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Post to the south Hoxton
Arlington Square
In mediaeval
times the southeasterly quarter of Islington parish - east of the present Essex Road-formed part of the Prebend Estate of the
Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. And barring a short period during the Commonwealth,
the lordship of the manor remained in the
cathedral's hands. At the time of Henry
VIII's confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the Clothworkers' Company
acquired some 34 acres of this land
known as
their Corporate Estate, and in 1563 they inherited 60 adjoining acres to the west, with certain charities attached, under the
will of Dame Alice Packington whose husband Sir John
had been Clerk to the Court of Common Pleas.
The open ground was near-Islington Common" on the northern fringe
of Finsbury Fields, never enclosed because archery
had been practiced there since mediaeval times. It was dotted with archery targets in the
form of -rovers', decorated wood or stone posts
each bearing some carved device, allotted such fanciful names as Marquis of Islington", "Duke of
Shoreditch", and so on. One
"Jehu” bearing the date 1679, was recorded until about 1853 in a field
west of New North Road, but then either
removed or buried ... in constructing buildings
at Arlington Square.” Its site was
pinpointed as a garden in Arlington Street.
Until the estate building began it was visible in the open field after crossing the bridge. In 1817 most of the Clothworkers' Company
land was let as pasture or hayfield
to the
dairy farmers Samuel and James Rhodes.
The value was enhanced early in 19th
century by two developments in transport: first in 1812 when the New North Road, linking Islington at its eastern border with the
City, was built through the eastern fringe of the estate, cutting off a small
triangular piece. Secondly, by the
Regent's Canal, a convenient means of industrial carriage was completed over
the southeast of the estate. Early in
Queen Victoria's reign the demand for building land was intense by profitable
development on the Clothworkers' land was at first hindered because tenure was
copyhold, and leases were limited to 21 years. The Company made an unsuccessful attempt to
enfranchise their land in 1842 and
eventually
achieved it in 1845 for their original Corporate Estate. Their still rural estate was bounded on the
SE by the Regent's Canal, the New North Road, by Frog Lane continuation of what was to become Prebend Street -
and on the West by the site of the future Union Square
and Bevan Street. Between 1846 and 1858
the estate was entirely built up. There were some
half-dozen developers; most of who engaged builders further sub-leased the properties when built. Chief and best known was the builder Henry
Rydon, of Oakley Crescent off the City Road, who,
though he appears to have had no early training as builder or craftsman, not only had the finance and initiative but also was a
good organiser and entrepreneur. He had come from Somerset and started in business only
a few years earlier, as a tailor in Finsbury
Circus; now he combined his Clothworkers' Estate activities with developing the neighbouring Wenlock Barn estate in
Hackney for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and in
the 1850s was to go on to the building of Highbury New Park. Rydon built, or had built for him, about 240 houses on
the Clothworkers' estate, and 95 on the part
taken by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
His work was generally of a high standard, and he was honoured by having
both a street and a pub named after him. Other builders or sub-contractors, such as
Rowland & Evans, Job Palmer, and John
Hebb, were men of substance, yet few built more than a handful of contiguous houses here. Rydon, on completion of his part, sold the
improved ground rents with
first option to the Commissioners and having disposed of his interests in the area, passed on to the Highbury New Park venture. The oddly
shaped estate built over some dozen years has the peculiarity of exceptionally
wide straight streets, with diagonals marking the awkward angles of its outer boundaries.
On the part of the estate lying on the far side of the New North Road, the only feasible layout was not even a square
but a triangle; Clothworkers' houses are surprisingly small and low-rise. Mostly two-storey with basements, they have disproportionately high
parapets, which look better in streets with stucco
mouldings than in those without though some of the former have retained the
stucco but lost the mouldings. They are remarkably uniform, not to say
monotonous, but substantial. Within the simple overall design there is variation of
detail according to the builders. The houses had to conform to the surveyor’s
specifications, and to be set back at 5
feet behind open areas, and be provided with railings and Portland stone. The basements must be
at least 8 ft high, ground floor 9 first floor 9, and the pair square storey floors" at least 8. Materials included stock bricks with dressings and cornices, Portland stone steps, sills
and copings to fronts, and stone to the back
fronts.” The timber must be Scandinavian, not American, the of Duchess-size slate, garden walls 6 ft high of
brick; and no manufacturing Hidings were allowed
in the precincts without consent. In 1960 the Packington estate was also sold, to
private developers, but Islington Council acquired this
in 1963, demolished much of it and rebuilt as Council flats, including half of Union Square. Arlington square was never wholly symmetrical, partly because of
the odd siting of the church n its northeast
corner, and partly because West and East sides are not equal, with seven and ten houses respectively. Like Union Square,
its houses are a storey higher land the others on the
estate, yet appear low from the width of the central garden (The broad streets,
entering the square at every corner, contribute »the
open effect, so that no terraces link. The south side is continuous with the lightly more elegant Arlington Avenue, separated by
the gateways to the canal. The three-floor-and-basement houses are flat-fronted
with no doorcase pediments; all features are rectangular, fanlights plain;
ground-floor stuccoing - including
Simulated
keystones — is carried to the base of the first-floor windows, which have cavy bracketed heads. The heavy cornice is typical of
the estate. A number of window-guards, of
flowing grapevine design, survive on ground and ||t-floor
windows.
