Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Vol 4 No 3 Autumn 2014 incorporating Islington History Journal

War, peace and the London bus

The B-type London bus that went to war joins the Routemaster diamond jubilee event

Significants finds at Caledonian Parkl Green plaque winners l World War 1 commemorations l Beastly Islington: animal history l The emigrants’ friend and the nursing pioneer l The London bus that went to war l Researching Islington l King’s Cross aerodrome l Shoreditch’s camera obscura l Books and events l Your local history questions answered About the society

Our committee What we do: talks, walks and more Contribute to this

and contacts he Islington journal: stories and President Archaeology & History pictures sought Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury TSociety is here to Vice president: investigate, learn and celebrate We welcome articles on local Mary Cosh the heritage that is left to us. history, as well as your Chairman We organise lectures, tours research, memories and old Andrew Gardner, andy@ and visits, and publish this photographs. islingtonhistory.org.uk quarterly journal. We hold A one-page article needs Membership, publications 10 meetings a year, usually about 500 words, and the and events at Islington town hall. maximum article length is Catherine Brighty, 8 Wynyatt The society was set up in 1,000 words. We like receiving Street, EC1V 7HU, 020 7833 1975 and is run entirely by pictures to go with articles, 1541, catherine.brighteyes@ volunteers. If you’d like to but please check that we can hotmail.co.uk get involved, please contact reproduce them without Treasurer our chairman Andrew infringing anyone’s copyright. Philip Anderson, phlpandrsn6 Gardner (details left). The journal is published in @btopenworld.com www.facebook.com/ print and online in pdf form. Committee members 8 www.islingtonhistory.org.uk groups/islingtonhistory.org.uk Deadline for the winter Kathleen Frenchman issue is 31 October. Michael Harper Derek Seeley Journal back issues and extra copies Ever wondered…? Academic adviser Do you have any queries about Lester Hillman, former Journal distribution is Islington’s history, streets or visiting professor, London overseen by Catherine buildings? Send them in for Metropolitan Business School, Brighty (details left). our tireless researcher Michael London Metropolitan Contact her for more Reading and other readers to University copies, back issues, if you answer. Please note we do not Journal editor move house and about keep an archive or carry out Christy Lawrance, christy@ membership. Back issues family research. islingtonhistory.org.uk,  can also be downloaded l See Letters, page 6 c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Park via our website at www. Road, N7 0QB islingtonhistory.org.uk Copyright Copyright of everything in $ (photocopies acceptable) this journal lies with the Join the Islington Archaeology & History Society creator unless otherwise stated. While it can be difficult Membership per year is: £12 single; £15 joint at same address; concessions single £8/joint £10; to trace copyright ownership corporate £25; overseas £20; life: £125 (renewal forms sent out when due) of archive materials, we make every effort to do so. I/We would like single/joint/concession/joint concession/corporate membership and enclose a cheque payable to “Islington Archaeology & History Society” for ...... Contacts Contact editor Christy Name(s) ...... Lawrance about articles and pictures for the journal Address ...... (details left).

...... ,...... The Journal of the Islington  Tick here to go on our email list. Email address ...... Archaeology & History Society is published four times a year Tel no (in case of membership queries) ...... ISSN 2046-8245 Please return this form (photocopies acceptable) to: Catherine Brighty, Islington Archaeology & History Society, 8 Wynyatt Street, London EC1V 7HU Printed by PrintSet, 15 Palmer We will not give your details to third parties unless required to by law Place, London, 

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2 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society

Incorporating Islington History Journal 

Vol 4 No 3 Autumn 2014

Personal war stories need recording now

o reader can have missed this year’s anniversaries. I’ve recently Nspoken of the V1 rocket that hit Contents Compton Terrace in 1944 and the 75th anniversary of Neville Chamberlain’s broadcast in 1939 announcing Britain and News 4 Germany were at war. I’ve talked about Hints of Copenhagen House, green plaque winners, World War I commemorations, nonconformists in 1914, torn between a Smithfield is saved and the Routemaster diamond jubilee strong pacifist tradition and a feeling that they should fight in World War 1. Letters and your questions 6 The first two were the most moving, as A munitions factory, deco doors, a mystery memorial and anti-slavery campaigners I spoke to people who remember those events at the same time as to those for Beastly Islington  10 whom this is history. Today, it is difficult How animals shaped Islington’s economic, social and cultural history for young people to imagine the whole family earnestly gathered round the The London bus that went to war 12 radio, listening to news and propaganda. A rare restored B-type bus is unveiled before its World War 1 tour There is a much greater interest in recording oral history than there was a The emigrants’ friend and the nursing pioneer 14 few years ago. We have Pathé News, but A mystery is finally solved there is an urgent need to listen to and record the memories of those who were Researching Islington 16 there as children. The knowledge and abilities needed to answer Journal readers’ questions It is striking how language alters in such a short time. I’ve never heard Flights of fancy 18 anyone younger than me refer to “the evil The extraordinary aerodrome planned for King’s Cross hun” or “the Boche”. In memorials, we no longer inscribe glory. The language of A novel way to view changing Shoreditch 19 reconciliation seems to have taken hold. Architects build a camera obscura on their roof We’ll talk about the influence of language on our reading of history in November. Historical model makes rare appearance 19 Railway model shows Caledonian Road and park area around the 1930s Horse sense Animals had a huge influence on history, Publications  20 as our Beastly Islington article shows. A foot soldier’s World War I memoir, a tour of Bounds Green, fearsome Vikings Horses pulled buses and pigeons carried and a murder mystery wartime messages (the Twitter of its day, as the Imperial War Museum puts it). Reviews  22 This year, Mary Tealby, who founded Collecting as it happens, peace after the Napoleonic Wars, creative protest and what became Battersea Dogs and Cats royal childhoods Home, won the People’s Plaque ballot overwhelmingly. See you at the unveiling. Events and exhibitions  24

Andy Gardner Directory of societies, museums and resources 28 Chairman, Islington Archaeology & History Society Islington Archaeology & History Society events 31

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 3 news In brief World War 1 commemorated

Call to restore Highbury People who died in World & Islington station War 1 are being commemorated with plaques A Highbury resident is in the streets where they lived campaigning to restore in Islington. Highbury & Islington station The Streets They Left to its Victorian glory. Neil Behind: Finsbury and Bowdler started the Rebuild Islington 1914-18 saw plaques Highbury campaign after being installed on Islington recognising the commercial streets to remember all those potential of the site since the who died in each respective London Overground opened. street. This is one of a number The station, built in 1872, of projects marking a century was damaged by a V1 rocket since Britain entered World during World War 2 and War 1 on 4 August 1914, demolished in the 1960s. Information on the project For information on the will be put online in the future campaign, follow Neil on to allow anyone to find out Plaque marking a site of a building at 61 Farringdon Road, Twitter @RebuildHighbury. more about the men and destroyed by a zeppelin raid on 8 September 1915 women who lost their lives. Nazi collaborator lived The council has also set up children of Islington who died As the Journal was going to in Islington council flat an Online Book of as a result of war here and press, the “battle bus” Remembrance, which abroad. The records run from described on page 14 was due A former soldier in the commemorates more than 1899, the beginning of the to return to the omnibus Nazi-led 31st Punitive 13,000 men, women and Boer War, to the 1950s. You factory in North Road before Battalion in World War 2 lived can visit it at www.islington. leaving for a tour of the in Bovingdon Close, Archway, gov.uk/bookofremembrance. former battlefields of until he died in March last Islington residents took part Northern France and Belgium. year. Serhij Woronyj was in the national Lights Out Other events included a captured by British forces in events by turning off their public commemoration at the 1945. Researcher Dr Stephen lights from 10pm to 11pm on Memorial Arch at Manor Ankier told the Ham & High: 4 August, while leaving on a Gardens, vigils and church “The battalion attacked and single light or candle for a services. destroyed several Polish shared moment of reflection The dry moat of the Tower villages and killed many Plaque commemorating people on the 100-year anniversary. of London was filled with unarmed villagers, including who lived in Highbury New Exhibitions were also held ceramic poppies to women and children.” Park who died in World War 1 in local libraries. commemorate the centenary.

Islington in worst new Routemaster (and older) building shortlist again Charterhouse chapel found? buses in 60-year rally For the second year running, a development in Islington Evidence of what may be a Nicholas Elsden, of the Our cover picture this week has made it into the finals for 15th-century chapel or a meat Museum of London shows a 1910 B-type bus at an the competition for Britain’s kitchen has been found at an Archaeology, told the Islington event to mark 60 years since worst new building. archaeological dig at the Tribune: “We know there is a the Routemaster bus was first The QN7 block of flats in Charterhouse in Clerkenwell. chapel out here... we just don’t produced. Queensland Road, N7, was Members of the public know where it is.” After a drive through shortlisted for this year’s joined archaeologists at the The find could have been a London, 136 Routemasters Carbuncle Cup by Building community dig, organised as meat kitchen. However, as lined up in Finsbury Park for Design magazine, with editor part of the Festival of British most people associated with Routemaster 60 in July. This Thomas Lane calling it an Archaeology. the Charterhouse were diamond jubilee weekend was “example of gross Maps dating from the 1600s vegetarians, such a building the largest ever gathering of overdevelopment”. Last year’s and radar charts indicated a might have catered for visitors. Routemasters. winner was the student housing building of some kind was in Animal bones were found at The buses were produced at 465 Caledonian Road, the area and a Carthusian the dig, along with Roman from 1954 until 1968. which involved an ungainly monastery once stood in the pottery, oyster shells and a l The London bus that went

Highbury New Park plaque: David Holt; Farringdon Road plaque: Christy Lawrance; Road plaque: Christy Lawrance; Holt; Farringdon plaque: David Highbury New Park Copenhagen House: Islington Council retention of a Victorian facade. grounds. medieval coin. to war, page 14

4 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Smithfield market saved from office fate Copenhagen House remains may Plans to replaced Smithfield survive beneath Caledonian Park Market buildings with shops and offices were thrown out this summer. Secretary of state Remains of Copenhagen Eric Pickles, who had called in House, in Caledonian Park, the City of London’s decision may have survived, according to permit the plans, called the to an archaeological survey. scheme “wholly unacceptable”. The ground penetrating SAVE Britain’s Heritage and radar survey into the grassed the Victorian Society argued area south of the Clock Tower, the building could be used for carried out earlier this year, a market proposed by Eric showed there is “significant Reynolds, who founded archaeological potential” Camden Market. surviving beneath the surface of Caledonian Park – in Council consults on the contrast to previous studies of Copenhagen House by Dugdale 1849: its fame as a place of future of fire station the area. This includes the possible presence of building entertainment gives the findings regional significance Islington is consulting on the debris below where future use of Clerkenwell Fire Copenhagen House stood. local importance. Caledonian Road – show the Station. It has said that the Copenhagen House was a Islington Council area was used before building should remain a “famous tavern and teagarden commissioned the report to Copenhagen House was built. community asset, and has [that] stood here from early find out more about was Iron posts from the suggested uses include homes, 17th century until 1855”, below ground to prepare for Metropolitan Cattle Market, including affordable housing, according to a local Islington “public access initiatives” and which occupied the site from and space for a museum or Council plaque. Its history as before a resource/visitor 1855 until 1939, have survived other “social infrastructure”. a well-known entertainment centre was built. in place, so it is possible to On 26 November, the listing spot means that the findings Signs of a well-used route make an accurate ground plan of the building as a are of regional as well as  – a possible predecessor to of the market. community asset will expire.

Goodbye to the garden Dogs’ home founder clear winner in plaque vote on the corner The council has given the go The founder of what became Helped by supporters such until her death in 2012. ahead for a block of flats and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home as Lady Millicent Barber and She was the author of many shops to be built on a bomb was the winner by a long way Charles Dickens, Ms Tealby books for adults and children, site that was turned into a in this year’s Islington People’s opened the Home for Lost and some drawing on her life in garden. Objectors, including Plaques ballot. Starving Dogs in November Islington. Her most famous the Upper Street Association, Mary Tealby (1801-65), who 1860 in stables behind 15 and book was Carrie’s War, based said that designs for the block founded the Home for Lost 16 Hollingsworth Street.  on her experience of being at 168 Upper Street, on the and Starving Dogs in It operated in Holloway  evacuated from London to corner with Barnsbury Street, Holloway, gained 2,415 votes. until 1871. South Wales at the start of did not match nearby terraces. The runner-up, with 835 World War 2. l For the site’s history, see “The votes, was the North London Community and campaigner She was seriously injured in garden on the corner”, JIAHS, Synagogue and a close third The Jewish community was the the Potters Bar train crash in winter 2011-12, page 16. was Nina Bawden (1925-2012), first significant migrant group 2002 in which her husband author and railway safety in Islington yet there is no and six other people were Zythun is the last word campaigner, with 817 votes. notable display of their history. killed. She campaigned to in medieval Latin A record number of votes During the 18th, 19th and make railways safer and to were cast this year – 6,736 early 20th century, Islington hold those responsible for the A medieval Latin dictionary in total. had one of the largest Jewish accident to account. Success has been finished – 101 years Appropriately, Ms Tealby’s communities of England. The came when poor maintenance after it was started. The last plaque will be unveiled at North London Synagogue in the private sector was word is zythum, which is a Freightliners city farm, which (now demolished) was built recognised as the cause of the fermented malt drink. The has the nearest buildings to on Lofting Road in 1868. accident, and routine 4,000-page, 17-volume work the original site of 15-16 Nina Bawden lived at  maintenance is now the has 58,000 entries. Hollingsworth Street. 22 Noel Road from 1976  responsibility of Network Rail.

