a simple shaped headstone to William Blake 1827, and his wife; Susanna Wesley was
buried here on August 1st, 1742 with verses by Charles
Wesley, but because of weathering it was replaced about 1828; several members of the Cromwell family; Isaac Watts; Bradbury; Buxton; Thomas Hardy of the London Corresponding Society;
Dr. John Lettsom; Thankful Owen; Heston Savory.
. Ancient London planes and
an old mulberry shade the grassy expanses between the tombs, and there are
clouds of crocus and daffodils in spring. On Midsummer's Day 2000, sculptor
Andy Goldsworthy deposited his giant snowballs, frozen from snow that had
fallen the previous winter here. A sample of 248 burials were recorded from within the
'Lower Ground', and retained for analysis by the osteologist. .
Quaker burial ground. Grave of George Fox
1690. Closed 1885 & road widened.
Artillery Company parade ground.
Armoury House faces it. . Old archery
ground. Garden dates from around 1641.
It has been suggested that as early as 1785 a balloon flight from the Ground, which used gas made
from coal. The Honourable Artillery
Company received requests for use of it as a place to launch balloons from as
early as 172. In 1763 they turned down a request to use it for an experiment
with a ‘machine to sail against the wind’. Montgolfier ascended from the Artillery
Ground in a hot air balloon in 1782
One
surviving archery mark is at the Honourable Artillery Company's headquarters.
Honourable Artillery
Company. The first origins of
the company are unknown, but it was incorporated in 1537 by Henry VIII as the
Guild or Fraternity of St George and from it were chosen the officers of the City
Trained Bands. Milton, Wren, and Pepys are among the famous men who have served
in its ranks. The company has been established on its present ground since
1642. Since 1660 the captain-general has usually been either the Sovereign or
the Prince of Wales. The H.A.C., though a territorial regiment, provided many
officers for the regular army in the two World Wars. It takes precedence after
the regular army and is one of the few regiments privileged to march through
the City with 'bayonets fixed, drums beating, and colours flying'. It also
takes all salutes from the Tower of London and claims the right of furnishing a
guard of honour when royalty visits the city. In the Gordon riots they defended
the Bank of England. The Troop of Colour is held annually in July. The Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company
of Boston (Mass.), the oldest corps in America, was founded m 1638 by emigrant
members of the H.A.C.
Armoury House. The Honourable Artillery Company was given a
royal charter in 1537. Its oldest building is c18, approached through gates by
George Dance, 1793, and faces the parade ground. Designs by Thomas Stibbs were
approved in 1729 and Built 1734-6. A flagstaff rises from
a central turret. Court
Room with mid-c18 decoration: contains the Great
vellum book and signatures of members. At the
rear on the ground floor, a mid-c19 drill hall with simple iron-
trussed roof. Jennings collection of
arms. In the museum are many torn and tattered flags, suits of old armour,
portraits, etc
Barracks of 1857 by J.J. Jennings, alluding
to a Heroic national past: refurbished 1994. By Arnold & Boston, 1993-4.
Barracks frontage onto City Road. 1857. Rock faced
castellated fortress demonstrably alluding to a heroic past.
Moorfields School.
More usual ILEA type: low single-storey linked blocks,
built on the 'rationalized traditional system, , c
1965-70-
Bunhill Row
15 small warehouse with a crane
100-101 Turnberry House. 1990s Postmodern, not too large,
three storeys and mansards,
striped stonework with upper canted bays;
124 warehouse on
the site of house where John Milton, wrote ‘Paradise Lost’ , ‘Paradise
Regained’ and ‘Samson Agonistes’ and died. Demolished. RSA plaque
A
crushingly mediocre group: a crude comer block
clad in grey marble and crimson trim,
Finsbury Tower. Reclad 1990. Ungainly slab-on-podium
Northampton Hall, 20 storey GLC built tower as student
residences for the City University. GLC
Architect's Department H. Bennett
Thomas Delarue Paper Factory. Star Printing Works 1874. All bombed except Anchor Lane and building
onto Dufferin Street.
Buttesland Street
Haberdasher’s
Estate Terraces of c. 1823-30 remain
Central Street
Gas Light and Coke Co
Works. The Brick Lane gas works in what is now Central
Street. ‘The Great Gas Manufactory’ .
Before gas manufacture began on site, it is shown as a 'cooperage' belonging to Golden Lane Brewery. The street plan of Peartree Street, with its
little kink, was much the same then.
Between the site boundary and Seward Street was a burial ground and
north of Seward Street was a ropewalk. Built in 1814. The
works had no rail or river access. Closed for gasmaking in 1871 but holders
retained and kept in use until 1898. A large portion of the site still in use
by British Gas, although the 1859 office block and frontage on Goswell Road
have since been demolished and were in other use. Clegg
built it. There were 16 gasholders, some
in wooden tanks, which were there until 1843.
