Highgate – Mirrors, Mansions & Luxury Cars: My next photographic walk in 1989 was on Sunday 19th November, and began At Highgate Station on the Northern Line, from where long escalators took me up to Archway Road.
The picture is a double self-portrait with me appearing – if dimly – in two of the mirrors in a shop window with the message ‘IF YOU DO NOT SEE WHAT YOU REQUIRE IN THE WINDOW PLEASE ASK INSIDE. My Olympus OM4, held in my right hand (left in the mirrors) covers most of my face.
Mirrors have often featured in photographs and seem endemic in film, and in 1978 John Szakowski staged an exhibition of American photography since 1960 and a book, Mirrors and Windows exploring what he felt was the distinction between photographers whose work largely reflected their own subjective view and others who used photography as a window on the world. It is of course not a dichotomy and we all do both, though perhaps at different positions on the spectrum.
I wandered around a bit up and down Archway Road and can’t remember exactly where this shop was, but not far from the station. Eventually I turned south down Southwood Lane.
Southwood Mansions is an imposing late Victorian mansion block build in 1897 and although its entrance (one of a pair) looked rather down-at-heel in 1989, the large flats here now sell for well over a million pounds. This is a very desirable location, close both to the Underground station and to Highgate village.
Car Showroom, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-42
I went back to Archway Road and wandered a little around the area, taking few pictures. This rather grand car showroom had some rather expensive cars – I was told they are 930 and 964 Porsches and would be worth a fortune now and the first advert that came up on Google lists them at £64,995 to £449,995. I can’t find this showroom now and think it has probably been demolished.
North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-45
These houses are a part of a small estate on North Hill, Bramalea Close and Cross Crescent. They are among those featured on a walk along the street by the Highgate Society which states “Arguably no other road in London, Britain, Europe or, who knows, even the world compares with North Hill in terms of the diversity of its domestic architecture” though it gives rather little information about these. They were built between 1976 and 1982.
BMW, Garage, The Victoria, Pub, 28, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-46
More expensive cars at Highgate dealer Hexagon, founded by Paul Michaels in 1963. The company is still in business but this site has been demolished and replaced by housing.
The pub building is still there but closed in 2017 and planning permission was granted for the site to be developed with extra residential building but retaining the pub. Some think the developers are waiting until the pub is in such a poor condition they will be able to demolish it and develop the entire site. But so far it does not seem to have been treated to the usual fire started by persons unknown.
Houses, 53, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-31
Thes building are not mentioned in the Highgate Society walk on North Hill, though I did photograph some of the others. I found it interesting for the porch and the balcony above at 51 and the 1930s style windows of 53 to the right (since replaced) and the unusual fenestration of 53 and 55, clearly a later addition to 51.
Kingdom Hall, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-35
There is something very odd about these walls and steps that lead up to the door of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 33 North Hill, and it seems perverse in the era of accessible entrances. It was certainly not the straight gate of Matthew 7 verse 14. The The steps from the pavement now seem to have been levelled out and there is now I think step-free access to a lower level of the building.
Sheds, Turnpike Lane, Saris & Shops: You can read the previous post on my walk which began on Sunday 12th November 1989 at Salvation, Statuettes, a Sexy Model, Spendel & More where it starts halfway down the page. It had begun in Walthamstow where I made about a dozen images before catching the tube and returning to Turnpike Lane where I had ended my walk the week before.
On my way to Walthamstow Central I took this picture on Hoe Street on the corner of Gaywood Road where sheds like these were still being sold by Carr Portable Buildings Ltd until around 2008 and a couple of years later by Garden Design Services, though the site gradually became empty and was looking derelict by 2014. Two floors of flats above a ground floor shop built in 2018 now occupy the site.
I liked the horizontal divide with its upper level of sheds and plant containers which seemed to be a new ground level above the lower sheds.
Turnpike Lane Station, Turnpike Lane, Haringey 1989 89-11c-36
On reaching Turnpike Lane I spent some time wandering around the station and bus station area. admiring the 1930s architecture designed by Charles Holden.
The station opened in 1932 and was the first Underground station in Tottenham. Previously the line had ended at Finsbury Park with further extension north having been vetoed by what had become the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). But the LNER lacked the funds to introduce better services on their lines and a campaign by residents of North London together with the Underground in the 1920s eventually led to the extension to Cockfosters being approved by parliament in 1930.
