sign in sign up
<<
Home , Architecture of London, Cross Bones

Journal of the Archaeology & History Society

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Vol 5 No 4 Winter 2015-16 incorporating Islington History Journal

Restored and reoccupied The former Milford Haven pub comes off the Heritage at Risk Register

Angel terrace saved in Crossrail U-turn l New River Head flat rejected l Obituary: Kathleen Frenchman l Mary Tealby, Battersea Dogs Home founder l Bruce Kent looks back l The world’s first model railway club l How to build a Georgian house l The medieval Jewish cemetery l Books plus special offers l Events and exhibitions l Your local history questions About the society

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

and contacts he Islington journal: stories and President Archaeology & History pictures sought Rt Hon Lord Smith of TSociety is here to Finsbury investigate, learn and celebrate We welcome articles on local Vice president: the heritage that is left to us. history, as well as your Mary Cosh We organise lectures, walks research, memories and old Chairman and other events, and photographs. Andrew Gardner, andy@ publish this quarterly A one-page article needs islingtonhistory.org.uk journal. We hold 10 about 500 words, and the Membership, publications meetings a year, usually at maximum article length is and events Islington Town Hall. 1,000 words. We like receiving Catherine Brighty, 8 Wynyatt The society was set up in pictures to go with articles, Street, EC1V 7HU, 020 7833 1975 and is run entirely by but please check that we can 1541, catherine.brighteyes@ volunteers. If you’d like to reproduce them without hotmail.co.uk get involved, please contact infringing anyone’s copyright. Treasurer our chairman Andrew The journal is published in Philip Anderson, phlpandrsn6 Gardner (details left). www.facebook.com/ print and online in pdf form. @btopenworld.com 8 www.islingtonhistory.org.uk groups/islingtonhistory.org.uk Deadline for the spring Academic adviser issue is 1 February. Lester Hillman, former visiting professor, Journal back issues and extra copies Ever wondered…? Metropolitan Business School, Do you have any queries about London Metropolitan Journal distribution is Islington’s history, streets or University overseen by Catherine buildings? Send them in for Journal editor Brighty (details left). our tireless researcher Michael Christy Lawrance Contact her for more Reading and other readers to Committee members copies, back issues, if you answer. Please note we do not Michael Harper move house and about keep an archive or carry out Alexis Magness membership. Back issues family research. Derek Seeley can also be downloaded l See Letters, page 6 Samir Singh via our website at www. Zena Sullivan 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 Editor: Christy Lawrance at Name(s) ...... [email protected]. uk, c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Address ...... Park Road, N7 0QB

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

Cover: Christy Lawrance Cover: N7 8DH, www.printset.co.uk

2 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society

Incorporating Islington History Journal 

Vol 5 No 4 Winter 2015-16

Local pressure led to the right decision

e were delighted to hear that a row of historic buildings at WAngel were no longer going to Contents be knocked down for Crossrail 2 works (news, page 4). Given there was a large, much-disliked News 4 building across the road, it was somewhat Angel terrace saved in Crossrail U-turn, united over a rescued shop, New River surprising that had Head flat rejected on heritage grounds, and our Facebook group grows and grows earmarked a terrace containing listed buildings for demolition. Perhaps they Your letters and questions 6 just looked at a map and planned what Head teacher of vanished school, several long-lost buildings and Girdlestone suited their underground plans best Estate’s architect. Plus Joseph Thomas Burgess: soldier and boxer 8 without even considering what was above. After some vociferous campaigning by Obituary: Kathleen Frenchman  9 local people, the council, amenity bodies A local historian who loved language and business groups, TfL changed its mind. As a councillor said when voting against A dog’s best friend  10 the redevelopment of Norton Folgate, Mary Tealby set up Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs in Holloway, “Heritage belongs to the people.” the forerunner of Battersea Dogs Home

An unusual new use From army man to peace campaigner 11 In Islington since last year, a pub has Veteran peace activist Bruce Kent talked to the society been taken off the Heritage at Risk register, and a house and a set of railings Model history 12 and gate added (cover image and news, The story of the world’s first model railway club and a socially progressive hobby page 5). In England, 327 assets have been added to the register and 604 removed. The medieval Jewish cemetery at Cripplegate 14 Often, the best way to save a heritage Near Clerkenwell was once the only cemetery in England where Jewish burials asset is to find a modern, viable use for it. were permitted However, this is easier said than done with some structures – such as the biggest How to build a Georgian house 16 19th century gasholder in King’s Cross. How a house in Square was rebuilt to match its original predecessor So, next time you’re in King’s Cross, seek out Gasholder Park, and welcome Publications  18 back the iron frame of gasholder no 8, A glimpse of lost London through bomb damage maps, life during the First World after its refurbishment in Yorkshire, War, a Camden compendium, four Crouch End walks and special offers which has been reassembled for its new life as a circular park. Reviews 22 West African history, glorious Indian jewellery, faith in Egypt and Japanese design Happy birthday to us In December, we’re holding a party to Events and exhibitions  24 mark the society’s 40th birthday (inside Days and evenings out back page). See you then. Directory of societies, museums and resources 28 Christy Lawrance Editor Islington Archaeology & History Society events 31

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 3 news In brief Angel terrace saved in Crossrail U-turn

Kathleen Frenchman Plans to demolish a terrace at The RBS has been described attended and made their Kathleen Frenchman, a Angel, which contains a as one of Islington’s ugliest opposition very clear. long-serving member of the historic former cinema and buildings. TfL and Network Rail are society’s committee, died on the Co-op Bank, for TfL has published coming to the end of a series 16 September. IAHS chairman Crossrail 2 building works consultation documents on  of public drop-in sessions to Andy Gardner said: “Kathleen have been abandoned. its new proposals. It is outline plans and answer was a tremendous supporter The Royal Bank of Scotland planned that the railway will questions. The events held in of IAHS, the Islington Society building will now be knocked open by 2030. Islington are over, but one will and the Friends of Islington down and the site used for the Early in 2015, councillor take place in Haringey at Libraries, along with many Crossrail station entrance. Martin Klute told a joint Alexandra Station, N22 other organisations. She was The U-turn follows a hostile meeting of the IAHS and the 7ST, 12pm-8pm on Thursday very supportive of my work, response by local businesses Islington Society that it was 17 December and two will be including behind the scenes.” and residents to Transport for important to respond to plans held near Seven Sisters tube l See obituary, page 9. London’s original plans. at an early stage, as it would station, on the corner of High Two other sites are also be far more difficult to Road and Broad Lane, N15 End for Festival of earmarked for demolition. challenge them later on. 4AJ, on Wednesday 16 and Britain architect’s school These are the public carriage He also demanded that Friday 18 December. office in Penton Street and members of the public were The consultation will close The former Ashmount School, part of White Lion Street; allowed to attend a meeting on Friday 8 January 2016. To designed by HT Cadbury- Chapel Market should be between council and TfL comment on proposals, visit Brown in 1953, two years after unaffected. officials. Some 200 residents www.crossrail2.co.uk. he had been a chief architect of the , faces A 1914 charabanc has been demolition. In October, acquired by the London Islington Council’s planning Transport Museum. committee approved plans to As well as the LNWR replace it with a new building Torpedo charabanc, handed for Park free school. over in September, the museum is to buy a 1924 LB5 Market evacuated after Chocolate Express double- decker bus in 2016 and the WWII bomb found oldest surviving British-built motor bus, the 1908 X-type Market was London Central double-decker, evacuated after an unexploded in 2017. All three Leyland Second World War bomb was buses are supplied by vehicle discovered on a building site in restorer Mike Sutcliffe. early November. The shell was found at the Fruit and Wool Exchange site by construction Facebook group grows and grows tidbits you dig up!” workers and taken away by As well as locals, former bomb disposal experts. Islingtonians and people Well over 250 people have whose ancestors lived in the Threat to Norton joined the IAHS Facebook borough take part in the group. Folgate reappears group since it was launched IAHS chairman Andy alongside the new website just Gardner said: “Thanks to all London mayor over two years ago. who’ve been with us from the has ordered a public hearing In comparison, our previous start and those who’ve joined after plans to redevelop website gained 50 followers along the way. Norton Folgate were turned over eight years. “Rather than being a simple down by Tower Hamlets Back copies of the journal news digest, over time it has Council, saying that “strategic were also put online – so many the Facebook group. become more conversational, office developments” were were downloaded that we had Comments posted include: which adds a good flavour. needed “to support London’s to move them to another server. “This group has helped with “With the size of the group, globally competitive business Thanks to all of you who my family research there will always be room for culture.” British Land has have joined discussions, asked enormously”, “Always great varied shades of opinion, from submitted revised plans for and answered questions, and info” and “Congratulations, I people here and on the far side

London Transport Museum Transport London development of part of the site. posted stories and pictures in love reading all the historical of the world.”

4 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Two added and one removed from at risk list United over a rescued slice of history A grade II listed former pub in Caledonian Road has been The owner of a historic removed from Historic butcher’s shop has met the England’s Heritage at Risk conservation officer who Register. The upper floors of saved it – thanks to the IAHS, the former Milford Haven at writes Christy Lawrance. 214 Caledonian Road, N1, a Richard Travers, the owner mid-19th public house, are of the W Plumb shop at now flats. Added to the at risk 493 Hornsey Road, had register are: the railings and written an article for the gates to Islington Tennis autumn journal – he was Centre and King George’s going to open his shop for Field in Market Road, N7, London Open House. which are listed grade II; and The article described  40 Rosebery Avenue, EC1, a how in 1996 an Islington grade II listed conservation officer had raced next to Clerkenwell fire by bicycle to the shop to slap a station, built around 1820-30. temporary preservation order The Heritage at Risk Register on it just minutes before the is published annually; a third cashier’s booth was due to be of all sites that were at risk  dismantled and shipped to in 2010 are no longer on Chicago. the list. I thought the cycling conservation officer sounded Islington in top 2% in like Alec Forshaw, so emailed index of heritage him. He said it was, so I put the two men in touch and they Islington is in the top 2% for met at the shop during historic built environment London Open House weekend. and museums/archives/ The Islington Tribune had artefacts in England, already arranged to reproduce according to the Heritage the journal article; I contacted Index, published by the RSA. the paper to say the men had Analysis shows that high been put in touch, and it ran levels of heritage activity are the updated story. positively correlated with high Mr Forshaw told the wellbeing in residents. You Tribune: “The building is not Not for the chop: Alec Forshaw and Richard Travers by the ornate can search the Heritage Index in a conservation area. It was cashier’s booth when the shop was open for London Open House maps for the England, a rather forgotten part of Scotland and at http:// Islington, so it was worth More than 600 visitors Open House event. bit.ly/1Cw8T8I. every effort to save it.” He also admired the shop’s Victorian, Read the Islington Tribune praised Mr Travers’ “fantastic Edwardian and article at www.islingtontribune. Visit the British restoration work”. features during the London com/butchers. Museum from home Virtual visitors to the British New River Head flat rejected on heritage grounds Museum can now use Google Street View to view over 4,500 Plans to convert a historic interior of the building and where the New River, an exhibits in extreme high building at New River Head in the industrial character of the artificial waterway that definition. The museum is  Clerkenwell into a flat have complex as a whole”. brought fresh water to London the largest indoor space on been rejected by a government However, he granted from 1613, terminated. Street View; 85 rooms were planning inspector on permission for the site’s coal Owner Turnhold Islington scanned using a trolley fitted heritage grounds. storage houses to be turned indicated that the whole site with cameras to create Planning inspector John into a studio flat and office may now be used for offices. 360° panoramas. Chase said that redeveloping space as this could be done Turnhold bought the site  l google.com/ the 17th century boiler house “without major alteration to in 2010; it has been subject  culturalinstitute/collection/ into a luxury flat would be these buildings”. to a long-running battle 

the-british-museum detrimental to the “historic The grade II listed site is over planning. Tribune Couvée/Islington Koos

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 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

