houses | >Re-PHOTO

Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990

More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 continuing from Around Finsbury Park – 1990.

*Houses, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-22*

A long terrace of three-storey houses on Prah Rd built in 1876-1878 – and there are others in a similar style on nearby Romilly Rd. There is a long and detailed section on Prah Road and its early occupants cited in an essay by John Bold and Charlotte Bradbeer; Booth’s investigators described these and neighbouring streets as having a higher class of occupant: ‘clerks, city men, some mechanics and a great many railwaymen of the better sort, head ticket collectors etc‘.

*Doorway, 1, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-24*

The Finsbury Park Conservative Club opened at 1 Prah Road in 1886 but there was little to show its presence when I photographed its decorative entrance. Later it had a Carlsburg sign added above the doorway, still there though faded although the club closed in 2015. The building was sold in 2016 for over 1.65 million, but completion was delayed as the building was squatted. It is now residential.

*Shops, Berriman Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-25*

I walked north towards Finsbury Park Station and then turned left down Seven Sisters Road towards Holloway, taking few photographs as I had walked this way before. FINSBURY PARK was then fairly clear at the top of the ‘ghost sign’ on the Berriman Road side of 158 Seven Sisters Road, but I cannot make out the rest of the wording, though the next line could be GENERAL.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-26*

Fosby Of London Ltd were at 3-5 Thane Villas, a few yards down the next turning south off Seven Sisters Road after Berriman Road. The company, established in 1977, made luxury high quality ladies blouses and shirts with “a feminine, elegant feel” which still sell on vintage clothing sites, but the building is now student accomodation.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-13*

A closer view shows some of the fine detailing on the Grade II listed building built in a Queen Anne style in 1909 as factory, offices and wholesale showroom for manufacturing pharmaceutical chemists Fletcher, Fletcher and Company Ltd. Grace’s Guide lists their specialities: ‘”Vibrona” the Ideal Tonic Wine, of which they are the proprietors; is largely prescribed by the medical profession as a Tonic Restorative. ” Bronamalt,” an Ideal Tonic Food for delicate Children and Invalids. Also proprietors of Fletchers’ Syrups of the Hydrobro mates and Fletchers’ Concentrated Liquors, all of proved value. Are the patentees of Fletchers’ Thermo-Hydrometer and Fletchers’ Autometric Stopper, also of Endolytic Tubes for Clinical Diagnosis.

Other products included Effico tonic, Flexaphyll deodorant tablets, Aperigran laxative granules and Rubelix cough syrup. They called the buildings Vibrona House and remaines there until the 1960s when it was bought by Vortex Jersey Ltd.

The building was only listed in 2007, and the listing text comments: “The building has been little altered and retains several features of note including panelling, a glazed partition, a fireplace and rare historic automatic door, an unusual feature in commercial buildings of the era. The difference between the manufacturing and commercial spaces is clearly marked by two staircases which are both of special interest: the utilitarian stone staircase with metal balusters providing access to the factory and the grand timber Jacobean staircase serving the offices and commercial areas.“

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-14*

At the next crossroads I turned north up Hornsey Road and photographed the Hornsey Road Baths – Grade II listed in 1994. Another Queen Anne style building, this was built in 1891-2, designed by architect Alfred Hessell Tiltman (1854-1910).

When opened it had two pools for men and one for women, but such was demand that the baths were enlarged in 1894 and a second women’s bath was added in 1900. The listing text concludes by mentioning the “remarkable neon Diving Lady on the South flank elevation, one of 12 such illuminated features placed on swimming pools and lidos in London in the 1930’s and now believed to be the only survivor.”

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-16*

The frontage of the baths has the text ‘PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH HOUSES’ incised across it. The wash houses or laundry were added in 1894 and had a large drying room; they became self-service in 1965. The baths were refurbished at a cost of £1.5 million in 1985 and as the board shows were still in use for swimming, warm baths and a sauna when I took these pictures. But lack of funds led to the closing of the baths and laundry the following year.

From 2002-9 the baths were redeveloped, retaining the listed entrance block on Hornsey Road and the chimney but providing 200 apartments, some at affordable rent and others for private sale, an office building for Islington Council and a Sure Start Centre for parents and children.

