St Peter’s Church, Black Lion Lane, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-35
St Peter’s Church is at the south-east corner of St Peter’s Square on Black Lion Lane and is now uncomfortably close to the Great West Road, this section built well over a hundred years later in the late 1950s. In 1829 the church would have been surrounded by trees, meadows and market gardens with a pleasant walk to the nearby Thames. Now you need to seach for the subway to get across one of the busiest roads out of London.
The architect was locally born Edward Lapidge, whose father was an assistant to Capability Brown as a landscape gardener at Hampton Court. As well as a wider practice he also built other local churches at Hampton Wick and Putney. The Classical church building is Grade II* listed and William Morris who lived nearby had a hand in redecorating its interior in 1887.
Leaning Woman, Karel Vogel, North Verbena Gardens, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-36
This 1959 concrete sculpture by Karel Vogel, (1897-1961) a Jewish Czech-born artist who fled here from the Nazis in 1938, was Grade II listed in 2016. It was commissioned by the London County Council’s Patronage of the Arts scheme when the Great West Road was being built through St Peter’s churchyard in 1959 “provide visual amenity in compensation for” this major road scheme. The sculpture, cast concrete over a metal framework, took Vogel over a year to complete and was extremely controversial in the local area.
By 2016 the sculpture had seriously deteriorated and Radio Prague reported in 2023 on its planned renovation at a cost of over £50,000. The restored statue now looking in grand shape was unveiled in July 2024.
Metropolitan Water Board, Hammersmith old pumping station, Great West Rd, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-21
This 1909 building (described by some estate agents as Victorian) has now been converted into ‘exclusive’ flats.
Upper Mall, The Dove, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-11
You can see the sign for The Dove pub which has its entrance on the footpath here at 19 Upper Mall. This Grade II listed public house is well worth a visit. It has probably been serving beer since the 1730s and was bought by Chiswick Brewery in 1796. Although a charming enough place its listing probably more reflects its stories and associations rather than any particular architectural merit. Of course as the very detailed The Dove, Hammersmith – a tiny mystery on Zythophile states its popularity has resulted in “most of the “facts” printed about it being demonstrably wrong.”
Also worth a visit is the William MorrisSociety Museum, just behind me as I made this picture in the lower floor of the house he lived in for the last 18 years of his life, renaming it as Kelmscott House. Doubtless he enjoyed the facilities of The Dove (then called The Doves, apparently by an error of the sign-maker) including the marbles game of bumblepuppy.
This pier is on the corner of Furnivall Gardens. Previously this had been mouth of Hammersmith Creek which ran north as far as King Street. The fishermen here were replaced by noxious industries in the nineteenth century, with brewery malthouses to its west and a lead mill on the east. The creek was filled in by Hammersmith council in 1936 and they built a new town hall across it which opened in 1939 – still there facing the Great West Road.
Wartime bombing removed the Phoenix Lead Mills and the Friends Meeting House with its burial ground and the area was opened as a public park, Furnivall Gardens, named for Frederick James Furnivall, one of the founders of the Oxford English Dictionary as well as Working Men’s College and the Hammersmith Rowing Club (now renamed after him) as well as the probable inspiration for ‘Ratty’ in the Wind in the Willows.
The pier here was opened at the same time as Furnival Gardens in 1951 for the Festival of Britain to enable people from the area to board steamers to take them to the Festival. After the end of the Festival there was little use for it. Eventually the PLA sold it to the owner of the Dove pub, and it was extended to provide more moorings.
Conveniently a large plaque on the house tells me this is Prioy Gardens and gives the date of its construction, 1880. The London Borough of Hounslow street sign confirms the street name and tells me it is in Chiswick, true, but more specifically it is in Bedford Park. Yet a third street name can be seen on the wall of the house in case anyone was still in doubt.
This Grade II listed house at 1 Priory Gardens is a part of the Bedford Park Estate, “a pioneering commercial development of some 350 houses and a few public buildings built between 1875 and 1886 by inexperienced developer Jonathan Carr.”
The estate was planned “to create a community of like-minded middle class aesthetes who were defined by modest financial resources and significant artistic aspirations” and was generally regarded soon after as ‘The First Garden Suburb’ and had a great influence on later suburban housing.