At Turnpike Lane Station the development also included a tram terminus – later used as a bus station and a number of shops. I think it is probably the largest of Holden’s many fine station projects on the line.
One of the many shops in the area around Turnpike Lane station which caught my attention particularly for the stylized ‘hair’ and eyes of the three mannequins iin the shop window. I covered the window glass with my hands and arms to prevent reflections but the chimneys of the street opposite intrude slightly at top centre and there is a strip of light at far right. I quite like the effect.
Shop window, High Rd, Wood Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-34
This was a strange shop display and one which I still cannot quite understand, with at least one ghostly pillar as well as those more obvious ones, with the foreground brightly lit one having a dim but otherwise identical repeat to its left. It’s hard to tell from my image what the goods on display are, some looking like buttons and others like earrings and jewellery. wit at extreme right perhaps some clothing.
Scales SuperMarket, West Green Rd, West Green, Haringey 1989 89-11c-22
A rather more down-market shop on West Green Lane a little to the south in Duckett’s Green – one of the other names considered when Turnpike Lane station was in planning.
I particularly liked the hand=drawn partly 3D lettering of the shop sign. Clearly this shop has been visited by supporters of Newcastle United – probably lost on their way to or from White Hart Lane.
There are still many small shops along West Green Road, but I think this particular one has gone. I didn’t walk far down West Green Road before returning to Turnpike Lane where this short walk ended as I had a meeting to attend.
Salvation, Statuettes, a Sexy Model, Spendel & More: Continuing my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 from Green Lanes where the previous post, Stroud Green to Grand Parade had ended I walked some way down West Green Road before taking my next picture.
Salvation Army, 2, Terront Rd, West Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-16
The Salvation Army building is still there on Terront Road though I think no longer in use by them. I was clearly attracted both by this building and by the car on a trailer to its left, rather dramatically marked with large Xs.
I wondered if this car might be connected with the clearance of the Harringay stadium site, about a kilometre away. Stock car racing and Banger racing were among the events held at Harringay Stadium from the 1950s on. The stadium had opened as Britain’s third greyhound racing stadium in 1927, adding speedway the following year. The stadium finally closed in 1987 and was acquired by Haringey council and some years later demolished for housing and a Sainsbury’s superstore.
It was only the 5th November so the Salvation Army were perhaps getting in rather early with advertising a Christmas Bazaar to be held on 18th Novemeber.
Shop window, West Green Rd, West Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-62
And perhaps this pair of Greek statuettes were the ideal Christmas Gift for someone, though I think it would have to be someone you didn’t like. But as you can tell from the price label they were quite small, and at £2.49 definitely a gift.
I decided not to make a great effort to correct the overall flare which renders their upper regions rather diffuse when making this digital copy from the original negative.
Shop window, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-64
My walk was coming to an end and I walked back towards Turnpike Lane station finding another shop window which caught my interest on Green Lanes. There was something unusually real about this heavily made-up mannequin, wig, pose, and clothing, a sexual energy whose spell was only really broken by the clearly visible joint on her lower left arm and a rather porcelain quality to the highlights. I think this was probably in the window of a shop selling wedding dresses.
I took a number of pictures of this shopfront, which was I think part of the extensive station and bus station development. Most were in colour apart from this and a slightly tighter cropped black and white image. At least one of the colour images – also on Flickr – shows the the entire shopfront dominated at the top by the large word ‘HAIRDRESSER‘. In very small type at the top of the window it states ‘GENTS SALOON’ and scattered on the surface at the base of the windows in front of the shutters are boxes containing tubes of related products including Ingram shaving cream.
The window at left of the entrance contains two rather unhealthy looking pot plans and behind them is a poster for the pantomime Aladdin starring Michael Barrymore and Frank Bruno.
My walk on 5th November ended at Turnpike Lane, where I caught the Piccadilly Line to make my way towards home. But a week later I was back in the same area, returning first to Walthamstow – an easy journey on the Victoria Line before returning to Turnpike Road. I think I had gone back to Walthamstow to retake some colour images, hoping to find better light.
I’d photographed a large angel on my previous walk in the cemetery and this time I took a picture of a rather smaller one, but my main interest was in the shadows cast on a couple of the stones, one of my head and shoulders as I made the picture along with the fence and to the right a clear cross on a rather less clear fence shadow. I think I was probably standing outside the cemetery fence looking in.
