Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Vol 5 No 2 Summer 2015 incorporating Islington History Journal Steps to a modern classic
Bevin Court’s heritage concerns far more than an inspired modernist housing scheme
Magna Carta’s Clerkenwell connections l Working days and dance hall nights l Modern meets suburbia l An Islington man’s military life l New life for Old Sessions House l Effects of industrialisation on human health study l Mail Rail funding on track l Exhibition and book reviews l Forthcoming events l Your local history questions answered About the society
Our committee What we do: talks, walks and more Contribute to this
and contacts he Islington journal: stories and President Archaeology & History pictures sought Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury TSociety is here to Vice president: investigate, learn and celebrate We welcome articles on local Mary Cosh the heritage that is left to us. history, as well as your Chairman We organise lectures, tours research, memories and old Andrew Gardner, andy@ and visits, and publish this photographs. islingtonhistory.org.uk quarterly journal. We hold A one-page article needs Membership, publications 10 meetings a year, usually about 500 words, and the and events at Islington town hall. maximum article length is Catherine Brighty, 8 Wynyatt The society was set up in 1,000 words. We like receiving Street, EC1V 7HU, 020 7833 1975 and is run entirely by pictures to go with articles, 1541, catherine.brighteyes@ volunteers. If you’d like to but please check that we can hotmail.co.uk get involved, please contact reproduce them without Treasurer our chairman Andrew infringing anyone’s copyright. Philip Anderson, phlpandrsn6 Gardner (details left). The journal is published in @btopenworld.com www.facebook.com/ print and online in pdf form. Committee members 8 www.islingtonhistory.org.uk groups/islingtonhistory.org.uk Deadline for the autumn Kathleen Frenchman issue is 1 August. Michael Harper Derek Seeley Journal back issues and extra copies Ever wondered…? Samir Singh Do you have any queries about Academic adviser Journal distribution is Islington’s history, streets or Lester Hillman, former visiting overseen by Catherine buildings? Send them in for professor, London Metropolitan Brighty (details left). our tireless researcher Michael Business School, London Contact her for more Reading and other readers to Metropolitan University copies, back issues, if you answer. Please note we do not Journal editor move house and about keep an archive or carry out Christy Lawrance, christy@ membership. Back issues family research. islingtonhistory.org.uk, can also be downloaded l See Letters, page 6 c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Park via our website at www. Road, N7 0QB islingtonhistory.org.uk Copyright Copyright of everything in $ (photocopies acceptable) this journal lies with the Join the Islington Archaeology & History Society creator unless otherwise stated. While it can be difficult Membership per year is: £12 single; £15 joint at same address; concessions single £8/joint £10; to trace copyright ownership corporate £25; overseas £20; life: £125 (renewal forms sent out when due) of archive materials, we make every effort to do so. I/We would like single/joint/concession/joint concession/corporate membership and enclose a cheque payable to “Islington Archaeology & History Society” for ...... Contacts Contact editor Christy Name(s) ...... Lawrance about articles and pictures for the journal Address ...... (details left).
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2 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society
Incorporating Islington History Journal
Vol 5 No 2 Summer 2015
Keeping the biggest attractions in town
ula Arena must be one the world’s oldest entertainment buildings still Pin use. Built in the first century AD, Contents this Roman amphitheatre in present-day Croatia could hold 20,000 spectators watching a gladiatorial contest. In the News 4 Middle Ages, people attended fairs and New life for Old Sessions House, effects of industrialisation on health to be studied, watched knights’ tournaments. Nowadays, postal museum nears funding target and Islington is 50 years old you can attend a film festival, watch pop and classical concerts or a re-enacted Your letters and questions 6 gladiator fight, or just wander around it. Boundary plaques, how the Four Sisters got its name, old school photographs and It’s the biggest attraction in town. the lost trees of Finsbury Park Nearer home, the biggest attractions in town often also involve heritage buildings An Islington man’s military life 9 with modern uses. Union Chapel, once at The First World War soldier who grew up in Islington and served around the world risk of demolition, is a successful concert after joining the King’s Royal Rifle Company venue as well as a church. Old buildings in Covent Garden house shops, Traditional square to modern classic 10 restaurants and the London Transport An area of water pipes and pasture was turned into a formal square before Museum, and the area attracts visitors becoming home to the striking Bevin Court from around the world. Smithfield Market is set to become the new home of Magna Clerkenwell 12 the Museum of London. This year sees the 800th anniversary celebrations of Magna Carta, which has links Sadly, a common thread in heritage to Clerkenwell, especially its priory survival stories – as in the cases of Covent Garden and Smithfield – is a tale Working days and dance hall nights 14 of campaigners fighting determined Patricia Payne recalls starting work on City Road, going dancing “as much as battles against developers. possible”, marriage and babies, and a lasting friendship So plans for the Old Sessions House (page 5) have been welcomed by many. Modern meets suburbia 16 The new owners appear serious, having Hornsey Town Hall – a story of municipal architecture, political rallies and employed conservation experts including entertainment Alec Forshaw, a former Islington conservation officer who was as an expert Publications 18 witness against redevelopment of Sporting heritage, Roman finds at Fenchurch Street, essays on architecture, Smithfield. The owners have been critical eccentric London and a mixed upbringing in Islington of unsympathetic work in the building, such as the grand main court room being Reviews 22 divided up. And they have said that they The influential Magna Carta, spectacular Greek beauty, horticultural styles show wish to attract the community in. hidden agendas, and a timely reminder over homelessness Let’s hope that the plans come to fruition as described – and that more Events and exhibitions 24 developers recognise the value of heritage. Directory of societies, museums and resources 28 Christy Lawrance Editor Islington Archaeology & History Society events 31
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 3 news In brief Study on health effects of industrial age
Co-op saved from Crossrail 2 demolition The effect of industrialisation series of lectures about the from the late 18th century on work. The grade II listed the human body is to be Ms Bekvalac said: “The most Co‑operative Bank building at researched at the Museum of tangible evidence we have for the Angel is no longer under London. the long-term consequences threat of demolition, after The project will use digital of the industrialisation plans for Crossrail 2 were technology to examine the process upon us is, quite changed. However, adjacent skeletal remains of more than simply, written in our bones. historic buildings are still at 1,000 adult men and women “Modern health trends have risk, including the listed Angel from industrial-era London seen a shift towards increasing Picture Theatre, one of and 500 skeletons of medieval life expectancy but we want to Britain’s first purpose-built Londoners to see how look again at what are often cinemas. A new consultation industrialisation has affected thought of as ‘man-made’ over the proposed station at the human body over time. conditions like obesity Angel will start in autumn. The research aims to and cancer. examine the influence of the Jelena Bakvalac: evidence for “Given today’s more Future still uncertain industrial revolution on the the effects of industrialisation sedentary lifestyles are far is “written in our bones” over New River Head changing nature of disease removed from the physically from the medieval and active and natural existence of The future of historic post-medieval periods her research team, Gaynor most of our forebears, there buildings at New River Head through to the present day. Western and Mark Farmer. are some big questions about into luxury flats remains While telling a story about The museum will use the origins of these diseases undecided. A third appeal the health of Londoners over clinical techniques, including and how they relate to the over plans to convert the time, the project will also digital x-ray scanning, to get a modern environment.” buildings has been adjourned, provide an opportunity to better understanding of what The research has been made as the government planning digitise some of London’s the bones in its collection tell possible by a City of London inspector did not feel she had most important skeletal us and to assess how they have Archaeological Trust grant of all the evidence. The grade II collections. changed over time. £80,000 over three years from listed site, between Rosebery The project will be led by This work will culminate in a bequest made by the late Avenue and Amwell Street, is Jelena Bekvalac from the the creation of an extensive Rosemary Green. This is the where the New River brought Museum of London’s Centre interactive online resource. largest single grant ever fresh water to London from for Human Bioarcheology and Ms Bekvalac plans to deliver a awarded by CoLAT. 1613. It includes a pump house, a windmill and coal storage buildings and is Fifty years since borough merger created Islington considered a heritage site of national importance. time generally lamented the loss of the area’s “happy” local Court challenge over authority and described how Mount Pleasant site Finsbury’s expertise would hugely benefit Islington. Islington and Camden However, a later report in the councils have applied for a Islington Gazette suggested judicial review of Mayor of that Islington in 1965 was London Boris Johnson’s “rotten to the core”. granting of planning The London Borough of permission for 681 homes at Islington is the third smallest the Royal Mail site at Mount local authority in the capital. Pleasant in October last year. Surviving Finsbury sign near Old Street Before 1900, local They have criticised the lack of government responsibilities for affordable housing included in Pictures comparing Islington established when the the area were administered by the plans. Cllr James Murray, in 1965 and 2015 were on metropolitan boroughs of Islington, Clerkenwell and St Islington Council’s executive display at the town hall to Finsbury and Islington were Luke’s parish vestries. In 1900, member for housing and mark 50 years since the merged in 1965, as part of a these were replaced by the development, said the London London Borough of Islington London-wide reorganisation two metropolitan boroughs of mayor’s decision “not just was created. of local authorities. Finsbury (Clerkenwell and St
Jelena Bakvalac: Museum of London; street sign: Mark Smulian Bakvalac: Jelena wrong but also legally flawed”. In 1965, the borough was The Finsbury News at the Luke) and Islington.