St Thomas’s school in St Thomas’s also has a large collection of Everilda Street school in photographs of the streets of I am putting together a small Everilda Street Islington, as well as a was built in book on the life of William collection of school 1866 and Thomas Vincent, who was a demolished photographs. bit of a legend in my area, after being There is a very small chance which is . Tom bombed in that the Islington Local Vincent was born in 1835 and the Second History Centre may have died in 1920. World War some photographs of the His sister was Sarah Jane children taken with their Vincent. Sarah, a lifelong teachers. However, the date spinster, was born in Northolt of Miss Vincent’s time would in 1838 and died in 1902 in be in the early days of Woolwich. photography. According to her gravestone, As you have the date of Miss she was once headmistress of Vincent’s birth and death, you St Thomas’s school in Everilda may wish to obtain a copy of Street, Islington. It was built in her death certificate. 1866 and demolished after Michael Reading being bombed in the Second World War. Missing road in Canonbury The 1871 census shows her and census entry living at 16 Everilda street, I wonder if you can help with which I believe was very close a brick wall I have come up to the school. By the time of 1972-73 but still exists as a The south side consists against while trying to the 1881 census, she had private road. of modern residential research my family’s history. moved to Woolwich. It is a short street, properties, while the north I am trying trace a relative I would like to know when connecting Hemingford Road side is the boundary of with the surname of Bond she started at the school and at its eastern end and Matilda Barnard Park. who we believe lived at when she finished and if there Street to the west. St Thomas’s It is possible that the 62 Halton Road, Canonbury, is any information about her church (demolished in 1953, admissions and discharge in 1901. time there. A picture of her and the parish amalgamated registers and school log books The 1901 census does not would be amazing if such a with St Andrew’s Barnsbury) may have been deposited with show anyone of that name nor thing exists. stood at the eastern end of the the London Metropolitan any return at all for that Chris Mansfield street on its south side. The Archives. These were a address, which is a mystery. [email protected] school stood on the north side requirement after 1870, so it is Can you suggest any reason of the street, roughly in the possible that Sarah Jane why that may be, or where Everilda Street, built in 1847, middle of a row of houses. All Vincent’s term as headmistress else I may look to trace this ceased to be a public street in have now gone. may be recorded. The LMA person or this address? I’m not sure if the house even still exists – might it have Write to us been destroyed in the war? l Email the editor at [email protected] Terri Allen-Smith l Write to the editor c/o 6 Northview, Tufnell Park By email Road, N7 0QB l Via www.facebook.com/groups/islingtonhistory; Until 1863, Halton Street posts printed will give Facebook usernames consisted of several subsidiary groups of houses, which had The society won’t trace family trees, but can help with, names including Adelaide say, finding information on a family member’s business Terrace, Halton Cottages, or home. Letters and Facebook posts may be edited. Sussex Place and Canonbury Villas. The original houses

6 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 were built around 1840. Post Office street directory In that year, the Islington records a Mr Thomas Vestry decreed that the line Gardiner living at no 25. of houses from Cross Street No 25 is shown on the to Canonbury Road be Ordnance Survey Map for renumbered and the name 1871 as a detached property changed to Halton Road, with a large garden and is the with odd numbers on the west last house in the crescent. The side and even numbers on house and part of the garden the east. face onto Highbury Crescent, On the east side was a group while the larger part at the rear of 14 houses, with a further faces onto Ronalds Road, most 14 behind them, all known as of which had yet to be built. Canonbury Villas. With the The Bomb Damage Map renumbering, the 14 houses in 1939-45 shows that Highbury Halton Road – originally Crescent did not suffer any 1-14 Canonbury Villas – bomb damage. The block of became 44-70 Halton Road; flats you referred to was built 62 Halton Road used to be on the site of no 25 and I 10 Canonbury Villas. believe this happened in In the late 1920s, these 1937-39. The Post Office 28 houses – having been directory for 1939 lists them acquired by Islington Council as Crescent Mansions. – were demolished and work No 25 would have looked began on Halton Mansions similar to the other houses estate, which eventually and I believe the style has contained 168 flats. The estate Highbury Fields c1870: 25 Highbury Crescent is at the top of this been described as Italianate. is still there. map, on the corner site above the “N” (the last letter in Ossulston, Michael Reading I can only hazard a guess as the former “hundred”, an old administrative district) to why your relative is not Do you recall Drayton shown on the 1901 census. Highbury Crescent house Do you have any records Park’s cinema? They may have been out when no longer there or details about this place I seem to recall an old cinema the enumerator called and did I have just returned to dating from the 1820s to the or music hall in Drayton Park not return, or the house may Australia after visiting London late 1860s? up until the early 1980s. have been empty. and Islington, where I wanted Anne Carruthers I’m having absolutely no Michael Reading to find 25 Highbury Crescent. [email protected] luck online, so I thought Family stories and records perhaps someone with local Bartholomew Buildings in tell us that Mr Thomas Highbury Crescent was knowledge could help me. Seward Street Gardiner, the brother of my designed and built by James Cas Burke My nan lived in Bartholomew 4x great grandmother, owned Wagstaffe, a local architect and Via Facebook Buildings in Seward Street, this property during the mid builder. By 1846, only 14 EC1. They were built in 1889. 1800s. Most of his family (my houses had been finished; the The only reference I have I was wondering if you knew ancestors) spent time there. crescent was finally completed found of films being shown in when they were knocked I believe Mr Thomas with a total of 25. The 1859 Drayton Park is of screenings down and also if we could get Gardiner owned the house at at the Methodist Central Hall. any pictures of the buildings 25 Highbury Crescent and These were organised by the as we have some good kept it as a home for his nieces minister, Rev Donald Soper, memories of them. and nephews to use during during the 1930s. Irene Thompson their lifetimes. From all They were very popular, and By email accounts, he was a wealthy many people saw films man and very generous. arranged by Islington’s Spain Bartholomew Buildings were I was in England recently Committee publicising the in Seward Street until 1974. but was disappointed to find struggle against Fascism, Very little is left of the original the house no longer standing. which commercial cinemas Seward Street now. Many of the properties in chose to ignore. There may be some Highbury Crescent look The Methodist Central Hall photographs of Bartholomew original but unfortunately the was erected in 1929-30 and, Buildings at the London site of no 25 appears to be a being a modern building, was Metropolitan Archives or vacant area between houses or presumably suitable for Islington’s Local History Centre. the location of a modern brick Halton Mansions with showing films during this

Michael Reading block of eight flats. Canonbury Villas street sign period, often described as the of Scotland; Halton Mansions: Stephen McKay/geograph.org.uk Map: National Library

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 7 Joseph Thomas Burgess: soldier and boxer

Dan Bond writes about his Japanese Imperial forces great uncle attacked Hong Kong, one of the first battles of the Pacific Joseph Thomas Burgess campaign. The 1915-1941 forces gradually withdrew Joseph Thomas Burgess, from the mainland into more known as Tommy to all of his defensive positions on the family and friends, was born island where finally on 25 in late 1915, the fourth child December, around Stanley, and third son of Albert and they surrendered the garrison. Esther. His father Albert It was here, defending in worked as a horseman/driver/ pillbox number 28 on carman in King’s Cross Christmas Day, that Lance station; his mother Esther was Corporal JT Burgess was a full-time mum of 11. killed in action while By the early 1920s, the manning his machine gun. family were all living in one His body was never room in a shared house in recovered after the surrender Risinghill Street, not far from of the British Empire forces St Silas Church and Penton and he has no known grave; he Road. This was a step up for is commemorated on his parents, who had spent 14 of the Sai Wan Memorial. some time in and out of Sadly for his family, the workhouses. news that he was missing took A keen amateur boxer, several months to arrive. The Tommy had some success in assumption was he was the ring in and around captured and he was Islington, according to family eventually presumed dead; it history, and could possibly have has only been in the past few pursued this at a higher level. years the full details emerged. Tommy joined the army With assistance from the before 1937, joining the Hong Kong War Diary Regiment (Duke of website, we now have an Cambridge’s Own). Although accurate record of where not much is known about his Tommy lived and died, down early military history, his The battalion was sent to Islington. He continued to the maps and locations of the service number was 6203206, Hong Kong in 1937; we boxing while in the army, pillbox he was in, which is and he was part of the assume Tommy was with achieving successes in boxing now a small housing complex. 1st Battalion, one of the them at this point, leaving his for the regiment. l www.hongkongwardiary. regiment’s regular battalions. family and partner back in In December 1941, the com golden age of cinema. haven’t managed to turn up I’m pretty sure Girdlestone Eric Willats’ Streets with a The London Post Office much apart from the fact it Estate was constructed by the Story: the Book of Islington says street directories for 1935 and was “opened” in 1971. Council. Some the estate opened in 1975-76. 1939 do not refer to a cinema Marcus London of their estates were designed Possibly the first tenants took or music hall in Drayton Park. Via Facebook by outside architects (eg Stock up residence in 1971 and the Michael Reading Orchard by Basil Spence’s estate was completed and fully I live just round the corner team) but most were designed occupied by 1975-76. Girdlestone Walk architect from this estate and wrote a by their in-house team. The council’s planning I used to live with my piece about for a project – as Barry Edwards department will have details grandmother in Girdlestone yet uncompleted – of its building. The Islington Walk, Bredgar Road, N19, and documenting all the streets in I have found very little on Gazette may have reported its I was wondering if anyone N19. It’s at www.ipernity.com/ Girdlestone Estate. I think Mr opening; ask Islington’s Local knows who designed it and blog/jenpedler/726193. Hope Edwards is correct that the History Centre about viewing when it was finished. I have that’s of interest. estate was designed by an back copies. done some research but Jen Pedler in-house team. Michael Reading

8 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Local historian who loved language

Kathleen Frenchman, a journalist and community campaigner, was an active member of the Islington Archaeology & History Society

athleen Frenchman, a authorised version of the Bible. The long-term committee prayer book liturgy was reflected member of the in the order of service used for her Islington Archaeology funeral – a service she had put & History Society, together herself. Kdied in September 2015. She was a valued member of the Kathleen was born in December Islington Society, became a member 1930 in north London, where she of the executive committee and lived for most of her life except for edited Islington News. when she moved to the north of Her other great passion was England to work for the libraries, where she played an Manchester Guardian. active role in the Friends of Kathleen Initially, we thought the She was an only child, but grew Islington Libraries. She was also a Frenchman: exhibition would be on display up with her cousin Clive who was committee member of Libraries for possessed an for only a few months but it also an only child. She attended Life for Londoners, arguing and enquiring mind became a permanent fixture in the combined with Dame Henrietta Barnet school in campaigning against the steady a deep church. It was remounted earlier Garden Suburb and erosion of public provision of knowledge of this year using material that went on to pursue a long career in libraries and library services. history, politics, Kathleen had sourced. journalism, starting on a local At the same time, Kathleen was architecture and Soon after the exhibition was paper and working for the concerned about green issues – in music displayed, Kathleen gave a lecture Manchester Guardian (now The particular the local Save Energy to a packed meeting of the Guardian, based at King’s Place in Campaign in 1993-94. This Islington Society about the role of Islington). Kathleen was never a culminated in the Islington Energy St Andrew’s in the community over morning person and often worked Manifesto, which is still relevant 150 years. Characteristically, she into the night to meet deadlines for today. She also pressed for ended by saying that St Andrew’s the paper – which suited her improvements to local bus services. was still there, it was a growing temperament entirely. Over the years, Kathleen was on community and anyone at the She and her then husband many committees, including that meeting would be welcome there Michael Frenchman had a lease on of the IAHS. As well as being a on Sunday. a cottage on Brownsea Island in school governor at St Andrew’s She possessed an enquiring Poole harbour where they had a Church of England School in mind combined with a deep boat and, for a long time, spent Matilda Street for many years, she knowledge of history, politics, most weekends there. After they was a representative from architecture and music, and held a divorced, her life became a more Barnsbury Parish for the Church of considerable library on these centred on Islington. England Deanery Synod for subjects. She started coming to Islington and a member of other Her love of history, both local St Andrew’s Church where she church committees. For several and national, led her to long and regularly attended the 9am years, she was a church warden. In active memberships of the IAHS, communion service, which follows addition, she was a regular the Islington Society and the the format of the Book of Common member of the Bible study group. . Prayer from 1662. A lasting memorial to Kathleen She will be missed by her friends Kathleen loved language and can be found in the exhibition that at St Andrew’s and in the wider grammar; she loved the literature she curated covering the history of community. n of the Church of England St Andrew’s. This was put together especially the cadences of the Book for the 150th anniversary of the Rev Michael Learmouth, of Common Prayer and the church in 2004. St Andrew’s Church

