Camden | >Re-PHOTO

Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks – 1990

Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was More Kentish Town – 1990.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-61*

When the London Borough of Camden was formed in 1965 its architects department was set up headed by Sydney Cook and included many of the leading architects of the day, working for a council that was determined to build better homes for those living in the borough. Over the next 15 or so years they produced a huge number of well-designed and architecturally significant buildings until government cuts brought an end to what has been described as “their golden age of social housing.”

As well as large estates such as Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road, there were also a number of smaller sites such as Elsfield, designed by Bill Forest and built in 1966-70. Most of Camden’s schemes were built “in-house” which had the advantage of better quality work than many private contractors but sometimes led to lengthy delays and cost overruns.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-36*

Later in the day I walked back past these flats and made another picture which shows the whole frontage on Highgate Road with its stepped back profile and prominent painted railings. The wall in front gives ground-floor residents privacy.

*Linton House, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-62*

Once Carkers Lane was just “a footpath across fields and watercress beds and a farm belonging to Mr Corker“. Much of those fields became tracks and engine sheds for the Midland Railway, leaving just a short section of the path to become Carkers Lane.

In 1881 Thomas William Read and John Walter Read bought land here and began bottling spirits and beer; by 1906 they were “the largest buyer and bottler of Bass Ale in the world.” The ‘Dog’s Head Bottling’ adopted its famous Bull Dog trademark as its Company Logo. All this bottled beer was for export, mainly to “Australia, New Zealand, France, the West Indies and South Africa.” The company amalgamated with Kings Cross brewers Robert Porter in 1938 as Export Bottlers Ltd.

The building at the left of my picture on the corner of Highgate Road, then called Linton House (with parking for Norman Linton Only) was built around 1900 as a factory for furniture makers Maple & Co, suppliers of furniture to the royal family, palaces and expensive hotels worldwide as well as selling to the wealthy public through their Tottenham Court Road shop and in Paris and elsewhere. After they moved it it became home to a number of smaller companies, mainly as offices. Developers The Linton Group acquired it and converted it into 50 luxury flats and seven penthouses they lanched on the market in 2016 as Maple House.

Wallpaper manufacturer Shand Kydd moved to the site in 1906 to mass produce their wallpapers and around 1920 Sanderson’s wallpaper joined them. Both had moved out by around 1960.

The estate also became home in 1973 to the International Oriental Carpet Centre, formed by Oriental rug dealers who had previously been in the Cutler Street warehouse complex owned by Port of London Authority but were given notice to quit when the PLA decided to sell this for redevelopment. The IOCC lease expired in 1994 and most of the dealers left.

Carkers Lane is now home to Highgate Studios, a huge largely office development and the Highgate Business Centre.

*Factory, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-33*

Again as I walked back past Carkers Lane later in the day I made another picture

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-66*

Little Green Street is a short street between Highgate Road and College Lane which takes you back to the 1780s. The ten Georgian houses here were seen even in the 1890s as “old-fashioned cottages” by Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London. The street provided the background for The Kinks dressed as old-fashioned undertakers carrying a coffin in the 1966 official music video for Dead End Street, one of the earliest music videos.

The wooden post at left has gone and the cobbled area at its left is now a walled garden for the house on the corner of the street.

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-53*

These Grade II listed cottages were in something of a dead end street, leading only to College Lane, on the other side of which was the Staff Hotel for the London Midland and Scottish Railway until this was replaced by Camden Council’s Ingestre Road Estate, designed by John Green for Camden Architects’ Department and built in 1967–71, a small part of which you can see at the left edge of this picture.

*Tyre swing, Highgate Rd, Dartmouth Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-55*

At the end of Little Green Street I think I turned left and walked along under the railway bridge which also features in The Kinks video to Denyer House, a large 1930s London County Council block set back from Highgate Road. The tree is still there but the swing is long gone.

*Wesleyan Place, Gospel Oak, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-45*

Crossing Highgate Road I went down Wesleyan Place. This street was laid out in 1810 and was the site of a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in a converted farm building from Richard Mortimer’s farm here. The Methodists moved out in 1864 to a new chapel in Bassett Street.