Telescopic holder 1835. 1836
Windsor Jnr. was superintendent and had to get help. Croll was later superintendent there. 1859 offices on Goswell Road. Works rebuilt at the end of the site and old
works used as coal store. 1871 closed
and part of site sold. Offices became
Gas Light and Coke Company’s distribution HQ.
Governor house kept going until 1939.
In 1915 became Industrial Gas Showrooms.
Transco on site.
183 Finsbury Distillery Co Ltd. made gin and Stone’s
ginger wine. An edge runner there now.
Use powdered ginger
105 Central Sorting Station. Carter Paterson & Co. occupy premises known as "Central
Street Sorting Station" and "Return Empty Yard"
Chapel Place
Indifferent
Neo-Georgian offices of the late 1980s incorporating the former Congregational Tabernacle. Three-bay pedimented centre, stucco-trimmed
Charles Square
Name from lessee William Charles. 1770 set with trees and fruit. Mostly post-war flats. This was a favourite open-air preaching place in the 1740s. When Whitefield was the preacher, the gentlemen's houses were sometimes filled with their City friends, drawn by the prospect of an entertaining spectacle 'as though they had come to see bears and monkeys'. Wesley preached here in the face of various discouragements: a heavy storm, attempts to drive an ox into " the thick of his congregation, and even a volley of stones. Later in the century John Newton, the slaver-turned-evangelical, lived in the square. Attempt to make a posh bit of the east
end which failed.
16 was the Shoreditch County Court House. Pre 1726.
Survives. The early character is represented by one good survival, quite an ambitious house of c.1725, five bays and three storeys,
formerly with lower wings. Red brick, with the middle bay a little
projected. Thick cornice above the first floor, stone keystones,
doorway
13-14 built after 1774 called Crocker’s Row
15-17 wings to no 16 but by 1922 used as factories
Chart Street
Haberdasher’s
Estate Terraces of c. 1823-30 remain
Chequer Street
Peabody Buildings
Christopher Street
Buckler’s Hotel
City Road
City Road is a broad thoroughfare,
once of factories and warehouses. It was projected in 1760 by timber merchant
Robert Dingley allowing 'an easy and pleasant communication from the eastern
parts of the City to all the roads between Islington and Paddington and from
thence down to Oxford Road and the Great Western Road, thus avoiding the
necessity of travelling three miles over the stones'. It is a one mile long and was originally a
toll road built in sections and united as a through route in the 1860s when the
toll gate was removed. At one time it was the scene of rivalry between
competing omnibus companies. Part of the c18 bypass around London, divides the former boroughs of Finsbury and Islington. Opened 1761, but not built up until c. 1800. The west part retains a residential
character, the East end, nearer the
City, was more commercial.
Turners bed sacking and wadding makers. 1817
City and Finsbury sawyers’ society in 1825.
1 Lowdnes House dignified Edwardian. With a rusticated front.
Forecourt with c18 iron gates,
A bronze statue of Wesley, 1891 by Adams-Acton. Preaching with arms outstretched and a
book. On the plinth ‘the world is my
parish’. Erected on the centenary of his death.
Obelisk to Susannah Wesley, 1870 by Albert
BRS depot overhead crane
Eagle dwellings on the Eagle pub. Eagle 1825 ex-Shepherd and Shepherdess balloon
ascents. In the garden. Coronation gardens 1832. Now Salvation Army. 176l London Cricket Club there was Frederick
Prince of Wales was hit on the head by a ball and died. Eagle had a Grecian
theatre and Marie Lloyd worked there as a waitress.
Empire House 1901.
Built as the Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms by King & Co. c. 1901, rather fussy
Neo-French Renaissance, with
three big floors with mullioned windows, all painted
beige, which does not help.
