Posts Tagged ‘Mare St’

Shops, Houses, A Library, Car Sales 1988

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

Shops, Houses, A Library, Car Sales 1988 – a walk around Lower Clapton, and Hackney which continues from post Jews, a Bishop and the Sally Army.

Gulluoglu, A & A Jewellers, Golden States, Chinese Takeaway, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney,  88-10b-11-Edit_2400
Gulluoglu Bakery, A & A Jewellers, Golden States, Chinese Takeaway, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 88-10b-11

Shops at 63-67 Lower Clapton Rd two of which are still under the same names in 2021. Even the jewellers is still a jewellers though under a different name. Some businesses are more essential than others and family businesses like these often survive longer than some others.

Median Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-13-Edit_2400
Median Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-13

I stood shocked and wondering how these three houses, at 61-65 Median Road had got into the state they are in. I imagine the when built 61 and 63 had similar windows – and what had possessed someone to replace those of 61 something so much plainer. Was it a matter of bomb damage or owner derangement. Equally a sore thumb was the cladding imposed on 61, quite out of character. These houses have changed little since I took the picture, though fortunately the trees in the trangle in front of them have grown considerably and they are rather less visible.

I turned around and walked back into the centre of Hackney, probably mainly to buy a snack to keep me going.

Hackney Central Library, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-01-Edit_2400
Hackney Central Library, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-01-Edit_2400

Hackney Central Hall and Library was built in 1907, its architect Henry A Crouch, and was still in use when I made this picture. Hackney now has a new library just across Mare Street, appropriately at 1 Reading Lane. The building was converted into a music venue and community arts centre, the Ocean at a cost of £23m (including a £15m Arts Council grant) and opened in 1999. Music events were supposed to fund the community projects, but failed to do so and Ocean Music Trust and Ocean Music Enterprises ceased trading in 2004. In 2010 it was leased to City Screen who converted it into the Hackney Picturehouse which opened in autumn 2011.

Clarence Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-65-Edit_2400
Clarence Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-65-Edit_2400

I’m unsure whether these shops were in the part of Clarence Road (then called Back Street) which were built by 1821 as Down Terrace or were built later in the century. At extreme left is a part of No 22 and at the left is No 42.

Almost all of these except those at the far left have been extensively re-furbished or rebuilt since 1988 and only a couple remain with shop fronts, the rest of the row being simply housing, with an added second floor stepped slightly back.

Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-41-Edit_2400
Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-41

Sutton House is a Grade II* Tudor manor house owned by the National Trust, built in 1535 for Sir Ralph Sadler who was the Principal Secretary to Henry VIII and an aide to Thomas Cromwell. Although the building was later given a Georgian frontage its interior retains many Tudor features.

Its name is the result of a mistake, named after Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School who lived not in this house but next door. His house was demolished in 1806. As the plaque on the wall records, W A Robertson gave money as a bequest in memory of his two brothers killed in the First World War which was used to buy the house. Although it bought the property with his money in 1936, the National Trust appears not to have been very interested in it.

Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-42-Edit_2400
Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-42

From the 1930s it was leased to various tenants including the ASTMS trade union. After they left in the 1980s it fell into disrepair and was squatted in the mid-80s as the Blue House, holding parties and music events. After the squatters were evicted it continued to decay until the Save Sutton House Campaign, founded in 1987, campaigned for its renovation and it was first opened to the public in 1991, though only fully in 1994. You can now book guided tours.

Mehetabel Rd., Hackney, 1988 88-10c-43-Edit_2400
Mehetabel Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-43

Mehetabel means ‘how good is God’ and was the name of the wife of Hadar in the biblical book of Genesis and a patriach in Nehemiah. One of John Wesley’s six sisters was the poet Mehetabel Wesley Wright (1697–1750.)

Mehetabel Road is a short street with close to its centre the Chesham Arms pub, declared in 2013 as Hackney’s first Asset of Community Value to protect it when the owner wanted to convert it into flats. The houses at the far left are in Isabella Road.

