Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Vol 7 No 3 Autumn 2017 incorporating Islington History Journal
Empire remembered A green plaque for one of London’s most famous venues
Pink Floyd’s controversial children’s choir l The wartime youth club at Canonbury Tower l A charity’s 500-year history reflects social change l Being evacuated in the Second World War l A trip to the Postal Museum and Mail Rail l Memorial to Islington’s Boxing Day tragedy l Policing same-sex desire l Books and reviews l Events and exhibitions l Letters and your questions 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 Alec Forshaw 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 Chair We organise lectures, walks research, memories and old Andrew Gardner, and other events, and photographs. [email protected] publish this quarterly A one-page article needs Secretary journal. We hold 10 about 500 words, and the Morgan Barber-Rogers meetings a year, usually at maximum length is 1,000 secretary@islingtonhistory. Islington Town Hall. words (please do not submit org.uk The society was set up in articles published elsewhere). Membership, publications and 1975 and is run entirely by We like pictures – please check events volunteers. If you’d like to we can use them without Catherine Brighty, get involved, please contact infringing anyone’s copyright. 8 Wynyatt Street, EC1V 7HU, our chairman Andrew The journal is published in 020 7833 1541, catherine. Gardner (details left). www.facebook.com/ print and online in pdf form. [email protected] 8 www.islingtonhistory.org.uk groups/islingtonhistory.org.uk Deadline for the autumn Treasurer issue is 4 November. Philip Anderson, phlpandrsn6 @btopenworld. Journal back issues and extra copies Ever wondered…? com Do you have any queries about Academic adviser Journal distribution is Islington’s history, streets or Lester Hillman, former overseen by Catherine buildings? Send them in for visiting professor, London Brighty (details left). our tireless researcher Michael Metropolitan University Contact her for more Reading and other readers to Journal editor copies, back issues, if you answer. Please note we do not Christy Lawrance move house and about keep an archive or carry out Committee members membership. Back issues family research. Michael Harper can also be downloaded l See Letters, page 6 Derek Seeley via our website at www. Samir Singh 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 ...... Editor Christy Lawrance, christy@ Name(s) ...... islingtonhistory.org.uk, c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Park Address ...... Road, London N7 0QB
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2 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society
Incorporating Islington History Journal Vol 7 No 3 Autumn 2017
Protect heritage while listing is being decided
hundred years ago, Holloway was a fashionable shopping area, with Along parades of shops and grand Contents department stores. The centrepiece of one of these terraces was a magnificent two-faced Victorian News 4 clock, beneath an octagonal cupola and Memorial board to Boxing Day tragedy placed at Paradise Park, Clerkenwell Green above decorative swag details. It survived to get revamp and suffragette statue, landmark clock lost and a former music hall for over 100 years. gets a green plaque Sadly, over recent years, the clock fell into disrepair. Panels were lost from the Your letters and questions 6 faces. Then it was taken down. The silver-topped SS Islington baton, an old school photograph, a reserved Around the same time, a developer occupation in a syphon factory, variations in street widths, the grand house of deliberately destroyed a Jacobean ceiling Wedmore Street, the wandering church organ and a goat society to prevent a building from being listed. This type of action is not new. When The wartime youth club at Canonbury Tower 10 developers heard that the 1927 art deco Fred Pullen, aged 91, talks about his time there during the Second World War Firestone factory was to be listed, they had bulldozers on site within days. Pink Floyd’s children’s choir 12 In Wales, buildings being considered How a bunch of Islington kids got to perform on Pink Floyd’s most successful single for listing are given interim protection while their status is decided. There is a Leaving homes in wartime 14 campaign to bring England’s law into line An Islington boy is evacuated to the countryside with this, which we should support. Such a move may help to highlight A postal journey 16 society’s disapproval when heritage assets A trip to the Postal Museum and down Mail Rail are lost – and even make people think before they remove landmarks like Centuries of charity 18 Holloway’s clock. The Cloudesley charity is 500 years old. What is the story behind its longevity? For now, let’s hope the terrace’s owners realise how lost it looks without its Policing same-sex desire 20 centrepiece, and repair the clock and To mark 50 years of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, we take a look at how the reinstate it in its rightful place. state and society viewed same-sex relationships
Going underground Publications 22 It might seem strange that tickets to travel A charity’s history reflects social change, a Clerkenwell church, Smithfield’s story, underground in cramped railway carriages modern city architecture and lots of old maps are selling out – after all, many Londoners experience something similar every day. Events and reviews 24 Yet it is without doubt a thrill to travel The film of Dunkirk, a visit to the Royal Mews, plus days and evenings out along the dimly lit tunnels of Mail Rail on a railway line that was inaccessible to the Directory 28 public for so many decades. Societies, museums and resources
Christy Lawrance Islington Archaeology & History Society events 31 Editor Come to a talk or join us on a walk
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 3 news In brief Memorial to Boxing Day tragedy at the gates to Paradise Park Cut VAT on building in Liverpool Road. More than people who have stories of repair, tax office told 340 people were casualties of family or friends affected by VAT on the labour element of this wartime attack, in which this tragedy. He can be all housing renovation and 73 people were killed and 86 contacted via our Facebook repair should be cut to 5%, as seriously injured. group at www.facebook.com/ is the case in the Isle of Man, The board is very near the groups/islingtonhistory the Heritage Alliance has said site of the former Prince of He wrote an article about in response to the Office of Wales pub which was the attack and people affected Tax Simplification’s review of destroyed. by it in the December 2016 VAT. It says the VAT regime is The text on the board, most issue of this journal. a major threat to heritage and of which was written by Bill the industries it supports, as it Patey, says: “The traumatic incentivises demolition. A rate impact of this attack was felt of 20% VAT is charged on by many survivors. Some maintenance, compared with families suffered significant 0% on new buildings. losses of life or homes. One A commemorative board family living opposite the Views on the planning dedicated to the casualties of a Prince of Wales public house system wanted V2 bombing attack on Boxing lost seven children and Day 1944 has been placed another family celebrating an The Town & Country near the gates to Paradise engagement lost five of its Planning Association has set Park. members.” up a review to identify how IAHS member Bill Patey Bill Patey is still researching the planning system can be campaigned for the memorial and would like to hear from made fairer and effective while providing more homes. The deadline for comments on the Raynsford Review of Green plaque for music hall Planning is 31 October. l www.tcpa.org.uk/ The Finsbury Park Empire The Finsbury raynsford-review Theatre was due to be Park Empire commemorated with an when it Islington’s People’s Plaque as opened in Fewer council historic 1910 the journal went to press. advice specialists The music hall and variety The number of local authority theatre was one of the most historic advice specialists has famous venues of its kind continued to fall, according to in London. Historic England. At the same Designed by Frank Matcham time, the number of planning for Moss Empires, it had 2,000 application and listed building seats, cost £45,000 and opened consent decisions has risen. in September 1910. On opening night, the sliding panel” and being a person in half was first Rebuild cottages brick by number of seats were “not “perforated in an ingenious shown in public there in 1921. brick, orders council equal to the demand for and decorative manner”. The theatre closed in 1960. admission”, the The Stage Many stars appeared at the It had been making a loss. Three illegally demolished newspaper reported. Empire including Lillie Moss Empires offered to sell it historic cottages must be It added that the theatre had Langtry, Harry Houdini, WC to theatre trades unions but rebuilt exactly as they used to met so much “strenuous Fields, Laurel & Hardy, Max the price was too high. be, Tower Hamlets Council opposition … it is a matter for Miller and Tony Hancock. It was then used as a has ordered. The 19th century astonishment that the scheme Sophie Tucker made her UK rehearsal space and scenery cottages, in a conservation ever materialised at all”. debut there in 1922. store, and scenes from Cliff area on the Isle of Dogs, must The Stage described the In 1914, the theatre staged Richard musical The Young be rebuilt within 18 months. interior as “admirable from Britain’s first all-women Ones were filmed there. They were demolished every point of view”. Even the variety show, with Marie The building was without planning consent ventilation was praised, with a Lloyd topping the bill. The demolished and Vaudeville
Empire: Islington Local History Centre; pub: National Brewery Heritage Trust; board: Christy board: Lawrance HistoryTrust; Local pub: National Brewery Islington Empire: Heritage Centre; in 2016. the roof having a “modern magic-trick illusion of sawing Court built on the site.
4 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Old station at Highbury could be reopened Revamp for Clerkenwell Square
The former Highbury & Islington station, over the road One of the oldest open spaces from the current one, could be in the borough is to get a reopened, according to a revamp and a statue of Sylvia report in the Islington Gazette. Pankhurst, under council The 1904 station served as an proposals. entrance to the Great Clerkenwell Green could be Northern and City Railway, closed to traffic and more which is now the Northern trees planted. A bronze statue City Line and runs from of Pankhurst, a key Finsbury Park to Moorgate. suffragette, is due to be installed by the end of next Pie and mash shop on year to mark 100 years since Chapel Market to close women won the right to vote. The square has a strong The Manze pie and mash shop tradition of protest, going in Chapel Market is to close back to the middle ages. Some early road traffic on Clerkenwell Green in 1898; the building that after 106 years in Chapel People have gathered there for is now the Marx Memorial Library is in the background Market. It opened in 1911 and May Day rallies since 1890. is expected to close by The Tolpuddle Martyrs were Iskra to the British Social as the place where Fagin and Christmas. It was run by the greeted there on their return Democratic Federation at the Artful Dodger introduce family until Lydia Manze died from Botany Bay, and the 37a Clerkenwell Green, which Oliver to pickpocketing. in 1985; she had worked in Chartists and several trade is now home to the Marx l The deadline for responses the shop for 60 years. unions held meeting there. Memorial Library to the consultation is In 1902, Vladimir Lenin The square appears in 30 October: www.islington. Petition calls for interim moved the publication of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, gov.uk/clerkenwellgreen listing to end destruction A petition asking the Shopping parade’s government to give interim protection to buildings landmark clock proposed for listing has been set up after a developer disappears destroyed a Jacobean ceiling to prevent the building being listed. The developer was legally entitled to destroy the elaborate, 400-year-old ceiling. l Sign the petition at http:// tinyurl.com/ycwcbvfu
Victorian Society issues list of buildings at risk The Victorian Society has The Holloway Road shopping parade no longer has its centrepiece published its Top Ten Victorian clock (pictured in 2011, right) Endangered Buildings 2017. It includes two chapels designed A landmark clock in the its faces. The society has by Alfred Waterhouse, the centre of a terrace in previously called for it to architect behind the Natural Holloway Road has be restored. History Museum, a factory disappeared. IAHS chair Andrew that produced glass for the Big The clock, at 296 Holloway Gardner, told the Islington Ben clock faces and a seaside Road, dates back to the 1890s, Tribune: “It’s a landmark piece pavilion. The only London site when Holloway was a of architecture. It’s a balancing still be working two years ago is the New Tiger’s Head, an fashionable shopping area. feature in the middle of the and to be structurally safe. unlisted 19th century pub on Recently, it had been building and a lovely thing to At the end of the 19th the borders of Greenwich and allowed to fall into disrepair, keep.” century, the building contained
Lewisham. with panels falling out of The clock was reported to a branch of Sainsbury’s. History Local Holloway: Islington Clerkenwell Green: Centre; Christy Lawrance;
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 5 Letters and your questions We draw on the expertise of our researcher Michael Reading and society members, so get in touch if you have a query or can respond to anything here
Silver-topped ‘SS Islington’ baton from 1900 I recently purchased a small ebony and mushroom silver-topped baton from an antique shop in Rochester. It has on it a silver band with the initials “CEA” and, on the There is be a faint possibility reverse, the inscription that the local history centre “Islington SS Anniversary have a file on the event. 1900”. It is about two feet long. Michael Reading I have trying to find information about it and so A reserved occupation This ebony baton is inscribed far have come to a dead end. in a syphon factory “Islington SS Anniversary 1900”. I don’t think it is linked to a A family member’s service Was it created for a special ship as records I have looked records state that, after occasion? at do not show one for that receiving a shotgun wound to date or before. In addition, the the knee, he returned home My understanding of your SS normally comes in front of and was transferred to Army enquiry is that a member of the name of a ship whereas Reserve class 1. your family was wounded in this comes at the end It said he was “not liable to the First World War, and (Islington SS). be called up for military recovered but not sufficiently I wonder therefore if it service as long as it is to be returned to active relates to some historic society necessary for him to remain service and was subsequently based in Islington. Maybe in civil employ as a syphon transferred to the Army social services/scientific caster with British Syphon Co Reserve Class 1. made commercially, it could society or perhaps an army Ltd Barnsbury Street”. Many men were in the be some form of military outfit based in Islington? I wondered if any of your reserves for various reasons. engineering product. I would appreciate it if you members might know They served in the rear areas, If you research the history are able to advise me of any anything about the company often guarding installations, of the company, you may find societies or groups operating during the First World War, or convoys and prisoners of war. this was recorded. in Islington at the turn of the have any suggestion for It is possible your relative Michael Reading century that it may refer to? finding out more. had special skills that could be Terry Thrussell Making drinks syphons better employed back at the A 19th century school [email protected] doesn’t seem to be a good British Syphon Co, where they photograph reason for being exempted had suspended their normal I have a torn piece of a school The inscription on the baton from military service. business and were engaged on photograph which includes would suggest that it was given Jean Fitzgerald war production. He would my grandmother, born in on a special occasion in 1900. [email protected] therefore not be returned to Islington in 1877. Photo It is possible that this his military unit while he was dating expert Jayne Shrimpton occasion was recorded in the The summer issue of this working at the company. has assessed it as having been local newspapers, especially journal contained a letter The website at www.1914- taken circa 1886-90. the Islington Gazette. The about the British Syphon 1918.net/reserve.htm will give The border of the picture Islington Local History Centre factory. A history of the you information on the may be the same as in other has the every issue of the firm was published in various categories of army school photos, which could paper since its inception 1856 Sussex Industrial History in reserves in 1914-18. help me to identify the school on microfilm. You can book a 2006, issue 36, pages 2-11. Unfortunately, I have no or group of schools seat and then search the This can be downloaded information on what the photographed. Does microfilms for the year 1900, from http://tinyurl.com/ British Syphon Company may Islington’s history centre or which I must admit can be a y9dpl7nt have been producing for the archive have school photos of rather boring experience but Christy Lawrance war effort, but would venture this period that can be
Terry Thrussell Terry does eventually bear results. Editor that, from the products they compared?
