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Reservoir, Castle & Lordship Lane – 1990

Reservoir, Castle & Lordship Lane: My walk on April 1st 1990 began at Finsbury Park Station and the first post, Brownswood Park Finsbury Park – 1990, ended on Green Lanes where this post begins.

*Reservoir, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-45*

The New River Path leads from Green Lanes immediately north of the ‘Castle’ and I think I walked from this path to the bank of the West reservoir to make this picture. There have been considerable changes in the area and I can no longer identify the trees or buildings in my view.

The West Reservoir next to the New River dates from 1833, and I think this section of fencing probably dates from when it was enlarged in the 1850s or a little later. The associated filter beds have been built on, but a vigorous local ‘Save the Reservoirs’ campaign in the 1980s saved the reservoirs, with the West used for water sports and the East as a nature reserve.

*Reservoir, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-46*

I think this was a part of the filter beds which have now gone. I liked the shadow of the fence and the wheel which presumably operated a valve to control the flow of water, perhaps to the pumping station.

Sand in the filter beds was first used to effectively removed most particles from the water but it was later realised that the slime which grew on top of the sand was very effective in killing bacteria to increase the safety of the water and sand filtration still plays an important role in producing our clean drinking water.

*Reservoir, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-32*

I think the man in the picture is a bird-watcher rather than a photographer and is holding up binoculars to his eyes. Many migrating species take a rest at our reservoirs and birders flock to watch them.

*The Castle, Waterworks, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-21*

The gothic fantasy waterworks, built to house massive steam-powered beam engines in 1854–1856 seen from close by – I needed a very wide lens to include the whole height of the tower. According to Industrial History Online “The original six beam engines, two by Watt & Co and 4 by Simpson were removed in 1953.” I think these were then scrapped. You can see similar beam engines in the highly recommended London Museum of Water & Steam in Brentford.

*House, Waterworks, Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-24*

On Green Lanes I walked south and turned down Lordship Park. Here I got a view of the Castle. I think the tower at right is a disguised chimney and the square section on top of that at the left may have held the tank that water was pumped into to give the pressure for supply to customers.

*Man Reading, House, Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-13*

Another picture in Lordship Park shows the very solid looking houses built there dating from around 1865. These are three storeys with a basement, the steps rising to an elevated ground floor, built in a Victorian Gothic style with the entrances recessed with a side window giving a somewhat clerical look; they have is some nice ornamental brickwork but in a fairly restrained fashion.

There are quite a few of these houses on both sides of thee street and I picked this view because of the man sitting reading the Sunday Mirror on the steps.

*Lion, Brothers of Islam, Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-16*

A final picture on this street shows the passageway between two houses with a small flowerbed looked over by a lion, and on the post at right in the freely written message ‘Brothers of ISLAM’.

My walk, now in Stoke Newington, continued – more later.

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Brownswood Park Finsbury Park – 1990

Brownswood Park Finsbury Park: My walk on April 1st 1990 began at Finsbury Park Station. I walked a short distance past the gates to the park and then turned right down Queens Drive.

Queen's Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-3m-13 — *Queen’s Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-3m-13*

Queen’s Drive was laid out and developed from 1869, the same year that the park, misleadingly named Finsbury Park despite being a couple of miles from Finsbury, was opened, just a few years after the opening of Seven Sister Road station in 1861. In 1870 the station was renamed Finsbury Park. Most of the street was built up by the 1871 census, largely with substantial and well decorated four-storey terraces.

Queen’s Road – later renamed Queen’s Drive – was built as the ‘best road’ in a new select suburb then known as Brownswood Park, developed at first by John Brookes Porter in 1862. You can read more of its history in the Brownswood Conservation Area Appraisal.

Like many such areas it went downhill over the years. Wartime bombing including a V2 rocket damaged and destroyed a number of houses in it and nearby streets. By the 1950s most of the houses were in multiple occupation by “students, migrants, and the working class.”

This picture is of the rear of the Pembury Hotel which is on the corner of Queen’s Drive and Seven Sisters Road, just a few yards down the road and is a post war addition.