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

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Around Shooters Hill Road – 1990

Around Shooters Hill Road: Continuing my walk on Saturday 20th January 1990 which began with the previous post, Westcombe Park and Blackheath 1990.

Heath House, Vanbrugh Terrace, 1, Shooters Hill Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-34 — *Heath House, 1 Shooters Hill Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-34*

This is an area full of mostly large houses, and this, at 1B Shooters Hill on the corner of Vanbrugh Terrace – the A2 ancient main road Watling Street from London to Dover via Canterbury – is one of the larger and is extended by the substantial conservatory.

According to its Grade II listing it was “built by Benjamin Cooke the cooper and shipowner of Dock Head, Bermondsey, about 1850” though the glazed conservatory was a later extension.

*House, 19, Shooters Hill Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-21*

One of a long line of large houses on the north of Shooters Hill Road Grade II listed as 7-33 Shooters Hill Road. The listing is rather vague about dates, stating “2nd quarter of C19” and is mainly about the relatively minor differences between the pairs of houses mentioning the extra windows of 19 and its pair 21 at each side of the tympanum – probably why I chose this pair as one of two I photographed (the other not online.)

*Houses, Stratheden Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-24*

I turned northeast from Shooters Hill up Stratheden Road, to photograph this impressive row of late Victorian large semi-detached houses leading up to St John the Evangelist Church. Two of the blocks at 15-17 have been joined with a new central entrance as Bardon Lodge.

St John the Evangelist Blackheath was designed by Arthur Ashpitel (1807–1869) in a largely Perpendicular style and was completed in 1853. It was built as a landmark to be seen from the west as the centre of the Vanbrugh Park development and is Grade II listed.

House, St John's Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-26 — *House, St John’s Park, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-26*

This house immediately to the south of St John’s Church in St John’s Park was then surrounded by far more overgrown vegetation than now. There are two similar detached houses here and this is No 32. I saw it as a villa in some Gothic mystery – and may have deliberately chosen the viewpoint to exaggerate this.

These two detached villas are both locally listed and were built in 1873.

House, Shooters Hill, Charlton, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-11 — *House, Vanbrugh Park, Shooters Hill, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-11*

I’m rather surprised I didn’t photograph the rather fine pub on the corner as I turned from Stratheden Road into Vanbrugh Park, but my next frame was of these three storey houses at 30 and 31 Vanbrugh Park – there is another pair to their left.

I think these are probably late Victorian, built after many of the others in this street.

*House, 90, Shooters Hill Rd, Charlton, Greenwich, 1990, 90-1i-14*

Originally this was a semi-detached house, but the left half was lost with the construction of the ‘Sun in the Sands’ roundabout to take Shooters Hill Road over the the Rochester Way Relief Road which opened in 1988.

More pictures from Charlton in a later post.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

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.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Bedford Park – 1989

Bedford Park – 1989: This is the third post on my walk which began at Kew Bridge Station on 10th of December 1989. The previous post was Turnham Green – 1989.

House, Priory Gardens, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-12 — *House, Priory Gardens, Bedford Park,989, 89-12a-12*

Conveniently a large plaque on the house tells me this is Prioy Gardens and gives the date of its construction, 1880. The London Borough of Hounslow street sign confirms the street name and tells me it is in Chiswick, true, but more specifically it is in Bedford Park. Yet a third street name can be seen on the wall of the house in case anyone was still in doubt.

This Grade II listed house at 1 Priory Gardens is a part of the Bedford Park Estate, “a pioneering commercial development of some 350 houses and a few public buildings built between 1875 and 1886 by inexperienced developer Jonathan Carr.”

The estate was planned “to create a community of like-minded middle class aesthetes who were defined by modest financial resources and significant artistic aspirations” and was generally regarded soon after as ‘The First Garden Suburb’ and had a great influence on later suburban housing.

The whole estate reflects the Queen Anne Revival style of the period which the listing calls ‘Picturesque‘ and is also known as Domestic Revival. Most of the houses and public buildings on the estate built before 1880 were designed by Richard Norman Shaw, the leading architect of this style, but this was one of the earliest by his protégé E J May who had taken over as Estate Architect. A planning application to demolish the house and develop the site was turned down in 1973 and it is now the headquarters of the Victorian Society.