The Shandar Take Away Restaurant at 65 on the corner of Queen’s Road and Lansdowne Road had a colourful mural along its Lansdowne Road side, and most of the pictures I took of it were in colour, but I stood a little further away on Queen’s Road to make this picture including a van with an open rear door parked on the pavement in front of a shop on the opposite corner.
Shandar is a name used by a number of Indian restaurants, a Hindi word implying excellence or high quality, which could be translated as ‘Splendid’ or ‘Grand’.
More from my walk on 12th November in a later post.
Stroud Green to Grand Parade: Continuing my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 from where the previous post left me on Stroud Green Road close to Finsbury Park Station.
Boys Entrance, Stroud Green Primary School, Ennis Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-46
The Girls Entrance to Stroud Green Primary is still there on the corner of Perth Road and Woodstock Road, but the BOYS was recently removed from above the gate at the other end of the school site in Ennis Road, where extensive building work was taking place – so perhaps it will return. The two entrances were over a 100 metres apart, an unusually safe distance. There is also a similar gate for INFANTS on Woodstock Road.
I think most of the school dates from 1897, although Google’s AI unhelpfully told me “Stroud Green Primary School was established in 1997” when I asked when it was built. The Grade II listing text for Woodcock Road School begins “Late C19 building of shallow U-shape with projecting gabled wings and slightly projecting 5 bay centrepiece under higher hipped roof crowned by cupola.” The area had fairly recently been developed with housing, some of which had to be demolished to build the school.
I turned left into Woodstock Road and then right into Oxford Road, heading for the Oxford Road Gate to Finsbury Park.
On the right just before the gate is Oxford House. In the 1960s this was the cinematographic film processor Kay Laboratories, later absorbed into MGM (possibly via Rank Xerox). For some years it was a studio and office space and housed a private college. For some years this 1930s Art Deco building was in a poor state but has recently been refurbished as offices and co-working space.
Pipe Bridge, New River, Houses, Endymion Road, Harringay, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-23
I walked through Finsbury Park on what is now part of Section 12 of the Capital Ring a circular walking route around London, first put forward as an idea the following year but only completed in 2005, but turning north onto the New River Path to exit onto Endymion Road where the houses on this picture are.
These south-facing houses on Endymion Road were lit by early afternoon winter sun. The road was the first constructed in the area after Finsbury Park was established and the development was begun by the Metropolitan Board of Works around 1875. The road goes around the northwest and north sides of the park, giving the houses attractive views over it. Development of the area to the north, West Harringay, began shortly after.
Endymion was in one of several Greek myths a handsome shepherd prince who moon goddess Selene fell in love with and persuaded Zeus to make immortal and to put in eternal sleep so she could visit him every night. John Keats wrote a famous extremely long poem in four sections, each around a thousand lines base on the myth and first published in 1818.
But the name more likely came to Harringay from HMS Endymion, “the fastest sailing-ship in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail“, built in 1797 and in active service during the Napoleonic Wars and until the First Opium War around 1850 and only finally broken up in 1868.
Building, Green Lanes area, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-25
I think this building was probably on Warham Road, just a few yards down from Green Lanes, but if so there is no trace of it now. I wonder what it was built for, but there are few clues in the picture – perhaps someone local to the area can tell us in the comments.
Shop Window, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-11
The Grand Parade on the east side of Green Lanes of shops with middle class flats above them was developed by J C Hill and completed in 1899, with its relatively consistent facades interrupted only by an earlier bank, built five years earlier.
I can’t think who the peculiar bedroom suite in the window of this shop might appeal to, but it seemed like something out a a peculiar nightmare to me, but I guess it was someones’ dream.
Tory Scum, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-13
Also and rather more prosaically on Grand Parade on an empty shop front, fly-posting and the carefully stencilled graffiti:
TORY SCUM OFF OUR BACKS WE CAN’T PAY WE WON’T PAY NOPOLLTAX
Car Park, Angel, Works, Off-Sales, Co-op & Carnival Hats: I started my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 at Walthamstow Central Station, and walked west down Selbourne Road.
Car Park, Selbourne Rd, Vernon Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11b-15
This is Sainsbury’s multistory Car Park on the corner of Selbourne Rd and Vernon Rd and there is a very solid looking rectangular box brick building under the curves of the incline up to the parking space, with anther rectangle, the back of the sign and a very small circle of a car tyre at the extreme right.
I think I walked into Walthamstow cemetery to photograph the chapel there which I’ve not digitised but I also photographed several memorials including this one which I think attracted me because of the feathers on the wing and roses.