This early/mid nineteenth century terrace of four houses was Grade II listed in 1974. The street leads to Mortimer Terrace.

I’ll write and post the final part of this walk shortly.

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More Kentish Town – 1990

More Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

*Raveley St, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-31*

This substantial house on the corner of Raveley St and Fortess Road is at 112 (and 114) Fortess Road, with a shop on the corner and behind this in Raveley Street a rather grand doorway to the housing (now flats) above, with a rear extension being 1 Raveley Street.

It appeared to have been an antique shop and although it looks as if it had shut down and its name was no longer legible had the rather strange almost circus-like construction and what appeared to be a stained glass panel above the window on the corner, with some of its stock visible inside. All of this is long gone, with the corner being rebuilt with a plainer frontage. For some years it was the Café de la Paix, and then became the Cinnamon Village café.

*Doorway, 10, Lady Somerset Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-34*

A short distance down Lady Somerset Rd, on the west corner with Oakford Road is this doorway up a few step from the street with at left a strangely grinning ghoul-like face rather at odds with the more delicate decoration. The house and the door are still there, with a railing now on top of the concrete beside the steps, but the face has gone.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-24*

I went back to Fortess Road. As I walked I thought again about one of the pictures I had taken in Fortess Grove. Of course I was shooting on film so had no way of actually reviewing the image, but I didn’t feel happy about an image I had taken of a house there with two artificial birds, so I went back to retake it. Unusually I took another four frames until I was satisfied, with that row of white fence posts against the black background creating an optical tension.

Shops, Fortress Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13 — *Shops, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13*

I liked the unusual roof line above these shops at 14-18 Fortess Rd. These were described on the draft local list as a “Terrace of four late 19th century houses with shops at ground floor and a gated carriage entrance at the end” and it mentions the “Unusual architectural approach with the restrained elevations separated by terracotta pilasters, and a tall roof parapet surmounted by two broken pediments located on the party wall line between the pairs“. The “historic shop front” at No 14, now the NW5 Theatre School, is still in place.

*Kentish Town Parish Church, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-14*

At the end of Fortess Road I turned sharp right up Highgate Road to photograph the Grade II listed Kentish Town Parish Church of St John the Baptist at 23 Highgate Road. The Kentish Town Chapel, a small chapel-of-ease dating from 1449, was pulled down to built a new church to the designs of James Wyatt in 1783. That in turn went, though some of its walls were retained when the church was rebuilt and extended by J H Hakewill in 1843-5.

It’s always seemed a little threatening and spiky to me, slightly sinister. Three years after I made this picture the churchby then in poor condition, was declared redundant and stood empty for some months, apart from being used for occasional all-night raves. In 1994 it was bought by the Nigerian-based Christ Apostolic Church UK who continue to worship there.

*Town & Country Club, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-15*

Immediately south of the church in 1990 was the Town & Country Club, now the O2 Forum Kentish Town.

This was built as a cinema, The Kentish Town Forum Theatre, designed by John Stanley Beard & Alfred Douglas Clare and opened at the end of 1934 but months later was taken over by Associated British Cinemas, though it was only in 1963 it took the ABC name. It had a single screen and seating for over 2,000. In 1970 it closed to become a bingo hall, and later it was a ballroom and a concert hall/theatre named the Town & Country Club, This closed in 1993 and it became the Forum Theatre again and later it was yet again renamed as the O2 Forum Kentish Town. The building was Grade II listed a couple of months after I took this picture.

My walk continued – another post shortly.

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Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

Tufnell Park and Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990.

*Flats, Pemberton Gardens, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-64*

This long run of flats – numbered 1-64 is St John’s Park Mansions.

Sir James Pemberton was a goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London in 1611, and was one of the eight freeholders of the Manor of Highbury. The street was developed around 1870 on land owned by the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, a charity set up in 1655 by merchants of the City of London and priests of the Church of England to support clergy who had lost their livings thanks to Oliver Cromwell – and which still (now as the Clergy Support Trust) supports Anglican clergy and they named it after him. The street was renamed Pemberton Gardens in 1895.