Foundry Chapel; rebuilt in 1899, top lit like a billiard
room, with Wesley's own chamber organ and seating from the original foundry
building. Men & women separate,
hymns not accompanied, tuning fork only, eighteenth century fire
Gilray
House,
interwar Art Deco, c. 1930-1 by A. Scarlett; four-storey front with giant
polygonal columns to upper floors; steel windows in between
Leysian Mission. Now Imperial Hall. 1901-6 by J.J. Bradshaw of
Bradshaw & Gass. The third home of
the mission founded by old boys of the Methodist Leys School,
Cambridge, in 1886 to provide opportunities
for involvement in social work. Beginning
in a mission hall in Whitecross Street,
west of Bunhill Fields, it moved in 1889 to
gabled purpose-built premises at the corner
of Errol Street and Lamb's Buildings. One
of the foundation stones was laid by the
headmaster W.F. Moulton. The end gable
still bears the spurious school arms,
which preceded the authentic grant of
arms in 1914. The building is now used by a drama school. The mission moved again in 1904, when its extensive red-brick premises at the junction of Old Street and City Road were opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future King George V and Queen Mary). . Intended for a
mixture of secular and religious activities and so with a deliberately
commercial-looking front to its offices and accommodation. Tall, exceedingly sumptuous, with plenty of
terracotta, a central dome and scrolly Arts and Crafts ornament. After serious war
damage, the premises were reopened in 1955 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Great
Hall behind, originally seating 1,750, rebuilt in 1953-5 by W.H. Gunton after
war damage. The original staircase remains, with stained glass by W.J. Pearce.
The Mission was amalgamated with Wesley's Chapel in 1989, and the building was
remodelled as flats by Planning Design Development in 1994.
London Hydraulic Power station, only one not near the
Thames.
London Rifle Brigade
Manse of 1898.
Three storeys, s porch with Doric columns in antis.
Moorfields Eye Hospital. Founded in 1805 by John
Cunningham Saunders as the world’s first specialist eye hospital. Promoted
because of by trachoma among troops retuning from the Napoleonic Wars. It is an amalgamation of three 19th ophthalmic
hospitals founded on different sites in 1804, 1816 and 1834. The main building is of 1897-9 by Keith Young
& Bedell with a restrained classical front of red brick above rusticated
stonework. There is also the long spread-out King George V Extension, built
1933-5 by Alee Smithers, with a tall front to Cayton Street, built as a steel
frame faced in buff faience. Above the entrance is a small stone sculpture,
‘Christ healing the Blind Man’, by Eric Gill.
It has been extended and replanned inside, with new outpatients'
facilities, by Watkins Gray of the International & Devereux Partnership
1979-88. Three of the nursery rhyme tile
pictures made for the Eye Hospital in High Holborn were transferred here. There is a chapel with a stained glass slab
and concrete by R. E. Rutherford, 1971.
Small graveyard with
plain chest tombs and a taller one with pyramid top and urn to Wesley
1791.
Wesley’s Chapel.
'The Mother Church of World Methodism'. John Wesley established his
London headquarters at the Foundry, Moorfields, in 1739. By the 1770s the
movement had outgrown the small converted building, and Wesley laid the
foundation stone of the new chapel himself, at the age of seventy- four, in
1777. The cost was met by subscription. Large broad oblong of stock brick, with
two storeys of round-headed windows in five bays, a pediment over the centre
three. Shallow stone apse. Greek Doric porch of 1815. Stone dressings, and
probably the outer wings, by Elijah Hoole, 1891 and 1899. The interior has
galleries on three sides, enlarged c. 1800 by curved comers, and an elaborate
geometric ceiling with putti heads. The later enrichments give the room a c19
flavour: reseating by W. W. Pocock in 1862-4, who also created the vestibules;
further work by Charles Bell after a fire in 1879; major restoration in the
1890s by Elijah Hoole, when the timber gallery columns were replaced by columns
of jasper and the ceiling was raised to allow for tiered gallery seating. Some
of the original Tuscan columns (made from ships' masts given by George III) are
preserved in the vestibule. Original fittings include the communion table,
rails and especially handsome mahogany pulpit the top tier of a three-decker,
lowered in 1864. Stained glass, mostly late c19 pictorial, but three more
dynamic designs by Frank Salisbury, St John, by H. Holiday, 1900; gallery the
Wesleys by James Powell & Sons, 1924. Many minor monuments several of the
early c19 ones by Manning, e.g. Joseph Butterworth 1826, with woman kneeling by
a cross, and Lancelot Haslope 1838, woman reading a Bible beneath a palm tree;
both delicately carved. In the 1880s portrait busts were popular: among them
W.M. Punshon 1881 and Gervase Smith 1882, by E. Onslow Ford, twin busts beneath
a pair of marble Gothic canopies; W.F. Moulton 1898 has a bespectacled bust in
an odd classical aedicule, by. Adams-Acton. F.J. Jobson 1881, also by
Adams-Acton, is in profile, in a niche.
Corsham Street
Sturt Estate
rebuilt with warehouses from the 1890s. The most interesting of these are by Ernest
Newton, whose father was agent
to the estate:
Cowper Street
1833 William Allen of Stafford Allen essential oils
Central Foundation by the Corporation for Middle Class
Education Central Foundation School for Boys. Founded 1866. Plain c19 buildings
of stock brick; the centre of three storeys and eleven bays with Doric porch at
the end; a lower seven-bay range with arched top-floor windows, a three-bay
science extension of 1894. Extensions by Ley, Colbeck & Partners, 1966.
