Battlebridge Basin

Battlebridge, Canalside and Barnsbury continues my walk which began at Kings Cross on Sunday February 11th 1990 with the post Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990.

Battlebridge Basin on the Regent’s Canal was opened at the same time as the Camden Town to Limehouse stretch of the canal in 1820, though the buildings around it took a couple of years longer to complete. In 1815 the landowner William Horsefall contracted with the canal company to allow them to dump the soil extracted from the Islington Tunnel a short distance away on his land, and he used this to form the basin.

It seems odd that you should need earth to form a basin, but it was needed to raise the ground level around it as part of the 480ft by 155ft basin is above the level of the streets around. Horsefall got an Act of Parliament to fill the basin with water from the canal and by 1822 it was surrounded by industrial premises, including timber yards. Among later occupants were W J Plaistowe & Co, jam, marmalade and preserve makers, here until 1926, and at Albert Wharf on the northeast corner were Cooper & Sewell (c1847-1880) and J Mowlem & Co (c1880-1922).

The best-known building on the basin was the warehouse built around 1860 by ice-cream maker Carlo Gatti to store ice brought from Norway, which since 1992 houses the London Canal Museum. In a Key Stage 2 teaching resource on their site is an excellent plan showing the uses of the different areas around the basin in the late 19th century.

Unlike other canal basins in London this was privately owned, known first of all as Horsefall Basin, then Maiden Lane Basin before taking its current name – the old name for the Kings Cross area, which had a bridge over the River Fleet. There seems to be no agreement as to which battle this was named after but few beleive the popular legend it was fought by Boudicea. In 1978 a group of boat owners came together so set up moorings here which over the years since have developed into a substantial marina.

*Mercantile House, All Saints St, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-14*

My previous post on this walk showed an overall picture of Mercantile House and gave a little of its history. In 1990 the whole site was undergoing redevelopment as you can see in pictures below. Mercantile House was retained.

*All Saints St, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-13*

I photographed Bartlett Ltd, Export Packers in 1979 from the canal towpath and wrote a little about Battlebridge Basin and Bartlett’s works then and wrote:

Although many of the canal-side buildings in the area have been replaced, a warehouse on the basin of Bartlett Export Packers survives in greatly altered form as Albert Dock. The works buildings in this picture, at the end of New Wharf Road, have been replaced by those of Ice Wharf, three blocks with 94 apartments in a highly regulated private development with 24 hour concierge service and a private, gated underground parking space where a 2 bed flat overlooking the canal could be yours for only £1,195,000.

Demolition of the buildings on All Saints Street whichg meets New Wharf Road at its west end provided me this view of part of Bartletts from here.

Regent's Canal, View West, from, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 90-2c-64 — *Regent’s Canal, View West, from, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 90-2c-64*

From Thornhill Bridge on the Caledonian Road over the canal I could see the cleared development site and, in the distance St Pancras Hotel, the Post Office Tower and other buildings. At the left are the back of buildings on Caledonian Rd.

Regent's Canal, View West, from, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-65 — *Regent’s Canal, View West, from, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-65*

A second view west from Thornhill Bridge includes Bartlett’s water tank and canalside buildings.

*Thornhill Crescent, Barnsbury, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-52*

I walked on north up Caledonian Road to Thornhill Crescent at the northern end of Thornhill Square, once of the well-known Barnsbury Squares, though it certainly is not square – together they are more of an oval, narrowing towards the southern end. Wikipedia calls it “an unusual large ovoid ellipse“.

Much of the land around here was owned by the Thornhill family who had come from Yorkshire and let to dairy farmers. George Thornhill began Thornhill Square in 1847, and Samuel Pocock, one of those rich farmers began Thronhill Crescent around 1849.

Lived in at first by prosperous middle class households, the area became run-down by the middle of the last century with many properties in multiple occupation and high levels of street crime. But Islington became fashionable in the 1960 and 70s and gentrification led many of those living to purchase the freeholds and the area went upmarket. Some flats now sell for over a million pounds and entire houses over two million.

More from Barnsbury in the next post in this series.

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My posts about my walk around King’s Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society on Saturday 8th April 1989 continues. The previous post was Albion Yard and Balfe Street, 1989.