These flats were built in 1899-1900 and have nine blocks extending out to the rear to accommodate 32 flats as well as the 32 in those in the buildings on the street.

*House, Cathcart Hill, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-66*

I continued my walk down Junction Road, turning briefly into Cathcart Hill to photograph this house where considerable building work was taking place. The house probably dates from the 1860s and I think is 1 Cathcart Hill. Although the web page for the Cathcart Hill Historical Society is dedicated to the history of numbers 1-16 Cathcart Hill, it has as yet no information about No.1.

Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54 — *Boston Arms, pub, 178 Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54*

This pub designed by Thorpe and Furniss was built in 1899 for Bass & Co Ltd replacing an earlier earlier building, there in 1860, the Boston Arms Tavern on the corner with Dartmouth Park Hill. A few years later it changed its name to simply ‘The Boston’ and this was the name when it was rebuilt, though it is now ‘Boston Arms. It was Grade II listed in 1994 and remains in use.

*Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-56*

Attached to the pub – but not in my pictures – is the Boston Music Room, also Grade II listed. It was built in 1884 with a ground floor 60ft swimming bath and above this an assembly hall. In 1909 the swimming bath was converted into a second assembly hall and used as a cinema, called the Electric Theatre, later the Stanley Theatre. After this closed in 1916 it became the Tufnell Park Palais, used for wrestling and concerts.

It reopened in 1981 as an independent music venue, with the upstairs called The Dome and downstairs The Boston Music Room. Among those appearing there have been Coldplay, Bring Me the Horizon, Blur, Primal Scream, Noel Gallagher,Madness, The White Stripes, U2, Florence & The Machine, and Cradle of Filth.

*Surroundings Ltd, Burghley Rd, Tufnell Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-55*

Opposite the west side of the pub on Dartmouth Hill Road (and so in the London Borough of Camden) is Burghley Road where a few yards down at No 118 I photographed Surroundings Ltd, a company which appears to have disappeared without trace. The building is now residential.

*Montrose Products, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-44*

Turning back to Dartmouth Hill Road I walked the few yards down to the junction and then continued down Fortess Road to photograph Montrose Products at Nokeener House, No. 28-34. This private limited company, L.& M.(MONTROSE PRODUCTS)LIMITED was incorporated in 1954, moved its registered office from here in July 1990 and was finally dissolved in 2024. A mail order company it occupied the first floor while at street level was Everbond Limited, who I can find nothing about. More recently the ground floor was occupied by Major Travel.

This was built as a factory for piano makers T & G Payne who began here in 1891 and it has has some interesting decorative detail. In 2012 permission was granted for its conversion into luxury flats as The Piano Works, retaining most of its external features.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-45*

Fortess Grove is at the north side of the old piano factory and twists here around the side of the Fortess Works, then occupied by L C Bennett (Mechanical Handling) Ltd. Later it became home to vehicle repair shop M. & A. Coachworks but since the end of 2015 has been transformed into “a modern, flexible, and contemporary work environment” called Fortess Grove and some housing.

The street still continues past it more or less as in my photograph, a charming little curved cul-de-sac of early Victorian (or possibly late Georgian?) small houses.

This walk continues in later posts.

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Dancers, Shops, Gym, Laundry, a Lab and Cobblers – 1990

Dancers, Shops, Gym, Laundry, a Lab and Cobblers: The next set of pictures from my walk on February 18th 1990 around Kings Cross & St Pancras. The previous post on this was St Pancras Old Church & More – 1990.

*Dancers, Mural, Stanley Buildings, Stanley Passage, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2f-64*

This was my favourite mural in London on the side of Stanley buildings and one I’d photographed several times since 1985. Unusually it was painted in black and white and it extended across the whole side of the flats from first floor level to the chimneys. You can see an image in colour I made a few months earlier from a similar viewpoint on Flickr.

*Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2f-65*

Nearby on Pancras Road I photographed this rather finely proportioned frontage with some interesting brickwork and decoration at its top. I wish I had made another exposure to show more clearly the two busts at the left of the ground floor.