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 9 A dog’s best friend

Mary Tealby set up what became Battersea Dogs Home, and was recently commemorated with a People’s Plaque. Christy Lawrance reports

he founder of Battersea was determined the home would Dogs & Cats Home, be a “temporary refuge”, not a Mary Tealby, has been permanent home. honoured with an Calling it a “home” rather than Islington People’s Plaque, an asylum suggested domesticity afterT winning the poll by the biggest rather than an institution and margin. A record 6,736 people appealed to supporters. The home voted in the 2014-15 scheme; Mary refused to sell dogs for vivisection. Tealby won with 2,415 votes. Attitudes to animal welfare had The plaque was unveiled in improved over the 18th and 19th October at Freightliners Farm, centuries and, for the first time, which has the nearest buildings to dogs were being viewed as family the first home. Among those members. However, many scorned attending the event were five dogs Mary Tealby’s efforts. Police constable journalist and later theatrical from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. The Times said: “When we hear delivering stray impresario John Hollingshead, was Battersea’s chief executive, Claire of a ‘Home for Dogs’, we venture to dogs to hugely influential. Battersea Dogs Horton, said: “Over three million doubt if the originators and Mary Tealby’s health Home, early homeless dogs and cats are supporters of such an institution 20th century deteriorated. She moved in with indebted to the vision and have not taken leave of their sober relatives in Biggleswade, where she commitment of Mary Tealby. senses… There is a lady residing in died on 3 October 1865. The local “Through her sheer determination Islington whose zeal we will venture paper covered her passing but did and passion, she established the to say outruns her discretion.” It not mention the dogs’ home; UK’s first home for stray dogs.” remarked that the home would probate records show she left “less Mary Tealby, who lived in Victoria have “its male side and female side, than £100”. Road, off Holloway Road, was no doubt, for is it not founded by a The home continued its work, moved by the plight of starving, Lady of Islington!” moving to larger premises in stray dogs in the capital and The Spectator said the home was Battersea in 1871 and taking in cats decided to found a “canine asylum”. “too absurd even for the large class from 1883. In 1885, Queen Victoria Born in Huntingdon on 30 of amiable gullible”. became a patron of the charity; December 1801, Mrs Tealby had Then, in August 1862, Charles Queen Elizabeth II is patron today. moved to London in 1860 after Dickens published an article Records show how busy the home separating from her husband. She defending the home in his All the was; in 1895, it used 32 tonnes of had little money and had been Year Round journal. biscuits and 420 gallons of milk, diagnosed with cancer. The article, Two Dog-Shows, and received 36,873 visitors. The asylum appears to have compared the dogs exhibited at Other homes were set up; their started in her scullery. She nursed Cruft’s Dog Show at the Agricultural managers came to Battersea to see sick dogs back to health, and Hall with those in the Temporary how it was done. people were soon bringing stray Home for Lost and Starving Dogs: In March 2015, kennels at and sickly dogs to her. “At the Islington dog-show, all was Battersea named after Mary Tealby Tealby was well connected with prosperity. Here, all is adversity… were officially opened by the London society. Drawing on her To befriend this poor unhappy Queen. Back in Islington, her connections, she raised enough animal, a certain band of humanely name also lives in Tealby Court on money by November 1860 to set disposed persons has established the Ringcross estate. n up the Temporary Home for Lost this Holloway asylum, and a and Starving Dogs in a disused system has been got to work which Sources and further reading stableyard behind 15-16 has actually, since October, 1860, Anon (1862) Two dog-shows. All the Year Round VII: 171, 493-7 Howell P (2015) At Home and Astray: the Domestic Dog in Hollingsworth Street. Here, lost rescued at least a thousand lost or Victorian Britain. University of Virginia Press dogs could be collected by their homeless dogs from starvation.” Jenkins G (2010) A Home of Their Own: the Heart-Warming

Leonard Bentley/Flickr owners or found new homes. She The article, reportedly written by 150-Year History of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Transworld

10 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 From army man to peace campaigner

Bruce Kent talked to the society about people who influenced his life as a peace activist and those who said no to war. Mark Smulian reports

eteran peace cam- but that this man is right,” he said. paigner Bruce Kent His first encounter with CND spoke at the society’s was not propitious. About to November meeting conduct several weddings, he on how he moved found access to his church blocked fromV having entirely conventional by thousands of Aldermaston views about the role of the military marchers returning to London to eventually becoming chair and, having no idea who they were, of the Campaign for Nuclear called the police. Disarmament (CND) and some He did though become active in Addressing the like opposing the Crimean war,” of his key influences. CND in the 1960s, staying to see meeting and Mr Kent explained. Another was (below) He recalled that he had been a its early 1980s revival then a later answering Dorothy Day, founder in the US of priest at St John’s in Duncan decline when agreements struck questions the Catholic Worker Movement – Terrace in 1980, at which time between Reagan and Soviet leader which he noted has premises on CND was in poor shape. He sought Mikhail Gorbachev took the heat Green Lanes – “a pacifist who permission from Cardinal Hume out of the Cold War. believed you indicted your equality to become its chair. Among Mr Kent’s influences was as a human being by your lifestyle”. The cardinal reluctantly agreed Henry Ritchie, a congregational Mr Kent also mentioned John and it turned out to be an minister in Highbury, who in the Cobb, a First World War opportune time, as the 1840s decided to devoted his life to conscientious objector who died in organisation’s membership soared peace and is commemorated by a 1919, his health ruined by prison with the arrival of Ronald Reagan statue is in . conditions, Sylvia Pankhurst, the as US president and the Thatcher “He took on unpopular causes only one of the noted suffragette government’s willingness to family to oppose British accommodate American- participation in the First World controlled cruise missiles on “When I was in the War, and Franz Jägerstätter, an UK soil. Austrian executed by the Nazis for His views had changed slowly. army, none of these refusing military service. He had joined his school cadet ideas occurred to me. Closer to home, Mr Kent cited corps and was later conscripted the inspirational campaigning of into the army, both of which he We were trained to be Donald Soper and of Fenner saw as normal parts of growing up. obedient and we were” Brockway, the latter commemorated “When I was in the army, none by a statue in Red Lion Square; of these ideas [about peace] however, he had less regard for occurred to me at all. We were the square’s other occupant, trained to be obedient and we Bertrand Russell, who he were,” he said. considered had damaged CND He began questioning his beliefs through personal disputes. having met Thomas Roberts, the Mr Kent has more recently archbishop of Bombay, who argued become the founder of the that Christian teaching held that Movement for the Abolition of one cannot morally kill civilians in War, which he described as trying war and that nuclear weapons were to find ways to deal with “a global thus immoral since they would human sickness”. n inevitably kill thousands.

“I began to think, not politically, www.marksmulian.co.uk Christy Lawrance

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 11 Model history wealthy. By banding together in a club, enthusiasts of more limited means were able to share in building test tracks and model railway layouts, and could hire somewhere to erect them.

Exhibitions Clubs have long held exhibitions. For many years, the MRC held the biggest of these. Other clubs joined the MRC to show off their best layouts, and commercial stallholders attended. The first Easter time exhibition – which became a tradition – was held at Kingsway Hall in 1924. During the 1950s and most of the 1960s, the Easter exhibition was held in Central Hall. Islington is home to the first model railway club in the world. I remember annual outings to this Bob Allaway tells the story of an unexpectedly socially with my dad. In 2000, the MRC teamed up with progressive hobby and creating an interwar model British Railway Modelling magazine to stage a two-day show at Wembley celebrating the hobby and f you walk up Pentonville clubs turned out to be socially Above and 90 years of the MRC. The show’s Road from King’s Cross, you progressive. Model locomotives below: the success led to the London Festival will reach Calshot Street. Here, and trains cry out to move, as do Copenhagen of Railway Modelling, which is held behind the aptly named Bistro their prototypes, which requires a Fields layout, each March at . complete with de Gare, you will find a modest, layout. However, large-scale livestock going A home in Islington brickI building. A small plaque states models were very expensive and to market these are the premises of “The Model layouts required a house with a In its early days, the MRC met in Railway Club Ltd”. It was the first very large spare room or garden, several places; a permanent London model railway club in the world which made it a hobby for the home was too expensive to buy. – by a very comfortable margin. In the 1930s, club stalwart GP The MRC was founded by a Keen had said one reason for small group of enthusiasts on 3 holding model railway exhibitions December 1910 at the Bun House was “if we are successful in making on High . They elected a a small financial profit, and invest committee with Henry Greenly as this profit so that ultimately the chairman. (Greenly designed the accumulated capital may give an locomotives for the 15” gauge income, that will pay the rent of a Ravenglass & Eskdale and Romney, permanent clubroom”. Hythe & Dymchurch railways.) Due to the foresight of earlier Its objectives were to bring members and the leadership of together “those interested in model chairman John Anning, the MRC locomotives, steam engines, was able to establish permanent electrical apparatus, tools, etc., headquarters. employed in the construction and working of model railways; the exhibition and trials of models; ‘Percy’ the logo representation of Hermes, the and to arrange visits to places of Greek god of communications, interest”. Annual subscriptions In the early 1920s, thoughts studying a model steam were seven shillings and sixpence were given to creating a logo or locomotive. (about 38p), and five shillings badge. Several ideas, including The logo was soon (25p) for members aged under 21. an engine front, were unofficially named “Percy” By March, there were 50 members. considered. The final design, by after G Percy Keen, who had The MRC inspired the founding staff at Bassett-Lowke’s model joined the club in 1919 and of similar clubs in the London engineering factory, is a stylised was elected chairman in 1921. suburbs and Manchester. These

12 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-15 Vol 5 No 4 Caledonian Road: some shops are named from history, some after club members

In 1958, the site of a wartime Copenhagen Fields emergency water tank in King’s Some readers may have seen the Cross was bought, and the building MRC’s Copenhagen Fields layout, designed and built. Money came which shows the park when it was from various sources, including the still a cattle market, complete with sale of investments, a grant from the Caledonian Clock Tower. Not the War Damage Commission and only are the main lines out of King’s a bank loan. Everything was repaid Cross modelled, but also Caledonian within three years – although Road Underground station, with subscriptions had to be doubled in underground platforms and a 1961 – a remarkable achievement. working tube train (at a suitable The MRC named the building height for very small enthusiasts!). Keen House, and GP Keen Built at a scale of 2mm/ft, it shows officially opened it in 1960, the a great amount of detail. MRC’s golden jubilee year. Project leader Tim Watson says such as the Flying Scotsman and The main meeting room, the John research drew on Aerofilms pictures, the streamlined Silver Jubilee trains Anning Hall, contains tracks used to the working up the gradient under the test how well models run. The main picture library, Islington Council North London Railway’s electric showcase of models – sometimes archives, Ordnance Survey maps, railway. To make it look deeper, the special or historic displays – is in railway track and civil engineering scale reduces towards the back of this room. It has a tea and coffee bar drawings, Institution of Civil the layout. With a little artistic and licensed bar, and is hired out. Engineers records, local history licence, Keen House is shown a The MRC library, with over books, London Transport records, little nearer to the railway than it 4,000 books and bound magazines, donated photographs, the railway really is. The rest of the layout is is an invaluable resource for press and photographic collections, shown in the interwar period. modellers and students of railways. Steam on 35mm: the 30s, 40s, 50s & Copenhagen Fields has been on By the entrance hall is the 60s DVD – railway archive film shot TV several times and shown at smaller of the two layout rooms. by major film studios – and “local many exhibitions, including in The larger one, in the basement, photographic surveys undertaken mainland Europe. Because of its includes facilities for layout by ourselves 33 years ago”. size (9m x 3m), it is displayed at building, and a metal workshop Since the layout was started in exhibitions so is not always on show. equipped with lathes and a mill. 1984, it has steadily expanded to Visitors are welcome at Keen Access is step only and the club is the south, almost to King’s Cross. House. On a personal note, I have looking to improve disabled access. One can enjoy spectacular trains been impressed by the way MRC members welcome men and women of all backgrounds and abilities. We aim to have a layout on show on most track nights; check our website for activities. n l www.themodelrailwayclub.org

Bob Allaway is a member of the Copenhagen Model Railway Club. Fields on show Factual details here are based on at the Steam history notes compiled by MRC Extravaganza at the King’s archivist Clive White, updated by Cross Goods John Emerson and chairman Leslie Yard in October Bevis-Smith. Many thanks to the