4 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Islington heritage catalogue going online New life for Old Sessions House
You’ll be able to view material in Islington’s local history The Old Sessions House in library collection, archives Clerkenwell Green is to be and museum online, thanks to restored and turned into a a new project. The heritage restaurant and wine bar, with information website is still in a private members’ club or its early days – staff have offices. A rooftop pool is also described it as a “work in planned. progress” – and IAHS The grade II* listed members are welcome to view building, built in 1779, was it at http://islington. bought by property adlibhosting.com/ developers Ted and Oliver Grebelius for £13.5 million. Could you welcome The Sessions House was the museum visitors? biggest and busiest courthouse in England for more than 100 Islington Museum has years. It closed as a recruited some new magistrates’ court in 1921. volunteers but still has a place The owners have appointed or two available for visitor conservation experts, including receptionists. It is looking for paint and stone specialists, to people who can commit for at restore historic features. least six months. Email the These include the main museum on islington. court room, the judges’ dining [email protected] or room and an 18th-century call 020 7527 2837. glass and cast iron screen between the court and the Former glory: the Sessions House in Clerkenwell in 1810 Call to keep view of domed hall (see picture). On Cally clock tower the ground floor, the remnants former council conservation of weighing machine of prisoners’ cells and a officer, drew up a manufacturers Avery Scales, Plans for a visitor centre in staircase have been uncovered. conservation plan for the site. which turned much of it into front of Caledonian clock Alec Forshaw, historic After closing as a court, the small offices. It was later a tower have been opposed by building consultant and building was the headquarters Masonic lodge. local residents, who say it will ruin the view of the tower from North Road. More than Postal museum and mail ride near funding target 700 people have signed a petition calling for the centre Award to support its plans to to be built elsewhere in the open Mail Rail. park. Supporters of the CEO of Viridor Credits, residents’ campaign include John Lockwood said it was a Vic Adams, who used to wind “pleasure to contribute … to the Big Ben clock, and such an unusual project. The architectural historian underground Mail Rail is a Dr Jonathan Foyle. real time capsule.” The museum has appointed transport engineers Severn Lamb, which makes train rides for the leisure industry, mainly abroad, to build the trains and the ride system for Mail workers load post onto a train at Mount Pleasant Mail Rail. l Harry Huskisson of the The British Postal Museum Rail – the old Post Office BPMA has written about Keep up to date with our & Archive has secured more underground railway – to the plans for the museum and Facebook page at www. than 95% of the funds it needs public for the first time. Mail Rail for this journal. See facebook.com/groups/ to make the Postal Museum It was awarded grants from Mail Collections, spring 2014,
islingtonhistory a reality and to open Mail Viridor Credits and AIM Biffa page 10 Commons Charles Pugin/Wikimedia Augustus and Rowlandson Thomas BPMA; Sessions House: railway: Postal
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 5 Letters and your questions We welcome letters. Our researcher Michael Reading can answer your questions, so get in touch if you have a query about Islington, or can answer or add to anything here
Sweet history behind Four confectioner sisters. Our next Sisters pub goal is to try and unearth a My partner’s great-aunts photograph of these ladies. Louisa, Ada, Hannah and Gerard Morrison Elizabeth Vincent lived at Via Facebook 25 Canonbury Lane from the late 1800s. They are listed as H on the corner: a sign confectioners during that time. showing ownership Our real interest – alongside Can anyone shed any light on how unusual it seems that this marker on the corner of four sisters succeeded male Kelross Road and Highbury free(!) – is that there is now a Park (see right)? pub called the Four Sisters at I initially thought it was a † ‡ this address. There must be a parish boundary marker, with connection, but we are the H more likely to relate to struggling to find any history Highbury rather than of this pub. Hornsey, considering the If any of the experts out location. However, I’ve never Left: marker at Kelross Road and Highbury park († on map); right: there can help, it would be seen one with just a single stone on corner of Aberdeen (‡ on map) brilliant! letter and no date. Gerard Morrison Jen Pedler it refers to the plot on which an area that demands an Via Facebook Via Facebook the two terraced houses, nos outward sign of ownership. 54 and 56, fronting Highbury A map of 1894 shows The pub changed name for a There is a similar stone Park, which were built by Kelross Road as Newington while before reverting back to plaque, minus the H, on the Cubitt in the early 1800s Turning, and older maps show the Four Sisters but that is exterior wall of the building at during the rapid development a footpath towards Stoke what it was called when I first the corner of Aberdeen Road of the Highbury area. Newington on exactly the line knew it around the 1970s. and Kelross Road. My map of 1803 doesn’t of Kelross Road. Eric Willats’ Streets With a The lettering reads: “This show a definite area Peter Fuller Story (1987) states: “The ‘Four Property extends eleven feet delineating where this H Kelross Road N5 Sisters’ Public House at no 25 in front of this Stone.” As the property starts and finishes, [Canonbury Lane] was only a plaque is on a relatively but the metal shield at the top Plaques, bollards and public house since 1953, but a modern property, it is probably of Kelross Road and one boundaries beer retailers in the 1930s. It is not in its original place. abutting Aberdeen Road Does anyone know what this named after four Miss I have always assumed that (minus the H) seem to mark 1883 SMI Boundary marker Vincents who kept a coffee is, on the Petherton Road end and confectioner’s shop as wall of Green Lanes (pictured early as 1905.” right)? It is close to/on the Barry Edwards borders of Islington and the Via Facebook old borough of Stoke Newington, now part of It’s commonly held locally that Hackney. the pub name owes itself to Hilary King the confectioners. You might Via Facebook trace more from North London CAMRA. It’s a parish boundary marker Andy Gardner for St Mary Islington. The Via Facebook boundary of Islington borough runs along the top You’re quite right, Andy. end of Petherton Road. CAMRA has confirmed that it Valerie Brook
Maps: National Library of Scotland; H marker: Jen Pedler; Aberdeen/Kelross Road stone: Peter Fuller Road stone: Peter Aberdeen/Kelross Pedler; of Scotland; H marker: Jen Maps: National Library was named for the four The Four sisters: named for Victorian confectioners Via Facebook
6 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Do these pictures look familiar? If so, one reader would like to hear from you
Thank you, that’s helpful. The end of the 19th century. For in Reading, Berkshire, by space for both your ancestor borough boundaries have kept civil purposes, the Vestry of 1891. His wife was Catherine and Mr Thirketttle to work. I changing around there – it’s St Mary Islington was Elizabeth Staples. expect they were not confusing. This SMI marker is replaced by the Metropolitan The 1911 census shows burdened with the rules and now in Hackney and there is a Borough of Islington in 1900. 97 Arlington Street had seven regulations in place today. 1901 boundary marker on the Barry Edwards rooms. I wonder if you could Michael Reading wall of 109 Petherton Road, Via Facebook help me with which end of just south of the SMI marker, Arlington Street no 97 was in …and the schools which shows the boundary for Along Upper Street (and most 1881. I have done a lot of Two Cox daughters, who were Stoke Newington, which is in likely elsewhere) you can spot research on working class scholars, attended Hanover Hackney. pavement covers supplied by houses in Manchester and Street School between 1882 Hilary King the vestry. Further south in know that numbers changed and 1887. The older daughter, Exmouth Market, I found frequently throughout the 19th Kate, would have been at St The 1894 map shows that the bollards marked CV – century, but were beginning to Philip’s Infants in 1881. boundary used to run along Clerkenwell Vestry. settle down to their final I have seen the admission the back fences between Salli Barnard numbering around the 1880s. and discharge records of my Green Lanes and Leconfield Via Facebook It often helps to locate a house great-aunts Kate born 1874 Road properties from the by counting the dwellings and Eleanor Cox born 1875 junction of Petherton Road Tracing the house… from a pub or a corner. from the Ancestry.co.uk/ and Green Lanes to a point on My paternal ancestors Cox There may have been a London Metropolitan Green Lanes opposite about lived at 97 Arlington Street company relevant to Henry Archives collection. They were halfway between Winston with two other families during Cox’s work not too far away. the eldest two of Henry and Road and Lidfield Road. the 1880s. Jacqueline Roberts (née Cox) Elizabeth’s 10 children. The vestry was not just an Henry Pilbeam Cox was a jacqueline.roberts24@gmail. I have been loaned three ecclesiastical organisation but weighing machine fitter in the com school photos by a family also the basic local 1880s who rose to become a member. They are of a mixed government body until the weights and measures inspector Ninety-seven Arlington Street infant class called Group 1, a (now Arlington Avenue) was class of boys aged around nine on the south side of the street years old called Class 9, and a (odd numbers). third of older girls, aged The last original house perhaps 12, called Group XI. today is no 81, which stands (see above and back page). opposite Bevan Street. No 97 The collection is was in the next group of 11 circumstantial evidence that houses, which extended to at least one of their brothers, Packington Street. These have probably Harry born 1877 or now gone and a modern block Charlie born 1879, also of flats now stands on the site. attended the school, although The London Post Office as yet I have no evidence. Street Directory for 1880 Harry died of dysentery in includes an entry for no 97– Pretoria in July 1900. He had “Henry Thirkettle – Engraver”. embarked with the Royal St Mary Islington vestry marker – now in Hackney; the 1894 map As no 97 had seven rooms, Berkshire Volunteers in May shows the vestry boundary it would seem that there was in time to celebrate Queen Boundary stone: Hilary King
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 7 The lost trees of Finsbury Park
People using the north end of took in or about 1972 when Finsbury Park station will the old coal yard alongside have noticed the loss of the Clifton Terrace was tress that were planted about threatened with 40 years ago to replace a fine redevelopment. Fonthill Road, more or less Left: Clifton Terrace, looking line of earlier trees. I also enclose a photograph near where the new theatre is towards Lennox Road; top: Clifton Terrace, looking Readers may be interested of Athelstan Road, taken in or in Clifton Terrace. towards Wells Terrace; above: to see some photographs of before 1972. This used to Leslie Blake Althelstan Road, looking those earlier trees, which I connect Clifton Terrace with Kingston upon Thames towards Fonthill Road
Victoria’s birthday on 24 July. also lived there until 1972 in about the late 1930s. built in the same Godfrey’s OS Map of 1871 when it was shortly due for My older brother, while still configuration and it was suggests that the row of houses demolition to make way for a schoolboy, was given a job renamed Colebeck Mews, that included 97 Arlington new flats, which were built on lighting the gas lamps on all after a former alderman. Street was similar in significant exactly the same site. the upper landings from 1932 Unfortunately, my Eric ways – including in the size Canonbury Avenue held to 1934. There were three Willats’ Streets With A Story and shape of the footprint of blocks of adjoining flats – 148 upper floors and 17 blocks refers to “Canonbury Avenue, the tunnelbacks – to the next in all – and was situated with 57 stairs in each block, Canonbury Road (1892)”, block that ends with no 81. between Canonbury Road giving a total of 969 stairs to probably when the dwellings Jacqueline Roberts School on one side and what climb per night. For this, he were built. It also shows used to be a Ford garage on received the princely sum of Colebeck Mews but does not Canonbury Avenue found the other. This is at the other one shilling and sixpence per cross-reference the name with and a boy gaslighter end of Canonbury Road from week. Not many obesity Canonbury Avenue. I am sure I can answer Trish St Stephen’s Church. The gates problems then! Michael Reading Anderson’s question to the avenue stood at DR Connatty concerning the whereabouts of Canonbury Road itself. Bishops Stortford Canonbury Avenue, and clarify The flats were built in the Write to us matters for Michael Reading, late 1800s by Ashby and Canonbury Avenue was a l Email editor Christy Lawrance at christy@ since I was born there in 1929 Horner and were quite basic. cul-de-sac that ran next to islingtonhistory.org.uk or and lived there until 1953 No bathrooms of course, but Canonbury Road School and c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell when I left to get married (The each had a scullery, one cold round to the rear and held Park Road, N7 0QB disappearance of Canonbury water tap and an inside loo. flats in industrial dwellings. l Via www.facebook.com/ Avenue, letters, spring 2015). Lighting and energy was by After the flats were groups/islingtonhistory
Leslie Blake My brother and his family gas until electrification came demolished, new homes were
8 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 An Islington man’s military life
Jonathan Michael Miller joined the King’s Royal Rifle Company in 1906, serving around the world. He fought in the First World War, dying of his wounds. His great-great nephew Dan Bond tells his story
Pictured here is Jonathan smaller battles forming the Michael Miller, my great-great overall battle for Ypres. This uncle, an Islington man. took place along a ridge of On 1 October 1906, slightly raised ground that Jonathan joined the King’s crossed the main Ypres-Menin Royal Rifle Company and was road, a trench system some assigned to 7th Battalion. 500 yards long running from Once he had completed basic the road towards a point training he joined the regular between Westhoek and army and moved to 3rd Bellwarde Lake. It was in this Battalion on the 5 July 1907. trench that Jonathan was His army number was 8192; seriously injured, suffering this number was issued as shrapnel wounds to his back part of a new series of and neck; he was to die of army numbering between wounds on 9 May 1915. 20 February 1907 and He is buried in Lijssenhoek 23 June 1908. Military Cemetery, grave reference XXXI D.7. Serving abroad At this time, the 3rd Battalion King’s Cross family was sent overseas. It left Jonathan Miller spent time in Aldershot, sailing aboard the and out of St Pancras SS Sicilia, on 13 February workhouse – it may be that 1908. It first went to Crete, joined up in the first place to until the 18 January 1909, get a steady job. His older when it left for Malta, arriving brother had done the same a on 26 January 1909. It reached couple of years earlier. its final destination, India, in Most of my family lived in late January 1909. and around the King’s Cross The battalion was based at area, mostly around White Jubbulpore on 12 February Lion Street, up to Rising Hill 1909, moving to Rawalpindi Street and across as far as on 22 December 1909 then on Somers Town. There are to Gharial on 18 April 1911, various addresses on different where the soldiers remained documents including York until being called back to Jonathan Michael Miller Road, Barclay Street, Corinth England at the outbreak of the Road, Caledonian Road and First World War. The 3rd transferred to the 6th strategic Flemish town of Holloway Road. Battalion arrived at Winchester Battalion (20 March 1915) Ypres in western Belgium (the I do realise that some of on 19 October 1914. then the 4th (1 April 1915) in First Battle of Ypres had taken these are on the boundaries of During his time in India, quick succession. He was sent place the previous autumn). It Islington/Camden and Jonathan was twice awarded back to France with the 4th. was during this battle that Somers Town is in Camden, good conduct badges, He arrived in France as part of chemical warfare was first used but my family even now talk entitling him wear stripes on the 80th Brigade, which was as the Germans, who deployed about their time in Islington, his left sleeve. part of the 27th Division. gas attacks along the front near so they very much consider Once he was back in He was involved in what is where Jonathan was based. themselves to be from here. n England, there was a large- now called the Second Battle Jonathan was part of the scale reorganisation of the of Ypres, a First World War Battle of Frezenberg Ridge Dan Bond army. Jonathan was battle for control of the (8-13 May 1915), one of the [email protected]
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 9 Traditional square to modern classic
An area of pipes and pasture was turned into a formal square before becoming home to the striking Bevin Court. Alex Smith traces the story
he site of Bevin Court Square was named after Charles has a heritage that tells Holford, who was governor of the more than the tale of a New River Company in 1815-27. inspired modernist The architecture of the square housing scheme. In the was conventional for its time. Tearly 18th century, it was leased as However, its east and west sides pasture, crisscrossed with wooden were a departure from the rest of elm water pipes of the New River New River’s developments, being Company, which owned the land. grouped behind palace fronts Council compulsorily purchased In the 1820s, the New River flanked with pediments. In 1934, the site and decided to build blocks Company began to develop its land the Metropolitan Borough of of flats around its edges, to retain holdings around New River Head. Finsbury took over the square’s the square’s layout in keeping with The Bevin Court site was one of garden as the lease had expired, the local architecture. the last areas to be developed, in and created a public bowling green. Berthold Lubetkin (1901-90) was 1841-48. A formal square was laid The square’s architecture can be to be the architect. Lubetkin had out and named Holford Square. viewed in the photograph of the already designed three buildings Most of the New River estate opening ceremony below. for Finsbury Council – Finsbury development in Clerkenwell was Health Centre (1935-38), Spa named in association with the Bevin Court Green Estate (1943-50) and Priory company’s history – it brought During the Second World War, all Green Estate (1943-57). Bevin fresh water to London via the New four sides of Holford Square were Then and now: Court (1946-54) was to be above: Bevin River, an artificial waterway. The severely damaged. The New River Lubetkin’s last work in Finsbury. Court; below: origin of some names are obvious, Company rebuilt some damaged the public Lubetkin knew Holford Square. such as Amwell Street (named for sites, including Percy Circus. bowling green In 1942, he designed and installed the river’s source) and Myddelton However, in 1946 Holford Square at Holford a memorial to Vladimir Lenin Square (after Sir Hugh Myddelton, was deemed beyond repair and it Square is opposite the bomb-damaged who led the river project). Holford was condemned. In 1948, Finsbury opened in 1935 30 Holford Square, which had been home to Lenin and his wife in 1902-03. Bevin Court was developed in several stages. The final design was not a replacement square with housing around the edges as the council had envisaged, but a bold statement block in the centre of the old square. The block referenced one of Lubetkin’s first designs – collective housing for railway workers (Allan, 2012). Three branches of flats radiate from a drum staircase. This layout leaves no flat with north- only aspect. Light and views, along with the spectacular staircase (see front cover), are what Bevin Court is known for.