*Houses, Princess Crescent, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-3m-15*

Princess Crescent, also in Browsnwood Park, is not a crescent but two straight lengths of road at an angle joining Queen’s Drive and Gloucester Drive. The houses here were rather smaller than those in Queen’s Road. The other section of road has a two large blocks of council flats, St John’s Court on one side and a primary school on the other. From 1934 until 1960 the Finsbury Park Synagogue was there.

I walked back onto Queen’s Drive and continued to Brownswood Road, turning east and crossing Green Lanes into Lordship Park – not a park but a street.

*Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 90-4a-01*

Taken on Lordship Park and looking up Allerton Road towards the ‘castle’ designed by architect William Chadwell Mylne for the New River Company on Green Lanes, to house steam engines to pump water which had been cleaned in the adjoining reservoirs and filter beds to consumers.

The water was pumped to a large tank at the top of the main structure and then gravity fed to consumers. The towers and turrets disguise the huge industrial engines inside, initially giant single cylinder steam engines linked to pumps. These were later replaced in the 1930s by diesel and electric pumps. The gothic fantasy was felt to be more acceptable in this then select suburb than an industrial-looking building.

When the water board closed down this facility in 1971 it was saved from demolition by Grade II* listing and three years later converted into a climbing centre.

*House, Tree, Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-03*

A pollarded tree in front of semi-detached houses on Lordship Park. The two story houses have some fine decoration on their doorways and windows. There are larger houses close to Green Lanes.

*House, Cars, Green Lanes, Brownswood Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-4a-61*

Notices on the house say ‘NO BALL GAMES; and NO PARKING’ but there seems to be some kind of car scrap business running here in front of once fine derelict houses.

*House, Cars, Green Lanes, Brownswood Park, Hackney, 1990,, 1990, 90-4a-64*

I think these houses were just to the north of Portland Rise on the west side of Green Lanes and have since been demolished and replaced by to modern blocks of flats at 291 and 293 Green Lanes. The building at extreme left is still there.

*House, Cars, Green Lanes, Brownswood Park, Hackney, 1990,, 1990, 90-4a-54*

Unusually I took 11 frames here and there are six of them on Flickr – but I’ll only post three here.

These houses were a short walk from the West Reservoir where my my next post from this walk will begin.

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Lewisham, Black Heath and Heathside – 1990

Lewisham, Black Heath and Heathside: Pictures from the final part of my walk on Sunday 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was Deptford, Greenwich and The Point – 1990.

House, 17, West Grove, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-56 — *House, 17, West Grove, Blackheath, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-56*

I came down from The Point onto more or less the top of Point Hill, which rises steeply from Greenwich and turned east into West Grove where a few houses including this one overlook the western edge of the Black Heath – and a short distance across the grass the A2. Different maps show this section as the east section of Blackheath Hill or the start of Shooters Hill, though this section is more or less flat. There are a few trees in the grass which is criss-crossed by footpaths.

This Grade II* listed house, Manna Mead at 17 West Grove, was built around 1800. Although a fine building I think it owes its unusual Grade II* listing at least partly because of its position on the edge of Black Heath and its views. It is divided into flats.

*Dartmouth House, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-34*

I walked along to the well-known Rangers House on the edge of Greenwich Park and taking a few pictures there and on the way, including the listed Conduit Head for the water supply to the Greenwich Royal Hospital, none of which I have yet digitised. I went across the A2 and down Dartmouth Hill to Dartmouth Row.

Dartmouth House was a very substantial house and the sign outside suggests it was in process of being converted into flats. It was built in 1928-9 as a nurses home for the Miller General Hospital. This had been built in the grounds of the Royal Kent Dispensary in 1883 to celebrate the Dispensary’s 100th anniversary and “as a memorial to the Revd Canon John Cale Miller (1814-1880), the founder of Hospital Sunday”. This was an important national collection day every June, established in 1873 to support the work of voluntary hospitals, vital before the foundation of the NHS. Its inception is more generally attributed to London’s Lord Mayor.

Miller was Vicar of St Alfege, Greenwich and had greatly supported the work of the Dispensary. The hospital was closed in 1974 and the home was redundant. It briefly became a home for single mothers and was being converted into 17 2- and 3-bed flats.