Kings Cross Station, gasholders, Culross Buildings, York Way, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4e-15 — *Kings Cross Station, gasholders, Culross Buildings, York Way, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4e-15*

We returned to York Way, where I made this picture looking across some of the platforms of Kings Cross Station towards the gasholders. York Way is one of the ancient streets of the area, recorded as Mayde Lane in 1476, later Maiden Lane, and its bridge over the Regent’s Canal is still the Maiden Lane Bridge, though the street became York Rd in the later 219th century.

I wasn’t around when its name was changed yet again to the current York Way in 1938, but for my walks I often made use of large-scale OS maps from previous eras, which provided more information than the street maps or current OS maps. So I sometimes confuse myself and others by still calling it York Rd.

The gasholders have been moved and Culross Buildings and Culross Hall in Battlebridge Rd were demolished around 2004 for the comprehensive redevelopment of the area, so this great piece of urban landscape is no more. The flats built in 1891-2 were home to 150 people.

*Battlebridge Basin, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-64*

This basin on the Regent’s Canal was made at the same time as this part of the canal was dug in 1820, and some of the buildings around it date from 1822. Originally named for its owner as Horsfall Basin it was later known as Maiden Lane Basin, but later took the original name of the Kings Cross area. The area here had been marshy, and Horsfall contracted to take the spoil from the canal’s Islington tunnel to build up the land around with the basin being used used to bring the spoil.

The area once had a bridge over the River Fleet – underground here since 1825. The river used to run along the west side of Pancras Road. According to legend this is where the the rebel British Celtic Iceni queen Boudicca led an army and defeated the the Romans in AD 60/61, rampaging through much of the south east of England burning towns and settlements though soon after her forces were decisively defeated at Fenny Stratford, near to Milton Keynes.

By the 1970s the basin was unused and many of the industrial buildings around it derelict. In 1978 a group of boat owners formed the non-profit organisation the London Narrow Boat Association and negotiated with on of the factory owners to allow them to moor here.

Both the larger buildings at the right of this picture have since been converted to flats, the taller block as Albert Dock. New buildings including the Guardian newspaper and Kings Place concert hall have replaced some of the old industrial buildings. The former ice warehouse, built around 1860 by ice cream maker Carlo Gatti to store ice from Norway brought here by ship and then canal is now the London Canal Museum.

*Midlands Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-53*

King’s Cross opened as the southern terminus of the Great Northern Railway’s East Coast mainline in 1852, and Midland Railway services from Leicester began to run here in 1858.

Goods traffic was an important aspect of the railway, bringing coal, grain, fish and other goods into London, and a huge area to the north of the station became railway goods yards. It made more for the railways than passenger traffic.

At the time of this walk, proposals for the development of this huge site were being put forward by the London Regeneration Consortium. These were later dropped as plans for the development of the High Speed Rail link changed considerably, and much of the railway lands were used in connection with the construction of this.

After the new Eurostar line into St Pancras International opened in 2007, work began on the redevelopment of the area most of which has now completely changed. Some of the major buildings have been retained and repurposed.

Midland Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4m-15 — *Midland Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4m-15*

The Midland Goods Shed was initially built in 1850 as a temporary passenger station while the main King’s Cross station was being constructed. The canopy here was I think a later addition from 1888.

This was in use for many years for handling potatoes and the area to the east was the potato market. In 1989 it was in use for magazine and newspaper distribution.

These listed buildings have been converted into a Waitrose store and cookery school and have retained some of the orginal features.

*Goods Offices, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-54*

These were I think the offices on the front of the Midland Goods Shed and are now looking rather tidier than in 1989

*Fish & Coal Offices, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-56*

This group of buildings are on the edge of the Regent’s Canal, and tower above it when you walk along the towpath below. They are now in much better condition and a part of the Coal Drops Yard reformation of the area.

Built from 1851 to 1862, although these are unlisted they were scheduled to be retained and refurbished in the development proposals.

*The Granary, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-41*

The most impressive of the buildings on the goods yard site, the Grade II listed Granary was purpose-built to designs by Lewis Cubitt to store grain and flour in 1852 as a part of the original plans for the station. It was built to store around 5,000 tons of grain and had hydraulic lifts for the sacks of grain. The granary also used to have two short canals from the Regent’s canal to its basement as well as an open dock.

*The Granary, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-55*

The Granary is now home to Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London.

Our exploration of the Goods Yard will continue in a later post.

The first post on this walk was Kings Cross, St George’s Gardens & More.

Tag: Battlebridge Basin

Battlebridge, Canalside and Barnsbury – 1990

Gasholders, Flats and the Goods Yard – Kings Cross 1989