There is still a Lennox Trading Estate here, and I think the same gates, although the writing on it is smaller and more regular but otherwise everything looks much the same.
Lennox Road is a short street and its southern side has no buildings but simply the fence of Thomas Gamuel Park, which was re-designed in the 1990s. So the consecutive numbering 82-83 made some sense. The area to the west of the trading estate and the park has been comprehensively redeveloped with low rise housing around Lennox Road.
Thomas Gamuel “was a rich London grocer living in Walthamstow who bequeathed six acres of land known then as Honeybone Field and Markhouse Common, to six trustees, so that rent and profits from this land would be paid to the poor of the parish.”
Chelmsford Road runs down the east side of Thomas Gamuel Park and this former off-license on the corner looked as if it had recently closed with a notice on its side ‘SHOP / YARD & GARAGE STORE TO LET NO PREMIUM’.
The sign and the lamp at the corner suggested to me it had once been a pub rather than just an off-licence though the building seemed too small, but I can find no evidence for this. Both these and the shop front have now gone and the property is now residential including a first floor flat.
Former Co-op, Hoe St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11d-42
I walked down Collingwood Road into St Barnabas Road where I photographed the Safford Hall and the church (not digitised) and then made my way north to Queens Road to cross the railway line and get to Hoe Street, where I made this image.
The beehive was a common cooperative symbol and appears several times on this building along with its date, 1915. For many years it was all the London Co-operative Society store but now only a small section at the northern end is a part of the Co-op, Wathamstow Funeralcare. The London Co-operative Society was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Stratford Co-operative Society and the Edmonton Co-operative Society and I think this was built for the Stratford society.
A few yards north along Hoe Street I took a couple of pictures of the business on the corner with Albert Road
I loved the detailing here with a rather glum looking face holding up a column beside the door. Unfortunately I can’t read the first word of the name of the company here from the angle I photographed this or the next frame, just DISTRIBUTORS LTD. But it did seem a slightly unusual trade to be WHOLESALERS OF CARNIVAL HATS & NOVELTIES.
This property is now entirely residential a has a new fence on top of a low wall around it with a small garden area.
House, 62a, Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park, Haringey 1989 89-11d-45
At this point I went to Walthamstow Central Station and took the Victoria Line to Finsbury Park. I can’t now remember why I decided to move to a different area but perhaps I simply thought the park at Finsbury Park would be a pleasant place eat my sandwich lunch. I left the station by the Wells terrace entrance and walked along to Stroud Green Road.
As well as the slightly unusual doorway, it seemed to be almost barricaded by the plants growing in front to the door, but the stairs on the outside suggested an alternative entry.
Chiswick House & Gardens: On Wednesday 1st November 1989 I took the train to Chiswick and walked around the gardens of Chiswick House, making a brief detour to the Thames at Chiswick Mall and then returning to the gardens and then walking back to the station.
Obelisk, Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1989 89-10j-11
It was a place we often took our photography students for a day’s outings early in their one or two year course, a public park where they could wander freely and safely with a brief to take pictures. The park is owned by the London Borough of Hounslow and surrounds the house and the gardens are open every day and free to enter, but English Heritage charge for entry to the house. We never took the students inside.
The obelisk was erected here in 1732, but the classical sculpture on the base is much older, and had been given to Lord Burlington in 1712. It was replaced by a copy in 2006, with the original now inside the house.
Classic Bridge, Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1989 89-10j-14
The gardens changed greatly over the years as Lord Burlington and his friend William Kent who had helped in design the house in a neo-Palladian style – completed in 1729 – put in their ideas. Kent later became largely responsible for the gardens, which are one of the earliest examples of a grand English landscape garden.
But this bridge only arrived after Burlington’s death in 1753, added in 1774 to the designs of James Wyatt for Georgiana Spencer, the wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire who then owned the property. It is over the Bollo Brook which runs through the gardens and was used to fill its lakes and run fountains, but later became too polluted so was culverted under the lake to continue towards the Thames close to Chiswick Bridge.
The house was probably never a comfortable place to live, having been designed primarily as a place to show off the considerable classical purchases Burlington had acquire during his three ‘Grand Tours’ as a young man and to demonstrate his devotion to the architectural ideas of Andrea Palladio which had begun on his tour of the Venice region in 1719.
Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1989 89-11a-53
Development of the gardens continued under the Cavendish family, including the building of a 300ft long conservatory in 1813 for the cultivation of camelias, then incredibly expensive and thought to be tender plants – though they grow quite well in the icy winters of Japan and the Himalayas. A formal garden in an Italian style was built around it. But this formal arrangement of hedges dates from Burlingtons own plans for the garden with vistas and statuary and columns.
Sphinx, Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1989 89-11a-43
The Cavendish family let out the property to various tenants and in 1892 it became a mental hospital for wealthy patients, the Chiswick Asylum until 1929 when it was sold to Middlesex County Council. After war damage the house became run by the Ministry of Works in 1948, latter English Heritage and in 2005 they formed the Chiswick House and Gardens Trust with Hounslow Council to bring management of house and gardens together.
I’d visited the house and gardens at intervals over the years, often with my family, and by 1989 the gardens were in rather better shape having been rather let go a little wild in some earlier years. On Flickr there is a very different picture taken from more or less the same viewpoint in 1978, and you can also find more pictures from a visit with my family in 1984 and with students in 1988.
I think this is another classical relic in at the entrance front of the house.
An urn in a very formal garden area. The next frame on Flickr shows the entire urn. I also made a very similar image in colour.
Urn, Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1989 89-11b-43
During the day there I made over 60 black and white exposures of the house and gardens, but most were rather similar to pictures I had made in earlier years and so I haven’t bothered to digitise them.
Westminster & Waterloo: I’m not sure now why I was in London on Wednesday November 1st 1989, but probably I had been to see an exhibition at the Photographers Gallery during my half-term holiday. I took a slightly longer walk than usual to get back to Waterloo from Soho through Trafalgar Square and then along to Waterloo Bridge and across it to get back to the station.
Trafalgar Square, Westminster, 1989 89-10j-65
Back in 1989 there were still people feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square and I made this rather atmospheric “contro-jour” image – not my usual kind of thing – I generally try to make pictures about substance rather than effect.
Trafalgar Square, Westminster, 1989 89-10j-66
My next frame was a little more like my normal work, though still making use of the backlit water in the fountains.
Royal Society of the Arts, John Adam St, Westminster, 1989 89-10j-56
Adelphi, the district south of Strand was developed by the Adams brothers (Robert and James), and the name is the Greek for brothers. The area here had been the London palace for the Bishop of Durham which had gardens going down the the River Thames and this was demolished for the new buildings. Financially the project was a disaster and they were only saved from bankruptcy by the Adam Buildings Act 1772 which enabled a public lottery to be run to save them.
The headquarters of the Royal Society of the Arts, then the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, was built by the brothers between 1768 and 1772 and is said to be London’s first neoclassical building.
Adelphi Building, Robert St, Savoy Place, Westminster, 1989 89-10j-44
Parts of the area were demolished in the early 1930s for the building of the massive Art Deco New Adelphi Building by Collcutt & Hamp finished in 1938. A speculative office building it has since been occupied by a number of well-known companies. The Grade II listed building with sculptures by Gilbert Ledwood has been internally refurbished since I made this picture. There is a public right of way, Lower Robert Street, beneath the building.
Outpatients, Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women, Waterloo Bridge, Stamford St, Waterloo, Lambeth, 1989 89-10j-35
I took a few more pictures in the area (not online) before making my way across Waterloo Bridge and onto Waterloo Road where I photographed the decoration on the former Outpatients Department of the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women.
This had been set up in the City of London in 1816 and was at the time one of very few hospitals that would treat children, though still only as outpatients. It gained the Royal in its title in 1821 when the Duke of York became a patron and moved to this new larger site three years later in 1824. The hospital was rebuilt to designs by Charles Nicholdson in 1903-5. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and closed in 1976.
In its later years it had a notorious psychiatric ‘Ward 5’ which carried out a number of highly dangerous treatments on its patients which led to deaths and other deleterious effects. On my 1990s map it is a part of King’s College.
St John’s Waterloo, Waterloo Rd, Waterloo, Lambeth, 1989 89-10j-21
This fine building was built in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars when the population of London was expanding rapidly and the Houses of Parliament voted a sum not exceeding a million pounds for the building of new churches to serve areas with large populations “more particularly in the Metropolis and its Vicinity.”
It was one of three churches designed by Francis Octavius Bedford in this project, and they were all built in what was then becoming an unfashionable Greek Revival style, completed in 1824.