This Dartmouth House is sometimes confused with the Grade II listed Blackheath House of the Earl of Dartmouth which was also in Dartmouth Row, just south of the church.

*Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-35*

Dartmouth Chapel was established in 1699 as private chapel for the Earls of Dartmouth so the Vicar of Lewisham could to preach a sermon for the family every Sunday. Traces of the original building may have survived the considerable rebuilding in around 1750 and 1834.

It had served as a temporary parish church for Lewisham in 1774-7 but was consecrated as a separate parish church, the Church of the Ascension in 1883. Much older material was also removed during rebuilding after wartime damage in 1950. The church is Grade II* listed.

View, Council Estate, Morden Lane, 1990, 90-3m-24 — *View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990,*

These flats on the side of Blackheath Hill were the Heathside Estate – Ferguson House, Melville House, Varden House, Glennie House and Travis House – built in 1948 by the LCC. They have since been demolished and the area redeveloped.

Stairs and View, Council Estate, Morden Lane, 1990, 90-3m-26 — *Stairs and View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-26*

Noted for its vibrant community life, this estate on the edge of the London Borough of Lewisham was in a poor state structurally by the 2000s and in 2009 plans were approved for its demolition and replacement by new Heathside and Lethbridge estates.

House, 83, Morden Hill, , 1990, 90-3m-12 — *House, 83, Morden Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-12*

A fine example of a 1930s house with its Crittall windows intact. Although many houses like this were built with flat roofs, this had a pitched roof with a large overhang you can see here. The house still looks in good condition now, though the carefully trimmed bushes have gone.

*Railway, Offices, Multi-storey Car Park, Molesworth St, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3n-01*

I began and ended the walk at Lewisham Station and I’m unsure whether I made this image – taken on another camera – at the start or finish of my walk. The picture is made on a footpath that leads over the River Ravensbourne around a quarter of a mile south of the station and was taken from just on the east side of the river looking under the railway line towards Molesworth St. Although central Lewisham has changed drastically in the past decade or so, I think both the buildings in the background remain.

My next photographic walk was in North London two weeks later. Coming here shortly.

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St Johns Lewisham – 1990

St Johns Lewisham: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was More From Brockley.

I walked up Malpas Rd, taking a few pictures on my way that I’ve not digitised, and on to Lewisham Way, where I turned into Friendly Street, wondering how it got that name. No one seems to know. There is also a Friendly Place in Lewisham, some distance away.

Clarendon Cottages, Scotts Coachworks, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-61 — F H Pierce, Friendly Upholstery, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-16

Friendly Street was built as a part of the Deptford New Town development which had begun in around 1795, though the earliest existing buildings in Friendly Street (earlier named Dog Kennel Row and then George Street) date from 1806 and most from the 1840s. Its name was apparently officially changed from George Street in the early years of the twentieth century to avoid confusion with other George Streets in London.

Friendly Upholstery at No 2 and Boot Repaier F H Pierce at No 4 have long closed. No 2 still has the shopfront but that at 4 has been replaced and both properties are now residential.

This property at 3 Friendly Street is still standing though that on the left has been replaced by a new building. The open area to the right is Friendly Gardens, an area cleared after bomb damage in the Second World War.

The Deptford New Town estate was developed on land owned by the Lucas family, who grew rich from building and running rice mills in the USA. Many of the early residents were shipbuilders and sailors. The opening of the railway in 1836 with a station at New Cross Gate in 1839 with trains to London Bridge prompted further development in the area as a commuter suburb. St Johns got its church in 1855 and its own station in 1873.

*Bank, Lewisham Way, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-63*

The former bank at 293 Lewisham Way was acquired by Barclays in 1918. The building was Grade II listed in 1994 and according to this: “The London and South Western Bank – New Cross Branch at 293 Lewisham Way was acquired by Barclays in 1918. ” and was “designed in 1885 and built in about 1886 by J and J S Edmeston.”

It appeared to have closed as a bank by the time I made my picture and has been converted into residential apartments.

*Stone House, Lewisham Way, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-64*

Grade II* listed house built 1771 – 1773 designed by architect George Gibson the Younger (or possibly his father, also George Gibson) as built as his own residence, it was known in the 19th century as the Comical House for its unusual design.