2014 latter for permission to use them. other images: Christy Lawrance Allaway; Bob Photo on opposite page and Steam Extravaganza:

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 13 The medieval Jewish cemetery at Cripplegate

Near Clerkenwell was once the only cemetery in England where Jewish burials were permitted. Petra Laidlaw describes the mixed fortunes of London’s early Jewish population

ere Jews living ties to their cousin communities The Gentleman’s in Islington as on the continent. Magazine in early as They were welcomed initially – 1753 described heavy massacres broke out in a tombstone medieval at least by the Norman elite, who several places in the 12th and embedded in times? We valued their trading networks and , 13th centuries. Wcannot know unless some remnant their freedom from the self- 11½” across the By the time King Edward I came of a building, artefact or document imposed injunction among top, 18½” high to the throne, they were regarded confirms their presence – none has Christians against money lending. and 6½” across as a liability rather than an asset to yet appeared. Some made considerable fortunes, the a bottom the monarchy and, in 1290, he However, we can reasonably yielding huge tallages (a type of signed an edict for the expulsion of speculate that Jews would have tax) that endeared them to the the entire Jewish population from strayed into today’s borough, at exchequer. England. least to trade and, quite possibly, to During the reigns of King John set up home. and Henry III, however, Story of the site Jews had settled in London increasingly rapacious taxation It is not known when the shortly after the squeezed them dry. Cripplegate burial ground was first and, while they were clustered In addition, to ordinary people, used, but it is likely to have been in largely in the Old Jewry area of the the Jews not only seemed very the 11th century. Until 1177, it was City, they were not confined to a foreign but also were regarded as the only cemetery in England in particular area or ghetto. Their culpable en masse for the which Jewish burials were cemetery was just yards from crucifixion a millennium earlier. permitted. Plots were added over Islington’s south-eastern boundary, As the Crusades got under  time and it eventually occupied a short distance from Clerkenwell. way, passions often rose high; about two acres. anti-Jewish riots and, sometimes, There is no obvious trace of it Early arrivals today. It lay between Who were these Jews, and what Street, which marked its western happened to them? Some Jewish boundary; Beech Street (formerly traders and slaves are likely to have Barbican) on the north; and Red come to British shores in Roman Cross Street (which was the times, although there is no firm continuation southwards of evidence for this. The Jews arriving Golden Lane) on its east side. The after the Norman conquest came southern boundary lay to the south mainly from north-eastern France of what was later called Jewin and the Rhineland, and a few from Street – originally a path through further afield. the cemetery – with a projection Under the reign of Henry I running down towards London (1100-35), they were granted Wall. Jewin Street was named for protections and privileges, and Jewen Garden – the cemetery itself. numbers grew to several thousand, The name Jewin survives today with communities in London and in the Jewin Welsh Presbyterian in at least a score of other places Chapel, founded in 1672 as a such as Cambridge, , Nonconformist meeting house in Lincoln, Gloucester, Northampton, Jewin Street, which moved to Fann Norwich, Oxford, Winchester and Excavations in 1948-49: a series of graves appeared to Street, off Golden Lane, in the late York. Most of them were French have had their contents removed (the white feature 19th century. speaking, and maintained strong crossing the dark fillings is the concrete casing of a drain) Jewin Street and Red Cross

14 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Street have long since disappeared, and the whole site is now part of the Barbican development. A garden oasis graces the central  part of the site, echoing its retention as a garden for several centuries after the Jews were expelled. A number of sources, including Stow (2005), refer to it as the Jewes or Jewen Garden. Shortly after the expulsion, Edward I granted the site to William de Montford, the dean of St Paul’s. It passed through his heirs in 1426 into the possession of what became the Goldsmiths’ Company, which retained the title to much of it into the 20th century. Much of the site remained open ground until the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was used for cheap housing, and the northern part was subjected to deep excavations for the Metropolitan concrete of the underground and Railway. Two high-explosive the Barbican, in parts of the site bombs fell directly on the site in that did not lend themselves to the Second World War, possibly investigation by the London destroying archaeological remains Museum team. but also opening up an opportunity For most of us, it is perhaps for professional excavation. enough to remember that the restful green space we find there today was already a unique place of n the late 1940s, a team under rest almost a millennium ago. n Professor William Francis I(“Peter”) Grimes, director of the Petra Laidlaw is the author of The London Museum, funded by Jewish Communities of Islington, donations from members of the 1730s-1880s, which is available Jewish Historical Society of from the IAHS, see page 21 England, undertook a thorough Further reading investigation of the most prom- Honeybourne M (1959-61) The ising and accessible parts of the pre-expulsion cemetery of Jews in site. They found clear evidence of Museum in Oxford. The The garden at London. In: Transactions of the Jewish graves, and a relatively small Gentleman’s Magazine reported the the Barbican, Historical Society of England, Vol XX Jews’ Garden – John Street. A Dictionary number of human bones, but little discovery of another, embedded in sometimes referred to as of London. Originally published by H else of interest. London Wall, in 1753. All of them Jenkins, London, 1918. www.british- the Jewes or history.ac.uk/no-series/dictionary-of- Although disappointing, it was have long since disappeared. Jewen Garden; hardly surprising. The site had As to skeletal remains, it is likely london/jews-garden-john-street inscriptions on Kolsky R, The Site of the Medieval Jewish been despoiled by rebel militias as either that the Jews removed them four tombstones Cemetery – Barbican and St Giles, early as 1215, in the uprising before the expulsion or that, when discovered in Cripplegate. www.jtrails.org.uk/trails// against King John, when the site passed into Christian 1617 and taken places-of-interest gravestones were hauled off to hands, the skeletons were dug up to Oxford’s Milne G, ed (2001) Excavations at Mediaeval Cripplegate, London: Ashmolean reinforce the City walls against the and disposed of in line with Archaeology after . English King’s forces. The remaining medieval Christian practice. Any Museum Heritage, 2001 gravestones doubtless found their ritual or other valuable objects Roth C (1964) A History of the Jews in England. Oxford University Press, third way into other building projects were probably pilfered at the edition over succeeding centuries. same time. Skinner P, ed (2003) Jews in Mediaeval Stow himself saw one that was In light of this history, it is very Britain: Historical, Literary and uncovered in in 1586. unlikely, though still just possible, Archaeological Perspectives. Boydell Press Four were discovered in Aldersgate that significant vestiges of the Stow J (2005) A Survey of London, in 1617 and found their way to the former cemetery remain concealed Written in the Year 1598. Sutton courtyard of the Ashmolean under the piles, joists, girders and Publishing Historical Society of England all other images: Jewish Laidlaw; Garden: Petra

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 15 How to build a Georgian house

A house at one corner of Canonbury Square was rebuilt to match its original predecessor. Gary Butler describes how this was done

Evidence of the original building remained in several forms. First, it formed a pair with no 46 next door, which we briefly surveyed. This survey information was used to guide the design of the interior. Second, part of the front elevation up to first floor level, the flank and party walls and fragments of the rear wall of the house had survived without significant structural defects. Third, a photograph from the early 20th century showed the original building before demolition, with tenants standing outside. We therefore had a precise footprint and foundations on which to build, which allowed us and a single staircase rising from to stitch together part of an basement to third floor, is traditional important Islington square. for a London town house. This “hybrid” description lies at In the third floor , the low the heart of this project: “Georgian ceilings of the servants’ quarters ur commission at Windows are building may be seen as suspended have not been recreated and first sounded box sash; between medieval tradition and bathrooms have been added. simple: rebuild a fireplace industrial innovation. In the years Similar adaptations have been surrounds are Georgian town between 1680 and 1840, a labour made in many Georgian buildings. statuary marble house as authenti- intensive craft centred trade was At basement level, the original Ocally as possible. Planning permis- transformed into a highly footprint has been extended, with a sion and listed building consent mechanised industry” (Ayres, 1998). new kitchen extension opening to had already been obtained. No 47 now has five levels. The the garden, which has been The reconstructed building at 47 plan and hierarchy of spaces, with designed to appear visually light, Canonbury Square is unusual in that front and rear rooms on each level, using modern materials. it was grade II listed before it was To recreate the architectural built but, as a new extension, had form and character accurately, the to meet current building standards. new external walls were built The house completes the terrace traditionally, with carefully chosen on the north-west side of Canonbury hand-thrown facing bricks in lime Square, described by Mary Cosh: mortar to Flemish bond. The multi “Earliest and grandest is Henry colour of the stock bricks with kiln Ledoux’s NW range, a fine 2nd class flashes of red was augmented with terrace in dark brick with extremely additional red brick batch-mixed long drawing room windows.” into the wall as it was built. Originally built in 1831, no 47 A decision was made not to was partially demolished in 1937, recreate the early 19th century supposedly due to structural fashion of applying the red dye problems – it was speculated that Above: before; left: the colouring and false tuck pointing demolition was carried out to evict house recreated as it to brickwork that can clearly be unwanted suffragette tenants. was originally seen in other parts of the terrace.

16 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Instead, a light soot wash was installed, the roof was designed as applied to the completed brickwork “plates” laid to raked planes, because to tonally blend new work with there were no lateral ties as lower old. Backing bricks, although ceiling joists had been omitted. imperial in size and similar in Hempcrete was used to create a appearance, were more standard in rigid yet highly insulated structure. colour and machine thrown using The roofs were covered with lead an industrial kiln process. and Welsh slate in a traditional We made careful large-scale manner. We conceded that lead design drawings of all the gauged work could be welded rather than window head arches, which were bossed where not visible, and solar made by Lambs with cut hand panels have been installed on the made stock bricks. Brickwork was south face of the hidden valley. built in two or one-and-a half-brick The “industrial innovation” of the solid construction without a cavity. early 19th century has evolved into The thermal performance of the today’s smart home technology, walls was improved by lining the and at no 47 the services are brickwork with carbon negative controlled through a Lutron System Hempcrete (hemp fibre mixed with by touch screen from any mobile lime) infill to a light timber frame. device. The servicing includes a fire This created a wall depth that alarm, sprinkler system, data ensured linings to windows were system, security alarm, electrical accurate and traditional shutter system, plumbing insulation and details could be formed. Lime underfloor heating, all of which plaster, with clay paint finishes, have been integrated within the was used throughout to ensure that fabric and are concealed, so spaces the wall construction is moisture remain clear of ugly pipe boxing. permeable and “breathes”. The single in building regulations and codes. This retains the traditional Windows are generally staircase rises This was especially the case when appearance of the interior which, from basement traditional box sash. We designed taking into account the impact of combined with reproduction to third floor, the glazing bars, which were 20mm traditional for a services installation, which fireplaces in all principal rooms thick, to accept 12mm double London town required notching in the beam. designed to suit their position in glazing units, which include a house; We looked at a range of options, the hierarchy of spaces of the crown glass outer sheet; the including double haunched tenoned house, ensures that the light and distorted nature of crown glass floor joists with laminated timber materials of each room results in gives the facade the rather attractive girding beams, but concluded an authentic experience. shimmer of a Georgian property. using flanged smaller section steel The fireplace surrounds were Shutter boxes, linings and all beams to accept floor joists would made in Italy in statuary marble to associated joinery, including best resolve the deflection issues. our detailed design, with shutter bars, were recreated based Using the steels also meant the hob grates and open flame gas fire on the information on no 46. flank wall was adequately inserts. In the 21st century, we do The span of the floors presented supported during the build. not have servants to light fires and a problem; the floor depths were We introduced cross battens over are used to central heating, and the such that the spans of the girding the floor structure to create a void pavement vaults are filled with beams made of large timber that meant that services could be water tanks and a booster pump sections would, under load, exceed integrated and – perhaps most rather than coal. the permissible deflection defined importantly – that floor boards of While paint colours, ironmongery varying widths could be laid and other finishes reflect early 19th traditionally front to rear. century fashions, decisions over The ceiling and internal stud walls furniture and fabrics will remain were formed with lime plaster and the delight of the new owners. n riven chestnut lathing with fibrous plaster to ground and first Gary Butler is a director at Butler floor spaces. Floor voids were filled Hegarty Architects. He will talk at with insulation for fire protection. the society’s December event about The roof has an M-shaped valley, this project – see inside back page and timber valley beams are particularly vulnerable to moisture Cosh M (1993) The Squares of Islington, Part II, page 41, 1993 Islington penetration. beam was Archaeology & History Society: 41 replaced by steel and, given that no James Ayres, Building the Georgian City,

third floor ceilings would be Paul Mellon Centre, 1998: 7 Butler Hegarty

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 17 Publications and bookshop

Get a glimpse of lost London through bomb damage maps, find out about life in the capital during the First World War, enjoy a Camden compendium and take a walk in Crouch End

The London County London and its environs The maps were originally Council Bomb Damage experienced destruction on a published in 1916 and Maps 1939-1945 huge scale, with air raids and updated by the London £48, Thames and Hudson, rocket attacks reducing County Council to 1940. 2015 buildings and streets to rubble. Because they use the 1916 Laurence Ward, London The impact of this destruction map, they give us a glimpse of Metropolitan Archives can still be seen in London’s a “lost London” before This publication provides the urban and social landscapes. postwar redevelopment most detailed and complete The full set of maps is made schemes began to shape survey of the aerial up of 1:2500 Ordnance Survey the city. constables Arthur Cross and bombardment of London base sheets. The maps were The new, high-quality Fred Tibbs, and other archival during the Second World War, meticulously hand coloured  images of the maps are photographs. They are part with archival photographs and to show the sites and degree  complemented by a series of historical artefacts, part social tables of often grim statistics. of damage. photographs of the damage history. done to the , An introduction by taken with a sympathetic yet Laurence Ward, a principal unflinching eye by police archivist at the London Metropolitan Archives, sets Map of King’s Cross, Angel the maps in the context of the and Barbican: damaged areas terrible events that gave rise  are dark coloured to them.

