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Acton Street
Built 1835 onwards.
66 Queen's Head
Ampton Street
33 Thomas Carlyle home London County Council plaque
Cubitt original yard still used
22 Alexeyev flat friend of Lenin
21-37
Ampton Place
Group with pediments
Argyle Square
One of the last areas to be built laid out on the site of the unsuccessful Royal Panharmonium Gardens opened in 1830. Four-storey terraces on three sides. Mouldings around the upper windows betray the date: c. 1840. Features in films 'The Ladykillers’
Site of Royal Panharmonium
14-16 Montana Hotel.Features in films 'The Great Rock and Roll Swindle’z
44-46 Macdonald’s Hotel.Features in films 'Schizo’
New Jerusalem church
Dutton Street (possibly part of Argyle Square) Gas Works, 1820-1825. Private, belonged to William Caslon. Bought by Imperial in 1823. Operational until Pancras Station went on line. 1829 plant went to Fulham
Flats same as in Cromer Street Four others by the same architects between
Argyle Street
Built up from 1826. Bombed. Features in films 'The Ladykillers’
Bernard Street
Head on confrontation between 20th and Georgian design. Completed by 1802, connects Russell Square with Brunswick Square
12-28 decent terrace plain, decently proportioned brick with arched doorways and neat rubbed brick wind heads.
Russell Square Station. 15th December 1906. Between Kings Cross and Holborn on the Piccadilly Line on the Northern Line opened originally by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway. The station tunnel is 21' 2 1/2" side by side with stairways in between. There were Electric lifts from the start. One of Leslie Green’s stations designed in the form of a plinth so that offices could go on the top but the station was never built over. It has a steel frame, glazed with ruby red bricks. All the original features are intact except for the ticket hall which was modernised in the 1980s. Tiles and lamps were restored in 1995 and a canopy from the 1920s was removed. There is a surviving section of green tiles on some staircases and there are extant signs in the passages and stairs. It features in the films ‘Death Line’, ‘Gumshoe’ and ‘American Roulette’.
Offices - another part of the Martin and Hodgkinson scheme: a large, restrained office block with hotel behind, with long bands of windows.
24 Kingsley
39 Roget
48 Fry
Birkenhead Street
Built up from 1825
Britannia Street
Smithy’s Wine Bar. Back floor rises, iron rafters, and ring butts. It was the London General Omnibus Co. stables
Brunswick Square
Ground leases by Bedford Estate and Foundling hospital. Built up in 1831 having been laid out in 1794. Air raid shelters. Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolfe Duncan Grant and John Maynard Keynes - all members of the Bloomsbury Group shared a house here in the 1900s. Building carried out from 1792 by James Burton, who was also involved in contemporary development of other estates. Almost totally rebuilt following major damage in the Second World War. Was previously called London Street
A mass of paling and wire fencing the space is undergoing renovation as part of the same scheme as Bloomsbury Square (and has an identical notice promising to 'improve lines of visibility' by removing shrubs and realigning paths and implementing a new scheme 'based on earlier designs'). The layout looks less severe than Bloomsbury Square, retaining the wavy paths and a central area of planting. Cherry trees around the periphery of the square look wonderful in spring - and you might catch a glimpse of the sheep that live in Coram's Fields next door.
Coram statue. Thomas Coram is commemorated by a seated bronze figure 1963 by William Macmillan. In a chair holding the hospital’s charter and a gauntlet. Copied from Hogarth’s painting.
11 George Tierney who fought a duel with Pitt and Grotes house
14 and 17 Sheridan lived
1 Russell
12 Goldring
School of Pharmacy and Examination Laboratories by Herbert J. Rowse, begun 1939, completed 1960. The site, with the shell of the building, was acquired 1949 from the Pharmaceutical Society. Grimly symmetrical with raised ends and centre, overpowering the side of the square. Ground-floor windows, a long strip high up for the laboratory. Nicely detailed bronze doors.