*Flanders Rd, Bath Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-14*

The Tabard Inn at the right of this row also dates from 1880 and is Grade II* listed, one of the public buildings in the area designed by Richard Norman Shaw. This building was was “a pioneering ‘improved’ pub and represented a rejection of the Gin Palace in favour of a more traditionally inspired and respectable inn” and retains much of its original interior features. The exterior of this group of properties was inspired by the well-known Staples Inn on High Holborn – which some may remember featured on tins of Old Holborn hand rolling tobacco.

To the left of the pub is the managers house, and closer to my camera at left are the Bedford Park Stores. Wikipedia has a long and interesting entry on this group of buildings. The stores later became a showroom for coachbuilder H. J. Mulliner & Co.

The buildings of Bedford Park which had become run-down and many in multi-occupation by the middle of last century were saved from ruin by an influential campaign by the Bedford Park Society and all of Carr’s buildings were listed in 1967. Ealing and Hounslow Councils created conservation areas covering the estate in 1970.

*Houses, Rupert Rd, Priory Avenue, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, Hounslow, 1989, 89-12a-16*

This is I think 15 Priory Avenue, one of 4 houses at the crossroads with Rupert Road, where I could have faced in any direction and photographed a listed house, or walked down either of the roads lined with them. I think this was the most distinctive corner, but it was a rather overwhelming ensemble.

*Wendy Wisbey Agency, Bath Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, 1989, 89-12b-63*

Back on the Bath Road the Wendy Wisbey theatrical agency, address 2 Rupert Road, occupied what had previously been The Phildene Stage School. In 2010 it became part of Orchard House School, now part of Dukes Education.

This was another building designed by Richard Norman Shaw. Unfortunately because of the mass nature of the listing of buildings in this area the listing text is almost devoid of any information.

*Wendy Wisbey Agency, Bath Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, 1989, 89-12b-64*

Another picture of this agency which was also a dance school which shows the fine window at the east of the Bath Road frontage.

*Houses, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, 1989, 89-12b-51*

Another picture from Bedford Park showing some rather less grand houses. I can no longer recall the exact location – perhaps someone wlll be able to recognise it.

St Michael & All Angels', Parish Hall, Woodstock Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, ,1989, 89-12b-44 — *St Michael & All Angels’ Parish Hall, Woodstock Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, ,1989, 89-12b-44*

The Parish Hall adjoins the church and is listed together with it. The church by Richard Norman Shaw was built in 1880 as a central element in the new Bedford Park Estate, but the parish hall was a later addition in 1887. The front of the church and the hall face The Avenue but there is a small grassed area in front and the street sign in the photograph is for Woodstock Rd.

The central pillar seems remarkably stout and the decorative ironwork includes two angels above each door.

I left the church and walked down past Turnham Green Station to Chiswick High Road to continue my walk. More later.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

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.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Highgate – Mirrors, Mansions & Luxury Cars – 1989

Highgate – Mirrors, Mansions & Luxury Cars: My next photographic walk in 1989 was on Sunday 19th November, and began At Highgate Station on the Northern Line, from where long escalators took me up to Archway Road.

*Mirrors, Archway Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-66*

The picture is a double self-portrait with me appearing – if dimly – in two of the mirrors in a shop window with the message ‘IF YOU DO NOT SEE WHAT YOU REQUIRE IN THE WINDOW PLEASE ASK INSIDE. My Olympus OM4, held in my right hand (left in the mirrors) covers most of my face.

Mirrors have often featured in photographs and seem endemic in film, and in 1978 John Szakowski staged an exhibition of American photography since 1960 and a book, Mirrors and Windows exploring what he felt was the distinction between photographers whose work largely reflected their own subjective view and others who used photography as a window on the world. It is of course not a dichotomy and we all do both, though perhaps at different positions on the spectrum.

I wandered around a bit up and down Archway Road and can’t remember exactly where this shop was, but not far from the station. Eventually I turned south down Southwood Lane.

*Southwood Mansions, Southwood Lane, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-53*

Southwood Mansions is an imposing late Victorian mansion block build in 1897 and although its entrance (one of a pair) looked rather down-at-heel in 1989, the large flats here now sell for well over a million pounds. This is a very desirable location, close both to the Underground station and to Highgate village.