The whole estate reflects the Queen Anne Revival style of the period which the listing calls ‘Picturesque‘ and is also known as Domestic Revival. Most of the houses and public buildings on the estate built before 1880 were designed by Richard Norman Shaw, the leading architect of this style, but this was one of the earliest by his protégé E J May who had taken over as Estate Architect. A planning application to demolish the house and develop the site was turned down in 1973 and it is now the headquarters of the Victorian Society.
The Tabard Inn at the right of this row also dates from 1880 and is Grade II* listed, one of the public buildings in the area designed by Richard Norman Shaw. This building was was “a pioneering ‘improved’ pub and represented a rejection of the Gin Palace in favour of a more traditionally inspired and respectable inn” and retains much of its original interior features. The exterior of this group of properties was inspired by the well-known Staples Inn on High Holborn – which some may remember featured on tins of Old Holborn hand rolling tobacco.
To the left of the pub is the managers house, and closer to my camera at left are the Bedford Park Stores. Wikipedia has a long and interesting entry on this group of buildings. The stores later became a showroom for coachbuilder H. J. Mulliner & Co.
The buildings of Bedford Park which had become run-down and many in multi-occupation by the middle of last century were saved from ruin by an influential campaign by the Bedford Park Society and all of Carr’s buildings were listed in 1967. Ealing and Hounslow Councils created conservation areas covering the estate in 1970.
This is I think 15 Priory Avenue, one of 4 houses at the crossroads with Rupert Road, where I could have faced in any direction and photographed a listed house, or walked down either of the roads lined with them. I think this was the most distinctive corner, but it was a rather overwhelming ensemble.
Back on the Bath Road the Wendy Wisbey theatrical agency, address 2 Rupert Road, occupied what had previously been The Phildene Stage School. In 2010 it became part of Orchard House School, now part of Dukes Education.
This was another building designed by Richard Norman Shaw. Unfortunately because of the mass nature of the listing of buildings in this area the listing text is almost devoid of any information.
Another picture of this agency which was also a dance school which shows the fine window at the east of the Bath Road frontage.
Houses, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, 1989, 89-12b-51
Another picture from Bedford Park showing some rather less grand houses. I can no longer recall the exact location – perhaps someone wlll be able to recognise it.
St Michael & All Angels’ Parish Hall, Woodstock Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, ,1989, 89-12b-44
The Parish Hall adjoins the church and is listed together with it. The church by Richard Norman Shaw was built in 1880 as a central element in the new Bedford Park Estate, but the parish hall was a later addition in 1887. The front of the church and the hall face The Avenue but there is a small grassed area in front and the street sign in the photograph is for Woodstock Rd.
The central pillar seems remarkably stout and the decorative ironwork includes two angels above each door.
I left the church and walked down past Turnham Green Station to Chiswick High Road to continue my walk. More later.
Turnham Green – 1989: The second post on my walk which began at Kew Bridge Station on 10th of December 1989. The previous post was Kew Bridge & Gunnersbury 1989.
Empire House, Chiswick High Rd, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989 89-12a-64
It might be thought odd that this tall office building which was built starting in 1959 should have been called Empire House, when the British Empire was almost completely gone, but the Empire from which this tower got its name was the Chiswick Empire, built for theatre owner and manager Oswald Stoll at 414 Chiswick High Road, replacing some shops and a smithy which opened in 2012.
The architect was the leading theatre architect Frank Matcham and it was a grand example of the Edwardian ‘Jacobean’ style. Built to seat 4,000 it featured mainly variety shows, but also more serious theatre and perhaps was in its heyday in the 1940s and early 50s. Wikipedia has a great list of some of those who appeared in its final years “Tommy Cooper, Max Miller, Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Morecambe and Wise, Ken Dodd, Max Wall, Dickie Valentine, the Ray Ellington Quartet, Peter Sellers and Dorothy Squires (1952), Laurel and Hardy on a return visit (1954), Al Martino, Alma Cogan, Terry-Thomas (1955) and Cliff Richard (1959).” Cliff wasn’t quite the man who brought the house down, with the final shows being by Liberace with the theatre being demolished within a month of his stepping away from the piano.
I don’t know who was the architect responsible for Empire House. It has recently been bought and redeveloped into flats and town houses.
This elegant wallpaper factory was designed by C F Voysey and built in 1902. It was the only commercial building designed by the celebrated Arts & Crafts architect and designer and is Grade II* listed.
Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, now just Sanderson, was founded in Islington in 1860 and made fabrics and wallpaper. The company came to Chiswick in 1879 and this building was an extension on the other side of the road to their earlier factory, built in 1893. After a fire in 1928, the company moved to Perivale selling off the Voysey building. They had also built a factory in Uxbridge in 1919 to produce fabrics. Sandersons moved back to into the Voysey building in 2024.