6 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Gran is the child in the This school slum streets and commercial premises. middle with the drooping photograph has a create air spaces. It may be that this eyelid, the result of mumps. distinctive edge. Can Tony Hellard arrangement was not planned, you identify it? My family were at Elmore Via Facebook but came about more by Street in the 1881 census and accident. Gran’s mother died at Albion an archive, but I’ve done some Michael Reading Grove in Barnsbury in 1899. Islington’s Local looking up on my However, I cannot find where History Centre, shelves at home, The grand house at they were in 1891 and don’t which the council principally from Wedmore Gardens know what became of Gran’s runs, may have Mary Cosh’s I live at a house in Wedmore father. some pictures, History of Gardens. I’ve just stumbled Any help you can give me in and can help Islington and her across the Ordnance Survey identifying the school she people who short An Historical map for 1869-80. This shows attended would be greatly cannot visit Walk Through the railway and station at appreciated. easily. Barnsbury, and I think both of Upper Holloway as being in Sonia Bennett Murray The London Metropolitan your replies above look viable. existence as well as buildings Biloxi, MS USA Archives hold a collection of Mary writes of along Hampden Road, [email protected] school photographs, some of “improvements” in around Cromwell Road (possibly which may go back to the late 1859 to what had already named at one point as Ireton There are two schools very 19th century. become run down. The Road) and Rupert Road, near Elmore Street – Details of both can be found drovers’ route you suggest which were demolished to Ecclesbourne Primary School, at www.islingtonhistory.org. certainly looks viable from the form Whittington Park. which was open between 1886 uk/sources.html. geography; and, at this time Wedmore Street is shown, and 2004, and Rotherfield If you send the photograph there was also great pressure but at that point was named Primary School, which to the London Metropolitan on countering disease (then John Street. opened in 1898. Both Archives, may I suggest you widely considered to be Where Wedmore Gardens is buildings still exist. tell them which school you airborne) by air spaces. now, the map shows what Ecclesbourne Road runs think it may be from and the Which of these was the appears to be a large house, out of Elmore Street, and is a years. They may be able to greater motive? I can’t say for with gardens laid out. Is it few minutes’ walk away. search for you – there may be the moment. Slaughter of possible to find out anything Ecclesbourne Primary School a fee for this. livestock at Smithfield ceased more about this house? And closed in 2004 and I believe Michael Reading soon after, though the dairies about when and how has been converted into flats. continued. I hope this helps Wedmore Gardens came to be Rotherfield Street is about 10 Why is Cloudesley Road for now – I’d love to give built – and Wedmore Street minutes’ walk away and is still wider than nearby streets? more. renamed? in use as a primary school. I have a random question: is Andy Gardner That renaming has led, I Both buildings are three there any particular reason Chair, IAHS would guess, to over 100 years storeys high and were built by why Cloudesley Road in Via Facebook of irritation with letters the London Schools Board in Barnsbury is so wide turning up in the wrong road a distinctive style. You can compared to the I am inclined to agree with and people getting lost. view them on Google Earth. surrounding streets? Tony Helland’s suggestion. Many thanks for any Albion Grove, which Joe Kaz Looking at the map, a pattern information. became Ripplevale Grove in Via Facebook emerges in that the streets Humphrey Evans 1921, would be a good 40 running from south to north [email protected] minutes’ walk from Elmore My father was born there. I streets are much longer as well Street. There is a school am sure it was originally a as wider than the streets The large house you refer to nearby, Thornhill Primary drive path to the cattle yard in running west to east. stood in Holloway Road and School in Thornhill Road. Barnsbury. Could that be the They south-north streets are the 1868 street directory Again, this was built by the reason? Caledonian Road, shows it standing between London Schools Board and is When you look at the map Hemmingford Road, Hampden Road and the three storeys high. It opened of the area you can see the Barnsbury Road, Cloudesley Hampstead Junction in 1881 and is still in use. pattern of the squares. Maybe Road (joining at Richmond Tottenham Railway line. The Islington Archaeology the wide streets were part of Road), Liverpool Road and The house was occupied by & History Society doesn’t have the design to clear the tight Upper Street. Frederick Fitz Henry Fisher All are main thoroughfares, and was named Wedmore following the development of House. As Wedmore Gardens, That renaming has led, I would guess, to over Islington as it moved which was completed in 1883, 100 years of irritation with letters turning up northwards during the early is a comparatively short street, part of the 19th century. I would venture that it was in the wrong road and people getting lost All of these streets had or built on the site of Wedmore have shops and other House and its gardens. You
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 7 may find some information vestry minutes of July 1886. on the Fisher family on the But I could find no mention 1871 census. in the minutes from around The name Wedmore Street that time of any donation in was approved in 1877. Before his memory. this, it was John Street, Upper An organist friend spotted Holloway, dating from 1829. an advert in The Times In 1852, it was St John Street newspaper of Wednesday but changed in 1855 to just 7 March 1888, which states: John Street. “ORGAN, by W Hill and Son, Wedmore Street also for SALE. In perfect contained Wedmore Mews, condition. Six years old. which ran behind a group of Contains six stops in great, houses facing onto Holloway four in swell, one in pedal, Road. Wedmore is a village John Street was a previous name for Wedmore Street and three couplers. Handsome four and a half miles south of oak case. May be seen at the Axbridge in Somerset. Margaret, aged 7, scholar and I have been wondering Manor House, Leigh Road, The Islington vestry minutes Ada, aged 1. Also living there where the parish hall was and Highbury-grove, N.” for 1863 and again in 1868 were Emma Smith, domestic whether it escaped damage So it appears the All show that Holloway Road was servant, Sarah Gibson, when St Mary’s was heavily Hallows organ was still at the known as such, but the nursemaid and Marion destroyed in the Blitz. Manor House nearly two numbering was not completed Bullen, cook. This seems to be At the back of the organ years after Reverend Wilson until 1884-86. a story in its own right. case at All Hallows is a plaque died. Presumably Morris was Michael Reading Humphrey Evans bearing the following unable to sell the organ and inscription: “This organ was decided to donate it to St Thank you for taking the A church organ that left presented as a tribute to the Mary’s instead. trouble to look up the Highbury for the City memory of the Reverend In 1961-62 the organ was existence of Wedmore House. I’ve been trying to find out Prebendary Daniel Wilson repaired and installed in All It’s quite refreshing to know about an organ in All Hallows MA vicar of this parish from Hallows by organ builders what was there and even the church in London Wall in the 1832 to 1886 by Edward R Noel Mander & Sons. Its name of the person who City of London. It was built in Morris Esq JP formerly of the archive file for All Hallows lived in it. the 19th century and Manor House, Highbury.” contains a letter to Manders It almost instantly led to originally installed in a private The 1881 census shows an from the Central Council for some more information. house in Highbury. Edward R Morris was living at the Care of Churches, 2 May I have been unable to trace Following the death of a 9 Warltersville Road. He was a 1961, stating that there is an Elizabeth Merryweather in long-serving vicar of St Mary’s gelatine manufacturer with a organ available for All Hallows the 1871 census. However, her church in Islington, Reverend business in the City so one from “Islington Parish father, Frederick FH Fisher, Daniel Wilson, the organ was assumes he was quite well off. Church”. Another document aged 47, whose income presented in his memory to The organ is mentioned in a dated 16 February 1962 says derived from property and the church in the late 1880s. book entitled The Organs of the organ is located at foreign stock, was living at It remained in Islington the City of London by “Islington Parish Church Hall”. Wedmore House, Holloway until 1962 when it was Nicholas Plumley. He states There is an invoice to All Road, Islington with his wife transferred from Islington that the organ “was probably Hallows, dated 5 July 1962 for Margaret, aged 28, sons Parish Hall to All Hallows. originally made for the Manor the organ, purchased from William, aged 19, an (All Hallows had been severely House, 21 Leigh Road, “Bishop Wilson Memorial undergraduate and Edmund, damaged during the Second Highbury”. Hall, Islington”. aged 16 “engaged in World War and repaired and Reverend Wilson’s death It appears that St Mary’s hall warehouse”, and daughters, reopened in 1962.) was noted in the Islington have been called “Islington Parish Church Hall” or “Bishop Write to us Wilson Memorial Hall”. There is a community centre l Email the editor at [email protected] at the rear of St Mary’s vicarage. l Write to the editor c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Park Would this be where the Road, N7 0QB Bishop Wilson Hall was? Were l Via www.facebook.com/groups/islingtonhistory; “Bishop Wilson Memorial posts printed will give Facebook usernames Hall” and the “Islington Parish Hall” one and the same? The society won’t trace family trees, but can help with, Eric Hearn say, finding information on a family member’s business Member of the Friends of or home. Letters and Facebook posts may be edited. City Churches [email protected]
8 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 In 1888, the parish bought a St Mary’s: the Initial Group, a FTSE 100 plot of land from the church was company. They still trade Metropolitan Board of Works given an organ under separate names and you – possibly adjoining the north side of the because the will find more about them at churchyard, next to 302 Upper owner couldn’t www.initial.co.uk. Street. In 1897, it built a new sell it Michael Reading vicarage there, which is still in use today. The goat group member of Reverend William Hagger Hornsey Street Barlow – who succeeded We are researching the early Reverend Daniel Wilson – history of the British Goat built the Bishop Wilson Society from 1879. One of the Memorial Hall in 1890 behind first members was “Dickins the vicarage to replace an old Bros, 5 Hornsey Street, chapel in Gaskin Street which Holloway Road, N” in Herd had been in use since 1860. Book 1 or alternatively The condition of the hall “Dickens Bros, Hornsey had deteriorated by 1973 and Street, Holloway Road, N” in it was decided to demolish and Herd Book 2. replace it. A games room was We just wondered if anyone built in 1977 in the vicarage could tell us the correct garden behind the hall. The old spelling of the surname. hall was replaced by St Mary’s Bob & Ros Featherstone Neighbourhood Centre, which opened in 1979. with of two flats on the they moved and where to. I I have looked up 5 Hornsey I would venture the ground floor – I had the one know Initial’s building has Street, Holloway, in the Post “Islington Parish Hall” name facing the street – and two gone and has been replaced by Office Street Directory for came into popular use as the flats on the upper floors. The a new build. 1880, the nearest disc I have name of Bishop Wilson faded owners, who were Polish, had George Goodwin to 1879. from memory. This is a guess, the basement. There is no one listed under but things like this do happen. I visited there recently to The houses at 16-20 Mildmay the name of Dickins Bros in I would suggest you contact find number 18 and possibly Park were in a terrace on the the street. That does not mean St Mary’s parish office and ask 16 and 20 had been east side, running from they were not there; they may if you can examine their demolished and a small block Mildmay Grove South to Balls not have paid for an entry in records. You could also ask of flats put in their place. Pond Road. the directory. whether a note could be Is there any way of finding Apart from about 10 houses May I suggest you access the placed in the parish magazine out when they were at the north end, the 1881 census for Hornsey asking if anyone remembers demolished and why, as they remaining line has been Street, which is available via the organ in the old hall. seemed in good condition replaced by several blocks of several genealogy websites. The Islington Local History when I was there? flats in three different styles. I I list below the entries that Centre has copies of the On the subject of believe the small block named are shown in Hornsey Street Islington Gazette on disappearing places, my first Hexam Lodge is where 16-20 which may be of help. microfilm going back to 1856, job was at the British Watch stood and may have been built which may mention the Cases at the bottom of by the Islington Council. The South side. donation. Pentonville Road, near two other blocks look like a 1 James Meldrum There may be members of King’s Cross. private developments. 9 Henry Healy, cooper St Mary’s congregation who I also worked at the Initial The whole line of these 11 James Brander remember the old hall and the Towel Supply Co which was in houses suffered bomb damage 19 Mrs Koch possible use of the organ Goswell Road. during the war, under the 37 M iss Lily Greaves, day before it was moved in 1962. How could I find out when category “general blast school Michael Reading. damage, not structural”. 41 Richard Wooten To find out when the 43 John O’Brian Why were the houses in redevelopment took place, Mildmay Park demolished? I suggest you approach North side I was interested in the article Islington Council’s 2 Robert Ward, builder Don’t pinch the towels - the by Alan Ricketts about him above metal label reads: “This planning office. 30 Charles Taylor Barlow growing up in Mildmay Park. cabinet & contents are the The Initial Towel Supply Co, 34 William Long I spent a number of years property of Initial Tower Supply founded in 1903, was acquired 36 F redk Wm Spooner, writer there in the 1960s at number Co, 290-300 Goswell Rd EC1, and by Rentokil plc in 1996 and 38 Th omas Shortt 18, where I had a flat. are loaned to the user as renamed Rentokil Initial,