Morning Car Sales, Off Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-45-Edit_2400
Morning Car Sales, Off Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-45

Morning Car Sales is in one of the railway arches of the North London Line, I think Arch 200 is just to the left of Link St, where the ‘Hackney Walk’ fashion development opened in 2016 – and is now ‘To Let’.

Car showroom, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-46-Edit_2400
Car showroom, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-46

Inside the office were a strange selection of pictures, including Maria Whittaker from the Sunday Sport along with a pastoral riverside and a more maritime painting, with a couple of calenders for September 1988 and a table with tea-making facilities. Although pictures such as this half-naked woman might not now be suitable for Parliament, they were common in many workplaces back then.

The walk will be continues shortly. You can see a larger version of any of the pictures by clicking on it to go to my album 1988 London Photos.


Paragon, Fashion, Morning Lane & Nautilus 1988

Tuesday, April 26th, 2022

Paragon, Fashion, Morning Lane & Nautilus 1988 is the third and final post on my walk in on a Sunday in late September 1988. The first post was South Hackney Walk 1988 and it continued with the equally unimaginative title More South Hackney 1988. So I could have called this ‘Yet More South Hackney’. But the end of the walk took me further north towards the centre of Hackney – and I felt readers deserved something more interesting for a change.

Paragon Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-34-Edit_2400
79-83 Paragon Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-34

At 69-83 Paragon Road are four linked pairs of early-mid C19 houses with a Greek key pattern above the ground floor windows. My picture shows the east end of the row. They are Grade II listed as 71-83. The Buildings of England London 4 North states they were built in 1809-13 and suggests as the land was owned by St Thomas’s Hospital the design, which they suggest was inspired by Blackheath’s Paragon, may have been by the hospital’s surveyor Samuel Robinson or its builder Robert Collins

Bestglare Ltd, Esme Ltd, Ram Place, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-21-Edit_2400
Bestglare Ltd, Esme Ltd, Ram Place, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-21

I’m not sure that these same industrial units are still in Ram Place or have been replaced. The block closed to Chatham Place became AquaScutum when the area on Morning Lane was funded as a fashion quarter following the 2011 riots. But a few years later most of the stores had closed down. Aquascutum was one of the last to go, selling off £750 macs in its final sale for £75 – still more than I’d want to pay.

Hackney has strong links with fashion – but not so much with the higher end as with street and sweatshop, and many doubted the project from the start.

Sawyer Sewing Machines, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-26-Edit_2400
Sawyer Sewing Machines, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-26

The sewing machine shop at 99 Morning Lane was still in business, though from what we can see mainly dealing in more industrial than domestic machines, though a sign in the window does state ‘DOMESTIC MACHINES SERVICED & REPAIRED’. But next door at 101 the High Class Shoe Repairs have closed and the windows above are bare of glass, looking blind.

By 2008 the Sewing Machine shop was selling car spares, but next door was even more derelict and for sale. It was being refurbished in 2011 and was part let as residential the following year. By 2012 the ground floor was coffee & tea and car spares had given way to Morning Bedzzzzz and then fashion took over with The Hackney Shop and brew for two. But fashion changed and moved from Hackney with 2021 seeing the corner shop be transformed into ‘Beauty by Saima’. Brew for two branched out to sell garden plants as well as being a café.

Mini Cab Office, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-12-Edit_2400
Mini Cab Office, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-12

The Mini Cab Office was on a short road leading north from Morning Lane, and along with another property I photographed, Doreen’s Pet Centre (not online) this land was bought by Tesco in 1997 and is now underneath their store and car park.

Security Centre, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-14-Edit_2400
Security Centre, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-14

H & S Security Centre at 232 Mare St claimed to be specialists in all forms of security and had some rather fancy wrought iron railings, though would weld in rather plainer forms of protection. They had left a rather wide open area for some misguided youth to chalk in the word Sex, though there was something desperate in that last letter as if the culprit had been caught in the act.

You can still see the railings on the steps leading up to the front door but there is no sign of any business operating from here, part of a Grade II listed early 19th century terrace.

Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-61-Edit_2400
Diver, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-61

Inside a shop window on Mare St I found a diver, or a least a diving suit with a rather realistic hand and hanging up to the left a selection of Solent divers neoprene dry suits. This was Collins & Chambers Ltd at 197-199 Mare Street with a shop named Nautilus immediately south of Cyntra Place, demolished in 2012, listed as supplying Scientific Equipment, Divers Equipment Supplies, Diver Equipment. Mare St Star Night supermarket opened there around 2018 supplying all your pan-Asian grocery needs.

I turned around somewhere near here and walked back up towards Hackney Central Station and the end of my walk, pausing briefly to photograph the side of the Hackney Empire (not on line) on my way.


More South Hackney 1988

Sunday, April 24th, 2022

More South Hackney 1988

Bucknell House, Victoria Park Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-13-Edit_2400
Bucknell House, Victoria Park Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-13

After eating my lunch in Victoria Park where I finished my previous post on this walk I went back to Victoria Park Rd and photographed No 78, Bucknell House, which seemed to be the site of a great deal of building activity, though I suspect not by Barry Bucknell who had been the great DIY expert on TV in the 50s and 60s with “Do it Yourself” and then “Bucknell’s House”.

Back then TV was broadcast live, and the programmes often ended in disaster, much to the viewers amusement. The street was built after Victoria Park, bought by the Crown, opened in 1845, stimulating development in the area which had before been slow.

Warneford St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-64-Edit_2400
Warneford St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-64

Much of the land in the area belonged to St. Thomas’s hospital and the trustees of the Sir John Cass Foundation (hence the name Cassland Rd.) I think these houses in Warneforde Street probably date from around the 1880s.

Victoria Park Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-52-Edit_2400
Victoria Park Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-52

These are some of a row of six very similar detached houses on the north side of Victoria Park Road just to the west of Clermont Road, numbers 69-81, I think these are probably 73 to 69. No house numbers are visible in the picture as is often the case, with properties either not having a number or these being too small to be visible. There were seldom bins visible back in 1988 with large house numbers on them, though now we all have wheelie-bins these are often the easiest way to find house numbers.

The Triangle, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-53-Edit_2400
The Triangle, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-53

I’d walked past The Triangle where Mare St and Westgate Street meet earlier and had taken one picture (not online), but coming back later I made three more, another similar to this one and a third from a few yards further back including a large three-legged notice board telling me the is as the London borough of Hackney and a couple of modern telephone booths. But my main interest was in the building housing M.R.S.[Hackney]Ltd., T.V.s & Appliance Dealers and above them Baker Finance offering Personal Loans.

Just a few yards away I found more large graffiti, urging ‘Don’t mug me. MUG A YUPPIE!!!MUG A YUPPIE!!!’ but so far I’ve not scanned that frame.

Fashions, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-43-Edit_2400
Fashions, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-43

I walked further up Mare St, past the Cordwainer’s College, now part of the London College of Fashion but originally built in 1877 as Lady Hollis’s School for Girls, which moved to Hampton as Lady Eleanor Hollis in 1936 and it later turned down my sister for having working class parents (picture not online.) I then photographed this entrance, I think on the west side of Mare St, to Le Duman – Fashions of London – Ladies Fashions Factory Shop. It claimed to be ‘Now Open To The Public’ but that was only Monday-Friday, and it was Sunday.

Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-46-Edit_2400
Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-46

Further on up Mare St I photographed another block with an interesting corner on Darnley Rd and then this rather narrow alley leading to some industrial premises which I think was between two more interesting buildings on Darnley Road I failed to photograph!

Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-31-Edit_2400
Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-31

In Darnley Road I came across these houses which although they seemed to be in poor condition were still lived in. I wondered at their wide double doors. They are still there, though I think most have now been extensively refurbished into expensive flats. Darnley Road dates from 1853 and was one of the areas in which the well-to-do late Victorians lived.

Darnley House, Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-33-Edit_2400
Darnley House, Darnley Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9d-33

And also in Darnley Rd, No 57, the last house before the corner with Brenthouse Road was certainly very much in the middle of its complete refurbishment, and I was unsure if it was to be demolished. It looks very smart now, except that its gateposts do not quite match. That on the left has a low pyramidal cap with the word DARNLEY on its front edge, while at the right of the entrance is much flatter and wordless – and the brickwork below is not quite the same. The wall and posts are separately Grade II listed to house, and the listing of the posts mentions the inscribed word HOUSE – which isn’t there. My picture only shows a side of the left post. In 1927 this was the home of Dinshaw Phiroze, physician & surgeon, about whom I can tell you nothing more.

