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Almshouses, Museum, Hospital & Shops – Highgate 1989

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 Museum, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11f-13 — *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“.

*Southwood Hospital, 70, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-53*

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.

*Southwood Hospital, 70, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-54*

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.

*Shops, 164-198, Archway Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-45*

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.

*Shops, 164-198, Archway Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-33*

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.

Still more from Highate to come in a later post.

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Aged Pilgrims, Sceaux, Houses & Lettsom

I began another walk from Camberwell on Sunday 12th February 1989, starting from a bus stop on Camberwell Road I made my way east towards Sedgemoor Place.

Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims' Friendly Society's Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-23 — *Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society’s Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-23*

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society was established in 1807 by a group of Christians concerned about “the aged and infirm Christian poor”. William Wilberforce, best known as an anti-slavery campaigner, was its Vice-President in the early years. At first it provided life pensions to Protestants over 60 whose income was less than 5s (25p) a year and by 1825 had supported over 800 pensioners with pensions of five or ten guineas a year.

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society were given a site in Camberwell by William Peacock Esq and raised the money to build their first almshouses there, opening in 1837 to house 42 pensioners. The Tudor-style building is Grade II listed. It was sold by the Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society who by then had added an ‘ly’ to there name in 1991 and is now flats.

Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims' Friendly Society's Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-24 — *Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society’s Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-24*

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society were given a site in Camberwell by William Peacock Esq whose donation is recorded above the doorway and raised the money to build their first almshouses there, opening in 1837 to house 42 pensioners. The Tudor-style building is Grade II listed. It was sold by the Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society in 1991 and is now flats.

St Giles' Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-26 — *St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-26*

The picture shows the demolition of former workhouse and the start of the conversion to flats of the Grade II listed circular ward tower fronting onto Havil Street. This was built in 1889-90 for the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary, later St Giles’s Hospital, architect W S Cross. Each fllor contained 24 beds radiating around a central shaft, in which heating and ventilation services were located. I had photographed this building on a walk a few weeks earlier and had gone back to see if work was progressing and I could get a better view.

*Statue, sculpture, Sceaux Gardens Estate, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-12*

Plans for the Sceaux Gardens estate in the mature grounds of the former Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum were approved in 1957 and included two 15 storey tower blocks, Lakanal House and Marie Curie House. The estate was named after Sceaux near Paris which Camberwell had twinned with in 1954. I’ve visited Sceaux a few times and it has a rather better palace and park where festivals are held.

The Lakanal fire in 2009 killed 6 and injured at least 20 more; the recommendations from the enquiry were not implemented but would have prevented the later even more disastrous fire at Grenfell Tower. I think this block is probably Lakanal, but can find no details about the statue – and it certainly isn’t Lakanal.

Joseph Lakanal (1762 – 1845) was a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France and one of the leading administrators of the French Revolution and responsible for educational reforms. He spent some time in the USA and helped to found and became President of what later became Tulane University before returning to France.

*Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-63*

I walked back west along Peckham Road to Camberwell Church St, pausing to take a couple of pictures not online and then this view of houses and a shop on the south side of the street, possibly at 70-72.

*Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-65*

I was on my way to Camberwell Grove to make photographs in the northern part of the street which I had not visited on my earlier walks. Just a few yards down the street I turned around and took this view looking up towards Camberwell Church St. At left is the path to Chamberlain Cottages mentioned in an earlier walk.

*Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-66*

A little further down I found this terrace with two porches on houses in the centre. Like most of the buildings along this part of the street this is Grade II listed, described as ‘Early C19 with some later C19 alterations’.

*Flats, McNeil Rd, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-52*

The flats at left are 125-151 Camberwell Grove and you can see the spire of St Giles Camberwell in the distance. This is the Lettsom Estate, named after John Coakley Lettsom (1744-1815) who lived in Grove House, just beyond the southern end of Camberwell Groce, long demolished. He was Quaker physician and herbalist, who was friends with Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Johnson, Boswell and other leading figures of the day. This land had been a part of Lettsom’s estate.

When the flats were built in the early 1970s their scale was designed to match the nineteenth century housing along this section of Camberwell Grove – although they have four floors rather than the three in most of this. Their brickwork is also of a similar colour but they lack any of the interesting features of the older buildings and are relatively bland.

I made my way through the estate and on to Vestry Gardens where my next post on this walk will begin.

Kew, Brentford, Syon & Isleworth Walk

Part 2 Syon and Isleworth

A public footpath, now also on the Thames Path, leads from Brentford across Syon Park to Isleworth. Its a longish stroll with parkland on one side and at times just a high wall on the other, but does pass several historic buildings, though you would need to pay the entrance fee to the gardens and great conservatory to see most of them well. The estate is still privately owned and permission is needed for any filming and photography within the park.