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 5 Letters and your questions We welcome letters. Our researcher Michael Reading can answer your questions, so get in touch if you have a query about Islington, or can answer or add to anything here

Where was the munitions for many years. I recently factory in Tufnell Park? found an entry in Pigot’s 1823 Does the Islington directory for “Jas Bray, Livery Archaeology & History Stable Keeper, Black Horse, Society know anything about Duncan Place, City Road”. a World War 1 munitions The only details I have for factory in Tufnell Park? my James Bray are livery I am interested in the WW1 stable keeper, deceased by experiences of artist William 1843, which are from his son’s Roberts (1895–1980). In his marriage certificate. Memories of the War to End I have pages of people called War 1914-18, he wrote: “I James Bray from all over worked some weeks making London but this is the first bomb parts in a Tufnell Park who was a livery stable keeper. munitions factory. But civilian The address may have been life was becoming more Penderyn Way: built in the 1970s on the site of terraced houses called Upper and Lower difficult as 1915 moved to Duncan Place. its end.” William Roberts may have Penderyn Way (completed in My great great grandfather The list of munitions worked in such a company 1973) was built on land was in Enfield by 1841 and was factories at www.airfield that was producing occupied by approximately 30 an apprentice blacksmith, as informationexchange.org/ components for the war. houses and gardens on the were the next two generations. community/showthread. It was early on in the war east side of Carleton Road, I do not know the area, and php?11695-FIRST-WORLD- and, although the demand for beginning at the junction with it is difficult to research an WAR-Ministry-of-Munitions- munitions grew, I know of no St Georges Avenue and unfamiliar place, so I wonder and-Munitions-Factories does large facility in Islington for continuing to the junction with if you could locate Duncan not include anything in war production and Dalmeny Avenue. The gardens, Place or the Black Horse. If Tufnell Park. established businesses may whose borders abutted the you Google them, you will I only hope that Roberts’s have switched production to boundary of Holloway prison, find a very good article about memory was accurate about meet military needs. were substantial, so there was horses and carriages in the factory’s location; there I was intending to refer you space to build a new street. Regency London. are certainly errors in dates in to the William Roberts The development includes Pam Brown the memoir in which he Society but their website Trecastle Way. [email protected] mentions his munitions work. shows you have already been One of the old houses has Bob Davenport in contact. An enquiry to the survived and is between Black Horse Yard was behind [email protected] Islington Local History Centre Penderyn Way and the Dolphin Duncan Place, which was on may be successful. Court flats, built in 1963. the north side and at the start The only reference I have Finally, the records of the Penderyn is near Brecon in of City Road, at the Angel. found for a Tufnell Park Ministry of Munitions are Aberdare in Wales. Trecastle is In 1883 the Improved munitions factory is the is the held at the National Archives also in Brecon, about 10 miles Industrial Dwellings Co Ltd one to which you refer. at Kew. The “munitions west of Brecknock. built flats on Black Horse Yard Unfortunately, William factory” may be indexed and On 12 July 1944 at 3.21pm, and renamed them Torrens Roberts did not name the be among these papers. a V1 flying bomb landed at Buildings. These were street where the factory was. Michael Reading the junction of Carleton Road, demolished in 1973. The 1914 Ordnance Survey Anson Road and St Georges Duncan Place (1798-99) is map shows the Tufnell Park Penderyn Way’s origins Avenue, killing two people shown in the directories of area was predominately I’m trying to find out the and injuring 20 others. 1825-55 as Upper and Lower residential. However, it was history of the houses on Michael Reading Duncan Place, City Road. The reasonably easy at the time to Penderyn Way in Tufnell 1871 Ordnance Survey map set up a business in your Park. I understand the The livery stable keeper at names Black Horse Yard but home. From 1945, this began architect was Michael Gold. Black Horse Yard not Duncan Place. to be disallowed, and these Stefi Orazi I have been searching for my If you look up Torrens

Christy Lawrance businesses began to disappear. www.modernistestates.com great great great grandfather Street EC1V on a modern

6 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 map, there is nothing left from purchased by the London Soley Terrace was built in the days of your g/g/great County Council in 1967. Vale 1828-29 and was in the grandfather, but it will show Royal is off York Road/York Islington directories until you where James Bray had his Way, two roads south of 1860. After 1862, it became livery stables. Brewery Road. part of Great Percy Street. Michael Reading Barry Edwards The 1859 Post Office street Via Facebook directory lists Soley Terrace as I have found a marriage on the south side of Great record for a Jas Bray at St Michael Reading writes Percy Street, running from Mary’s, Islington, in 1816 and Brewery Road runs from York Amwell Street to Cumberland he is listed as Jas – the same as Way to Caledonian Road. Terrace (now Cumberland the Pigot’s entry so, fingers No 124 was at the western end Gardens). The numbering crossed, it may be him. on the north side of the street begins at the Amwell Street I do not know how old and is now part of Rebond end, so I believe no 7 would be James was when he died so House, which is at nos 98-124. Deco door handle on an in the terrace of houses before finding him has been difficult. The 1914 Ordnance Survey Islington bank building Lloyd Street. Street numbering I have not found him in any map shows there was a at this time was fairly chaotic 1841 north London census so mixture of residential and Westminster Bank in 1968. and the numbers houses bear he may have died before then. commercial/industrial No 218 was in a row of shops today are completely different I have found a death for a properties in the area. Most if which for many years from the from those in the 19th century. James Bray in 1840 in Islington not all of the residential 19th century housed drapery The 1859 Post Office street which I will investigate. I want buildings have now gone. department store TR Roberts. directory shows that the to be sure this is my James Pleasant Buildings were in By 1912, it occupied 207-225 numbering of Soley Terrace ran and, if so, hopefully find out if what was Pleasant Grove on and was one of the leading consecutively; no 7 would his son was an only child or the 1914 Ordnance Survey stores in Islington. have been in the nine houses had brothers and sisters. map and is now Vale Royal; This business, along with beginning at Amwell Street and Pam Brown Vale Royal is three streets the bank, was destroyed by progressing to Lloyd Street. south of Brewery Road. The fire during the Blitz in 1940. I believe that the site of no 7 Placing Pleasant Buildings whole area was compulsory The building there now was is now covered by a block of I am trying to confirm or purchased by the LCC in 1959 built in its place. flats, Cable House, in Great disprove a link in my family and in 1980 declared an I have been unable to find Percy Street. Of the nine tree. The 1911 census shows a industrial improvement area. any details of the door handles, houses, four survive; the family who lived at 4 Pleasant The two addresses you have but an approach to the bank bomb damage map shows the Buildings who may have lived from the 1911 census are archives, which are held at the others were lost in WW2. a few years later at 124 therefore close to each other. Royal Bank of Scotland, may To confirm this, I Brewery Road. Both places are Michael Reading be worthwhile. Contact the recommend you visit the in Islington. I want to know if Royal Bank of Scotland Group Islington Local History they are near each other but Bank’s deco door Archives at 6 South Gyle Centre, which is close to am having trouble finding The handle of the door Crescent Lane, Edinburgh, where you will be filming. Ask them or any references to pictured is of the Highbury & EH12 9EG, [email protected]. to see any maps they hold on Pleasant Buildings. Islington Natwest bank; it is uk, 0131 334 2270. Finsbury before 1850 – one Jethro Tull one of a pair. What was this Michael Reading may show the houses. Via Facebook building before it was a bank? The following may have no Ayla Lepine Anti-slavery campaigners of connection, but the 1859 There is a reference to twitter.com/heartchitecture Claremont Square directory shows a Robert Pleasant Building in the health I am researching the Pringle Pringle, gilt jeweller, living at and sanitary condition report The Post Office directories for family who lived in 7 Soley/ 25 Great Percy Street and at on the Wellcome Library web 1859 and 1869 show the Solly Terrace, Claremont nos 17 and 19 in the 1869 site. It says it was on York premises at 218 Upper Street Square, for a BBC2 edition. Road, which became York were occupied by a Robert W documentary series. In the Michael Reading Way in 1938. Brewery Road is Beckley, mourning wear first episode, we are looking at off York Way, so was not very provider. The 1880 directory the anti-slavery movement in The German orphanage and far from the other address. shows they were then occupied Britain in the 1820-30s, of the Islington pastor Jennifer Rockliff by the National Provincial which the Pringles were a part. I am writing a history of the Via Facebook Bank of England (Islington I am hoping to find out German orphanage in branch); this later became the where 7 Soley Terrace would Dalston, which existed Streets With A Story: The Book National Provincial Bank Ltd have been in 1829 – sometimes between 1879 and 1939. of Islington (1987) by Eric (Islington branch). The the address is given as 7 Soley The pastor of the Hamburg Willats states that Pleasant National Provincial Bank and Terrace, Pentonville. Lutheran church in Dalston in Buildings was at 6-27 Vale the Westminster Bank merged Annie Ward 1919-29 was Arnold Scholten.

Royal and was compulsory to form the National Researcher, Matchlight He baptised and confirmed Lepine Ayla

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 7 most of the orphanage a dance hall after WW2. It was 1899 are still held there children. Before Dalston, interesting to read how much (parochial church councils did Reverend Scholten was pastor of the area remained bomb not come into existence until at the German church in damaged into the 1950s/60s. 1921). You could also ask if Islington. Were the chaps named on the parochial church council I have some photographs the memorial remains local minutes for 1952, the year the that show a man I believe to be worthies? The blog speculates hall was rededicated, are Scholten but need to confirm that FA Bevan was a chairman available. it is him. Does anyone know of Barclays and a Quaker, but The Bomb Damage Map where I could find an image of that there is no Quaker link shows the church hall as Scholten I could compare with with the church. undamaged, but this could be mine? I saw the Journal ran an Hanley Road hall: stone may be Alistair MacLellan a mistake. The church is article by Michael Reading connected to Barclays Bank via Facebook shown as having suffered blast about the history of the damage. On 31 December German church in Islington. who is named on the stone, In 1776, Barclays Bank was 1944, at 11.28pm, a V2 rocket Dr Patrick Wiegand was the first chairman of named Barclay, Bevan and fell at the Hanley Road and [email protected] Barclays Bank. There is also Bening, which would suggest Regina Road junction, killing some history at www. that Mr FA Bevan was a people and injuring 131 others. My Journal article was stroudgreen.org/discussion/ descendant of the 18th Michael Reading condensed from a booklet I 3500/abandoned-building- century owners of the bank produced in 2006, entitled The behind-st-saviour-s-on- and he may have contributed Lost Locks Gardens Church in Fowler Road N1: a hanley-road. to the building of the Hanley My g/g/g/great grandfather History of the German Church. Alistair MacLellan Hall. However, this is pure James Woods lived or worked This had a short section on Via Facebook speculation. at 46 Clerkenwell Green as a the Reverend Scholten, but To find out if FA Bevan was farrier between at least 1806 unfortunately I do not have a In Streets With A Story: The a member of one of the bank’s and 1812. During this time he photograph of him nor of any Book of Islington (1987), founding families, an enquiry insured property at 1-6 Locks of his predecessors. under Sparsholt Road, Eric could be made to the Barclays Gardens. After he died, his wife He was the last pastor of the Willats writes: “The Hanley Group Archives, Dallimore and son began insured them church, which closed at the Hall 1902 was extensively Road, Wythenshawe, from 1827-36 and onwards outbreak of WW1 and never damaged in the Second World Manchester M23 9JA, 0161 (mainly nos 1, 2, 3 and 4). reopened for worship with a War. Bombs fell in the 946 3036, grouparchives@ Despite searching high and German congregation. I found Sparsholt and Ormond Road barclays.com low, I am unable to work out only two pictures of the areas 1940-41. The Hall was He may have been the main whether Locks Gardens was a church, one in Islington re-dedicated by the Bishop of benefactor in providing funds separate street or whether the Chapels (Temple, 1992), the Stepney and re-opened in for building the original properties were in Bowling other a facsimile taken from September 1952 by the late church hall and may have Green Lane. Rev Scholten’s notepaper. Cllr AJ Rogers, then Mayor.” lived locally. The 1901 census I am also interested in I sent a copy of my booklet This fits with the 1899 start would be worth searching. I knowing whether there are to the cultural director at the date and the concrete render do not think being a Quaker any records of freehold German embassy. I had a (post-WW2?). would have precluded him property in Bowling Green charming letter back, saying Barry Edwards from making a substantial Lane for 1812. they were unaware of the Via Facebook donation. I live in South Africa so church’s existence and were It may be worth asking the unfortunately all my research passing my booklet to the The hall had two phases of present incumbent of St is done online. German Centre at the existence, first as a Victorian/ Saviour’s Church whether the Liz Graham Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church, Edwardian church hall, then as vestry meeting minutes for [email protected] 50 Dacres Road, SE23 2NR, who may be able to help you. Write to us

Bevan the banker and the l Email the editor at [email protected] Hanley Road hall l Write to editor Christy Lawrance c/o 6 Northview, Does anybody know about the Tufnell Park Road, N7 0QB hall on Hanley Road or the l Via www.facebook.com/groups/islingtonhistory; individuals named on the posts printed will give Facebook usernames memorial stone? The building may be St Saviour’s church If you have a query, the society won’t trace your family hall and looks abandoned or tree, but can help with, say, a business a family member as if it is used for storage. ran or a where place they lived. Letters and Facebook I’ve seen a blog that posts may be edited.