1 a heavy
double-fronted villa with two single-bay windows and a large circular door-surround, was formerly St
Philip's, now St James's Vicarage
Arbon Court
(1958), a featureless Council cube, replaces the demolished
St Philip's Church. St Philip's Church Islington's population expansion in the 1850s caused
serious overloading in the parish of St Mary's,
whose church had space for only 1,500. Neither the three Commissioners' churches built in the 1820s by neither
Barry nor the vicar's campaign in the 1830s, resulting in three more churches which could accommodate
more than a fraction of the inhabitants. Islington now numbered 17,500 inhabitants and the numbers were still
increasing. Because of the new area's poverty,
a campaign was launched to raise a subscription to provide a church, on a site reserved from the beginning. Only three of the subscription committee actually
lived on the Clothworkers' estate, and only nine
people from the area attended the campaign's initial meeting, which was packed with church officials and inhabitants
of Canonbury - particularly Compton Terrace -
which suggests heavy pressure from the incumbent. Samuel Lewis, of 19 Compton Terrace, and subsequently his
son, the historian of Islington, acted as treasurer.
The vicar and his father the former vicar, the Rt Revd Daniel Wilson senior, now Bishop of Calcutta, between
them subscribed £300, and numerous other clergy
and local dignitaries were on the list. As
often happened, a temporary iron church was erected for use until the new Church was completed. Meanwhile on 25 October, 1855
the chancel stone was laid by the Revd Daniel,
when coins and a scroll were deposited in a bottle beneath the marble slab inscribed with the event. The architect of St Philip's Church was A. D. Gough,
St Philip's, in me then fashionable
Kentish rag, was in Norman and Early English style, with at the corner a four-stage tower with squat spire and
square pinnacled corner turrets. The church, which accommodated 1,100 people,
was finally consecrated as St
Philip's the Evangelist early in January 185 7, and served the district for
just under a century. Its later history is a
sad one. At the end of the Second World War the church was in decaying state, like the square generally, but whereas
the square gardens were handed over to
Islington Council by the London & Manchester Assurance Company in the late 1940s, and restored and reopened by 1953,
the church was closed down, made redundant both by
falling population and falling congregation. The parish was merged with another church on the Clothworkers'
estate, St James's in Prebend Street nearby. In 1954 St Philip's was being used as a store for
cardboard boxes. After fire-destroyed part of the building,
permission was given for its removal. Though not in self a beautiful structure, St Philip's has been
poorly succeeded by Arbon Court, which is not even
aligned to the square's frontage.
35-39, just
off the is a short, extraordinarily top-heavy terrace of three houses, lopsided
from one pedimented door
facing front - the others are in Coleman Fields St
Philip's Way - and crowned with a disproportionate expanse of brick and puce above its segmental windows, like a heavy brow
National
school was built alongside.
During the Second World War it was the site of a balloon
depot and trench shelters.
Balmes Road
Balmes House big house locally area called Balmes Marshes
and lots of games area on militia training and things. It was built in 1540 for
two Spanish merchants. West of Kingsland Road between Canal Bridge and Downham
road, used by Whitmore family. The Artillery Company's training ground. It
became a mental asylum. Had a moat round it grand suburban sear. Demolished mid
19th
Balmes House. This
was a big house built on a local area called Balmes Marshes. They had Lots of games in the area with some
militia training and things. Road
demolished by Hackney in the late 1960s.
St.Aubin’s Court
Features in films 'The Last
Yellow’.
Baring Street
Eccentrically
three-legged
22A-
B a 1980s infilling with a pair of low, cottagey houses in
pastiche 1850s style, with pretty latticed iron porches,
designed by the Borough Council Architects' Department.
Bartholomew Square?
Gardens, maintained by the Vestry of Islington
Bishop Street
Clothworkers’ Almshouses. 1855. Gabled Tudor,
attractive asymmetrical.
Iseldon House 1949 for the London Parochial Charities. By
Jones
& Son. Unusual for its date in both
provision and lay-out. Three blocks around a triangle, including both family flats and
sheltered flats for the elderly, with
a garden in the centre. Two ranges are
four- storeyed with access
balconies; the third, to Prebend Street, is a single-storey
homely domestic row. They are all
brick-faced with pantiled roofs, neatly
detailed. The matron's house and
communal rooms build up in a cluster
of hipped roofs at the corner
Canal
An Electricity Board pumping house for cooling the cable.