10 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Left: the mural based on the Finsbury crest; bottom: Lenin bust made for a trade union – Bevin Court used to contain a copy of this
The staircase has one main If we deconstruct the crest we supporting column that runs the can identify its constituent parts in height of the building. Centred the mural: the winged bull of around this column are triangular St Luke; the dolphins representing landings reached via flights of stairs St James; a pool of water referring that enter and leave the landings at to the New River Head; the Clerks’ different angles. This leads the visitor Well in the centre; the city walls on a dynamic journey, experiencing and gate referencing the Liberty of all of Bevin Court’s vistas. Glasshouse Yard and the dome of St In the past five years, much John’s (or St Paul’s, looking at some restoration has been carried out by of Yates’ earlier studies); crescents Islington Council. The staircase and circles denoting Charterhouse; was returned to a red and white and St Luke’s tower to the left. What’s next? colour scheme similar to its In 2014, Islington Museum was original one, with dramatic effect. Bevin bust awarded £72,000 by the Heritage The main entrance is through a The naming of Lubetkin’s project Lottery Fund to: conserve and one-storey, fan-shaped foyer. On after Ernest Bevin, when a number restore Yates’ mural; create a replica the left is a mural painted by Peter of sources note that he would have bust of Ernest Bevin using 3D Yates; on the right is an empty seen it named Lenin Court, printing; hold lectures, workshops alcove, which once housed a bust deserves investigation. and educational events for of the building’s namesake, Ernest The council’s housing committee residents and other local people; Bevin (1881-1951). minutes make no mention of and hold a walk on the history of Bevin Court was awarded Lenin; on 5 October 1953, a Finsbury and Berthold Lubetkin. grade II* listing in 1998. resolution was minuted to name The Bevin Court Restoration the block Bevin Court after the Project was set up because of References and Mural restoration recently deceased Ernest Bevin. requests from the block’s residents. further reading Yates’ mural, Day and Night, depicts A bust of Bevin was I would like to thank them for their Allan J (2012) Berthold Lubetkin: the coat of arms of Finsbury in an commissioned at the cost of £85 to continued support and interest. n Architecture and abstract form and is reminiscent of sit in the oblong shaft opposite the l Find out more at our community the Tradition of Picasso’s Guernica in style. mural. It was a copy of the bust blog at www.bevincourt.wordpress. Progress. Artiface, Peter Yates (1920-1982) was born made by Edwin Whitney-Smith for com or call Alex Smith on 020 London (2012) Carroll, R (2009) in Wanstead and began studying the Trade and General Workers 7527 2837, email alex.smith@ Ryder and Yates. architecture in 1938 at Regent Street Union in 1929. This bust still islington.gov.uk RIBA Publishing, Polytechnic. In the Second World sits in trade union Unite’s l A free guided walk, London War, he was a fire watcher in the St office in Holborn. Lubetkin, Finsbury and Peter Yates: Artist and Architect Paul’s area before joining the army. Bevin Court was opened on Bevin Court, will take place 1920-1982. www. He was part of the liberating army Saturday, 24 April 1954 at an at 6pm, Monday 15 June, peteryates.co.uk/ in Paris where he sought out Le event attended by around 200 starting at Islington Temple P, ed Corbusier. The two were both people; Dame Florence Museum. Book (2008) Spa Green to Skinner Street. architects and painters, Le Bevin DBE unveiled through the In: Survey of Corbusier once noting that “this the bust of Bevin. museum. London: Volume boy can see things” (Carroll, 2009). Residents remember 47, Northern Three Finsbury crests were once the bust being in Alex Smith is Bevin Clerkenwell and Pentonville. www. placed at the top of Bevin Court. place until the 1990s, Court project officer british-history. When Finsbury joined Islington in but no one knows and events officer at ac.uk/survey
1965, the crests were removed. where it was taken to. Islington Museum london/vol47 crest: Islington Local Commons; Holford Square, Finsbury Cordell/Creative Tom Exterior: Alex Smith and Night, Ernest Bevin bust: History Centre; Day
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 11 Magna Clerkenwell
This year sees the 800th anniversary celebrations of Magna Carta. Lester Hillman looks at the links between the charter and Clerkenwell, especially its priory
lerkenwell Priory was still in his teens, became King the English headquar- Alexander II of Scotland after ters of the Knights the death of King William in Hospitallers of December 1214. St John of Jerusalem. AllC that remains of the complex is Priory people the south gate, called St John’s For most of John’s reign, including Gate, which houses the Museum of this period, treasurer Father In 1215, Robert de Vere, the earl of the Order of St John, and a crypt Robert served the priory. The Oxford, was named as one of the remaining beneath the neigh- heraldic arms in the chapter hall 25 barons charged with overseeing bouring parish church of St John. of St John’s Museum shows he the Magna Carta security clause; In the period leading up to followed Fr William de Villiers this allowed a group of 25 barons Magna Carta being sealed, King (1199-1202). to override the king at any time by John of England stayed frequently The priory church at way of force, a medieval legal with the Knights Templar near Clerkenwell, along with the process that was normal in feudal the priory. Temple, was consecrated in 1185 relationships but had never been – less than three decades before applied to a king. His brother, clerk Knighting a Scottish prince John’s stay. Henry de Vere, had 12 advance In February 1212, King John met The heraldic arms in the chapter letters about Magna Carta for William the Lion, king of Scotland, hall also show Fr Henry of Arundel counties including Lincolnshire at Norham on the Scottish border was prior at the time of Magna – these were to confirm charters about six miles west of Berwick Carta. had been received. Father Gilbert upon Tweed. A few weeks later, Arundel features prominently in de Vere was prior in 1195; Fr King John stayed for a month at Magna Carta – William Earl of Robert de Vere was prior in Clerkenwell Priory. Arundel (called Willelmi Comitis 1265-72. Alexander, the red-haired Arundellie in the charter) ranks Brother Aymeric, master of the 14-year-old son of the Scottish fourth among the noblemen listed. knights of the Temple in England, king, was knighted by John at the Another family name closely is listed in Magna Carta (as Fratris priory in 1212, in ceremony associated with Magna Carta, and Eimerici, Magistri Militie Templi in costing £14 4s 8d. Alexander then one that again features in the Anglia), between the senior clergy returned to Scotland and, while chapter hall roll, is that of de Vere. and the noblemen.
Magna Carta: from rebellious barons to trial by jury
ing John was born on and forcing John to negotiate. probably the best preserved. deprived of his property, or 24 December 1166 Magna Carta forced the Magna Carta, which means outlawed, or exiled or in any Kand became king king to agree to limits to his Great Charter, made way destroyed, nor shall we in 1199. power. The document was everyone subject to the rule go against him or send He was involved in sealed by the king on 15 June of law. It subjected the against him, unless by legal unsuccessful wars abroad 1215 at Runnymede, on the monarch to the law of the judgement of his peers, or by and, to pay for these, side the Thames around 20 land for the first time in the law of the land.” demanded increasingly high miles west of central London. Britain’s history; this clause is This became the taxes from the nobility. Many copies were made of the only one that remains on fundamental principle of His barons were unhappy the document and rushed to the statute books today. English justice then the about this and about how England’s administrative Magna Carta stated that: basis of the US Constitution. John used his power. They centres. Four have survived. “No free man shall be It also paved the way for rebelled, taking London over The Lincoln Magna Carta is arrested, or imprisoned, or trial by jury.
12 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 1214 were reasonably good, the earlier years of John’s reign were beset with poor harvests and inflation in wheat prices. While we do not know the menu at Clerkenwell, the Christmas menu at Windsor for 1213 offers an insight into royal tastes. It lists 15,000 herrings, 10,000 salted eels, 400 pigs’ heads, 3,000 capons, 15,000 hens, 100lbs of fresh almonds, 50lbs of pepper, 2lbs of saffron and a seemingly modest 20lbs of white bread. To set the table, 1,000 ells of table cloth linen (one ell equates to 45 inches) and 500lbs of wax, pitchers, cups and dishes were bought. Wine was not neglected; there were 20 tuns or large casks (252 gallons) of good new ordinary wine and four tuns of the best for Aymeric was a senior adviser to afforded ready entry on Sunday Magna Carta, the king’s table. King John and, in the lead-up to 17 May. The barons taking control 1215: on John’s much-travelled court the document’s signing at of London dealt a serious blow to display at the generated enormous expense. British Library; Runnymede, was frequently in the king. John’s arrival in 1212 would have below: St John’s London at the Temple. Gate in put modern-day congestion on the There are 63 chapters in the 1215 Feasting and (non) fast days Clerkenwell; Clerkenwell Road in the shade. His charter; chapters 52 and 53 show In London, King John seemed to opposite: 1800s kitchen, pantry and buttery, and the king’s aspiration to go on favour the Temple. For John’s picture showing his wardrobe train were of pilgrimage. Aymeric was on hand at month-long stay in Clerkenwell, King John considerable size, needing 10 or Runnymede to advise King John how might VIP hospitaller signing Magna more carters with 25 horses each. and the Templars provided some hospitality have looked? Carta – although The long carts would have been financial support from their secure John was known for feasting, the charter was loaded with his bed, clothes, sealed, not treasury. which may have hastened his death money, jewels and relics. He even signed (believed to have been from personally by brought his own glass windows King John’s journeys dysentery) in October 1216. The the king and may have had some installed It has been estimated that King king’s almoner dispensed 36d daily, for his stay at the priory. Other John travelled nearly 80,000 miles with substantial extra on fast days entourages, in addition to during his reign, moving from to atone for John’s non-observance Alexander’s, would have arrived place to place nearly 13 times a of fasts. Queuing at the postern and needed accommodating. month; nearly half his stays were of gate of the Hospitaller and Templar Magna Carta was reissued in three days or fewer. orders might have offered some 1216, 1217, 1225 and then 1297 His sojourn at St John’s for a welcome relief for the local poor. and 1300. The 1297 London month in 1212 seems notable. It Although the harvests of 1213 and Charter is held near the priory in compares with generally week-long London Metropolitan Archives. n stays at the Temple, for example on l Review: Magna Carta: Law, 16-23 October 1214, on 7-15 Liberty, Legacy at the British January 1215 and for Eastertide at Library, page 22 16-22 April 1215. Easter in 1212 came early, falling upon Lady Day Lester Hillman is academic adviser on 25 March, so hospitality and to the Islington Archaeology & ceremony at Clerkenwell may have History Society been particularly generous. It was after staying in the Temple The Museum of the Order of St John on 7-9 May 1215 that King John set and the Priory Church are open to off for Windsor and Runnymede. visits. Admission free: www. A week after his departure, the museumstjohn.org.uk barons were at the walls of Sources and further reading London, arriving at the Aldgate, it Carpenter C (2015) Magna Carta. seems, from Stamford. They were Penguin Classics Commons Wikimedia Gate: Commons; St John’s Collection/Wikimedia signing: Granger Magna Carta: British Library;
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 13 it was great dancing to live bands. To get ready for our weekend of Working days and dancing, we would pin up our hair into pincurls, put on a turban and go to Chapel Street to buy dance hall nights whatever we could afford – nylons from Charlie’s, a blouse from Superstyles or a 78rpm record Patricia Payne recalls starting work on City Road, from Leading Lighting, which was next to Manze’s pie and mash going dancing “as much as possible”, marriage shop. We would sometimes buy and babies, and a lasting friendship new earrings. We’d go off on the bus to the dance halls with our hobble skirts left school at 15. I had London teddy and high heels but with our flat learned to type, could type boys, wearing shoes under our arms as now we really fast and loved it, so suits and jackets were jiving. We were very smart with velvet that’s what I wanted to do. then; our shoes, bag and gloves all collars When we left school in had to match and our long Ithose days, you stepped straight umbrellas had covers over them into a job – there were lots to to match too. choose from. I went to work in City Road for Capital Motors, in the office. We’d go off on the bus My best friend Jean got a job in Lilley & Skinner’s shoe shop in to the dance halls. We Pentonville Road, just past and entertainment, which was were very smart then; Grimaldi Park. We would walk dancing and the cinema, and a pair together each morning to of stockings. A pair would last you, our shoes, bag and Pentonville Road, then I would get as you washed them each night gloves all had to match the bus to City Road. and if they laddered you could get I earned £2 12s 6d, I gave Mum invisible mending at the cleaner’s. £1 and saved 10/- (50p today) a We went dancing as much as The boys had become teddy boys week for clothes. After five weeks, I possible, always on Saturday at the and we were teddy girls. As was the could buy shoes or a skirt and Royal at Tottenham and the fashion, the boys had their suits blouse. The £1 2s paid for my fares Lyceum on Sunday afternoons – made, long jackets with velvet collars and loads of pocket flaps with black velvet coverings. They wore drainpipe trousers and shoes with big crepe soles. They could really jive – it was great. By now, I had met “my man” (the one) at one dance hall and Jean met hers at another. We still carried on going, but now with our guys. Eventually, I went to work in New Wharf Road, where the canal museum is now, in a factory that made tungsten carbide. I was in the office and by then was earning £5 15s. On my way to work, I would pass the canal, the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company, round into Crinan Street, where there was Robert Porter & Co, a beer factory – all the women there wore turbans. Then into Wharfdale Road was Patricia Payne’s family have lived in and around King’s Cross since the John Dickinson’s a stationery 1800s – her mother was born in Keystone Crescent, above outlet; it sold Basildon Bond.