St John’s Waterloo, Waterloo Rd, Waterloo, Lambeth, 1989 89-10j-23
The church was badly damaged in the Second World War in 1940, and stood without a roof and with much of the interior destroyed for almost ten years, with services taking place in the crypt. It was restored in 1950 with its interior in a ‘Festival of Britain’ style though some original parts remain, and was rededicated as the Festival of Britain Church. It is Grade II* listed.
I went across the road to Waterloo Station in time to catch my train home.
A Short Walk in Tottenham: My next London walk came on Friday October 27th 1989 when I rushed to jump on a train after finishing a morning of teaching and then took the Victoria Line to Tottenham Hale, arriving around 2pm. I’d managed to arrange my teaching timetable by including an evening class so that I finished on Fridays at noon but this was the last time it would be worth travelling to London to take photographs before the clocks went back to GMT at the weekend.
The Hale, Tottenham Hale, Haringey, 1989 89-10i-42
The first two pictures I made were both of this scene, a strangely blank building with signs on it which informed it it was the home of ‘Garbi Ltd‘ and ‘Short Stories of London‘, both manufacturers of men’s wear. Perhaps ‘Short Stories of London’ might be a good title for a book of my pictures one day.
Despite considerably redevelopment in the area I think this building is still there at No 33, thought with a rebuilt frontage and still in the clothing trade though now wholesale and retail sales, open to the public. It became Soniez House and more recently since around 2011 Morelli with two large ground floor windows and a wide glass door, but retaining the first floor windows in my picture.
I think the traffic flow in this area has altered and there are no longer the traffic signs I made use of – although the tree which it amused me to use with them as a framing device is I think still in place.
Mountford House, Tottenham Green East, Tottenham, Haringey, 1989 89-10i-43
I walked west from The Hale to Tottenham Green East, just off the High Road, opposite the Council Offices. Mountford House, a late 18th or early 19th century Grade II listed pair of houses, was then in use as offices for Haringey Health Authority, but is now private flats on the road at the edge of the small open space.
Mountford House, Tottenham Green East, Tottenham, Haringey, 1989 89-10i-45
This is a later extension to Mountford House and it doesn’t appear to be included in the rather strange listing text which calls this “Pair of houses in north east part of Prince of Wales’s General Hospital grounds.” Whatever its date I think it was nicely done an complements the simpler porch to the northern of the two houses.
Main Entrance, Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham Green East, Tottenham, Haringey, 1989 89-10i-44
And this is that Prince of Wales Hospital, then surrounded by a solid fence over which I could see some broken windows and its Fleur-de-Lys symbol with the motto ‘Ich Dien’ around the crown, the Prince of Wales’s badge and coat of arms. The motto, ‘I serve’, was perhaps more suitable for a hospital than for many of the Princes, who got up to some very odd things.
According to the Lost Hospitals of London, the hospital had started in 1867 as the Evangelical Protestant Deaconesses’ Institution and Training Hospital in a converted cottage and moved into a house on this site in 1861. It got a new building in 1881 and was extended in 1887, becoming Tottenham Hospital in 1899 and after another extension the Prince of Wales General Hospital in 1907. It closed in 1983 and was converted to flats in 1993 as Deaconess Court.
Tottenham High Cross, High Rd, Tottenham, Haringey 1989 89-10i-31
This brick cross erected around 1600 replaced a wooden cross first recorded in 1409. In 1809 the plain brick cross was covered in stucco and the Gothic style ornamentation in my picture. The Grade II listed cross is still present but has been moved a little to fit in with new road layout since I photographed it.
Behind it is the fine Estate Office of George Ellis on the corner of Rawlinson Terrace, sadly rather defaced around ten years ago. The terrace itself with its crenellated parapet replaced ‘Turner’s House’ lived in by a vet called Turner with his brother, a farrier in the yard next door. When a horse ridden by a ‘gentleman from Stamford Hill‘ slipped and broke its leg outside the vet set it and the horse’s owner was so impressed he gave the horse to the vet on condition that he did not part with it. And he didn’t, even after its death, when he “fixed the skeleton by means of iron supports, and placed it over the farrier’s shop, where it served the purpose of an advertisement for the veterinary surgeon as well as for the farrier.”
The house was demolished and replaced by Rawlinson Terrace in 1881, named after Emma Rawlinson, the wife of the builder James Stringfellow. The horse’s skeleton was then for some years displayed on top of an undertakers on the opposite side of the road.