It was a three-storey house, custodian bailee” now part of the Rentokil Michael Reading National LibraryWikimedia Commons of Scotland; Christy Lawrance;
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 9 The wartime youth club at Canonbury Tower
Fred Pullen, now aged 91, talks to his daughter Janet Marsh about his time at the youth club at Canonbury Tower during the Second World War
anonbury Tower was Dennis Owen, who lived with his home to a youth club widowed mother and older brother Able Seaman Fred Pullen in 1943 during the Second Bill across the road from my home World War. in Ripplevale Grove. of the association. The youth club was JM: Can you recall the names of mCanaged by actor Bryan Bailey. JM: When was the club open? any other boys and girls who He was a conscientious objector FP: The club was open seven nights belonged to the club in your time? and, because his objection was a week from after school until There were the Sainsbury sisters – accepted, he was required to do about 9pm. Joan and Betty, Tom McElligott voluntary work. He was assigned During the war, young children and his sister Joyce, Betty Batten, to run the club. were evacuated from London but Iris Hillier and Lily Blake. Also Fred Pullen, born in 1925, was a teenagers would have stayed at cousins Reg and Jackie Gutteridge. member of the club for two years home as they were working from the before he was called up to serve in age of 14. The government expected JM: Which parts of the building the Royal Navy. He first attended teenagers to belong to these youth were used by the club and what the club in 1940-41. clubs to occupy their time as we activities were on offer? weren’t allowed to roam the streets. The club had use of the whole Janet Marsh: How did you hear Most of these clubs were building, although the door to the about the club? sponsored by the government or top of the tower was kept locked. Fred Pullen: Two of my old school the London County Council. I can’t The large community hall, built friends invited me along. recall if we paid a subscription. just before the war, was given over One was Horace “Parky” We did have a badge, though. It to games and recreation. I also Parkinson, who lived with his was round and brass, with a blue remember that Bryan held a parents in a cottage next to centre containing a picture of a service there on a Sunday. Thornhill Road School. His father white keystone surrounded by a We had a little tea room that the was in the print. The other was white border with the four initials teenage girls managed. This was in the corner at the back of the main building adjoining the hall. There was always tea and cake available. Bryan had one of the rooms in the tower for his office and another was used for amateur dramatics. The whole club was well organised in that there was always something to do but you could also just sit and chat.
JM: Was Bryan the only leader? He was the only adult but, if he needed assistance, he would use us. For example, he said to me: “Let’s have a Sunday ramble. You The Canonbury organise it.” I said: “How do I do Tower youth that?” and Bryan said: “Ring up club’s football and find out about Sunday train team in the 1940s times from Baker Street.” I didn’t
10 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 like using the telephone but Bryan Fred Cullen’s wasn’t going to accept that you linocut of couldn’t do it. Canonbury Tower I know that on one ramble about illustrated the 20 of us went on the Metropolitan cover of the Line out to Rickmansworth. I had youth club’s magazine; below planned that we would go to the right: the image furthest station then hike through he may have the countryside to the next station used to create it, on the way home. believed to date The club also had a monthly from 1887 newsletter which we helped to put together.
JM: Tell me more about the newsletter Reggie Gutteridge organised all the content and Bryan Bailey was the editor. I can’t recall exactly what went into it – probably reports of the club’s activities and stories from the members, especially those who were on active service. The back page of the magazine was always the same. The top half of the page listed all the boys and girls who were away with the forces and the bottom half contained the obituaries of all the members who had died on active service. Bryan typed up the content for each edition and ran off copies on the outline from a photograph reserved occupation. I don’t the Roneo. I remember he’d bring onto the lino by making a transfer remember any girls going into the all these papers in and a group of with greaseproof paper and then ATS [Auxiliary Territorial Service] us would sit round a table and cutting it out. This was version one. or the WRNS [Women’s Royal staple all the pages together. One day Bryan said to me: Naval Service] but several joined It was while doing this that I “There’s a class being offered in the Women’s Land Army. came up with the idea: “Why don’t Oxford Street on a Sunday afternoon After the war, Bryan Bailey left we have a front cover? on how to do advertising posters.” the club and returned to the stage. And Bryan said: “OK, what do Thinking I was a bit artistic, he He was later appointed director of you suggest?” suggested I went along, which I the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. So I produced a linocut of the did. At one of these classes I He bought a secondhand Ford tower. I had learnt to do lino cutting showed my linocut design to the car for commuting from at school in the art class so I copied lecturer who said: “I know what’s Canonbury and sadly became one wrong with this” – and promptly of the first people to be killed in an drew the cloud in the corner and accident on the M1. No other the streaks across the sky. So I did vehicle was involved. It made the a new linocut including these front page of the Daily Mail, which things and that was version two. is how we learned of the news. A I did another linocut for the title, great shock to us all. using characters from a newspaper and, when a new edition came out, JM: Any final thoughts? would be inking the lino and For my generation, our time at the printing the front covers. club was all about building confidence and helping us on to JM: When did you leave the club? our future careers. I also made When I got my call up papers in many good friends. 1943. The boys were automatically It was only two years of my life directed to the forces when they but those two years have stayed
turned 18 unless they were in a with me until this day. n Janet Marsh by All images provided
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 11 Pink Floyd’s choir
Islington Green School pupils shot to fame after singing on a Pink Floyd single. Dennis Gardner describes how it happened
in the 1960s and was attended by connected with a song that was local, predominately working class almost an anthem of the children. No great success was aforementioned anti-authoritarian, achieved educationally. Poor ideological attitudes so fashionable performance and examination and extolled in left-wing results, plus chaotic pupil educational circles at the time. behaviour and – dare I say – low expectations eventually meant An unconventional teacher that, by the 1970s, it was on the Alun Renshaw came to Islington brink of closure. Green School as head of music at However, in 1975, as almost a the recommendation of Islington last throw of the dice, Margaret Council’s educational music Maden was appointed as head. inspector, who thought he would Aged just 35, her remit was to turn be ideally suited to the school, the school’s fortunes around. In her several other schools having been own words, it would be “effective, unwilling to engage him in view of ink Floyd were recently Cane-wielding informal, but not sloppy”. his unconventional and somewhat the subject of an teacher in The Mindful of the disastrous, arrogant attitude. Wall section of exhibition – Their the exhibition undisciplined examples of His presence was felt quickly. He Mortal Remains – at the “progressive” education as typified cultivated a sizeable following of V&A. From the band’s by Risinghill and William Tyndale pupils who were fascinated by his bPeginnings, named after the schools a few years earlier, she strong language, skintight jeans, Piedmont blues singers Pink nevertheless recruited new staff, chainsmoking in class and way of Anderson and Floyd Council, the including several excellent heads of teaching music in a manner they exhibition chronicled the progress department, yet retained the ethos had not experienced before. of these talented musicians, with of providing an education that This included taking his classes instruments, clothing, obviously would offer the pupils more than around the school stamping on the non-stop music, pink pigs flying the traditional, so-called “old floor and beating on doors and over Battersea power station and fashioned” values prevalent before walls in preparation for his the graphic design for The Dark this time. composition Requiem for a Side of the Moon. It culminated in Initially, things worked. Within Sinking Block of Flats. This was a 360° film, with stunning sound two or three years, results were never performed, but rehearsals for to match, of an excerpt from their improving, leading to a sizeable last concert, where they performed influx of middle class pupils to Comfortably Numb. The live what was called a “thriving images are supplemented by an progressive school”. How things animated brick wall, which could change. disintegrates and rebuilds itself As an Islington Green School continuously. parent at that time, I have to say The Wall features prominently in that it wasn’t at all bad, but there this exhibition. Unbelievably, was always an undisciplined, Another Brick In The Wall, slightly anarchic attitude prevalent released in 1979, was the band’s among many pupils that went only number one single – it topped unchecked by certain overtolerant, the charts in the UK and around idealistic members of staff. the world – and was complete with Against this background then, it a choir of Islington kids on the was both ironic and perhaps soundtrack. inevitable that the school’s moment Islington Green School was built of fame – or infamy – was
12 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 it drove the rest of the school to despair. Meanwhile, just around the corner from the school were Britannia Studios, where many rock and pop recordings were made at the time. Producer and recording engineer Nick Griffiths had a problem on his hands. Pink Floyd, on a US tour, were due back the following week to record a new album, The Wall. Bassist Roger Waters had written a song reflecting what he regarded as his own repressive, bullying education. Called Another Brick in the Wall, it needed a children’s choir as the backing track. It’s said that, initially, drummer Nick Mason had approached his Islington Green School: an undisciplined, slightly anarchic attitude prevailed among many pupils son’s school, Highgate, about using their choir, but was rebuffed. It was achieve at the school, she was Pops. They couldn’t have appeared now down to Griffiths to sort furious. anyway, not being Equity something out. On reading Roger Waters’ lyrics, members, and stage school pupils her rage turned to incandescence. mimed in place of them on TV. Some while afterwards, We were asked to sing We don’t need no education disillusioned and dissatisfied, like we were in the We don’t need no thought control Renshaw left to teach in Australia. playground or over the No dark sarcasm in the classroom He still lives in Sydney. Teachers leave them kids alone. Margaret Maden left in 1983 to Arsenal, a sort of chant become the principal of Islington She felt, understandably, that Sixth Form College. Time was not on his side. With much of her good work was badly After some years, Islington the band due back soon, action undermined by this. Renshaw was Green School closed and was was needed. He said: “I strolled reprimanded, but in fairness to demolished. A new school was down the road to the local Maden, she defended any criticism built on the site. comprehensive. It was like Bash of him, albeit somewhat The children on the recording Street School in the Beano.” diplomatically. had varied views on their time at He walked in and asked the first the school. person he saw where the music Critical acclaim “I don’t think I learnt anywhere department was. The record was released to great near as much as I could have done. Upon being directed, critical acclaim, but public reaction If I’d been at a more disciplined conveniently straight past Maden’s to the lyrics was varied. Maden was school, then an awful lot more office, he walked into a smoke-filled criticised by certain sections of the time would have been taken up room where Renshaw was holding press for allowing this to happen. An inflatable pig with teaching and much less with court with a few pupils. She banned the pupils involved above the V&A at crowd control,” said one. Renshaw, not believing his luck, from interviews or public the exhibition’s “It wasn’t the perfect education seized the moment, and the next appearances such as on Top of the launch but, when I saw what some of the morning took 23 highly excited teachers were achieving with some pupils to the studios. real hardnut kids, I felt encouraged I’ve spoken to several of those to do the best I could,” said another. who were present that day, all now One recalled: “Do you remember aged around 50. when that copper came in on his “We were asked to sing like we horse to speak to us all in were in the playground or over the assembly? He tied the horse up Arsenal, a sort of chant,” said one. outside the school and when he However, Renshaw still had to came back out we’d nicked the inform Margaret Maden, who saddle and all the livery.” n knew nothing of his actions. Understandably, and in view of Dennis Gardner was an Islington Green what she was trying and starting to School parent from 1977 to 1985 V&A History Local School: others: Islington Centre;