14 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 each other, not just in your own street but the others as well. We played in the streets, and had a big street party for the war victory. We’d have a big bonfire in the middle of the street on Guy Fawkes’ night – it was great fun. I have always been proud of where I come from and even prouder that good ol’ King’s Cross is on the map as a great place. Wherever I have lived, I have always called it home. I am pleased I was brought up at the time I was. I would like to be young again, of course – not now but as it was then. n
Patricia Payne was born in 1938 in Outram Street
Robert Porter & Co’s beer factory in Crinan Street, where the women all wore turbans; Rimmel Previous articles had a factory in nearby New Wharf Road Starting School in the 1940s, summer 2014, page 13 In New Wharf Road Since being A Child in Wartime Islington, spring was the Rimmel married, I 2014, pages 18-19 make-up factory and a have moved 12 All three articles were sent to the coffee suppliers – there times. I have journal as a single history was always that smell of had some coffee. beautiful On a nearby corner homes, with Would you like to share your was a pub called the gardens and memories of Islington in these pages? If so, please contact editor General Picton. In of course Christy Lawrance on christy@ York Way was a pub bathrooms. We islingtonhistory.org.uk or at called the City of have two JIAHS, c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell York, where I had my beautiful Park Road, London N7 0QB wedding reception. daughters Round into and two Caledonian Road was All Saints grandchildren. Church where Mum and Dad were I have traced my family tree back married and I was christened. to the 1700s. Since the 1800s, the Jean and her man Tony were family have all lived in and around married at 18 then Tony got called King’s Cross. Mum was born in up to do his national service. I was Keystone Crescent, Dad in Affleck out and about with my man David, Street. Mum, Dad and my granny and we were saving to get married. never moved from the area until Jean and I didn’t go out but visited Outram Street was pulled down, each other. We met aged 10 and are when Mum and Dad got a flat in still great mates at 75. the Holloway area. I eventually got married at All the streets where I grew up St Andrew’s in Thornhill Square. are still there except Outram Jean and I had our babies within Street. Delhi, Havelock, Bemerton months of each other and spent a and Bingfield are all there. When lot of time together again then. She they pulled Outram down, I lived near Leather Lane; I was still wanted to go and salvage a brick in Outram Street. We would walk where we’d carved our names as to each other’s houses once a week kids, and written that so and so or meet by the old Foundling loves so and so! Hospital with our babies. There was I loved my childhood. It was St Andrew’s in no getting on buses for us but lots great then – we could go anywhere Thornhill Square of walking, not likely today’s mums. without worry. Everyone knew Osley/geograph.org.uk; & Co: Julian Robert Porter Crescent: Christy Lawrance; Keystone Townsend/Flickr; Paul boys: Teddy Salmon/geograph.org.uk John Andrew’s: commons; St creative advert:
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 15 administrative offices in their designs, but also a multi-purpose hall with seating for 800-1,000 people, complete with upper gallery. Total expenditure was to be no more than £100,000. The competition attracted 218 entries. The winner was RH Uren, a 29-year-old architect who had recently arrived from New Zealand. He was influenced by Ragnar Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall, with its simplified classical lines, and Willem Dudok’s Hilversum Town Hall, built in 1931. He considered he had abandoned the principles that had guided the design of public buildings. Architecture in the 1930s was strongly influenced by the idea that form should follow function, with Modern meets suburbia little ornamentation and the use of materials such as steel and reinforced concrete. The arrival of modern design in Hornsey Town Hall must have looked extraordinary to the a small conservative suburb must residents of a small conservative suburb. Chris Setz tells a story have been dramatic. As well as a council chamber with of municipal architecture, political rallies and entertainment a traditional horseshoe layout, the town hall had a large assembly hall, with the largest sprung dance floor ornsey Town Hall A competition to design the in London (the sprung effect can was a dramatic town hall was launched in 1933 be adjusted). The council modified departure from the and assessed by C Cowles Voysey, the design to retain the grass and classical and ornate a designer of the much-praised trees in front rather than devote Victorian style of Worthing Town Hall, who was the whole space to car parking. municipalH architecture. appointed by the RIBA. It was The town hall was built in By the end of the First World stipulated that the building ‘should 1934-35, and opened on 4 War, Hornsey Borough Council be dignified and indicate its November 1935, with the Duke had outgrown its offices at the edge purpose’, rather than boast and Duchess of Kent in attendance. of the borough in Highgate. At the ‘elaborate decoration and detail The Hornsey Journal wrote that time, councils owned gas, which is not required’. “the architect deserves thanks for electricity, telephone, water and Competitors were asked to boldly breaking away from the sewage services, and operated incorporate not only a council deadly classicism of the Victorian electricity generating stations, so chamber, committee rooms and public building”. town halls were having to house an The building won a Royal increasingly large staff. Institute of British Architects In 1920 and 1923, Hornsey bronze medal and a gold medal Council acquired the long, from the Worshipful Company of wedge-shaped site in Crouch End. Tylers and Bricklayers. The area contained a few buildings, In 1981, the town hall was including cottages, the larger Lake declared a grade II* listed building. Villa and Broadway Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1923. The Politics and entertainment council laid the area out as a public One of hall’s first notable uses park with a playground. came in 1937, when it housed a In 1929, the council planned to rally by the British Union of build its offices above the Fascists in their distinctive black Broadway frontage, subsidised by shirts, led by Sir Oswald Mosley. shops below, but the lack of car Full-length windows maximised light in this long room Support from the Daily Mail had parking made it unworkable. on the first floor at the front of the building given the Fascists a short-lived
16 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Clockwise from above: the Assembly Hall, with the largest sprung floor in London; narrow rows of metallic gold tiles by a doorway; cupboard in the mayor’s parlour; one of the town hall’s 73 clocks, all run from a central system. The wood in most of the building is Australian walnut but in the most important sections, such as the mayor’s room, striped Indian silver greywood is used respectability, so they were able to by amateur dramatic societies. Wishbone Ash), the Pretty Things convince the local constabulary to Scouts staged Gang Shows, and and ELO all played the venue. let Fascist stewards police the weddings and bar mitzvahs were Events continued until around event. The band of anti-fascist hosted there. 2003, when the last remnants of protesters that attempted to disrupt council use could no longer be the rally were brutally dealt with The council moves out supported. The building remained while the police hung around the The town hall fulfilled its function largely vacant and disused, in spite town hall steps, doing nothing. until local government was of vigorous campaigns and Postwar political activity saw reorganised in 1965. Wood Green crowdfunded plans by locals. appearances from politicians became the centre of the newly It has often been used as a film including Tony Benn, Aneurin created borough of Haringey, and location, including for feature film Bevan and Jennie Lee. the council built a civic centre in In the Loop, episodes of Auf The 1940s was the era of big Wood Green, making Hornsey Wiedersehn Pet, BBC TV series band performances and symphonic Town Hall redundant. The Hour and ITV series recordings. Petula Clark, Matt The assembly hall remained part Whitechapel, as well as for Munro, Chris Barber’s Jazz Quartet, of the entertainment scene in the numerous commercials and a Stephane Grapelli and Django late 1960s and beyond. Local band range of short films. Rheinhardt were among the string the Kinks got a start there and However the campus simply of famous names appearing in the bands including Queen gave their could not be configured to generate venue’s teenage years of the 1950s. first performances there. Fairport enough permanent income for its In addition, there were regular Convention, Jethro Tull, Ralph refurbishment – let alone its boxing matches and performances McTell, Juicy Lucy (supported by £250,000 annual running costs. A project with a local private school in 2011 took four years to come to nothing. A one-year lease was secured by a start-up company to run from January 2015 and has resulted in what might be the only way of keeping it open. The start-up has filled it with small business renters and a range of arts and entertainment events. As a 100% owned public asset, it’s not going to be easy to keep it open. n
Chris Setz has been an architectural guide with London Open House for over a decade and runs the Hornsey Town Hall facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/ hornseytownhall Ornamental metalwork in the front door and the carved stone lintel by Tours of Hornsey Town Hall are sculptor AJ Ayers offset the austere being held over the summer. See
design of the main building http://crouchendwalks.com Christy Lawrance
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 17 Publications and bookshop
This issue looks at sporting heritage, Roman finds at Fenchurch Street, essays on architecture, eccentric London and a mixed upbringing in Islington
Played in London: Charting lucid, personal and thought football – Arsenal in the Heritage of a City at provoking. For me, as a particular, with its Play resident of north London for momentous move to Simon Inglis, with additional 15 years in the 1960s and Islington in 1913. One of research by Jackie Spreckley 1970s in Highgate, Islington London’s earliest bespoke £25, English Heritage/Malavan and Muswell Hill, the sections running tracks circled the Media on these areas are inevitably cricket pitch at Copenhagen This is the 12th publication in nostalgic but also Fields. the Played in Britain series illuminating. The list goes on and on and documenting British sporting The Islington area is very the book is endlessly life and the fourth to deal well covered and the examples fascinating in its detail and publication: “It is often said with a specific city. It is a below are just a small sample depth. It is almost impossible that it takes a whole library to monumental publication – of the many entries. Activities to do full justice to such a write one book. Over the past 360 pages covering every ranged from a tradition of compendious publication five years or so, Played in possible aspect of sport in archery from the 16th century – there are hundreds of London has called upon the London, with a to the present day and cricket illustrations (photographs, resources of 50 libraries and comprehensive index and in the 18th century, both paintings, drawings, maps and archives, backed up by a bibliography. at the Artillery Garden in more) which enhance and capital network of The way the book is written Finsbury. There was bull illuminate the text. organisations and and presented means it can be fighting and a six-day The opening and closing individuals…. After this epic dipped into as a work of walking race at the words of Simon Inglis’s adventure we may all be worn reference, as well as read from Agricultural Hall in the 1870s, acknowledgements at the end out, but tired of London, cover to cover. lawn bowls at Finsbury Circus of the book provide a fitting never!” Simon Inglis’s writing is in 1926 and, of course, summary to this remarkable Richard Pugh
Played in London Directory The British Papers to their cultural context; some Free, English Heritage, Edited by Angela Brady are not suitable to local download from Historic £12.99, £10 from www. climate conditions. England, www.historicengland. ribabookshops.com, RIBA As a way of influencing the org.uk This collection of essays and debate on sustainable cities, This directory lists sports- opinions by high-profile the contributors to this book related buildings in London of figures in architecture and were invited to share their historic or architectural urban design looks at how our viewpoints about design interest and complements history, culture and identity thinking. Played in London – Charting anchor us in place and time. It the Heritage of a City at Play. gives a snapshot of current Assets are divided into four thinking and approaches to categories: those designed for sustainable city-making, and still used for sporting or drawing on UK expertise. recreational activities; those Authors include Richard that have been adapted for (now the Boston Arms in Rogers, Sir Terry Farrell and other uses; those that are Tufnell Park), as well as Judit Kimpian. unused or derelict; and those ironwork from the former The mistakes of the western whose future is uncertain. Greenman Street Baths, now world in recent decades have Entries are arranged by in Tibby Place park, and been repeated in many borough. Islington’s entries swimming pool that has developing countries; this has include Artillery Gardens, become a university study resulted in buildings that are Arsenal’s former stadium and centre, with cubicles soulless, need high levels of Stanley Hall and Marble Baths converted into shelves. energy and have no reference