Entry is free to the garden centre, and we went in to look at some of the buildings inside as well as to use the toilets. They also have a cafe and restaurant but we didn’t stop. Much of the garden centre was once the Riding School.

I wasn’t feeling well as we walked though here – still perhaps suffering from the virus which I’d had a couple of weeks earlier. So I didn’t feel much like taking pictures as we walked though. But I hadn’t found much I thought worth photographing on previous walks through here, expect for the view of Zion House. This is on the flight path into Heathrow, and there is an aircraft in my picture coming in to land there.

In my teens I was a Sea Scout in Isleworth, or rather a Senior Scout, and we theoretically went boating in the Thames here, though I think rather rarely. But this was also another route into Kew Gardens, with Church Ferry going across the names from by the corner of Parke Street and Church St. I also remember coming here to paddle and possibly even swim in the river, though it was pretty polluted back in the 1950s.

Isleworth was also the place where I drank my first pint of beer, which I think cost 1s/5d or around 7p. Not at the London Apprentice, which we thought of as a rather snooty place for the nobs, but at a small pub further down Church Street which had few problems with serving under-age drinkers. It’s no longer there.

We made it into the London Apprentice, sitting outside by the river for a drink, though still feeling ill I stuck to tonic. One of my colleagues found an excellent real ale, which I looked at longingly. It was a very pleasant place with a good atmosphere and friendly bar staff, so we stayed for another, and then thought the menu seemed fine and had a meal.

Finally we made it out of the pub and continued along Church St to the Duke of Northumberland’s River, perviously known as the Isleworth Mill Stream. There were several mills which relied on the stream, including one close to here said in 1845 (by which time there were also a couple of steam engines on site) to be the largest flour mill in England, Kidd’s Mill. This section of the river was built in the late 15th century for Syon Abbey, before the Northumberland’s built their house on the abbey site, and brought water from the River Crane at Whitton to augment a small stream which ran into the Thames at Isleworth.

But the River Crane couldn’t provide a sufficient and reliable supply of water, and in 1530 a new section of the river was dug from Longford to take water from the River Colne. This merges with the Crane close to Baber Bridge on the edge of Feltham, though there are then separate channels across Hounslow Heath and through Crane Park before the eastern section of the river diverges. I played around, paddled and fished in much of this as a boy.

The walkway beside this small river on its last few yards into the Thames was closed, but a nearby alley took us to to the riverside opposite Isleworth Ait. At Swan Street we made a brief detour to admire the Grade II listed Old Blue School built in 1842 and now converted into expensive flats, before returning to the riverside. The tide was low and there was almost no water in places here, and we watched as a man left work at the boatyard and walked across the mud to his works van parked by the river.

We continued through a small park area, once part of the grounds of the Catholic Convent Nazareth House, until the Thames Path we had been following took us out onto Richmond Road. Here we left the Path, turning right onto Richmond Road and then going down Queen’s Terrace to Kings Terrace, walking north to turn down Byfield Road.

Where this turns to the left we stopped to admire the small 1885 Elizabeth Butler almshouses, almost missing behind us the finely decorated May Villas from a similar era before taking the alley to Twickenham Road. Here next to the bus stop where our walk ended was the house with its blue plaque informing us ‘VINCENT VAN GOGH the famous painter lived here in 1876.” The bus came before I had time to make a photograph. It will still be there the next time I’m in Isleworth.

Jews, a Bishop and the Sally Army

Jews, a Bishop and the Sally Army: Continuing my walk in October 1988 around Clapton – the previous pos was Hats, Bags, Passports, Mansions, Biocrin & Hollywood.

Jewish Free School, Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-41-Edit_2400 — *Jewish Free School, Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-41*

The Jewish presence in Hackney dates back to the late 17th century and grew greatly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and by the 1950s it was said to have the largest and densest Jewish population in the country. Many were supporters of the Labour party and local councillors and leaders, and among former Jewish Free School pupils is Labour life peer Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman. Other well-known Jewish people who grew up in Clapton include Helen Shapiro, Harold Pinter, Lord Levy and Lord Sugar. Since the 1970s the area has been home to a fast growing ultra orthodox community.

The Clapton Jewish Day School was established next to the synagogue in Lea Bridge Road in 1956, though these splendid gates may be older. The school moved to Cazenove Road in 1973 as the voluntary aided Simon Marks Jewish Primary School and is the only remaining mixed Jewish school in inner London.