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 13 Leaving home in wartime
Many London children were evacuated during the Second World War. Alan Ricketts tells of his time in the country and his return to Islington
Children arriving in Devon
joined the Stoke Newington My mother had experienced air Alan Ricketts’ Central School at Easter 1939 raids by aircraft and Zeppelins in wartime identity because of my birth date, so the First World War, and could not card missed the first term of the hide her concerns. new intake. Next morning, at the appointed IAs well as the usual subjects, we time, a stream of children, with were taught woodwork, typing and a mixture of parents, converged shorthand. (I still have a few items on the school, carrying our cases which I made.) Chemistry was new or brown paper bundles as to me, and I did not get on with necessary. the young teacher. There, we were marshalled into That autumn, my mother and I parties, suitably labelled. After went to Folkestone for a week’s tearful goodbyes, we were marched holiday, but the war clouds were along to Dalston Junction Railway gathering. On the Thursday, my Station, where we boarded a mother received a postcard from waiting train. my sister to say that I was due to be We were soon on our way, evacuated on the Saturday crawling through the north-west countryside was reached. For 2 September. London suburbs until, at last, the many, it was their first sight of Friday saw us on the way back to green fields. London, where the street lights were mostly out, and all the buses Country life had anti-blast netting covering I was allocated to a farm, along their windows. With a strange with another boy, Donald Moxon. mixture of excitement and We soon learnt our way around, foreboding, we prepared for the and usually brought the cows in for morrow. milking and took them back after. Our teacher was the chemistry man that I had not liked, but he Being from town, my taught us games including solo mother no idea that our whist, snooker and table tennis. He also took us for long walks in the bus ran only twice a country and taught us about week, and was lucky to nature. We also had a sentry to warn if the headmaster’s car was get a lift from the approaching. milkman Many children saw the countryside for the first time when That winter was extremely bad, they were evacuated and we were cut off for about 10
14 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Evacuees were “suitably labelled” before boarding trains; Loraine Mansions in Widdenham Road, Holloway, was taken over by Islington Council to house people who had been bombed out days. My mother came up to visit even illuminated where we lived. once and, being from town, had no One morning, I was in the house idea that our bus ran only twice a and thought how quiet it was, so I week, and was lucky to get a lift went to the front door and looked from the milkman. That winter, I out to see, at the end of the road to saw the aurora for the one and only my left, someone vigorously time in my life. waving. I looked the other way, This part of my life proved to be and saw a large land mine, covered a time of enlightenment, with new by a parachute, standing on the experiences around every corner pavement, which caused some but, when the evacuation from alarm and despondency. Fusiliers Cadet Battalion and Dunkirk happened, I decided that It was common, during an air became a full corporal. Our job, my place was back with my mother raid, that Ford station wagons, were we to be invaded, was to and sister. with twin Lewis guns on the roof, defend the Caledonian Market. In On arrival back in London, I would patrol the streets to attempt 1943, the War Office decided that discovered that Islington Council to shoot down flares. I think more all cadet NCOs should be had supplied an Anderson shelter chimneys suffered than flares. incorporated into the Home which was in the garden. I Later, my mother got a job as Guard, and I managed to get obtained four tea chests which I manager/caretaker of some transferred to the same battalion as arranged in an L shape around the high-quality flats in Loraine my cousin Bert, and served the rest door, and filled them with earth, I Mansions in Widdenham Road, of the war as a motorcycle dispatch then wired it up with electricity, so Holloway, which had been taken rider. that we could have an electric ring over by Islington Council to In 1944, the V1s – doodlebugs to make tea and electric light. provide temporary – came over and, in June of that accommodation for people who year, the company I worked for Bombs and landmines had been bombed out. caught a direct hit, with six killed. Come 7 September, and we At this time, I joined the Royal My wife to be, Daphne, was in the stood in the garden and watched same shelter where her department the massed bombers of the had been moved to avoid constant German air force preparing to I wired the Anderson up and down. bomb the docks. The Blitz shelter up with By then, we had moved to followed, and one of a stick of temporary accommodation at 26 bombs, later, fell on Mildmay electricity, so that we Dalmeny Avenue, where we lived Park – the library now occupies could have an electric until 1949 when I married. After the space. the V1s came the V2s which in When the city was bombed and ring to make tea and some way was better because, if St Paul’s was endangered, it was electric light you heard them, you were alive, extremely bright with the fires – it and if you didn’t you were dead. n Mansions: Christy IWM; Loraine Evacuees: Lawrance
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 15 A postal journey
The Postal Museum and its underground Mail Rail attraction opened in September. Mark Smulian reports
ook at the map and there The line was built using the appear to be 11 Greathead Shield system, in which underground rail lines in the shield served as a temporary London – but there is a support structure while the tunnels 12th and it reopened in were excavated, an approach the LSeptember after 14 years’ disuse. reduced loss of life associated This is Mail Rail, the 6.5 mile earlier methods of tunnelling. line once known as the Post Office But, after 76 years’ service, the Railway and used to shift mail use of mail was plummeting as beneath London’s streets on electronic communication took its electric trains from Whitechapel to place and the smaller sorting Paddington. It linked six sorting offices with links to the line were offices, including Mount Pleasant no longer needed and the railway in Islington, with mainline stations closed in 2003. from which post was moved Although the line featured in the around the country. Hudson Hawk film starring Bruce At its peak, Mail Rail had eight Willis – with a platform stations and ran for 22 hours each transformed into the Vatican’s Clockwise from travel for about 20 minutes with day, during which it carried four private Underground Postal top left: stylish stops at former stations, where million letters. Railway – it remained largely posters and historic displays are projected onto It has reopened along with a new forgotten. magazines; Mail the walls. Rail carriage; Postal Museum at Mount Pleasant The Post Office, though, kept the There is a descriptive voiceover tunnel; plaster and visitors can travel on part of system mothballed rather than cast stamp during the journey, including from the line, although on new trains as abandoned, which has allowed its design; Ray Middlesworth, who was an the originals were judged too resurrection this year. projection seen apprentice on the line in the 1970s. uncomfortable, having not been Squeezing into the new rail cars during Mail Rail At one point, visitors can look designed for passengers. – each can just about take two ride; Sorted! area down from the track into an The line runs 70 feet below adults and two children – visitors for children abandoned tunnel below where ground level and was built in 1927 old trains are kept. It was judged to handle mail in the days when too costly to ever bring them to almost everyone communicated the surface. with one another by post. Another notable feature is a 1927 Telephones were then in their locomotive which was put onto the infancy and email lay 70 years in line but proved to be too wide to the future, so this was the heyday navigate its bends. of the letter and parcel. Millions of Inside the new museum there is items had to be moved around. a display on an even earlier attempt Even with the relatively light at moving the post around road traffic of the mid 1920s, an underground, with experiments in underground rail system was 1863 at using pneumatic tubes.
Sorted: Postal Museum/Miles Willis; all other images: ChristyWillis; Lawrance Museum/MilesSorted: Postal judged necessary to do this. A small cinema shows films
16 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 from the General Post Office’s film unit, including Night Mail, with words by WH Auden and music from Benjamin Britten. There is also a display of colourful, stylish posters and magazines from the 1950s and 1960s. There are a lot of interactive attractions. One can send messages across a display area using an overhead pneumatic tube, and a machine enables visitors to make a stamp with their own head on it, The original Post Office museum Above: 1930s deconstucted complete with royal trimmings like opened in 1969 in the basement of engine; clockwise a crown and tiara, which they can the Post Office’s former from top left: mail email to themselves. Curators headquarters at King Edward carriage; try thought this feature would be most Street in the City of London. sorting mail in a likely to interest children, but it In 1998, it had to close when the moving railway turned out adults have been the Post Office sold the premises and carriage; a most enthusiastic users. smaller objects were moved to an five-wheel Visitors can try their hand at archive at Mount Pleasant and Victorian postal sorting post the old-fashioned way larger ones removed to storage. cycle; the cinema; mail train; postal in a travelling post office – a After suggestions that it could van; a projection carriage where they put mail into become a mushroom farm or be onto a platform pigeonholes, which moves to converted to a cycle superhighway wall during the mimic a train’s movement. were seen off, the railway has been Mail Rail ride There are trains in pneumatic incorporated into the reborn tubes to race, and a panel where museum in Islington and running you can control trains on their trains once more. n journey around the Mail Rail track. l www.postalmuseum.org There are also records of animal histories associated with the Post Mark Smulian is a freelance journalist Office, particularly cats and horses. www.marksmulian.co.uk
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 17 Centuries of charity
The Cloudesley charity has been in existence for 500 years. Cathy Ross tells its story and reflects on how it survived for so long
his year, Islington charity Richard Cloudesley’s “two closes Richard Cloudesley starts to of meadow or pasture commonly Cloudesley, as celebrate its 500th called Stony Fields” were just west imagined by Thomas birthday. This is an of the Back Road, now Liverpool Willement in impressive lifespan for Road. Whatever the usefulness of 1828 in the east aTny organisation, let alone an the two fields in 1517, the location window of Holy 1703, rising to £83 by the early ancient charity founded before the could not have been more Trinity Church 1800s when Samuel Pullin sold his Reformation. advantageous in terms of lease to Samuel Rhodes, Islington’s Cloudesley’s survival is doubly Islington’s future. rival cow-keeping magnate. impressive given that it has done so The land’s value rose with the By this time, the trustees and the as a relatively independent body rise of cow keeping as a boom vestry of St Mary Islington had without the umbrella support of a activity in Islington. Farmers grew begun to think more ambitiously City of London livery company. wealthy on the profits of cattle, about their land. It has also survived without an including the practice of subletting In January 1811, the vestry institution to run: pre-Reformation pasture to travelling drovers, keen minutes recorded that “it will be charities that still exist tend to be to fatten animals travelling south very advantageous to the interests those whose charitable mission is to Smithfield Market. The Back of the parish if the said lands were embedded in grammar schools or Road was one of the main drovers’ let upon lease for the purpose of almshouses. routes and the Stony Fields, despite Holy Trinity building thereon, whereby a The Charity of Richard the name, seem to have provided Church, designed considerable income could be Cloudesley (to use its formal name) rich pasture. by Charles Barry derived therefrom”. and consecrated has never had such responsibilities. From 1703 until the early 19th A private act of parliament, in 1829. The site Although it has seen more than its century, the two fields were let by in Cloudesley passed in June, enabled the parish fair share of debates over the the parish to several generations of Square was given to develop the land legally for centuries over how its funds the Pullin family, an Islington to the church by housing. Construction did not should be spent, its basic operation cow-keeping dynasty. The annual Cloudesley’s start in earnest until around 1818 has been relatively straightforward. rent brought in £40 to the parish in trustees when the first parcels of land were The charity’s trustees manage the bequest of Richard Cloudesley, whose will of 1517-18 left two “Stony Fields” to the parish of St Mary Islington. The rental income from this patch of land was and still is used by the trustees to help the people of Islington. So how has Cloudesley managed to survive for 500 years? The anniversary provides a good opportunity to reflect on this question. Having pieced together a history of the charity, I’d suggest two factors underpinned its remarkable ability to weather such turbulent episodes as the Reformation, the Civil War and regular outbreaks of argument in Islington. The first is that the charity’s main asset was land, not money.