Alistair MacLellan speculates RA Bevan (d 1919),

8 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Lock’s Gardens (built around I would like to hear from 1810) is shown on the 1914 anyone who knows about Ordnance Survey map as being anything that happened for one of three streets connecting the first time in Islington; I Northampton Road to Bowling know there are a few “firsts” Green Lane, the others being that happened at Arsenal Vineyard Gardens and Douglas Football, Sadler’s Wells and Place; they have all gone. the Royal Agricultural Hall. At the eastern end of Lock’s Chris Burton Gardens, where it would have Via Facebook joined Bowling Green Lane, the street stops short and the Adventure playground space allows another street heritage almost to adjoin Lock’s I am running a heritage Gardens on its north side. This Georges Road workshops: roofline shows where buildings join project, “Play, Past, Present is Rosoman Mews, which goes and in Perpetuity”, which will in a northeasterly direction. I live in Georges Road and shows nos 1a, 1, 3, 5 and 9. By explore and record the history The 1871 Ordnance Survey believe they are to be sold and 1921, the numbers were 1, 3, of the adventure playground map shows the line of houses replaced by multistorey flats. 5, 7 and 9, then St James’s movement in Islington. in Lock’s Gardens very clearly, They add character to a School. The directories for I am collecting information so it follows that the street was conservation area that is fast 1935 and 1939 show only two on the 12 adventure an independent thoroughfare. becoming covered in high-rise properties – nos 5 and 7 – playgrounds so the children The Bomb Damage Map blocks of flats. I was hoping to which suggests some of the and volunteers working on the shows some blast damage at date them and find out some properties might have been project have a starting point the end of Douglas Place. history in an attempt to spot consolidated. The building for their research. The Lock’s Gardens was removed list them or comment on any occupied by DMP Autos may playgrounds are Barnard Park, completely in 1945, I believe planning application. well be one. This joining is Cape Play and Youth Project for redevelopment. I live at St James School likely to have continued since (previously Wooden Bridge), Today, the irregular square (now flats) in Georges Road 1939; it has probably reduced Cornwallis, Crumbles Castle, bound by Northampton Road and this year it is 160 years the number of tenants. Hayward, King Henry’s Walk, and Bowling Green Lane since the school was built. If There may be one or several Lumpy Hill (previously North contains no residential any of your readers have any freehold owners; an enquiry Road), Martin Luther King, premises but has a large block information about the school, to the Land Registry may Three Corners, Timbuktu, of offices on the north side of that would be interesting. answer this. Toffee Park and Waterside Bowling Green Lane, next to Sarah Wege There may be old (previously Baldwin). the Finsbury Business Centre. [email protected] photographs of Georges Road I would love to hear from The whole of Northampton at the London Metropolitan anyone with information on Road’s south side contains the One is occupied by DMP Archives and the Islington these playgrounds or who is premises of the London Autos, then there is a small Local History Centre. interested in volunteering for Metropolitan Archives; this shop, then the building Finally, a personal note. the project. building covers the site where occupied by Strummers. From 1945 to 1949, I used to Jordan James Lock’s Gardens once stood. There is then a wooden walk past this site each day on Play heritage worker, Islington The Islington Local History structure before St James’s my way to school at Geary Play Association, West Centre may hold some school (built 1854). Street. Unfortunately I cannot Library, Bridgeman Road, N1 property records of the area as Maps for 1801 and 1853 and recall what was there. 1BD, jordan@islingtonplay. may the London Metropolitan the Ordnance Survey maps for St James’s School backs on org.uk, 020 7607 9637 Archives, especially as their 1871, 1894 and 1914 show the to St James’s Church in premises are right on the area buildings here were separate, Chillingworth Road, which Medieval finds at you are interested in. not joined together as they are closed for worship in 1946. The Charterhouse dig Michael Reading today, so the original school was built on the church’s I was one of the volunteer buildings have gone. ground in 1854, to replace a archaeologists at the site in Workshops on Georges The numbering of many school dating from 1838. The Charterhouse Square Road streets in the borough around school was reorganised in 1925 Clerkenwell in July and found I have been looking for any the middle of the 19th century and closed during 1947-51. some interesting things. A information on what I believe was rather chaotic and in the Michael Reading decorated piece of medieval may be single-storey Victorian 1860s the vestry began pottery contended with a workshops at 9-11 Georges bringing order to this. First and quirky fragment of human skull for Road. They are currently The 1869 street directory I have just set up a Facebook the most interesting finds. It occupied by Strummers lists nos 1, 3 and then St page called “First and Quirky was a fascinating day. recording studio and a VW James’s School. In 1880, nos 1, Islington and Beyond” and a William Mackenzie repair garage. 5 are 9 shown; a map for 1906 Twitter account @1stofN1. Via Facebook Christy Lawrance

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 9 Beastly Islington

In June 1855, Prince Albert opened the Metropolitan Cattle Market at Copenhagen Fields. Conditions here were better. The 30-acre site had space for over 7,000 cattle and 42,000 sheep, with resting areas and water posts. It cost over £300,000, equivalent to nearly £25 million in 2014. Trading in livestock here continued until 1939. Street names recall the livestock trade, with Cowcross Street and Drovers Way marking routes taken by cattle to the markets. On St John Street is a 19th-century cattle trough.

Working animals Animals played a significant role in shaping Islington’s Horses pulled cabs, buses, trams and economic, social and cultural history. Natalie Conboy looks carriages, as well as barges along the Regent’s Canal. Their lives were at the lives of animals in the borough over the centuries often arduous, repetitive and short. Horses pulled fire engines and hand pumps for the Fire Brigade. nimals were an integral to animals to sell at Smithfield but the Above: At the scene of the fire, they were everyday life in 19th majority of livestock travelled on Smithfield unhitched and moved to a safe place. century Islington. You foot from elsewhere in Britain and Market in the Clerkenwell Fire Station has two A 19th century could see them in dairy farms, Ireland. At its height, Islington original exits, a narrow door used cattle markets, slaughterhouses could accommodate 610,000 sheep for a hand cart fire engine and a and stables. They pulled vehicles, and cattle in its pastures. This wider door for a horse-drawn steam were paraded on stage and used in commercial activity encouraged engine. The Fire Brigade phased blood sports. In the 1880s, more growth in the leisure industry, for out the use of horses by 1921. than 4,400 Islington residents which Islington is still famous. From 1750 until 1976, Whitbread worked in animal trades. In 1850, a royal commission found & Co ran a brewery at Chiswell that between 1698 and 1849 the Street in Finsbury. Wiltshire shires Livestock markets number of sheep and cattle sold at pulled drays carrying loads of up Trade in livestock shaped the early the market had risen from 610,000 to eight tons in teams of three. growth of Islington. Smithfield to more than 1,652,000, while the They normally worked for seven Market started in 950AD as a horse site had grown by only two acres. years. When they could no longer market, and soon started trading Nearby insanitary “noxious trades” work, they were processed into in sheep and cattle. The site was included bone-boiling houses and foodstuffs and by-products. chosen for its nearby grazing fields gut-scraperies, which were close to Horses that pulled mail vans and access to water. Upper Street, hospitals, workhouses, schools and worked seven days a week but were Holloway Road and St John Street homes. The commission said the treated well and were even entitled were major routes to the market. market should be moved and, in to sick leave. From 1837 until 1949, Some local people reared 1855, the livestock market closed. McNamara Co Ltd in Finsbury supplied all the Post Office’s horses.

Animals in Scientific Study Blood sports Betting on bull and bear baiting This skeleton of a young Comparative specimens was popular among all levels of chimpanzee, like many ape like this may well have been society. Bulls were often restrained specimens prepared in the on display in the Islington with a rope, while the dogs were 19th and early 20th centuries, Literary and Scientific released one at a time. The dogs is mounted in an upright Society, which had a natural tried to “pin the bull” by seizing its position. This is unlike the history collection. nose. In 1710, spectators paid a natural knuckle-walking The skeleton was acquired guinea to see a bull turned loose stance of a chimpanzee, and in 1925 by the Horniman that had been covered in fireworks. was done was to make Museum & Gardens and can Hockley-in-the-Hole in comparisons between ape be seen at the Beastly Clerkenwell was notorious for bull and human skeletons easier. Islington exhibition. and bear baiting, and had been closed by 1754 on public nuisance

10 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Left: exotic animals went on show at the annual World’s Fair; above: a lion tamer’s arm is seized by a lion at a wild animal show at the Agricultural Hall

In 1862, the Agricultural Hall opened for the annual four-day Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society grounds. The site is now occupied by century, it had become notorious show. In the show’s early years, the the Coach and Horses on Ray Street. for low-brow entertainment, such animals were often grossly Until the 18th century, it was as singing ducks and dancing dogs. oversized. One visitor described the common for bulls to be baited before In 1768, Signor Spinacuti pigs as “elongated balls of animated slaughter to tenderise their flesh. appeared there with his monkey, Le lard of mountainous dimensions”. In the 18th century, cockfighting Chevalier des Singes (“The Monkey The show was held there until 1938. was held at Pickled Egg Walk in Knight”). The monkey walked on a The “Aggie” hosted popular Clerkenwell (now Crawford tight-rope and performed complex events including Cruft’s dog show, Passage). The birds were badly tricks using poles, hoops, flags and zoological fairs, horse shows and treated; their wings were clipped a wheelbarrow. Some believed the circuses. Exotic animals went on and their spurs replaced with metal monkey was a child in costume. display at the annual World’s Fair. spurs. Their diet included brandy, The trauma suffered by exotic raw steak, maggots and urine. In One visitor described animals forcibly removed from 1849, cockfighting was banned. their natural habitats went largely Rat killing by terriers was held at the pigs as “elongated unobserved. For the keepers, the the Blue Anchor Tavern in Bunhill balls of animated lard danger posed by handling wild Row. Owner Jimmy Shaw claimed of mountainous animals was ever present. he bought up to 700 rats a year for fights, paying rat catchers three dimensions” Life improves pence a head. His terrier Tiny the By the 19th century, newspapers Wonder was twice said to have Audiences were fascinated by were regularly reported on animal killed 200 rats in under an hour, in animals that showed signs of mistreatment. This led to animals March 1848 and March 1849. Until human intelligence. In 1785, Mr being treated better and, during the his wife complained of the mess, he Nicholson’s “Learned Pig” caused a 1830s and 1840s, laws to improve sold the rats’ skins to furriers. sensation at Sadler’s Wells as it animal welfare were introduced. seemingly arranged lettered and In 1860, Mary Tealby set up the Equestrian displays numbered cards into words and The Learned Pig Temporary Home for Lost and In the 18th century, the land behind answers to mathematical questions. demonstrates his Starving Dogs in a disused stable the Three Hats in Islington High He performed up to four shows a skills in Thomas yard in Holloway; the site is to get an Street hosted horsemanship displays. day, seven days a week. It is thought Rowlandson’s Islington People’s Plaque (see news, In 1766, the Advertiser reported that he died of exhaustion in 1788. 1785 drawing page 2). Some people said money the Duke of York was among nearly would be better spent on humans; 500 spectators at a display. in 1862, Charles Dickens defended the charity in his journal All the Show business Year Round. The charity became the Domestic and exotic animals were Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. n regularly used for entertainment. l Beastly Islington – Animals in the Animals on stage were often seen Borough Since the 17th Century as celebrities. Unfortunately, this runs at the Islington Museum until did not stop their overwork and Tuesday 30 September. Entry is free. early death, and the needs of exotic animals were little understood. Natalie Conboy is exhibition and In 1683, Sadler’s Wells spa and collections officer at Islington music house opened. By the 18th Museum Chimpanzee skeleton: Horniman Museum; all other images: Islington Museum

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 11 The London bus that went to war

In 1914, there were 2,500 B-type buses on the roads. Now, just four survive. Lester Hillman saw a restored B-type bus go on show before its adsf asdfasdsds World War tour asdassdads sad ids;idfi dsaf

restored B-type 1910 bus was unveiled outside the London Transport Museum this summer. It is one ofA just four to survive – in 1914, nearly 2,500 B-types were in service on 112 bus routes travelling at speeds of up to 16mph. Brought passengers or, indeed, the drivers Above: the deck open to the elements could into service in 1910, the B-type who were also exposed to the B-type 1910 bus feel precarious to those was the world’s first reliable extremities of the weather. at Covent accustomed to modern bus travel. mass-produced motor bus. A 3.5-ton weight restriction and Garden; below: replica of The B-type bus was designed to solid tyres meant fewer passengers An Islington affair Shillibeer carry 34 passengers –18 up top and could be carried than today, horse-drawn The event turned out to be 16 inside. With its top deck open especially so bearing in mind that omnibus in the something of an Islington affair. to the elements and solid rubber people are on average bigger than London Pictured in period costume tyres providing a bumpy ride, they were a hundred years ago. Transport alongside bus B2737 is Katherine travelling on the B-type was not a Inside, the headroom is about 5’9” Museum Hart, a member of Spectrum comfortable experience for and the narrow steps to the top Drama, which provides theatrical programmes to museums. She was playing the part of Daisy Harris, a bus cleaner based at Hammersmith Garage on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, keeping up her spirits and doing her bit while her intended was somewhere at  the Front. Ms Hart is no stranger to Islington. She once lived in Liverpool Road and performed in a Stephen Berkoff play at the Hen and Chickens at Highbury Corner in the early 1990s. Helping keep the bus show on the road at Covent Garden was learning officer Kathryn Skillings, another Islington resident and soon to be Mrs Palmer – her partner is an IAHS member.

