Of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY ,No39 JAN 1977 Two Hampstead
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,No39 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY JAN 1977 Two Hampstead Schools Sights and Sounds of - our January Event Somers Town 1800-1939. at University College School, at the Polytechnic of North London, Frognal, NW3, on 27 January Prince of Wales Road, NW5, at 7. 30 pm. 1 7 February, 7. 30 pm Two of the most illustrious north Architecturally Somers Town was a London schools are the subject of our casualty of, first, a building slump and, January talk. South Hampstead High second, the railway age. It began School for Girls was founded a hundred promisingly enough. The land, owned years ago in Winchester Road and by Baron Somers for the most part, was moved to Maresfield Gardens in 1882. developed by his principal landholder Our speaker, appropriately, is Miss Jacob Leroux. Clarendon Square was Prunella Bodington, headmistress for its P!"incipal feature within which stood 15½ years and the author of the recent the unusual 15 - sided Polygon, a group centenary publication about the School. of houses. In No. 29 The Polygon lived The other establishment is University William Godwin and his wife Mary College School which has buildings in Wollstonecraft, the champion of women's Frognal and Holly Hill, and which was rights. Their daughter, Mary, who founded in 1907. The _speaker, a famil- wrote 'Frankenstein' in 1818, married iar name in Hampstead, is the former Percy Bysshe Shelley. headmaster Mr CD Black-Hawkins. The new buildings of Somers Town in the early part of the 19th century Thomas Shepherd and attracted a good many French emigres, his London fleeing from the French Revolution. Then there was a sudden slump in house Burgh House, NW3, on 10 February buying and this, together with the new at 8pm rai:l.ways, killed any cohesive plan for Thomas Shepherd is the best known the area. illustrator of early .London buildings. However, as anyone living there will Many of his drawings feature Camden tell you, until quite recently there was buildings still standing and his work is a definite community and the tape-slide indispensable to publishers looking for show. by Dr John Broad of the Poly- illustrations for a London book. His technic will be of great interest in show- work is the subject of a talk by John ing this. Phillips, the GLC curator of maps and prints, in a joint event with the His- NEW STREET NAME torical Association. Camden History The Society was consulted about an Society will be mounting an exhibition appropriate name for the passageway at the same time, showing some of the linking Oriel Place and Heath Street Shepherd prints in the Camden collec- in Hampstead. After consulting The tion. An event not to be missed. Streets of Hampstead and other records of the area, we made various suggest- ions and, of these, 'Bakers Passage' was chosen as the official name. · Henry Bassett, Architect OTHER SOCIETIES Henry Bassett, who had to pull down two LAMAS are organising a trip of partic- houses near the Chalk Farm railway ular interest to historians and archae- bridge (The Story of Fitzroy Bridge, ologists, to Austria and Northern Italy at September Newsletter), was evidently the end of July, which lasts two weeks. architect for quite a number of houses in The tour includes Innsbruck, Salzburg, the neighbourhood. He showed a model Vienna, Verona, Padua and Venice. of 'a pair of Italian villas, now being The cost is £180. Full particulars erected in Gloucester-Road, Regent's- from Lawrence Snell, Newman College, Park' at the Royal Academy exhibition Bartley Green, Birmingham. in 1844, which Sir John Summerson The Greater London Industrial Archae- (Architectural Review August 1948) iden- ology Society is holding a talk on 1 7 tifies as 8 and 10 Gloucester Avenue, February on Late Roman and Anglo- now demolished. George Bassett Junior, Saxon Industrial Archaeology. The probably a near relation, bought at the speaker is Brian Adams. Admission Southampton Estate sale in 1840 the plots is free and the talk will be at the City both sides of the then Gloucester Road of London Polytechnic in Jewry Street, south of the canal down to the present EC3. Cecil Sharp House and to the railway bridge on the east side, which makes it Bound for Success likely that Henry would design houses on Camden History Review now has its these sites. George himself appears in own binder: it is black with gold the Directories from 1846 in the second lettering and holds ten copies house from the railway bridge. You can get one at CHS meetings Sir John Summerson also thinks that or order it by post Henry Bassett was architect for the Members' price: £1. 