18 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 let on building leases to John Emmett and Richard Chapman. Robert Oldershaw, the vestry clerk, explained this to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Charities in 1820: “The feoffees [trustees] have agreed with the above 2 persons that they may either build or let off the land to be built upon and that they [the trustees] will give leases to the person to whom the contractor let, reserving a rent upon every house which shall be so built, not exceeding 7 guineas or under 3 guineas ... A plan has been laid down for building houses upon the whole of the Stonefield Estate. Upon the part the two contractors have taken is to be built 114 houses and according to the plan it is proposed to build 136 more upon the other part …” Cloudesley Terrace, Liverpool Road. This was the first section of Stonefield or Cloudesley Estate to be built in By 1820, the process of the early 1820s.The land and freehold interest in the houses remained in the charity’s ownership until 1937 transforming the two stony fields into the streets and terraced houses public auction held at Islington Borough Council and, eventually, of the Stonefield or Cloudesley Town Hall in October 1937 plus the present day council. Estate was well under way. The private treaty sales to existing Inevitably, it was drawn into borders of the oblong-shaped leaseholders. The sale made wider debates about local matters, development were Cloudesley Road, £90,000 for the charity, which was over what income should be spent Richmond Road, Liverpool Road then invested in shares. on and whether Islington’s residents and Cloudesley Place. Cloudesley The charity held on to the land were getting value for money from Square stood in the middle. By the and freeholds in the southwest their decision makers, but these are mid-1830s, the former fields held quadrant of the estate – the surely factors in the charity’s 231 houses and gardens plus a southern end of Cloudesley Road survival. Debates and disagreements church and a small church school. and Cloudesley Street – where it around the fund, particularly in Financially, the parish did well continues to be the main the 19th century, ensured that it from the development. All the landowner, maintaining its links moved with the times to reflect properties bar the church paid it changes in both society’s values ground rents, via the charity as the and needs in Islington. freeholder, bringing in £600 This article does not cover the annually. When the 75 separate other side of Cloudesley’s story, leases were renewed between 1899 which is what the income from the and 1916, the annual income rose land was spent on – its charitable to around £6,000. work in the borough. That side of The rising income from the Cloudesley’s history can be found ground rents was in marked on the website, and in the booklet contrast to the income of charities and small travelling exhibition whose land assets were rural, produced by Cloudesley for its which suffered when land values anniversary celebrations. The fell in the late 19th century. with the original stony fields. website also gives a glimpse into However, urban land could If land is one of Cloudesley’s the charity’s grant giving in generate expense as well as profit. long-term success factors, the Islington today. Despite being 500 In the early 20th century, second is its connection to Islington’s years old, Cloudesley has never Cloudesley’s asset began to turn local government. The charity has been more active and vigorous in into a liability as the fabric of the always been managed by trustees, the way it delivers its mission. n 1820s housing deteriorated and but was also embedded in the new legal responsibilities were various bodies that managed local Dr Cathy Ross is author of a history of placed on landowners. matters on behalf of the community. the charity that can be downloaded In 1937, the trustees decided to Initially, this was the vestry of St from Cloudesley’s website at www. sell most of its freeholds, which Mary Islington; this was followed cloudesley.org.uk. A booklet is also was done through a three-day in 1899 by Islington Metropolitan available from the society: see page 22 page: Cloudesley;Opposite this page: Christy Lawance
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 19 would be utterly distasteful”. In Islington – which in 1967 had Policing same-sex desire the highest rate of households in the country without a stove, sink, bath or toilet at 77%, and a rate of multiple occupancy of one Fifty years ago, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act decriminalised building at 59% – access to private homosexuality in private for men over 21. Roz Currie looks back at space for private liaisons was just not available for most people. how the state and society viewed same-sex relationships Two Islington residents of the time, Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, saw the act as irrelevant. imeon Solomon was Self portrait of Kenneth Williams, who lived born in 1840 to a Simeon Solomon, nearby in Camden, recorded in his respectable, well-off who chose the diary on the 23 July, four days family. In 1858, he held workhouse over before the law gained royal assent, living with his his first exhibition at the “Went up to see Joe Orton & disapproving RSoyal Academy, and was moving family Kenneth. They were v kind. We up in Pre-Raphaelite artistic circles. chatted about homosexuality and Then, in 1873, he was imprisoned the effect the new clause would at the House of Detention in have. We agreed it would Clerkenwell for six weeks for accomplish little.” “attempting to commit sodomy”. Halliwell and Orton had met at Sexual behaviour has long been the Royal Academy of Dramatic subject to policing, first from the Art in 1951. In 1959 they moved church and later, as the 1533 into a tiny second floor bedsit at Buggery Act came into effect, the 25 Noel Road in Islington. It was state. of his life, but his life was blighted shortly after that they began their During the 19th century, by alcoholism and he never campaign of “guerrilla artwork”, same-sex desire led to men being exhibited again. defacing Islington’s library books arrested, pilloried, imprisoned, with collage. It was motivated by transported to Australia and even A milestone? what they saw as “endless shelves executed. However, homosexual The 1967 Sexual Offences Act of rubbish” in the borough’s public subcultures persisted – men decriminalised homosexuality in libraries They also took seeking other men for sex learnt private for men over 21. This was illustrations from library art books where to find each other, including seen as a great milestone by many. to wallpaper their bedsit. in the theatres, music halls and the The 10 years before the act had seen Anonymously returning the streets and parks of London. more than 1,000 men imprisoned altered books to library shelves, In 1861, the Offences Against the and misery, blackmail and suicide Halliwell and Orton would watch Person Act, which came in when in the face of police persecution. people’s reactions when they pulled Solomon was 21, removed the However, even after the act, gay out a title with a defaced cover. death penalty for homosexuality. men could not live openly. Lord Over the next three years, the However, in 1885 the law was Arran, a strong supporter and Joe Orton and acquisition, addition of collage and amended to make any kind of sponsor of the bill, suggested that Kenneth Halliwell return of the books became a daily sexual activity between men illegal. “any form of public flaunting at Noel Road task. The collage work became a It was this that led to Solomon’s source of shared, obsessional arrest, in a public urinal at enjoyment and creativity, as well as Stratford Place Mews, off Oxford a welcome respite from writing and Street. He was abandoned by fellow paid work. The artwork increasingly artists and friends. His family had reflected their differing personalities. him admitted twice to private Orton favoured the comedic and lunatic asylums but he was satirical while Halliwell was more discharged “unimproved”. thoughtful and measured. In 1884, Solomon ended up in In 1962, they spent four months the St Giles Workhouse, Holborn, in prison for stealing and refusing to live with his family. By damaging Islington public library joining London’s dispossessed and books. When asked why he poverty-stricken masses, he could thought they had been given such escape middle-class morality and harsh sentences, Orton replied: the policing of his sexual life. “Because we were queers.” He produced work until the end After release, their relationship
20 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 changed dramatically as success for Orton came quickly. In 1964, the Same-sex desire led to BBC broadcast his radio play The men being arrested, Ruffian on the Stair, and his award-winning play Entertaining pilloried, imprisoned, Mr Sloane enjoyed a popular run in transported to Australia London’s West End. In 1966, Orton’s play Loot received the Evening and even executed Standard Award for Best Play. Little is known about the couple’s life together but Orton was very 1979 and three years later was open about his sexual exploits. He elected as a local councillor. In went “cottaging” in public toilets in 1986-87, he served as mayor of Highbury Fields, Holloway Road, Islington, becoming Britain’s first and South End Green, Hampstead. openly gay mayor. His appointment Nevertheless, he recognised his was met with widespread almost marital bond with Halliwell. disapproval and outrage, from even Halliwell became increasingly within his own party. jealous as Orton’s success put a His partner, Martin McCloghry, terrible strain on their relationship. accompanied him to events and, On 9 August 1967, Halliwell although officially the deputy bludgeoned Orton to death with mayor consort, was mockingly several hammer blows to the head referred to by elements of the and then took his own life with an right-wing press as the “mayoress”. overdose of barbiturate pills. Former Islington mayor Bob Crossman and consort Martin The 1980s saw the emergence of McCloghry. He was Britain’s first openly gay mayor and his the Aids epidemic. The government Civil rights appointment was met with outrage and disapproval, even was slow to react to this mystery Following 1967 the fight for rights from within his own party illness, while the press response was grew, prompted in part by the unsympathetic and sensationalist, inequality of the act but also the the end to discrimination and the labelling Aids the “gay plague”. Calls changing cultural landscape, right for gay people “to hold hands were made for Crossman to resign following the fights for civil rights and kiss in public”. when he ripped up a banner that in the US and student rights in One local campaigner for LGBT read “Gays equals Aids equals death” London and Paris. rights was Robert “Bob” Crossman, at a protest in Haringey in 1987. Gay men were refusing to be who fought against injustice and In 1988 the infamous section 28 hidden, reacting against middle- discrimination. He was member of of the Local Government Act 1988 class respectability. many organisations, including was introduced, banning the On 27 November 1970, the Gay London Lesbian & Gay “intentional promotion of Liberation Front organised Switchboard, Gay Men Fighting homosexuality”. Police continued Britain’s first ever gay rights protest Aids and the National Aids Helpline, to raid gay venues and convictions in Highbury Fields following an and was a founder member of the for indecency, sodomy and arrest for cottaging. Its manifesto Gay Labour Group in 1974. soliciting peaked in 1989 at 3,065. demanded equality under the law, Crossman moved to Islington in Nevertheless, from the late 1980s onwards, Islington became a cool place for radical queers with club nights, bars and community groups. By the late 1990s, the lesbian and gay movement had come of age’ and intense lobbying led to significant changes in the law during the 2000s, including an equal age of consent, gay marriage and adoption rights. Joe Orton, In 2017, thousands of men Kenneth Williams received posthumous pardons for and Kenneth convictions relating to consensual Halliwell on sex with other men. n holiday in Morocco: the agreed the 1967 Up Against It: Islington 1967 is on at Sexual Offences Islington Museum until 21 October. Act would Admission free. Roz Currie is joint curator
“accomplish little” of the exhibition with Mark Aston Council others: Islington Tate; Simeon Solomon:
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 21 Publications and bookshop
This issue, we look at how a charity’s story reflects 500 years of social Smithfield: Past, Present and Future change, admire some modern architecture in the City, visit a church Alec Forshaw in Clerkenwell and ponder the saga of Smithfield £18.95 + £2.80 p&p, 304pp, Robert Hale, 2015. Available from the IAHS This third edition is a concise, Cloudesley: 500 years in This should have been a readable account of the history Islington - 1517-2017 story of calm continuity, with of the Smithfield area from the Dr Cathy Ross the donor’s wishes being medieval period to today. £3. Available from the IAHS carried out down the centuries. It examines the history of This booklet looks at the However, Richard Cloudesley’s the markets, St Bartholomew’s 500-year history of the original intentions have Hospital, religious houses, Cloudesley charity. produced a dynamic story of trades and leisure. As well as a history of a change fuelled by debate, It also considers the area’s charity covering several disputes and discussion. future, including the building centuries, this booklet is Cloudesley’s legacy has been of a Crossrail interchange and a thought-provoking entangled with wider the use of the market buildings. reflection on the changing questions about how Islington The meat market building, role of charity in society in should manage its own affairs which opened in 1868, is one general. and how communal assets of of the greatest surviving Five centuries ago, a Tudor land and money should be put commercial buildings of yeoman, Richard Cloudesley, to good use. years precisely because it has Victorian London. gave a plot of land to the In many ways, Cloudesley’s adapted to changing values as The book also describes parish of St Mary Islington legacy has provided an Islington itself evolved. struggles over the some of with the wish that the land invaluable focus for debating The story of Cloudesley these buildings’ future between should be used to generate such matters to the benefit of has never been told in full those who wanted them income for various purposes. both Islington and the charity before now. conserved and put back into Six “honest and discreet men” itself. The charity has arguably l See Centuries of charity, use, and those who wanted were to oversee the bequest. survived over the past 500 page 18 most of them demolished and office blocks built. Forshaw – who was deeply New City. Contemporary A History of the Church of involved in the campaign to Architecture in the City of Saint James Clerkenwell save the building – provides London Nicholas Riddell (author), Tara an insider’s view of the Alec Forshaw, with photography Smith (editor), Andrew Illman planning inquiries. by Alan Ainsworth (illustrator) £19.95, Merrell, 224pp; available £10 from St James Clerkenwell from the IAHS and Islington Museum, £18 from This book examines the City Amazon; 224pp of London’s architecture from This is the story of Saint James offices blocks to shops, Clerkenwell from its cultural organisations and beginning in the 12th century public spaces and includes as the church of the nunnery over 200 photographs. of St Mary. It is also the Historic development, the history of the parish and how effects of changes to financial Clerkenwell changed from a regulation and the roles of the country parish into a City of London Corporation fashionable suburb then into church itself was the focus of as planning authority and an industrialised, densely controversy for its notorious developer are examined, as are populated inner-city area. clerical elections and the the work and influence of large Celebrated parishioners public pillorying of its vicar and small architectural firms. include Mad Madge, the and vestry for the condition of The main part of the book Duchess of Newcastle and slum properties in the parish. For large orders and to shows 12 guided routes with Thomas Britton the musical The 21st century has seen collect books in person, detailed descriptions of coal man. the revival of the church as a call 020 7833 1541 individual buildings. In the 19th century, the thriving centre of Christianity.
