The Fleet flows south west through this area
Railway Gospel Oak to Barking
The Line runs north east from Gospel Oak Station and through Highgate Junction
Post to the west Gospel OakPost to the south Kentish TownBellgate Mews
Private gated development of the 1970s in an area which in 1885 was Dartmouth Park Nurseries.1
Bellina Mews
The road name relates to houses, Bellina Villas, which once stood in Fortess Road north of the turning.
Furniture factory. This was in the grounds of Bellina Villas
Burghley Road
The road more or less follows the line of the River Fleet flowing from Highgate Ponds to the junction with Highgate Hill.
The area was owned by St. John's College, Cambridge following a bequest of some farmland in the early 17th. It was developed in the 1860s by the College, laying out the roads and granted building leases. The earliest developer was Joseph Abbott in 1860 who built Burghley Terrace. The southern part was leased to Joseph Salter in 1865 – he was a local surveyor, and estate agent, as well as a Vestry auditor, Chairman of the Board of Works and a Poor Law Commissioner. The road was named after Elizabeth’s minister Lord Burghley who had been a student at and benefactor to St.John's
16, the vicarage to Kentish Town Parish Church. This was a Gothic House of 1863 by the estate surveyor. Henry Baker. The site is now a care home run by Bridge Housing Association with a large pyramidal block built in 2000
23-39 modern replacements on a Second World War bomb site.
91a new build flats on site of the factory of the London Fan and Motor Co.
Carrol Close
This is a service road to the council buildings. The name recalls Carrol Place built in 1810 by farmer Richard Mortimer and originally called Pleasant Place. It was demolished by the Midland Railway.
Chetwynd Road
Chetwynd is the family name of Lord Ingrestre
Sunday Schools behind the Baptist Church are by Dixon built in 1879
Churchill Road
12-17 Conservative Land Society in 1880s earliest housing from the 1860s
20 with a plaque, ‘Cambridge House’ set into a metal-covered coping.
Gospel Oak Churchill SNCI; private open space which is a Site of Nature Conservation Importance
College Lane
Once a cart track going to St.John's farm, it is now a back lane parallel to Highgate Road, with cottages which are said to have been for railway workers. This was part of the St. John’s College estate and thus named for them. There are no houses at the southern end but the ghosts of old buildings remain in the walls.
22 has a date plaque of 1840
30 house built for himself by architect Martin Goalen.
13 war memorial. This is a shield with names of railwaymen from the lane who died in the Great War. The house was built in 1881 by local builder Nathan Cansick.
Kentish Town Railwaymens' Athletic and Social Club. This is now derelict and was severely damaged by fire in 2003
College Works. BB Tool Co, here in the 1960s
Dartmouth Park Road
This, western end of the road, was built in the late 1850s a development by Lawford on behalf of Lord Dartmouth
First House. Built 1990 - 93 by and for J. de Syllas of Avanti Architects in a contemporary style. It is brick with a curved aluminum roof.
Lamorna House. 1920s house in dark brick
Evangelist Road
On St.John's College land - the College is really that of St.John the Evangelist
Fortess Road
41 This was built as the presbytery to the Roman Catholic (later Methodist) church Our Lady the Help of Christians which was next door. The church was designed by Edward Pugin and it is likely that this was designed by the same architect
49-51 Phelps Pianos Ltd.founded 1895 by Frederick Phelps but since 1988 part of Markson Pianos.
67 Frederick Phelps Violin makers.
Our Lady the Help of Christians RC church. This was demolished in 2003. In the 1850s the Catholic Church built a church in Fortess Road, on a piece of freehold land. The funds for the new church were provided by Cardinal Wiseman and the building was designed, in a Gothic style, by Edward Pugin, son of the more famous Augustus Pugin. And it was ready in 1859. By the 1960s a much larger building was needed and a deal was done whereby the local Methodists and Catholics exchanged their buildings. After much negotiation in 1970 the Methodists moved here.