25 spiendid Italianate terrace in Gloucester Postage and packing: 45 pence extra Crescent backing on to Parkway, and this is surely correct as Henry was the Reviews Nos 1-4 are available , purchaser of this plot at the Estate sale. price 75p each (postage 14p) A characteristic of Henry Bassett's CHS Publications, 28 Willoughby Road style seems to have been a wide over- London, NW3 hanging eaves supported by frequent consoles: "this appears on the Gloucester HAMPSTEAD MAP 1762 Crescent terrace and on 194 and 196 Regent's Park Road, the two houses The New Year has started well with which did not have to be pulled down, photographic copies of a map of Hamp- and it was also on the Gloucester Avenue stead dateµ 1762 being added to the houses which, sadly, are demolished. Local History Library at Swiss Cottage. Henry Bassett was born about 1803 and There is no other map for Hampstead won the gold medal of the Society of for the period which can compare in any Arts in 1823 and of the Royal Academy way with it for detail and information. in 1825. He was of 'Prowis Place, Haverstock Hill', presumably Powis The _original, together with a field book Place, in 1840, and died intestate showing land ownership and occupation, before 1 7 March 1847 when his widow were discovered in a solicitor's office was granted the property at the north by CHS member. David Sullivan, while end of Gloucester Avenue where the researching among manorial records. Pembroke Castle now stands, originally Malcolm Holmes to have been road. He left an infant Local History Librarian son. The Bassetts were Surveyors to the Southampton Estate; Henry appears in the 1840s and George (Senior?) in the 1830s. But for his early death, Henry Bassett might have become one of the better known Victorian architects. A nthonv r'nonPr A HUNDRED YEARS OF ST PANCRAS Camden at War GARDENS Our last three Reviews have taken as One of the pleasantest, and least known, their themes Edwardian, Victorian and small open spaces in the Borough is Georgian Camden, in that order: so St Pancras Gardens which surround special features on Stuart and Tudor the old St Pancras Church in Pancras Camden must follow in future editions. Ro~d. They are on the site of two burial . But I would like to interrupt oµr back- grounds, the one belonging to St Pancras wards march of time with a more gen- Church itself, and the other - a piece of eral theme, Camden in Wartime, and I land acquired by St Giles-in-the-Fields invite contributions from our members. for burials which their own burial ground could not accommodate. The graveyards Various wartime subjects keep cropping had particularly grisly histories, which up in our researches: Civil War defen- might weH make the subject of a lecture . ces, the 18c and 19c local Volunteers, for the Society one day, and eventually reminiscences of World War I, air- were reduced in size by the coming of raids iri the last war: any aspects of the railways. In 1817 they were laid war on the home front, not forgetting out as public gardens and few tombs the Home Guard, will be included. There will be room, of course, for were left in their original position but 1 certainly the Sir John Soane monument · other articles also in Camden History and that of the Cecil Rhodes family are Review - 5, but will prospective con- worth seeing. tributors, please, contact me first, and at the latest by the end of February. There is related a tale about Thomas Chatterton, the poet, to bear in mind Christopher Wade (794 2752) while you walk round inspecting the HIGHGATE POSTCARDS tombstones. He was amusing himself The Society has recently acquired a one ·day reading the epitaphs in St Pan- number of sets of 5 sepia views of the cras Churchyard when he fell into a Highgate area in the 1920's. There are fresh-dug grave. A friend helped him two views of St Jo'seph's Retreat; two get out, whereupon Chatterton said 'My views taken from Highgate Archway over dear friend, I feel the sting of a speedy the stretch of road now partly widened dissolution. I have been at war with or under threat of widening. These two the grave some time, and find it not so views are particularly interesting show- easy to vanquish as I imagined; we can_ ing the transport of the time and the find an asylum from. every creditor but morning traffic situation. The last view, that. ' In three days time he committed more strictly an Islington one, is of the · suicide in Holborn and was buried, it is Great Northern Hospital in Holloway thought, in StAndrews Burial Ground Road. in Gray's Inn Road. This interesting set can be obtained at HAMPSTEAD CONSERVATION the very reasonable price of 25p plus -A NEW GUIDE self-addressed 4 x 9 stamped envelope A very good map of Hampstead has just from CHS Publications, 28 Willoughby been published showing the designated Road, NW3.