Sandersons had bought the business of Jeffrey & Co who had printed William Morris’s wallpapers and in 1940 when Morris & Co dissolved they also bought the rights to use the Morris name.
Dukes Avenue runs south from Turnham Green towards Chiswick House. Lord Burlington’s grandson was able after the Chiswick enclosures act of 1814 to build the road from his estate to Chiswick High Road. The road is lined with lime trees.
Houses along here seem seldom to be sold, but one went recently for over £3 million. Most appear to be large, solid and Edwardian but of no great interest.
This former Sandersons factory, the “Devonshire works”, was used for light engineering in the 1960s by Evershed & Vignoles of Acton Lane. From 1971 it stood empty until restored by the Cornhill Insurance Co. as the Barley Mow Workspace, for individuals or small firms of designers or craftsmen, the first of whom arrived in 1976.”
After Lord Burlington who built Chiswick House died the property was inherited by the Dukes of Devonshire. I think this works probably dates from 1893.
Afton House, built around 1800 is the only remaining example of the grand houses which were bilt in around 1800 along Chiswick High Road, and it Grade II listed. In the 1850s it was called Falkland House and was a school, but was renamed Afteon House in 1861. From then until 1887 it remained a school but then became a laundry until 1913. Empty and bcoming derelict it was bought in 1919 by Dan Mason of the Chiswick Polish Company (best remembered for their Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish) and given as a club for ex-servicemen.
Linden Gardens, Chiswick High Rd, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-34
Dr Ralph Griffiths who founded the Monthly Review and edited it for 50 years was one of the many “noble, artistic and scholarly residents” of the area in the 18th century and he lived in Linden House where Linden Gardens now is. He was a London bookseller and publisher Ralph Griffiths, with “bookshops at St. Paul’s Churchyard from 1747 until 1753, then at 20 Pater Noster Row until 1759, and finally on the Strand near Catherine Street until 1772 – all under the sign of the Dunciad.”
Griffiths was notably involved in the 1746 publication of Acanius or the Young Adventurer, a fictionalized account of the Young Pretender, and may have been its author. The government attempted unsuccessfully to suppress the book and it remained in print for over 150 years.
Chiswick Fire Station, Chiswick High Rd, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-36
Chiswick Fire Station at 197 Chiswick High Road is an elegant building with a tower and is now a bar and restaurant. It was for sale when I made this picture. Built in 1891 the tower at right was used to hang up fire hoses to dry and also to store the long fire escape ladder. A new fire station was built in 1963 and this became redundant.
War Memorial, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-26
Erected in 1921 ‘In grateful and affectionate memory of the men of Chiswick who fell in the Great War, 1914 – 1918’ this simple obelisk is a rather plain reminder of their sacrifice designed by Edward Willis FSI, Engineer and Architect to the Chiswick Urban District Council. More names were added after the Second World War. There seems to be little reason to justify its Grade II listing
I walked on to Bedford Park. More from there in a later post .
Kew Bridge & Gunnersbury 1989: I didn’t get our for a walk again in 1989 until the 10th of December, probably partly because of the weather with drizzle, mist, fog and some very cold days. But it was just a little warmer and I decided to go out. But at this time in London sunset is before 4pm and so I decided to take pictures fairly close to home so I could make an earlier start. Kew Bridge station is only around a half hour journey from my home.
I made my first picture from the footbridge in the station taking me to the station exit. As you can see the station buildings were in pretty poor condition. The view includes the local landmark water pumping tower and the top of the engine house of Kew Bridge Engines, opened as a remarkable museum in 1975 (now renamed as London Museum of Water & Steam) and the tower blocks further down Green Dragon Lane. Six 23 storey blocks were built here as the Brentford Towers Estate in 1968 to 1972 by the London Borough of Hounslow.
Green Dragon Lane apparently got its name from a 17th century pub but there appears to be no record of where this was, though there are or were around 40 other pubs of that name elsewhere in the country. The name is usually thought either to have come from the Livery Badge worn by servants of the Herbert family, the Earl of Pembroke, which showed a bloody arm being eaten by a dragon or a reference to King Charles II’s Portuguese Catholic queen, Catherine of Braganza whose family badge was the Green Wyvern.
Kew Bridge station gets rather crowded at times now, as Brentford’s new football stadium is next door.