12 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 The launch featured in Metro and TV programmes. Leon Daniels, director of surface transport at Transport for London, was in the driver’s cab with museum curator and bus project manager Tim Shields at the wheel as the engine fired up. Alongside sat Blondel Cluff, chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund London committee. Generous HLF funding of £750,000 has helped restoration and skills training as well as supporting education outreach and interpretation projects.

First London buses Thanks to George Shillibeer, In July 1929,to mark 100 years since the debut of the Shillibeer omnibus, a replica of the bus Islington has been on the London ran from Marylebone to Bank over three days. The bus, pictured in Cheapside, was drawn by bus map for a very long time; three horses who had a quick rub down at St Pancras before ascending Pentonville Road. There was a flat fare of 1/- and proceeds were donated to the Royal Westminster Opthalmic Hospital 4 July 1829 saw the first London omnibus plying a route from Paddington Green to Bank Transport Museum under the title through Islington, where the fare Goodbye Piccadilly – from Home to complete the journey halved Front to Western Front. from one shilling to sixpence. The programme includes It is a little hard to imagine that lectures, films, art exhibitions, 22 people might climb aboard the museum evening events and Acton gleaming three-horse coach that is Depot and bus garage open days. housed in the museum, its The main Goodbye Piccadilly Islington credentials proudly on exhibition commemorates and display (pictured left). explores the contribution of Within 10 years, there were 620 London’s buses and transport licensed omnibuses and the employees to the World War I as “Favorite” fleet, run by E&J Wilson well as the upheaval for Londoners of Holloway, grew to be the largest on the home front. London B-type bus converted into a pigeon loft for use in London with 50 vehicles, 500 A central feature is B-type bus in Northern France and Belgium during World War 1 horses and 180 staff. The museum “Ole Bill”, named after a Great War holds an 1852 painting by James cartoon character created by Bruce B-type buses at home and abroad, Pollard showing coach number Bairnsfather, which is on loan from as well as how the conflict 6129 at Islington Green, near where the Imperial War Museum. Until accelerated social change, the statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton the 1960s, this B43 was a familiar sheltering in tube stations and stands today, heading eastwards. sight at Armistice Day parades. rationing. A key theme is how the The exhibition looks at role of lives of women changed, as they Back into a battle bus carried out jobs previously In early September, the B-type bus occupied by men. forsakes its bright red paint and Other highlights include period advertisements to be recruitment posters, propaganda transformed into a battle bus. It posters to remind soldiers posted will head for Ypres, Arras and abroad of home and a 1914 female Passchendaele where more than bus conductor’s uniform. n 1,000 of such buses saw service  l Goodbye Piccadilly: From Home on the Western Front, some as Front to Western Front runs at mobile pigeon lofts for field the London Transport Museum communications. It will return to until Sunday 8 March 2015. £15/ take part in Remembrance concs (includes museum entry for commemorations on 9 November. a year).

Exhibition and events Lester Hillman is the academic Transport for London’s Year of the 1852 painting by James Pollard of bus from “Favorite” adviser at the Islington Archaeology fleet, run by E&J Wilson of Holloway, at Islington Green Bus includes events at the London & History Society Transport (Russian magazine), 1916; painting: London pigeon loft: Niva B-Type Cheapside, 1929: Leonard Bentley/Flickr; Museum; other pictures: Lester Hillman

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 13 The emigrants’ friend and the nursing pioneer

Caroline Chisholm was famed for her philanthropic work for emigrants to Australia. Carole Walker had heard she knew Florence original documentation on this. Finding anything to substantiate a Nightingale – could she prove this? relationship between Caroline Chisholm and Florence Nightingale was tantalisingly just out of reach. aroline Chisholm was well campaigned successfully for better Earlier this year, a chance known in the mid-19th conditions on board emigrant ships reading of a book on Florence Ccentury for improving the and the Family Colonisation Loan Nightingale (O’Malley, 1931) living conditions and transport of Society chartered its own ships. referred briefly to Caroline people emigrating from Britain to In Australia, buildings, political Chisholm. This time, however, the Australia. wards, schools and societies were reference was notated. It referred Arriving in Sydney with her named after her, and she appeared to a letter from Florence husband and children in 1838, she on a banknote. Nightingale to Father Henry saw that life was very difficult for Edward Manning, later Cardinal emigrants. Many of the young A letter of introduction Manning, dated 28 June 1852. women had no money, family or When I spoke to the society in Tracking down Fr Manning’s friends or work, and she started by 2011, I mentioned how frustrated I papers proved difficult. The papers organising a home for emigrant had been in trying to confirm there had been kept at a church in women. She later provided homes was a connection between Florence London and, over the years, some for men and families, as well as Nightingale and Caroline Chisholm. of them had been destroyed by “Chisholm shakedowns” – shelters Various biographies of Caroline flood and fire. Scholars including for people travelling to gold- Chisholm suggest that Florence Shane Leslie (1921) and the Abbé digging areas and their families. Nightingale was her “friend and A Chapeau (1951) had used some In Islington, there is a blue plaque pupil”. These references, however, of this documentation in their at the Chisholms’ former home at were not properly annotated and it biographies of Manning and a Charlton Place, off Upper Street, was proving difficult to find small amount ended up in the then called Charlton Crescent. Mrs archives of the Archdiocese of Chisholm held meetings here and Westminster. elsewhere on the realities of Other parts of the archive were emigration; these could attract over distributed to the Bodleian library 2,000 people. The basement of the in Oxford, to the University of house was fitted out as steerage Angers in France and in the US. accommodation. Finding one letter was like looking The Chisholm home was for a needle in a haystack – where sometimes called the equivalent of part of the haystack had been the Australian High Commission. destroyed and part of it distributed She was well known as the to other areas. “emigrants’ friend”; a letter But one should never give up. addressed to “Caroline Chisholm, After following several avenues of London” reached her. research, the letter came to light in At 3 Charlton Crescent, Mrs the US, at the Pitts Theology Chisholm also founded the Family Library Archive and Manuscripts Colonisation Loan Society in 1849; Above: Caroline Department at Emory University the society lent emigrants half the Chisholm; left: in the US. cost of the fare, with the borrowers Florence In the letter of the 28 June 1852, finding the other half. She Nightingale Florence Nightingale wrote that

14 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 she “went into the country Sir Sidney yesterday to organise something Herbert MP for Mrs Chisholm”. addressing an emigrants’ Another letter from Florence meeting at the Nightingale to Fr Manning, dated Chisholms’ the 29 June 1852, informs him of house in Mrs Chisholm’s address in Charlton Islington, gives the times that he Crescent. The might find her there and says she picture, from was holding a meeting at the the Ladies National Mission Hall in Magazine. has Applegate. It also enclosed a note been reversed – Tasmania can of introduction for Fr Manning to be seen to the Caroline Chisholm. This confirms left of Australia that Florence Nightingale knew her; she would not offer a letter of introduction to someone she did not know. Fr Manning probably followed up Ms Nightingale’s suggestion and Austen on our banknotes. This is lettering and repairing the crack in met Mrs Chisholm at 3 Charlton something with which Australians the cross. If any members would be Crescent. It would not be are all too familiar. kind enough to contribute to the unreasonable to assume that Caroline Chisholm appeared on fund, payments can be made to Florence Nightingale visited her the Australian $5 dollar bill for 25 Caroline Chisholm Grave there as well. years, until the $5 dollar bill Refurbishment, sort code 40-30-24, Florence Nightingale’s letters to became the lowest denomination account number 33849066. n Fr Manning, her letters at the bill. Australian tradition dictates Wellcome Institute asking her that the lowest denomination bill Dr Carole Walker gave a talk to the mother to contribute a has an image of our Queen’s head, society in 2011 on the life and work subscription for Caroline so Mrs Chisholm’s image was of Caroline Chisholm. See also: Chisholm, and her letter following removed. Republicans were Walker C (2011) The emigrants’ Mrs Chisholm’s death to Sir Harry incensed, and printed stickers of friend. JIAHS; spring 2011, 16-17 Verney seeking his assistance in Caroline’s image to be stuck on the securing Mrs Chisholm’s pension new $5 dollar bill. References for her daughter (Walker, 2009), Chapeau, Abbé A (1951) The confirm that Florence Nightingale Memorial refurbishment Conversion of Manning. Reflections knew Caroline Chisholm and It is regrettable that Mrs after a hundred years. The Tablet; occasionally worked with her. Chisholm’s gravestone in the 7 April Billing Road Cemetery in Leslie, Shane (1921) Cardinal Banknote controversy Northampton has deteriorated Manning, His Life and Labours Florence Nightingale appeared on considerably in recent years. O’Malley IB (1931) Florence £10 bank issued between 1975 and Last September, I took Flossie Nightingale 1820-1856. A Study of 1992. More recently, there was an Peitsch, an Australian artist whose Her Life Down to the End of the outcry over the idea of having Jane work has been influenced by Crimean War. Thornton Butterworth, Caroline Chisholm, to visit the London Church of the Holy Sepulchre Walker C (2009) A Saviour of Living (where she was baptised and Cargoes – The Life and Work of married) and the Catholic Caroline Chisholm. Wolds cathedral (where her funeral took Publishing, Walton on the Wolds place) and the grave in Northampton. I was ashamed of the state of the grave and have since been working towards getting it refurbished. I have permission from the various Left: Caroline authorities and Ms Chisholm’s Chisholm’s descendants in Australia. grave. Right: Work is estimated to cost a “Chisholm between £1,200 and £1,700. Plans shakedown” are for a cleaning of the marble, by artist

replacing and securing the lead Flossie Peitsch Commons; Australia/Wikimedia of Archives Caroline Chisholm: National Walker Carole Commons; grave: Wikimedia Florence Nightingale:

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 15 Researching Islington

Michael Reading has been answering questions about Islington for the society for five years. He describes how he does this, and where he finds sometimes obscure information

raffic lights in Holloway one has to have a source of Road” – “Umbrellas manu- information, which for me is an Tfactured in Elmore Street” accumulation of over 50 books, “ – “Why would my great grand- booklets, pamphlets, directories, Well-known and rare topics: above: father move from Preston to one or two autobiographies where Canonbury Tower, photographed in Islington?” – “Where was a the author has an Islington 1880; right: a label from Dunn & Hollywood film star buried?” connection and other publications. Hewitt, – “the German Church in Fowler chocolate Road” – “Chocolate manufacturing Street maps and directories manufacturers in Pentonville Road” – “Did people In addition, I have a collection of of Pentonville fleeing the Great Fire of London in over 30 maps including a facsimile 1666, escape along New North edition of the A to Z Atlas and especially Road?” and many, many, more. Guide to London, first printed in British History These are just some of the 1938-39, around the time when Online. questions the Islington many of the streets in Islington However, I Archaeology & History Society has were being renamed. I also have  believe that received in recent years, and so 13 CDs holding London Post many of the answers to the very different from questions about Office street directories, which questions the society receives the well-known features and intermittently cover the years cannot be found on the internet, figures of Islington such as Sir 1856-1939. for they are often of a very local Hugh Myddelton and the New Old Ordnance Survey maps are nature, which would not usually River, Chapel Street market, indispensable, as they show every find its way into a history book. Collins Music Hall, St Mary’s building, yard, tramline, public The society therefore becomes the Church, Union Chapel, Canonbury house and church. The scale of last resort to find the answer or Tower and Arsenal Football Club. these maps is about 15 inches to provide information. one mile but, because of their Should a questioner require Questions arrive density, a magnifying glass is really subsidiary information, such as When an email with a question a requirement. about a trade or building design, arrives, I have a momentary feeling I have also compiled a series of the internet comes into its own, of apprehension, wondering what bomb damage maps of the with that wonder of modern to expect but, more importantly, if borough on A3 size, in colour, technology Google Earth allowing I will I be able to answer it. which are taken from the much me to visit a street or location. These questions come for many larger one held at the London different reasons. They come from Metropolitan Archives. These Further questioning people researching their families, maps are particularly useful when Some questions require me to ask students writing theses or study streets have disappeared. questions, so I have had to phone notes, and authors and film makers The internet is also useful, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the archives wanting information for their of the John Lewis Partnership, the work. Some are just out of interest Alexandra Trust (named after about a street, building, former Online resources Queen Alexandra), the Ryman business or whether certain trades British History Online Isthmian Football League and the were carried out in Islington. www.british-history.ac.uk council cemetery. They come not just from society Google Earth On some occasions, there are so members but also from other http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earth few facts that one has to resort to residents of Islington and from all Islington Council interactive map speculation and make parts of the country. Overseas, they via www.islington.gov.uk/islington/maps-statistics assumptions, hopefully with a have come from Australia, New National Library of Scotland, Ordnance Survey reasoned logical proposition, for Zealand, Canada and Germany. Maps, London, Five feet to the Mile, 1893-1896 an answer. To answer these questions,  http://maps.nls.uk/os/london-1890s/info.html Should the question be part of a

