Posts Tagged ‘South Hackney’

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.


Old Ford, Hertford Union & Hackney

Monday, April 11th, 2022

Old Ford, Hertford Union & Hackney

Gunmakers Lane, Hertford Union, canal, Old Ford, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-8am-33-Edit_2400
Gunmakers Lane, Hertford Union, canal, Old Ford, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-8am-33

The short street which goes across the canal on Three Colts Bridge probably got its name from the pub, the Gunmakers Arms, which stood opposite it 438 Old Ford Road on the west side of St Stephens Road – and perhaps there were once some guns made nearby. In April 1915 the pub was taken over by the East London Federation of Suffragettes, led by Sylvia Pankhurst, a more militant and working class breakaway from Women’s Social and Political Union who turned it into a day nursery and clinic.

The Connaught Works here on Old Ford Road was a furniture factory and is said to date from the 1920’s though it looks earlier and was extended to the east around 20 years later.

Gunmakers Lane, Hertford Union, canal, Old Ford, Tower Hamlets, 1988  88-8am-34-Edit_2400
Three Colt Bridge, Gunmakers Lane, Hertford Union, canal, Old Ford, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-8am-34

This early 19th century cast iron bridge presumably dates from the building of the Hertford Union Canal which opened in 1830. It is Grade II* listed Scheduled Ancient Monument. A pub, the Old Three Colts, was close by at 450 Old Ford Rd from 1792 or earlier but was I think demolished a few years after WW2. St Stephens Road used to be called Three Colts Street, possibly because this pub was more or less at its end.

Victoria park Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-35-Edit_2400
Victoria park Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-35

The Three Colts Bridge leads to the Gunmakers Gate of Victoria Park, and I walked across the park to Victoria Park Road. This gothic fantasy of a building is now the Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy but was built in 1864-5 by Robert Lewis Roumieu as a French Protestant Hospital by a Huguenot charity, La Providence, who had decided to move out of earlier almshouses and hospital in Finsbury to a larger and more rural site here.

After WWII, La Providence moved to Rochester, selling the building to Roman Catholic nuns, the Faithful Companions of Jesus, and it reopened as the St Victoire Convent Girls’ Grammar School. When I made this picture it had become Cardinal Pole RC School and in 2014 was sold to be an academy school. The building is Grade II* listed.

Terrace Rd, Church Crescent, South Hackney, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-21-Edit_2400
Terrace Rd, Church Crescent, South Hackney, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-21

These Tudor-style group of cottages are thought to have been built in 1847-8 to designs by George Wales who was the architect of Monger’s almshouses further down Church Crescent. The other houses between the two sites are more classical in design but also thought to be by Wales.

They are Grade II listed and still there and look now rather neater, with the middle property of the Tudor three having had its brickwork cleaned and looking considerably brighter. It also appears to lack the variation in colour of the darker brickwork which I find more attractive, though perhaps it looks more like when it was newly built.

Terrace, Cassland Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-25-Edit_2400
Hackney Terrace, Cassland Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-25

This remarkable terrace at 20-54 Cassland Road overlooking Cassland Crescent is Grade II listed and was built from 1794 using funding from subscribers who made monthly payments over a period of four years, with the houses being allotted by ballot to a subscriber as each was built. All 18 were completed and occupied by 1801. This kind of co-operative funding of a development predates the earliest more conventional building societies.

James Taylor, gallery, Collent St, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-26-Edit_2400
James Taylor, gallery, Collent St, Hackney, 1988 88-8am-26

The James Taylor warehouse was built in 1893 in Collent Road, which was described by the James Taylor gallery as “Formerly a Victorian factory, china warehouse, squat and film location.” Around ten years ago it was transformed with the facade and front building on the site being retained, along with a long wall along the north almost to Cresset Road as a part of a complex redevelopment with up to 10 storeys containing 69 flats, office space and an underground car park.

I made a few more exposures around Well St and I think my walk probably ended on neaby Mare Street, where I photographed the Crown pub (not online) and then probably caught a train from Hackney Central.


Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse other images in the album.