Crescent Row?
Was Middle Row Domingo Street Named for the timber trade
Dufferin Street
Dufferin Court built as Costers’ Buildings, for Peabody. A more unusual group built as costermongers'
dwellings, yellow and red brick, with barrow sheds on the courtyard side.
124 Home of John Milton wrote Paradise Lost and died. Warehouse gone RSA plaque
East Road
Sturt Estate
49-69 long warehouses five-storey warehouse is of 1901-8, by Ernest Newton with Arthur Keen a fellow pupil from
Norman Shaw's office, also
carefully detailed, but in a more Neo-Georgian manner:
channelled brick quoins; dentilled cornice.
Epworth Street
Errol Street
Leysian Mission. Corner with Lambs Buildings. Beginning in a mission hall in Whitecross Street, west of Bunhill Fields, it moved in 1889 to gabled purpose-built premises here.
One of the foundation stones was laid by the
headmaster W.F. Moulton. The end gable
still bears the spurious school arms,
which preceded the authentic grant of
arms in 1914. The building is now used by a drama school. The mission moved again in 1904 to the junction of Old
Street and City Road
Fann Street
80 Edward Crawshaw & Co., manufacturing chemist, 1885
Coates Printing Ink HQ until 1930s
NCEDRS buildings.
Coats Painting Ink HQ until 1930s
Farringdon Market?
Was on St.Bride’s Pauper Burial Ground
Featherstone Street
London Hospital l740 Whitechapel l748. Building 1751. Ex 1830 and 1850. Georgian style recognisable. Hidden from hospital l934
Philpot Street.
Finsbury Fields
Chapel at St.Paul’s churchyard - pulled down in the year
1549: the bones of the dead, couched up in a charnel under the chapel, were
conveyed from thence into Finsbury field amounting to more than one thousand cart-loads,
and there laid on a moorish ground; in short space after raised, by soilage of
the city upon them, to bear three windmills. (Stowe)
First London theatre built by Burbage in 1576. It was a circular wooden structure and cost
£600. Called The Theatre and looked like
a galleried inn. In 1576 had been a private playhouse for Richard
Farrant for the Children of the Chapel, Windsor. 20 years use until it was pulled down by
Burbage’s sons in a quarrel over the lease.
Shakespeare first worked there and associated with Richard Burbage,
Henry Condell and John Heminge. It
belonged to Burbage and was used in connection with the Globe Theatre. Eventually destroyed in 1655.
Area outside Moorgate, waste land kept for archery
practice
Drained by the work of various mayors in 1500s.
Finsbury Pavement,
In the 15th a manor house stood here at the
corner with Chiswell Street. Almost a new thoroughfare - the Lord Mayor broke
the City walls so people could get to Islington. Had been a Rubbish dump, which
raised the ground above the surface of the marsh. Called Finsbury Pavement from
London Wall to City Road. Name means
Fen. It is the Western course of Walbrook under west side. The Eastern course skirts it on the east side
London General, old omnibus relics, previously called The
Ship
79 Aged Pilgrims Friend Society
Area outside Moorgate, waste land kept for archery
practice
Drained by the work of various mayors in 1508s.
Finsbury Place
25 Fuller and Cubitt office
Fortune Street
Fortune Theatre hence blue plaque. London Electricity
Board Sub station
St.Mary’s Tower
Galway Street
Garratt Street
Gee Street
Called after John Gee
Stafford Cripps Estate Finsbury Council 1953. By Emberton,
1953-6. A high- density development achieved by three twelve-storey 11 blocks, each with sixty flats, cheap and without
frills. The landscaped foothills are
little compensation for poor details and hopelessly
cramped site.
Alfred Place
Cotswold Court
Parmoor Court
Sapperton Court
Golden Lane
Golden Lane: Goldeslane 1274,
Goldyng lane c.1290. Golden lane 1317, Goldyngesiane 1361, probably "lane
of a family called Golde or Golding'.
Fortune Theatre Mission Housing
Fortune Theatre, 1600.
Brick foundations and wooden framework.
Stage 43’ wide. 1601 opened with
Lord Admiral’s men who became the Princes Men.
Burnt down 20 years later.
Rebuilt of brick.
Golden Lane Brewery with Gasworks 1806-1826.
Pemberton built it. Lit Golden
Lane & Beech Street. Promoted by
Alderman Wood. 1820 oil gas plant. 1826 went over to public supply. Site now housing for
Peabody H.A.