Journal back issues We have some previous issues of the journal available. Please contact Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 1541 to find out if we have the issue you would like in stock

More reviews, books for sale and order form overleaf

London Remembering: for the first time and the roles and how it ended in its 1914-18 they undertook included permanent position in Stuart Hallifax porters, lamplighters, Whitehall is covered. £12.99, History Press, 2014 munition workers, Vividly illustrated with This book offers an in-depth policewomen, train guards, evocative images from family portrait of the capital and its messengers, bakers, archives and newspapers of people during the “war to end ambulance drivers and many, the day as well as official all wars”. many others usually taken photographs, the author has Starting with a timeline of by men. commemorated the the years and their major On nearly every page are extraordinary bravery and events, it describes, with photographs of life during sacrifice of London’s residents well-researched detail, the these times – some humorous, between 1914 and 1918. experiences of individuals such as the trainee pilot who This book is part of the including those who enlisted landed his plane (safely) on publisher’s Great War Britain: in the forces and worked  the roof of a house in Remembering 1914-18 series, in local hospitals. Tales of  era are included. Twickenham, some sad, like which looks at the effect of the the Zeppelin raids and Many women found the memorials to the fallen. war on different communities. anti-German riots of the  employment outside the home The history of Peter Fuller

18 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Camden History Review: 39 £5.95, Camden History Society Special offer: ends 31 December Five deeply researched articles make up this collection of historical items. 40% discount on Eccentric London These range from and Freedom Pass London blitzed to the Jewish tragedy in Alfred Place Bradt Travel Guides is offering Islington Archaeology & – the authors using a few of History Society members an exclusive 40% off Freedom the thousand or so wartime Pass London and Eccentric London. photographs held in at Camden’s local history centre. Freedom Pass London features 25 days out for anyone with A chapter on Camden’s a freedom pass or Oyster card – all walks are within 15 vestry and town halls is miles of central London and are easily accessible by train, complete with prints of these tube or bus. The authors describe places of imposing buildings and maps interest along each route, and include maps showing where they were. which was unveiled by his son and photographs. They cover pubs, churches, The Orwell in Camden Richard Blair and mayor of museums, political and literary history, article looks at where he lived Camden Lazzaro Pietragnoli galleries and wildlife. The distance and in the borough, and is coupled at 2 Lansdowne Terrace. difficulty of each walk are given and all can with modern photographs of The tragedy of the Arandora be made family friendly. the many blue plaques Star disaster in the Second showing where he lived, World War ago is also solidly In Eccentric London, you’ll including the latest plaque, researched. The ship, which meet a man who rides down the river in an was transporting Italian Edwardian bath chair, another who listens to internees to Canada, was  tube trains from the road above with a large sunk by the German hearing-trumpet and more characters. The submarine U-47. books also tells you about eccentric pubs Finally, the death of John (including one with a pile of century-old hot Dickens, father of author cross buns, lovely), restaurants, shops, Charles, and the fate of John’s museums and neighbourhoods. widow are described – again, well researched. To get your 40% off, visit www.bradtguides.com All well worth the yearly and enter the code “IAHS” at the checkout or wait for this excellent phone 01753 480633 Plaque in Lawford Road, publication. Kentish Town Peter Fuller

Crouch End: Four Walks buildings of architectural Hornsey and Islington Eleri Rowlands interest, such as the 1912 parishes. £4.50, Hornsey Historical Arthouse, previously a The fourth walk begins at Society, 2015 Salvation Army Citadel. The Broadway, near the This booklet updates HHS’s Walk three is from the famous Dunn’s Bakery shop Crouch End – a Walk by imposing Hornsey Town  – where one just has to stop to Bridget Cherry and Ken Gay Hall, built 1933, with its purchase one of their which was, or so it seemed, sculptured plaques above the wonderful cakes and buns. permanently in my jacket entrance door and porch. The walk ends back in the pocket. Nearby, the former gas centre of Crouch End and, All four walks are illustrated showrooms also have a series from there, one has the  with many photographs. of stone panels by Arthur choice of the many coffee The first walk takes you Ayres on the frontage, shops to sit in and muse over from the impressive clock depicting scenes related to the the places of interest you  tower dedicated to HR gas industry. have seen. Williams, a tireless worker in Of interest to me, as a Another fine “walks” preserving Hornsey’s open researcher of boundary booklet from the Hornsey spaces, especially Highgate stones, is a photograph of the Historical Society and I Woods, to Park Road. 1741 stone marker on the anticipate that it will soon be The second walk is from kerb, just as one comes out of dog-eared through much use Weston Park (to the east of Vicarage Path, that denotes and reference. the clock tower) past many the boundary between Peter Fuller Plaque: Spudgun67

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 19 City-centre Smithfield to Hornsey village church: two new publications

Two major local history books Bartholomew Fair, the palace architectural historian who have been published. of the Bishops of Ely, medieval edited the Pevsner Smithfield: Past, Present and tournaments, and crime and Architectural Guides series. Future by Alec Forshaw punishment. The book, published by the (pictured at the book’s launch) It is published by Hale Hornsey Historical Society, traces the development of the Books and costs £18.99. tells the story of the area from Roman times to the Ivy Mantled Tower: a succession of church buildings present. Its streets were largely History of the Church and that formed a significant focus untouched by the Great Fire Churchyard of St Mary for local society in Hornsey of 1666 or the 1940s blitz. Hornsey, Middlesex is a village over 500 years. It costs As well as the cattle and meticulously research and £19.95 + £2.50p&p. meat market, the book covers lavishly illustrated history by Reviews are planned for our St Bartholomew’s hospital, Bridget Cherry, an spring issue.

Britain in the Twentieth with the skills needed to Caledonian Park and its Century achieve successful work. Surroundings Ian Cawood Source material, Sylvia Tunstall, Patsy Ainger, £16.99, Routledge chronologies, tables and Robyn Lyons This volume focuses on key diagrams are generous £5.00 + 75p p&p, Islington developments and periods of throughout. Society, available from the IAHS the 20th century, compiled in The appendix includes This area reflects the energy an engaging and encouraging at-a-glance biographies of the and ambition way. Each is explained in main figures. The glossary is of the detail, and is accompanied by helpful and succinct, and the Victorian exercises and essay advice. index extensive. Suggested Age and is Its main areas are essentially: further reading is grouped full of the opening decade; the First into primary and secondary architectural, World War and its impact; sources, and secondary historical interwar domestic problems; sources grouped by theme, and social interest. This booklet concurrent interwar chronology and discipline. subject area. As it is clearly takes you on a mile-long walk diplomacy; the Second World Part of the Routledge’s intended to be helpful to within the boundaries of the War; the postwar consensus; Spotlight History series, it  courses other than the huge cattle market that once and the closing years. In each is primarily aimed at AS  prescriptive AS, I would not occupied the site. chapter, the history is given a and A level students, but is hesitate to use it in adult disciplinary approach, also appropriate for education. The London Dog from the combining essential knowledge undergraduates new to the Andy Gardner Romans to Today; The London Cat: its Lives & $ Times; The London Cat II James Dowsing Order form for books from the IAHS (photocopies acceptable) £4.00 + 75p p&p, Sunrise Press Name ...... available from the IAHS From royal corgis to Battersea Address ...... mutts and a heroic wartime poodle, The London Dog looks ...... at a London dog’s life over the Tel no/email (in case we need to contact you about your order) ...... centuries. The two London Cat Title(s)of publication Cost booklets show how London and cat history ......   ...... are intertwined ......   ...... – there are cat paw prints on ......   ...... the Museum of London’s roof Total cost  ...... tiles. There are Please make cheques payable to “Islington Archaeology & History Society”; send this form wartime cats, theatre cats, (photocopies acceptable) to IAHS, 8 Wynyatt Street, London EC1V 7HU cathedral cats, political cats and, yes, Islington cats.

20 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Buy from the society store The Jewish Communities of Islington, 1730s-1880s The society stocks books, postcards, maps of Islington and beyond Petra Laidlaw and more – some are listed here. Call Catherine Brighty on 020 7833 £9.99 + £2.80 p&p, Islington 1541 if you wish to order several items or collect them in person. Archaeology and History Society Book title Author Price p&p Total Islington has (£) (£) (£) been home to a sizeable Jewish An Architect in Islington Harley Sherlock 14.99 2.80 17.79 population for Angus McBean in Islington Mary Cosh, ed 4.00 1.20 5.20 over 250 years, The Building That Lived Twice Alec Forshaw 20.00 2.80 22.80 although their long history is Caledonian Park and its Surroundings Sylvia Tunstall, Patsy 5.00 0.75 5.75 largely Ainger, Robyn Lyons forgotten. Church Design for Congregations James Cubitt 11.00 1.50 12.50 Several were well-to-do public Cinemas of Haringey Jeremy Buck 9.99 1.50 11.49 figures, while many more The Contexting of a Chapel Architect: James Clyde Binfield 18.00 1.90 19.90 lived in much humbler Cubitt 1836-1912 circumstances. This volume traces a cross section of Criminal Islington Keith Sugden, ed 5.00 1.40 6.40 characters, their religious life, 53 Cross Street. Biography of a House  Mary Cosh and 9.95 1.90 11.85 their occupations and their ON SALE Martin King contact with the rest of the Dead Born Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 community. Dead Image Joan Lock 7.99 2.80 10.79 Bargain books Discover De Beauvoir Town and Environs Mike Gray and 1.50 0.75 2.25 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 of a House Dissent & the Gothic Revival Bridget Cherry, ed 15.00 1.65 16.65 Mary Cosh and Martin King, An Historical Walk Along the New River Mary Cosh 4.00 1.65 5.65 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 This book is a must for anyone Islington: Britain in Old Photographs Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 interested in the history of Islington: the Second Selection Gavin Smith 12.99 1.65 14.64 home decor. It Islington Byways James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 tells the story of how one The Jewish Communities of Islington, 1730s-1880s Petra Laidlaw 9.99 2.80 11.79 house The London Cat: Its Lives & Times James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 changed since The London Cat 2: Plus Return of the Cat-Sitter James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 1785, The London Dog James Dowsing 4.00 0.75 4.75 illustrated 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 New City: Contemporary Architecture in the Alec Forshaw 19.95 2.80 22.75 Only Bricks and Mortar City of London Harry Walters £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 The Squares of Islington Part II. Islington Parish Mary Cosh 7.50 1.50 9.00 working class 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 Mugs: Union Chapel and Caledonian Park 6.00 2.80 8.80 notorious council tenements 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 Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 21 Exhibitions A thousand years of West Africa told through sight and sound

he story of West Africa’s More recent complex oral and written contributions Ttraditions and contributions include to society over the past 1,000 years Nollywood is told at this exhibition. (Nigerian film) West African history is traced posters, books on through illuminated manuscripts, every subject artworks, masks, woven and from satire to printed textiles, and a wide variety science fiction of texts and objects from ancient and politics to cities. Historical sound and film protest, plus recordings, including an ancient comics and drum language, are broadcast children’s stories. throughout the exhibition. Five years in A pair of atumpan, or “talking the making, this drums”, like those still used in including: the first published 19th century exhibition, a chronological record Ghana, can be seen as well as heard, African-American female poet, Songhai village of West Africa’s achievements past as can an akonting, a banjo-like Phillis Wheatley; the most famous I’sé, in modern- and present, is not to be missed. n instrument commissioned from a 18th century British writer of day Mali; West Africa: London-based Gambian musician African heritage, Olaudah weight used for Word, Symbol, weighing gold – an example of living tradition, as Equiano; and Nobel prize winner dust, Ghana Song is on at the instruments are still crafted Professor Wole Soyinka. Soyinka’s – the crocodile the British today as they have been cousin – Nigerian human rights symbolises Library until throughout history. activist and Afrobeat musician Fela cooperation 16 February, A large body of contemporary Kuti – is also featured, and the film £10/concs writers and thinkers from West Finding Fela: Music is the Weapon