*Turnhalle, German Gymnasium, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2f-66*

Another image of the Pancras Road frontage of the German Gymnasium in a row of shops including the St Pancras Cafe. All this was lost for the redevelopment of St Pancras International – with the Gymnasium being given a new modern frontage in a style matching the rest of the building.

*Kings Cross Laundry, Caledonia St, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-51*

To the east of Kings Cross the first turning to the right from York Way is Caledonia Street. I’d photographed the laundry with its large intertwined KCL insignia on a walk the previous year. Although there were more recent signs for occupiers including those for Lanitis Fabrics Ltd, and Stella Models and signs calling for Machinists, Overlockers, Pressers, Finishers and Cutters, the building appeared to be no longer in use.

The building is still there, though all of the sings apart from the ‘KCL’ have gone and it is now offices with a gateway leading into the ‘Regent Quarter’ redevelopment.

*New Wharf Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-53*

A little further to the north is Wharfdale Road, another right turning from York Way and from that New Wharf Road goes to the north. These two roads are on the south and east of the ‘new wharf’, Battlebridge Basin on the Regent’s Canal, serving the wharves around its sides.

A large notice on the lefthand buildin, formerly MAMMA ROMA, advertises the development of Battlebridge Basin with 3 buildings with planning consent for offices.

*Ozonol Laboratories, New Wharf Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-54*

The next building on the road was the then derelict Ozonol Laboratories, Manufacturing Chemists. In 1932 the company had patented a product for “disinfecting mouthpieces of telephones, speaking tubes and the like” and similar products mainly under the similar names: “Ozonol”, “Ozlab”, “Oztox” and others were marketed for use in air purifiers and as an ointment for treating sunburn and hemorrhoids and a wide range of other uses. Ozonol ointments are still sold in some countries though probably not containing some of the original components such as lead oxide.

*Shoe Repairs, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-56*

I walked through to Caledonian Road where I photographed through the window of this cobblers shop with its phone, hand-made sign, electric fire and general clutter. It looked then like something out of an earlier age.

It was time to go home, and I walked back to the tube at Kings Cross.

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St Pancras Old Church & More – 1990

St Pancras Old Church & More: More from my wanderings to the north of St Pancras and Kings Cross on February 18th 1990. This walk began with Between Kings Cross & St Pancras – 1990 and continued in Gasholders, Goods Way and Midland Road, 1990.

*The Chenies, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-41*

This 8 storey block was built in a vaguely Art Deco style in the late 1940s as council flats for St Pancras Borough Council, one of two blocks in the Godlington Street Estate. Later it passed to the London Borough of Camden. John Russell, an adviser to Henry VIII was given the title Earl of Bedford in 1551 and the Bedford family later gained other titles including that of Baron Rusell of Chenies. The Bedford estate owns much of Bloomsbury and some other parts of Camden and in the 16th century acquired Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire by marriage.

Pancras Tyres, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-42

The former premises of Pancras Tyres which had moved, though it was now impossible to see where they had moved to, I could still read 56 PEN, but there are a surprising number of streets in London beginning with Pen. The notice obscuring the rest of the address claims that (despite the move) the gates are in constant use, but they were certainly not while I was there.

St Pancras Old Church, St Pancras Old Burial Ground, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-4311-13th Century church enlarged by A D Gough and R L Roumieu in 1847-8century, later restorations and 'Norman' remodelling by A W Blomfield. Still in use. — *St Pancras Old Church, St Pancras Old Burial Ground, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-43*

This Grade II* listed 11-13th Century church was enlarged by A D Gough and R L Roumieu in 1847-8 and later ‘restored’ with Norman remodelling by A W Blomfield, Very little can now be seen of the original Norman building, but there are claims that there are some much older Roman remains in parts of the walls, and that this was a place of worship possibly as long ago as AD 314, A 6th century altar stone was found here.

The church remains in use as “a traditional Anglo-Catholic church that rejects the ordination of women as priests and bishops” and as a music venue.