18 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Roman Occupation South- Great Fire debris (an article again and possibly in the later East of the Forum. covering these finds was Roman period AD200-400 Excavations at published in London was used for high-status 20 Fenchurch Street Archaeology’s winter 2014 dwellings as evidenced by Robin Wroe-Brow issue) but also evidence was finds of tesserae used for £15, Museum of London found of the burning of mosaic floors, painted wall Archaeology (MOLA) London by the Boudiccan plaster and a large cellar. Twenty Fenchurch Street is revolt (AD60-61). The finds of pottery and better known as the Walkie London was already glassware are thoroughly Talkie, and found fame after an important place. investigated and identified. its whose interactions with the Pre‑Boudiccan finds include Of particular interest are the sun’s rays melted parts of imported marble, implying remains of plants, animals and a car and provided a high-status building. birds (both wild and entertainment for City The burnt layer also domestic), many of which workers who wished to fry included fragments of were used for food, providing eggs on the pavement. imported fabrics and fine here throughout the insight into the Roman diet. Yet this is not the first tableware. excavations is largely that of Evidence of brewing was also time that conflagration has hit The story begins in domestic activity. However uncovered. this spot and this story is AD50‑51 when the land one building did showed This book is appropriately covered in this book. It is was cleared – although signs of having been used and well illustrated structured in two halves there is some surviving as a metal workshop which throughout and is a – a very readable time line mesolithic flintwork, which is could be associated with fascinating insight in followed by the specialised mixed up with the early military activity. archaeological methodology. appendices. Roman layers. The land was then cleared Elizabeth Lawrance Its focus is on the Roman Following the Boudiccan period of occupation. This is revolt, there is some evidence because much of medieval of military activity but not as Journal back issues London was destroyed in much as the archaeologists We have some previous issues of the journal available. subsequent development, had hoped for; what proved Please contact Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 1541 to find primarily in the 1950s to be a post-Boudiccan fire out if we have the issue you would like in stock and 1960s. fort was unearthed in Not only was a chalk-lined Plantation Place nearby. More reviews, books for sale and order form overleaf well found backfilled with The evidence gathered
Eccentric London and do – often walk past Ben le Vay without appreciating them or Special offer: £14.99, Bradt, 2012 realising they are there. 40% discount on This is another wonderful, Eccentricity might be Eccentric London revised edition in the Bradt linked with dissent, and here catalogue. It’s a book of stories it is covered in its widest of the lives, buildings and sense – religious, political, Bradt Travel Guides is streets that make up the musical, theatrical, sexual offering Islington metropolis. Through several and moral. Archaeology & History sections, it covers curiosities At 368 pages including an Society members an including those of the City, extensive index, my main exclusive 40% off Freedom village London and inner criticism is that as a pocket Pass London and Eccentric London. guide its text is small; London. Included are characters however, it is an accessible such as Sir Edward Watkin, and enjoyable volume to Freedom Pass London – a who planned to extend the carry around. Wherever guide to days out for Metropolitan Railway to I am in London, there is likely anyone with a freedom Manchester and Paris. after a particularly putrid to be a relevant and most pass or Oyster card – was Streets are listed with the rubbish dump. enjoyable passage. reviewed in the spring issue. origins of their names; I’d It comes with colour This makes a fine long forgotten that Pudding photographs and illustrations companion volume to To get your 40% off, visit Lane was named after the as well as cartoons and Freedom Pass London, also www.bradtguides.com and remains of butchers’ offal information panels, as well as published by Bradt and enter the code “IAHS” at that were flushed away, maps and walking guides. reviewed in the spring the checkout or phone although I knew that These walks include points of journal. 01753 480633. Mount Pleasant was named interest that people might – Andrew Gardner
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 19 Islington: Born and Bred Perman’s grandfather had Camden History Review 38 David Perman the rather prestigious job of £5.96 + £2.50 p&p, Camden £7.99, Rockingham Press keeper of the Islington Tunnel History Society David Perman was born in on Regent’s Canal, which This issue opens with the lives 1936. This short memoir Perman notes was busy with of children in the St Pancras recalls his childhood days. industrial traffic in his own workhouse in 1830-70, their Much is familiar from childhood. welfare and education and speaking with those of his For those with a connection efforts to make them into generation – evacuation, to the borough, the names are model citizens. playing in bomb sites, smog the same but much of what he An article on the design of and a run-down Islington. recalls has changed; the house Swiss Cottage Library is Most interesting is how, he grew up in – like many of illustrated with photographs through an education at the terraced houses in and architects’ models. Also Highbury County Grammar multiple occupation on St covered is Thomas Cooke’s (now Highbury Grove opportunity to move on to Peter’s Street – was cleared by dissecting room in King’s School), he went from “a bigger and better things in the council in the 1960s for Cross, plus the shock caused young lad from the buildings” later life. flats, cinemas have long since by the staging of nude revue to a world beyond. At home, though, there was shut, trams no longer travel Oh! Calcutta! at the Born in St Peter’s Street, he less received pronunciation Upper Street and the Lea is no Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. moved to “the buildings” and music hall classics were longer a working river. He (Samuel Lewis Buildings on sung at Christmas time. also recalls places that Hornsey Historical Society Liverpool Road) as a small This mixed upbringing was survived, such as the Eagle Bulletin 55 child and, although he was drawn on in later years when, pub and Union Chapel. £6.50 + £2 p&p, Hornsey clearly a diligent student, going for national service in He’s an Arsenal man, of Historical Society some of his transformation 1954, he was told he was not course, and I enjoyed his tale This issue starts with the First was forced – he writes of officer material because he of going to the ground in World War and events leading teachers “beating the Cockney came from Islington which Highbury to see some famous up to it. Conscientious [accent] out of him”. was a very rough area. Young names – Jimmy Logie, Denis objection is examined, with Those teaching him were David, with fingers crossed, and Leslie Compton. stories of individual objectors. from the Victorian era and he told the colonel a little lie: This was an enjoyable short Local suffragette activity is took a classical education, “Actually, sir, it’s Canonbury.” read. David Perman, like described, including events at with music and theatre, Virgil The colonel replied that many Islington residents, Alexandra Palace being and Wordsworth. Canonbury was even rougher. moved to Hertfordshire in disrupted by suffragettes as He was made head boy; for This is the kind of account 1956. He has also written a well as men opposed to many, the county grammar everyone wishes their history of his school – women having the vote. Arson school system was an forebears could have written Highbury County Revisited attacks were made against opportunity for them to and, for future generations of – and A New History of Ware, male-dominated sports clubs become upwardly mobile and his family, this is a wonderful its People and its Buildings. – but what caused North Perman seized this link to their past. Samir Singh Middlesex Cricket Pavilion to $ burn down remains a mystery. Order form for books from the IAHS (photocopies acceptable) Hornsey Historical Society Bulletin 56 Name ...... £6.50 + £2 p&p, Hornsey Historical Society Address ...... The story of Hornsey during ...... the First World War is continued, looking at the role Tel no/email (in case we need to contact you about your order) ...... of churches and the use of Alexandra Palace as an Title(s)of publication Cost internment camp and to house ...... Belgian refugees. There is a timeline of the events of 1915...... With 50 years since the London boroughs were ...... created, the long history of Total cost ...... local government in London merits a chapter, followed by Please make cheques payable to “Islington Archaeology & History Society”; send this form an account of the early days of (photocopies acceptable) to IAHS, 8 Wynyatt Street, London EC1V 7HU Haringey Council by a town planner it employed.
20 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Buy from the society store The Jewish Communities of Islington, 1730s-1880s The society stocks books, postcards, maps of Islington and Petra Laidlaw beyond and more – some are listed here. £9.99 + £2.80 p&p, Islington Call Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 1541 to check if we have a map of Archaeology and History your area, if no price is given, to order several items or if you would like Society to arrange to collect items in person. Islington has been home to a Book title Author Price p&p Total sizeable Jewish (£) (£) (£) population for over 250 years, An Architect in Islington Harley Sherlock 14.99 2.80 17.79 although their Angus McBean in Islington Mary Cosh, ed 4.00 1.20 5.20 long history is The Building That Lived Twice Alec Forshaw 20.00 2.80 22.80 largely Church Design for Congregations James Cubitt 11.00 1.50 12.50 forgotten. Several were well to do and Cinemas of Haringey Jeremy Buck 9.99 1.50 11.49 public figures in public, while The Contexting of a Chapel Architect: James Clyde Binfield 18.00 1.90 19.90 many more lived in much Cubitt 1836-1912 humbler circumstances. This Criminal Islington Keith Sugden, ed 5.00 1.40 6.40 volume traces a cross section 53 Cross Street. Biography of a House Mary Cosh and 9.95 1.90 11.85 of characters, their religious ON SALE Martin King life, their occupations and their contact with the rest of Dead Born Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 the community. Dead Image Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 Discover De Beauvoir Town and Environs Mike Gray and 1.50 0.75 2.25 Bargain books Isobel Watson Two IAHS books are on sale. Discover Stoke Newington. A Walk Through David Mander and 4.95 1.20 6.15 History Isobel Watson 53 Cross Street. Biography Dissent & the Gothic Revival Bridget Cherry, ed 15.00 1.65 16.65 of a House An Historical Walk Along the New River Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 Mary Cosh and Martin King, with photographs by Pauline An Historical Walk Through Barnsbury Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 Lord. Hardback. Islington’s Cinemas & Film Studios Chris Draper 5.00 1.65 6.65 £9.95 (was £20) + £2.10 p&p Islington: Britain in Old Photographs Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 This book is a must for anyone Islington: the Second Selection Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 interested in the history of home decor. It Islington Byways James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 tells the story The Jewish Communities of Islington, Petra Laidlaw 9.99 2.80 11.79 of how one 1730s-1880s house London Cat 1 James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 changed since London Cat 2 James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 1785, illustrated London Dog James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 with glorious London’s Mummies James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 colour photographs. Only Bricks and Mortar ON SALE Harry Walters 5.00 1.50 6.50 Only Bricks and Mortar New City: Contemporary Architecture in the Alec Forshaw 19.95 2.80 22.75 Harry Walters City of London £5 (was £7.99) + 1970s London Alec Forshaw 12.99 1.65 14.64 £1.50 p&p London’s New River in Maps. Vol I Part I Michael Kensey £20 A tale of London’s New River in Maps. Vol I Part 2 Michael Kensey £25 growing up and working class The Squares of Islington Part II. Islington Parish Mary Cosh 7.50 1.50 9.00 life from the 20th Century Buildings in Islington Alec Forshaw 14.99 2.80 17.79 1930s through Other items the Second Old Ordnance Survey maps 2.50 0.75 3.25 World War to the 1970s in notorious council tenements Union Chapel mug 6.00 2.80 8.80 in Popham Road, where Cathy New River Tea Towel 6.00 1.50 7.50 Come Home was filmed.
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 21 Exhibitions Magna Carta: a global cultural influence over the centuries
he wait has been worthwhile. Carta to the following Magna Carta found Four years in the making, centuries. expression in all manner Tthe British Library’s Magna Visitors arrive at the of ways including the a Carta exhibition includes more present day through Wedgwood teapot made than 200 exhibits. They are diverse Mr and Mrs Smith’s circa 1775. The British and reflect a global reach, drawing costumes for the Library has if anything from as far as New Zealand and Egham Magna Carta excelled any 18th Maori heritage. Some 90 of the Pageant of 1934. Magna century fervour and the items come from 25 lenders. Carta in recent culture shop is full of all manner The highlight must be the British features in Radio 4 of modern Magna Library’s own two original 1215 comedy show Hancock’s merchandise, as well as a charters, taking pride of place and Half Hour, a Ladybird wide range of books. n rewarding visitors at the end of book on King John, l Magna Carta: Law, a tour. playing cards and Liberty, Legacy is on at This is a journey through the jigsaw puzzles. On a the British Library until contemporary world of Magna more serious note, 1 September, £12/concs, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Above: the first www.bl.uk/magna-carta-exhibition modern day commentators and printed copy of l Magna Clerkenwell, jurists offer insights. Magna Carta, page 12 John Wilkes, whose family home 1508; left: Wedgwood was adjacent to the Clerkenwell Lester Hillman is teapot showing academic Priory of St John, is afforded a John Wilkes prominent and dramatic part in the holding a copy adviser at the exhibition. Wilkes was imprisoned of Magna Carta; Islington in 1763 for seditious libel; his use right: seal of Archaeology of Magna Carta to plead his cause King John, 1203 & History
British Library resonated with the public. Society
Horticultural styles and hidden agendas at royal gardens exhibition
his exhibition looks at Chelsea porcelain, Fabergé jewel paintings and objects from flowers and the botanical prints on Tthe Royal Collection that display. I particularly liked the illuminate the changing character Lobmeyer chandelier with its of four centuries of royal gardens. twining lilies, convolvulus and In the 16th century, the leaves, once in Osborne House, horticultural demonstration of and renovated for the exhibition. man’s power over nature echoed Even royalty took up gardening, as the Tudor belief in the importance Princess Helena’s childhood of order in society. Trees are wheelbarrow attests. planted in straight lines, knot The exhibition is beautifully gardens in geometric patterns, and displayed and shows not only the fountains obediently shoot out changing styles in gardening but water at man’s behest. Above: Pleasure designers such as “Capability” also the hidden agendas relating to The 17th century saw the Garden with a Brown. The emphasis is on changing views of power, class and beginning of the age of plant Maze by classical elegance, with man’s place in the world. n Lodewijk Toeput collecting. We see a royal gardener created lakes, stands of l Painting Paradise: the (Pozzoserrato), presenting Charles II with the noble trees, ornamental Art of the Garden is on c1579-84; right: pineapple – a status symbol; Queen one of a pair of bridges, “classical” at the Queen’s Mary II’s delightful blue and white sundials by temples and Greek Gallery, Buckingham tulip vases (shaped like pagodas) Thomas Tompion statues. Palace until display rare – and expensive – tulips. The horticultural 11 October, £10/concs In the 18th century, formality age celebrates the arrival was superseded by a more natural of thousands of new plants, Elizabeth Hawksley
Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Trust/Her Collection Royal look, with landscaping by garden as shown in the plant designs on www.elizabethhawksley.com
22 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Greek beauty shows the human and the divine
such skill that the shadows become Left: discus works of art themselves. thrower; right: a The introduction is through four Aphrodite statues. Many Greek statues were crouching at her bath made of bronze but melted down in late Antiquity. Here could be a rare survivor – a bronze statue of an athlete wiping off oil and sawdust recovered from the sea bed off Croatia. The other three are the original Greek river god Ilissos and two Roman copies: a mathematically perfect discus thrower, and a nude Aphrodite who welcomes you but his wonderful exhibition is ultimately hostile. displays objects from the The themes include man TBritish Museum’s collection personified as divine. The vases with and some impressive loans. the labours of Herakles repay special Belvedere torso, used by Its emphasis is on the viewer’s attention. The rites of passage show Michaelangelo as inspiration for interaction with the objects and life from the cradle to the grave Adam on the Sistine chapel, with between the items through themes. and are followed by creatures of his only surviving drawing. This rather purist approach can the imagination. The behaviour of Do go and see. n mean that there is on occasion drunk satyrs shows that the Greeks l Defining Beauty – the Body in limited context or chronology. knew the darker side of the human Greek Art is on at the British However, this should not detract psyche and could illustrate it. They Museum until 5 July 2015 from a visually stunning exhibition. also began to demonstrate character.
The lighting of the statues is of The final room holds the Elizabeth Lawrance British Museum
Homes for the homeless – a timely reminder
hey loom out of the photo- Below: dinner at for work. Later on, huge hostels graph, solid ranks of bearded St Marylebone dominated poorer areas. men, some drinking tea, some Workhouse This exhibition scores in T c1900; right: working on their food, some smiling, showing the emotional landscapes coffin-like beds some just staring. They may look in a Salvation of those affected, from singsongs in like a convention of George Army shelter a communal kitchen of a lodging Charity could be driven by fears Bernard Shaw lookalikes but are St c1900 house and chats in shelters to the of disease and crime and was often Marylebone Workhouse inmates. evangelical preaching that was the harsh to prevent people becoming By 1800, London was growing so price of a meal and a night with the dependent or “idle”, or to save fast that the once-effective welfare Salvation Army – or the grim money. Yet there was also a real urge system set up under the 1599 Poor experience of boys in an orphanage to rescue people from their plight. Law was beginning to buckle. This as the punishment book – “12 cuts The permanent exhibition at the moving exhibition is about what on the hand with the cane” – shows. Geffrye shows the rise in general happened to the poor as a result. prosperity around the same time Using prints, photographs, through middle-class interiors. objects and “try-it-yourself” items This exhibition gives the shadow (such as a coffin-like bed), Homes to that bright light and reminds us of the Homeless follows the plight that we shouldn’t be complacent. n of London’s homeless from the l Homes of the Homeless: Seeking 1840s to 1900. Casual labour and Shelter in Victorian London is on at an irregular economy meant many the Geffrye Museum until Sunday could suddenly become destitute; 12 July, £5/£3 concs. slum clearance added to “vagrancy”. Charity and local authority shelters David Wilson took people in, usually in exchange www.davidgmwilson.com/ Heritage Centre Army Museum of the Home; Salvation Geffrye
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 23 What’s on Events, exhibitions, courses, walks and more. Contact details of organisers are in the directory on page 28 – events may change or need advance booking. Islington Archaeology & History Society events are listed on the inside back page
Thursday 18 June, 6pm Dave Annal Friday 26 June, 1.15pm Saturday 27 June, 2pm Waterloo: Causes, Courses Society of Genealogists, £8. The Greeks in Southern Olympia (prologue) and 300 and Consequences Book via www.sog.org.uk or Italy Films illustrating the idealised Professor Sir Richard Evans on 020 7553 3290 Carolyn Perry Greek body in fascist and Museum of London, Gresham British Museum, free, drop in military aesthetics. College event, free Wednesday 24 June British Museum, £3/£2 concs Stained Glass Friday 26 June, 1.30pm Thursday 18 June, 7.30pm Helene Davidian Waterloo: Four days that Tuesday 30 June, 1.15pm Archaeology of King’s Cross Friern Barnet & District Local Changed Europe Abstract Art: Ornaments Goods Yard History Society, £2 Tim Clayton and Aesthetics in Bronze Becky Haslam British Museum, free, booking Age Britain and Ireland Local Studies Library, 32-38 Thursday 25 June, 1.15pm essential British Museum, free, drop in Theobalds Road, WC1. Caring for the Collection: £1, Camden History Society Preventive Conservation Friday 26 June, 6.30-7.30pm Tuesday 30 June, 6pm Issues of Sutton Hoo Classicism and Nationalism: Sir Christopher Wren and Friday 19 June, 7pm Adrian Doyle the Greek body in the Rebuilding of the City Must Farm Excavations British Museum, free, Enlightenment Europe Churches after the Great Mark Knight drop in Discussion Fire of London St Olave’s Church Hall, Mark British Museum, £5 /£3 concs Anthony Geraghty Lane, EC3R. City of London Thursday 25 June, 1.30pm Gresham College, Barnard’s Archaeological Society, £2 Curator’s Introduction to Saturday 27 June, 1.30pm Inn Hall, free Indigenous Australia: The Medals of the Sun Wednesday 24 June, 2pm-3pm Enduring Civilisation King Thursday 2 July, 7.30pm Death & Taxes: Gaye Sculthorpe Mark Jones Boating Families in the Understanding the Death British Museum, free, booking British Museum, free, booking 1940s and 1950s Duty Registers essential essential Roger Wickson London Canal Museum, £4/concs George Orwell’s Islington Festival of Archaeology 2015 Sunday 19 July, 12pm-2pm; Friday 3 July, 9.30am-5pm Saturday 11 July-Sunday 26 July extra tour at 4.15pm if Crisis Through the Ages www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk l 01904 671 417 needed Conference on crises in For details, see Ongoing, Palestine from Paleolithic The Festival of Archaeology, Outdoor walks look at the page 26. times to the First World War. coordinated by the Council sociological and British Museum, free, booking for British Archaeology, architectural legacy of Sunday 19 July essential encourages everyone to damage to the local area over Ice Sunday at London explore the archaeology of the last century, including Canal Museum Friday 3 July, 6.30pm their local area, watch fragments of earlier An opportunity for adults Collecting Indigenous experts at work and structures. and older teenagers to tour Australian Art experience archaeology. underground ice wells. Panel discussion chaired by Organ recitals Rebecca Hossack Events at Union Chapel Wednesday 15 July, 11-12pm London events cover Roman British Museum, £5/concs Union Chapel is holding and 8-9pm activities, including fort events with the Islington Recitals on grade I listed tours, at the Museum of Saturday 4 July Archaeology and History Father Willis organ, the only London, digging at Tower Bank of England Open Door Society: see www. restored hydraulic powered Bridge foreshore, a charnel Tours of parts of the bank not unionchapel.org.uk/pages/ pipe organ in England. house at Spitalfields Egyptian usually open. No booking this_weeks_update.html Free, no need to book exploration, and mudlarking. required; early arrival advised. Bank of England Museum
24 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Saturday 4 July, 10.30am-5pm The Oxford scribe, bookseller and printer. Tracing Irish Ancestry Arms London Metropolitan Archives, Rosalind McCutcheon and Jill Coaching Inn, £10, booking essential Williams 1875: see Victorian Society of Genealogists, £35, Saturday 22 August, 10.30am- London in 1pm book via www.sog.org.uk or Photographs on 020 7553 3290 at the London Newspapers for Family Metropolitan History Saturday 4 July, 1.15-2.30pm Archives until Ian Waller Visit: Whitechapel Bell 8 October Society of Genealogists, £20, Foundry (page 27) and book via www.sog.org.uk or £16.50, Society of Genealogists, talk on 25 on 020 7553 3290 book via www.sog.org.uk or August on 020 7553 3290 Saturday 22 August, 2pm-5pm My Ancestor was an Tuesday 7 July.6pm Apprentice Replanning London after Stuart Raymond the Second World War £20, Society of Genealogists. Professor Peter Larkham Book via www.sog.org.uk or Gresham College, Barnard’s on 020 7553 3290 Inn Hall, free Indigenous Australia: Talk on Donald McGill. Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 Thursday 9 July, 6pm Enduring Civilisation Lewisham Local History August The History of Street Gaye Sculthorpe Society, £1 Mixed Traction Weekend Performance: ‘Music by British Museum, free, booking Epping Ongar Railway, 01277 Handle’ and the Silencing essential Saturday 1 August, 2-5pm 365 200, http://eorailway.co.uk of Street Musicians in the Shell Shock in Britain and Metropolis Thursday 16 July 2015, 7.30pm Army Deserters during the Tuesday 25 August, 2-3 pm Dr Paul Simpson History of St Michael’s First World War Victorian Photographs: Gresham College, Barnard’s Church, Highgate Simon Fowler and Suzanne London Life Inn Hall, free Roger Sainsbury Grogan Talk at the London Burgh House, NW3. Society of Genealogists, £20, Metropolitan Archives. Thursday 9 July-Friday 10 July Camden History Society, £1 book via www.sog.org.uk or Free, booking essential Abydos: the Sacred Land at on 020 7553 3290 The Western Horizon Saturday 18 July, 10.30am-1pm 28 August 2015, 1pm Egyptological colloquium on Tracing Your Huguenot Monday 3 August, 11am-1pm Scaling down Reality Abydos, the burial ground of Ancestors In Search of Rosebery Simon Owen the first kings. Kathy Chater and Michael Avenue How Airfix creates replicas of British Museum, various Gandy Walk taking in Sadlers Wells, Battle of Britain aircraft. RAF events and prices, £20, Society of Genealogists, New River Head, Finsbury Museum, free, booking book via www.sog.org.uk or Town Hall and Clerkenwell essential Saturday 11 July on 020 7553 3290 Fire Station. Bank of England Open London Metropolitan Archives, Friday 29-Sunday 31 August Door Thursday 23 July, 6-6.30 pm £10, booking essential 150th Anniversary See listing for 4 July Victorian London in Celebration and Victorian Photographs: Exhibition Wednesday 5 August, 6pm Bank Holiday Weekend Wednesday 15 July, 7pm Talk and tour with the curator Enderby Wharf and the Epping Ongar Railway, 01277 Rebel Footprints: a Guide London Metropolitan Atlantic Telegraph 365 200, http://eorailway.co.uk to Uncovering London’s Archives, free, drop in Richard Buchanan Radical History Museum of London Wednesday 2 September David Rosenberg Saturday 25 July, 10.30pm-5pm Docklands. Docklands Visit: Sail Loft Protest and struggle in London My Ancestor Came from History Group, £2, Visit to sail loft of Mike Putt from the early 19th to the London sailmaker at Becontree. mid-20th century. Housmans Intensive course Saturday 15-Sunday 16 August Docklands History Group Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, £35, Society of Genealogists, Vintage Vehicle Rally N1 9DX, £3 (redeemable book via www.sog.org.uk or Epping Ongar Railway, 01277 Thursday 3 September, 7.30pm against any purchase), www. on 020 7553 3290 365 200, http://eorailway.co.uk Conserving our Waterway housmans.com/events.php Heritage Friday 31 July. 7.45pm Wednesday 19 August, 11am Nigel Crowe Thursday 16 July, 1.30pm Seaside Sauce Discover Medieval London £4/concs, London Canal
Curator’s Introduction to Alan Payne Walk covering the roles of the Museum Archives London Metropolitan
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 25 Ongoing Film Club Roman Fort Gate tours Exhibitions Monthly screenings of archive Friday 19 June, 17 July, 21 Contact the organisations for film and discussion. August, 2pm and 3pm Saturday 13 June-Sunday visiting times and prices Tour the remains of the 31 January 2016 Marx Memorial Library western gate of London’s Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Guided Tours of Union tours Roman military fort below the Historic shoes, including a Chapel Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1pm, streets. sandal decorated in gold leaf 12.15pm, first Sunday of the Visitors can see a collection Museum of London, £5 from ancient Egypt, and month showing radical and working elaborate modern designs are A chance to appreciate the class history. This includes Gold used to consider the cultural beauty, complex architecture where Lenin worked in exile Exhibition significance of shoes. and extent of Union Chapel’s in 1902-03, items from the Display on the history of gold, Victoria & Albert Museum, complex of buildings, Spanish Civil War, Soviet from Roman times to the £12/concs including areas rarely open to Union posters, a banner present day, as well as its the public, a secret passage embroidered by William scientific properties. Until Sunday 21 June 2015 and a hidden garden. Group Morris’s family and artefacts Free, Bank of England Museum Forensics: the Anatomy of bookings also available. from industrial disputes, such Crime £5, donation, book in advance as the mineworkers’ and Flora and Fauna This exploration of the history, on 020 7359 4019 Wapping strikes of the 1980s. Temporary exhibition on the science and art of forensic The buildings 15th century “Bank of England menagerie” medicine draws out the stories George Orwell’s Islington vaults can be visited. through the ages, including of victims, suspects and Various dates and times Book on [email protected] or elaborate floral banknote investigators of violent crimes. George Orwell was at his most call 02072531485. £5/£3 concs designs and sculpted lions. Wellcome Collection, free prolific during his time in Free, Bank of England Museum Islington. While he was living at Tunnel boat trips Until Sunday 5 July 27b Canonbury Square, Animal Sunday 28 June, 12 and 26 Behind the Scenes at the Defining Beauty – the Body Farm was published and he July, 9 and 23 August, 13 and Museum Depot in Ancient Greek Art worked on drafts of Nineteen 27 September, 11 October, Last Friday and Saturday of For centuries, the ancient Eighty-Four, published essays various times every month Greeks represented the human and articles, and broadcast Fifty-minute guided tour Tours of London Transport body as an object of beauty extensively. Contact Andrew through London’s longest Museum’s depot. This holds and a bearer of meaning. Gardner on walks@islington canal tunnel. over 370,000 items, including British Museum, £16.50/concs history.org.uk or 020 7359 4019 London Canal Museum, £8.40/ vehicles, railway and bus l Review, page 23 concessions, booking required sheds, signs, ceramic tiles, London Metropolitan ticket machines and ephemera. Until Sunday 12 July Archives: regular events Towpath Walks £12/concs, book: 020 7565 Homes of the Homeless: mainly free Various dates 7298/www.ltmuseum.co.uk Seeking Shelter in Victorian Contact the LMA for Walks along the towpath of London information, dates and times. the Regent’s Canal, from the Markfield Beam Engine and Tens of thousands of Victorian London Canal Museum to Museum Open Days Londoners lived in lodgings, Use LMA: Getting Started Camden. Guides point out Open 11am-5pm, second workhouses or shelters, or Find out how to get the best evidence of a past age. Sunday of each month, plus slept rough. Where they lived out of LMA research facilities. Suitable for anyone, including bank holidays is explored through paintings, wheelchair users. The walk Victorian engine in Markfield photographs, objects, personal Behind the Scenes Tour covers who about a mile and a Park, N15. Free, www.mbeam. stories and reports. Tour the archives and meet half (2km) in 90 minutes. org, 01707 873628 Geffrye Museum, £5/concs LMA professionals. London Canal Museum, l Review, page 23 various prices, booking Historic Almshouse Tour Handling Documents at LMA required Visit the Geffrye Museum’s Until 19 July 2015 Practical sessions on handling 18th-century almshouse to get All of this Belongs to You archival items and using the British Museum: Around a glimpse into the lives of This considers the museum as archive study area. the World in 90 Minutes London’s poor and elderly in a public area, with displays Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, the 18th and 19th centuries. examining public space, civic LGBTQ History Club 11.30am and 2pm [email protected], objects and the conflicts A monthly meeting to explore Guided tour looking at the 020 7739 9893 around privacy and sharing and share lesbian, gay, trans, Rosetta Stone, the Lewis online. Items include The bi and queer histories. Chessmen and the Parthenon Clerkenwell and Islington Guardian’s hard drives that Sculptures, as well as lesser- Guides Association: walks were smashed on government Focus on Family History at LMA known objects. Guided walks led by the orders to destroy documents Workshop for beginners on British Museum £12, booking mayor of Islington’s guides. leaked by Edward Snowden. digitised family history sources. required www.ciga.org.uk Victoria & Albert Museum, free
26 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Until Sunday 2 August Until Saturday 29 August Alexander McQueen: Dream to Change the World Savage Beauty The multicultural history of Major retrospective, presented Trinidad and its diaspora is with the dramatic staging of used to tell the story of John La McQueen’s runway shows. He Rose, a workers’ rights activist was inspired by the 19th who founded New Beacon century, especially Victorian Books and the Caribbean Gothic, and the idea of the Artists Movement in Britain. noble savage living in harmony Islington Museum, free with the natural world. Victoria & Albert, £16/concs Until Sunday 6 September Small Stories: at Home in a Until Sunday 2 August Dolls’ House Indigenous Australia: The history of architecture, Enduring Civilisation The Plumb-Pudding in Danger by James Gillray. Napoleon home life and society are told This history of indigenous Bonaparte and William Pitt carve up a pudding-shaped world. Pitt through dolls’ houses. Australia, shown through confidently aims for the seas and the West Indies while Napoleon V&A Museum of Childhood, objects, celebrates the cultural Bonaparte fixes excitedly on Europe. SeeBonaparte and the British: free Prints and Propaganda in the Age of Napoleon, British Museum strength of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. Until Sunday 20 September British Museum, £10/concs Friday 7 August-Sunday 1 Until Sunday 16 August The Institute of Sexology November Bonaparte and the British: Sex has been observed and Until Friday 4 September Animal Tales Prints and Propaganda in analysed from the late 19th Those Who Served: From Aesop’s fables to Ted the Age of Napoleon century, and attitudes have Remembering First World Hughes’s Crow, stories about Napoleon Bonaparte’s career changed. Items include War Nurses animals are often about us. coincided with the peak of artworks, archival material, A display on the lives and This exhibition looks at the political satire at the turn of the erotica, film and photography. experiences of nurses who died role of animals in literature for 19th century. This exhibition Wellcome Collection, free during the First World War. adults and children. shows how printed propaganda RCN Library and Heritage British Library, www.bl.uk/ reviled or glorified him. Until Sunday 27 September Centre, free events/animal-tales British Museum, free What is Luxury? This looks at objects defined as luxurious because of their Magna Carta 800th anniversary events design and craftsmanship and considers issues such as privacy and resources, which Until 1 September Until 1 October could determine future ideas Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, 1297 Magna Carta of luxury. Legacy The City’s 1297 Magna Carta Victoria & Albert Museum, free This explores Magna Carta is on display at the City of and its legacy, and challenges London Heritage Gallery, Until Thursday 8 October the myths around it. On Guildhall Art Gallery. Free Victorian London in display are two 1215 Magna Photographs Carta manuscripts, the draft Until 20 September Exhibition including the first of Magna Carta, the Petition Walks: Magna Carta and known photograph of London, of Right (1628), the English the City Blackwall Tunnel opening, the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Free daily walks following Crystal Palace, the first tube Universal Declaration of the story of “bad” King John line and general street life. Human Rights (1948), as in the City. Meet Magna Carta in the digital London Metropolitan well as government papers at 11am, underground age by reproducing the Archives, free proposing to give an original ticket hall, Blackfriars Wikipedia article on the 1215 Magna Carta to the US Station charter as it was on its 799th Until Sunday 11 October for support in the Second anniversary in 2014. The Painting Paradise: the Art of World War. Also on show are Until Friday 24 July embroidery was stitched by the Garden King John’s teeth and thumb Magna Carta (nn more than 200 people, Paintings, drawings, books bone, clothing fragments Embroidery) including civil rights and manuscripts show how from his tomb, and his will. This 13-metre embroidery, campaigners, prisoners, gardens changed from the British Library, £12/concs designed by Cornelia Parker, lawyers artists and barons. 16th to the early 20th century. l Review, page 22 responds to the identity of Free, British Library The Queen’s Gallery, £10/concs l Review, page 22 British Museum Gillray: Magna Carta: British Library;
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 27 British Postal Museum and Courtauld Gallery Directory Archive Somerset House, WC2R 0RN, Freeling House, Phoenix 020 7848 2526, galleryinfo@ Place, WC1X 0DL; store at courtauld.ac.uk History, civic, amenity and archaeology Debden, Essex, 020 7239 2570, societies, museums and online resources [email protected] Cross Bones Graveyard www.crossbones.org.uk British Vintage Wireless Society Crossness Pumping Station Check opening times before Bank of England Museum [email protected] 020 8311 3711, www. visiting. If you would like your Threadneedle St, EC2R 8AH, crossness.org.uk organisation listed here or to 020 7601 5545, www.bankof Brixton Windmill update details, email editor england.co.uk/museum 020 7926 6056, www. Docklands History Group Christy Lawrance on christy@ brixtonwindmill.org/ info@docklandshistory group. islingtonhistory.org.uk or c/o Barnet Museum and Local org.uk 6 Northview, Tufnell Park History Society Bruce Castle Museum Road, N7 0QB www.barnetmuseum.co.uk Lordship Lane, N17 8NU, 020 Dictionary of Victorian 8808 8772, museum.services@ London/Cat’s Meat Shop Alexandra Palace TV Group BBC archive haringey.gov.uk Encyclopaedia and blog, www. Runs museum. Tony Wilding, www.bbc.co.uk/archive victorianlondon.org 71 Dale View Avenue, E4 6PJ, Burgh House and 020 8524 0827 Benjamin Franklin House Hampstead Museum East London History Society Craven Street, WC2N 5NF, New End Sq, NW3, 020 7431 42 Campbell Rd, E3 4DT, mail Alexandra Palace TV Society 020 7925 1405, info@ 0144, www.burghhouse.org.uk @eastlondonhistory.org.uk Archives: 35 Breedon Hill BenjaminFranklinHouse.org Road, Derby, DE23 6TH, Camden History Society Enfield Archaeological 01332 729 358, [email protected]. Bethlem Royal Hospital 020 7586 4436, www. Society uk, www.youtube.com/ Archives and Museum camdenhistorysociety.org www.enfarchsoc.org aptsarchive Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, 020 3228 4227, Camden New Town History Estorick Collection of All Hallows by the Tower www.bethlemheritage.org.uk Group Modern Italian Art Crypt Museum www.camdennewtown.info 39a Canonbury Square, N1 020 7481 2928, www.ahbtt.org. Bexley Archaeological Group 2AN, 020 7704 9522, info@ uk/visiting/crypt-museum/ www.bag.org.uk, Martin Camden Railway Heritage www.estorickcollection.com Baker: 020 8300 1752 Trust Amateur Geological Society 21 Oppidans Road, NW3, Alexander Fleming 25 Village Road, N3 1TL Bishopsgate Institute Library [email protected] Laboratory Museum and Archive St Mary’s Hospital, W2, 020 3312 Amwell Society 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M, 020 Canonbury Society 6528, www.imperial.nhs.uk/ 8 Cumberland Gardens, 7392 9270, www.bishopsgate. www.canonburysociety.org. aboutus/museumsandarchives WC1X 9AG, 020 7837 0988, org.uk uk, 1 Alwyne Place, N1 [email protected] Foundling Museum Bomb Sight Chartered Institution of 40 Brunswick Square, WC1, Ancestor Search Online map of WW2 bombs Building Services Engineers 020 7841 3600, www. Guidance on where to look. in London 1940-41, Heritage Group foundlingmuseum.org.uk www.ancestor-search.info www.bombsight.org www.hevac-heritage.org/ Freud Museum The Angel Association British Airways Heritage Cinema Museum 20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3, www.angelassociation.org.uk www.britishairways.com/ www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/ 020 7435 2002, info@www. travel/museum-collection/ freud.org.uk Archives Hub public/en_gb City of London http://archiveshub.ac.uk/ Archaeological Society Friends of Hackney Archives British Library [email protected] Hackney Archives, Dalston Arsenal FC Museum 96 Euston Road, NW1, 0330 Sq, E8 3BQ, 020 8356 8925, 020 7619 5000, www.arsenal. 333 1144, customer-Services@ Clerkenwell and Islington [email protected] com bl.uk Guides Association 07971 296731, [email protected] Friern Barnet & District Association for the Study British Museum Local History Society and Preservation of Roman Great Russell Street, WC1, 020 Clockmakers’ Museum www.friernbarnethistory.org. Mosaics 7323 8299, information@ www.clockmakers.org/ uk. Photo archive: www. www.asprom.org britishmuseum.org museum-and-library friern-barnet.com
28 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Hornsey Historical Society Dr Johnson’s House The Old Schoolhouse, 136 17 Gough Square, EC4, www. Tottenham Lane, N8 7EL, drjohnsonshouse.org hornseyhistorical.org.uk Keats House Hunterian Museum 020 7332 3868, keatshouse@ RCS, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn cityoflondon.gov.uk Fields, WC2, www.rcseng. ac.uk/museums Lewisham Local History Society IanVisits www.lewishamhistory.org.uk Blog with history and other events. www.ianvisits.co.uk Locating London’s Past www.locatinglondon.org Imperial War Museum Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ, London Archaeological www.iwm.org.uk Archive and Research Centre Online Catalogue The cinema museum has collections of films, advertisements, Islington and Camden Lists over 7,500 sites, http:// uniforms, publications, equipment, and cinema fittings and plans Cemetery archive.museumoflondon.org. High Road, East Finchley, N2 uk/laarc/catalogue/ Friends of the New River Hackney Museum 9AG, 020 7527 8804, www. Head 1 Reading Lane, E8 1GQ, www. islington.gov.uk/ London Canal Museum c/o Amwell Society hackney.gov.uk/cm-museum.htm Environment/cemeteries 12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 9RT, 020 7713 0836, www. Friends of Friendless The Hackney Society Islingtonfacesblog.com canalmuseum.org.uk Churches Round Chapel, 1d Glenarm Living history interviews. www.friendsoffriendless Road, E5 0LY, 020 7175 1967, http://islingtonfacesblog.com London Fire Brigade Museum churches.org.uk [email protected] 020 8555 1200, www.london- Islington Local History fire.gov.uk/london-fire- Garden History Society Hendon and District Centre brigade-museum.asp 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 7608 Archaeology Society Finsbury Library, 245 St John 2409, gardenhistorysociety.org 020 8449 7076, hadas.org.uk St, EC1V 4NB. 9.30am-8pm London Lives 1690-1800 Mon and Thurs (shuts 6pm www.londonlives.org Geffrye Museum Heritage of London Trust every other Monday); 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA, 020 7730 9472, www. 9.30am-5pm Tues, Fri and Sat; London Metropolitan 020 7739 9893, www.geffrye- heritageoflondon.com closed Weds and Sun; closed Archives museum.org.uk 1pm-2pm; 020 7527 7988; 40 Northampton Rd, EC1 Historic Hospital Admission [email protected], 0HB, 020 7332 3820, ask. Georgian Group Records Project www.islington.gov.uk/heritage [email protected], 6 Fitzroy Square, W1T 5DX, www.hharp.org/ www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/ [email protected] Islington Museum lma Highgate Literary and 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB, Grant Museum of Zoology Scientific Institution Archives 10am-5pm, closed Weds and London & Middlesex 020 3108 2052, www.ucl.ac. [email protected] Sun, 020 7527 2837, islington. Archaeological Society uk/museums/zoology [email protected], 020 7814 5734, www.lamas. Historical Association, www.islington.gov.uk/museum org.uk Gresham College Central London Branch Free lectures on different 020 7323 1192, www.history. Islington’s Lost Cinemas London Museums of Health topics, www.gresham.ac.uk org.uk, [email protected] www.islingtonslostcinemas.com and Medicine www.medicalmuseums.org Greater London Industrial Historic Towns Forum Islington Society Archaeology Society (GLIAS) www.historictowns forum.org 3P Leroy, 436 Essex Road London Museum of Water 14 Mount Rd, EN4 9RL, 020 London N1 3QP & Steam 8692 8512, www.glias.org.uk History of Harringay [email protected] 020 8568 4757, www. www.harringayonline.com/ waterandsteam.org.uk Guildhall Library group/historyofharringay Jewish Museum Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH, www.jewishmuseum.org.uk London Socialist Historians 020 7332 1868, textphone 020 Horniman Museum Group 7332 3803, guildhall.library@ 100 London Rd, SE23, 020 8699 Joe Meek Society http://londonsocialist cityoflondon.gov.uk 1872, www.horniman.ac.uk www.joemeeksociety.org historians.blogspot.com
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 29 London Vintage Taxi Musical Museum Rowan Arts Project Theatres Trust Association 399 High Street, TW8 0DU, 020 7700 2062, www. 22 Charing Cross Road, www.lvta.co.uk www.musicalmuseum.co.uk therowanartsproject.com WC2H 0QL, 020 7836 8591, www.theatrestrust.org.uk London Transport Museum National Archives Royal Air Force Museum 020 7379 6344, www. 020 8876 3444, www. 020 8205 2266, www. Transport Trust ltmuseum.co.uk nationalarchives.gov.uk rafmuseum.org.uk/london Lambeth Rd, SE1, 020 7928 6464, www.transporttrust.com London Underground National Churches Trust Royal Institute of British Railway Society www.nationalchurchestrust.org Architects (RIBA) Twentieth Century Society [email protected] 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD, 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 National Piers Society www.architecture.com 7250 3857, www.c20society. London Westminster & www.piers.org.uk org.uk Middlesex Family History Science Museum Society Newcomen Society for the Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD. Union Chapel and Friends www.lwmfhs.org.uk History of Engineering and www.sciencemuseum.org.uk of the Union Chapel Technology Compton Avenue, N1 2XD, Markfield Beam Engine and 020 7371 4445, office@ Sir John Soane’s Museum www.unionchapel.org.uk/ Museum newcomen.com 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A pages/friends.html Markfield Park, N15, 01707 3BP, www.soane.org 873628, [email protected] Newington Green Action Victoria & Albert Museum Group Smithfield Trust Cromwell Rd, SW7, 020 7907 Mausolea & Monuments 020 7359 6027, www. 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 7566 7073, www.vam.ac.uk Trust newingtongreen.org.uk 0041, [email protected] www.mmtrust.org.uk V&A Museum of Childhood New River Action Group Society of Genealogists Cambridge Heath Road, E2 Marx Memorial Library [email protected], 020 7251 8799, www.sog.org.uk 9PA, 020 8983 5200, www. 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1 020 8292 5987 museumofchildhood.org.uk 0DU, 020 7253 1485, info@ Society for the Protection marx-memorial-library.org North London Railway of Ancient Buildings Victorian Society Historical Society 37 Spital Sq, E1 6DY, 020 7377 020 8994 1019, www. Museum of Brands Keen House, 4 Calshot St, 020 1644, www.spab.org.uk victoriansociety.org.uk 020 7908 0880, info@ 7837 2542, www.nlrhs.org.uk museumofbrands.com Southwark and Lambeth Wallace Collection Northview – 1930s estate Archaeology Society Hertford House, Manchester Museum of Domestic Design www.northview.org.uk 79 Ashridge Cres, SE18 3EA Sq, W1, 020 7563 9500, www. & Architecture (MoDA) wallacecollection.org 020 8411 4394, www.moda. Pauper Lives in Georgian Stuart Low Trust mdx.ac.uk/home London and Manchester www.slt.org.uk Wallpaper History Society http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ wallpaperhistorysociety.org.uk Museum of London pauperlives Rotherhithe & Bermondsey 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, Local History Society Walthamstow Historical 020 7814 5511, info@ Peckham Society [email protected] Society museumoflondon.org.uk www.peckhamsociety.org.uk www.walthamstow Royal Archaeological Institute historicalsociety.org.uk/ Museum of London Petrie Museum of Egyptian [email protected] Archaeology Archaeology Wellcome Collection Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 UCL, Malet Place, WC1, www. Royal College of Nursing www.wellcomecollection.org Eagle Wharf Road, N1, 020 ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie Library and Heritage Centre 7410 2200, www.museum 20 Cavendish Sq, W1, 0345 337 John Wesley’s House and oflondon archaeology.org.uk Proceedings of the Old Bailey 3368, [email protected] Museum of Methodism www.oldbaileyonline.org 49 City Rd, EC1, www.wesleys Museum of London Docklands Thames Discovery chapel.org.uk/museum.htm 020 7001 9844, www.museum Rescue/British Programme oflondon.org.uk/docklands Archaeological Trust Mortimer Wheeler Hse, 46 William Morris Gallery www.rescue-archaeology. Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, 020 7410 Forest Road, E17, 020 8496 Museum of the Order of org.uk 2207, thamesdiscovery.org 4390, www.wmgallery.org.uk St John St John’s Gate, EC1M 4DA, Ragged School Museum Theatres Trust Wilmington Square Society 020 7324 4005, www. 020 8980 6405, www.ragged 020 7836 8591, www. www.thewilmington museumstjohn.org.uk schoolmuseum.org.uk theatrestrust.org.uk squaresociety.org
30 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Islington Archaeology & History Society Events
Wednesday 17 June, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall. Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall.
Played in Recreating a Islington: a 19th century sporting history house in Canonbury Simon Inglis, sports Square historian and author
Islington is a well-established part of London’s sporting heritage, Gary Butler, Butler with archery at Angel, swimming in Peerless Pool in Hegarty Architects Clerkenwell and, of course, Arsenal Football Club. Forty-seven Canonbury Square Simon Inglis is a historian, broadcaster, was once partly demolished and writer and editor of the Played in Britain severely neglected. Gary Butler series on sporting heritage (review, page 22). will describe the rescue, restoration and recreation of the This event will be preceded by the house, including rebuilding the AGM at 7pm flank wall (left).
Wednesday 21 October, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall. Summer fairs and festivals Come and visit our stall at local fairs and stock up on some Darker stories from history local history books over the summer. We’ll be attending several events, including the Angel Canal Festival on Sunday 6 September 2015, 11am-5pm. Details will be on our website. Jessica O’Neill, University College London
PhD researcher Jessica O’Neill will be discussing aspects of London’s murkier past, including Jack the Ripper.
Wednesday 18 November, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall.
Rejecting war
Bruce Kent Society makes 40 years The Islington Archaeology & History Society is 40 years old this Bruce Kent, former chair and general year. We’ll be celebrating with a party in Union Chapel’s Upper secretary of CND, will be talking about Hall on Wednesday 16 December from 7pm. Details in our people who have had the courage to next issue. say “no” to war, including Professor Joseph Rotblat, Sylvia Pankhust, Franz Jagerstatter and many more, who he says are “all an Keep up to date with news and events at our Facebook inspiration and encouragement for us today who work for a page, which now has over 200 members. more peaceful and just world”. l www.facebook.com/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 Bruce Kent: Garry Knight; 47 Canonbury Square: Butler Hegarty; Arsenal stadium: Played in Britain; candles: Ed g2s Arsenal stadium: Played Garry Knight; 47 Canonbury Square: Butler Hegarty; Bruce Kent:
Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 31 The Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Back page picture Is this 19th century school photograph familiar – did any of your ancestors attend Hanover Street School? See Letters, page 6