Mantell Street, originally Sermon Lane, is now part of
Tolpuddle Street.
Sermon Lane had been possibly so named in memory of religious gatherings in
White Conduit Fields. By the nineteenth century it contained a ragged school and some tightly packed courts to the east, and a cow yard and miscellaneous sheds to the west.
The six cottages of Mount Sion Place were built for Isaac Foster in 1795, with the even smaller houses of Mount Court following around 1810, and others there and at Mount Place by the 1820s. Mount Court was later known as Russell Place and Vittoria Place. Three houses of c. 1810 further west made up White Conduit Place.
Sermon Lane Ragged School was founded in 1849, and accommodated in a single-room schoolhouse from 1851. This was rebuilt as a somewhat larger mission room around 1879, and the Sermon Lane Mission moved away in 1921.
Sermon Lane was renamed Mantell Street in 1910 and the courts and yards were soon after cleared, a larger site being redeveloped as
Mandeville Houses in the 1920s. The Mantell Street name recalls the Commandery Mantells or Mantles, as the fields in the north of Clerkenwell were collectively called.
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY |
 
Reg Carr Added: 10 Feb 2021 12:11 GMT |
Campbellite Meeting
In 1848 the Campbellites (Disciples of Christ) met in Elstree Street, where their congregation was presided over by a pastor named John Black. Their appointed evangelist at the time was called David King, who later became the Editor of the British Millennial Harbinger. The meeting room was visited in July 1848 by Dr John Thomas, who spoke there twice on his two-year ’mission’ to Britain.
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Jeff Owen Added: 20 Mar 2021 16:18 GMT |
Owen’s School
Owen Street is the site of Owen’s Boys’ School. The last school was built in 1881 and was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for the development which stand there today. It was a “Direct Grant” grammar school and was founded in 1613 by Dame Alice Owen. What is now “Owen’s Fields” was the playground between the old school and the new girls’ school (known then as “Dames Alice Owen’s School” or simply “DAOS”). The boys’ school had the top two floors of that building for their science labs. The school moved to Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in 1971 and is now one of the top State comprehensive schools in the country. The old building remained in use as an accountancy college and taxi-drivers’ “knowledge” school until it was demolished. The new building is now part of City and Islington College. Owen’s was a fine school. I should know because I attended there from 1961 to 1968.
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Carol Added: 7 May 2021 18:44 GMT |
Nan
My nan lily,her sister Elizabeth and their parents Elizabeth and William lived here in1911
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Bernard Miller Added: 12 Apr 2022 17:36 GMT |
My mother and her sister were born at 9 Windsor Terrace
My mother, Millie Haring (later Miller) and her sister Yetta Haring (later Freedman) were born here in 1922 and 1923. With their parents and older brother and sister, they lived in two rooms until they moved to Stoke Newington in 1929. She always said there were six rooms, six families, a shared sink on the first floor landing and a toilet in the backyard.
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Barry J. Page Added: 27 Jul 2022 19:41 GMT |
Highbury Corner V1 Explosion
Grandma described the V1 explosion at Highbury Corner on many occasions. She was working in the scullery when the flying bomb landed. The blast shattered all the windows in the block of flats and blew off the bolt on her front door. As she looked out the front room window, people in various states of injury and shock were making their way along Highbury Station Road. One man in particular, who was bleeding profusely from glass shard wounds to his neck, insisted in getting home to see if his family was all right. Others were less fortunate. Len, the local newsagent, comforted a man, who had lost both legs caused by the blast, until the victim succumbed to his injuries. The entire area was ravaged and following are statistics. The flying bomb landed during lunch hour (12:46 p.m.) on June 27th 1944. 26 people lost their lives, 84 were seriously injured and 71 slightly injured.
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Mike Added: 28 Feb 2023 18:09 GMT |
6 Elia Street
When I was young I lived in 6 Elia Street. At the end of the garden there was a garage owned by Initial Laundries which ran from an access in Quick Street all the way up to the back of our garden. The fire exit to the garage was a window leading into our garden. 6 Elia Street was owned by Initial Laundry.
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Lena Added: 18 Mar 2021 13:08 GMT |
White Conduit Street, N1
My mum, Rosina Wade of the Wade and Hannam family in the area of Chapel Street and Parkfield Street, bought her first “costume” at S Cohen’s in White Conduit Street. Would have probably been about 1936 or thereabouts. She said that he was a small man but an expert tailor. I hope that Islington Council preserve the shop front as it’s a piece of history of the area. Mum used to get her high heel shoes from an Italian shoe shop in Chapel Street. She had size 2 feet and they would let her know when a new consignment of size 2 shoes were in. I think she was a very good customer. She worked at Killingbacks artificial flower maker in Northampton Square and later at the Halifax bombers factory north of Edgware where she was a riveter.
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Jack Wilson Added: 21 Jun 2022 21:40 GMT |
Penfold Printers
I am seeking the location of Penfold Printers Offices in Dt Albans place - probably about 1870 or so
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Erin Added: 2 May 2022 01:33 GMT |
Windsor Terrace, N1
hello
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P Cash Added: 19 Feb 2023 08:03 GMT |
Occupants of 19-29 Woburn Place
The Industrial Tribunals (later changed to Employment Tribunals) moved (from its former location on Ebury Bridge Road to 19-29 Woburn Place sometime in the late 1980s (I believe).
19-29 Woburn Place had nine floors in total (one in the basement and two in its mansard roof and most of the building was occupied by the Tribunals
The ’Head Office’ of the tribunals, occupied space on the 7th, 6th and 2nd floors, whilst one of the largest of the regional offices (London North but later called London Central) occupied space in the basement, ground and first floor.
The expansive ground floor entrance had white marble flooring and a security desk. Behind (on evey floor) lay a square (& uncluttered) lobby space, which was flanked on either side by lifts. On the rear side was an elegant staircase, with white marble steps, brass inlays and a shiny brass handrail which spiralled around an open well. Both staircase, stairwell and lifts ran the full height of the building. On all floors from 1st upwards, staff toilets were tucked on either side of the staircase (behind the lifts).
Basement Floor - Tribunal hearing rooms, dormant files store and secure basement space for Head Office. Public toilets.
Geound Floor - The ’post’ roon sat next to the entrance in the northern side, the rest of which was occupied by the private offices of the full time Tribunal judiciary. Thw largest office belonged to the Regional Chair and was situated on the far corner (overlooking Tavistock Square) The secretary to the Regional Chair occupied a small office next door.
The south side of this floor was occupied by the large open plan General Office for the administration, a staff kitchen & rest room and the private offices of the Regional Secretary (office manager) and their deputy.
First Dloor - Tribunal hearing rooms; separate public waiting rooms for Applicants & Respondents; two small rooms used by Counsel (on a ’whoever arrives first’ bases) and a small private rest room for use by tribunal lay members.
Second Floor - Tribunal Hearing Rooms; Tribunal Head Office - HR & Estate Depts & other tennants.
Third Floor - other tennants
Fourth Floor - other tennants
Fifth Floor - Other Tennants except for a large non-smoking room for staff, (which overlooked Tavistock Sqaure). It was seldom used, as a result of lacking any facities aside from a meagre collection of unwanted’ tatty seating. Next to it, (overlooking Tavistock Place) was a staff canteen.
Sixth Floor - Other tennants mostly except for a few offices on the northern side occupied by tribunal Head Office - IT Dept.
Seventh Floor - Other tenants in the northern side. The southern (front) side held the private offices of several senior managers (Secretariat, IT & Finance), private office of the Chief Accuntant; an office for two private secretaries and a stationary cupboard. On the rear side was a small kitchen; the private office of the Chief Executive and the private office of the President of the Tribunals for England & Wales. (From 1995 onwards, this became a conference room as the President was based elsewhere. The far end of this side contained an open plan office for Head Office staff - Secretariat, Finance & HR (staff training team) depts.
Eighth Floor - other tennants.
The Employment Tribunals (Regional & Head Offices) relocated to Vitory House, Kingsway in April 2005.
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| LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT |
Added: 27 Mar 2023 18:28 GMT |
Nower Hill, HA5
lo
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Added: 26 Mar 2023 14:50 GMT |
Albert Mews
It is not a gargoyle over the entrance arch to Albert Mews, it is a likeness of Prince Albert himself.
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Christine D Elliott Added: 20 Mar 2023 15:52 GMT |
The Blute Family
My grandparents, Frederick William Blute & Alice Elizabeth Blute nee: Warnham lived at 89 Blockhouse Street Deptford from around 1917.They had six children. 1. Alice Maragret Blute (my mother) 2. Frederick William Blute 3. Charles Adrian Blute 4. Violet Lillian Blute 5. Donald Blute 6. Stanley Vincent Blute (Lived 15 months). I lived there with my family from 1954 (Birth) until 1965 when we were re-housed for regeneration to the area.
I attended Ilderton Road School.
Very happy memories of that time.
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Pearl Foster Added: 20 Mar 2023 12:22 GMT |
Dukes Place, EC3A
Until his death in 1767, Daniel Nunes de Lara worked from his home in Dukes Street as a Pastry Cook. It was not until much later the street was renamed Dukes Place. Daniel and his family attended the nearby Bevis Marks synagogue for Sephardic Jews. The Ashkenazi Great Synagogue was established in Duke Street, which meant Daniel’s business perfectly situated for his occupation as it allowed him to cater for both congregations.
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Dr Paul Flewers Added: 9 Mar 2023 18:12 GMT |
Some Brief Notes on Hawthorne Close / Hawthorne Street
My great-grandparents lived in the last house on the south side of Hawthorne Street, no 13, and my grandmother Alice Knopp and her brothers and sisters grew up there. Alice Knopp married Charles Flewers, from nearby Hayling Road, and moved to Richmond, Surrey, where I was born. Leonard Knopp married Esther Gutenberg and lived there until the street was demolished in the mid-1960s, moving on to Tottenham. Uncle Len worked in the fur trade, then ran a pet shop in, I think, the Kingsland Road.
From the back garden, one could see the almshouses in the Balls Pond Road. There was an ink factory at the end of the street, which I recall as rather malodorous.
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KJH Added: 7 Mar 2023 17:14 GMT |
Andover Road, N7 (1939 - 1957)
My aunt, Doris nee Curtis (aka Jo) and her husband John Hawkins (aka Jack) ran a small general stores at 92 Andover Road (N7). I have found details in the 1939 register but don’t know how long before that it was opened.He died in 1957. In the 1939 register he is noted as being an ARP warden for Islington warden
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Added: 2 Mar 2023 13:50 GMT |
The Queens Head
Queens Head demolished and a NISA supermarket and flats built in its place.
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Mike Added: 28 Feb 2023 18:09 GMT |
6 Elia Street
When I was young I lived in 6 Elia Street. At the end of the garden there was a garage owned by Initial Laundries which ran from an access in Quick Street all the way up to the back of our garden. The fire exit to the garage was a window leading into our garden. 6 Elia Street was owned by Initial Laundry.
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A:4Islington Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough. Philharmonic Hall The Philharmonic Hall was a major music hall throughout the 1860s and early 1870s. White Conduit Fields White Conduit Fields in Islington was an early venue for cricket and several major matches are known to have been played there in the 18th century. White Conduit Street (1950s) A line of children hold hands as they walk along the middle of White Conduit Street towards the junction with Chapel Market in Islington in the 1950s. Angel Arcade, EC1V Angel Arcade is named, along with many ’Angel’ streets of the area, after the famous pub. Baron Street, N1 Baron Street is named after Joseph Barron, landlord of the White Lion inn during the late eighteenth century. Berners Road, N1 Berners Road is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Bryan Street, N1 The modern line of Bryan Street lies somewhat to the west of the original pre-Second World War line of the street. Business Design Centre, N1 The Business Design Centre is a Grade II listed building located between Upper Street and Liverpool Road Chapel Place, N1 Chapel Place lies off the north side of Chapel Market towards Liverpool Road. Colebrook Row, N1 Colebrooke Row is a street of late 18th and early 19th century terraced houses. Collins Yard, N1 Collins Yard is so-named as it ran alongside the Collins’ Music Hall giving access to the rear of the hall. Denmark Grove, N1 Denmark Grove is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Devonia Road, N1 Devonia Road is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Duncan Street, N1 Duncan Street is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Duncan Terrace, N1 Duncan Terrace is named after Admiral Duncan the commander of the Naval Fleet at the Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch in 1797. Gaskin Street, N1 Gaskin Street is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Gerrard Road, N1 Gerrard Road is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Gibson Square, N1 Gibson Square is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Grant Street, N1 The present Grant Street is the remnant of Warren Street, an L-shaped road running between Chapel Market and White Conduit Street, renamed Grant Street in 1936. Harvest Lodge, N1 Harvest Lodge a plain brick, four-storey block of flats was built in 1962. Hayward House, N1 Hayward House is a four-storey block of flats immediately north of St Silas’s Church. Hermes Street, N1 Hermes Street is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Islington Green, N1 Islington Green is both a small green and a series of roads which surround it. Jays Street, N1 Jays Street dates from the 1950s reconfiguration of the area. Leirum Street, N1 The name of Leirum Street is the result of Muriel Street being split in half post-war. Mandeville Houses, N1 Mandeville Houses, fronting Mantell Street and Liverpool Road was the earliest housing scheme built by Finsbury Borough Council. Moon Street, N1 Moon Street is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Payne House, N1 Payne House, along Charlotte Terrace and dating from 1937, is part of the Barnsbury Estate. Penton Grove, N1 The narrow loop of Penton Grove, now reduced to an L-shaped alley, was laid out on the site of one of the bowling greens belonging to Prospect House (Dobney’s). Penton Street, N1 Penton Street is a through-route leading on to the narrower Barnsbury Road which continues its line northwards into Islington. Pride Court, N1 Pride Court is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. Quick Street, N1 Quick Street is named for the favourite comedian of King George III, John Quick. Rodney Street, N1 Rodney Street is one of the streets of London in the N1 postal area. St Katharine’s House, N1 St Katharine’s House is at the corner of Penton Street and the eastern stub of what had been Wynford Road until that street was cut off to its west by the large Half Moon Estate. Union Square, N1 Union Square (sometime Union Court) was approached by a narrow alley. White Lion Street, N1 White Lion Street is named after the former White Lion inn on Islington High Street. Bushy Park The Charles Lamb is a pub on Elia Street. Camden Head The Camden Head is a grade II listed building with a circular bar, etched glass windows and original mirrors. The Castle The Castle stands on the corner of Pentonville Road and Baron Street.
Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough.Some roads on the edge of the area, including Essex Road, were known as streets by the medieval period, possibly indicating a Roman origin, but little physical evidence remains. What is known is that the Great North Road from Aldersgate came into use in the 14th century, connecting with a new turnpike up Highgate Hill. This was along the line of modern Upper Street, with a toll gate at The Angel defining the extent of the village. The Back Road - modern Liverpool Road - was primarily a drovers’ road where cattle would be rested before the final leg of their journey to Smithfield. Pens and sheds were erected along this road to accommodate the animals.
The first recorded church, St Mary’s, was erected in the twelfth century and was replaced in the fifteenth century. Islington lay on the estates of the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of St Pauls. There were substantial medieval moated manor houses in the area, principally at Canonbury and Highbury. In 1548, there were 440 communicants listed and the rural atmosphere, with access to the City and Westminster, made it a popular residence for the rich and eminent. The local inns, however, harboured many fugitives and recusants.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the availability of water made Islington a good place for growing vegetables to feed London. The manor became a popular excursion destination for Londoners, attracted to the area by its rural feel. Many public houses were therefore built to serve the needs of both the excursionists and travellers on the turnpike. By 1716, there were 56 ale-house keepers in Upper Street, also offering pleasure and tea gardens, and activities such as archery, skittle alleys and bowling. By the 18th century, music and dancing were offered, together with billiards, firework displays and balloon ascents. The King’s Head Tavern, now a Victorian building with a theatre, has remained on the same site, opposite the parish church, since 1543. The founder of the theatre, Dan Crawford, who died in 2005, disagreed with the introduction of decimal coinage. For twenty-plus years after decimalisation (on 15 February 1971), the bar continued to show prices and charge for drinks in ’old money’.
By the 19th century many music halls and theatres were established around
Islington Green. One such was Collins’ Music Hall, the remains of which are now partly incorporated into a bookshop. The remainder of the Hall has been redeveloped into a new theatre, with its entrance at the bottom of Essex Road. It stood on the site of the Landsdowne Tavern, where the landlord had built an entertainment room for customers who wanted to sing (and later for professional entertainers). It was founded in 1862 by Samuel Thomas Collins Vagg and by 1897 had become a 1800-seat theatre with 10 bars. The theatre suffered damage in a fire in 1958 and has not reopened.
The Islington Literary and Scientific Society was established in 1833 and first met in Mr Edgeworth’s Academy on Upper Street. Its goal was to spread knowledge through lectures, discussions, and experiments - politics and theology being forbidden. A building, the Literary and Scientific Institution, was erected in 1837 in Wellington (later Almeida) Street, designed by Roumieu and Gough in a stuccoed Grecian style. It included a library (containing 3,300 volumes in 1839), reading room, museum, laboratory, and lecture theatre seating 500.
The Royal Agricultural Hall was built in 1862 on the Liverpool Road site of William Dixon’s Cattle Layers. It was built for the annual Smithfield Show in December of that year but was popular for other purposes, including recitals and the Royal Tournament. It was the primary exhibition site for London until the 20th century and the largest building of its kind, holding up to 50,000 people. It was requisitioned for use by the Mount Pleasant sorting office during World War II and never re-opened. The main hall has now been incorporated into the
Business Design Centre.
The aerial bombing of World War II caused much damage to Islington’s housing stock, with 3,200 dwellings destroyed. Before the war a number of 1930s council housing blocks had been added to the stock. After the war, partly as a result of bomb site redevelopment, the council housing boom got into its stride, reaching its peak in the 1960s: several extensive estates were constructed, by both the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and the London County Council. Clearance of the worst terraced housing was undertaken, but Islington continued to be very densely populated, with a high level of overcrowding. The district has many council blocks, and the local authority has begun to replace some of them.
From the 1960s, the remaining Georgian terraces were rediscovered by middle-class families. Many of the houses were rehabilitated, and the area became newly fashionable. This displacement of the poor by the aspirational has become known as gentrification. Among the new residents were a number of figures who became central in the New Labour movement, including Tony Blair before his victory in the 1997 general election. According to The Guardian in 2006, "Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain’s left-wing intelligentsia." The Granita Pact between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair is said to have been made at a now defunct restaurant on Upper Street.
The completion of the Victoria line and redevelopment of Angel tube station created the conditions for developers to renovate many of the early Victorian and Georgian townhouses. They also built new developments. Islington remains a district with diverse inhabitants, with its private houses and apartments not far from social housing in immediately neighbouring wards such as Finsbury and Clerkenwell to the south, Bloomsbury and King’s Cross to the west, and Highbury to the north west, and also the Hackney districts of De Beauvoir and Old Street to the north east.
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 The Grand Theatre, Islington High Street (1903)
The new Grand Theatre - the fourth theatre on the site - was opened on 26 December 1900 with a production of the pantomime ’Robinson Crusoe’.
The Huddersfield Daily reported the next day:
"Nearing the end of the first performance of ’Robinson Crusoe’ at the Grand Theatre, Islington, on Wednesday, a fire broke out. From all parts of the house an alarm was raised. All present rose to their feet as large pieces of inflammable material were seen dropping from flies. The fire-proof curtain was promptly lowered, and the band struck up the National Anthem. The actors and actresses crowded into the stage boxes. Mr. Jones, playing ’Friday,’ clambered on to the stage from the front and appealed to the audience not to rush for the doors as there was no danger. Then Mr. Charles Townley, the author, came forward explaining that the management, owing to the electric installations not being completed, had used gas batten, and one of the sky borders had unfortunately caught fire. The officials had shown their efficiency by the celerity with which the fire had been extinguished. This is the fourth fire that has occurred at this theatre, and Wednesday’s was the first performance given since the building was gutted some few months back."
Thankfully the fire was quickly put out and the performance continued, and the Theatre would go on to stage pantomime, drama, and variety productions until it was renamed the Islington Empire in 1908.TUM image id: 1557151038Licence: |  |  |  |  |
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In the neighbourhood...
Click an image below for a better view...
The Grand Theatre, Islington High Street (1903)
The new Grand Theatre - the fourth theatre on the site - was opened on 26 December 1900 with a production of the pantomime ’Robinson Crusoe’.
The Huddersfield Daily reported the next day:
"Nearing the end of the first performance of ’Robinson Crusoe’ at the Grand Theatre, Islington, on Wednesday, a fire broke out. From all parts of the house an alarm was raised. All present rose to their feet as large pieces of inflammable material were seen dropping from flies. The fire-proof curtain was promptly lowered, and the band struck up the National Anthem. The actors and actresses crowded into the stage boxes. Mr. Jones, playing ’Friday,’ clambered on to the stage from the front and appealed to the audience not to rush for the doors as there was no danger. Then Mr. Charles Townley, the author, came forward explaining that the management, owing to the electric installations not being completed, had used gas batten, and one of the sky borders had unfortunately caught fire. The officials had shown their efficiency by the celerity with which the fire had been extinguished. This is the fourth fire that has occurred at this theatre, and Wednesday’s was the first performance given since the building was gutted some few months back."
Thankfully the fire was quickly put out and the performance continued, and the Theatre would go on to stage pantomime, drama, and variety productions until it was renamed the Islington Empire in 1908.Licence: 