British Library/weight on loan from /weight Africa are brought to the table, can be viewed. Alexis Magness

Glorious gold and exuberant jewels

his magnificent the eye and quite takes exhibition displays one’s breath away. T100 items ranging Usually, V&A from an 18th century previews are vociferous bejewelled gold tiger’s affairs; this one was head finial from Sultan different. There was an Tipu of Mysore’s throne almost stunned hush; to the Maharaja of and conversations were Nawanagar’s 20th century muted as if respecting diamond-encrusted turban the magnificence of the ornament. There are also objects. When I jewelled daggers and dazzling Jewelled bird photographed some emerald rings, necklaces, bracelets, rings and and dagger, I asked someone to put her hand brooches from India and Europe. and Sultan beside them to demonstrate their explores two central Indian It triumphantly demonstrates the Tipu’s sheer size. jewellery techniques with a film of skill of Indian jewellery-making gold The exhibition is divided into jewellers at work. from the 17th century to modern throne sections, such as the Court, the Highly recommended for times and how it influenced finial Age of Transition and banishing winter blues. n Western jewellers, such as Cartier Modernity. Each hexagonal l Bejewelled Treasures: the Al Thani and Jar, as well as being influenced space echoes a jewel box Collection is on at the Victoria & in its turn by European of which enables the viewers to Albert Museum until 28 March, the 1930s. see each object clearly and to £10/concs The sparkle and fire from so understand its relationship many rubies, spinels, emeralds, with the other objects around it. Elizabeth Hawksley

Victoria & Albert Museum; Al Thani Collection/Servette Overseas/Prudence Cuming Associates Cuming Overseas/Prudence Collection/Servette Thani Al Albert Museum; & Victoria pearls and diamonds almost blinds The Kundan and Enamel section www.elizabethhawksley.com

22 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Influence and independence in religious Egypt

of Sephardic Jewish philosopher and teacher Maimonides. These communities lived together, and were influenced by other traditions while staying independent of them. Cross fertilisation is shown in Egyptian god Horus in Roman military costume uniform, and early non-Christian influences on the depictions of the Virgin and child, such as the pose of goddess Isis ver 200 ancient artefacts, Ivory box nursing Horus as a child. Sculptures including documents, showing Daniel show combined Egyptian and textiles, carvings and flanked by lions; Roman influences, such as a Christians and Muslims. O Horus in Roman sculpture, place Judaism, bronze statue of a Roman emperor Everyday life at the time is Christianity and Islam in the military dress; with the head of jackal god Anubis. shown through clothing, furniture painted toy context of their proximity and Objects survived in Egypt’s arid and a child’s pull-along toy. cultures, with the polytheistic climate, and they tell a complex This exhibition brings to life the faiths – and influences – around story of influences of shift from a world of many gods to them. After the age of the phar- long periods of the worship of one, and leaves you aohs, Egyptian history was shaped coexistence and with much food for thought. n by these religions. intermittent l Egypt: Faith After the Pharaohs The earliest Bible, alongside tension and is on at the British Museum until the Torah and Qu’ran, introduce violence 7 February, £10/concs the displays. There is a rare between opportunity to see the handwriting Jews, Andy Gardner British Museum

A culture that remains slyly and entertainingly creative

his refurbished gallery pleasure from the 17th to the on Western innovations. On showcases highlights from 19th centuries. While some of show are a spectacular Dutch Tthe V&A’s collection of the 18th century prints on naval sword decorated in Japanese art and design. display seem to have the same Japanese style for a Samurai At the front is a spectacular 19th satirical intent as their London warrior, and a delightful print of a century suit of armour, part of a counterparts, this was a very “Foreign Goods Shop” in which we display about the samurai warrior different society, with an can see two Japanese gentlemen tradition. This includes the astringently elegant aesthetic. with a static electricity globe. weaponry the samurai carried; The gallery’s perhaps most A kimono, woven to celebrate Japanese steel was once the best in famous exhibit, the Mazarin Chest Kimono to mark the first Tokyo-London flight in the world and the swords still (1640-43), demonstrates the Tokyo-London 1937, has all the excitement of a glitter with danger. An entertaining appetite for Japanese goods in the flight; Mazarin contemporary Daily Mail spread. video, derived from a historic west. The Japanese were also keen Chest This exhibition shows how the Japanese illustrated manual, Japanese have never been submerged demonstrates the very many stages by Western influence, and the in putting on a suit of armour. craze for “cute” kawaii – once a fad Across the gallery in another among young girls, but now seeping video, a model demonstrates the through the culture – shows how nearly as complex task of putting slyly, entertainingly creative this on a kimono; the kimonos on parallel universe can be. n display show superb workmanship. l Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art, There are beautiful displays Victoria & Albert Museum, free about religion, the tea ceremony, theatre and the Floating World – David Wilson an urban lifestyle centred around www.davidgmwilson.com/ Albert Museum & Victoria

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 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

Saturday 12 December Saturday 19 December, 1.15pm Tuesday 12 January, 6pm Professor Raymond Flood 10th Anniversary of Route Russian Revolutionary Plates A Very Brief History of Museum of London, free, 159 Margaret O’Brien Computing, 1948-2015 Gresham College event Fleet of Routemaster buses British Museum, free Professor Martyn Thomas along 159 route. Free to watch Museum of London, free. Tuesday 19 January, 6pm Tuesday 22 December, 2pm Gresham College event The IMF Crisis, 1976 Saturday 12 December, 1.15pm Electronic Resources Professor Vernon Bogdanor Feeding the Gods: Feasting Workshop on biographical, Tuesday 12 January, 6.30pm Museum of London, free. in Mesopotamia family and London resources. 100 – a Multi- Gresham College event Kaori O’Connor Guildhall Library, free Period Excavation Next to British Museum, free London Wall Wednesday 20 January, 2pm Thursday 7 January, 1.30pm Guy Hunt Copyright for Family History Sunday 13 December, 3pm Judaism in Egypt: Philo to Museum of London, London Society of Genealogists, Jackanory at 50 Maimonides & Middlesex Archaeological £8/£6.40 With people who worked on Nicholas de Lange Society, £2 the show. Foyles bookshop, British Museum, free, booking Thursday 21 January, 1.15pm £10, book at www.thechildrens essential Wednesday 13 January, 2pm Living with the Past: mediafoundation.org Discovering Discovery: Temples, Churches and Thursday 7 January, 2pm Using the National Archives Mosques in Egypt Tuesday 15 December, 1.15pm Dogs in Space Website and Catalogue Elisabeth R O’Connell Sobek: Egypt’s Crocodile Doug Millard Guy Grannum Free, British Museum God Science Museum, free, Society of Genealogists, free, Julie Anderson booking essential booking essential Thursday 21 January, 1.30pm British Museum, free Curator’s Introduction to Thursday 7 January, 7.30pm Wednesday 13 January, 7.30pm Celts: Art and Identity Wednesday 16 December, Leonardo’s Waterways The Friern Hospital Story Rosie Weetch 1.15pm Dr Roger Squires David Berguer British Museum, free, booking Susan Woodford London Canal Museum,  Hornsey Historical Society, £2 essential The Parthenon Sculptures £4/concs British Museum, free Thursday 14 January, 1.15pm Friday 22 January, 1.30pm Friday 8 January, 1.30pm Everyday Life of the Celts Codex Sinaiticus: the Thursday 17 December, 1.15pm Curator’s Introduction to Jody Joy World’s Oldest Bible Festive Dining in the 17th Egypt: Faith After the British Museum, free Scot McKendrick Century Pharaohs British Museum, free, booking Hilary Williams Amandine Mérat Thursday 14 January, 4pm essential British Museum, free British Museum, free, booking Vartan of Nazareth essential Malcolm Billings Friday 22 January, 6.30pm Friday 18 December, 1.15pm British Museum, free, booking Interpreting Celtic Art Hoards from Ancient Tuesday 12 January, 1pm essential Alice Roberts in conversation Britain The American Way of War British Museum, £5, booking Eleanor Ghey in History and Politics Friday 15 January, 1.30pm essential British Museum, free Prof Brian McAllister Linn The National Eisteddfod of Museum of London, free. Wales: a Cultural Monday 25 January, 6pm Friday 18 December, 6.15pm Gresham College event Celebration 1176–2015 No Need for Geniuses: Stylistic Clues Suggestive of Christine James, archdruid Scientific Revolutions and an Enduring ‘Pygmy’ Tuesday 12 January, 1.15pm British Museum, free, booking Revolutionary Scientists in Civilisation Daily Life in Late Antique essential the City of Light Jerome Lewis Egypt Professor Steve Jones British Museum, free, booking Amandine Mérat Tuesday 19 January, 1pm Museum of London, free. essential British Museum, free Babbage and Lovelace Gresham College event

24 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 Wednesday 2 March, 6pm Five Years a Dockyard Apprentice Len Taphouse, former apprentice Museum of , £2. Docklands History Group event

Thursday 3 March, 2pm Dogs in Space Doug Millard Science Museum, free, booking essential

Thursday 3 March, 7.30pm The Glamorganshire Canal Stephen Rowson London Canal Museum, £4/ concs

Tuesday 8 March, 6pm Friern Hospital: talk at Hornsey Historical Society on 13 January The Falklands War, 1982 Professor Vernon Bogdanor Wednesday 27 January, 7.45pm Thursday 4 February, 7.30 pm Tuesday 16 February, 6pm Museum of London, free. Garden Cities Industry in the Lee Valley Germs, Genes and Genesis: Gresham College event David Berguer Jim Lewis the History of Infectious Friern Barnet & District Local London Canal Museum, £4/ Disease Tuesday 8 March, 6.30pm History Society, £2 concs Professor Steve Jones The Cuming Museum in Museum of London, free. Friday 29 January, 1.30pm Tuesday 9 February, 6.30pm Gresham College event Judy Aiken Faith after the Pharaohs ‘Sights Most Strange’: Museum of London, London Elisabeth O’Connell, curator Tourists in Medieval and Thursday 18 February, 1pm & Middlesex Archaeological With text transcription. British Early Modern London Medieval Music: the Society, £2 Museum, free, booking essential John Clark Mystery of Women Museum of London, London Professor Christopher Page Tuesday 8 March, 8pm Monday 1 February, 1.30pm & Middlesex Archaeological St Sepulchre Without The Crossrail Archaeology The Establishment of Islam Society, £2 , free. Gresham Project in Early Medieval Egypt College event Jay Carver Hugh Kennedy Tuesday 9 February, 8pm Hendon & District British Museum, free, booking Medieval Middlesex – the Thursday, 21 January, 1pm Archaeological Society essential Archaeological Remains The Dreams and Adam Corsini Nightmares of Christian Wednesday 9 March, 2pm Wednesday 3 February, 12pm Hendon & District Liberalism Adele Emm Surname Searching: SOG Archaeological Society Professor Alec Ryrie My Ancestor Made Hats Pedigrees Online Gresham College, Barnard’s Society of Genealogists, Else Churchill Wednesday 10 February, 7.30pm Inn Hall, free £8/£6.40 Society of Genealogists, free Darling Daisy Dr Neil Houghton Wednesday 24 February, 7.45pm Wednesday 9 March, 6pm Wednesday 3 February, 6pm Hornsey Historical Society, £2 Time for Tea: a History of Set Square and Stethoscope: Barge Carrier Systems Tea Drinking the Architecture of London’s David Hilling Tuesday 16 February, 1pm John Neal Medical Profession Museum of London Docklands, Gauss and Germain Friern Barnet & District Local Dr Simon Thurley £2. Docklands History Group Professor Raymond Flood History Society, £2 Museum of London, free. Museum of London, free. Gresham College event Thursday 4 February, 6pm Gresham College event Wednesday 2 March, 12pm The Lost World of the Else Churchill Wednesday 9 March, 7.30pm Georgian Chocolate House Wednesday 24 February, 2pm Surname Searching: Society Another Kind of Life: Dr Matthew Green Thames River Police Museum of Genealogists Pedigrees Dickens and the Theatre Talk and wine reception, Visit with Rob Jeffries Offline Dr Tony Williams

Guildhall Library, £6.25 Society of Genealogists, £10/£8 Society of Genealogists, free Hornsey Historical Society, £2 Images Wellcome

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 25 Ongoing l Use LMA: Getting Started Victoria and Albert Exhibitions and Using the Catalogue Museum free tours Contact the organisations for l Behind the Scenes Tour These include: Until Sunday 20 December dates, times and prices. Please l Handling Documents at l Daily Introductory Tour More than Meets the Eye: note that prices may change. LMA l Medieval and Renaissance New Research on the l Deciphering Old Galleries Estorick Collection Roman fort gate tours Handwriting l Theatre and Performance This exhibition shows how Tour the remains of the l LGBTQ History Club l British Galleries analysis of art works has shed western gate of London’s l Film Club See: www.vam.ac.uk/whatson light on techniques used by Roman military fort, beneath l A Visit to Conservation painters and revealed the streets next to the Contact the LMA for First Thursday of the month, 2pm previously unknown images museum. information, dates and times. British Library Conservation beneath or on the back of the Museum of London, £5 Studio Tour collection’s masterpieces. Marx Memorial Library tours See techniques used in caring Estorick Collection, £5/concs The Waddesdon Bequest Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1pm, for collections. New gallery displaying nearly View a collection illustrating British Library, £10/concs Until Sunday 3 January 300 medieval and Renaissance radical and working class Christmas Past: 400 Years pieces, as well as a number of history. This includes where Behind the Scenes at the of Seasonal Traditions in 19th-century fakes, collected Lenin worked in exile in Museum Depot English Homes by Baron Ferdinand 1902-03, items from the Last Friday and Saturday of Authentic festive decorations, Rothschild MP (1839–1898), Spanish Civil War, Soviet every month lighting, music and greenery which illustrate the Union posters and artefacts Tours of London Transport give visitors an evocative development of the art market from industrial disputes, such Museum’s depot. This holds insight into Christmas in the late 19th century. as the mineworkers’ and over 370,000 items, including celebrations in middle-class Free, British Museum Wapping strikes of the 1980s. vehicles, buildings, signs, homes in England over the The building’s 15th century ceramic tiles, ticket machines past 400 years. Discover the Tours of Union Chapel vaults can be visited. and ephemera. origins of Christmas 12.15pm, first Sunday of the Book on [email protected] or £12/concs, book: 020 7565 traditions including kissing month call 02072531485. £5/£3 concs 7298/www.ltmuseum.co.uk under the mistletoe, hanging A chance to appreciate the up stockings, sending cards beauty, complex architecture British Museum: Around Markfield Beam Engine and and decorating a tree. and extent of Union Chapel’s the World in 90 Minutes Museum Open Days Geffrye Museum, free buildings, including areas Fridays, Saturdays and 11am-5pm, second Sunday of rarely open to the public, a Sundays, 11.30am and 2pm the month, plus bank holidays Until Friday 8 January secret passage and a hidden Guided tour looking at the Markfield Park, N15, free, www. Talbot House: an Oasis in a garden. Group bookings  Rosetta Stone, the Lewis mbeam.org, 01707 873628 World Gone Crazy also available. chessmen, the Parthenon In 1915, army chaplain Philip £5, donation, book in advance sculptures and other items. Historic Tour “Tubby” Clayton established on 020 7359 4019 British Museum, £12, booking The Geffrye Museum’s the Everyman’s Club at Talbot required 18th-century almshouse offers House in the town of George Orwell’s Islington a glimpse into the lives of Poperinge, a few miles from Various dates and times Roman House London’s poor and elderly in the front line in Ypres. Here, George Orwell was at his most and Baths the 18th and 19th centuries. rank was irrelevant, orders prolific during his time in Various dates and times [email protected], were prohibited and all Islington. While he was living Talk plus tour of the remains 020 7739 9893 soldiers were encouraged to at 27b Canonbury Square, of the Billingsgate Roman forget about the war. This Animal Farm was published House and Baths,  Clerkenwell and Islington exhibition includes items and he worked on drafts of discovered  Guides Association: walks from Talbot House, Tubby’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in 1848  Guided walks led by the memoirs and the hut in which published essays and articles, under mayor of Islington’s he wrote them after fleeing  and broadcast extensively. Lower guides. the Germans. Contact Andrew Gardner on Thames www.ciga.org.uk. Guildhall Library, free walks@islington history.org. Street. uk or 020 7359 4019 Until Sunday 10 January The Lewis The Fabric of India chessmen are London Metropolitan evidence of cultural This exhibition showcases Archives: regular events and political over 200 objects from the Events, including advice on connections third to the 21st centuries, research and meeting LMA between including Tipu Sultan’s professionals. Include: medieval Britain spectacular 18th-century tent, l Family History Starter and Scandinavia historic costumes, textiles for

26 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 international trade and fashion considers the changing nature by celebrated Indian designers. of crime and detection over the Victoria & Albert Museum, past 140 years. Giving a voice £14/concs to victims, perpetrators and police officers, it explores the Until Saturday 10 January impact of crime and confronts London Dust how society responds when Small exhibition on the lives are torn apart, while redevelopment of the City of questioning the enduring London and the 2008 financial fascination with this collection. crisis. Blees Luxemburg Museum of London,  contrasts the idealised, £10/concs computer-generated visions of office towers with the reality. Until Sunday 17 April Museum of London, free Alice in Wonderland This exhibition celebrates 150 Until Saturday 16 January years since the publication of Trade – Often Copied, Making money: this counterfeiting equipment is on show at the Alice’s Adventures in Never Equalled Crime Museum Uncovered at the Museum of London Wonderland. On show are This exhibition celebrates  Lewis Carroll’s original five years since this highly affected every part of life. artefacts shown in the UK, manuscript with hand-drawn successful and influential gay British Museum, £10/concs including spacecraft, illustrations, alongside work club night opened in l Review, page 23 memorabilia and items by Sir John Tenniel, Mervyn Clerkenwell. Advertised as needed to live in space, Peake, Ralph Steadman, “the original all-night bender”, Until Tuesday 16 February including a shower, toilet, Leonard Weisgard, Arthur Trade operated from 4am until West Africa: Word, Symbol, medical instruments and Rackham, Mabel Lucie Atwell, 1pm on Sundays. It held events Song survival kits for crash landings. Helen Oxenbury, Salvador around the UK and the world, West Africans have harnessed Science Museum, £14/concs Dali and others, as well as a and was featured on TV. the power of words to build silent 1903 film of the story Islington Museum, free societies, drive political and early memorabilia. movements, sustain religious British Library, free Until Sunday 31 January belief and fight injustice. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Manuscripts, historic film and Until Friday 24 April 2016 Historic shoes, including a sound recordings, books, Lee Miller: a Woman’s War sandal decorated in gold leaf photographs and textiles offer This exhibition traces Lee from ancient Egypt, and an insight into a profound and Miller’s vision of women and elaborate modern designs are engaging literary culture. their lives before, during and used to consider the cultural £10/concs Sir John Tenniel’s Cheshire Cat, after the Second World War in significance of shoes. l Review, page 23 1866. See Alice in both Britain and Europe. Victoria & Albert Museum, Wonderland, British Library Miller was one of only four £12/concs Until Sunday 21 February female war photographers Julia Margaret Cameron Until Monday 28 March with US accreditation, and the Until Sunday 31 January To mark the bicentenary of Bejewelled Treasures: the first woman reporter in Celts: Art and Identity the birth of Julia Margaret Al Thani Collection Normandy after the D-Day Celtic art and identity is Cameron, one of the most This exhibition showcases the landings. This exhibition examined from the first important and experimental evolution and enduring features many photographs, recorded mention of Celts photographers of the 19th influence of Indian jewellery objects, art and personal items 2,500 years ago to modern century, the V&A is displaying from the Mughal Empire to never before seen on display. influences. On display are 100 of her photographs. the modern day. It highlights ,  Iron Age military items, Free, Victoria & Albert Indian traditions in design £10/concs Roman jewellery, medieval Museum and craftsmanship, focusing manuscripts and crosses and a on centuries-old techniques. Until Monday 27 April Liberty tea set. Until Friday 13 March l Review, page 22 War in London British Museum, £16.50/concs Cosmonauts: Birth of the Exhibition on the effects of Space Age Until Friday 10 April five conflicts on Londoners Until Sunday 7 February This exhibition tells the story The Crime Museum and their city, from the Egypt: Faith After the of how Russia turned the Uncovered to the Cold Pharaohs dream of space travel into a The exhibition of objects from War, with maps, manuscripts, This tells the story of the shift reality. It displays the most the Metropolitan Police’s films and photographs. from ancient gods to significant collection of Crime Museum – on public London Metropolitan

monotheism, and how it Russian spacecraft and display for the first time – Archives, free British Museum; Museum of London; Library

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Winter 2015-16 Vol 5 No 4 27 Brixton Windmill Docklands History Group Directory 020 7926 6056, www. info@docklandshistory group. brixtonwindmill.org/ org.uk

History, civic, amenity and archaeology Museum Dictionary of Victorian societies, museums and online resources Lordship Lane, N17 8NU, 020 London/Cat’s Meat Shop 8808 8772, museum.services@ Encyclopaedia and blog, www. haringey.gov.uk victorianlondon.org

Check opening times before Benjamin Franklin House Burgh House and DoCoMoMo UK visiting. If you would like to Craven Street, WC2N 5NF, Hampstead Museum Modern movement heritage. update details or add your 020 7925 1405, info@ New End Sq, NW3, 020 7431 www.docomomo-uk.co.uk organisations, email editor BenjaminFranklinHouse.org 0144, www.burghhouse.org.uk Christy Lawrance on christy@ East London History Society islingtonhistory.org.uk or c/o Bethlem Royal Hospital Camden History Society 42 Campbell Rd, E3 4DT, mail 6 Northview, Tufnell Park Archives and Museum 020 7586 4436, www. @eastlondonhistory.org.uk Road, N7 0QB Monks Orchard Road, camdenhistorysociety.org Beckenham, 020 3228 4227, Enfield Archaeological All Hallows by the Tower www.bethlemheritage.org.uk Camden New Town History Society Crypt Museum Group www.enfarchsoc.org 020 7481 2928, www.ahbtt.org. Bexley Archaeological www.camdennewtown.info uk/visiting/crypt-museum/ Group Estorick Collection of www.bag.org.uk, Martin Camden Railway Heritage Modern Italian Art Amateur Geological Baker: 020 8300 1752 Trust 39a Canonbury Square, N1 Society 21 Oppidans Road, NW3, 2AN, 020 7704 9522, info@ 25 Village Road, N3 1TL Institute [email protected] www.estorickcollection.com Library and Archive Amwell Society 230 Bishopsgate, EC2M, 020 Canonbury Society Foundling Museum 8 Cumberland Gardens, 7392 9270, www.bishopsgate. www.canonburysociety.org. 40 Brunswick Square, WC1, WC1X 9AG, 020 7837 0988, org.uk uk, 1 Alwyne Place, N1 020 7841 3600, www. [email protected] foundlingmuseum.org.uk Bomb Sight Chartered Institution of Ancestor Search London map of WW2 bombs, Building Services Engineers Freud Museum Guidance on where to look. www.bombsight.org Heritage Group 20 Maresfield Gdns, NW3, 020 www.ancestor-search.info www.hevac-heritage.org/ 7435 2002, www.freud.org.uk British Airways Heritage The Angel Association www.britishairways.com/ Cinema Museum Friends of Hackney Archives www.angelassociation.org.uk travel/museum-collection/ www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/ Hackney Archives, Dalston public/en_gb Sq, E8 3BQ, 020 8356 8925, Archives Hub City of London [email protected] http://archiveshub.ac.uk/ British Heritage TV Archaeological Society www.405-line.tv/ [email protected] Friern Barnet & District Arsenal FC Museum Local History Society 020 7619 5000, www.arsenal. British Library Clerkenwell and Islington 020 8368 8314. Photo archive: com 96 Euston Rd, NW1, 0330 333 Guides Association www.friern-barnet.com 1144, [email protected] 07971 296731, [email protected]. Association for the Study uk Friends of the New River and Preservation of Roman British Museum Head Mosaics Great Russell Street, WC1, 020 Clockmakers’ Museum c/o Amwell Society www.asprom.org 7323 8299, information@ www.clockmakers.org/ britishmuseum.org museum-and-library Friends of Friendless Churches Museum www.friendsoffriendless Threadneedle St, EC2R 8AH, British Postal Museum and , WC2R 0RN, churches.org.uk 020 7601 5545, www.bankof Archive 020 7848 2526, galleryinfo@ england.co.uk/museum Freeling House, Phoenix courtauld.ac.uk Geffrye Museum Place, WC1X 0DL; store at 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA, Barnet Museum and Local Debden, Essex, 020 7239 2570, Cross Bones Graveyard 020 7739 9893, www.geffrye- History Society [email protected] www.crossbones.org.uk museum.org.uk www.barnetmuseum.co.uk British Vintage Wireless Crossness Pumping Station Georgian Group BBC archive Society 020 8311 3711, www. 6 Fitzroy Square, W1T 5DX, www..co.uk/archive [email protected] crossness.org.uk [email protected]

28 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2015 Vol 5 No 3 Grant Museum of Zoology You can 020 3108 2052, www.ucl.ac. search the uk/museums/zoology ’s Gresham College collection Free lectures on different online topics, www.gresham.ac.uk – which includes this Greater London Industrial skeletal- Archaeology Society taxidermy double (GLIAS) preparation of 14 Mount Rd, EN4 9RL, 020 a European 8692 8512, www.glias.org.uk hedgehog

Guildhall Library Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH, 020 7332 1868, textphone 020 7332 3803, guildhall.library@ cityoflondon.gov.uk Hornsey Historical Society Sun, 020 7527 2837, islington. Museum The Old Schoolhouse, 136 [email protected], 020 8555 1200, www.london- Hackney Museum Lane, N8 7EL, www.islington.gov.uk/museum fire.gov.uk/london-fire- 1 Reading Lane, E8 1GQ, hornseyhistorical.org.uk brigade-museum.asp www. hackney.gov.uk/ Islington’s Lost Cinemas cm-museum.htm Hunterian Museum www.islingtonslostcinemas.com London Lives 1690-1800 RCS, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn www.londonlives.org The Hackney Society Fields, WC2, www.rcseng. Islington Society Round Chapel, 1d Glenarm ac.uk/museums 3P Leroy, 436 Essex Road London Metropolitan Road, E5 0LY, 020 7175 1967, London N1 3QP Archives [email protected] IanVisits [email protected] 40 Northampton Rd, EC1 Blog with history and other 0HB, 020 7332 3820, ask. Hendon and District events. www.ianvisits.co.uk Jewish Museum [email protected], Archaeology Society www.jewishmuseum.org.uk www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma 020 8449 7076, hadas.org.uk Imperial War Museum Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ, Joe Meek Society London & Middlesex Heritage of London Trust www.iwm.org.uk www.joemeeksociety.org Archaeological Society 020 7730 9472, www. 020 7814 5734, www.lamas. heritageoflondon.com Islington and Camden Dr Johnson’s House org.uk Cemetery 17 Gough Square, EC4, www. Historic Hospital Admission High Road, East Finchley, N2 drjohnsonshouse.org London Museums of Health Records Project 9AG, 020 7527 8804, www. and Medicine www.hharp.org/ islington.gov.uk/ Keats House www.medicalmuseums.org Environment/cemeteries 020 7332 3868, keatshouse@ Highgate Literary and cityoflondon.gov.uk London Museum of Water Scientific Institution Archives Islingtonfacesblog.com & Steam [email protected] Living history interviews. Lewisham Local History 020 8568 4757, www. http://islingtonfacesblog.com Society waterandsteam.org.uk Historical Association, www.lewishamhistory.org.uk Central London Branch Islington Local History London Socialist Historians 020 7323 1192, www.history. Centre Locating London’s Past Group org.uk, [email protected] Finsbury Library, 245 St John www.locatinglondon.org http://londonsocialist St, EC1V 4NB. 9.30am-8pm historians.blogspot.com Historic Towns Mon and Thurs (shuts 6pm London Archaeological London Vintage Taxi www.historictowns forum.org every other Monday); Archive and Research Association 9.30am-5pm Tues, Fri and Sat; Centre Online Catalogue www.lvta.co.uk History of Harringay closed Weds and Sun; closed Lists over 7,500 sites, http:// www.harringayonline.com/ 1pm-2pm; 020 7527 7988; archive.museumoflondon.org. London Transport Museum group/historyofharringay [email protected], uk/laarc/catalogue/ 020 7379 6344, www. www.islington.gov.uk/heritage ltmuseum.co.uk Horniman Museum London Canal Museum 100 London Rd, SE23, 020 Islington Museum 12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 8699 1872, www.horniman. 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB, 9RT, 020 7713 0836, www. Railway Society ac.uk 10am-5pm, closed Weds and canalmuseum.org.uk [email protected]

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2015 Vol 5 No 3 29 London Westminster & National Piers Society Science Museum Transport Trust Middlesex Family History www.piers.org.uk Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD. Lambeth Rd, SE1, 020 7928 Society www.sciencemuseum.org.uk 6464, www.transporttrust.com www.lwmfhs.org.uk Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Sir ’s Museum Twentieth Century Society Markfield Beam Engine and Technology 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 Museum 020 7371 4445, office@ 3BP, www.soane.org 7250 3857, www.c20society. Markfield Park, N15, 01707 newcomen.com org.uk 873628, [email protected] Smithfield Trust Newington Green Action 70 Cowcross St, EC1, 020 Union Chapel and Friends Mausolea & Group 7566 0041 of the Union Chapel Trust 020 7359 6027, www. Compton Avenue, N1 2XD, www.mmtrust.org.uk newingtongreen.org.uk Society of Genealogists www.unionchapel.org.uk/ www.sog.org.uk, 020 7251 pages/friends.html Marx Memorial Library New River Action Group 8799, booking: 020 7553 3290 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1 [email protected], Victoria & Albert Museum 0DU, 020 7253 1485, info@ 020 8292 5987 Society for the Protection Cromwell Rd, SW7, 020 7907 marx-memorial-library.org of Ancient Buildings 7073, www.vam.ac.uk North London Railway 37 Spital Sq, E1 6DY, 020 7377 Museum of Brands Historical Society 1644, www.spab.org.uk V&A Museum of Childhood 020 7908 0880, info@ 020 7837 2542, www.nlrhs.org.uk Cambridge Heath Road, E2 museumofbrands.com Southwark and Lambeth 9PA, 020 8983 5200, www. Northview – 1930s estate Archaeology Society museumofchildhood.org.uk Museum of Domestic Design www.northview.org.uk 79 Ashridge Cres, SE18 3EA & Architecture (MoDA) Victorian Society 020 8411 4394, www.moda. Pauper Lives in Georgian The Streatham Society 020 8994 1019, www. mdx.ac.uk/home London and Manchester www.streathamsociety.org.uk victoriansociety.org.uk http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ Museum of London pauperlives Stuart Low Trust 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, www.slt.org.uk Hertford House, Manchester 020 7814 5511, info@ Peckham Society Sq, W1, 020 7563 9500, www. museumoflondon.org.uk www.peckhamsociety.org.uk Rotherhithe & wallacecollection.org Local History Society Museum of London Petrie Museum of Egyptian [email protected] Wallpaper History Society Archaeology Archaeology wallpaperhistorysociety. Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 UCL, Malet Place, WC1, www. Royal Archaeological org.uk Eagle Wharf Road, N1, 020 ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie Institute 7410 2200, www.museum [email protected] Walthamstow Historical oflondon archaeology.org.uk Proceedings of the Society www.oldbaileyonline.org Royal College of Nursing www.walthamstow Museum of London Docklands Library and Heritage Centre historicalsociety.org.uk/ 020 7001 9844, www.museum Rescue/British 0345 337 3368, rcn.library@ oflondon.org.uk/docklands Archaeological Trust rcn.org.uk Wellcome Collection www.rescue-archaeology.org.uk www.wellcomecollection.org Museum of the Order of Thames Discovery Programme St John Ragged School Museum Mortimer Wheeler Hse, 46 John Wesley’s House and St John’s Gate, EC1M 4DA, 020 8980 6405, www.ragged Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, 020 7410 Museum of Methodism 020 7324 4005, www. schoolmuseum.org.uk 2207, thamesdiscovery.org 49 City Rd, EC1, www.wesleys museumstjohn.org.uk chapel.org.uk/museum.htm Rowan Arts Project Theatres Trust Musical Museum 020 7700 2062, www. 020 7836 8591, www. William Morris Gallery 399 High Street, TW8 0DU, therowanartsproject.com theatrestrust.org.uk Forest Road, E17, 020 8496 www.musicalmuseum.co.uk 4390, www.wmgallery.org.uk Royal Air Force Museum Theatres Trust National Archives 020 8205 2266, www. 22 Road, Wilmington Square Society 020 8876 3444, www. rafmuseum.org.uk/london WC2H 0QL, 020 7836 8591, www.thewilmington nationalarchives.gov.uk www.theatrestrust.org.uk squaresociety.org Royal Institute of British National Churches Trust Architects (RIBA) Tiles and Architectural Women’s Library Collection www.nationalchurchestrust. 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD, Ceramics Society [email protected], org www.architecture.com http://tilesoc.org.uk [email protected]

30 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2015 Vol 5 No 3 Islington Archaeology & History Society Events

Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Meeting Rooms Wednesday 21 October, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall.

How to rebuild a Georgian house The Jewish Population of London in 1851

Gary Butler Petra Laidlaw

Gary Butler will Long before the great describe how influxes at the end of the Butler Hegarty 19th century, London Architects already had one of the recreated a biggest Jewish 19th century populations in the world. house in This talk will focus on The Great Synagogue of London Canonbury. those living throughout Forty-seven London in 1851 – who they were, where they were, where they’d Canonbury Square had been partly demolished and was come from and where they were bound. They could be found in severely neglected but was rescued, restored and recreated. almost all walks of life – from beggars to bankers and pretty well This included rebuilding the flank wall, complete with bricked- anything in between. up window spaces using Their story of immigration, settlement and integration is one the cleaned, original that still resonates today. One of the attractions of London – like bricks. today – was probably the huge range of opportunities on offer. Her research has its origins in her much wider research on the Change of venue: this event whole Jewish population of the British Isles. will be held at St Mary’s Petra is the author of the The Jewish Communities of Islington, Meeting Rooms, Upper 1730s-1880s, published by the IAHS (page 20). Street N1 2TX, next to the church Happy 40th birthday to us! We’re holding a party to celebrate the Islington Archaeology & Wednesday 18 November, 7.30pm, Islington Town Hall History Society officially reaching middle age this year.

Rejecting war The party will be held in the Union Chapel’s Bruce Kent Upper Hall bar on Wednesday Bruce Kent, former chair of 16 December CND, now vice-president of the from 6.30pm. Movement for the Abolition of War, will be talking about As Rev Janet people who have had the Wootton, former courage to say “no” to war. secretary, says: “40 These include Professor Joseph years, eh! That’s an Rotblat, Sylvia Pankhust, Franz impressive record.” Jagerstatter and many more, who he says are “all an inspiration and encouragement Keep up to date with news and events at our Facebook 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 47 Canonbury Square: Butler Hegarty; Great Synagogue: Wikimedia Commons; cake: Omer Wazir Commons; cake: Omer Wikimedia 47 Canonbury Square: Butler Hegarty; Great Synagogue:

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Autumn 2015 Vol 5 No 3 31 The Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Back page picture

Close-up of part of a restored 19th century gasholder frame, now returned to King’s Cross for a new life as a circular park Christy Lawrance