Richard Cloudesley School GLC 1972
Great Eastern Street
Firehouse. Filling the
snub-ended wedge between Paul Street and Tabernacle Street, a restaurant in a
former LCC Fire Station off 1895-6. A lively twin-turreted red brick chateau, six
storeys with mansarded centre. Engine doors are still recognizable
1-3 18th modest c18 survivals
5 was the Caslon works, William Caslon the elder (1692-1766) the type founder, lived here. He is regarded as a pioneer in typography.
12 old vicarage former c18 vicarage; five bays with late c19 bay window and side entrance.
Honduras Street
Named for the timber trade, source of mahogany
Ironmonger Row
Ironmonger Row Baths. Includes Turkish baths. 1931, reopened 1985. Swimming pool added in
1938. Built by the baths experts A. W. S. & K. M. B. Cross. Stone-faced, in
Roman revival style; two-storey front with patterned glazing to the upper
windows, cornice, pantiled room. Interior refurbished c. 1988. Laundries were a
common feature in early baths in modern automated form, such a facility is
still in existence at the interwar Ironmonger Row Baths
13-17 Europa House
Lagonier House
Telephone Exchange Clerkenwell 1923.
Britannia Pub 1936
60 William Caslon the elder (1692-1766) the type founder,
lived here He is regarded as a pioneer in typography.
Finsbury Leisure Centre. 1972. By Dere Lovejoy. Large red
brick windowless sports hall,
King Square
Laid out 1825. Built
same time as Northampton Square, became very poverty stricken, bombed tower
blocks 1963 King Early in the 1820s the rapidly growing parish
of St Luke's, itself newly created only a century earlier, subdivided to create
the first of the area's new parishes with a Commissioners' church on the
borders of Clerkenwell. Building of the square began on the north side with a
single house in 1822, still only three in 1823 and 1824, filling gaps. The square was largely completed in 1825, in
extent slightly larger than Northampton Square, on the opposite side of Goswell
Road. Unusually, it was entered not on
from streets at each corner, but also from the centres of this gave it a
remarkable number of corner houses, further increased by siting the church in
the middle of one side. The houses were
of the pretty New River estate style, with circular-headed sunk panels above
their first floor windows, and blind panels on the return walls to the small
streets cutting in. Its history seems to
have been uneventful. During most of the
19th century the square, like much of the surrounding area, was
occupied by small master clock- and watchmakers, and other workers in the local
metal trades. King Square was not in a prosperous
neighbourhood. Flanked by monotonous parallel streets
linking Goswell Road and Brick Lane by the yearly days of this century it was
in decay, and by 1930 it had become very poor.
At that time 575 families needed to be rehoused. In the Fifties its doom was sealed, and a new
13-acre housing estate was planned on the site.
By 1960, part had been demolished, and in 1963-5 the square's garden was
attractively landscaped and extended to include three playgrounds, the streets
were flattened, and tower blocks designed by Embenon, Franck Tardrew were
dotted about in a fashionably random manner.
Between 16 and 17 storeys, they contained 293 flats, and were given
names with a local flavour Barnabas, Rehire, Macclesfield and President, the
last three covering the obliterated streets of those names.
22 During the first decade of this
century no less than three clergymen lived there, including the vicar
33 it was also the home of small
dedicated organisations: the Finsbury Conservative Association
38 Society for Organising Relief and
Repressing Mendicity
28 and by 1913, a 'Pioneer Preachers'
Hostel For
38 Many years before the Second World
War was a 'Home of Service'.
29 George
Baxter lithographer, who lived in no less than three Finsbury squares.
St.Clement’s. built as St Barnabas. 1826. Bombed and reopened 1954. Pulpit from Marylebone Chapel. Built in 1826 by Thomas Hardwick and restored after war damage. obelisk spire was intended to refer
to the mother church of St Luke. reopened 1954. pulpit c18, from St Marylebone Chapel. The
church, created to carve two parishes from one, was in its turn to be united in
1954 with St Clement's, in Lever Street, damaged in World War II, subsequently demolished. St Barnabas was
then renamed St Clement's. St Barnabas (1822-6) was built on part of the
Peerless Estate, belonging to St Bartholomew's Hospital and became part of a
new square.
Turnpike House. Named after gate on Goswell Road. Built of precast concrete units on a
specially developed system. Flats not maisonettes and precast balconies to
prevent staining. Lubetkin’s assistant C.L.Franck. Tallest tower completed 1965 forms the west side of
the reconstructed square. Is quite daringly opened up by a big arch at ground level.
5-6 l770/5 fashionable open air preaching place in
1740s. Peoples visited the houses to
hear Whitfield. Wesley preached there
despite an ox in the congregation.