I walked up to Gunnersbury Avenue where on the north-east corner of the Chiswick roundabout was this magnificently derelict former works of Spenklin Ltd. They appear to have made Power-operated work clamping devices and other engineering tools including boosters, clamps, cylinders and hydraulic ram heads. The company name was a contraction of Spencer Franklin. I think the next factory along – demolished by the time I took this – had been Permutit water softeners.
I think this building probably dates from around 1925 when the Brentford Bypass – soon better known as the Great West Road – was opened. The roundabout here came later along with its flyover in 1959.
A closer view of the entrance with its boards showing it had been acquired by Markheath Securities PLC a London property developer, though 49 per cent owned by The Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd. They appear to have been responsible for several developments in the area and to have made Section 106 contributions to Hounslow Council for improvements to nearby Gunnersbury Park.
National Tyres, Gunnersbury Avenue, Gunnersbury, Hounslow, 1989 89-11i-33
My memory – often false – tells me that this was on the west side of Gunnersbury Avenue (the North Circular Road) to Spenklin House and I think is probably from the same era. At least it is clear what the business of the National Tyre Service was and the building has a rather fine squad of Michelin men.
Chiswick Rd, Acton Lane, Chiswick Park Station, Chiswick Park, Houslow, Ealing, 1989 89-11i-36
Quite a long walk along Chiswick High Road took me to Acton Lane where I took this picture on the corner of Chiswick Road. A station was built here in 1879 when the District Railway was extended from Turnham Green to Ealing Broadway, but clearly that in the distance here is from the 1930s.
On the corner we have a rather unremarkable post-war building but with some rather remarkable Christmas decorations. The long shop front is now divided into separate shops.
Chiswick Park Station, Chiswick Park, Ealing, 1989 89-11i-23
A closer view of Chiswick Park Station, one of many characteristic stations by architect Charles Holden for London Underground and built in 1931-2. Holden’s first complete Underground stations were built on the Northern Line southern extension from 1926, but he later designed many more. This station remains almost as it was built and shares its features with many of his others. It was Grade II listed in 1987.
Chiswick Park Station, Chiswick Park, Ealing, 1989 89-11i-1
The interior of the tall drum-shaped ticket hall with a shop, Midas Gold Exchange at right. Useful signs above the exit tell the way to buses and to Acton Green, while the lower advertising panels are all for Underground posters. The Underground were pioneers in various ways in advertising – not least in the tall tower at this and other stations whose main if not only purpose was to carry their branding with the trade-mark roundel and station name.
I think the brick building at left which I think housed the ticket office was perhaps a later addition to the building which otherwise has been altered little.
Gateway, Albert Mansions, Crouch Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11i-61
I walked down Haslemere Road and then turned down Vicarage Path, following this to Crouch Hill.
Albert Mansions, described by various estate agents as “a hidden gem in Crouch Hill” dates from 1903. Although the driveway is clearly marked ‘PRIVATE residents only‘, Vicarage Path goes past the building and emerges at the side of the left gatepost in my photograph. I clearly found this gateway more interesting than the actual mansion building where three and four bedroom leashold flats now sell for approaching a million.
I walked down Crouch Hill and turned west down Ashley Rd. When I reached Highcroft Road I saw an interesting roof a short distance down and walked up to take this picture. Taken from just across the street it rather fails to show clearly the pyramidal cap to the roof, which is more evident in the previous frame (not on-line) taken of the row along this side of the street. But does give a good idea of the architectural detailing, including a fancily written date which I can’t quite read but is perhaps 1897 or 9 and a rather striking head – I wondered who was the model for this intense face. I’m rather suprised that this building does not appear to be locally listed
This locally listed house at 3 Highcroft Road was built in 1875 as the vicarage to St Mary’s Church opposite, and has rather fine porch with a somewhat ecclesiastical look. Like many of the large vicarages provided for Victorian clerics who were expected to have large families and servants I imagine it was sold off some years before I made the picture.
I returned to Ashley Road, walking past St Mary’s church without photographing it. Most of our Anglican churches seem to have been photographed time after time from the Victorian period on, not least because many vicars with time on their hands took up photography as a hobby. I seldom chose to add to the multitude.
There is a line of similar fine houses between Ashley Road and Shaftestbury Road, at 2-20 facing Elthorne Park, but I chose to photograph these because of the wall with its sculptures and irorwork in front of what I think was 6 Hornsey Rise. The wall and ironwork are still there but the figures next to the pavement have long gone. At the right of the picture you can see the Shaftesbury Tavern.