Fortess Yard
3 house converted from 19th stables
Gordon House Road
Created on the line of a footpath to Hampstead and named after the school in The Grove
Gordon House works of Samuel and Spencer, makers of brewers signs
St.Anargyrie. SS Cosmos and Damien. The building dates from the late 19th and was a Catholic Apostolic Church. It is now a Greek Orthodox church. The bricks on the frontage are known to have been made locally in Kiln Place.
St.Anargyrie House. Built in 1996 this provides community and hostel accommodation
Grove End
Grove End House. Detached brick house built in the early 19th now divided into flats.
Grove End Villa. This was given to the London Baptist Association when the estate was sold
Grove End Lodge, latterly the Baptist manse.
Gordon House Academy. This was at the end of The Grove and dated from the mid 18th and remained here until 1837. It later became a College for Civil Engineers.
Ravenswood. In the early 20th this was the Medical and Surgical Nurses Home and Nurses' Co-operation. It is on the site of Emmanuel Hospital and is now the site of a council block named after it.
Emmanuel Hospital. This was a home for the blind which was burnt down before it opened in 1799
Grove Terrace
Houses built 1780-1824. The Race track was built on fields behind this. The area was held by St.John's College, Cambridge and the houses were the copyhold of the Manor or Cantelowes. The principal copyholder Lord Dartmouth, enclosed part of the common around Highgate Road in 1772. The road has its York stone paving and there are original coalhole covers with foundry marks still visible.
Common land - A remnant of common land survives as the strip fronting Grove Terrace
9 fire company plaque13 fire company plaque19 Blue plaque to landscape architect Geoffrey Jellicoe
21-22 entrance to Grove Terrace Mews with arched signboard
Highgate Road
This ancient highway was called Green Street until 1870 It e ne roughly follows the course of the Fleet.
Highgate Studios. These units are in some of the buildings which was originally Maple’s cabinet making and exhibition works. Maples were the large furniture store based in Tottenham Court Road.
Highgate Children’s Centre. This is in some of the buildings of the Shand Kyd Wallpaper factory moved here in 1906. Shand Kydd had been set up in 1891 making wallpaper wth bold lino block designs and matching friezes. They were closed here in 1960. The buildings became the International Oriental Carpet Centre housing carpet merchants from the east. Later it housed a TV studios, and many other funcitons, including carpet dealers and a Fitness Centre.
College Yard junction. There are granite setts crossing the pavement here, lying, just north of the point where the culverted River Fleet crosses Highgate Road. The Fleet joins a tributary in this area.
62-63 rebuilt in 2006-07 with stucco ground floors either side of a courtyard.
78 A heavy wooden North African wooden door has been put as the shop entrance. This shop sells Oriental goods and the camel round the corner is theirs.
80a, modern brick building with an arch filling the front elevation, with glass infill.
82 Media House. This is on the site of what would have been the ticket office for coach services from The Vine. It is now a brick building housing an advertising agency.
86 The Vine. This was once the oldest building in Kentish Town, established as a coaching inn, first licensed in 1751, and the first transport terminus in Kentish Town. It was once called the White Horse, It was completely rebuilt in 1899 and the half timbering added in 1934. The forecourt was a feature of the old coaching inns and the Vine has retained it. The only original bit of the pub is an archway to a path goes into College Lane and this would have gone across the field to the race track; then to a footbridge over the Fleet.
94-96 sales of architectural sundries
Lane to the north of 96 paved in granite setts with York stone slab wheel tracks
95 Silver Lodge on the site of a boys club, connected to Aldenham School in Hertfordshire and called the Aldenham Club for Young Men and Lads. It was closed in the 1980s.The Retreat. This was on the site of Carroll Close and owned in the 1850s by Edward Weston, music hall owner as a place of entertainment with extensive gardens. It was taken over by the Midland Railway, used by them as employee housing and demolished.
97-119 Shops, including a post office, and flats which replaced Blenheim Terrace98-108 Fitzroy Terrace. 19th houses with Gothic glazing to first-floor windows, and front doors below street level.