Car Sales, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-42 — *Car Showroom, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-42*

I went back to Archway Road and wandered a little around the area, taking few pictures. This rather grand car showroom had some rather expensive cars – I was told they are 930 and 964 Porsches and would be worth a fortune now and the first advert that came up on Google lists them at £64,995 to £449,995. I can’t find this showroom now and think it has probably been demolished.

*North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-45*

These houses are a part of a small estate on North Hill, Bramalea Close and Cross Crescent. They are among those featured on a walk along the street by the Highgate Society which states “Arguably no other road in London, Britain, Europe or, who knows, even the world compares with North Hill in terms of the diversity of its domestic architecture” though it gives rather little information about these. They were built between 1976 and 1982.

*BMW, Garage, The Victoria, Pub, 28, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-46*

More expensive cars at Highgate dealer Hexagon, founded by Paul Michaels in 1963. The company is still in business but this site has been demolished and replaced by housing.

The pub building is still there but closed in 2017 and planning permission was granted for the site to be developed with extra residential building but retaining the pub. Some think the developers are waiting until the pub is in such a poor condition they will be able to demolish it and develop the entire site. But so far it does not seem to have been treated to the usual fire started by persons unknown.

House, 53, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-31 — *Houses, 53, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-31*

Thes building are not mentioned in the Highgate Society walk on North Hill, though I did photograph some of the others. I found it interesting for the porch and the balcony above at 51 and the 1930s style windows of 53 to the right (since replaced) and the unusual fenestration of 53 and 55, clearly a later addition to 51.

*Kingdom Hall, North Hill, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11e-35*

There is something very odd about these walls and steps that lead up to the door of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 33 North Hill, and it seems perverse in the era of accessible entrances. It was certainly not the straight gate of Matthew 7 verse 14. The The steps from the pavement now seem to have been levelled out and there is now I think step-free access to a lower level of the building.

More to come from my walk in Highgate.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Stroud Green to Grand Parade, November 1989

Stroud Green to Grand Parade: Continuing my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 from where the previous post left me on Stroud Green Road close to Finsbury Park Station.

*Boys Entrance, Stroud Green Primary School, Ennis Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-46*

The Girls Entrance to Stroud Green Primary is still there on the corner of Perth Road and Woodstock Road, but the BOYS was recently removed from above the gate at the other end of the school site in Ennis Road, where extensive building work was taking place – so perhaps it will return. The two entrances were over a 100 metres apart, an unusually safe distance. There is also a similar gate for INFANTS on Woodstock Road.

I think most of the school dates from 1897, although Google’s AI unhelpfully told me “Stroud Green Primary School was established in 1997” when I asked when it was built. The Grade II listing text for Woodcock Road School begins “Late C19 building of shallow U-shape with projecting gabled wings and slightly projecting 5 bay centrepiece under higher hipped roof crowned by cupola.” The area had fairly recently been developed with housing, some of which had to be demolished to build the school.

*Oxford House, Oxford Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-33*

I turned left into Woodstock Road and then right into Oxford Road, heading for the Oxford Road Gate to Finsbury Park.

On the right just before the gate is Oxford House. In the 1960s this was the cinematographic film processor Kay Laboratories, later absorbed into MGM (possibly via Rank Xerox). For some years it was a studio and office space and housed a private college. For some years this 1930s Art Deco building was in a poor state but has recently been refurbished as offices and co-working space.

Pipe Bridge, New River, Houses, Endymion Rd, Haringay, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-23 — *Pipe Bridge, New River, Houses, Endymion Road, Harringay, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-23*

I walked through Finsbury Park on what is now part of Section 12 of the Capital Ring a circular walking route around London, first put forward as an idea the following year but only completed in 2005, but turning north onto the New River Path to exit onto Endymion Road where the houses on this picture are.

*Houses, Endymion Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-24*

These south-facing houses on Endymion Road were lit by early afternoon winter sun. The road was the first constructed in the area after Finsbury Park was established and the development was begun by the Metropolitan Board of Works around 1875. The road goes around the northwest and north sides of the park, giving the houses attractive views over it. Development of the area to the north, West Harringay, began shortly after.