Hornsey Rise was developed from 1848, although it only got the name almost 40 years later replaceing the different names of various short lengths such as this. This picture gives a closer view of one of the two ornamental gates and the house , with the doorway to number 4 at the right of the image.
This pub at 534 is the last building on Hornsey Road, which becomes Hornsey Rise beyond Shaftesbury Rd. According to its local listing it “was built in 1858, by speculative builder Thomas Beall, as the area around it began to be developed. It is a handsome well-preserved building with contrasting brickwork in red and London stock, and pilasters and arches at the upper storey level. “
I choose to photograph not the main pub building but its “1897 addition” on Shaftesbury Rd. However CAMRA states that the pub itself was built “in 1897 with rich wood and glasswork, so typical of the golden age of pub-building.” Looking at the pub exterior I am inclined to believe them and the current building probably replaced or significantly altered Beall’s. As they also state, “The pub was restored in 2014 from a ‘very tired’ state by the small pub chain Remarkable Restaurants Ltd“.
I continued walking down Hornsey Road I photographed this handsome late Victorian building at 471 Hornsey Rd on the corner with Fairbridge Road. Then it was a timber merchant with T C TIMBER on the first floor corner blind window and a rather jaunty-looking painted figure of a town crier in ancient dress looking like a poor piece of advertising clip-art in that above it on the second floor. The shop is now Hornsey Carpets and that figure now looks very washed out and on the first floor is some strange image I make no sense of.
Further down Hornsey Road I went down Hanley Road where I photographed the doorway of the Kokayi Supplementary School. A charity of this name was later registered in 1997 “To advance the education of children and young people particularly children and young people of African and Afro-Caribbean descent by the provision of a supplementary school: By the provision of advice and guidance in matters concerning their education and career development; And by such other charitable ways as the charity through its trustees may from time to time decide.” The charity was removed in 2014 as it had ceased to function.
I was at the end of my walk and made my way to Finsbury Park Station. It was several weeks before I was able to go out and take photographs again.
New River Company, Reservoir, Engine House, Hornsey Lane, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-43
Beyond these large red-brick buildings that line the north side of Hornsey Lane is the grass covered reservoir built by the New River Company and just beyond that across Tile Kiln Lane is their Engine House dating from around 1859. Now called the Pump House the site includes the base of a large chimney for a steam-driven pump. This reservoir and pump and others in the area became necessary as higher areas in Hampstead and Highgate were developed. The locally listed building has more recently been converted to residential use.
Northwood Hall, Flats, Hornsey Lane, 89-11h-35
A few yards further east I crossed the Archway Bridge, where perhaps surprisingly I didn’t take any pictures of the view down the road. I did take three photographs of one of the ornamental lamposts but haven’t digitised any of these. The two at the east end seem rather similar to some of those on the Thames embankment with entwined fish swimming around them. About 5 years ago the fairly low ornamental fence on each side of the bridge has been augmented with a tall metal fence to prevent people jumping to their death on the road below.
Further east of the bridge is Northwood Hall, an art deco block built as “ultra modern labour-saving” luxury flats in 1935 and designed in a cross shape by George Edward Bright who had earlier worked as an assistant to Herbert Baker, Edwin Lutyens and Guy Dawber. The almost 200 flats were set in extensive gardens with “a restaurant for residents, guest rooms and outdoor amenities including a tennis court. Indoors, there were uniformed porters available 24/7 and an optional maids’ service charged at hourly rates. In kitchens, double door cupboards opening onto the corridors were used to provide additional services including rubbish collection, shoe cleaning and delivery of papers, food and even cooked meals.”
Sat on a hill overlooking London the residents on all but its ground floor have extensive views across London ‘on a clear day as far as Crystal Palace‘ and the building is a landmark visible from much of north London.
This sculpture was commission by and paid for by the architect of the LCC’s Ashmount School, H.T. Cadbury-Brown. Built in 1954-6 it was an important early example of an all-glass curtain wall construction. The cockerel now stands on top of the wall outside the Whitehall Park School, built on part of the Ashmount site with the rest being used for housing.
Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-13
Advertising for Nautilus Fitness and Tree Surgery on Crouch End Hill, immediately south of the former Crouch End Station – where the old track is now the Parkland Walk. I wondered what the large letters BSG on the wall stood for but could come up with no sensible solution. I think the picture is looking down Stroud Green Road.