Ritzy, Venue, High Rd, Tottenham, Haringey 1989 89-10i-22
Built as a roller skating rink designed by architect Ewen S. Barr in 1910, it included an electric theatre, but the roller skating craze slumped quickly and the whole building opened as the Canadian Rink Cinema in 1911. It was converted into a dance hall, the Tottenham Palais, and later when owned by Mecca Dancing Ltd, The Tottenham Royal.
When I took this picture it was the Ritzy, ‘A Perfect Place for a Great Night Out’, but it had a whole string of names including the Mayfair Suite, the Aztec Temple, Club U N, and the Zone before being demolished around 2004.
The Old Well, Philip Lane, High Rd, Tottenham, Haringey 1989 89-10i-24
The Lord of the Manor who lived in Bruce Castle had this well dug in 1791 and it was used by locals until 1883 when it was found to be polluted, which was rather a shame as they had added the current structure over it only seven years earlier. It was restored in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Behind the well the High Cross Infants School, later called Holy Trinity School, dates from 1847, one of the schools linked to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education established to provide a Church of England elementary education for poor children who paid two pence a week (later raised to three) ‘School Pence’ to attend. Condemned in 1924 it survived to be Grade II listed in 1974 and so remains there to this day.
Time was getting on and I walked the short distance down the High Road to Seven Sisters Underground Station to start my journey and get home in time for dinner.
The Wine Press, Caledonian Rd, Lower Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10h-26
The Wine Press sold wine by the case at wholesale prices and its doorway had once been surrounded by 15 labelled barrel ends, but the lower four had been removed by the time I made this picture.
At the top you can just see the bottom of a large 2D representation of a wine bottle and out of picture to the right on the wall was a similar flat picture of a bottle of Anglias Brandy, a brandy from Cyprus. I took a second picture – not yet digitised – showing more of the frontage.
Wine was still very much a drink of the metropolitan middle classes and an establishment such as this very much a sign of the gentrification of Islington and other former working class areas of London.
Designed by architect Frederick E Tasker and, opened in 1937 as Mayfair Cinema, it was briefly renamed The Eagle in 1942 but reverted after a popular outcry. Taken over by Essoldo in 1952, it became Essoldo Caledonian Road until 1965 when it became Essoldo Bingo Club. Later it was Top Rank Bingo and finally Jasmine Bingo, closing in 1996. Demolished in 1998.
Grade II* listed, built as the clock tower of the Caledonian Market in 1855, designed by James Bunstone Bunning, Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of the City of London. The market was built on Copenhagen Fields which had been the meeting point for the crowd of 100,000 who marched from here through London to support the Tolpuddle Martyrs on 21 April 1834. 175 years later I photographed TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady unveiling a plaque on the tower to commemorate this on 25th April 2009.
The ‘Grand Demonstration‘ was I think the first mass demonstration by trade unions and the start of a successful popular campaign that led eventually to the men being released – a pardon was granted in 1835 (but it was 1837 before they arrived back in the UK.) The 2009 march that followed the unveiling was rather smaller, but colourful with some trade union banners including that of the Tolpuddle Branch Dorset County of the National Union of Agricultural Workers.
This remarkable Victorian property on Camden Road appears to have been built as three houses as the three entrances and street numbers suggest, with 350 having a much grander entrance than its two neighbours. 348 appears to be called ‘The Cottage’. Perhaps someone reading this will know more about the history of this building and enlighten us.
The lettering on the front of this house has been changed since I took this photograph, with the addition of the word ‘Collegiate School’ in a central line. There was a Collegiate School at first in Camden St and then at 202 Camden Road before moving to Sandal Rd and Edgware, but so far as I can ascertain with no connection to this building which is now flats.
I think this large semi-detached residence dates from the mid-19th century but again have been unable to find any more about it.
This building has been demolished and replace by ‘The Arcade’ student accommodation with the Big Red bar at ground floor level on Holloway Road.
The lettering at top right appears to have once read CYCLES and was presumably a shop on the corner with Holloway Road. The posters on the wall below it are for an event at the Hackney Empire by the Campaign For Free Speech on Ireland on Tuesday October 17th 1989.
The frontage of Albemarle Mansions stands out above the shops on Holloway Road and was clearly meant to distinguish these mansion flats built in 1898 from the various working class blocks of the same era built by philanthropic companies. Albemarle is a name brought over from France with the Norman Conquest and the title Earl of Albemarle was created several times over the century since then.