Endymion was in one of several Greek myths a handsome shepherd prince who moon goddess Selene fell in love with and persuaded Zeus to make immortal and to put in eternal sleep so she could visit him every night. John Keats wrote a famous extremely long poem in four sections, each around a thousand lines base on the myth and first published in 1818.

But the name more likely came to Harringay from HMS Endymion, “the fastest sailing-ship in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail“, built in 1797 and in active service during the Napoleonic Wars and until the First Opium War around 1850 and only finally broken up in 1868.

*Building, Green Lanes area, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-25*

I think this building was probably on Warham Road, just a few yards down from Green Lanes, but if so there is no trace of it now. I wonder what it was built for, but there are few clues in the picture – perhaps someone local to the area can tell us in the comments.

*Shop Window, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-11*

The Grand Parade on the east side of Green Lanes of shops with middle class flats above them was developed by J C Hill and completed in 1899, with its relatively consistent facades interrupted only by an earlier bank, built five years earlier.

I can’t think who the peculiar bedroom suite in the window of this shop might appeal to, but it seemed like something out a a peculiar nightmare to me, but I guess it was someones’ dream.

*Tory Scum, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-13*

Also and rather more prosaically on Grand Parade on an empty shop front, fly-posting and the carefully stencilled graffiti:

TORY SCUM
OFF OUR BACKS
WE CAN’T PAY
WE WON’T PAY
NO POLL TAX

My walk continued, and I’ll post more soon.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Wine, Bingo, Market Tower and Houses

Wine, Bingo, Market Tower and Houses continues my walk in Islington on Sunday 15th October 1989 which began with the post Memorials, Eros and More. The previous post was Liverpool Road, Highbury Corner & Caledonian Rd.

*The Wine Press, Caledonian Rd, Lower Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10h-26*

The Wine Press sold wine by the case at wholesale prices and its doorway had once been surrounded by 15 labelled barrel ends, but the lower four had been removed by the time I made this picture.

At the top you can just see the bottom of a large 2D representation of a wine bottle and out of picture to the right on the wall was a similar flat picture of a bottle of Anglias Brandy, a brandy from Cyprus. I took a second picture – not yet digitised – showing more of the frontage.

Wine was still very much a drink of the metropolitan middle classes and an establishment such as this very much a sign of the gentrification of Islington and other former working class areas of London.

*Top Rank Bingo, 474, Caledonian Rd, Lower Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10h-13*

Designed by architect Frederick E Tasker and, opened in 1937 as Mayfair Cinema, it was briefly renamed The Eagle in 1942 but reverted after a popular outcry. Taken over by Essoldo in 1952, it became Essoldo Caledonian Road until 1965 when it became Essoldo Bingo Club. Later it was Top Rank Bingo and finally Jasmine Bingo, closing in 1996. Demolished in 1998.

*Clock Tower, Caledonian Market, Caledonian Park, Lower Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10h-16*

Grade II* listed, built as the clock tower of the Caledonian Market in 1855, designed by James Bunstone Bunning, Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of the City of London. The market was built on Copenhagen Fields which had been the meeting point for the crowd of 100,000 who marched from here through London to support the Tolpuddle Martyrs on 21 April 1834. 175 years later I photographed TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady unveiling a plaque on the tower to commemorate this on 25th April 2009.

The ‘Grand Demonstration‘ was I think the first mass demonstration by trade unions and the start of a successful popular campaign that led eventually to the men being released – a pardon was granted in 1835 (but it was 1837 before they arrived back in the UK.) The 2009 march that followed the unveiling was rather smaller, but colourful with some trade union banners including that of the Tolpuddle Branch Dorset County of the National Union of Agricultural Workers.

*House, 348-352, Camden Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10i-65*

This remarkable Victorian property on Camden Road appears to have been built as three houses as the three entrances and street numbers suggest, with 350 having a much grander entrance than its two neighbours. 348 appears to be called ‘The Cottage’. Perhaps someone reading this will know more about the history of this building and enlighten us.