Crescent Café, Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-15
The Crescent Café was in part of the former Crouch End Station buildings. A Cafe continues here – with a name change to Sercem Cafe for a couple of years before going back to being Crescent Cafe again until around 2021-2 and is now Merro. The station probably dates from when the line opened in 1867; the station closed in 1954 but goods traffic along the line continued until 1970.
The Café was closed on the Sunday I took this picture. At right you can see one of the tall brick pillars on top a a curved wall that go beside and across the bridge across the former railway. I’d photographed the cafe and these twelve years earlier but hadn’t put the wall picture online.
Monkridge, Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-16
I turned north up Crouch End Hill and photographed another mansion block, Monkridge, just a few yards further on. This was apparently built between 1912 and 1935 with around 40 flats and a lower building. The two blocks are very similar in design with this being slightly large actually on Crouch End Hill and the other behind on Haslemere Road.
St Augustine of Canterbury, Church, Archway Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-46
This large Anglican church on Archway Road is immediately to the south of the fine parade of shops which ended the previous post. It always looks to me more like a Catholic Church than an Anglican one, probably because of the sculptural decoration on and above its doorway, and my impression seems to be correct.
The church is a product of three leading members of the Art Workers Guild, a body founded in 1994 promoting the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. It was begun in 1888 by John Dando Sedding (1838 – 1891), one of the Guild’s founders in 1886-7 its second master and the west front shown here was completed in 1916 by his chief assistant Henry Wilson (1864–1934) with the Calvary added then by J Harold Gibbons (1878 – 1957.)
The church describes itself as a “friendly Anglo Catholic parish church” and has recently “due to theological convictions regarding the catholicity and sacramental integrity” of its mission asked to be removed from the care of Dame Sarah Mullally the Bishop of London and has been transferred to the See of Fulham which has a male Bishop.
Houses, Cholmeley Park area, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-21
I walked up Archway, and photographed the Winchester Tavern (not on line) at 206 before turning west down Cholmeley Park where I think I took this picture of a 1930s suburban house with a circular window beside the door and a rounded bay with Crittal windows. I think I felt it was a rather typical building rather than anything exceptional, something I tried to include in my project.
Flats, 55, Cholmeley Park, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-23
But these flats are clearly unusual, and the facade here was the entrance to the building set up here by the Santa Claus Society in 1890 or 1900 (sources differ) to provide 20 long-term convalescent beds for children with hip and spinal diseases.
The hospital became part of the NHS and was closed in 1954. It was converted by the London County Council in 1954 to provide hostel accommodation for 31 men suffering from tuberculosis who had “reached their maximum degree of improvement under hospital treatment but who cannot be discharged because they are homeless.”
Pineapple, Waterlow Park, Highgate, Camden, 1989 89-11h-65
Waterlow Park on a hillside below Highgate Village is one of London’s finest parks and when in the area I’ve often had a short rest in it, finding a suitable spot to eat my sandwiches.
This fine example of a pineapple is beside some steps in the park and I think is one of those produced by Eleanor Coade, who ran Coade’s Artificial Stone Manufactory, Coade and Sealy, and Coade in Lambeth, London, from 1769 until her death in 1821.This hard-wearing architectural material is virtually weatherproof. Coade Stone was produced by a secret process involving double firing of stoneware which died with her final business partner in 1833. It has been revived in recent years by Coade, a company “born due a lack of skilled craftsman capable of restoring the original Coade stone sculpture.”
Pineapples were a common architectural decoration in Georgian and Victorian times, symbolising wealth and fine taste.
I came out of Waterlow Park and crossed Highgate Hill to Highgate Presbyterian Church on the corner between Cromwell Avenue and Hornsey Lane. Designed by Potts, Sulman & Hennings, a fairly short-lived partnership from 1885 to 1891 between Arthur William Hennings, Edward Potts and Sir John Sulman (who left for Australia in 1885) in a Gothic Revival style was completed in 1887. In 1967 it became Highgate United Reformed Church and was converted into flats as Cloisters Court in 1982.
Flats, Hornsey Lane, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-42
This fine terrace is at 57-71 Hornsey lane and I think dates from around 1900, probably the late 1890s, and is joined at its west end to a slightly grander central block at 39 at extreme left of the picture, (where are 41-55?) with Linden Mansions continuing to the west to the former church on the corner of Hornsey Lane.
My walk continued down Hornsey Lane – more in a later post.