*House, 70, Loampit Hill, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-53*

One of four similar highly ornamented houses built late 1850s by local architect Alfred Cross who also built one for himself at No 62, now particularly notable for its vibrant colour scheme – and which I photographed on several occasions in colour.

*House, Loampit Hill, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-55*

A closer view of one of the houses, largely hidden by greenery shows a little of the decorations.

90-3g-42-Edit — *Grover Court, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-42*

*Grover Court, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-44*

Grover Court was built as a luxury Art Deco estate of 51 residential flats in 1938, on the site of Ellerslie House, built in the 1790s for the brothers John and Henry Lee who owned the neighbouring brickworks. A large house, after the Lee family moved out in 1860 it became a private girls preparatory school.

An Academy, Shops, a House & Pubs – 1990

An Academy, Shops, a House & Pubs: The final post from my walk which ended in Kentish Town on Sunday February 25th 1990. The first post was Around Finsbury Park – 1990 and the previous post is Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks.

*Doorway, Southampton House Academy, Highgate Rd, Gospel Oak, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-46*

Grade II listed Southampton House at 137 Highgate Road was built in the early 19th century and housed the Southampton House Academy run by Captain John Bickerstaffe. The pub adjoining Southampton House is The Southampton Arms, but was built in 1874, and I think took its name from the house, which is now flats. The pub is legendary among beer (and cider) drinkers and apparently only serves beers from wholly independent breweries. I have no idea why Capt Bickerstaffe called his Academy Southampton House, perhaps he was a native of Southampton.

*The Orientalist, 78, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-31*

The Orientalist was a residue from the International Oriental Carpet Centre which I mentioned in my previous post on this walk, where in 1973 Oriental rug dealers moved to Kentish Town from the PLA Cutler Street warehouses. Most moved out of the area in 1994, but some stayed in premises in Kentish Town. The Orientalist rebuilt this building with a more conventional shop front soon after I made this picture and had a closing down sale in 2025.

*Shops, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-26*

WE STOCK SUPLUS GOVERNMENT CLOTHING NEW & PART·WORN
COMBAT TROUSERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS SHIRTS JACKETS·ETC
ACHOICE OF JEANSFOR ALL·THE.FAMILY STONEWASH·SHRUNK
FOOTWEAR FOR ALL PURPOSES ALSOFULL RANGE DR.MARTENS
INDUSTRIAL CLOTHINGBOILER SUITS BIB-BRACE TEE SHIRTS
SUPPLIERS OF ALL·TYPES OF RAINWEARJACKETSCOATS ETC.
SPECIALISTS IN CAMPATINGEQUIPMENT.THENTSSLEEPBAGGAZ

Who could ask for anything more?

*Shops, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-11*

‘LOOK IN AT FERME SALES’ states the painting of a man being lifted up by another and pointing with his umbrella on the side of THE BEECH Restaurant – (though why does this have ‘ML’ on its canopy?) This painted has long been painted over and the restaurant is now an estate agents.

*The Assembly House, Leighton Rd, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-12*

Another large late Victorian pub built in 1896 to designs by Thorpe and Furniss in a style resembling a French Château and Grade II listed. It replaced an earlier pub on the site which in 1788 had as landlord Thomas Wood.

The Assembly House was where people gathered to go together across the dangerous hills to Highgate in groups because of the frequent attacks on travellers on the route. Wood possibly moonlighted as a highway robber – apparently he was tried but acquitted for the offence – but he died insane in Newgate Prison.

*House, Bush, 27, Leighton Rd, Kentish Town,Camden, 1990, 90-2i-15*

Leighton Road was built at the back of the Assembly House pub garden and this Grade II listed house was built around 1828 when the street was called Gloucester Place. The listing text gives more detail than most, including about the street; “In 1804 it was but a pathway leading from Kentish Town to Islington, with a stile at the eastern end and a bowling green on its north side near where No. 27 Leighton Road now stands; this was probably for patrons of the Assembly House inn located at the corner of Kentish Town Road.” and its early residents; “a Mr Crowe (the original freeholder and builder), and then an architect with family and servants. By 1861, the owner was a Mr Pike, with his family but no servants. Pike made various changes to the house in 1870 … and his story is vividly told in Gillian Tindall’s book, “The Fields Beneath: the History of One London Village“, published in 1977.”