16 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 wider research project, which travelled along Upper Street of immense interest to me and  requires additional information and Essex Road, when coal, I have a feeling of satisfaction  and especially photographs, then I beer, milk and bread were when a questioner returns to say refer people with questions to the delivered by horse-drawn thank you, sometimes adding Islington Local History Centre vehicles and when there were generous compliments about  and/or the London Metropolitan only two estate agents’ offices, the answer. Archives. between the Angel and Since I began in 2009, I have Highbury Corner. Most answered 124 questions on Researcher requirements buildings were black, covered Islington, which suggests there is What is required to research these with soot from coal fires,  considerable interest in this ancient questions? First, a very keen and and the whole borough was borough. It makes the effort to enthusiastic interest in Islington, generally run down and  answer the enquiries all the more in both its past and in what is very shabby. worthwhile. n The l happening there today. first A-Z of The history of Islington is  Letters and your questions, page 6 One does not need to know the London was borough street by street, but one printed when should know the general outline of many Islington the boundaries and main roads, streets were and in particular the location of being renamed the various districts, including Barnsbury, Highbury, Canonbury, Holloway, Finsbury, Clerkenwell and up to the Highgate borders. The council’s interactive map on its website is particularly useful. I believe it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the history and development of the borough from about 1800 to at least 1970. After that date, dramatic changes began with the so-called “gentrification” and now, 40 years later, most of those changes are evident from the markedly changed social profile of the borough and, especially, the cost of its housing. The questions, though, are always about that other Islington, when the population was in excess of 300,000 and before the metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury were joined to create Islington in 1965. That Islington has almost disappeared. Here I have some slight advantage, for I am old enough to remember Islington before World War 2, when most houses were in multiple occupancy, when trams and trolley buses

Trams and trolley buses travelled along Upper Street and Essex Road, coal, beer, milk and bread were delivered by horse-drawn vehicles and there were only two A detailed Ordanance Survey map of 1894-96, showing Islington Green, St estate agents Mary’s Church, Collins’ Music Hall, the dispensary and soup kitchen, a

coach and harness factory, a saw mill and a travelling crane of Scotland Commons; map: National Library Henry Dixon/Wikimedia Tower: Canonbury

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 17 Flight of fancy

Whatever happened to the King’s Cross aerodrome? Lester Hillman described some extraordinary plans at a recent event

magine a giant cartwheel laid Residents offered personal on its side, raised high in the recollections of the Hawker air on enormous piers. Inside Siddeley Harrier – known as the these piers, aircraft are Harrier jump jet – which dropped stored. Planes, private and in on “RAF St Pancras” as part of Iowned by small airlines swoop the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air down above Pentonville Road Race in May 1969. toward the wheel. A very different bird of prey got That was the vision of King’s an honourable mention – Denise, a Cross aerodrome, proposed by magnificent Harris hawk. Only a architect Charles W Glover in the few days earlier, she had been seen 1930s. It would have cost at £5m. patrolling the station’s airspace The rim of the cartwheel would discouraging unauthorised bird have served as a taxiway and the incursions. four spokes as versatile runways Literary and film references with – but seriously unforgiving if links to King’s Cross discussed aircraft overshot. Passenger arrivals included the Harry Potter films on London – but was actually made and departures would have been and classics such as The 39 Steps. from parts salvaged from other via a magnificent entrance located aircraft that had been shot down. near today’s King’s Place. Armistice air show Exhibits also included a AEG The aerodrome was discussed at Four days after the Armistice, on reconnaissance aircraft, a my presentation at the King’s Cross 15 November 1918, a giant air show Friedrichshafen bomber – with a Visitor Centre. Leisure, business, opened in the Royal Agricultural 3m long bomb weighing over half university, community and general Hall with exhibits of German a ton – and a red, single-seat interests were reflected in the military aircraft. It was enormously Fokker biplane that had been part audience drawn from Islington, popular and ran for two months. of Manfred von Richthofen’s Camden and beyond. Entrance was one shilling (5p). “flying circus”. Two world wars, meteorological Among the “samples” (not history, the Icelandic ash cloud, “trophies”) on display was a Spitfire by canal balloons, aerial railways and twin-engine Gotha. This was said to Spitfire components are said to elaborate hoaxes were discussed. have been shot down during a raid have been transported on the Regent’s Canal during the last war on canal boats crewed by women who operated an inland waterways equivalent of the Women’s Land Army. The scheme was extended to other canals including the Leeds and Liverpool. Detailed records of the service of some of these women, including Molly Traill who was pioneered the scheme, are Above: Modern housed in Islington’s TUC Mechanics and n Inventions Libraries Collection. reports on the proposed King’s Lester Hillman is the IAHS Cross airport; academic adviser. He gave the talk asdf asdfdafdsf left: a Harrier on aviation history at King’s Cross

Harrier jet: US Navy photo by John Taucher; Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Taucher; John photo by Harrier jet: US Navy jump jet Visitor Centre this summer

18 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 A novel way to view changing Shoreditch

tanding in a completely dark This process will fundamentally box watching Shoreditch change the physical fabric of the Sslowly unfold is a rather odd area, and Finkernagel Ross says its experience. camera obscura captures the “cliff” Architectural firm Finkernagel of steel and glass creeping towards Ross built a camera obscura on its Shoreditch, which it fears will soon roof in May, not only as something engulf it. fun but also to display in a novel At first, one wonders why one  way the vanishing Shoreditch is bothering to look at a blank  around them. wall in the dark, but your eyes do “Vanishing” because Shoreditch the work. is being rapidly devoured by office Slowly, details like the Gherkin, towers. Random Victorian the adjacent towers and even the buildings remain amid steel and traffic on Shoreditch High Street glass behemoths with, for example, are revealed. the 50-storey Principal Place It takes about 20 minutes for the taking shape almost next to the human eye (at least, this human’s firm’s premises. eyes) to adjust to the dark to see the image created by the pinpoint of light in the camera obscura and take in the unusual view of the  Left: the camera 20 September, 1pm-5pm, entry is area offered. obscura on the first come, first served. This A fun way to see a part of roof; above: summer, it was open for the London that is changing at inverted image London Festival of Architecture. of Shoreditch n bewildering speed. seen inside l The camera obscura will be open Mark Smulian

for Open House on Saturday www.marksmulian.co.uk Agnese Sanvito/www.agnesesanvito.com Historical model makes rare appearance

large, detailed model showing the area north of AKing’s Cross and Caledonian Road in the 1930s goes on public display at the Model Railway Club’s open day on Sunday 16 November. The Copenhagen Fields model railway layout is set scenically between the wars, but the rolling stock on it ranges from the 1900s to World War 2. The design drew on original railway drawings, old photos, maps and building surveys. The layout is an increasingly historic record of the area as many buildings have been demolished. The model measures 9m x 3m, takes five hours to build and two hours to dismantle, so is rarely on public display. l The Model Railway Club is at Keen House, 4 Calshot Street,  N1. www.themodelrailwayclub. org/events/open-day Les Chatfield

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 19 Publications and bookshop

This issue considers a World War I foot soldier’s memoir, takes a Nobody of Any Importance: tour of Bounds Green, wonders at the Vikings’ fearsome a Foot Soldier’s Memoir of World War I reputation and sits back with a Victorian murder mystery Sam Sutcliffe (author), Phil Sutcliffe Bounds Green. An gatefold map, journey through time, helped (editor) Interesting Corner of but also has a by a well-researched history of £5, Sutcliffe Haringey photograph the place and its people. It also Publishing, Albert Pinching of the green invites you to take a walk ebook, via £8.99, Hornsey Historical (historically through the area, with the help www. Society common of a spot-numbered map and footsoldiersam.blogspot.co.uk This booklet describes a part land), accompanying descriptions, Foot soldier Sam Sutcliffe of north London which is, as complete starting at Bounds Green enlisted at 16, fought on the the title states, a most with its boundary stones. underground station. Bounds front line at Gallipoli in 1915, “interesting corner of Bounds Green itself is a Green is served by the the Somme in 1916 and Arras Haringey”. It takes you on a narrow strip of six acres lying Piccadilly Line and has an art in 1918. He starved, froze, was voyage of discovery of Bounds on the north side of Bounds deco style station, like those at shelled, shot at and gassed, Green, complete with Green Road. It is a surviving Manor House, Turnpike Lane and taken prisoner. He saw photographs, prints and maps. remnant of a clearing and Wood Green. men wounded, dying and It starts by describing where alongside one of the ancient There is so much historical driven mad and, to his lifelong Bounds Green is, moving on trackways that ran through detail in such a pocket-sized regret, he killed. to its early history, then going outer London. publication that it is a In his 70s, wrote it all down, through its many changes to The first substantial welcome addition to your from his poverty-stricken the present day. building was Bounds Green local history bookshelf. childhood in north London to I have often wondered House (1724), along with Congratulations to Albert his final fight on the Western where the “green” was in the Bounds Green Farm and Pinching for increasing my Front and demob. area’s name, and this booklet brickworks further out. limited knowledge of N11. not only tells you, by way of a This booklet takes you on a Peter Fuller Dead Letters Joan Lock The Northmen’s Fury: a often to the Baltic sailed down £8.99, History Press, www. History of the Viking World obscure. Russian rivers as far as thehistorypress.co.uk, 01452 Philip Parker However, Constantinople and eventually 883233 £25, Jonathan Cape the narrative established a kingdom of the It is a beautiful August day in The Northmen’s Fury examines is enlivened Rus around the Volkhov and 1880, perfect weather for the the Vikings’ fearsome by characters Dnieper. annual Metropolitan and City reputation, where they came with names However, wherever they Police fete at from, what they wanted and such as were, establishing Christianity Alexandra how they got it. Harald was obviously an uphill job Palace. The 8th century Bluetooth and Eirik Bloodaxe. and there were outbreaks of But Scandinavian population, Later, things become clearer paganism even in the early Inspector ruled by competing chieftains, and I found Philip Parker’s 13th century. Best is lived in scattered farmsteads accounts of the colonisation of Mr Parker ends with the 12th called to bordering the sea; there were the Northern Isles, Iceland, century Norman Vikings in uncover the few towns. Early raids seem to the Faroes, Greenland and southern Italy and Sicily and identity of have been piecemeal rather possibly North America then considers what the Vikings Quicksilver, who has sent an than centrally organised, gripping. did for us; they left some anonymous note threatening motivated by a lust for I admired the Vikings’ impressive and beautiful to cause a terror at the event. treasure, adventure and, later, courage and seamanship, artefacts, some powerful The threats become more fertile land to settle. and their determination to literature with their sagas and, confusing with literary The first 200 years are not rule themselves, as they did in this country, a fair dollop of allusions. Is Quicksilver really easy to follow; the later written in Iceland. their DNA. A thought- intent on causing mass injury, sources are contradictory and From about 900 AD, provoking and interesting read. or is his desire of a more the archaeological evidence Swedish Vikings with access Elizabeth Hawksley personal nature?

20 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Buy from the society store Society publications

The society stocks books, postcards, maps of Islington and The Jewish Communities of beyond and more – some are listed here. Islington, 1730s-1880s Petra Laidlaw Call Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 1541 to see if we have a map of your £9.99 + £2.80 area, if no price is given, to order several items or if you would like to arrange to p&p, Islington collect items in person. Archaeology and History Book title Author Price p&p Total Society (£) (£) (£) Islington has An Architect in Islington Harley Sherlock 14.99 2.80 17.79 been home to a sizeable Angus McBean in Islington Mary Cosh, ed 4.00 1.20 5.20 Jewish The Building That Lived Twice Alec Forshaw 20.00 2.80 22.80 population for over 250 years. Church Design for Congregations James Cubitt 11.00 1.50 12.50 Several of them well to do, prominent figures but more Cinemas of Haringey Jeremy Buck 9.99 1.50 11.49 lived in humbler circumstances. The Contexting of a Chapel Architect: James Clyde Binfield 18.00 1.90 19.90 This new book traces a cross Cubitt 1836-1912 section of characters, their Criminal Islington Keith Sugden, ed 5.00 1.40 6.40 religious life, occupations and 53 Cross Street. Biography of a House Mary Cosh and 9.95 1.90 11.85 contact with the rest of the ON SALE Martin King community. Dead Born Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 Bargains Dead Image Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 Discover De Beauvoir Town and Environs Mike Gray and 1.50 0.75 2.25 53 Cross Street. Biography Isobel Watson of a House Mary Cosh and Martin King, Discover Stoke Newington. A Walk Through David Mander and 4.95 1.20 6.15 photographs by Pauline Lord History Isobel Watson £9.95 (was £20) + £2.10 p&p Dissent & the Gothic Revival Bridget Cherry, ed 15.00 1.65 16.65 This book is a must for anyone An Historical Walk Along the New River Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 interested in the history of An Historical Walk Through Barnsbury Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 home decor. Using glossy colour photographs, it looks at Islington’s Cinemas & Film Studios Chris Draper 5.00 1.65 6.65 how one house has changed Islington: Britain in Old Photographs Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 since 1785. Islington: the Second Selection Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 Only Bricks and Mortar Islington Byways James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 Harry Walters The Jewish Communities of Islington, Petra Laidlaw 9.99 2.80 11.79 £5 (was £7.99) + £1.50 p&p 1730s-1880s A tale of growing up and London Cat 1 James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 working class life from the London Cat 2 James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 1930s and World War 2 to the 1970s in council tenements in London Dog James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 Popham Road, where Cathy London’s Mummies James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 Come Home was filmed. Only Bricks and Mortar ON SALE Harry Walters 5.00 1.50 6.50 New City: Contemporary Architecture in the Alec Forshaw 19.95 2.80 22.75 How to order City of London Send details of your order 20th Century Buildings in Islington Alec Forshaw 14.99 2.80 17.79 with a cheque payable to London’s New River in Maps. Vol I Part I Michael Kensey £20 “Islington Archaeology & London’s New River in Maps. Vol I Part 2 Michael Kensey £25 History Society” to Catherine Brighty, IAHS, 8 Wynyatt The Squares of Islington Part II. Islington Parish Mary Cosh 7.50 1.50 9.00 Street, EC1V 7HU. Other items Old Ordnance Survey maps 2.50 0.75 3.25 If you wish to collect your Union Chapel mug 6.00 2.80 8.80 order in person, please call Catherine first on 020 020 New River Tea Towel 6.00 1.50 7.50 7833 1541.