*The Hardy Tree, St Pancras Old Burial Ground, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-22*

The railway line out of St Pancras Station runs through St Pancras Old Burial Ground and before it could be built in 1865 many of the graves their had to be dug up and moved. Some were piled up in a heap here, with the young Thomas Hardy, then an assistant to architect Arthur Blomfield, delegated to be the overseer for the work. At the centre of the pile of gravestones was an seed or small sapling, which sprouted and grew into the large ash tree whose trunk can just be seen in my picture and which became known and loved as ‘The Hardy Tree’.

Sadly the tree became infected with a fungus in 2014, severely weakening it and on 27th December 2022 it collapsed. A beech sapling was planted in 2024 to replace the original tree.

*Tomb, Sir John Soane, St Pancras Old Burial Ground, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-26*

Sir John Soane (1753 – 1837) was one of Britain’ greatest architects, the son of a bricklayer who rose to became a professor of architecture and was responsible for influential Neo-Classical buildings including the Bank of England and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

He designed this Grade I listed tomb following the death of his wife in 1815 and it was erected here in 1816. His wife, Soane and his son were all buried here. In 1924, Giles Gilbert Scott (son of Sir George Gilbert Scott architect of St Pancras Station and hotel) walked in the burial ground and was inspired by the central part of this tomb for his entry to the comptition to design a telephone box. His winning entry, the K2, produced in 1926 was the iconic telephone box – though it changed a little over the years, developing into the 1935 K6 model.

Gas Holders, Camley St, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-14 — *Gasholders, Camley St, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-14*

I walked back towards the stations, turning down Goods Way where I could not resist taking a few more pictures of the gas holders.

Gas Holders, Camley St, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-15 — *Gasholders, Camley St, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-15*

Gas Holders, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-16 — *Gashholders, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-16*

More pictures from around Kings Cross and Pentonville in a later post.

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Gasholders, Goods Way and Midland Road, 1990

Gasholders, Goods Way and Midland Road: Continuing with pictures from my walk on Sunday 18th February 1990 – the first post on this was Between Kings Cross & St Pancras – 1990.

*Gas Holders, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-16*

I photographed the gasholders here on various occasions and from various places, both in black and white and in colour. The Pancras Gasworks and those at Shoredittch were the first gas works of the Imperial Gas Light Company (later the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Co) were built in 1822 on Battlebridge Road beside the Regent’s Canal. In the 1860s it was still the largest gas works in Britain if not the world, but soon it was eclipsed by others.

Although the gas works closed in 1904 and was dismantled three years later, the gasholders continued in us for gas storage for gas from the company’s vast Beckton gasworks and were only finally decommissioned around 2000 well after town gas had been replaced by natural gas.

*Triplet, Gas Holders, Goods Way, Camley St, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-61*

These three gasholders were originally built in 1879, replacing an earlier triplet from the 1860s designed by engineer John Clark. He had them built as ‘telescopic’ holders with two interlocking sections or ‘lifts’ around the outside of the ‘bell’ which could rise up inside the guide frames to increase the capacity.

*Triplet, Gas Holders, Goods Way, Camley St, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-62*

As the Grade II listing text states this involved “replacing the guide frames in their entirety by the contractors Westwood and Wright under the direction of John Clark. The columns of the new guide frames observed classical rules so that the lowest tier was in the Tuscan order, the middle in the Doric and the topmost in a simplified version of Corinthian.”

The guide frames of these three gasholders were carefully disassembled, painstakingly restored and re-erected around 300 yards away on the other bank of the Regent’s Canal, with two now surrounding the new Gasholder apartments, designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects.

*Midland Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-54*

This section along Midland Rd with the corner of Brill Place at right was demolished to build the Francis Crick Institute.

*Garages, 58, Midland Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-56*

These small industrial workshops were also demolished in the redevelopment of the area for the building of St Pancras International.

*Water Point, St Pancras Station, Goods Way, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2e-01*

This Grade II listed water point is close to the new location of the gasholder frames and also the redeveloped coal drops on the north side of the canal. Built around 1870 for the Midland Railway it was probably designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott’s architects office.

Like the gasholders its original location was in the way of St Pancras International and was moved around 2001 to its new location on Camley St, some 700 yards to the north. When built it was condemned by some architectural critics for being an inappropriate use of Gothic for a functional building, but it well matched the station and hotel.

