St Mark's | >Re-PHOTO

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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Hats, Bags, Passports, Mansions, Biocrin & Hollywood: This post continues my 1988 walk South Stokey & Hornsey Detached posted a few days ago.

Marmel & Grossmith, Hat Co Ltd, Boleyn Road, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-24 — *Marmel & Grossmith, Hat Co Ltd, 1 & 2 Boleyn Road, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-24*

Back Road Kingsland dated from 1839 and was renamed Boleyn Rd in 1877, one of a number of local streets given names associated with Henry VIII who was alleged to have used a hunting lodge on nearby Newington Green. Until 1877 the road like many others in London was divided into a number of blocks or terraces each given its own name by the developers and many streets were renamed around then to end this confusion.

I’m not sure when Marmel & Grossmith set up their hat factory here, but in 1940 they had a hat factory at 159 Commercial St, Whitechapel. I don’t know when hat production ended in Boleyn Road, though the fly-posting suggests the works was no longer in use. The 33 flat Dalston Hat apartments into which the factory was transformed bear little resemblance to it but have an entrance marked by a giant top hat.

*Cambay Ltd, Alpha House, Tyssen St, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-25*

Alpha House was on Tyssen St which runs north from Dalston Lane, just to the south of where it bends 90 degrees to the east until 2014, although around 2010 the signs for Cambay Bags Luggage & Travel Goods were replaced by those for Cyclone Design Lab. The new flats have solicitors offices on the ground floor.

I was attracted by the confusion of notices and also by the pictures of a large bag, and on the van, a man perhaps cleaning a car.

Dalston Lane, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-12-Edit_2400 — *Dalston Lane, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-12*

Back on Dalston Lane there was a photographer’s shop window, something I always stop and have a look in. . The most interesting part to me was a framed selection of 16 passport pictures (with a label stating PASSPORTS in case we were not sure), which I thought gave a good representation of the local community.

Navarino Mansions, Dalston Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-15-Edit_2400 — *Navarino Mansions, Dalston Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10a-15*

Walking towards Hackney I went past Navarino Mansions built in 1885 by the Four Percent Industrial Dwellings Society as 300 flats for Jewish workers from the East End. The architect, Nathan S.Joseph, set new standards for social housing in creating a building that was in finest style of the era as well as providing for the time high standards of provision.

Still owned in 1986-92 by the same organisation, then called simply the Industrial Dwellings Society [IDS] they were treated to a major refurbishment in 1986 to bring them up to modern standards, including the provision of lifts and new gardens in the courtyards and providing more spacious family accommodation.

House, St Mark's, Church, Colvestone Crescent, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-61-Edit_2400 — *House, St Mark’s, Church, Colvestone Crescent, Dalston, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-61*

I think I continued my walk back towards Dalston, probably going along Ridley Road – I liked going to the market there, though seldom took photographs – and turning up St Mark’s Rise with the intention of photographing St Mark’s Church which is a prominent local landmark – sometimes called the ‘Cathedral of the East End’, it is one of the largest parish churches in London and used once to have over 2,000 attending its Sunday services.

The church is Grade II* listed, with a nave by Chester Cheston Junior built in 1864-6 and its distinctive tower by Edward Lushington Blackburne added in 1877-80. The area around was developed in the 1860s as housing for the wealthier middle class who worked in the City.

Vine's Biocrin Ltd, Clarence Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-52-Edit_2400

Vine’s Biocrin Ltd, 111, Clarence Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-52

You can still buy a range of Vine’s Biocrin hand sanitiser, oils and creams although I think the original company, incorporated in 1937 for the “Manufacture of soap and detergents – Manufacture and wholesale of toilet preparations ” was dissolved around 2000.

The products, apparently still largely made for hairdressers, are now made elsewhere as this small factory has been replaced by flats, although the building part shown at the left is still there, now Capital Die-Stamping and The Hill Church at “Holy Anointing Christian Centre Where All Yoke Are Broken By The Anointing.” I don’t know if Vine’s make an anointing oil.

Kenninghall Rd, Hackney Downs, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-54-Edit_2400 — *Kenninghall Rd, Hackney Downs, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-54*

I think this is De Vere Court at 63 Kenninghall Road, but if so the details on the impressive porch have been lost presumably in the conversion to 14 flats. Their are other impressive porches on the street but the brickwork around the first floor windows is unusual.

Hollywood Studios, Upper Clapton Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-56-Edit_2400 — *Hollywood Studios, Upper Clapton Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-56*

The Lea Bridge Tramway Depot at 38-40 Upper Clapton Road was built in the Victorian era for horse-drawn trams, opening in 1873, and remains, its future under much doubt, as one of the few remaining examples of a Victorian horse-drawn tram depot in London.

The existence of the trams, taking people to work in the City and the West End until 1907 drove the development of a thriving suburb in Clapton. Until recently many of the buildings were in use by a range of businesses who were forced to quit after planning permission was given for this locally listed building to be demolished and the site redeveloped in 2011. Statutory listing was refused in 2005, probably because of English Heritage’s snobbish lack of interest in our industrial past. Hollywood Studios was a rehearsal room and recording studio used by groups including Iron Maiden occupied a part of the buildings for a few years from 1983.

My walk around Clapton in 1988 will continue in a later post.