102 Sun Fire Insurance plaque
110-118 with a heraldic shield on no.110. these were built as 1-5 Gospel Terrace and St.Alexis, Catholic Chapel was opened here in 1846. This was a private venture and although a foundation stone was laid for a church here but was not built following a dispute which led to the collapse of the project.
120 in the early 20th this was the office for the Society for Organising Charitable Relief and the Repression of Mendacity
124 in the 19th this was Macdonald's Wax Chandlery which burnt down.
Highgate Road Station High Level. This was opened in 1868 by the Tottenham and Highgate Junction Railway. It was built on the viaduct west of Highgate Road. The trains which used it were on a circuitous route from Fenchurch Street via. Stratford and Tottenham but from 1872 when the link to Gospel Oak was installed. It served trains from Gospel Oak Station. At one time a link led to Kentish Town Station on the up Midland Main Line. From 1894 until 1903 it was called Highgate Road for Parliament Hill. It closed in 1915 through tramway competition. The station was demolished in 1919 but some of the booking hall remains and has been in industrial use – it was accessed through the arch under the railway bridge on the west side. Some elements of the platform area remain also
Highgate Road Station. Low Level. Opened in 1900 by the Midland Railway, it lay in a cutting to the west of Highgate Road. It was on the then new Kentish Town Curve, a line which diverged from the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to the east of station. Links from it led to the up Midland Main Line and to the North London Line heading east. It closed in 1918 through tramway competition. The station was sited to the south of the railway bridge and on the west side of the road.
MandA Coachworks. Thus ‘prestige’ motor repair works is under the railway arches. With advertising lettering on the wall under the bridge. They date from 1973 when they were established by Michael Dionisiou and Adonis Kyriacou
137 Southampton House Academy. This was a 19th school. The building is in brick and built in 1821 by James Patterson. The playground was taken over by the railway in the 1860s
139 Southampton Arms. On the west side of the road where Lord Southampton was a landowner. It is described as an Ale and Cider house. It was built in the front garden of a 19th house.
Grove Place. Site of Grove House School in 1867
Grove Terrace Green. This is a Green Public Open Space protected under the London Squares Act of 1931. Railings were removed in the Second World War
Pocket of open land west side of Highgate Road is also protected under the London Squares Preservation Act, 1931. These Enclosures are the last link to the Kentish Town village green. It was protected by covenant during the building of Lissenden Gardens.
Underground civil defence chambers. This is a monolithic concrete box with a long-sealed doorway leading to stairs. Built in 1953, this was the council’s Cold War bunker for when the bomb dropped. It was taken out of use when the Civil Defence Corps was disbanded in 1968 and the council’s bunker was rebuilt under the Town Hall in Euston Road. There are unusual manhole emergency exit covers and ventilation shafts around on the Highgate Enclosures.
150 Grove End House. This is a double-fronted detached 19th house now divided into flats.
175 a stock brick three-bay 19th villa.
Denyer House. These red brick flats were designed by Albert J Thomas and built in 1936. They are on the site of St John’s Park House Ladies’ School. At the back is an external walkway connecting balconies.
Haddo House. 19th house which survived until the early 1960s. In 1934 it was a Home for Working Boys in London.
Highgate Road Estate. Housing units built on the site of Haddo and Gordon Houses. They date from 1965 and were designed by Robert Bailie for St Pancras., as Haddo House, a seven story block with two storey blocks at the back and some houses. Another block was added in 1971.
Highgate Road Chapel. Baptist church. In 1874 Grove End Villa was given to the London Baptist Association who built this Chapel on the site. It was designed by Satchell and Edwards in 1877. This is now flats
Ingestre Road
The original Ingestre Road is now under much of Acland Burghley School to the west. It is named for John Chetwynd, Earl of Shrewsbury and Viscount Ingestre who carried out much charitable work here in the 19th.