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 21 Exhibitions Influential objects collected as they appear

his new gallery collects Right: Christian contemporary objects that Louboutin’s Fifi in some way “reflect global shoes reflect T different skin events, technological advances, colours; below: political changes or pop cultural Vype e-cigarette phenomena that have an impact on art, design and architecture”. The 12 cases each tell a different story. Take the pair of Cargo trousers from Primark. Next to them are two photographs – the from dark brown to light peachy- UltraRope is super light, super collapsed factory in Bangladesh beige – the colour traditionally strong and can support a lift for where they were made and called “nude” in the fashion 1km in a single run. This has huge where 1,133 workers died, and industry. Fashion designer implications for future skylines, some Cargo trousers with the Christian Louboutin launched this allowing high-rise buildings to be Primark label clearly showing, collection in the five colours in built taller and slimmer. sticking out from the rubble. 2013. Fashion houses have become This is a thought-provoking This object asks us to think aware of the buying power of exhibition. When the current about where our clothes come different ethnic groups and display ends, there will be new from, about the value placed on responded accordingly. objects in the 12 cases to interest workers’ lives and the inadequacy Carbon fibre lift cables and challenge. n of Bangladeshi building demonstrate how technological l Rapid Response Collecting, regulations. advances can change our Victoria & Albert Museum, until A case of shoes in environment. Unlike 15 January 2015, free “nude” shades displays heavy steel cables, which five pairs of high-heeled can serve only a limited Elizabeth Hawksley

Victoria and Albert Museum and Victoria shoes in shades ranging number of floors, the KONE www.elizabethhawksley.com

Peace not victory is celebrated after the Napoleonic Wars

his exhibition celebrates the was Soane himself. Soane, too, signing of the Treaty of Paris went to Paris to buy Napoleonic Tin 1814 which (in theory) memorabilia, including various ended the Napoleonic Wars. For medals. He also bought a rare book Britain, it had been a long, bloody of hand-coloured prints by Percier and costly conflict. Now, at last, and Fontaine, Napoleon’s architects, peace and prosperity had returned. who redesigned the Tuileries, the The country was celebrating Louvre and Malmaison, all of peace, not – as might be expected which he visited. A ring containing – victory. Souvenirs, such as a Napoleon’s hair was given to Soane Coalport Peace of Paris tea-set, by a woman who had befriended show this, as do prints of the the emperor on St Helena. n celebrations in Green Park. l Peace Breaks Out! London and The 130ft high wooden Castle of Above: the Temple of Concord, which followed the Castle Paris in the Summer of 1814, Sir Discord, for example, was the of Discord; below: Peace of Paris cups, showing a dove John Soane’s Museum, until 13 scene of a re-enacted siege – September, free complete with tremendous bangs the food and wine, and to catch up and lots of smoke. When the on French fashions. A number of Elizabeth Hawksley smoke cleared two hours later, it caustic French cartoons depict the www.elizabethhawksley.com had been transformed into the British as country yokels compared Temple of Concord. with the sophisticated Parisians. Other prints show the British There is also a section on visiting Paris in their thousands. Soane and Napoleon. Soane They went to see how Napoleon admired Napoleon, an

Sir John Soane Museum Sir John had transformed Paris, to sample energetic, self-made man, as

22 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Creative tools of protest

t you were a child in 1993 and your Teen Talk Barbie suddenly Igave the order to “Attack! Attack! Attack!” or your GI Joe perkily suggested, “Let’s go shopping!’ then you had the Barbie Liberation Organization to thank. In a challenge to cultural stereo- typing, the BLO performed “surgery” on around 500 dolls, switching their voice boxes, before “reverse shoplifting” them back onto the shelves. A radicalised Barbie is one the graffiti-writing robot, the exhibition Video and newspaper clippings as many Disobedient Objects on illustrates the material culture of well as statements from the objects’ show at this fascinating exhibition. radical change and protest, creators help to place each exhibit From Chilean folk textiles that focusing on the period from the into a political and social context. document political violence to a late 1970s to the present time. The footage of riot police in A Palestinian slingshot made Barcelona failing to cope with giant from the tongue of a child’s shoe inflatable cobbles lofted toward Above: riot demonstrates deadly ingenuity; a them by May Day demonstrators police handkerchief embroidered by a in 2012 is frankly hilarious. flummoxed by a Mexican mother to honour her Well worth a visit. n giant inflatable l cobble; missing son, and remind her Disobedient Objects, Victoria and left: suffragette government that he is one of Albert Museum, until 1 February china took the 26,000 citizens who disappeared 2015, free message into between 2006 and 2012, packs a

genteel homes different sort of punch. Ben Porter V&A; cobble: Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info crockery: Suffragette

Toys tell tales of growing up in a palace

his small exhibition offers handwriting practice from 1767 and, visitors a fascinating glimpse from 120 years later, Prince William’s Tinto royal childhoods going exercise book at the same age. back 250 years. It opens with a The clothes range from George doll’s house from the 1780s made V’s red walking suit (1867-68) and for George III’s daughters that is a row of tiny first shoes from the large enough for several princesses 1840s to 1900 to Princess Anne’s to play side by side without fairy costume and Prince George’s squabbling. christening robe. There are large toys, such as the Perhaps most telling are the film Queen’s rocking horse, and small clips and photographs, many never toys, such as Prince Edward’s toy before seen. I particularly liked the soldiers and Queen Victoria’s film of the building of Y Bwthyn wooden dolls dressed by herself as Bach, which neatly demonstrates characters from ballets or operas the scale; the door is exactly right she’d enjoyed – including ballet Above: Princess complete with toy machine guns, for six-year-old Princess Elizabeth dancer Maria Elizabeth given to a lucky Prince Andrew. – grown-ups have to stoop. Taglioni. Various outside the There’s a recreation of the Royal Childhood has something Welsh cottage; pedal cars miniature kitchen from Y Bwthyn to interest everyone. n left: Prince l include a Andrew’s James Bach, the child-sized thatched Royal Childhood, Buckingham James Bond Aston cottage given to the Queen by the Palace, until 28 September, Bond Martin people of Wales in 1932. £19.75/concs Aston The royal education is not Martin, forgotten. There’s a page of the Elizabeth Hawksley

five-year-old future George IV’s www.elizabethhawksley.com Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Trust/Her Collection Royal

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 23 What’s on Events, exhibitions, courses, walks and more. Contact details of organisers are in the directory on page 28 – events may change or need advance booking. Islington Archaeology & History Society events are listed on the inside back page

Thursday 18 September, 7.30pm Friday 26-Sunday 28 September Friday 3 October, 1.30pm Monday, 13 October, 1pm The Heal family in End of the Tube Curator’s Introduction to London in the Not-So-Dark Bloomsbury Event to mark 20 years since Ming: 50 Years That Ages £1, Camden Local Studies and the suspension of services on changed China Talk by Lyn Blackmore. Archives Centre, Holborn the branch in 1994. Talk by Yu-Ping Luk. Free, Museum of London, Library. Camden History Epping Ongar Railway, 01277 Free, booking essential. Gresham College event Society 365 200, http://eorailway. British Museum An overview of over 40 years co.uk of archaeological research into Friday 19 September, 7pm Sunday 5 October the Lundenwic, London. Life and Death in the Bronze Monday, 29 September, 6pm Amersham & District Age of Southern England Sleepwalkers: How Europe Motor Bus Society 26th Tuesday 14 October, 1.15pm Talk by Dr Neil Wilkin. Went to War in 1914 Running Day Early Ming Chinese St Olave’s Church Hall, Mark Talk by Christopher Clark Includes trips on variety of Ceramics Lane, EC3R. City of London Free, Museum of London, vehicles. Routemaster Gallery talk by Regina Krahl. Archaeological Society Gresham College event Association. www.routemaster. Free, British Museum org.uk/events/index/41 Saturday 20-Sunday Wednesday 1 October, 6.30pm Tuesday 14 October, 2pm 21 September The 18th Century Gin Monday, 6 October, 1pm The Crystal Palace at War Autumn Diesel Gala Plus Craze Pompeii of the North Talk by Barrie McKay. Real Ale Talk by Dr Richard Barnett Talk by Sadie Watson. Guildhall Library. Free, Epping Ongar Railway, 01277 Hosted by Guildhall Library Free, Museum of London, booking essential 365 200, http://eorailway.co.uk £10, booking essential Gresham College event Tuesday 14 October, 8pm Saturday 20-Sunday Wednesday 1 October, 8pm Wednesday 8 October, 2-3 pm Finding Neanderthal Tools 21 September Famous Bankrupts Joan Littlewood and Fun in Norfolk Cliffs Markfield Beam Engine and £2, 102a Church Street, Palace Dreams Talk by Bruce Watson. Museum Enfield, EN2 6AR.  London Metropolitan Avenue House, 17 East End Steaming day, part of London London Westminster and Archives. Free, booking Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Open House. Free Middlesex Family History essential Hendon & District Society Archaeological Society Tuesday 23 September, 6pm Wednesday, 8 October, 6pm The General Election, 1945 Thursday, 2 October, 1pm Cultural Revolution: Palaces Tuesday 14 October, 6.30pm Talk by Professor Vernon Exploring Ephemera: the of the Early Stuart Kings The Battle of Barnet: the Bogdanor. Illumination of History Talk by Dr Simon Thurley Ongoing Search for Greater Free, Museum of London, Talk by John Scott. Free, Museum of London, London’s Only Medieval Gresham College event Free, Gresham College Gresham College event Battlefield Talk by Bruce Watson. Wednesday 24 September, 2pm Thursday 2 October, 1.30pm Wednesday 8 October, 8pm Museum of London. London Policing the River Thames Embalming: Theory and The Black Local Education and Middlesex Archaeological Talk by Rob Jeffries. Practice Movement and the Work of Society Guildhall Library. Free. Talk by Marie Vandenbeusch. the George Padmore booking essential Free, booking essential. Institute Tuesday 14 October, 8pm British Museum Talk by Sarah Garrard. A Hamlet in Hendon – the Thursday 25 September, 12pm £2, Union Church Hall, N8. Church Terrace Site from Ratcatchers – Suppliers to Thursday 2 October 3-4 pm Hornsey Historical Society the Mesolithic to the 21st the Sporting Life of London Photographing the Home Century £2, Camden Local Studies and Front: 1914–1918 Sunday 12 October Talk by Jacqui Pearce. Archives Centre. London London Metropolitan Crossness Pumping Station Avenue House, 17 East End Westminster and Middlesex Archives. Free, Booking steaming day Road, Finchley N3. Hendon & Family History Society essential Steaming and history fair, £6 District Archaeological Society

24 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Open House London, 20-21 September

Converted Victorian terrace Row Baths, Sadler’s Wells Caledonian houses, glossy office blocks, Theatre, Finsbury Town Hall Park Clock places of worship, architects’ and the Daniel Libeskind Tower will be practices, green eco buildings, steel-clad university building open for this historic buildings and gardens on Holloway Road. year’s event. If will be open in Islington for Tours are being held of the you can’t get this year’s London Open John Jones Arts Building and a place on a House. Kings Place, as well as a look tour or In London, more than 800 behind the scenes at Union manage its buildings will be open, many Chapel. steep stairs, see the not normally open to the Visitors will also be able  Journal’s public. There are also walks to peer down the ice wells at summer 2012 and talks. the London Canal Museum issue for a This year, you can visit a and admire the rural scenes look inside Crossrail construction site and art nouveau tiling of and Bunhill Heat and Energy W Plumb Family Butchers  Power Station, Ironmonger in Hornsey Road. l www.londonopenhouse.org