22 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Buy from the society store Historical maps and postcards The society stocks books, postcards, maps of Islington and beyond Alan Godfrey and more – some are listed here. Call Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 Wonder what your manor 1541 if you wish to order several items or collect them in person. looked like 100 years ago or in the early 19th century? The society stocks historical Book title Author Price p&p Total and old Ordnance Survey (£) (£) (£) maps of Islington and other areas of London. An Architect in Islington Harley Sherlock 14.99 2.80 17.79 Maps have a high turnover, Angus McBean in Islington Mary Cosh, ed 4.00 1.20 5.20 so call 020 7833 1541 to check The Building That Lived Twice Alec Forshaw 20.00 2.80 22.80 and reserve. Brussels Art Nouveau: Architecture & Design Alec Forshaw, author, We stock the following maps: and Alan Ainsworth, Clerkenwell, King’s Cross and photographs The Angel: 1871, 1894, 1914 Caledonian Park and its Surroundings Sylvia Tunstall, Patsy 5.00 0.75 5.75 Dalston: 1913 Ainger, Robyn Lyons Highbury & Islington: 1874, Church Design for Congregations James Cubitt 11.00 1.50 12.50 1894, 1914, Upper Holloway: 1869, 1894, The Contexting of a Chapel Architect: James Clyde Binfield 18.00 1.90 19.90 1914 Cubitt 1836-1912 Pentonville and The Angel: Criminal Islington Keith Sugden, ed 5.00 1.40 6.40 1871 (detail below) 53 Cross Street. Biography of a House Mary Cosh and 9.95 1.90 11.85 Finsbury Square and Circus: ON SALE Martin King 1873 Finsbury Park and Stroud David Kirkaldy and his Testing and Christopher Rule 5.00 1.50 6.50 Green: 1894, 1912 Experimenting Works Bethnal Green and Bow: 1870, Discover De Beauvoir Town and Environs Mike Gray and 1.50 0.75 2.25 1894, 1914 Isobel Watson Euston and Regent’s Park: Discover Stoke Newington. A Walk Through David Mander and 4.95 1.20 6.15 1894, 1913 History Isobel Watson Gospel Oak: 1894, 1912 Hackney: 1870, 1893, 1913 Dissent & the Gothic Revival Bridget Cherry, ed 15.00 1.65 16.65 Highgate: 1869, 1894, 1913 An Historical Walk Along the New River Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 Holborn and The City: 1895 An Historical Walk Through Barnsbury Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 Holborn, The Strand & The City: 1873, 1914 Islington’s Cinemas & Film Studios Chris Draper 5.00 1.65 6.65 Hornsey: 1894, 1912 Islington: Britain in Old Photographs Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 King’s Cross and St Pancras: The Jewish Communities of Islington, Petra Laidlaw 9.99 2.80 11.79 1871, 1893 1730s-1880s Kentish Town and Camden: 1870, 1913 London’s Mummies James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 Lower Clapton: 1913, 1894, Only Bricks and Mortar ON SALE Harry Walters 5.00 1.50 6.50 1868 New City: Contemporary Architecture in the Alec Forshaw 19.95 2.80 22.75 Muswell Hill: 1894 City of London Stoke Newington: 1868, 1894, 1914 1970s London Alec Forshaw 12.99 1.65 14.64 Shoreditch: 1872, 1914 Northern Wastes: Scandal of the Uncompleted Jim Blake and 9.95 1.50 11.45. Stamford Hill 1868, 1894 Northern Line Jonathan James Stepney and Limehouse: 1914 Prefab Homes Elisabeth Blanchet 7.95 1.50 9.45 The West End: 1870, 1894, 1914 Whitechapel, Spitalfields and Smithfield: Past, Present and Future Alec Forshaw 18.95 2.80 21.75 the Bank: 1873, 1913, 1894 20th Century Buildings in Islington Alec Forshaw 14.99 2.80 17.79 What the Victorians Threw Away Tom Licence 9.99 1.50 10.49 Other items Old Ordnance Survey maps 2.50 0.75 3.25 Mugs: Union Chapel and Caledonian Park 6.00 2.80 8.80
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 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
Tuesday 10 October, 1.15pm Saturday 14 October, 10am Saturday 21 October, 1.15pm Friday 27 October, 6.30pm Chinese Money LGBTQ film day Egypt Under the Darliest Barry Cunliffe on Steppe British Museum, free British Museum, free, booking Pharaohs Nomads of Eurasia essential British Museum, free British Museum, £5, booking Tuesday 10 October, 1pm essential London’s First Voices Saturday 14 October, 1.15pm Wednesday 25 October, 1.15pm Dr Roger Tomlin Ivories and Tulips: Arts of Ancient Egyptian Gods, Saturday 28 October, 1.15pm Museum of London, Gresham Islamic Medieval Spain and Goddesses and Sacred Cut Stones: Pietre Dure College event, free Ottoman Turkey Animals Treasures in the British Museum, free British Museum, free Waddesdon Bequest Wednesday 11 October, 1pm British Museum, free The Guitar in Tudor London Tuesday 17 October, 1.15pm Wednesday 25 October, 2pm St Sepulchre’s, Holborn Conservation and Understanding Rural Tuesday 31 October, 6pm Viaduct, Gresham College mounting of prints Migration in Late Jane Austen: Patriotism event, free British Museum, free Nineteenth-Century and Prejudice England: Taking Parish Museum of London, Gresham Wednesday 11 October, 6pm Wednesday 18 October, 11am Research to a New Level College event, free The History of Pain In Search of ... South Society of Genealogists, Museum of London, Gresham Hoxton £8/£6.40 Wednesday 1 November, 6pm College event, free Walk starting at Old Street Martin Luther and his station. Thursday 26 October, 7.30pm Crusade Against the Wednesday 11 October, 8pm London Metropolitan Industries Along the Pope A History of Street Archives, £10, booking Regent’s Canal from Bethnal Museum of London, Gresham Photography in London essential Green to Limehouse College event, free through the Collections at East London History Society Bishopsgate Institute Wednesday 18 October, 6pm Wednesday 1 November. Hornsey Historical Society, £2 Women and the London Wednesday 25 October, 7.45pm Blockade Running in Stage 1665-1968 The Victorians the American Civil War Thursday 12 October, 1.30pm Talk with tour of exhibition Friern Barnet & District Local with Special Reference Curator’s Introduction to London Metropolitan History Society, £2 to London-Built Scythians: Warriors of Archives, free, booking Ships Ancient Siberia essential Thursday 26 October, 1.30pm Docklands History Group, £2 British Museum, free, booking Mouth of Kemet: Ancient essential Thursday 19 October, 7.30pm Egyptian Language and Thursday 2 November, 1.30pm The London Diary of Script in their African Setting Scythian and Related Friday 13 October, 10am-4pm Anthony Heap 1931-1945 British Museum, free, booking Goldwork: New Research Archives Make Us Richer Camden History Society essential and Discoveries Day of workshops and talks British Museum, free, booking London Metropolitan Archives, Friday 20 October, 1.15pm Thursday 26 October, 6pm essential free, booking essential Making, Selling and How to Spot a Roman Collecting: an Introduction Emperor Friday 3 November, 1.30pm Friday 13 October, 6pm to the Print Trade Professor Mary Beard Vikings and the Rus’ Scythians Late British Museum, free Museum of London, Gresham British Museum, free, booking British Museum, free College event, free essential Friday 20 October, 6.30pm Friday 13 October, 7pm Lost and Found: 20 years of Friday 27 October, 1.15pm Saturday 4 November, 2.30pm Who Were the Scythians? Treasure Discoveries in The Individual and the The Art of Scythian Deaf-led British Sign England, Northern Image: Money and Warfare Language tour. Ireland and Wales portraiture British Museum, £5, booking British Museum, free British Museum, £5 British Museum, free essential
24 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Wednesday 8 November, 2pm Essex in London Memorial paving stone event: Charles Train Society of Genealogists, £8/£6.40 Friday, 8 December, Islington Green, time tbc Wednesday 8 November , 8pm Music Hall on Film Free, all welcome. Event Hornsey Historical Society, £2 organised by Islington Local History Centre Wednesday 8 November, 6pm Lenin and the Russian This event will take place 100 Revolution years to the day that Museum of London, Gresham Islington-born Charles Train College event, free (1890-1965) won his Victoria Cross. Friday 10 November, 6.30pm He is the third Islington- Just who were the Scythians? King George V investing Sergeant Charles William Train with the born recipient of the medal Victoria Cross in 1918 Ancient Accounts from to be commemorated with a Herodotus to Sima Qian memorial paving stone on commissioned officer in the Scottish in 1909 and, British Museum, £5, booking Islington Green. 2/14th (County of London) following the outbreak of the essential Charles Train was the only Battalion, the London First World War, arrived in British-born soldier from his Regiment (London Scottish). France in September 1914. Saturday 11 November, 10.30am regiment to have been He was born at 58 He won his VC at Ein Gold of the Steppes awarded the VC during the Chatterton Road, Finsbury Kerem, near Jerusalem, in Study day. British Museum, First World War. He was 27 Park, on 21 September 1890. Ottoman-controlled Palestine £28, booking essential years old, and a non- He joined the London on 8 December 1917.