Ingestre Estate. Built by London Borough of Camden in 1967-71 on the site of the railway hostel and iron works. Designed by J. Green it has two-storey houses with conservatory porches stepping and also maisonettes
Care home in the centre of the estate.
Ingestre Community Centre. This opened in 1973 and provides youth and other facilities.
Electric Generating Station. This belonged to the Midland Railway and was used for current for station lighting, etc
Harbar works. Thus replaced the electric generating station and made iron strip and bar and belonged to William Cooke and Sons. Fletcher Court is on the site. Major George Fletcher defused an unexploded land mine here in 1969
Hambrook Court. Sergeant Stephen Hambrook defused an unexploded land mine here in 1969
London Midland and Scottish Railway. SR staff hostel. This was built in 1896 as Enginemen's Lodgings for railway workers who finished a shift away from their homes. Lady Somerset Road
Site owned by St. John's College, Cambridge. Lady Somerset was a 17th benefactoress to the. It was the site of the racetrack opened in 1733 by John Wiblin, publican of the White Horse pub (now the Vine). There were two race tracks here and he called it Little Newmarket Course
10 Graigian Society - non-Christian monks leading a green life style
25a a house by Rick Mather built in 1977-9 in brick, with a curved turret-like end,
Camel – this stands at the end of the street, next to a planter with some indiscreet cupids
Little Green Street
Highgate Road was known in the 18th as Green Street, so this appears to be a connection to that name. It has seven houses on its north side all apparently 18th. Some have bay windows and some have been used as shops. The fields beyond used for horse racing.
Wooden posts believed to have been the finishing posts or they are also said to be farm gateposts.
Mortimer Terrace.
This was named after local farmer, Richard Mortimer. St. John's College Farm was on either side of the road where it joins Gordon House Road
13 this was the here where Leigh Hunt lived and where John Keats stayed as his tuberculosis worstened.
Railway
Highgate Road junction where the Midland Railway Tottenham South Curve from Kentish Town joined the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway.
Highgate Road Junction Signal Box. A signal box stood in the Vee of the junction and was closed in 1965
Sanderson Close
Sanderson Close. Housing built by London Borough of Camden in 1976. This is a barrier block with lower terraces by Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardell. The original railway wall is in the playground area.
Kentish Town Locomotive Sheds. This is a collection if of large red brick sheds from the late 19th. They were the Locomotive Sheds for the Midland Railway built to the east of the Tottenham North and South Curves. The Midland Railway opened their passenger engine depot in 1867-8. In the early 20th this depot dealt with 140 or so locomotives. The sheds were re-roofed in the 1950s but closed in 1963 following the introduction of diesel locomotives.
Hiview House. Head office of building contractors J. Murphy and Sons.
Wesleyan Place
Site of Green Street Chapel. Wesley had preached here in the open air and local farm-workers formed a society in their homes. They were offered the use of a barn here by farmer Richard Mortimer This was the beginning of Green Street Chapel and this road is named for the site of their 'Wesleyan Chapel' which was used until 1864.
York Rise
York Rise Estate built as a garden estate by the St.Pancras Housing Association in 1937 by Ian Hamilton. These are five storey blocks arranged round courtyards which had ceramic-headed drying posts by Gilbert Bayes. The Society was founded in 1924, its aims to buy and convert poor quality old properties or build new housing for only a small profit. The London Midland & Scottish Railway invited the Society to build this estate on railway land and each of the blocks was named after a railway or engineering pioneer: Brunel, Faraday, Newcomen, Stephenson and Trevethick.
SourcesBritish History on line. Camden. Web siteBritish Listed Buildings. Web siteCamden History Review Camden History Society. Streets of Kentish TownConnor. Forgotten StationsConnor. Pancras to BarkingDisused Stations. Web siteGLIAS Newsletter, Hillman. London Under LondonKentish Towner. Blog.London Borough of Camden. Web siteNairn. Nairn’s LondonPevsner and Cherry. London NorthSummerson. Georgian LondonTindall. The Fields BeneathVine. Web site