Tuesday 14 October, 6.30pm Saturday 18 October, 6.30pm Tuesday 21 October, 6pm Thursday 30 October, 12pm Fighting on the Home Front 400 Years of African Felons, Folios and Family: Women in World War II – Talk by former BBC chief news Women Resistance Leaders Richard Smyth of London, the services WRNS, WAAFS correspondent Kate Adie. £3, Voluntary Action 1590–1675 and ATS £10/£8 concs (includes Islington, 200a Pentonville Talk by Professor Vanessa £2, Camden Local Studies and museum entry within one Road, N1 9JP. Black History Harding. Archives Centre, Holborn month), London Transport Month event. Booking: www. Guildhall Library, £5 plus Library. London Westminster Museum everyvoice.org.uk/events booking fee. Includes a wine and Middlesex Family History reception Society Wednesday 15 October, 7pm Saturday 18 October, The Killing of Blair Peach, 10am-4pm Wednesday 22 October, 2pm Thursday 30 October, 4pm Anti-Racist Protest, Police Symposium: the Social Women and Guilds in 17th History of Statistics Racism and Brutality History and Cultural Century London Professor Lynn McDonald. Discussion with David Renton Significance of the Guildhall Library. Free, Free, Gresham College and Tony Warner. London Bus booking essential £3 (redeemable against any £40/concs, London Transport Tuesday 4 November, 1pm purchase), Housmans Museum Wednesday 22 October, 7.45pm Medical Innovations – Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, Back to the Drawing Board Blood and Bacteria N1, www.housemans.com Sunday 19 October – Transport Systems that Talk by Dr Heidi Doughty and Enfield to New River Head Failed Dr Emma Hutley. Thursday 16 October, 7pm Walk led by John Polley for Talk by Ralph Hutchings. £4, Hunterian Museum The 1930s Diary of Gladys the New River Action Group. £2, Friern Barnet & District Langford Book on 07814 546772 Local History Society Tuesday 4 November, 2pm Talk by Professors Robert and Africans in Early Modern Patricia Malcolmson. Monday, 20 October, 1pm Monday, 27 October, 1pm London £1, Burgh House, NW3. Vanishing Archaeology: the The Archaeology of St Talk by Miranda Kaufmann. Camden History Society and Greenwich Foreshore Paul’s Cathedral Guildhall Library. Free, the London Record Society Talk by Nathalie Cohen. Talk by Dr John Schofield. booking essential Free, Museum of London, Free, Museum of London, Friday 17 October, 7pm Gresham College event Gresham College event Wednesday 5 November, 8pm Beyond the Mithraeum: Conspiracies and Scandals MOLA Excavation at Tuesday 21 October, 2pm Tuesday 28 October, 1pm of the 20th Century Bloomberg London Black Publishers: Art and Between the Lines – £2, 102a Church Street, Talk by Michael Tetreau. Design Drawings of Military Enfield, EN2 6AR.  St Olave’s Church Hall, Mark London Metropolitan Medicine Past and Present London Westminster and Lane, EC3R 7BB. City of Archives. Free, booking Talk by Julia Midgley. Middlesex Family History

London Archaeological Society essential £4, Hunterian Museum Society Christy Lawrance

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 25 Tuesday 11 November, 6.30pm Tuesday, 18 November, 6pm Saturday 22 November, Monday, 8 December, 6pm Roman coins from The Military History of the 10.30am-5pm Long Shadow: the Great Londinium First World War: an Coppers, Crooks & Counsel: War and International Talk by Julian Bowsher. Overview and Analysis Law & Order in London Memory, 1914-2014 £2/concs, Museum of London. Talk by Prof David Stevenson. London and Middlesex Talk by Prof David Reynolds. London and Middlesex Free, Museum of London, Archaeological Society local Free, Museum of London, Archaeological Society Gresham College event history conference. £12/£15, Gresham College event Museum of London Tuesday 11 November, 6pm Thursday, 20 November, 1pm Tuesday 9 December, 6.30pm The General Election, 1959 Being a Guitarist in the Tuesday 25 November, 6pm The Gentle Author’s Magic Professor Vernon Bogdanor. Time of Byron and Shelley The Landscapes of London: Lantern Show of LAMAS Free, Museum of London, Talk by Prof Christopher Page. the City, the Country and Slides Gresham College event Free, St Sepulchre Without the Suburbs, 1660–1840 £2/concs, Museum of London. Newgate, Gresham College Talk by Elizabeth McKellar. London and Middlesex Wednesday 12 November, 6pm event Guildhall Library, £5 plus Archaeological Society event. Crypts of London booking fee, booking essential. Talk by Revd Dr Malcolm Thursday 20 November, 7.30pm Includes a wine reception Wednesday 10 December, 8pm Johnson. Evelyn Wrench’s Picture Bounds Green: a Fascinating Guildhall Library. £5 plus Postcards in the Early 1900s Wednesday 26 November, 2pm Corner of Haringey booking fee, booking Talk by Peter Backman Freaks, Fairies and Theatre: Talk by Albert Pinching essential. Includes a wine £1, Camden Local Studies and Playbills of 19th Century £2, Union Church Hall, N8 reception Archives Centre. Camden London 9PX, Hornsey Historical History Society London Metropolitan Society Wednesday 12 November, 8pm Archives. Free, booking The Crocus King: EA Friday 21 November, 7pm essential. Thursday, 11 December, 7pm Bowles of Myddleton Recent Discoveries in The West End in the 1800s: House Battersea Thursday, 27 November, 6pm Emerging Pleasure District Talk by Bryan Hewitt Talk by Kasia Olchowska. The Great Depression and Talk by Dr Rohan McWilliam £2, Union Church Hall, N8 St Olave’s Church Hall, Mark its Legacy £1, Burgh House, New End 9PX. Hornsey Historical Lane, EC3R. City of London Talk by Prof Jagjit Chadha. Square, NW3. Camden Society Archaeological Society Free, Gresham College History Society

Ongoing Tour of the British Postal Behind the scenes at the Museum & Archive store museum depot Curator-led tour, plus time to Last Friday and Saturday of Guided Tours of Union look around by yourself. every month (not December) Chapel Includes a fleet of postal Tours of London Transport 12.15pm, first Sunday of the vehicles and over 200 post Museum’s depot in Acton. month boxes. This holds more than 370,000 People rarely have the chance www.postalheritage.org.uk/ objects, including vehicles, to appreciate fully the beauty, page/museum-tours railway and bus sheds, signs, complex architecture and ceramic tiles, ephemera and extent of these buildings, Clerkenwell and Islington ticket machines. including a secret passage and Mail Rail underground train Guides Association: walks £12/concs, book on 020 7565 a hidden garden. Guided walks around 7298 or at www.ltmuseum. £5 donation, book in advance the World and Moving the Islington and Clerkenwell led co.uk on 020 7359 4019 Mail: Horses to Horsepower. by one of the mayor of http://postalheritage.org.uk/ Islington’s official guides. Behind the scenes at the The British Postal Museum page/onlineexhibitions www.ciga.org.uk archaeological archive & Archive: online 11am and 2pm, first and third exhibitions Mail Rail: a photographic Historic almshouse tour Friday and Saturday of the Online exhibitions, including exhibition Visit the Geffrye Museum’s month the Great Train Robbery, Recent photos of the whole restored 18th-century Tour the world’s largest Diamond Jubilee, the People’s network, from the tunnels to almshouse, which offers a archaeological archive and Post, the Post Office in the underground stations glimpse into the lives of handle some of the finds  Pictures, the World’s First used by the postal service. London’s poor and elderly in from more than 8,500 Scheduled Aerial Post, Free, British Postal Museum the 1700s and 1800s. excavations. Victorian Innovation, Brunel and Archive, www. £2.50/concs, various times, £5, Museum of London, book and the Mail, Mount Pleasant postalheritage.org.uk/page/ [email protected], at www.museumoflondon.org.

Jonathan Bradley Photography/British Postal Museum and Archive Museum and Postal Photography/British Bradley Jonathan – the Largest Sorting Office in mail-rail-exhibition 020 7739 9893 uk/tours

26 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Exhibitions Until 5 January 2015 Ming: 50 years that Until Sunday 28 September changed China Britain: One Million Years Between AD 1400 and 1450, of the Human Story China was a global A major exhibition on life in superpower run by one family prehistoric Britain. On show is – the Ming dynasty – who the skull of the earliest known established Beijing as the Neanderthal in Britain, the capital and built the oldest wooden spear in the Forbidden City. Chinese world, skull cups and models artists absorbed many of early Britons. Some objects influences, and created some are on display for the first time. of the most beautiful objects £9/concs, Natural History and paintings ever made. Museum The exhibition will feature a Skull cup from Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story at range of spectacular objects Wednesday 1-Wednesday 15 the Natural History Museum – including exquisite October porcelain, gold, jewellery, Forward to freedom Until 30 October photographs of the artists’ furniture, paintings, Exhibition telling the story of Emergency! London 1914 designs for each of the sculptures and textiles – from the British anti-apartheid During WW1, the London memorials, and shows how museums across China and movement and its campaigns County Council reported on they are cared for today. the rest of the world. Many of to support the people of food supplies, employment, £4/concs, Quadriga Gallery, them have only been very Southern Africa in the fight refugees from Belgium, the Wellington Arch, 020 7930 recently discovered and never against apartheid and white effect of recruitment on 2726, www.english-heritage. been seen outside China. minority rule. Black History families and issues such as an org.uk/quadriga £16.50/concs, British Museum Month event in partnership apparent increase in number with www.aamarchives.org. of women drinking in pubs. Until Sunday 11 January 2015. Until 23 November 2014 Free, Finsbury Library, 245 The exhibition uses these Geffrye 100: a Brief History The Other Side of the St John Street, EC1V 4NB reports, plus photographs, of the Museum Medal: How Germany Saw maps and documents to This small display charts the the First World War Friday 3 October-Tuesday explore London as it was 100 changing nature of the This display examines medals 20 January 2015 years ago. almshouses and the museum. made by artists who lived and Terror and Wonder: The Free, Geffrye Museum worked in Germany between Gothic Imagination Until Sunday 30 November 1914 and 1919. Challenging The UK’s biggest ever Gothic We Will Remember Them: Until 15 March 2015 and at times provocative, exhibition. Two hundred rare London’s Great War Wedding dresses 1775-2014 many of the medals were objects trace 250 years of the Memorials This exhibition traces the intended to influence popular Gothic tradition, exploring This exhibition about the six development of the wedding opinion against Germany’s our enduring fascination with memorials in London cared dress and wedding fashions enemies. Others provide a the mysterious, the terrifying for by English Heritage over the last two centuries. On criticism about the futility of and the macabre in film, art, includes rarely seen working display will are the most war and waste of human life. music, fashion, architecture drawings, maquettes and glamorous and extravagant and daily life. wedding dresses. The Until 31 March £10/concs, British Library exhibition also explores the Frontline Nurses: British growth of the wedding Nurses of the First World Until 12 October industry. War Enduring War: Grief, Grit £12/concs, Victoria and Nurses worked at every part and Humour Albert Museum of the Allied front lines, in This examines how people casualty clearing stations, field coped during the war, from Until 30 November hospitals and base hospitals. moments of patriotic fervour Ancient lives: new They cared for wounded to periods of anxious discoveries patients, and combated the inactivity, shock and despair. Detailed analysis of eight of illnesses caused by the squalor Through posters, poetry, the British Museum’s of trench life: trench foot, books and pamphlets, the mummies, using images dysentery and typhus fever. . exhibition considers attempts collected using a hospital Free, Royal College of Nursing to boost morale at home and Ming at the British Museum: scanner. Visitors can zoom in Library and Heritage Centre, in the field, as well as cloisonné enamel jar and cover on details such as amulets, 20 Cavendish Square, London individual responses. with dragons from the Xuande food eaten and tattoos. W1G 0RN, 0345 337 3368,

Free, British Library period (1426-1435) £10/concs, British Museum [email protected] History Museum British Museum; Natural