John Newton evangelical ex-slaver lived there. St Barnabas
29
36
Finsbury Kitchen for Mothers
Macclesfield
House
President
House
Telfer
House
Rahere
House
Lever
Street,
Nineteenth century working
class housing.
Guinness Court. Site of Guinness Flats, 1892. Clockmakers, Thwaites & Reed moved out of
London
Chadworth
Buildings. 1906 Early rehousing efforts are now led only by this block.
LCC flats, probably by G. Stephenson. Four and five round
a courtyard entered by a big archway.
Pleydell Estate
Lever Buildings
St.Luke’s Labrary
Ratcliffe Grove
St.Clement’s Buildings
Lamb’s Buildings
Also called Dyehouse Buildings
St.Joseph’s RC church
Herald House
Leonard Circus
Hitchcock’s Reel. By John Edwards, 1996,
a large painted 'reel' to commemorate a century
of film making.
Leonard Street
Was Tabernacle Row
The domestic
buildings in these streets have mostly
gone. They included early examples of philanthropic housing.
Langboume Buildings, 1863, financed by Sydney
Waterlow, founder of the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company.
Shoreditch County Court. Built as the City and Guilds of
London Technical College 1881. 1881-3 by
E. N. Clifton. Three storeys, ground- and first-floor windows arched. Porch
with columns in antis and pediment carved with scientific books.
33-34 Furniture Mill
55-63 65-83 terrace of furniture warehouses 71-83 built to
look like a single building. Glass roofs
for maximum light. 85 94-106 Finsbury
Technical College. First tech in
London. Robert Paul Cinema Projection
1895 demonstration. First tech in London
three
storeys unified by the use of giant piers between the windows, some prominent
wall cranes.
Lassco in St.Michael’s Church also Westland and Co.
Former Whitfield Tabernacle Now used by the Central
Foundation School for Boys. By C. G. Searle & Son, 1868. Built to replace
Whitefield's famous c18 Congregational Tabernacle at Moorfields. Ragstone
Gothic, a huge and rather coarse decorated window in the gable over the triple
entrance. Adjoining Sunday School with smaller gable. Inserted floors.
Congregational Chapel built by members, 1741.
Sunday School
Three mills on a rubbish tip
There was once philanthropic housing here. Demolished Langbourne Buildings 1863,
financed by Sir Sydney Waterlow. 94-106
Leverton Place?
One side of the Assembly House’s Yard. One old house still left there
Macclesfield Street
Mallow Street?
Mitchell Street
Normals building, Layton’s gate.
Nile Street
Improvements
included the now demolished model dwellings of
1896-7 by Rowland Plumbe, some of the earliest
local authority housing.
Outside of Borough housing 1st pub. 1896/9 111 electric from the start.
Old Street
'ancient paved road'; as an important
artery to and from the City, the street is referred to as ancient in early
records – ‘Ealdestrate’ c.1200, ‘Eldestrete’ 1275, ‘Le Oldestrete’ 1373.
The main
route through the parish of St Luke's, which eventually, with other names. goes to Old Ford on the line of an
ancient British trackway. It was developed as part of an
18th residential suburb on
the fringe of the City but only a
few traces of this domestic period remain.
It was an early ribbon development beyond the City. It became commercial
and industrial in the 19th and an area to
the North was extensively reconstructed after a combination of war damage and slum clearance.
12 The Old Rodney’s Head, was a pub and has a bust of Rodney under an arch. Dated 1876, .
49 Webb’s Juvenile print warehouse
78 Brayfield House. 1989 transparent steel and glass by Patrick Dairies of Hanscomb Davies Ltd. An elegantly transparent steel and glass front in a slot
between drab neighbours. An angled curve. White cladding, also to the rear which has a slight curve and some triangular windows
110 Pugh enamellers
116 late 19th
front and central arched window with large central arched window, pilasters and
decorative cornice.
118, c18 domestic
buildings
142 Churchill House although rewindowed, is a stone-clad Edwardian building with very tall giant
pilasters to ground and first
floors.
148-166 Bovril Co. HQ west corner of Old St
174-180 Classic House art deco and modernist, in 1930s style, is more fun, with its Art Deco and modernist touches: a recessed stair-tower
and a framed black entrance
a curved comer and upper floors with
ribbon windows contrasting with the verticals of the
stair-tower.
188 Genesis Books
207
211 at
first entirely later
c20. The first, inhumanly scaled monster
is a speculative 1970s tower, sleekly reclad for British Telecom offices in 1984.
323
325-329
340-342 Listed
Grade II. Early C18 double-span terraced house.
Anchor House
Bartholomew Court
Bouette violin maker
Braithwaite House. Domineering 21 story slab
block.