Almshouses, Museum, Hospital & Shops – Highgate: More from my walk in Highgate on Sunday 19th November. You can read the previous part at Into Highgate Village.
Wollaston and Pauncefort, Almshouses, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-12
The Wollaston and Pauncefort Almshouses were set up by wealthy City goldsmith Sir John Wollaston who was Lord Mayor of London in 1643 and a among many other positions was a Governor of Highgate School and briefly Lord of the manor of Hornsey. In his last years he had these almshouses built for “six men and women of honest life and conversation‘ from Hornsey and Highgate, and his will in 1658 made the governors of Highgate school trustees of the almshouse.
His endowment provided those living in the almshouses an income of 50 shillings a year and for money for the repair of the premises. The school governors selected the residents and laid down strict rules for them, including attending services in the school chapel.
However by 1722 the building was beyond repair and school governor and treasurer Edward Pauncefort had them rebuilt, doubling the number of residents to 12 and adding a charity school for girls. His endowment and other bequests also gave the residents a rise to £7 a year.
The Grade II listed almshouses were altered internally over the years and finally the year before I made this picture significantly modernised and provided with indoor bathrooms and toilets by merging pairs of the units, reducing the number of residents to the original six. Only one of each pair of doors is now in use.
My picture includes a phantom cyclist, blurred almost to extinction by the slow shutter speed I used.
Highgate School Library, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-13
The Highgate Tabernacle at 20a Southwood Lane was built as a Baptist chapel in 1836, replacing an earlier Presbyterian chapel and was Grade II listed in 1974. In 1976 the chapel was bought by Highgate School and served as their library for almost 30 years. It now houses the archive and museum of the school, open to researchers and occasionally to the public.
Among its holdings are the “Royal Charters of Queen Elizabeth I, authorising our founder Sir Roger Cholmeley to found a school at Highgate, 29 January 1565, 6 April 1565“.
The Limes was built in 1815 and in 1921 was bought for use as an orphanage by the Furniture Trades’ Provident and Benevolent Institution who renamed it Radlett House. In 1940 they moved to larger premises and leased the property to Middlesex County Council who converted it to a small hospital. After becoming a part of the NHS it was renamed Southwood Hospital.
The hospital was still in use though on a reduced scale when I made these two pictures, but a notice beside the main entrance (part visible on my first picture) makes clear it offered no casualty or accident and emergency services. It simply housed a few beds for chronically ill patients needing nursing care.
The hospital closed in 1991 and in 2004 was was converted into a terrace of large private houses.
Archway Road was designed in 1808 as the world’s first bypass to provide a less steep route out of London than Highgate Hill for heavy waggons by building a 900ft long tunnel. Work started in 1810 but unfortunately the tunnel collapsed in 1812 when it was almost finished. Fortunately nobody was killed but it was decided to convert the tunnel into a cutting. This then needed a bridge to carry Hornsey Lane over the new road, and John Nash came up with an elegant brick design with a tall narrow arch for traffic and above that a three arch bridge carrying the road.
But the arch was too narrow as traffic increased and was replaced with the current bridge in 1900. This row of shops begin around 200 metres north of the bridge.
Steps lead up from Archway Road to Winchester Road from where I was able to make this second picture of the long row of shops. The conservation area appraisal describes this as late Victorian and “very distinctive with original balustrades above many of the shops” and notes the “top floor balconies set back under large arches with half timbering” and the “very eye-catching” roofscape though it notes only some of the stone finials have survived. These details are clearer in the previous picture.
Fire Station Cottage, North Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-45
I continued along North Road. Fire Station Cottage dates from 1906 and as the name suggests was built as a fire station. According to British History Online, “A room in North Road, Highgate, was hired in 1882 and a portable fire station was opened in 1887” with a fire engine manned by volunteers. This building was built as a replacement. It had closed as a fire station before World War Two but was reopened for use in the Blitz.
Highgate School, North Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-34
Taken from beside The Old Gate House pub at 1 North Road, a 1930s faux antique timber framed building with only its sign in my picture, I was looking across to Highgate School, founded by Roger Cholmeley in 1565, and formally ‘Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate’. The current school fees for Years 7-13 are £8,830 per term and with VAT at 20% that comes to almost £32,000 a year. The per-student annual cost of public education in the UK in 2023-4 was £7,600.
The Grade II listed chapel was designed by Frederick Pepys Cockerell and built in 1865-6 and has an unusually long description in the official listing text.