My walk on 15th October 1989 more or less came to an end here, and I made only one more picture – not on line – on the short walk to Holloway Road station on the North London Line on my way home.
Samuel Lewis buildings, Samuel Lewis Housing Trust, Liverpool Rd, Islington, 1989 89-10h-63
Samuel Lewis was born in Birmingham in 1837, started work at 13 selling steel pens, then opened a jewellers shop before becoming the most fashionable money-lender of his day. When he died in 1901 he left £2.6 million to his wife, with over £1 million going to charity on her death.
£670,000 of this – equivalent to around £30 million today – went to a charitable trust to provide housing for the poor, and these flats are on the first of eight large estates they built.
This estate was built in 1909-10 for the Samuel Lewis Trust, architects Charles Sampson Joseph, (1872-1948), Charles James Smithem and Ernest Martin Joseph (1877-1960) who worked as Joseph & Smithem until 1916. The two Joseph brothers were sons of Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834-1909) who as well as building many synagogues was the leading designer of social housing as architect for the Guiness Trust and the Four per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company and worked also for the LCC and other London councils and he may also have contributed to the designs for these buildings.
I was amused by the contrast between this street and its namesake palace on the River Thames. This Hampton Court is a short street leading west from Upper Street at Highbury Corner, leading to Swan Yard, which is at the end of the street in my picture.
On the left wall is a sign for J Barrett & Sons, but I can’t make out what their business was at 250 Upper St, now a Starbucks. The posters on the wall at right are for a Socialist Party Public Meeting and I think we have four pictures of Maggie Thatcher; I can’t quite read the text but I’m sure it wasn’t complimentary.
The tall building on the right at the end of the street is now a printers and I think probably was when I made this picture. Those to the right of it have been replaced and I think those on the left considerably refurbished. Those in Swan Yard at the end of the street are still there but have lost their white paint.
Swan Yard, Islington, 1989 89-10h-43
I think Highbury Studios, at 15 Swan Yard and most other workshops on the street have been converted to residential or office use and there is now a new building at the southern end of the street, recently converted into coworking office space with a communal roof terrace overlooking Laycock Green, an urban green open space.
Swan Yard and the southern side of Hampton Court are included in the Upper Street (North) conservation area.
Mallett, Porter & Dowd, North London Engineering Works, 465, Caledonian Rd, Lower Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10h-33
This warehouse and works was built in 1874. Its conversion to student housing for University College London was awarded the Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building of 2013 from Building Design magazine. The red brick building was demolished with its frontage retained a short distance in front of a a new multicoloured building. The judges commented “The original frontage has been retained in a cynical gesture towards preservation. But its failings go deeper,” and said “This is a building that the jury struggled to see as remotely fit for human occupation.” The rooms lack adequate daylight, give little privacy and those behind the facade have no view outside. Islington council had refused planning permission for the treatment of this locally listed building but were overruled.
Those musical among you can sing “We’re Hub-bords Cup-boards, We’re Hub-bords Cup-boards, We’re go-ing to fight, fight, fight – to get your of-fice right” to the tune shown on this shop, Hubbards for Cupboards Tables & Chairs, at Hubbards Corner on Caledonian Rd. 453 Caledonian Rd on the north corner with Market Road is now a large block of flats with a natural food shop at ground level.
Built in an Italianate style in 1870 as a Primitive Methodist Chapel, architects T & W Stone, it became Caledonian Road Methodist church in 1932 and is still in use. It was restored in 1953 and the exterior cleaned in 1980. Grade II listed.
This building, at 18 Market Road opposite the bus stop at Market Road Gardens and the adventure playground was demolished between 2008 and 2012. Peter Darley in The Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society says it was a tripe factory when Czech refugge Otto Fischel bought it in the 1950s and made it Otaco Ltd, plastic injection moulders. His wife, artist Käthe Strenitz was fascinated with industrial London and produced many fine pictures.
You can read more in Jane’s London about J. L. Henson tripe dealer whose name was originally on the panel where E.Zee is in my picture. But the elephants and E. Zee remain unaccounted for, but were perhaps linked in some way with the playground opposite. Though I have a nagging feeling that somewhere in the past I have written more about them.
A private limited company EZEE Ltd, Company number 02564140, was incorporated in 1990, had its registered office for a year in 1992-3 at 14-18 Market Rd. Its business was given as Artistic & literary creation etc. It last filed annual returns in 1991 and was finally dissolved in 2015.
My walk continued and there will be another post shortly.