*Shops, Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2j-61*

Also the listing text for 27 Leighton Road tells us that “At this time the land was owned by one Joshua Prole Torriano” which explains this street name. In 1990 it was a rather run-down area as this picture suggests. The view here is looking towards from the south towards Leighton Road and the pub on the corner at 140 Leighton Road was the Torriano Arms, closed and sold in 1994 and now residential.

Unusually the pub’s name lived on, being taken over by the Rose and Crown, a few doors down Torriano Aveven. A long fight saved this from being converted in turn into flats. In 2014 the Camden New Journal published “Torriano pub closes but will reopen with its original name as The Rose and Crown”.

I made four more pictures on my way back to Kentish Town station, on Leighton Rd and Montpelier Grove but haven’t digitised these. The pictures in these posts are generally around a quarter or so of those I took on my walks.

My next walk was in South London – coming 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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Around Finsbury Park – 1990

Around Finsbury Park: On Sunday February 25th 1990 I began a walk from Finsbury Park Station

Bookmarks, 265, Seven Sisters Rd, South Tottenham, Haringey, 1990, 90-2f-42 — *Bookmarks, 265, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Haringey, 1990, 90-2f-42*

The Bookmarks shop was at 265, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park and was home to the Bookmarks Publishing Co-operative which had been established in 1979 to publish books and pamphlets by members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). In 1998 it moved to 1 Bloomsbury Street and is now Britain’s largest socialist bookshop and now sells a wide range of “non-fictional and fictional books that concern politics, economics, anti-fascism, anarchism, labour history, trade unionism, arts and culture, anti-racism, the environment, biographies, and feminism.”

Two doors beyond this at 269 was the former entrance to a cinema, built in 1909 as Pyke’s Cinematograph. Later it was combined with the larger Rink Cinema behind it at 10 Stroud Green Road and when I took this picture it had closed as a club and became as a large sign indicates ‘LONDON’S LATEST LUXURY TENPIN BOWLING ALLEY!’ with its entrance in Stroud Green Road around the corner. There is now a Lidl here.

House, 169, Queen's Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-2f-43 — *House, 169, Queen’s Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-2f-43*

After the railway station – at first Seven Sisters Road station – opened in 1869 the area around it was opened up to speculative building, with trains taking workers into the City at Moorgate station in around 15 minutes. This very substantial Victorian detached house was one of those on Queen’s Drive, just a few yards from Finsbury Park and a short walk to the station which would have provided a home for a well-paid city worker and his family and a servant or two.

Houses, Queen's Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-2f-45 — *Houses, Queen’s Drive, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-2f-45*

Further down Queen’s Drive were more very substantial semi-detached residences and although much of the area had deteriorated particularly since the war these houses still seemed in good condition. This was clearly built as one of the posher streets in Finsbury Park and had remained so, although many of these large houses were now dividied into flats and some had been replaced by later and larger blocks of flats.

*House, Brownswood Rd, Wilberforce Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1990, 90-2f-31*

A strikingly vertical house on the corner of Brownswood Road and Wilberforce Rd, though in fact is I think actually only the same height as the house opposite, also with a full height attic window. There are similar houses on all four corners of the junction. The large block of flats looks very near but is on Citizen Road around a kilometre away to the south-west.

Squat, 63, St Thomas's Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-36 — *Squat, 63, St Thomas’s Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-36*

Two adjoining doors of 63 and 65 St Thomas’s Road both have notices on them from the squatters, on the left door warning that the premises are occupied and that any attempt to enter without permission is a criminal act, while on the right visitors are told they need to knock and shout up up to people on the upper floors. Squatting in a residential building in England only became illegal in September 2012.

Stop the Roads, poster, St Thomas's Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-21 — *Stop the Roads, poster, St Thomas’s Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-21*

YOUR LAST CHANCE TO STOP THE ROADS states a poster for a march from Kings Cross to Archway on 24 February 1990, the day before I took this picture. In 1989 Margaret Thatcher had outlined plans for a £23 billion trunk road enlargement programme in the Roads for Prosperity white paper, designed to assist economic growth, improve the environment, and improve road safety. It led to years of protest with many schemes being cancelled though others, including the M3 extension at Twyford Down, the Newbury bypass and the M11 link road went ahead.