Pond Square, Highgate, Camden, 1989 89-11f-35
Pond Square is certainly not a square, but a strangely shaped quadrilateral one side of which is South Grove. I rather liked the atmospheric nature of this image taken into the light which nicely illuminates what must surely be a gas lamp, as well as the many fallen sycamore leaves. The building on the right is 6 Pond Square and the church in the distance is St Michael’s Church, Highgate.
As well as not being a square, Pond Square does not have a pond, but rather more usefully does have public conveniences. There had been two man-made ponds here, the first apparently dug out as a hobby by a local hermit in the fourteenth century. Both were filled in by the local council in 1864 as unsanitary.
Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, South Grove, Highgate, Camden, 1989 89-11f-22
South Grove forms the southern side of Pond Square and the Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution is at Number 11 on its junction with Swains Lane. It was founded in 1839 to enlighten the local population about the new developments in science and industry that were revolutionising the country. It still continues to do so.
It moved to this Grade II listed building in 1840 and remodelled it both then and later in that century. According to the listing it had previously been in use as a school for Jewish boys, and other sources suggest it may have been built on the cellars “of the Swan, Highgate’s first alehouse dating from the fifteenth century“.
The Angel, Pub Sign, Barclays Bank, High St, Highgate, Camden, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-25
There was a brewery and pub on this site at least by 1610, but it was given a new frontage in 1880 and then completely rebuilt in 1928-30. But though I liked the sign I was more impressed by the Barclays Bank and the adjoining building on the opposite of the street.
Barclays closed the bank at 54 High Street in 2020, selling it for £1.8 million and Highgate no longer has a bank. I think these buildings probably date from the late 1890s.
My wandering around Highgate on Sunday 19th November, continued. You can read the first part of it at Highgate – Mirrors, Mansions & Luxury Cars which had ended at the Kingdom Hall on North Hill.
One thing that I seldom resist on a walk is a passage and a little further down North Hill I found Park House Passage. And after photographing the rather fine house beside it (4 North Hill, not digitised) I went down it to The Park, confusingly not a park but a street, with houses only on the north side. I took several more pictures not on line including two of a large block of flats two the south on Hillcrest, perhaps built later on the parkland which had given the street its name. But trees along the road meant they could not be seen as clearly as I would have liked.
But I saw the ash tree in this picture after I turned on to Southwood Lane in front of some modern housing largely hidden behind an old wall. Both house and tree are still there, though of course the tree has grown considerably. Most of the ash leaves had fallen but some were still holding on and contrasted greatly with the evergreen shrub at the bottom of the frame.
A little further down Southwood Lane I turned into Jackson’s Lane, named after Joseph B Jackson, who lived in a house named Hillside, demolished to build the late Victorian Hillside Mansions and the street Hillside Gardens.
Highstone House is the first house down the street on a very narrow section of the road and it is now rather hidden as the wrought iron gate has been replaced by a solid wooden one.
I photographed another house on the opposite side of Jackson’s Lane and then turned around to return to Southwood Lane photographing this house close to the junction at 62 Jackson’s Lane.
Park Walk, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-52
Almost opposite was Park Walk, leading from Southwood Lane to North Road, so I had to go down it. I think the white house on Southwood lane is possibly a detached part of the property on Jackson’s Lane in the previous picture.
Park Walk, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-53
The flats which can be seen through the trees are I think on Hillcrest, and are perhaps Cunningham House or Tedder House. Park Walk took me back to North Hill, opposite the High Point flats.
Highpoint, North Road, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-44
Berthold Lubetkin designed the Grade I listed High Point 1 flats built in 1931 in the International Modern style as housing for the employees of Sigmund Gestetner but they never got to live in them. Also involved as structural engineer was Ove Arup. I think my picture deliberately avoided taking a standard view of them showing them as a modern masterpiece but instead concentrated on what I take to be an architectural joke at the entrance with pilotis and caryatids.
The flats are on one of the highest points in Highgate and the name above the entrance is clearly High Point, but they are usually referred to as Highpoint. This is Highpoint 1 and later in 1938 Lubetkin added the adjoining more luxurious Highpoint 2 in a similar design. He lived in the penthouse on Highpoint 1 until then.
Le Corbusier visited the flats in 1935 and called them “an achievement of the first rank” and many architectural critics consider them among the finest flats built and among Britain’s finest buildings. Of course they have been much photographed and I didn’t on this occasion do more than take a few frames as I walked past – only this one online.