*Cambridge House, 354-6, Camden Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10i-66*

The lettering on the front of this house has been changed since I took this photograph, with the addition of the word ‘Collegiate School’ in a central line. There was a Collegiate School at first in Camden St and then at 202 Camden Road before moving to Sandal Rd and Edgware, but so far as I can ascertain with no connection to this building which is now flats.

I think this large semi-detached residence dates from the mid-19th century but again have been unable to find any more about it.

*Macready Place, Holloway Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10i-52*

This building has been demolished and replace by ‘The Arcade’ student accommodation with the Big Red bar at ground floor level on Holloway Road.

The lettering at top right appears to have once read CYCLES and was presumably a shop on the corner with Holloway Road. The posters on the wall below it are for an event at the Hackney Empire by the Campaign For Free Speech on Ireland on Tuesday October 17th 1989.

*Albemarle Mansions, 542-554, Holloway Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10i-55*

The frontage of Albemarle Mansions stands out above the shops on Holloway Road and was clearly meant to distinguish these mansion flats built in 1898 from the various working class blocks of the same era built by philanthropic companies. Albemarle is a name brought over from France with the Norman Conquest and the title Earl of Albemarle was created several times over the century since then.

My walk on 15th October 1989 more or less came to an end here, and I made only one more picture – not on line – on the short walk to Holloway Road station on the North London Line on my way home.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Ninety from Narbeth, Pembrokeshire:

Ninety from Narbeth: Narberth (Arbeth to Welsh speakers) was until recently a place I had never hear of, a small town in Pembrokeshire with ancient origins. I spent a week staying there with a small group of friends at the start of September 2024, returning last Saturday.

Narbeth apparently grew up around the palace of a Welsh king and in the great collection of ancient Welsh stories preserved by oral tradition until first written down around 1350, the Mabinogion, is the chief palace of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed. There were ancient camps nearby and the Romans came – and went.

But it was the Normans who, having invaded England in 1066, a few years later turned their attention to Wales and left a great mark on the area, building more than 50 massive castles to invade and occupy the area. Thee wars here were a complex and changing situation and other castles were built by the Welsh to defend their land.

A castle was first built at Narbeth by the Normans around 1116, but rebuilt in stone in the following century. It formed a part of what is now called the Landsker Line, defending the territory they controlled against the Welsh. The castle is now in ruins but open to the public, though the buildings are fenced off for safety reasons.

The Landsker Line divided the largely English-speaking area of south Pembrokeshire, dominated by the Normans from Welsh-speaking Wales, and the area to the south of it was often called ‘Little England’.

Now only around a fifth of the roughly four thousand residents of Narberth are Welsh-speaking. For a town of its size it has a remarkable number of independent shops and particularly at weekends the place is crowded. Ten years ago The Guardian called it “a gastronomic hub for West Wales” and named it as “one of the liveliest, most likeable little towns in the UK.“

I can’t comment on the gastronomy, though I did help to cook some interesting meals for our small group staying there, but it does have a very fine shop making artisanal ice cream with some unusual flavours. And I only visited one of its many pubs, which was a very friendly place, though I just missed the live music there.

As well as more traditional shops, the town also has more than its share of arty shops and some with a hippy or ‘New Age’ vibe. And its certainly a very friendly place compared to suburban London and one of a number of locals we met in a pub shook my hand when I revealed one of my Grandmothers had come from Wales. I’m not surprised that Narberth was “named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017“

It has an excellent local museum and of course a number of churches and chapels, though some now in other uses. These are among its 70 listed buildings, most of which I think are in the pictures I took, though many of the more interesting are unlisted.

It isn’t far to drive to many other attractions of the area – more castles, mills, the rugged coastal path and more sedate seaside resorts with some fine beaches. Friends took me to some of these but there were many more.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Narberth is the railway station, around three-quarters of a mile from the centre of town. On the map the railway seems useful, but in reality there are too few trains to be of much use. The station building is now a joinery though Platform 1 (and only) still stands, with an announcement telling us that this was a request stop, and we should indicate clearly to the driver as the train approached that we wanted to board. Fortunately it did stop when we began our journey home.

All the pictures here are from Narberth town centre, and there are more on Facebook in the album ‘Ninety From Narbeth‘. I’ll make some later posts about some of the places in the area we were able to visit during our holiday.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos