Of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY No 108 Jul 1988
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
No 105 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY Jan 1988 Hatton Garden - our January Bishopsgate in February Talk Thurs, Jan 21st, 7pm Wed, Feb 17th, 7.30pm Crypt of St Etheldreda's church, Ely St Pancras Church House, Lancing Street, NWl Place, ECl. Our February talk is about an area of Hatton Garden and its surroundings was London outside Camden which, in Tudor once the estate of the Bishops of Ely and times, was the place for wealthy merchants in more ways than one the occupants played to live; it is now sadly run down and an important part in national events. The beset by rebuilding. Who better to talk to palace of the bishops was replaced by us about it than an old friend of the Hatton House in cl576 by Sir Christopher Society, David Webb, librarian of the Hatton, favourite and Chancellor of Queen Bishopsgate Institute. Visitors to the Elizabeth. By 1659 ,John Evelyn was V & A will be familiar with the facade of remarking in his diary on the foundations Sir Paul Pindar's house which was once in being laid across the gardens to form a new Bishopsgate and is now in the Museum. street. Nowadays, of course, it is the Behind Bishopsgate itself is Spitalfields, centre of the diamond industry, but it was the subject of much controversy and at No 57 that Sir Hiram Maxim made his renovation at the moment. And at one end first autanatic gun which by 1884 could of the road is Siefert's National fire 600 rounds a minute. Westminster tower, the tallest building in London. Our speaker is Malcolm Holmes, Camden's Local History Librarian, and the talk will Those who haven't been to the Bishopsgate be illustrated by many slides. The crypt Institute are missing one of the free of St Etheldreda was built in 1251 and treats of London - an excellent London incorporates even older walls which may be library with an important collection of Ranan. The church was bought by the Roman prints and drawings. catholics in 1874. Camden Libraries - the Cuts THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY As members will be aware the Libraries AND TRANSPORT GROUP department of Camden is one of those most The Group, led by David Thomas, has been affected by the cuts envisaged by Camden looking at sites in Kentish Town owned for Council in the present situation. In years by Birch and Company, an old- particular the local history department, established coach company. Just round the and Keats House, are under threat. corner members have also researched the Winsor and Newton factory in Spring Place Your committee has considered the matter and the nearby old horse depot of Walton and while accepting the inevitable - that Hassell and Port, the grocers. some sort of cuts will come - we feel that this side of the Council's activities is The Group will be meeting next on Jan 18th threatened by a disproportionately large at Holborn Central Library, Local History decrease in funding. We have therefore Section at 5.45pm for more research work. circulated a leaflet to library users, Members wishing to join the Group should influential bodies, and anyone else we contact David Thomas at 36 Pearman Street, think might be interested in the fate of SEl 7RB (928 8702). the local history department, and also written to the appropriate committee Chair regarding the department and Keats House. The leaflet 'Camden's Local History Library - A thing of the Past?' has been widely quoted in the press, and people have been asked to write to both the Chair of Leisure The Highgate Prophet - services and to the Director of Libraries and Arts with their views. By the time you Part Two read this Newsletter the decision, one way In Newsletter No 97 we published a print of or another, will probably have been made, William Powell, a man of ten called the but members should be aware that the cuts ~ighgate Prophet, and asked for information as threatened will probably mean that no about him and his sobriquet. Some detail queries from the public can be dealt with of him, showing him to be both energetic over the telephone, and that all activity and eccentric, appears in a 19th-century on exhibitions, publications and oral e:H~.i.on of Notes and Queries (date not history will cease. Opening hours will be kno·,m at time of going to press) • It was reduced as a result of the proposed 50% contributed at the time by a Mr Evet'ard reduction in local history staff. Home Coleman of 71 Brecknock Road. we have pointed out in our letter to 'Powell held a situation in the Treasury councillor Green that the reduced staff but he was unfortunately lucky in gaining a will have to concentrate on the prize of £500 in a lottery, from which time preservation of old material and the he neglected his official duties and never collection of contemporary items so that ceased wandering after lottery gaps shall not hamper future generations of speculation. He soon lost not only the researchers. With such a priority the £500 but his situation which he was staff will be under great pressure in permitted to resign upon a very small servicing callers at the library - the pension. He lived in Sloane Street at the number using the collections has increased expense of some friends until Aug 15, 1803 over 4 times since 1974. We have also made and was buried in the burying-ground, the point that Camden's local history King's Road, Chelsea at the age of service is probably the best in London at sixty-four. For several years in all the moment. seasons and weathers he walked early in the morning from Sloane Street to the foot of BORDER HAPPENINGS Highgate Hill, then, raising his hand to The Islington Archaeology and History heaven as if in the act of devotion, would Society has the following talks in the start off in a run, and never stopped or months to come: looked back till he had reached the top; but if stopped, would return to the spot 20 Jan: Oliver Green of the London whence he had started, and recommence his Transport Museum, on 125 YEARS OF THE running till he had accomplished his LONDON UNDERGROUND purpose. When asked the cause of this 17 Feb: A Presentation by FLASHBACK, the practice, he replied that when he ceased to Islington Local History Project ascend the hill in that manner the world 16 Mar: Marjorie caygill on THE STORY OF would be no more. This gained him the THE BRTISH MUSEUM. appellation of the 'prophet'. 20 Apr: Dr John Bold of the Royal commission on Historical Monuments on THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS RECORD THE CHALON COLLECTION The Dictionary of National Biography All meetings are at the Camden Head, Camden includes an article on the painter Alfred Passage, Nl beginning at 8pm Edward Chalan (1780-1860). It says: 'Chalon had made a large collection of his The Hornsey Historical Society program~e is: own and his brother's drawings and paintings. In 1859 he offered them to the 10 Feb: Bob Ellis and Gareth Evans on inhabitan&s of Hampstead, together with RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT ST MARY SPI'rAL some endowments for the maintenance of the 9 Mar: Linda Poole on THE HISTORY OF JONES collection; but the scheme fell through. BROTHERS, HOLLOWAY ROAD AND THE JOHN LEWIS He then offered them to the nation, with a PARTNERSHIP similarly unsatisfactory result.' 13 Apr: Frank Sainsbury on THE STORY OF NEWHAM I would be grateful if anyone has further detail of his Hampstead dealings (or Meetings are at Hornsey Library, Haringey residence?). Presumably, he must have had Park, Crouch End, at 8pm. some connection with the place. ,John Richardson I-IEART TRANSPLANT IN HAMPSTEAD An exhibition at Burgh House, which opened recently, reflects the upheaval and The Origins of King's Cross excitement in Hampstead exactly a hundred An article in Notes and Queries of 1861 on years ago, when the Town Improvements were the origination of the name of King's Cross at last completed. for that part of Camden, is strangely at odds with the accepted version. It implies The part of the Town which needed that the area was called King's Cross by Improvement was the heart of the Village to the developer of land on the south side of the west of today's underground station. the road without reference to the statue At that time the continuation of Heath across the road. In fact the writer, a Street towards Swiss cottage was no more T.N.C., doesn't mention the statue at all. than narrow passages surrounded by small and sometimes squalid courtyards; carriage 'Ki11g George IV had just ascended the travellers from the newly-built Fitzjohn's throne [ in 1820], when my grandfather, Avenue going into Hampstead had to travel William Forrester Bray (sometime proprietor through Prince Arthur Road to the High of the Brighton Herald), with the Street to get into Heath Street. assistance of Mr Dunston, late Governor of St Luke's, Old Street, Mr Robinson, The debate as to how to overcome this solicitor of 32 Charterhouse Square, and Mr traffic problem in the heart of Hampstead Flanders, a retired tradesman, commenced raged on for years. Should there be a new building on some pieces of freehold ground, artery grafted on to the heart or should at a notorious place for thieves and there be a by-pass down Perrins Lane? You murderers known as Battle Bridge.