Tuesday 14 November, 1.15pm Scythian and Related Thursday 16 November, 7.30pm Tuesday 28 November, 2pm Saturday 2 December, 5pm Goldwork up Close The Tunnel Through Time The Clerkenwell Outrage Animals in Scythian British Museum, free Camden History Socoiety London Metropolitan Culture Archives, free, booking Deaf-led British Sign Tuesday 14 November, 6.30pm Monday 20 November, 1pm essential Language tour. Fulham Palace Revealed China: New Nation, New British Museum, free – Residence of the Elite Art, 1911-1932 Tuesday 28 November, 2pm London and Middlesex Museum of London, free Black Tudors – the Untold Monday 4 December, 2pm Archaeological Society , £2 Gresham College event Story Elizabeth Garrett Anderson London Metropolitan London Metropolitan Tuesday 14 November, 8pm Wednesday 22 November, 6pm Archives, free, booking Archives, free, booking The Battle of Barnet Project A Global History of Sexual essential essential Hendon & District Violence Archaeological Society, £2 Museum of London, Gresham Wednesday 29 November, 2pm Tuesday 5 December, 6pm College event, free Googling for Family NOW That’s What I Call Wednesday 15 November, 1pm History & Photos Carols: 1582! Buying, Selling and Wednesday 22 November, 7.45pm Society of Genealogists, £8/£6.40 Gresham College, Barnard’s Owning Guitars in Behind Closed Doors: the Inn Hall, free, reservations Elizabethan England Life of a Prison Officer Saturday 2 December required St Sepulchre’s, Holborn Friern Barnet & District Local Talking Back! Viaduct, Gresham College History Society, £2 LGBTQ+ history and archives Wednesday 6 December, 2pm event, free conference. London Royal College of Surgeons Thursday 23 November, 6pm Metropolitan Archives, Talk: Theatrical Side of Wednesday 15 November, 2pm The Music of the clock, £10-£15, booking essential Operations Counting the People: c1300–c1600 London Metropolitan Census Returns Online (L) British Museum, free, booking Saturday 2 December, 1.15pm Archives, free, booking Society of Genealogists, £8/£6.40 essential Scythian Archers: Law and essential Order in Ancient Athens Thursday 16 November, 4pm Friday 24 November, 11am British Museum, free Wednesday 6 December, 6pm Scythians: Warriors of Taking Stock: the Third House, Shop and Wardrobe Ancient Siberia LMA Disability History Saturday 2 December, 2pm in London’s Merchant Audio tour and handling session Conference Russian Ark Community for blind and partially sighted London Metropolitan Archives, Film. British Museum, £3, Museum of London, Gresham people. British Museum, £13 free, booking essential booking essential College event, free IWM Q 9221
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 25 Reviews Dunkirk: this is war – it’s not glorious
Director Christopher Nolan at your heart as does Thomas Hardy provides little background. What as the brave RAF flier juggling his grabs your attention is the grinding fuel. Harry Styles provide a strong hardship and the chaos and performance as a soldier (may he bloodiness of the evacuation, with have a second career?). the reflections of participants. Christopher Nolan’s excellent The story is told from three direction brings you into the centre perspectives: two soldiers trying to of the action – you really felt you escape; a civilian captain who sails were in a sinking boat (particularly for Dunkirk with his son and a if you see it in 3D). unkirk covers the evacua- friend to bring back solders; and There is not a lot of dialogue – it tion of the British troops an RAF pilot who tries to protect would have worked as a silent film. Dtrapped on the beach by the men and the ships while While some people have said this the German army during the running out of fuel. Their stories made the film a bit tedious, I Second World War. gradually merge. thought it enhanced its quality. The Germans had moved through Heroism abounds alongside We know how it all ends. Hitler the lightly defended Ardennes to misery; it is wet and the soldiers reduced his army’s advance, take the Low Countries. The are terrified and quarrel. This is enabling nearly 340,000 men to be French, Belgium and British armies war – it is not glorious. evacuated; thousands, however, were were unable to prevent them There are strong performances taken prisoner or died on the beach. advancing to the coast, effectively from Mark Rylance as the quietly A massive arsenal of tanks, artillery, cutting off the Allied troops. courageous captain determined to ships and aircraft were lost. History This major defeat could have bring back some soldiers; Kenneth might all have been different had resulted in Britain’s surrender and Branagh does what he does best the Ardennes been more strongly the collapse of the Allied – portraying the grizzled naval lord defended and Hitler pressed on. Not resistance. Churchill ordered the who will ensure Churchill gets some a victory but definitely a miracle. n evacuation of 45,000 troops to men back to protect Britain. Cillian have a core army to protect Britain. Murphy’s traumatised soldier tears Margaret Lally
The Royal Mews: the working horses of the monarchy
onarchs have always condition. There is a blacksmith’s needed horses and forge, a carriage restorers’ Mcoaches, whether for a workshop, and a harness room that Tudor royal’s progress or for a houses the gold state coach’s monarch’s public ceremonial role harness dating from 1792 and the or to take high-profile people such 1831 harness made for the as state visitors to Buckingham coronation of William IV. Palace. Six magnificent coaches and The master of the horse, an carriages are on display, including office dating from the 14th century, the coronation gold state coach. was seen as vital, being responsible They are used at more than 50 for everything from royal travel events each year. The mews also to acquiring warhorses. The has seven limousines, and over 100 role still exists. Since 1854, people and their families live above the Royal Mews is run by the carriage, getting used to traffic and them. n crown equerry. so on. At noon, they are properly The Royal Mews is not just for groomed and inspected. Their day Elizabeth Hawksley show. It’s a working environment ends at 4.30pm. www.elizabethhawksley.com which trains and exercises more Harnesses, uniforms and www.royalcollection. than 30 horses as well as those who carriages need constant org.uk look after them. attention to keep The horses’ day starts at 6am them in when the stables are mucked out tip-top and the horses brushed, fed and
Robin Stevens exercised – learning to pull a
26 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Exhibitions warriors and horses. British Museum, £16.50/concs Until Sunday 15 October Desire Love Identity: Until 21 January 2018 Exploring LGBTQ Histories Searching for Ghosts This display provides glimpses This looks at home life in east into LGBTQ experience London, from a tower block through time and around the in Hackney that was blown up world. The earliest object in 1991 to the red brick of the dates from around 9000BC. Boundary Estate in Tower As well as famous figures such Hamlets, built in 1898. as poetess Sappho and Roman V&A Museum of Childhood, emperor Hadrian, the display free explores less familiar themes and stories, and includes and 1 December-24 February 2018 contemporary works and The near-ubiquitous plywood: workman carrying a complete Islington on Canvas: Art campaign badges. Deperdussin monocoque fuselage, Deperdussin factory, Paris, about from the Archives British Museum, free 1912. From Plywood: Material of the Modern World at the V&A Islington Local History Centre and Museum hold a wide Until 29 October Halliwell and Halliwell’s music hall routines, as well as range of artworks produced The Lost City of London at World of Cats screen are on Kenneth Williams, Dame during the 19th and 20th Paternoster Square display. Ellen Terry and Eliza centuries by artists in the Photos of postwar excavations Islington Museum, free (Madam) Vestris, Nell Gwyn, borough, capturing the display Roman remains l See Policing same-sex and Sir Laurence Olivier. changing landscape of the unearthed during the Blitz. desire, page 20 Programmes and playbills area and its districts, streets View rarely seen excavation recall the huge numbers of and buildings. photographs of the sites that Until Sunday 12 November performers who are largely Included are works by were uncovered, including the Plywood: Material of the forgotten today. Walter Richard Sickert and his Temple of Mithras and the Modern World London Metropolitan third wife, Thérèse Lessore. remains of the Roman fort Light, strong, affordable and Archives, free Sickert was a great inspiration and the City wall. versatile, plywood has helped to artist and writer Geoffrey Paternoster Square, near to create the modern world. Until Sunday, 7 January 2018 Fletcher, whose work is also St Paul’s Cathedral, EC4M More than 120 objects are on Designing the V&A featured. 7DY, free display in this exhibition to Through original drawings Islington Museum, free explore its impact and history and photographs, this display Until Saturday 21 October from the 1850s. Plywood was highlights the artists, 4 December to 27 January 2018 Up Against It: used in the fastest and designers and engineers who Fenian Outrage: 150th Islington 1967 highest-flying aeroplane of the created the V&A, charting the Anniversary of the This exhibition explores the Second World War, a tube to building from the 1850s to Clerkenwell Explosion impact of the Sexual Offences house an experimental today, culminating with the On 13 December 1867, an Act (1967) passed on 27 July elevated railway in 1867, opening of the Exhibition attempt was made by that year, and the 50th numerous toys and the Road Quarter. members of the Irish anniversary of the deaths of downloadable, self-assembly V&A free Republican Brotherhood (or the borough’s most (in)famous WikiHouse. Fenians) to break two of its gay couple, Joe Orton and V&A, free Until 14 January 2018 members out of the Middlesex Kenneth Halliwell. Scythians: Warriors of House of Detention in Through people’s stories, Until 6 December 2017 Ancient Siberia Clerkenwell by blowing a hole this exhibition seeks to reflect Life on the London Stage This exhibition explores the in the prison’s outer northern the experience of men who This exhibition uncovers the story of the Scythians – wall in Corporation Lane could not declare their love professional and personal lives nomadic tribes and formidable (now Row). freely and the difference the actors and actresses since the warriors, who flourished The rescue mission failed 1967 act made to them. days of Elizabeth I. between 900 and 200BC. and resulted in the deaths of Stories featured include It tells stories about For centuries all trace of several nearby residents; many those of Oscar Wilde, London’s performers, from their culture was lost – buried others were injured. A imprisoned at Holloway and those who achieved great beneath ice. number of suspects were Pentonville prisons, and success to those who endured Discoveries of ancient arrested for causing the record producer Joe Meek poverty and hardship. tombs have revealed Scythian explosion, one of whom was whose life ended in tragic Those covered by in the treasures. Preserved in found guilty and went on to circumstances. exhibition include Marie permafrost were clothes and become the last person in Public library book covers Lloyd, who alarmed the fabrics, food and weapons, Britain to be hanged in public.