Together with the Granary building and others in the area according to Historic England it forms “an evocative ensemble of former industrial buildings of considerable urban landscape value.” Having a theme park like this is certainly better than losing these structures completely but it isn’t any real replacement for the original.

More pictures from the walk in a later post.

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Between Kings Cross & St Pancras – 1990

Between Kings Cross & St Pancras: A week after my previous walk which began from Kings Cross I was back there again for another walk on Sunday 18th February 1990, beginning with a few pictures close to the station in Kings Cross and Somers Town. This was an area I’d photographed in earlier years but still interested me. Since 1990 it has of course changed dramatically.

*Cheney Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-34*

Cheney Road is no longer on the map of London although one of the buildings on it remains. It ran north-east from Pancras Road along the side of Kings Cross Station, then turned north-west towards Battlebridge Road and the gasholders you see here. Of course those gasholders are no longer where they were in 1990, but were moved further north and to the opposite side of the Grand Union Canal as a part of the redevelopment of the area including the addition of the Eurostar lines into St Pancras.

This street was a popular film location, best known for its use in The Ladykillers. In the middle distance at left you can see the roof of the German Gymnasium, with its distinctive windows at its top, I think the only building in my picture that remains (at least in part) in situ.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 1990, 90-2d-36*

St Pancras Hotel and stating seen looking south down Pancras Road on a sunny Sunday morning. I think I used the controlled parking zone sign to cut down flare. A taxi is turning into Kings Cross over a short section of cobbles.

The station was completed in 1869 and the Midland Grand Hotel in 1876, though it had its first visitors in 1873. Both were designed by George Gilbert Scott and are Grade I listed. They were built for the Midland Railway whose main lines ran from here to Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham via Derby. The hotel was expensive to maintain and closed in 1935, then becoming used as railway offices by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway.

My first trip to Manchester in 1962 was from here, but soon after in 1967 the central section of the route – one of England’s most scenic – was closed. Now the line ends at Matlock (with a Couple of miles of preserved railway to the north, and we have change at Derby on our journeys to Matlock.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-21*

Looking north up Pancras Road with the arches of the station to the left of the picture and one of the gasholders in the distance. The curved pediment above the door in the middle block at right is the entrance to the German Gymnasium. This end of the Grade II listed building was demolished when St Pancras International was built, and the west end of the building was replaced by modern brickwork in keeping with the other walls of the building.

This was the original west end of the Turnhalle at 26 Pancras Rd.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-22*

Kings Cross Automatic Gearbox Centre at 87-89 Pancras Road, Newport Joinery at 92 and other small businesses along the west side of athe road were all demolished to make room of the new platforms for St Pancras International

*Stairs, Stanley Buildings, Stanley Passage, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-15*

A notice at the left of the stairs of Stanley Buildings flats, says NO to the British Rail bill in Parliament which would see the building of the new international station and the demolition of much of the conservation area. Despite much opposition, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act was passed in 1996.

Stanley Buildings were built in 1865, designed by Matthew Allen for the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company under the guidance of Sydney Waterlow. Grade II listed in 1994, but that has not enough to save them as they were and one block was entirely demolished and the remaining block incorporated into a modern building, losing much of its character. The listing text ends: “Among the earliest blocks built by Waterlow’s influential and prolific IIDC, Stanley Buildings are in addition an important part of a dramatic Victorian industrial landscape.” Their remnant now sits largely hidden in a modern development.

Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990

Kings Cross and Pentonville: Although I took a few pictures in the next few weeks, mainly on my way to or from meetings, it was well into February before I was able to go on another long photographic walk. Of course the weather at that time of year often isn’t too kind and days are short, but winter is the best season for photographing much of London’s buildings, as so much is hidden once trees come into leaf.

*Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-54*

I can’t now recall why I decided to return to the Kings Cross area on Sunday February 11th 1990, though I liked to revisit areas periodically, and the journey to the Victoria line station was an easy one, suitable for short days to give me more hours of usable light.