Clapton Federation Synagogue, Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-43-Edit_2400 — *Clapton Federation Synagogue, Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-43*

Clapton Federation Synagogue or Sha’are Shomayim (Gates of Heaven) was founded in 1919 by Elias Ephraim Frumkin (1880-1958) whose family were well-known East End wine merchants Frumkin & Co. In 1932 the synagogue moved into this fine Art Deco new building by architect Marcus Kenneth Glass with a polychrome facade and mosaics at 47 Lea Bridge Rd. In 2005 the congregation moved out to hold its services in the Springfield Synagogue on Upper Clapton Road. Attempts to have the building listed unfortunately failed and it was demolished in 2006, replaced by a rather ugly large block of flats.

The Frumkin family had settled in Whitechapel around 1893, and opened a shop the following year selling Kosher wines on the corner of Commercial Road and Cannon Street Road. Elias, the son of the founder developed the Cherry Brandy for which the company became famous. The firm which supplied wine for many weddings and Bar Mitzvahs later opened branches in Edgware and the West End but finally closed in 1997.

Bishop Wood's Almshouses, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-44-Edit_2400 — *Bishop Wood’s Almshouses, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-44*

This is said to be Hackney’s oldest building. These Grade II listed almshouses facing Clapton Pond were opened in 1665 by Dr Thomas Wood, who had been born in Hackney, to provide homes for 10 poor elderly widows over the age of 60 years. In 1671 Wood was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, but he preferred to stay living at home in Hackney and was eventually suspended as Bishop in 1684.

A very small chapel, with just 10 seats for the widows was added in 1845, and the almhouses refurbished in 1888, then in 1930 converted by the trustees into five self-contained apartments with separate facilities. After being requisitioned in World War II they reopened in 1948, and were further refurbished in 1985. Around 2010 the trustees decided that they were too expensive to maintain and bring up to modern standards and moved the residents to refurbished almshouses nearby in 2013. The buildings were put up for sale.

Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-46-Edit_2400 — *Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-46*

Pond House at 162 Lower Clapton Rd was clearly not in the best of condition when I photographed it in 1988, despite having been Grade II* listed back in 1951. It has this fine semicircular Doric porch and was built in a Greek Revivial style for City stockbroker Benjamin Walsh between 1802 and 1803. Walsh became an MP in 1808 to escape bankruptcy proceedings but had to sell the house in 1809. He was expelled from the Stock Exchange and convicted of felony after defrauding a fellow MP of £22,000 but was pardoned for dubious reasons.

In 1877 it changed from a family house to a Girl’s school which closed in 1904, and it then became a clothing factory. In 1939 it became a social club for volunteers in the Hackney Rifle Regiment, who made several alterations and repairs causing it to be placed on English Heritage’s At Risk register. The social club sold it for development in 2008.

After a two rejected planning applications it was finally redeveloped by One Housing Group with four homes in the main building and it looks in fine condition as pictures on the The Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group web site show.

Former Salvation Army HQ, Congress Hall, Linscott Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 198 88-10b-31-Edit_2400 — *Former Salvation Army HQ, Congress Hall, Linscott Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 198 88-10b-31*

You can still see the shell of the former London Orphan Asylum dating from around 1823 by William Southcote Inman. The orphanage moved to Watford in 1867. In 1882 it became the the Salvation Army’s Congress Hall with a meeting hall built in what had been an open courtyard that could seat 4,700. Until 1929 it also housed the Salvation Army’s training college with accomodation for 150 men and 150 women. Congress Hall closed in 1970 and the building was acquired by Hackney Council, who demolished most of the building in 1976 to build Clapton Girl’s School on the site, leaving only the west portico and its flanking colonnades standing.

Former Salvation Army HQ, Congress Hall, Linscott Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 198 88-10b-34-Edit_2400 — *Former Salvation Army HQ, Congress Hall, Linscott Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 198 88-10b-34*

In 2003 permission was granted for a rear extension and use by The Learning Trust Hackney as the Portico City Learning Centre, with work costing £1.9m supported by a Heritage Lottery Grant which restored the deteriorating structure. You can read a recent detailed heritage statement on the Hackney Council web site.

Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-24-Edit_2400 — *Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-24*

A showroom wall display of spraying equipment somewhere on the Lower Clapton Road, between Linscott Road and Clapton Passage. There seemed to me a certain surreal quality to the display of around seventeen near identical spray guns.

My walk will continue in a later post. You can click on any of the images to go to larger images in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse the album. The images in this post, but not in album, are displayed in the order they were taken on my walk.