This cable runs under the canal towpath.
City Road Basin. Basin opened 1820. 4-acre site. This was the Grand Junction Canal
Company’s depot. It was taken over in
the 1870s by Fellows, Morton & Clayton who ran flyboats from here for the
next 50 years. At the south end
originally was Thomas Pickford & Co., coal traders. 120 barges & stables of 120 horses in 1840.
The Flyboats did a trip to Birmingham in 2 ½ days. Several arms went off to the
left at one time. In the 1900s most of the wharves were taken over by British
Drug Houses. The area of the basin gradually reduced. There was a threat by the
Electricity Board to fill it but ‘demos’ prevailed. City Road Basin, covering four acres, was the
principal basin on the canal serving many wharfs and factories. At one time it extended beyond City Road and
had several arms off it on the left side. In 1891 there were flour and timber
wharfs and wharfs operated by Fellows, Morton and Clayton, the canal carriers,
but in the early 1900s a substantial wharfage area was taken over by a
pharmaceutical firm, British Drug Houses which had factories on both sides of
the basin and they extended over Wharf Road to Wenlock Basin as well. Pickford & Company, and later Carter
Patterson, the carrier firm, had property at the City Road end and on the left,
near City Road, was one of the five pumping stations of the London Hydraulic Power
Company, the only one not by the Thames. The area of the basin has been reduced
in stages, first by the closure of the part beyond City Road. In the Evening
Standard dated 11 December, 1973, it was reported that "Islington Council
has re-affirmed its view that part of the three acre stretch of water in the
Canal's City Road Basin will have to be filled in if plans for a big council
housing scheme on the banks of the basin are to go ahead." The London
Branch of the Inland Waterways Association mounted a rally of boats in the
basin to draw attention to the plans and eventually only a small section up to
City Road was filled in by the Central Electricity Generating Board in October,
1979. The Islington Boat Club is now
based here giving the children of Islington the opportunity for water
sports. All the buildings on the left of
the basin have been removed and the flat level area on the corner, which used
to be a timber yard, could possibly be used for canal offices. Acres. Several arms off to
the left once. 1900s most of the wharves
taken over by British Drug Houses. Area
of basin gradually reduced. Threat by
Electricity Board to fill it all in but protests prevailed. Islington Boat Club based there. Warehouses
replaced by indifferent commercial buildings. LHP, 1894 Site of Hydraulic Pumping Station
City Road
Station. 17th November 1901. Built by the City
and South London Railway and closed in
closed. Part of the surface
building survives at the junction of City Road and Moreland Street. Tiles walls
at track level.
Crown and Manor Boys Club amalgamated with Crown Club in
1926 and with Hoxton Manor club. Purpose built club house
Henry Rifled Barrel Engineers and Small Arms Ltd. 1890 and
then used as a plywood and wallboard warehouse
Horse ramp – for horses, which had fallen into the canal.
Iron works below the lock.
Islington Boat Club
Stables for the horses which changed between Paddington
and Limehouse
London Hydraulic Power Co. power station, the only one not
near to the Thames.
Multicoloured pipe over the canal is a sewer. Too expensive to bury it.
New North Road Bridge - the building
on the right of the bridge marked 'Bridge Works' is now the Oriental Carpet
Centre, it is shown on an 1891 map as a drug grinding mill – (see Poole
Street). Small basin alongside. Several archery marks existed well into the 19th century, and the last
one known in Islington was, "fixed, and preserved n the brick-work of the Canal Bridge, above the
towing-path.” This marker was known, rather tamely, as "Scarlet.”
North of Finsbury were drug houses which had moved out
from there. British drug houses 1908 was
an amalgamation of several drug houses and Stafford Allen. They went from
milling to the grinding of gums spices and the manufacture of flavour materials
and had the largest spice mills in Britain there. They did not use the canals
but large canal side sites
Packington Street Bridge carrying Shepherdess Walk.
Pilkington Glass factory pre-Second World War. Opposite
Packington Street bridge.
Rosemary Branch Bridge.
Row of houses opposite the basin. One was the lock keeper’s. The end one was a sanitary station.
In Shoreditch in 1818 there were timber yards to get the
timber needed to the furniture trade. In 1844 there were two saw mills here
driven by 10 hp steam engines - in advance of anything in High Wycombe
Sturt’s Lock.
Alongside it a pumping station on the towing path side to back pump the water
from below Sturt’s Lock to above City Road Lock.
Henry Rifled Barrel Engineers and
Small Arms Ltd. Between Packington
Street and Sturts Lock was, in 1890,., but in the 1930s the factory was taken
over as a plywood and wallboard warehouse.
iron works once Below the Sturts lock
on the right bank. horse ramp in the towing path
Water point
Canal to Baring Street.
In 1823 another bridge to serve Canonbury over the New River was built.
Wenlock Basin; On the right of the
canal a gate from Wharf Road leads to the private moorings in this basin, built
in 1826, occupies about an acre. On the right, where the boats are now moored,
was the site of Wenlock Iron Wharf, and next to it was another B.D.H. drug
factory, then the wharfs of Waterlow & Sons, Printers, and finally another
drug company, Stafford Allen & Sons. Basins such as this should provide
excellent moorings for pleasure craft but there is often a problem of access as
the basins are usually surrounded by private properties
Coleman
Fields
Builder
Charles Haswell has triangular door-
pediments
and a double stringcourse at first-floor level.
Dibden Street
Peabody Estate. Between
Dibden Street and Greenman Street, is the only
remnant of the c19 working-class housing that was
built in this neighbourhood.
Peabody Square 1865 by
H.A.
Darbishire, is the first of that austere, vaguely Italianate type in striped grey brick which became standard for future
Peabody estates. The average rent was 3s. For two rooms, intended for the skilled artisan. The square is typical of the more generous layout of the very early estates. Four-storeyed blocks with a fifth storey for drying rooms, note the smaller
windows. There were also two-storey flatted workshops. 1880s additions along Dibden Street have five storeys of flats. Round about is
extensive but disjointed rebuilding of the 1950s onwards. Blocks of the later 1970s with decks over
garaging, upper flats similar to the
Popham Street lay-out but without their intimacy
Eagle Wharf Road
City engine sheds. 1880-1965 made tobacco & snuff
making equipment.
Lant Street
Green Man is on the site of a meetinghouse – a purpose built
dissenters’ chapel.
Micawber Street
More 19th
houses much repaired
New North Road
The
Canonbury area was bisected for the laying out of this important carriageway,
linking the turnpike road at the corner of Highbury Place with the parish of St
Leonard's Shoreditch. It went through land leased to the farms of Samuel Rhodes and Richard Laycock by the
Clothworkers' Company, the Earl of Northampton, and the New River Company. It was creatred by an Act of 1812 and was one
of the last turnpikes built. The area west of New North Road was one of Islkngtons
early post- Second-World-War
redevelopment schemes; housing was planned together
with school, community centre, and library.
A few more early c19 terrace
houses on the side, with infilling of c 1980.
Archery mark
on the Hoxton side of the New North Road also the
canal bridge, still surviving in 1858 was "Whitehall" dated 1683, at
the end, Dorchester Street.
138-176
Richard
Field agreement to build 21 houses 1846
31-41 a fragment of typical early c19 ribbon development
27-29,1903
by N. Cranfield was built as Shoreditch Constitutional Club, rather grand, of
red brick with terracotta trim.
St Leonard's
Dwellings, 1919-21 by the Shoreditch Borough Surveyor, T. C. Hustler.
Linale House 1949. The first block
completed in 1949.
Canal Bridge. the
oldest surviving reinforced concrete tramway bridge in England. Built in 1912 on the Hennebique system
designed by L.G.Mouchel and Partners.
This had 18ft more clearance in the span than the original bridge which
it replaced. It os a Hennibique style beam bridge with parapet girders. Designed for two lanes of tramway. Design was by the Shoreditch Borough
Engineer, T.L.Hustler and the contractors were Higgs & Co., Sprayed with Gunite.
Archer’s mark or pollers in the area – had been an archery
practise area.
Pavement doubled in 1845. The road was built by company in
1812 through a Private Act. Subsidiary terrace names abolished in 1863
& the whole road called New North Road.
St. John the Baptist. Built 1824. Surprise
ceiling decoration. Café and gymnasium
in the crypt. By F. Edwards, a pupil of Soane. Unusually monumental for a
Cornmissioners' church. Severe classical front of three bays with two giant
Ionic columns in antis and no pediment. The tower appears above the broad
parapet; it has a low square base, two circular, rather emaciated upper stages,
and a stone cupola. The long sides of seven bays all stock brick, with bays one
and seven emphasized by giant Tuscan pilasters. Impressively wide interior;
galleries on three sides, with curved comers, on Tuscan columns. Reredos plain
classical, 1937 by J.E. Yerbury, with painted panel by L.A. Pownall, 1911.
Pulpit, 1902, mahogany, on runners. Organ Case, acquired 1834, possibly from a
City church, the design with three towers on leafy consoles reminiscent of G.P.
England. Stained Glass window, 1958 by F. Stephens. Monument. Rev. A. P. Kelly 1864, with ivy leaves and
relief portrait bust. The surprise is the ambitious ceiling decoration of
1902-14 by J.A. Reeve, returned to its original vigour after cleaning in
1993-4: angels of the Apocalypse in square panels, on a blue background. The
decoration originally included the walls as well. The cleaning was the first
phase of an inspiring programme of regeneration. The end was screened off for a
variety of uses by elegant oak and glass partitions, 1995, by Tom Homsby of
Keith Harrison Associates. In the crypt a cafe and gymnasium, with new
entrance, 1997.
Churchyard railings
on granite plinth.
Victoria Theatre 1901.
Right of Canal Bridge is Bridge Works now the Oriental
Carpet Centre. In 1891 there was a drug
grinding mill and a small basin next to it.
Christ Church, by Blare. Demolished
Packington Estate
The saga of the Packington estate in the 1960s
and 1970s was important in the history of public attitudes to conservation and
rehabilitation. The story starts in 1960, when the City Parochial Foundation, then owners
of that part of the former Clothworkers’ estate,
sold to Ve-Ri-Best Manufacturing Company.
This firm drew up a pilot-rebuilding
proposal, which, to general dismay, would dispossess many tenants unprotected since the 1957 Rent Act. Islington Council intervened with the threat of a CPO on the properties, but eventually,
after negotiation, purchased the whole estate in 1963. A large-scale
Council improvement plan was then proposed to modernise about 200 houses in eight streets: Arlington Avenue, Bevan,
Dame, Packington, Prebend, Rector and St Paul
Streets, and the east side of Union Square.
However, as the Government subsidy
for a redevelopment scheme seemed better from the ratepayers'
point of view, on the advice of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government the Council substituted a £2-million plan
for total rebuilding of the 225-acre site. They commissioned Harry Moncrieff of
Co-operative Planning Ltd -his largest undertaking to date - who produced a
scheme for 540 dwellings in six- Storey flatted blocks
made from precast concrete units, and linked by walkways, with underground parking. The work was planned in two stages, with
temporary re-housing for those first moved out. This scheme, which meant wholesale demolition of
the area, aroused strong public objections. The tenants formed a residents' association,
many organisations registered strong disapproval at the destruction of
potentially reclaimable terraced
Victorian
houses with gardens, and in 1965, when the LCC ended its existence under local government reform, the argument was still
unresolved. The Council decided to count this as a 'deemed refusal', and appealed to the
Labour Minister for Housing and
local
Government, Richard Crossman. A prolonged public enquiry followed. The Packington estate was seen as a splendid opportunity for urban renewal by creating a
modern, attractive, economic complex, and the
inevitable arguments were advanced in its favour: that the old houses had small architectural merit and their
layout none at all, and that
retention
was unsuitable because of poor construction and years of neglect. The houses
were described as shoddy, lacking plumbing and essential services, and sagging
because of weak foundations built directly on London clay. They were, it was claimed, beyond
redemption. Rehabilitation advocates, in
addition to the usual conservation arguments objected
to the extra cost of rebuilding - and pointed out that Islington had pockets of
far worse housing. Supporters of this
view included, besides many residents, the new Civic Trust, London &
Manchester Assurance Co. (former owners of the estate) and local amenity societies, notably the Islington
Society. Islington authorities were accused of making decisions
in private before passing them in Council, and a small group of councillors
rebelled against the line. But already
the Council were beginning to evacuate the Packington houses, if by degrees the area was run down. The case, which drew national publicity, was
further bedevilled by the GLC intention - subsequently abandoned - to build a
three-lane motorway alongside the Regent's Canal by Arlington Avenue, as part
of the contemporary belief that
the traffic
problem could be solved by urban motorways.
The Inspector at the public inquiry, Mr D. I. Pryde, recommended
approval of the rebuilding plan but
the Minister expressed dissatisfaction with the scheme and overriding his decision, reused planning consent,
while leaving it open for t be revised.
This seemed good news for the conservationists. Work started in May 1967, after further
setbacks and met with expected and
unexpected
difficulties: Some 16 months later, however,
88 flats were finished and occupied, 208 more almost ready. The whole estate was
complete by August 1970. The promised amenities included play spaces instead of
individual gardens; traffic- free 'squares', and
the surrounding roads closed to cars; footbridges over Packington Street and access to flats by upper floors; balconies;
central heating systems; fitted equipment for all
flats such as built-in wardrobes. The object had been to 'create' a community atmosphere
(a popular wish- fulfillment dream of
the time), to maintain the local building scale (but in fact the blocks were noticeably higher than surrounding
houses), and to provide parking (but
only half
the residents were provided for). Many
tenants enjoyed their luxurious new facilities. But reception was mixed: some found the play
area too small, the promised football pitches
had been dropped, and the rents, rates and garden charges were more than they could afford.
Councillors 1992 the Council opened a new community centre built
on stilts in Packington B Square, the DOE and
the Safer Cities Project paying the cost of more three million. It contained workshops for local businesses,
meeting rooms and kitchen and a patio above, and
was to provide the much-needed facilities to tenants for recreation and socialising. The top end
of the complex of flatted blocks, abutting on Union Square's comer, is bounded by Rector, Prebend and Packington Streets, the
last being the main vehicle entrance and parking
access. This northern block forms three
sides of an open square round a central
recreational space, and a pedestrian way separates it from the rest. A
notable
decorative feature is the large concrete balls crowning pillars at the main entrance. The remainder of the estate, whose north side forms as
it were a detached side of Packington Square,
continues at right angles to it, in linked blocks or open squares, I as far as the canal, here crossed by the estate's
own pedestrian bridge. Some ranges
have
continuous balconies forming the walkways, under a sloping glass canopy. Whatever its
deficiencies, it was an improvement on tower blocks.
Parr Street
Penn Street.
St.Saviour’s Church - damage- damage, fantastic detail.
Poole Street.
Northern line station closed 1913.
Yuppie housing complex is centered on the Power station of
the Great Northern and City Railway for its extension from Finsbury Park to
Moorgate- four-rail system. Gaunt and towering
former built 1901, probably by Sir Douglas Fox & Partners. A steel frame clad in plain brickwork,
formerly with a dominant chimney. Was
closed in 1914 and converted to film studios in 1919. Early Hitchcock films produced by Gainsborough Pictures were among its productions. This closed in 1914 and became the Islington Film Studio. Hitchcock
and Bala pictures made there. There was a decorative feature – Gainsborough
Pictures - over the door in Poole Street. 1919. Hitchcock etc. Will Hay etc.
Later converted to a distillery and then a carpet warehouse. Became L. Kelaty Ltd. Oriental Carpets,
bonded Warehouse... Beyond it is a
large building with no windows in its right-hand side wall, advertising L
Kelaty Ltd., Oriental Carpets Bonded Warehouse.
This used to be the Gainsborough Film Studios. Taken over by a film
company, Famous Players — Lasky British Producers Ltd., and converted into two
studios where Alfred Hitchcock began his film career. In 1924 Michael Balcon founded Gainsborough
Pictures and bought the Islington Studios; it was here that Will Hay made many
of his films, including' "Oh Mr Porter" in 1937, Jessie Matthews made
"Climbing High", and Hitchcock made "Lady Vanishes" with
Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood in 1939 — the film carries the credit
"Made at Islington Studios" though the building has always been in
Hackney. It had two sound stages, one of 92' x 62' on the ground floor and the
other of 100' x 46' above it. During the war it became one of the leading
British Film Studios Gainsborough
Pictures used it and made films includmg "Love story"' Calvert, and "Fanny by Gaslight" and Carol
Reed made "Bank Holiday" and films with James Mason.
Popham Street
Part of Frog Lane Road from London to Highbury.
George Morland drank in the Barley Mow.
Edinburgh, Cornwall & Queens cottages fortress like.
Quinns Buildings L.C.C.
Infill housing by Sherlock for Islington Borough.
High density as an alternative to high-rise. By Andrews, Sherlock & Partners, planned 1968,
built 1970-4, an ingenious example of
the experiments with low-rise high-density development
made at this time as an alternative to high building. 205 dwellings at 135
p.p.a. 70 per cent of them family houses with gardens,
a remarkably high density for nothing over three storeys. Terraces at angles to the road, in closely
set pairs, separated only by a passageway, which is spanned by bridges
containing the kitchens of the flats above.
Secluded back gardens are shut off
from the street by brick walls.
Prebend Street
Called after a medieval estate of the Dean and Chapter of
St.Paul’s.
Part of Frog Lane road from London to Highbury.
St.John’s Church, 1873. Replaced Lambe Chapel
in the City. 24 rooms for pensioners. By
F. W. Porter, architect to the Clothworkers’ Company. It stands in the middle
of their estate and has a small, square tower.
Inside, over the door a figure attached to the sanctuary worker, dated
1612 Stained -figure of William Lambe with roundels, from Lambe’s Chapel. Chapel four Flemish Barraud. Good window by Lovers
Rosemary Street
White Lead Works. Champion, Druce and Co. were there and
there were windmill bases still visible in the 1950s. Later Walker and Ward – one partner was a Mr.
Maltby. Bombed. Most of whose site was now an important white-lead
works their two impressive
windmills visible from Ridley's corner
Rushton Street
Doctors’ surgeries. By Penoyre & Prasad, 1994-5.
Shepherd Market Estate
Displays the
1970s shift to homelier low brown brick
terraces.
Shepherdess Walk
Where the
tide turned, and the side escaped the general clearance.
1-5 an early c19 group
2 The Eagle. Old tea garden and music hall, which in 1825
became the Grecian Theatre for melodrama. Marie Lloyd sang there aged 14 in
1884
9-67, a long
part-stuccoed two-storey terrace of the mid
c19, preserved after a public enquiry in 1976.
Windsor House built to house those removed from slums in
the Minories. 1926. By E. E. Finch, City
Engineer, Planned around a garden
William VI Pub
87-131 A taller early c19 terrace
121 Listed Grade
II Terraced house built 1833.
Holy Trinity. 1848. Simple church. by W. Railton. Simple lancet style church
flanked by parish school and vicarage l868. tower with broach spire; within it
a baptistery made in 1896 by Spencer W. Grant. Tall thin arcades on octagonal
piers, whitened walls; many Anglo-Catholic fittings of the 1930s onwards.
Reredos with gilded relief of Crucifixion by W.E.A. Locked. confessional with
tall Corinthian pilasters, by M. Travers, possibly made up from old woodwork.
Also by Travers, painting over reredos 1942 and roundel above chancel arch. Two
older pieces: pulpit, 1686, from the City church St Mary Somerset, carved with
cherubs' heads and flowers. Part of a font cover from the same source, reused
as a corbel for a statue.
Parish School
Vicarage
Salvation Army Centre demolished in demolished in January
1901. Pub & music hall prints of
it. 1825 ex-Shepherd & Shepherdess
Coronation Gardens.
In 1761 at the London Cricket Club there Frederick, Prince of Wales, was
hit on the head by a ball & died.
1784 balloon ascent.
Lumley almshouses were on the junction with Nile Street in
1657. Six almshouses which were supposed to be built in Bishopsgate but ended
up in Shoreditch in what was then Pest House Field. Demolished 1898
Albert Salon
Blockmakers Arms.
Shepperton Road
Linked pairs of villas, those towards the end with shared
pediment nicely restored.
White Mills Common. Area of lead mills. In
addition, Hon Artillery Co. used it for shooting butts. In 1785, a white lead
works was established on land behind the Rosemary Branch public house by
Walkers, Fishwick & Co in partnership with Thomas Maltby. Two windmills
were erected, in 1786 and 1792, for grinding the white lead. There was also a
vinegar yard where vinegar for the Dutch process was made. By the 1830s the
windmills had been replaced by a 20 horsepower steam engine. In 1839 the works
were sold to Champion, Fishwick & Co who later became Champion, Hankey
& Co then Champion, Druce & Co. and were run by them until closure in
1954. The works were modernised in 1935 with two parallel ranges of white lead
stacks. In the northern range there were 7 stacks, and in the southern range
15. Along the north side of the northern range and along the south side of the
southern range there were tan rides, but what were they? The site today is in a
public park. The lower parts of the north, west and south walls surround a
surfaced games area. To the east is an area of grass and shrubs with the
entrance road from Southgate Road running along the south side, still paved
with setts. The remains of a weighbridge, by David Hart & Co of the North
London Iron Works, can be seen in this road surface. The area to the south of
the walled playing surface has four low grassy humps that may or may not be
associated with the lead works.
Rosemary Branch Pub. Shooting butts, archery. 1783 old
& part of white lead mills. Tourist attraction at the time. There was later
a theatre in the pub which housed and presented new and innovatory work in
non-naturalistic areas of performance and provided a forum for work and
progress.
Linked pairs of villas
Sherborne Street
Villas. Fringe Islington infill of the 1970s provides
some deliberate essays at contrasts; staggered frontages with decisive
projecting eaves and corner windows Borough Architect's Department, 1979-80
Shoreditch Park
Bleak. A post-war creation,
Southgate Road
Features in films 'The
Last Yellow’.
Texrtye House was, until 1939, the Brotherhood Church
which the North London Socialist Club used for the 5th Congress of
the Russian Social Democratic Party
19th terraces
St. Paul Street
80 a single bijou terrace: two storeys and basement with
cornice, segmental door-case
and windows, and window-guards
Union Square
Union
Square, straddling the boundary between the Clothworkers' and Packington estates, was built for Henry Rydon. The builders appear to have been Job Palmer, Edmund Barker and others, or
at least they were first lessees. It was
oddly laid out, effectively consisting only of the two long sides, the other two sides being 'incidental' - the
south belonging to Linton Street and the rest of the
north side being partly filled by the narrow block between Canon and Rector
Streets. In 1946 the London &
Manchester Assurance Company presented the freehold to Islington Council.
In 1966 the square was, unhappily, sliced in two by the Council, despite
vigorous local protests, ruthlessly felling its west side along with neighbouring streets, for rebuilding of the Packington
estate. The
south side, part of un-stuccoed Linton
Street (1850), has segmental window-heads and the simple triangular door-pediments, doll's-house style, of most
of the rest of the estate. The flat fronts and low-rise houses, with the unusually
wide roadways, contribute to the generally spacious
effect throughout the estate.
1
-2 form a
single bijou terrace: two storeys and basement with cornice, segmental door-case and windows, and
window-guards. First houses built
between Rydon and St Paul Streets,
and most of the east side completed by 1852.
1-15
remain
from 1960s demolition
3-15
three
storeys and basements and with rectangular features and ground floors stuccoed
to first-floor level, echoes Arlington Square though
here fewer window-guards remain. Front
doors are distinguished by paired round-headed
panels. The only built ornament is the
bracketed mouldings of the first-floor windows.
Gardens
were
unaffected by the demolition and reinstated by the Council, though for some years threatened with development by
being included in a new school site under the
1950s plan. They had been proposed for
public access as far back as 1908, when the
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association was asked to convert them to a park, the area being then even
poorer than before and still densely
populated.
Wenlock Barn Estate
Balcony-access flats up to seven storeys high, arranged in a loose
grid plan which fails to give the area
a distinctive identity.
Wenlock Basin
British Drug Houses from 1900
Built in 1826 and covers an acre. Wenlock Iron Wharf was
used by British Drug Houses. Also alongside were the wharves of Waterlow and
Sons, printers, and Stafford Allen & Sons, drug company.
North of Curtain Road were factory sawmills for the
furniture trades in the 1888. Esdaile
and Co. pine and hardwood logs for boards
Access to Narrow Boat pub
Wharf Road
In the
hinterland of the canal and its basins, industrial buildings take over.
44-48, early
c20, printing works. It is quite
domestic-looking. The Ground and first
floor are under brick arches;
there is also an internal courtyard.
Pickford Wharf with housing of the 1990 arranged around two
lozenge-shaped squares opening on to
the City Basin. It has interestingly varied heights. It is exploiting the
views over the water. The groups build
up to four- storey tower-like
pavilions along Wharf Road, with asymmetrical -
balconies and cut-away corners on the side towards the basin.
Grand Junction Wharf with housing of the 1990 arranged around two
lozenge-shaped squares opening on to
the City Basin. It has interestingly varied heights. It is exploiting the
views over the water. The groups build
up to four- storey tower-like
pavilions along Wharf Road, with asymmetrical -
balconies and cut-away corners on the side towards the basin.
18 the Gutta Percha Co moved from Stratford in the 1850s
when the Hancock Brothers left the business, - made core for Atlantic cable in
4,500-yd lengths
Bridge over canal. Access point.
Narrow Boat pub with access to the canal
Boundary between Islington and Hackney but only centre
point of the canal
Gate to private moorings in Wenlock basin.
Wilton Square
1812, with
the forging of the New North Road through-route to the City, an awkwardly shaped plot was isolated from the eastern
edge of the Clothworkers' estate. Some 35 years later, when building began on
the estate, the only prospect for his site was for
houses ranged round a central space - not even a square, but a triangle. Wilton
Square bid fair to be the first site completed, when Richard Field, who was a
printer and "a commission agent for bandanas,” signed an agreement to
build in 1846. He did not complete
Wilton Square. In 1851 it was leased to
Edward Rowland and Thomas Evans, who were
Rydon's sub-lessees in St Paul Street and Arlington Square, they built Wilton Square and Street, it was
first occupied in 1853. By the 1960s cars and lorries were using the square as
a short cut via Baring Street to Hackney and in 1971 the entrance from New
North Road was closed to traffic, 1970 the gardens were replanted with a new
layout, retaining the mature plane trees, new shrubs were planted and the
railings were replaced. The shape is
strictly a truncated triangle, with a short fourth side built on the modest
scale of two storeys and basement suited to its restricted width. Its features are a heavy horizontal
cornice, segmental windows, and plain triangular-pedimented doorheads carried on brackets.
10-11
between
them is a pend leading through wooden
doors to a yard.
19-23
bombed
and the space has been left open with trees, a car park, and a large Council building behind. Rebuilt in a dreary, flat 1950s style,
27
loss of a
pediment
30 has an added modern attic.
35-39 loss of cornice
mouldings
40-41 a space was left
between with lean-to
buildings, doubtless workshops, attached and other small buildings dotted about behind. During the Second World War bombed
Baptist
chapel in
the central space known as Salem, removed from Hoxton: it appears to have been preceded by a temporary chapel in
1847, and was rebuilt in 1866. Salem Chapel closed in 1913, and in 1931 the
Clothworkers' Company sold it to the London &
Manchester Insurance Company.
Thenceforward the YMCA used it for some 30 years until 1963, after which
it became derelict and vandalised, and was demolished.
Flats. There was a Welsh Methodist chapel built by
1857 on the junction with Wilton Street. Rebuilt in 1884 to
accommodate a schoolroom below was restored in 1955 to serve as a hostel for
the Catholic St Vincent's Housing Association.
It has now been replaced by a purpose-built block by David Parry (1986),
four storeys plus a recessed attic floor; brick with buttresses supporting a
galleried 3rd floor with yellow metal windows.
Glass canopies over entrance and small balconies. A quite attractive effect, but top-heavy,
geared in scale to New North Road
rather than the low square houses.
Stocks
Lodge incorporating
nos. 27A and 28, a faceless box 1962.
Wiltshire Row
Features in films 'A Place to Go’.
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