40 Thomas Coram Foundation. And Coram's Fields. The successors to the Foundling Hospital established by Captain Thomas Coram, demolished in 1926. Plain but ample buildings were laid out in 1745-53 by Theodore Jacobsen on an open site. Attempts to save them after the children were moved to Hertfordshire came to nothing, but important contents were preserved in the Foundation's offices on the side of Brunswick Square, a quiet neo-Georgian house of 1937 by J.M. Shepherd. The original fittings include a heavy oak staircase with closed string and symmetrical balustrades, from the Boys' Wing. The reconstructed Court Room demonstrates the artistic significance of the Hospital in the mid-c18. Fine Rococo ceiling by William Wilton; fireplace with charming relief over the mantel by Rysbrack of charity children engaged in husbandry and navigation, in a frame by John Deval Sen. On the walls large biblical pictures of appropriate subjects -The Finding of Moses, Suffer Little Children - between plaster embellishments, and painted medallions showing London hospitals. Many of the artists, who included Hogarth, Hayman, Highmore, and Wilson, and Rysbrack were governors, giving their services free, and in the 1750s the Hospital was a notable showplace for contemporary painting. In the picture gallery, another original fireplace of coloured marbles with small relief of putti. Among the sculpture: terracotta bust of Handel, another governor - the Hospital was also famous for its music, by Roubiliac, c. 1739; reclining baby by E.H. Baily; terracotta group of girl and foundling by George Halse, 1874. Portable Coade stone font with reliefs of doves, supported by lambs' heads. The picture collection includes Hogarth's splendid portrait of Coram. The modern foundation continues the hospital's work, but sponsors fostering rather than looking after orphans itself. The foundation's famous art collection is open to the public. In 1790 a grand scheme for developing the Hospital's Estate was made by S.P. Cockerell, although his plans were not followed exactly. Coram’s bust by D.Evans 1937 over the door.
Hogarth
Burial Ground
Brunswick Centre. A much-maligned development of shops and flats built in 1973 but only part of the original plan by Patrick Hodgkinson, and Sir Leslie Martin of 1959. A single mammoth concrete Ziggurat, reminiscent of futurists. Piranesian effects.It was London's first influential mega structure designed as a prototype for a new approach to urban living. It provides housing, shops, and other facilities in frames linked by raised decks, for complete separation of vehicles and pedestrians. Hodgkinson was sole architect by 1968. It was originally for private owners, Marchmont Properties, but was taken over by Camden. There is a contrast between the grandeur of the framework and the intimacy of the flats, which face each other above a busy concourse. The main entrance is marked by mighty tapering concrete piers. There is a low box-like entrance to a cinema, tucked between. A bleak upper deck for residents covers part of the central space and was originally intended to be glazed over. There were Alterations to the shops in 1998 as Bloomsbury High Street and there are Cheerful stepping zigzags of greenhouse roofs above - a late addition – which temper the severity of the concrete. There are lofty cavernous spaces within the A-frames, where the front doors to the flats are sited. refurbished 2006 by Levitt Bernstein working with Hodgkinson. Features in films 'The Passenger, Killing Me Softly’, ‘For Queen and Country’.
Bloomsbury Cinema is underground here.
26 Forster
27 Garnett
38 Woolf
Bowling Green House
Foundling Court
147 O’Donnell Court –office of Llowarch Llowarch architects studio, double height.
40 Bust of Coram.
Cecil Rhodes House site of Pancras Square. First block of workers flats' built in 1847 but destroyed in bombing. Built by Metropolitan Association for improving the dwellings of the Industrial Classes. Prince Consort visited. Now a building works depot for the council
Unity Theatre
Fitzroy Chapel
International Hall Of Residence, 1958-62 and 1964-7 by S.E.T. Cusdin of Boston & Robertson. Long, dull brick frontage, with the concrete box-frame exposed on the end walls.
Burton Street
Has some minor terraces.
**Calthorpe Street
A development by Thomas Cubitt planned from 1816, but built up slowly between 1821-1849 - as the different designs of the houses in the street show. The area is part of the Calthorpe Estate which originally belonged to the Priory of St.Bartholomew and then passed into the hands of the Calthorpe family. In the early 1820s part of it was leased to developer Cubitt whose building works was nearby. Named for the estate and for Sir Henry Gough Calthorpe.
20 plaque on the home of William Lethaby 1857-1931 which says 'architect lived here 1880-1891'. Lethaby was the chief assistant to architect, Norman Shaw. In 1902 he became Principal of the Central School in Holborn and there is another plaque to him there.
Model dwellings
Cartwright Gardens
The best survival of his time, generous crescent. Now largely university halls of residence. Two quadrants of houses; stuccoed ground floors with arched windows.
Cartwright statue. Resident of the square Major John Cartwright, 1831 by George Clarke. Seated bronze.
9 Galt
26 Smith
34 Smith
Burton Place 4-7 two houses disguised as one. Between Greek Doric porches on the flanks of each quadrant. Built as four houses disguised as a single one. Converted to flats, 1986 by Anthony Richardson & Partners.
Commonwealth Hall, planned 1949, built 1960-3, by K. Urquart of Adams, Holden & Pearson,
Hughes Parry Hall, 1967-9 by Booth, Ledeboer & Pinckheard
Cheney Road
King's Cross suburban station
Warehouse of the same name
Colonnade
The Horse Hospital. Two storey urban stable converted to hold a gallery and a fashion museum. By james Burton 1797. converted to solar energy and efficiency.