To be continued

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More from Tollington Park – 1990

More from Tollington Park – 1990 continues my walk which began at Kings Cross on Sunday February 11th 1990 with the post Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990. The previous post was Fonthill & Tollington.

*House, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-12*

Tollington is a district whose name dates back at lease into Saxon times. According to Eric A Willats’ ‘Streets With A Story‘, from which much of the information in this post comes, “It was spelt ‘Tollandune’ in the Anglo-Saxon Charters meaning the hill or pasture of Tolla. ‘Tolentone’ meant a pannage for hogs, a place of beechwood and mast. This area and Holloway were all then part of the Great Forest of Middlesex. It
had various spellings Tolesdone, Tolyndon, Tallingdon and Tallington.”

Modern development of the area, then farmland, began early in the 19th century; “About 1818-1820 ‘a pretty range of villa residences were erected in the Italian style by Mr. Duerdin, with stabling and offices attached, from the designs of Messrs. Gough and Roumieu.’” These are now 96, 102, 106 and 110 Tollington Park.

*House, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-13*

Like many other early and mid-19th century developments the villas were first given their own distinct subsidiary names and only became numbers in ‘Tollington Park’ in 1871, Willats gives the following details:

After 1871 subsidiary names were abolished, e.g., Belmont Terrace became nos2-6, Birnam Villas 8-10,St Marks Villas 16-22, Claremont Villas 24-36, Duerdin Villas 44-56, Fonthill Villas 60-70, Syddall Villas 59, Syddall Terrace 63-73, Regina Villas 89-101, Shimpling Place by 1882 nos15-155 Upper Tollington Park, Harrington Grove 1848/9 became after 1894 47 to 67 and 52 to 70 CHARTERIS ROAD. Nos96 to 108 have been attributed to Gough & Roumieu, built 1839-40

*House, 53, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-14*

This corner house has been significantly modernised but retains its tall archway and fits in well with the adjoining houses out of picture to the left. It doesn’t get a mention on the fine map of ‘Historic Tollington’ which was “created by the incredibly vibrant Tollington Park Action Group in 1994.” As well as the plan of the streets this contains informative annotation on 26 sites in the area and would have been very useful to me as a guide to the area which I photographed four years before the map was made.

*House, 20A, Turle Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-15*

Willats suggests the road was “Probably named after a John Turle of no.11 Tollington Park who was at that address in 1830 and in 1833.”

*George Orwell School, Turle Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-65*

The former Tollington Park School first opened in 1886. It gained some new buildings to add to its Victorian main block in 1930 but these were demolished by bombing in 1940. I think my picture shows the new extension built in 1955.

It was renamed by the Inner London Education Authority in 1981 after Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, in 1981. He had lived not far away at 27b Canonbury Square from 1944-7. The name of this ‘secondary modern’ school was changed when it was merged with Archway Secondary School and it disappeared in 1999 following a damning Ofsted inspection of all Islington’s schools, re-emerging as Islington Arts and Media School.

The school’s most famous former pupil is photographer Don McCullen who was born and grew up in Finsbury Park nearby.

*St Marks, church, Church Hall, Moray Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-53*

Work began on building the church in 1853; its architect was Alexander Dick Gough (1804-71) who lived at 4 Tollington Park. He was a pupil of Benjamin Dean Wyatt and for some years worked in partnership with Robert Lewis Roumieu; their work together in North London included the Islington Literary and Scientific Institution (now the Almeida Theatre), the rebuilding of the Norman St Pancras Old Church and several Italianate villas in Tollington Park mentioned above.

After their partnership was dissolved in 1848, Gough designed or redesigned over a dozen churches in North London and elsewhere, many now demolished, along with other buildings. St Mark’s required some structural alterations in 1884 and was renovated in 1904.