defaced by Orton and Victorian authorities with her gold jewellery and mummified Finsbury Library, free et de l’Espace /V&A Musée de l’Air
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 27 Camden New Town History Enfield Archaeological Directory Group Society www.camdennewtown.info www.enfarchsoc.org
History, civic, amenity and archaeology Camden Railway Heritage England’s Places societies, museums and online resources Trust Historic England [email protected] photographs. www. historicengland.org.uk/ Canonbury Society images-books/archive/ To add or update Bexley Archaeological www.canonburysociety.org.uk archive-collections/ information, email journal@ Group englands-places islingtonhistory.org.uk www.bag.org.uk, Martin Chartered Institution of Baker: 020 8300 1752 Building Services Engineers Federation of Family All Hallows by the Tower Heritage Group History Societies Crypt Museum Bishopsgate Institute www.hevac-heritage.org/ www.ffhs.org.uk/ 020 7481 2928, www.ahbtt. Library and Archive org.uk/visit/crypt/ 230 Bishopsgate, 020 7392 Charterhouse Museum Foundling Museum 9270, www.bishopsgate.org.uk www.thecharterhouse.org, 40 Brunswick Square, WC1, Amateur Geological Society 203 818 8873 020 7841 3600, www. 25 Village Road, N3 1TL Bomb Sight foundlingmuseum.org.uk London map of WW2 bombs, Cinema Museum Amwell Society www.bombsight.org www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/ Freud Museum 7 Lloyd Square, WC1X 9BA, 20 Maresfield Gdns, NW3, [email protected] British Airways Heritage City of London 020 7435 2002, www.freud. www.britishairways.com/ Archaeological Society org.uk Ancestor Search travel/museum-collection/ [email protected] Guidance on where to look. public/en_gb Friends of Hackney Archives www.searchforancestors.com Clerkenwell and Islington 020 8356 8925, archives@ British Heritage TV Guides Association hackney.gov.uk Ancient Yew Group www.405-line.tv/ 07971 296731, info@ciga. www.ancient-yew.org/ org.uk Friern Barnet & District British Library Local History Society Archives Hub 96 Euston Rd, NW1, 0330 333 Clockmakers’ Museum www.friern-barnethistory.org. http://archiveshub.ac.uk/ 1144, [email protected] www.clockmakers.org/the- uk, 020 8368 8314. Photo clockmakers-museum-library archive: www.friern-barnet. Arsenal FC Museum British Museum com 020 7619 5000, www.arsenal. Great Russell Street, WC1, Cross Bones Graveyard com 020 7323 8299, information@ www.crossbones.org.uk Friends of the New River britishmuseum.org Head Association for the Study Crossness Pumping Station c/o Amwell Society and Preservation of Roman British Vintage Wireless 020 8311 3711, www. Mosaics Society crossness.org.uk Friends of Friendless www.asprom.org [email protected] Churches Design Museum www.friendsoffriendless Bank of England Museum Brixton Windmill http://designmuseum.org churches.org.uk 020 7601 5545, www.bankof 020 7926 6056, www. england.co.uk/museum brixtonwindmill.org Docklands History Group Geffrye Museum info@docklandshistory group. 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA, Barnet Museum and Local Bruce Castle Museum org.uk 020 7739 9893, www.geffrye- History Society Lordship Lane, N17 8NU, 020 museum.org.uk www.barnetmuseum.co.uk 8808 8772, museum.services@ Dictionary of Victorian haringey.gov.uk London/Cat’s Meat Shop Georgian Group BBC archive Encyclopaedia and blog, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1T 5DX, www.bbc.co.uk/archive Burgh House and www.victorianlondon.org [email protected] Hampstead Museum Benjamin Franklin House New End Sq, NW3, 020 7431 DoCoMoMo UK Grant Museum of Zoology 020 7925 1405, info@ 0144, www.burghhouse. Modern movement heritage. 020 3108 2052, www.ucl.ac. BenjaminFranklinHouse.org org.uk www.docomomo-uk.co.uk uk/museums/zoology
Bethlem Museum of the Mind Camden History Society East London History Society Gresham College 020 3228 4227, www. 020 7586 4436, www. 42 Campbell Rd, E3 4DT, mail Free lectures on different bethlemheritage.org.uk camdenhistorysociety.org @eastlondonhistory.org.uk topics, www.gresham.ac.uk
28 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Greater London Industrial London Canal Museum Archaeology Society (GLIAS) 12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 36 Gallows Hill Lane, Abbots 9RT, 020 7713 0836, www. Langley, Herts, WD5 0DA, canalmuseum.org.uk www.glias.org.uk London Fire Brigade Museum Guildhall Library www.london-fire.gov.uk/ Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH, london-fire-brigade-museum. 020 7332 1868, textphone 020 asp 7332 3803, guildhall.library@ cityoflondon.gov.uk London Lives 1690-1800 www.londonlives.org Hackney Museum 1 Reading Lane, E8 1GQ, London Metropolitan www. hackney.gov.uk/ Archives cm-museum.htm 40 Northampton Rd, EC1 0HB, 020 7332 3820, The Hackney Society ask.lma@cityoflondon. 020 7175 1967, info@ gov.uk, www.cityoflondon. hackneysociety.org gov.uk/lma
Heath Robinson Museum To find out about the history of London’s fire brigade, visit its museum London & Middlesex 020 8866 8420, welcome@ – and come to our talk in Novembers (see page 31) Archaeological Society heathrobinsonmuseum.org 020 7814 5734, www.lamas. IanVisits islington.museum@islington. org.uk Hendon and District Blog with history and other gov.uk, www.islington.gov. Archaeology Society events. www.ianvisits.co.uk uk/heritage London Museums of Health 020 8449 7076, hadas.org.uk and Medicine International Council on Islington’s Lost Cinemas www.medicalmuseums.org Heritage of London Trust Monuments and Sites www.islingtonslostcinemas. 020 7730 9472, www. www.icomos-uk.org com London Museum of Water & heritageoflondon.com Steam Imperial War Museum Islington Society 020 8568 4757, www. Historic Hospital Admission Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ, Resource Centre, 356 waterandsteam.org.uk Records Project www.iwm.org.uk Holloway Road, N7 6PA, www.hharp.org/ [email protected] London Socialist Historians Islington and Camden http://londonsocialist Highgate Literary and Cemetery Jewish Museum historians.blogspot.com Scientific Institution Archives High Road, East Finchley, N2, www.jewishmuseum.org.uk [email protected] 020 7527 8804, www. London Society islington.gov.uk/ Joe Meek Society http://londonsociety.org.uk/ Historical Association, Environment/cemeteries www.joemeeksociety.org Central London Branch London Topographical www.history.org.uk, 020 7323 Islingtonfacesblog.com Dr Johnson’s House Society 1192, [email protected], Living history interviews. 17 Gough Square, EC4, www. www.londontopsoc.org http://islingtonfacesblog.com drjohnsonshouse.org Historic Towns Forum London Vintage Taxi www.historictowns forum.org Islington Local History Keats House Association Centre 020 7332 3868, keatshouse@ www.lvta.co.uk History of Harringay Finsbury Library, 245 St John cityoflondon.gov.uk www.harringayonline.com/ St, EC1V 4NB. Visit by London Transport Museum group/historyofharringay appointment. To make an Lewisham Local History 020 7379 6344, www. appointment or enquire about Society ltmuseum.co.uk Horniman Museum archives, email local.history@ www.lewishamhistory. 020 8699 1872, www. islington.gov.uk or call 020 org.uk London Underground horniman.ac.uk 7527 7988. www.islington. Railway Society gov.uk/heritage London Archaeological [email protected] Hornsey Historical Society Archive and Research Old Schoolhouse, 136 Islington Museum Centre Online Catalogue London Westminster & Tottenham Lane, N8 7EL, 245 St John Street, EC1V http://archive.museumof Middlesex Family History secretary@hornseyhistorical. 4NB, 10am-5pm, closed Weds london.org.uk/laarc/ Society org.uk, 020 8348 8429 and Sun, 020 7527 2837, catalogue/ www.lwmfhs.org.uk Strand Magazine/Wikimedia Commons
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 29 Markfield Beam Engine National Piers Society Royal Air Force Museum Thames Discovery and Museum www.piers.org.uk 020 8205 2266, www. Programme Markfield Park, N15, 01707 rafmuseum.org.uk/london Mortimer Wheeler Hse, 46 873628, [email protected] Newcomen Society for the Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, 020 7410 History of Engineering and Royal Institute of British 2207, thamesdiscovery.org Marx Memorial Library Technology Architects (RIBA) 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1 020 7371 4445, office@ 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD, Theatres Trust 0DU, 020 7253 1485, info@ newcomen.com www.architecture.com 020 7836 8591, www. marx-memorial-library.org theatrestrust.org.uk Newington Green Action St Marylebone Society Mausolea & Monuments Group www.stmarylebonesociety.org Tiles and Architectural Trust 020 7359 6027, www. Ceramics Society www.mmtrust.org.uk newingtongreen.org.uk Science Museum http://tilesoc.org.uk Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD. The Model Railway Club New River Action Group www.sciencemuseum.org.uk Tottenham Civic Society 4 Calshot St, N1 9DA 020 8292 5987, mail@ www.tottenhamcivicsociety. 020 7837 2542, www. newriver.org.uk Sign Design Society org.uk themodelrailwayclub.org www.signdesignsociety.co.uk North London Railway Transport Trust Museum of Brands Historical Society Sir John Soane’s Museum Lambeth Rd, SE1, 020 7928 111-117 Lancaster Road, W11 020 7837 2542, www.nlrhs.org.uk 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 6464, www.transporttrust.com 1QT, 020 7908 0880, info@ WC2A 3BP, www.soane.org museumofbrands.com Northview – 1930s estate Twentieth Century Society www.northview.org.uk Smithfield Trust 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 7250 Museum of Domestic Design 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 3857, www.c20society.org.uk & Architecture (MoDA) Ocean Liner Society 020 7566 0041, info@ 020 8411 4394, www.moda. wwwocean-liner-society.com smithfieldtrust.org.uk Union Chapel and Friends mdx.ac.uk/home of the Union Chapel Pauper Lives in Georgian Society of Genealogists Compton Avenue, N1 2XD, Museum of London London and Manchester www.sog.org.uk, 020 7251 www.unionchapel.org.uk 150 London Wall, EC2Y http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ 8799, booking: 020 7553 3290 5HN, 020 7814 5511, info@ pauperlives Victoria & Albert Museum museumoflondon.org.uk Society for the Protection of Cromwell Rd, SW7, 020 7907 Peckham Society Ancient Buildings 7073, www.vam.ac.uk Museum of London www.peckhamsociety.org.uk 37 Spital Sq, E1 6DY, 020 Archaeology 7377 1644, www.spab.org.uk V&A Museum of Childhood 020 7410 2200, www.museum Petrie Museum of Egyptian 020 8983 5200, www. oflondon archaeology.org.uk Archaeology Southwark and Lambeth museumofchildhood.org.uk www. ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie Archaeology Society Museum of London 79 Ashridge Cres, SE18 3EA Victorian Society Docklands The Postal Museum 020 8994 1019, www. 020 7001 9844, www.museum 020 7239 2570, info@ The Streatham Society victoriansociety.org.uk oflondon.org.uk/docklands postalheritage.org.uk www.streathamsociety.org.uk Wallpaper History Society Museum of the Order of Prehistoric Society Streets with a Story: the wallpaperhistorysociety.org.uk St John www.prehistoricsociety.org Book of Islington St John’s Gate, EC1M 4DA, A-Z of streets, buildings and Walthamstow Historical 020 7324 4005, www. Proceedings of the Old Bailey open spaces in Islington. Society museumstjohn.org.uk www.oldbaileyonline.org tinyurl.com/islington-streets www.walthamstow historicalsociety.org.uk/ Musical Museum Railway Correspondence Stuart Low Trust 399 High Street, TW8 0DU, and Travel Society www.slt.org.uk Wellcome Collection www.musicalmuseum.co.uk www.rcts.org.uk www.wellcomecollection.org Royal Archaeological National Archives Rescue/British Institute John Wesley’s House and 020 8876 3444, www. Archaeological Trust [email protected] Museum of Methodism nationalarchives.gov.uk www.rescue-archaeology.org.uk 49 City Rd, EC1, www.wesleys Royal College of Nursing chapel.org.uk/museum.htm National Churches Trust Ragged School Museum Library and Heritage Centre www.nationalchurchestrust. 020 8980 6405, www.ragged 0345 337 3368, rcn.library@ Women’s Library Collection org schoolmuseum.org.uk rcn.org.uk tinyurl.com/womens-library
30 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 Islington Archaeology & History Society Events
Wednesday 25 October, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall Saturday 25 November, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall
The Bolsheviks in Exile in London The History of the London Fire Brigade Dr Thomas Lorman, School of Slavonic and East European Paul Hobbs, Islington borough commander, London Fire Brigade Studies, University College London Paul Hobbs will be talking the anniversary of the King’s Cross This year is the centenary of the October Revolution in Russia, fire, the Clerkenwell fire station building and fire safety. when the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace The fire at King’s Cross St Pancras tube station started on in Petrograd and installed a Soviet government. 18 November 1987 at around 7.30pm. It began on a wooden To commemorate this, Dr Thomas Lorman will give a talk on escalator serving the Piccadilly line, and killed 31 people and the Bolsheviks who visited and lived in Islington before the injured 100. A public inquiry was highly critical of London revolution, and discuss why they chose to come to London and Underground’s attitude toward fire safety. the inspiration they drew from their time here Last year, London’s fire service celebrated its centenary. Previously, fires in London had been tackled by fire brigades run by insurance companies. Although 10 fire insurance companies united to set up the London Fire Engine Establishment in 1833, the LFEE became far too small to deal with rapidly growing London so the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was set up as a public service in 1866. Clerkenwell was home to one of the UK’s first fire stations, which was opened in 1872. The building, which is grade II listed, was expanded as the brigade’s needs changed; works that took place in 1912-17 gave it its distinctive front elevation on to Rosebery Avenue. It was closed in January 2014.
Seventeen issues of Iskra (Spark), the political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrant were put together in what is now the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green
Saturday 4 November, 11am until around 12.30pm Meet at Moorgate tube station. Cost £7, free for those aged 14 and under. No need to book
Islington 1667 – After the Great Fire Fire engines and an ambulance at the King’s Cross fire Walk led by Lester Hillman, society academic adviser and accredited local guide. Keep up to date with our Facebook page Find out about society Islington was a front line responder to the Great Fire. The walk activities and talk to will uncover the area’s multiple roles of in receiving refugees, others interested in local recovery and reconstruction, as well as law and order. history at our Facebook Popular ballads, work by institutions such as the New River group, which has over Company, charity appeals and more indicate that, in a chaotic 500 members. and fearful period, Clerkenwell stepped up to the plate. l www.facebook.com/ The walk will also cover postwar rebuilding after the Blitz. groups/islingtonhistory
The Islington Archaeology & History Society meets 10 times a year, usually at 7.30pm on the third Wednesday of the month at
Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1. £1 donation/free to members. Everyone welcome. www.islingtonhistory.org.uk Justinc; Christopher Newberry
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2017 Vol 7 No 3 31 The Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Back page picture Here’s a view from the Mail Rail tunnels towards the new trains that carry passengers along the historic railway, which once transported four million letters a day. See A Postal Journey, page 16 Christy Lawrance