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 27 British Postal Museum and Cockney Heritage Trust Directory Archive www.cockneyheritagetrust. Freeling House, Phoenix com Place, WC1X 0DL, and store History, civic, amenity and archaeology at Debden, Essex, 020 7239 Courtauld Gallery societies, museums and online resources 2570, [email protected]. Somerset House, WC2R 0RN, uk 020 7848 2526 galleryinfo@ courtauld.ac.uk British Vintage Wireless Check opening times before Bank of England Museum Society Cross Bones Graveyard visiting. If you would like your Threadneedle St, EC2R 8AH, [email protected] www.crossbones.org.uk organisation listed here or to 020 7601 5545, www.bankof update details, email editor england.co.uk/museum Brixton Windmill Crossness Pumping Station Christy Lawrance on christy@ 020 7926 6056, www. 020 8311 3711, www. islingtonhistory.org.uk or c/o Barnet Museum and Local brixtonwindmill.org/ crossness.org.uk 6 Northview, Tufnell Park History Society Road, N7 0QB www.barnetmuseum.co.uk Bruce Castle Museum Docklands History Group Lordship Lane, N17 8NU, 020 info@docklandshistory group. Alexandra Palace TV Group BBC archive 8808 8772, museum.services@ org.uk Runs museum. Tony Wilding, www.bbc.co.uk/archive haringey.gov.uk 71 Dale View Avenue, E4 6PJ, Dictionary of Victorian 020 8524 0827 Benjamin Franklin House Burgh House and London/Cat’s Meat Shop Craven Street, WC2N 5NF, Hampstead Museum Encyclopaedia and blog, www. Alexandra Palace TV Society 020 7925 1405, info@ New End Sq, NW3, 020 7431 victorianlondon.org Archives: 35 Breedon Hill BenjaminFranklinHouse.org 0144, www.burghhouse.org.uk Road, Derby, DE23 6TH, East London History Society 01332 729 358, [email protected]. Bethlem Royal Hospital Camden History Society 42 Campbell Rd, E3 4DT, mail uk, www.youtube.com/ Archives and Museum 020 7586 4436, www. @eastlondonhistory.org.uk aptsarchive Monks Orchard Road, camdenhistorysociety.org Beckenham, 020 3228 4227, Enfield Archaeological All Hallows by the Tower www.bethlemheritage.org.uk Camden New Town History Society Crypt Museum Group www.enfarchsoc.org 020 7481 2928, www.ahbtt.org. Bexley Archaeological Group www.camdennewtown.info uk/visiting/crypt-museum/ www.bag.org.uk, Martin Estorick Collection of Baker: 020 8300 1752 Camden Railway Heritage Modern Italian Art Amateur Geological Society Trust 39a Canonbury Square, N1 25 Village Road, N3 1TL Bishopsgate Institute Library 21 Oppidans Road, NW3, 2AN, 020 7704 9522, info@ and Archive [email protected] www.estorickcollection.com Amwell Society 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M, 020 8 Cumberland Gardens, 7392 9270, www.bishopsgate. Canonbury Society Alexander Fleming Museum WC1X 9AG, 020 7837 0988, org.uk www.canonburysociety.org. St Mary’s Hospital, Praed [email protected] uk, 1 Alwyne Place, N1 Street, W2 1NY, 020 3312 Bomb Sight 6528, www.imperial.nhs.uk/ Ancestor Search Online map of WW2 bombs Chartered Institution of about us/museums Guidance on where to look. in London 1940-41, Building Services Engineers andarchives/ www.ancestor-search.info www.bombsight.org Heritage Group www.hevac-heritage.org/ Foundling Museum The Angel Association British Airways Heritage 40 Brunswick Square, WC1, www.angelassociation.org.uk www.britishairways.com/ City of London 020 7841 3600, www. travel/museum-collection/ Archaeological Society foundlingmuseum.org.uk Archives Hub public/en_gb [email protected] http://archiveshub.ac.uk/ Freud Museum British Library Clerkenwell and Islington 20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3, Arsenal FC Museum 96 Euston Road, NW1, 0330 Guides Association 020 7435 2002,  020 7619 5000, www.arsenal. 333 1144, customer-Services@ 07971 296731, [email protected]. [email protected] com bl.uk uk Friends of Hackney Association for the Study British Museum Clockmakers’ Museum Archives and Preservation of Roman Great Russell Street, WC1, 020 Guildhall Library, www. Hackney Archives, Dalston Mosaics 7323 8299, information@ clockmakers.org/museum- Sq, E8 3BQ, 020 8356 8925, www.asprom.org britishmuseum.org and-library [email protected]

28 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Friern Barnet & District Jewish Museum Local History Society www.jewishmuseum.org.uk www.friernbarnethistory.org. uk. Photo archive: www. Joe Meek Society friern-barnet.com www.joemeeksociety.org

Friends of the New River Dr Johnson’s House Head 17 Gough Square, EC4, www. c/o Amwell Society drjohnsonshouse.org

Friends of Friendless Keats House Churches 020 7332 3868, keatshouse@ www.friendsoffriendless cityoflondon.gov.uk churches.org.uk “The use of metal carriers is much simpler [than rubber rings], and is the method in vogue” – from official guidelines on Kew Bridge Steam Museum Garden History Society managing carrier pigeons in 1918. This image is from the Imperial Green Dragon Lane, TW8, 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 7608 War Museum, which has opened a permanent exhibition in the 020 8568 4757, www.kbsm.org First World War Galleries 2409, gardenhistorysociety.org Locating London’s Past Geffrye Museum Heritage of London Trust IanVisits www.locatinglondon.org 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA, 020 7730 9472, www. London blog and listings, 020 7739 9893, www.geffrye- heritageoflondon.com including historical events. London Canal Museum museum.org.uk www.ianvisits.co.uk 12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 Historic Hospital Admission 9RT, 020 7713 0836, www. Georgian Group Records Project Imperial War Museum canalmuseum.org.uk 6 Fitzroy Square, W1T 5DX, www.hharp.org/ Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ, [email protected] www.iwm.org.uk London Fire Brigade Museum Highgate Literary and 020 8555 1200, www.london- Grant Museum of Zoology Scientific Institution Archives Islington and Camden fire.gov.uk/OurMuseum.asp 020 3108 2052, www.ucl.ac. [email protected] Cemetery uk/museums/zoology, High Road, East Finchley, N2 London Lives 1690-1800 [email protected] Historical Association, 9AG, 020 7527 8804, www. www.londonlives.org Central London Branch islington.gov.uk/ Gresham College 020 7323 1192, www.history. Environment/cemeteries London Metropolitan Free lectures on different org.uk, [email protected] Archives topics, www.gresham.ac.uk Islington Local History 40 Northampton Rd, EC1 Historic Towns Forum Centre 0HB, 020 7332 3820, ask. Greater London Industrial www.historictowns forum.org Finsbury Library, 245 St John [email protected], Archaeology Society (GLIAS) St, EC1V 4NB. 9.30am-8pm www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma 14 Mount Rd, EN4 9RL, 020 History of Harringay Mon and Thurs (shuts 6pm 8692 8512, www.glias.org.uk www.harringayonline.com/ every other Monday); London & Middlesex group/historyofharringay 9.30am-5pm Tues, Fri and Sat; Archaeological Society Guildhall Library closed Weds and Sun; closed 020 7814 5734, www.lamas. Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH, Honourable Artillery 1pm-2pm; 020 7527 7988; org.uk 020 7332 1868, textphone 020 Company Museum [email protected], 7332 3803, guildhall.library@ City Road, EC1, 020 7382 www.islington.gov.uk/heritage London Museums of Health cityoflondon.gov.uk 1541, www.hac.org.uk and Medicine Islington Museum www.medicalmuseums.org Hackney Museum Horniman Museum 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB, 1 Reading Lane, E8 1GQ, 100 London Rd, SE23, 020 8699 10am-5pm, closed Weds and London Socialist Historians www.hackney.gov.uk/ 1872, www.horniman.ac.uk Sun, 020 7527 2837, islington. Group cm-museum.htm [email protected], http://londonsocialist Hornsey Historical Society www.islington.gov.uk/ historians.blogspot.com The Hackney Society The Old Schoolhouse, 136 museum Round Chapel, 1d Glenarm Tottenham Lane, N8 7EL, London Vintage Taxi Road, E5 0LY, 07771 225183, hornseyhistorical.org.uk Islington’s Lost Cinemas Association [email protected] www.islingtonslostcinemas.com www.lvta.co.uk Hunterian Museum Hendon and District RCS, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Islington Society London Transport Museum Archaeology Society Fields, WC2, www.rcseng. 35 Britannia Row, N1 8QH, 020 7379 6344, www.

020 8449 7076, hadas.org.uk ac.uk/museums www.islingtonsociety.org.uk ltmuseum.co.uk IWM Collections access EPH 167

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 29 LT Museum Friends Musical Museum Rowan Arts Project Transport Trust 020 7565 7296, www. 399 High Street, TW8 0DU, Islington arts charity. 020 Lambeth Rd, SE1, 020 7928 ltmuseum.co.uk/friends www.musicalmuseum.co.uk 7700 2062, www. 6464, www.transporttrust.com therowanartsproject.com London Underground National Archives Twentieth Century Society Railway Society 020 8876 3444, www. Royal Air Force Museum 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 [email protected] nationalarchives.gov.uk 020 8205 2266, www. 7250 3857, www.c20society. rafmuseum.org.uk/london org.uk London Westminster & National Churches Trust Middlesex Family History 0)207 600 6090, www. Royal Institute of British Union Chapel and Friends Society nationalchurchestrust.org Architects (RIBA) of the Union Chapel www.lwmfhs.org.uk 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD, Compton Avenue, N1 2XD, National Piers Society www.architecture.com www.unionchapel.org.uk/ Markfield Beam Engine and www.piers.org.uk pages/friends.html Museum Science Museum Markfield Park, N15, 01707 Newcomen Society for the Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD. Victoria & Albert Museum 873628, [email protected] History of Engineering and www.sciencemuseum.org.uk Cromwell Rd, SW7, 020 7907 Technology 7073, www.vam.ac.uk Mausolea & Monuments 020 7371 4445, office@ Sir John Soane’s Museum Trust newcomen.com 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A V&A Museum of Childhood www.mmtrust.org.uk 3BP, www.soane.org Cambridge Heath Road, E2 Newington Green Action 9PA, 020 8983 5200, www. Marx Memorial Library Group Smithfield Trust museumofchildhood.org.uk 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1 020 7359 6027, www. 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 0DU, 020 7253 1485, info@ newingtongreen.org.uk 7566 0041, [email protected]. Victorian Society marx-memorial-library.org org 020 8994 1019, www. New River Action Group victoriansociety.org.uk Museum of Brands [email protected], Society of Genealogists 2 Colville Mews, Lonsdale 020 8292 5987 020 7251 8799, www. Wallace Collection Road, W11, 020 7908 0880, societyofgenealogists.com Hertford House, Manchester [email protected] North London Railway Sq, W1, 020 7563 9500, www. Historical Society Society for the Protection wallacecollection.org Museum of Domestic www.nlrhs.org.uk of Ancient Buildings Design & Architecture 37 Spital Sq, E1 6DY, 020 7377 Wallpaper History Society (MoDA) Northview – a Rare Survivor 1644, www.spab.org.uk wallpaperhistorysociety.org. 020 8411 4394, www.moda. www.northview.org.uk uk mdx.ac.uk/home Southwark and Lambeth Pauper Lives in Georgian Archaeology Society Walthamstow Historical Museum of London London and Manchester 79 Ashridge Cres, SE18 3EA Society 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ www.walthamstow 020 7814 5511, info@ pauperlives Stuart Low Trust historicalsociety.org.uk/ museumoflondon.org.uk www.slt.org.uk/ Peckham Society Wellcome Collection Museum of London www.peckhamsociety.org.uk Rotherhithe & Bermondsey www.wellcomecollection.org Archaeology Local History Society Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Petrie Museum of Egyptian [email protected] John Wesley’s House and Eagle Wharf Road, N1, 020 Archaeology Museum of Methodism 7410 2200, www.museum UCL, Malet Pl, WC1, www. Royal Archaeological 49 City Rd, EC1, www.wesleys oflondon archaeology.org.uk ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie Institute chapel.org.uk/museum.htm [email protected] Museum of London Proceedings of the Old William Morris Gallery Docklands Bailey Thames Discovery Forest Road, E17, 020 8496 020 7001 9844, www. www.oldbaileyonline.org Programme 4390, www.wmgallery.org.uk museum oflondon.org.uk/ Mortimer Wheeler Hse, 46 docklands Ragged School Museum Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, 020 7410 Wilmington Square Society 020 8980 6405, www.ragged 2207, enquiries@ www.thewilmington Museum of the Order of schoolmuseum.org.uk thamesdiscovery.org squaresociety.org St John St John’s Gate, EC1M 4DA, Rescue/British Theatres Trust Women’s Library Collection 020 7324 4005, www. Archaeological Trust 020 7836 8591, www. [email protected], museumstjohn.org.uk www.rescue-archaeology.org.uk theatrestrust.org.uk [email protected]

30 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 Islington Archaeology & History Society Events

Wednesday 17 September, 8pm, Islington Town Hall Wednesday 19 November, 8pm, Islington Town Hall The House Mill and Three Mills Language, myth and the “world out there” Talk by Philip Barker

Language can greatly affect our perception of reality and therefore history, and historians have often attempted to address the problems of interpreting the past through texts.

Philip Barker looks at how the linguist’s understanding of the relationship between language and reality often stands in contrast to such approaches to history.

Keep up to date with our Facebook group

More than 100 people have joined our Facebook group. On it, you’ll find: Brian Strong, former director, chairman and secretary of l Stories covering news and historical matters the River Lea Tidal Mill Trust, with Beverley Charters, a l Excerpts from old newspapers director of the trust l Members’ old photographs l Online discussions, including questions and answers The House Mill is a grade I listed 18th century tidal mill in a l Talks and walks organised by different organisations beautiful riverside location in the East End. Built in 1776, it is l Information on events – society events, plus those run by the largest tidal mill in the world. It had a major role in other organisations, including steam train appearances, London’s gin industry. architecture open days and archaeological digs.

Brian Hill will talk about Facebook page lets you keep up with what’s happening between the history of Three Mills journals coming out. and the House Mill, and the London distilling You’re welcome to post on our Facebook group on history and industry of which it was a related matters. part. There will be a visual tour of the miller’s house l www.facebook.com/groups/islingtonhistory and the House Mill.

Beverley Charters, a director of the trust, will talk about plans for the mill, including the restoration of its machinery.

Wednesday 15 October Meeting Topic to be confirmed

The details for this event were still being finalised as we were going to press. It is expected to take place at the town hall at 8pm as usual. Details will be posted on our website at www. islingtonhistory.org.uk and our Facebook group.

The Islington Archaeology & History Society meets 10 times a year, usually on the third Wednesday of the month at 8pm, at Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1. £1 donation/free to members. Everyone welcome. www.islingtonhistory.org.uk Mill exterior: Christy Lawrance; interior: House Mill Mill exterior: Christy Lawrance;

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2014 Vol 4 No 3 31 The Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Back page picture

Detail from the derelict Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, which faces demolition. The locally listed building was opened in 1870 as the Clarence Tavern and renamed the Sir George Robey in the 1960s, after a famous early 20th century music hall star Christy Lawrance