*Tollington Court, Tollington Place, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-54*

These 1938 flats are on the corner of Tollington Place and Tollington Park and I was standing a few yards down Moray Road to make this picture, with the square and fluted round pillars of St Mark’s Mansions, 60 Tollington Park, at the left. This building is locally listed as a semi-detached Italianate villa dating from around 1850.

*St Marks Mansions, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-55*

This shows the neighbouring semi-detached villa of St Mark’s Mansions and the poor decorative state of many of the buildings like this long converted into flats in Tollington Park. The area has been considerably gentrified since 1990 and it is hard to believe the state of the properties then when you look at them now.

See what Tollington looked like in the 60’s & 70’s has a collection of pictures by Leslie William Blake taken before the area had begun to receive any real investment following extensive bomb damage in the war. The article states “it wasn’t until the late Sixties that any real investment began” to come into the area, and my pictures from 1990 show that there was still much to do.

More pictures from my walk in a later post.

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Fonthill & Tollington – 1990

Fonthill & Tollington continues my walk on Sunday February 11th 1990 which began at Kings Cross with the post Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990. The previous post was Caledonian Road, Barnsbury & Lower Holloway – 1990.

*Tower House, 149, Fonthill Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-32*

The Tower House it at the south end of a late Victorian terrace at 141-9 Fonthill Road close to the junction with Seven Sisters Road. This was the factory and showroom for Witton, Witton & Co. In an advertisement in Musical Opinion & Music Trade Review they describe it as ‘BRITAIN’S FINEST FACTORY’ producing ‘”THE IDEAL BRITISH PIANO” Specially made for Variable Climates’. According to the Pianoforte-makers in England web site the company was formed in 1874, although earlier Wittons had made pianos from 1838. They held two patents related to pianos. The name continued in use after production went abroad in the 1930s. Their grand pianos are said to be not well made.

By 1990 the tower had lost its top floor topped by a cupola. Like much of Fonthill Road the building was mainly in use by clothing manufacturers and wholesalers in 1990.

*Goodwin St, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-35*

The 3 storey house in this picture is still present on Goodwin Street, a turning off Fonthill Road which now leads through City North House to Finsbury Park Station. This is 11 Goodwin St, owned by the Trustees of Peace News and the home of CND, the Campaign Against Arms Trade as the hanging sign above the double door indicates, along with various other groups. I think the right hand door was number 13, though the numbering around here seems rather random.

*Shops, Fonthill Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-36*

The rather strangely staggered roofline is still there at 138 Fonthill Road and all the shops are still in the clothing trade, though I think all the names are changed. Photographer Don McCullin grew up in the area in the 1940s and described the area as “a battlefield” and later he was to photograph on many real ones, including in Cyprus.

It was the Cyprus emergency with the UK fighting EOKA in the the late fifties and the later war between Greeks and Turks that led to many Cypriots to come to live in North London – and a number of them set up clothing factories and wholesale businesses here – and others from Turkey, the Caribbean and Africa came too. At first shops here were simply wholesale, but then many began to open on Saturdays for retail sales, and the street was crowded with people – mainly women – buying real bargains.

*Fonthill Metal Co, Fonthill Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-21*

I don’t think any trace remains of the Fonthill Metal Co or the garage next door on Fonthill Road which were almost at the end of Fonthill Road close to Tollington Park. There used to be many similar small scrap metal dealers who would pay cash on the spot for non-ferrous metals – Copper, Brass, Lead, Zinc and Ali – aluminium.

BRAIZERY here means copper pipes and other material which has been soldered and so contains small amounts of other metals, particularly tin and lead. If you have a decent load of this you can probably get around £6 a kilo for it – but no longer on Fonthill Road.

*Velvet Touch, Fonthill Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-22*

Later retail clothes shops elsewhere in the country found they could buy clothing cheaper abroad than garments made in the UK, and manufacturing here started to fall away. Slowly more and more wholesalers welcomed retail customers and many new wholly retail shops opened.

More recently the retail trade has fallen away too as the area becomes increasingly gentrified. Most of the clothes still on sale are now made abroad, particularly in Turkey.

Velvet Touch at 1 Fonthill Road was at the far end to the other clothing manufacturers, wholesalers and importers and although you can still read that line of their shopfront, (rather faded now) their name and the large sign on the side wall are long gone and I think the building is now residential. The very small window on the first floor is still bricked up.