More pictures from this walk in South Hackney to follow in a later post, Paragon, Fashion, Morning Lane & Nautilus 1988.


South Hackney Walk 1988

Thursday, April 21st, 2022

South Hackney Walk 1988
It was not until Sunday 18th September 1988 that I had the time for another walk with my cameras around London, taking a train and tubes to Bethnal Green Station and walking north up Cambridge Heath Road to Mare St in Hackney.

Victoria Buildings, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-53-Edit_2400
Victoria Buildings, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-53

I stopped to take another photograph of the fine late Victorian commercial building with its row of shops at ground level and a bricked up doorway, particularly attracted by the multiple identities of No 7 as Aarons Van & Car Rental with Doris Car Service partly covering yet another. In the top left corner of the shop window it tells us ‘UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT’ while a rather drunken notice lower down states ‘YOU DRINK WE DRIVE’. Above Simply Seconds at No 9 were peeling posters and the upper floors appeared largely unoccupied.

Rich Scum out of Hackney!!, Westgate St, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-56-Edit_2400
Rich Scum out of Hackney!!, Westgate St, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-56

A little further up Mare St I wandered briefly down Westgate St, to record the graffiti on its railway bridge, which above the advert for LEATHER MERCHANTS gave the clear message ‘RICH SCUM OUT OF HACKNEY!!’. The bridge has been regularly repainted over the years, but I think later graffiti has been non-political.

King Edwards Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-43-Edit_2400
King Edwards Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-43

On King Edwards Road off to the west of Mare Street I came across a fine piece of architectural decoration with peeling paint and shrubs growing from it at No 6. The house next door, No 8 had a similar feature in better condition and a little more ornate which I also photographed but is not on-line.

Synagogue, Ainsworth Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-31-Edit_2400
Synagogue, Ainsworth Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-31

The South Hackney Federation Synagogue or Yavneh Synagogue at 25 Ainsworth Rd was founded in 1904 and was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue incorporated into Clapton Federation Synagogue in the 1990s. It was demolished and replaced by a block of flats.

Church Crescent, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-21-Edit_2400
Southborough Road area, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-21

I often made use of framing a view through some kind of arch – in this case of trees – which had been emphasised by the writers for Amateur Photographer when as a grubby teenager I spent hours perusing it in my local library. And while it can be a useful device it is certainly a cliché and is often used ironically in my work. I’ve also here carefully joined together a 22 storey tower block and the rather grand porch of an older house.

I think the block could be Clare House in Hawthorne Avenue, on the other side of Victoria Park where I was standing on a street corner, somewhere not far from Church Crescent where I made a previous exposure and the next on the corner of Southborough and Lauriston Roads. But I cannot find its precise location

Derby Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-24-Edit_2400
Derby Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-24

These houses were on Derby Road, awaiting demolition as well as those in the image below. There is now a modern two-story housing development on this side of the street.

J Roler, Derby Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-25-Edit_2400
J Roler, Derby Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-25

J Roler was at the corner of Derby Rd though I think its address as No 6 may have been in Rutland Road. It appeared long closed when I made this picture. Perhaps someone reading this will remember visiting the shop and tell us all more in a comment to this post.

Shelter, Victoria Park, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-26-Edit_2400
Shelter, Victoria Park, Hackney, 1988 88-9c-26

A curiously organic shelter in Victoria Park with a generous coating of graffiti, none of any interest. In the background people are sitting beside the lake. I don’t think I walked far into the park and although I can’t identify and of the buildings in the background I think this is somewhere close to Victoria Park Road on the north side of the lake.

I suspect I sat here or somewhere close by drinking a cup of coffee and eating my sandwiches for lunch. Back in 1988 there were still relatively few places you could rely on getting a decent cup of coffee and my camera bag always included a space for a thermos. After a short rest I will have continued my walk – and there will be more pictures in a future post.