St. John's Wood
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Post to the north Primrose Hill
Allitsen Road
F.Allitson was a song writer who lived until 1912 in 20 Queen's Grove, called Henry Street until 1938;
Wall fountain
Howard De Walden Buildings, built as working-class housing in 1904 for the City and Central Dwellings Co.,
Avenue Road
St Stephen's Close. blocks of flats which are of lower elevation than those which face Regent's Park and are similarly surrounded by pleasant grounds. These are approached by their own private carriage drives and cannot fail to command the admiration of the leisurely pedestrian. They are also a special feature of Hampstead, which, like the neighbouring St. John s Wood, is very popular with wealthy Londoners. Approached by a carriage drive and consisting of nearly a hundred one-room flats.
Barrow Hill.
Barrow Hill is the same hill on Primrose Hill - named that in 986 - that was thought to be a barrow - and no barrow - may mean grove - this road was made to go round the hill but was never finished
Reservoir on Primrose Hill 1890. West Middlesex Water Co. covered for 4,750,000 galls. 190' above OD. Two engines of 90-hp. etc. land bought in 1822. Then called Little Primrose Hill. Reservoir built in 1825. There had been a well in Wells Road 1826 engine for the well. But abandoned and reservoir filled from Hammersmith and sent to the district by gravity. 1839 another pump. 1855 another engine put up there and made bigger in 1865. 1855 reservoir covered with brick arches and supported by brick piers. And another engine in 1859. 1886 of new rotary engine and pumping house. Pumping to Kidderpore
Reservoir in Platts Lane Hampstead for Hampstead Garden Suburb
Ring Main Shaft. The new London water ring main passes under this site and crosses the road here, about 45 metres underground. Construction site and access shaft. The ring main connects to these shafts at a depth of 40m
Canal
Macclesfield Bridge. Designed in 1829 by James Morgan, Engineer to
the Regents’ Canal Company and carrying Prince Albert Road over the canal. its
elegant arches are supported on five pairs of cast-iron columns bearing the
word "Coalbrookdale" on the capitals. This bridge has three names; it
was called Macclesfield Bridge after the first Chairman of the Regent's Canal
Company, the Earl of Macclesfield, and it is also known as North Gate Bridge as
it is the only road entrance to the Park on the north side and at one time
there were gates between the bridge and Prince Albert Road. Its third name is
"Blow-up Bridge" following the disaster on 2 October 1874, when a
barge load of gunpowder exploded and demolished it. Tugged by ‘Ready’ on 2nd October 1874, a barge called
‘Tilbury’ exploded as she reached the bridge. Her crew of three were all killed
instantly and it was thought that one of them must have been smoking and may
have knocked out his pipe against the cargo. A Public
outcry stopped the carrying of explosives and put the Grand Junction Canal
Carrying Co. out of business. When the bridge was rebuilt the cast-iron
columns were used again but the two end columns on the towing path side had
grooves worn in them by the ropes used by horses towing barges so they were
erected the other way round. Examination of the end columns will reveal the
grooves on the side away from the canal. These grooves were worn in the first
forty-five years of the life of the bridge. On the bank on the approach to the
bridge on the towing path side will be seen a plane tree which survived the
explosion and still bears the scars. The
significance of
Primrose Hill Bridge, 1864
Boundary stones in towpath for St.Marylebone and St.Pancras parishes
The first bridge in the
park is an unusual structure; it looks very sturdy but there is only a footpath
on top of it. This is the aqueduct which carries the River Tyburn over the
Canal. The Tyburn, now entirely underground, rises on Haverstock Hill and runs
south west to Prince Albert Road, crossing the canal to enter the grounds of
the residence of the American Ambassador.
The Tyburn is in a cast iron pipe in the brick
footbridge
Snowden aviary, 1965, overhanging the path was Burton
Boats cannot tie up on this stretch, Zoo footbridge near the aviary, Landing stage for London Waterbus Co.
Second footbridge linking two sections of the zoo on either side
of the Canal — with a horse ramp in the towing path near it
Further footbridge, dated 1864, marking the end of the zoo.
Beneath it are two metal plates marking the boundary between the City of
Westminster and the London Borough of Camden and above the water is a warning
notice to boaters "DEAD SLOW — SHARP BEND AHEAD", a further
consequence of the decision to route the canal around the northern perimeter of
Regent's Park instead of through it as intended originally
Brick wall and a small
pumping station on the right is
where the canal would have emerged from the park towards Camden
Opposite landing stage 2 upright stones on S MB 1821 St Mary Le Bone and StP 1842 St.Pancras
Another boundary stone on the other side
Chalcot Crescent,
Built in 1880s.
Houses of varied sizes round a tiny double bend; a quite complicated
rhythm of window pediments to the facades at the end. Starts in a straight line from Regent's Park Road, with attractive houses
contemporary with Queen's Terrace: they are graced with nice porches,
reminiscent of enlarged sentry boxes. This part was originally Chalcot Terrace
and the curved part, with slightly different houses, was the original Chalcot Crescent,
built a little later: its houses on the east side have porches of Doric columns
with balconies over. The Directories reveal that the street was generally
residential from the date of building
2 The 1904
Directory has a Baptist minister living here. Presumably he was minister of the chapel in nearby Berkley Road.
3 was occupied 1904 by the West Middlesex Water Works Co. Turncocks, listed as Joseph Selway and George Adams.
37 has a new GLC blue plaque, put up in 1983 to commemorate a Dr. Jose Rizal, who lodged there in 1888. He came to England’ to rescue, from the archives of the British Museum, the lost history of the Filipinos'. His work led to the Philippine Revolution in 1896 and he became a national hero.
42 1884 glass stainer
Charlabert Street
Portland Town road in the 1830s all of the streets were called by male Christian names - all have been changed because of duplication elsewhere - Charles and Albert streets were joined together.
De Walden Rooms, 1898-9, probably by C.I Worley, built as assembly rooms. Restrained seven-bay front yellow brick with a little Queen Anne detail to the redbrick window surrounds.
48a next door is a former school three-bay, three-storey centre with lower wings.
Flats the results of later slum clearance, large and dull
post-war flats by the L.C.C., others by Louis de Soissons and the St Marylebone
Housing Association.
Fine new blocks of workers flats erected by the Marylebone Borough Council
Elsworthy Road
Built after 1895 on the site of the Eton and Middlesex Cricket Ground. Willett development, mostly by Amos F. Faulkner,
St.Paul’s Church of England School. L.C.C
4 Sir Henry Wood Saint-Saens
39 Freud
Guinness Court - Guinness building of 1965.
Fitzroy Road
Dates from 1850s. Broad thoroughfare - a
straight, wide road with most of
its original buildings, dating from 1850-80.
1 was occupied
by Joseph Gandar, the developer who built Lodowick and Lansdowne Terraces. Originally
these houses had very long gardens at the back but the map of 1900 shows the
end of the garden sold to a piano factory, J. Spencer & Co., which reached
into it from the end of Egbert Street. There is an artist's studio clearly
visible on the map in the remaining garden and in the 1904 Directory the
resident is recorded as Willis Ward, artist.
1-3 first houses in the road, long gardens, sold to the piano factory. a pair of very attractive semi-detached villas.
8 Pleasant terrace. n entrance to an extensive back area, which was previously occupied by stables and trade. It does not seem to have been given a name as a definite mews. In the 1874 Directory Scrivener & White, a building firm, used this area. They were the builders for the 1870 showrooms of the Piano Factory. Nowadays, three firms have space in the mews, one a plastering specialist. There are some curious wooden structures in the yard behind, which may have been used originally as racks for timber.
12 H.G.Wells
23 plaque that
says that William Butler Yeats lived here. The famous Irish poet and dramatist
was here for some years as a small boy with his family, before returning to Ireland. Plaque erected 1957. in the 1960s, one of the flats in the house
was the home of Sylvia Plath, poet and
novelist, who committed suicide there.
29 is the
entrance to Fitzroy Yard. Originally a mews and then garages, this is now the
headquarters of Gordon Fraser Cards. The garages are imaginatively converted to
studios, offices and living quarters.
31-49 lane going to Primrose Hill Studios. Another terrace obviously much later in date than the rest of the road, with Gothic embellishments,
38-50. Goad's
Insurance Map of 1900 shows the factory here in some detail and it can be seen where the various processes were
carried on.
39 Jacquetta Hawkes, lived here in the 1950s,
44 Piano works, had also been electric light fitting factory and Camden Council public health. Bold brick former piano factory of Messrs John and James Hopkinson 1867 by J. T. Christopher, five storeys with a big gable. A radical conversion to flats took place in 1975-80 by Peter Clapp and Adrian Pettit of Camden Architect's Department. More recently, this building has been used as a factory for electric light fittings and later by the Camden Public Health Department.
44a, the smaller building on the left, was built as show- rooms in 1870 and the six houses, later
46 From 1889-91, H. G. Wells boarded with his aunt at No. 46, while he was assistant master at Henley House School, Kilburn
50-46 and 42-38,
were built as part o f the original scheme to make use of the valuable
frontage. The architect was J. T. Christopher, who designed the now-demolished
Monico restaurant at Piccadilly
Circus.
54 In 1874 the
home of the Rev. William Galloway, the first Vicar of St Mark's and his
eldest sons, the Rev. Edward Dale
Galloway and William C. Galloway, Solicitor. The father was appointed
Curate-in- Charge of the temporary church in 1849 and finally retired in 1888.
Electricity Sub-Station. In the centre of this end of the road is odd-looking built at the turn of the century. At first glance it resembles nothing as much as an underground public convenience.
Fitzroy Bridge, end of original Gloucester Road, resited at railway expense 1846. Earlier bridge had been widened very weakly and public kept off
Primrose Hill Studios, developed before 1882 by the builder Alfred Healey, quite progressive, with red brick trim, and half-hipped roofs with studio lights Primrose Hill Studios. famous and, originally protected by a gate which was locked at night. The plot containing the terrace and studios had been bought at the 1840 sale by H. W. Burgess, who also bought the Chalcot Square plot, but it was left untouched until the late 1870s, when it was acquired and developed by Alfred Healey, a local builder, who may have been his own architect. Built between 1870 and 1882 in a more up-to-date style than the terrace, the studios are low, cottage-type buildings with artists' skylights, arranged around a rectangular courtyard. Many artistic and musically famous names are associated with this delightful cul-de-sac. A wooden plaque on the wall gives a list of some notable residents. It is prettily done in gold lettering and is headed: 'designed and erected by Alfred Healey 1882.' residents includes Sir Henry Wood, Arthur Rackham and his wife Edyth, who was also an artist, J. W. Waterhouse,
Greenberry Street
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