196 City Cloisters are the former St Luke's Parochial Schools, now
offices. This was built in 1870, with a wing of 1887 by John Groom. Tall and
gaunt, the main part with gables, and a top floor with Gothic arches rebuilt
after a fire in 1881. There are niches
for statues of a Charity Boy and Girl from the previous building – they are now
in St Luke's Church of England Primary School.
However the front of the building is most informative and proclaims its
history in some detail by means of a number of plaques which read 'St Luke's
Parochial Schools founded 1698', 'Removed from Golden Lane to this site 1870',
'New Wing added 1887, J T Redder Esq Chairman', 'The Telfer Wing erected 1887,
J T Pedder Esq. Treasurer', 'Erected for 400 children, James Telfer Esq
treasurer', 'St Luke's School moved from this site 1972'.
Cope House
Dog Houses eastern end
'Finsbury Van & Wheel Works’
prominent cement sign on the south side of Old Street walking west from the
roundabout on a late-Victorian building and there is a pointing hand. This sign
is formed with the letters recessed into the concrete and they would probably
have been filled in with black paint.
Godfrey House
Golden Hind on
the corner of Golden Lane. Extension in
front of older buildings.
Golden Hind
three-storey c18 domestic terrace.
Gottleib lutemaker
Granite obelisk by
Metropolitan Board of Works 1876
Middle Level interceptory sewer beneath it
More and Co. brewery bought by Watney in 1888
Newland Court
Northampton Hall
Roundabout,
created as part of a street- widening scheme, was
notorious for its dismal underpasses and concrete ventilators of the 1960-70s.
The showy skeletal arches belong to a facelift of 1993-4 by Hanscomb
Davies Ltd.
Old Street Station. 17th November
1901. Between Angel and Moorgate on the
Northern Line. Between Essex Road and Moorgate on WAGN. Built by the City and South London Railway and on 1904 became the
Great Northern and City Railway. This is a Northern Line station in 16’
diameter tunnels built to take main line stock and Great Northern trains to the
City. Electric lights all through and
electric lifts.
Paterson Court
Priestly House L.C.C. 1964
Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, the earliest in Britain (1804), rehoused in 1899
Royley House
Shops in Old Street part of the estate
St Luke. The parish was formed in
1733 from part of St Giles Cripplegate, and the church was funded by the Fifty
New Churches Act. It was built 1727-33
to designs by two of the Act's surveyors, John James and Nicholas Hawksmoor.
Redundant by 1960, and unroofed by the Church Commissioners, it was left
derelict after no buyers emerged and became a ruin. The organ case and font
went to St Giles Cripplegate, reredos and altar rails to the chapel at St
Andrew Holborn. In 1999 Conversion for the London Symphony Orchestra by Levin
Bernstein Associates began. It is used for the LSO’s
education and community programme.
St Luke's
Estate, shopping parade with flats above, part
of on the site of St Luke's Hospital.
This is a total post-war remodelling of an area. The estate extends on both sides of Bath
Street whose name recalls Peerless
Pool. The hospital was one of the two
early London madhouses, founded in 1751, rebuilt by
George Dance Jun. in 1782-4, with a restrained but harmonious front 493ft long.
For lunatics who couldn’t get into Bedlam. Voluntary contributions. Originally in the foundry. . Statue
of the girl, which came from the Greycoat School. Converted to the Bank of England Printing House,
1917—20. Demolished 1963 after war damage. The new housing is by the GLC, in two phases. East of
Bath Street is the earlier part, completed 1969, on the mammoth scale still in
vogue in the 1960s and at the high density prescribed for innermost areas by
the County of London plan. Behind the block with the shops, three linked ten-storey slabs with scissor-plan flats, and
one separate taller twenty-storey
tower. Yellow brick and concrete, the
concrete in places quite
sculpturally handled, see the open arches below the
tower. New landscaping and gates etc. by
Pollard Thomas & Edwards, 1988-9. West of Bath Street are more intimate
L-shaped four-storey blocks in
red brick of the 1970s, clustering around private
and public spaces, clearly displaying the influence of Darbourne & Darke's Lillington Gardens,
Westminster
St.
Luke's Vestry Hall. Demolished. This Italianate
building of 1865-7 was partially designed by William Christie, the vestry
surveyor, who, unable to complete the designs. Enlisted the help of the
Westminster architect F.Warburton Stent. It was demolished c.1986.
St.Luke’s Churchyard, Toffee Park. Good railings
Steadman House
Thomas Delarue Paper Factories, Star Printing Works 1874,
all bombed except Anchor Lane and building onto Dufferin Street
Vickery Court
Warehouses. Tall, late c19
Wenlake House LCC 1905.
