A WALK UP AMHURST ROAD (0.8 mile)

1/9 Start outside Station, E8 1LL, which is the third site of this station on the first railway line through Hackney in 1850. The first station was on the other side of Mare Street, where Argun stationers is now; the second was the building which is now Oslo bar. Amhurst Road is named after Baron Amhurst of Hackney whose family was Hackney’s largest landowners.

2/9 Turn left up Amhurst Road to Marcon Court, built in 1959 on the site of housing destroyed by a V1 bomb in WW2. Amhurst Road here follows the course of the Hackney Brook, which rises near Arsenal stadium and flowed to the . Buried and made part of London’s sewer system in the 1850s, it could flood to 70ft wide.

3/9 Walk further on to Institute Place, the home of Five Point Brewery since 2013. It takes its name from the North East London Institute, around the corner in Lane, rebuilt in 1925 by the LCC. Now flats, the site in 1803 was the home of the Hackney School of Industry.

4/9 Pembury Corner. The name Pembury in the area comes from a place in Kent where Lord Amhurst’s family also owned land. Originally the only roadway here was Dalston Lane with a bridge taking it over the Hackney Brook. The Pembury Tavern has been here since 1861. Take care crossing over to Pembury Court.

5/9 Pembury Court was built in the 1930s on the site of a Congregational Church, which had the same architect as the Round Chapel in Lower Clapton Road. Pembury Road was laid out from 1860, lined with villas. The LCC compulsorily purchased 20 acres to build the Pembury Estate; a small part opened in 1938. Blocks on the estate are named after other places in Kent.

6/9 Walk past the bottom of Bodney Road. Hereabouts the Hackney Brook, after flowing down the west side of , joined the line of Amhurst Road. Just up Bodney Road on the right, on the site of Bodney Mansions, was Hackney’s first Fire Station in 1868.

7/9 Carry on to the junction with Downs Park Road, laid out in 1842. Houses were built along Amhurst Road in the 1860s. The LCC compulsory purchased 3.5 acres to build the Downs Estate in 1936: 204 dwellings in five-storied blocks.

8/9 Further up, Evelyn Court replaced houses with gardens down to Hackney Downs. It consisted of 320 flats in 10 five storey blocks put up in 1934 by The Four Per-cent Industrial Dwellings Company. formed by Baron de Rothschild in 1885 to give better housing to East London Jews. The estate is named for Evelyn de Rothschild who died in WW1 in Palestine.

10/9 The Hand of Glory pub was originally The Amhurst Arms, a pub since 1841 and a coaching inn on the way to London. A map of 1863 shows this was as far as Amhurst Road went. The road was later extended west to Road. On the other side of Rectory Road, on the corner, the Amhurst Club was founded in 1885. As the Regency Club it was frequented by the Krays in the 1950s.

Sean Gubbins Walkhackney.co.uk April 2020