I left the station by the Pentonville Road entrance and walked back towards the main station, taking a couple of pictures on my way before heading down Grays Inn Road. This picture looking back towards Kings Cross Station includes both the station clock tower – I seem to have arrived shortly before 10am – and the well-known “lighthouse” built simply as advertising for Netten’s Oyster Bar. What seems an incredibly long horizontal pole holds one of the many traffic lights in the area .

*Posters, Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-55*

In the centre of these fly-posted posters is an advert for ‘THE BEST SHOP IN TOWN’, SHE-AN-ME at 123 Hammersmith Road, West Kensington, London W14. It offers ‘UNUSUAL – BONED DRESSES – 6″ HEEL BOOTS – LATEX RUBBER …’ and much more, a fetish shop specialising in PVC, rubberwear and bondage equipment. Although Yelp still has a listing for the business it is long gone; after some years as ‘Simply Pleasure’ it is now ‘Quick Local Store’ selling snacks, cold drinks, tobacco, souvenirs, toiletries and household items.

*Scales, Weights, 319-321, Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-56*

One of London’s more photographed signs, though now a little faded and above a Nail Bar and Computer Centre on this nicely curved building. The Greek Restuarant at 325 is now a fast-food place – and is flanked by two others.

Tattoo Studio, Pentonville Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-43 — *Tattoo Studio, Pentonville Rd, Pentonville, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-43*

I walked back onto Pentonville Road, here the boundary between the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. Modern Jock’s Tattoo Studio on the south side was on the ground floor and Chestnuts Hair Studio for Men and Women through the same door on the first floor, illustrated by arrows for the non-literate. Born around 1920 British tattooing legend Jock Liddel started as a tattoo artist at the age of 16 in Scotland and his famous shop was at 287 Pentonville Road for many years. He died in 1995 but had moved down to Kent a few years earlier. His shop and several adjoining are now an American multinational fast food burger and fries chain.

*Signs, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-34*

‘Kings X People Say NO’ to the Chunnel Terminal for Kings X – Chaos for London’ read the array of posters on the back of a road sign, one of four signs in this picture, along with those for the Autodrome, Peacemeal Whole Foods and Loseley Dairy Ice Cream.

I was briefly and peripherally involved with the Kings Cross Railway Lands Group and their ‘Planning for Real’ exercise with local residents which formed a basis for the comprehensive alternative plan published in their Kings Cross Railwaylands Towards a People’s Plan Full Report published in October 1991.

Of course their plans were not adopted but the opposition certainly played a part in the decision to drop the plans for a new Kings Cross and instead to develop St Pancras as the international terminal. As an article on Londonist points out, “The plans would have seen 83 homes and 58 shops demolished. The scale of destruction would have witnessed landmark listed buildings like the Scala pulled down … The entire block between Caledonian Road, York Way and Caledonia Street would have also been lost.”

*Northdown St, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-23*

The Kings X Sauna on the corner of Northdown Street and more useful shops and offices on Caldedonian Road. The sauna at No.70 later became an estate agents.

*Mercantile House, All Saints St, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-25*

Further north on Caledonian Road I turned west into All Saints St where I photographed Mercantile House which appropriately later became home to global brand consultancy agency Wolff Olins – who have now moved to Southwark.

Work began in 2022 to transform this and other buildings on the site into Regent’s Wharf, “a ground-breaking new campus … created with the next generation of innovators in mind.”

Mercantile House was built in 1891 as the Head Office for Thorley’s Food for Cattle with their mill behind it on the bank of the Regent’s Canal. They had moved onto the site in 1857.

“A family owned business for over 100 years, Joseph Thorley’s Ltd was an iconic player of the industrial age, inventing and distributing ‘spicy aromatic condiments’ that would beef up your cattle, pep up your pigs and ensure your chicken laid the best clutch in the roost.

This MiracleGro for animals was made to a secret recipe and sold around the world even in far flung outposts such as the Falkland Islands, all from the headquarters at Regent’s Wharf in King’s Cross.”

“Thorley’s progressive ideas extended to their charming and playful marketing, with eye-catching advertising and branding that has become collectable today. Animal feeds went by many wonderful names such as Grula for Horses, the famous Thorley’s Cake that reared ‘Champions’, Ovum for chickens and Rabbitum.”