Wessex House
Rotten Row at Western end.
Young’s Buildings
Oliver’s Yard
City Garden Row. Falcon Court. 1970s infill.
Paul Street
36 Binani House
79-97 South Shoreditch Studios
94 Fellows’ Medical Manufacturing chemist 1900
Peabody Estate
Banner House
St.Luke’s House
Shaftesbury House
Peartree Street
St.Paul’s Church, bombed
Peerless Street
Called after ‘Peerless Pool’. Marie Lloyd born here 12th
February 1870.
Radnor Street
Housing
by
Finsbury Borough Council is easily
recognizable. 1959-60 by Emberton,
Franck & Tardrew. Galway House and Grayson House Like King Square constructed
largely
of prefabricated parts, without exterior scaffolding, an early example of this technique.
Galway House.
Formal 17 storey block
Gastigny House
Palyn House
St.Luke’s Church of England Primary School. Inscription
stones from the old building and inside are the boy and girl figures from the
original building 1780 in Golden Lane. By Sheppard Robson and Partners,
completed 1974. Low buildings with an intimate entrance courtyard in which are
displayed the inscription stones.
Roscoe Street
Was Coleman Street
21 was Society of Friends Meeting House associated with
George Fox
St.Luke’s Church Centre.
No pretensions 1977 by Biscoe & Stamon. A replacement for the c18 St
Luke's.
Silbury Street
Cobbled passage
Singer Street
Tabernacle Street
Whitefield's first
Tabernacle. 1753; rebuilt 1868,
which gave the street its present name, stood on the left north of Leonard
Street.
1894 first Bell Punch factory of Bell Co Fire and moved
out
41 Blacksmiths Company
St.Agnes Le Clair. Swimming bath burnt down in 1845. Roman remains found and a spring 14’
down. Water went through a Roman
aqueduct. The date on the baths was
1502.
Foundry - Immediately on the right, between Worship and
Bonhill Streets is the site of the Foundry.
Marked by a plaque on the rear of the former Epworth Press building
opposite. In Wesley's day the area to the north of London Wall was open country. At the north- west
corner of Moorfields stood the derelict Royal Foundry, wrecked by an explosion
in 1716. Wesley bought it for £115
and
turned it into a preaching-house, with rooms
for a day school, dispensary and almshouses, and
accommodation for him- self and his
preachers. Here his mother Susanna spent her
closing years and the first Conference of
preachers was held in 1744. It served the London
Methodists for nearly forty years,
until replaced by 'the New Chapel in the City
Road' in 1778. Some of its
furnishings are preserved in the Foundry Chapel at City
Road.
Timber Street
Was Norway Street, Named for the timber trade
Underwood Street
Vestry Street
Cut through
slums in the 1890s by Shoreditch Vestry.
2-18
continues the Newton-Keen scheme.
Westland
Place
Whitecross Street
‘Whitecruchestrete’ 1226,
‘Whitecrouchestrate’ 1310, ‘Whitecrosse Strate’ 1502, so named from a white
stone cross mentioned in the 13th century. In the 15th
white crosses defined Templar owned land. By the
1890s a new lay-out of regular side streets had
replaced most of the crowded courts and alleys. On its east side is a redevelopment offices of c. 1980 which replaced Whitbread's later buildings includes flats over a pedestrian shopping precinct and a covered market.
Coltash Court
Cooper House
Cowheel Alley
Forsters Buildings
Free Library
Gloucester Court
Goat Yard.
In 1742 Samuel Whitbread bought the Goat Brewhouse where he produced
porter. He soon moved to Chiswell
Street.
Market . Whitecross Street Market caters for working people.
It is open during weekday lunchtimes to pick up a thriving trade from local
office and shop. With increased trade in the 16th and 17th centuries new markets
appeared coinciding with the banning of street markets within the City walls
Nichols sale room set up as a Temple of Reason in 1796
Prior Weston School GLC 1968
Shrewsbury Court
Site of ex-debtors
prison which became British Road Services goods yard
Spread Eagle
Two Brewers
Whitecross Street Mission
Wither’s Court
Railway yard on
site of Comptor. Goods Midland
Railway. Destroyed by bombing. Site of Hydraulic Pumping Station
Fifteenth century crosses defined templar land
Site of ex-debtors prison which became British Road
Services goods yard
Site of ex-debtors prison, which became British Road
Services goods yard.
Spread Eagle
Windsor Terrace
David Copperfield lodged there. 1733 parish had been a marsh for
skating. Then a park for archery. Then l66 fire refugees camped there. 1700 a suburb. Architect not known. Roof taken off & in the churchyard. Boundary marks in the front gates.
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