*St Mellitus, RC, Church, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington,, 1990, 90-2c-23*

Built as the New Court Chapel in 1871 by Congregationalists from New Court, Carey St, Lincoln’s Inn Field after their chapel had been demolished to build the Royal Courts of Justice.

The Neo-classical church, designed by C G Searle seated 1,340 and in the early years was often full in the early years, but after the war congregations dropped away. It was sold to the Catholic Church in 1959, becoming St Mellitus RC Church. St Mellitus was the first Bishop of London in 604CE and later in 619CE became Archbishop of Canterbury.

*House, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-24*

Tollington Park was one of the first streets in this northern part of Islington in Finsbury Park (estate agents like to call it Stroud Green, but that seems rather a stretch too far) to be laid out and its grand semi-detached villas date from the 1830’s and 40’s.

Before that cows had grazed its fields to supply milk to London across north Islington which had what was claimed to be the largest dairy farm in the country, run by Welsh dairy farmer Richard Laycock.

By WW2 the area had deteriorated and become a poor working-class area. It was heavily bombed in WW2 and much still remained in a mess twenty years later. By the 1970s it was home to many migrants from across the world, including “Welsh, Irish, Jamaican, and others from all over the world.”

*House, Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2c-26*

Many of the damaged properties and some others were demolished in 1970 to form a park, Wray Crescent, and gentrification of the area set in. The Friends of Wray Crescent history page contains a number of pictures of Tollington in the 1960s and 1970s, taken by Leslie William Blake when “local campaigners and the Tollington Park Action Group began to fight to preserve some of the buildings, including the creation of the local conservation zone.”

Houses like those in my picture are now all or almost all a number of flats. Only 4 houses in Tollington Park are Grade II listed (along with the two churches) but many are locally listed including these two at 104 and 106, thought to have been built in 1840.

Westcombe Park and Blackheath 1990

Westcombe Park and Blackheath: On Saturday 20th January I got off a train at Westcombe Park station to begin another walk. Westcombe Park is in the London Borough of Greenwich and is at the east of Greenwich and north of Blackheath. Twelve years after I made this walk the Westcombe Park Conservation Area was designated in 2002.

*House, 146, Humber Rd, Westcombe Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1h-21*

Banker John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823) bought a large part of what had been parkland around a large country house to build his own house, Woodlands, now a Steiner School and the only listed building (Grade II*) in the area.

It was only when a large area of land was sold in 1876 that residential development of the area was begun – after a false start the Westcombe Park Estate Company was formed in 1878. They laid out roads, drains and sewers and offered freehold and leasehold plots for sale with only fairly loose guidelines over what could be built.

The Woodlands, Mycenae Rd, Westcombe Park, Greenwich, 1990, 1990, 90-1h-23 — *The Woodlands, 90, Mycenae Rd, Westcombe Park, Greenwich, 1990, 1990, 90-1h-23*

The development from then on was piecemeal and sporadic and by 1900 much was still undeveloped – and the estate company went into liquidation and the remaining land was sold off cheaply. There are a few properties from the 1880s, rather more from the 1890s particularly in the roads close to the station from which city clerks could travel into work. Although Woodlands is the only nationally listed building in the area, there are many locally listed buildings.

*The Woodlands, Mycenae Rd, Westcombe Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1h-24*

*Houses, Beaconsfield Rd, Vanburgh Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1h-12*

These houses are in the Blackheath Conservation Area and are on the north side of Vanburgh Park, so their frontages facing south with views across the common. The road at right angles in the picture is Beaconsfield Rd. These 3 storey locally listed Victorian villas date from 1860-1866 and were designed by architect Henry William Spratt.

*Tree, Bower Avenue, Greenwich Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-62*

From Vanburgh Park I walked across into Greenwich Park and then went down Bower Avenue where I found this massive tree trunk.

Vanbrugh Terrace, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-32 — *Vanbrugh Terrace, Blackheath, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-32*

The Grade II listed buildings of Vanburgh Terrace date from around 1840. I think this view is from somewhere near Charlton Way or Maze Hill. The terrace faces west across the parkland.

My walk will continue in a later post.

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