London’s Canal Walk: 2007

London’s Canal Walk: On Saturday 26th May 2007 I walked across London together with my wife and older son on canal towpaths from Mile End in the east to Old Oak Lane in the west, from where we made the short walk to Willesden Junction for a train towards home.

I’d walked and cycled along many shorter sections of these canals before, but this was the first time I’d done the whole roughly 12 miles in a single stretch. Most of the way we kept to the towpaths, but there are two tunnels around which we had to detour on roads, and a few places where walking along a road was more convenient than using the tow path, particularly around Little Venice.

Probably the definitive book on English canals was written by a photographer, Eric de Maré, (1910 – 2002), one of a now largely forgotten generation of British photographers, and illustrated with many of his fine photographs, as well as some by others. He was one of the finest architectural photographers of the mid-20th century and also someone whose popular Penguin book ‘Photography’ published in 1957 introduced many of us to the history, techniques and aesthetics of the medium. Others since have looked better on the coffee table but have lacked his insight.

de Maré and his first wife lived on a canal boat for some years and travelled around 600 miles along them while writing and taking the pictures for the book ‘The Canals of England’ published by Architectural Press in 1950 which remains the definitive publication on our canals, though in some obvious ways outdated. The canals – which had played an important part in the war effort – had been nationalised under the National Transport Act on 1st January 1948 and part of the book is an impassioned plea for the UK’s transport policies to be revised to update the system and make fuller use of our great canal heritage.

But of course that didn’t happen, thanks to huge road transport lobby, and instead of canals similar to some in the continent we got motorways. The canals were encouraged to bring commercial traffic to an end, and with a few isolated examples most was finished by 1970 with the canals being given over to leisure use.

Not that de Maré was against leisure use and his work actively promoted this for many of England’s narrow and more rural canals as well as making an argument based on the commercial possibilities of schemes such as the ‘Cross or Four River Scheme’ proposed earlier by a 1906 Royal Commission for wide high volume commercial canals linking Bristol, Hull, Liverpool and London with the Midlands cities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester.

The book came out in a second edition in 1987 and copies of both are available reasonably priced secondhand – my copy of the first edition with a handwritten dedication from de Maré was at some point marked by a bookseller’s pencil for 6d but I think I paid just a little more. I can find no individual website showing more than a small handful of his pictures – though you can see many by searching for his images online.

It’s still interesting to walk along by the canals in London, and easy to do in smaller sections – or to add a little at either end should you want to and perhaps walk from Limehouse to Southall or Brentford. I didn’t write much about the walk in 2007, but I’ll end with what I did write back then – with the usual corrections.

On Saturday I accompanied Linda and Sam on a walk along some of London’s canals, from Mile End on the Regent’s Canal and along that to join the Grand Union Paddington Branch at ‘Little Venice’, and west on that to Willesden Junction.

When I first walked along the Regents Canal I had to climb over gates and fences to access most of it. The towpath was closed to install high voltage lines below it, but even the parts that were still theoretically open were often hard to find and gates were often locked. The public were perhaps tolerated, but not encouraged to walk along them.

Now everybody walks along them and there are those heritage direction posts and information boards that I’ve rather come to hate. And from this weekend, you no longer even theoretically need a licence to cycle the paths – though mine is still in my wallet, several years since I was last asked to show it.

Now, as walkers, the constant cycle traffic on some sections has become a nuisance. And although most cyclists obey the rules, riding carefully, ringing bells and where necessary giving way, we did have to jump for safety as one group chased madly after each other, racing with total disregard for safety.

But for the rain – the occasional shower at first, later settling in to a dense fine constant downpour, it would have been a pleasant walk.

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Churches, Flats, Houses & a Pineapple – Highgate 1989

Churches, Flats, Houses & a Pineapple: More from my walk in Highgate on Sunday 19th November. You can read the previous part at Almshouses, Museum, Hospital & Shops – Highgate 1989

*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.

*Cloisters Court, Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-51*

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.

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