Coram Street
Kistner's Bakery
13 Thackeray
49 Le Gallienne
Russell Literary and Scientific Institution
Coram's Fields
Coram’s Fields Park After the buildings of the Foundling Hospital were demolished, an infant welfare centre was built at the end of the site, and the rest of the grounds were laid out in 1936 as a children's park by the LCC Parks Department. There are buildings of stuccoed concrete by L. H. Bucknell -a Central pavilion with circular conical roof and clock, quite original, with a white terracotta frieze with reliefs of children playing by Marone Meggitt. Flanking the entrance are two discreet low halls for Scouts and Guides. The Doric colonnades along the walls are part of the original scheme, but were much rebuilt in 1964-8. 'No adults unaccompanied by children' reads the sign on the gate, making this children's park a godsend tor Londoners with children. peaceful lawns and play areas are flanked by rows of squat buildings that now house some of the resident sheep. Majestic plane trees provide shade in summer and the atmosphere is surprisingly tranquil considering the number of children usually playing on the well designed swings and monkey gym, and the floodlit football pitch at the far end. The flowering cherry trees around the entrance make it a local landmark in spring, as does the incongruous sight of sheep grazing behind the railings on Downe Terrace.
Harmsworth Memorial Playground. ILEA Playcentre, etc.
Wolfson Centre for Child Development
40
William Ellis School ARP post
Farm Chapel 37th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps
25 Swinburne
38 Marsh
Drinking fountain woman of Samaria
42 W.R.Teulon
77 Smith
81 Schreiner
88 Reynolds
Crestfield Street
Built up from 1825.
King's Cross church. 1825, enlarged 1865-6. Among the first trustees were W.H. Smith, founder of the firm of stationers and booksellers and John Thurston whose name is associated with a well-known make of billiard tables. The first Trust Secretary and possibly the builder of the church as Robert Eckett, who became associated with the movement for reform in the 1830s, joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association and entered its ministry in 1838. In 1857 he led the Association into a union with the Wesleyan Reformers and became the first secretary of the United Methodist Free Churches. The King's Cross premises now house the German Mission, which began in Spitalfields in 1864 and at its height had several churches in London. Its work includes a hostel for young Germans living in London.
Northumberland Hotel Features in films 'The Crying Game’
Cromer Street
Was Street
Holy Cross 1887. By Joseph Peacock. Plain tower-less exterior of stock brick with lancets and bellcote. Dignified, lofty interior: stone arcades, polychrome brick walls, more restrained than some of Peacock's work, although with some odd features, especially the low-starting flying buttresses in the narrow aisles and the demi-strainer arch separating nave from bay. End more elaborate, with trefoil-headed arcading and a little carving. Font in Norman style by J.L. Pearson. Many Anglo-Catholic fittings of the early c.20; rood by Sir Charles Nicholson, 1913, tile and mosaic Stations of the Cross. Other fittings from Peacock's St Jude, Gray's Inn Road. Demolished 1936. Stained glass Good Shepherd window, aisle 1920 by Martin Travers; deep colours, heavily leaded.
Flats. 1940s St.Pancras Borough flats. Striking sequence of nine six story slabs. Offers an earlier, more formal alternative to the traditional street: a striking sequence by Hening & Chitty placed at right angles to the street, lawns alternating with service courts, to provide plenty of light and air. Pevsner singled them out in 1952 as some the good post-war flats. Projecting staircase towers; decorative balconies. Two blocks elaborately refurbished c. 1996.
Bedefield
Chadswell
Fleetfield
Fleetway
Gatesden
Great Croft
Hollisfield
Mulletsfield
Peperfield
Sandfield
Cumberland Gardens
Houses in a pair of 1840s semi-detached houses built to match a pair belonging to the Lloyd Baker Estate opposite
Cubitt Street
Site of Cubitt building yard
Field Lane Community Centre. Baptist Chapel 1861. Two-storey three-bay front, all windows arched
Doughty Street
Built up by Doughty Estate 1792-1820. As a link between the Foundling Estate and the older area in the parish of Holborn. Still impressively complete. Long ranges of terraces on both sides, with plenty of assorted balconies, fanlights and doorcases, including,
10 Mew
14 London County Council plaque to Sidney Smith. Wit and Canon of St.Pauls
19 Creative Camera Bookshop
Racing Pigeon Publishing
42 Le Gallienne
43 Yates
48 Dickens House. London County Council plaque and a Museum. Charles Dickens came here in 1837, aged 25, with his wife Kate, baby Charles, his brother Fred and his sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth. It was here that he completed Pickwick Papers, followed by Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. This was a twelve roomed, three-storeyed house with an attic, which he leased for £80 a year. The street was described as broad, airy wholesome street. Almost three years later - by then a well-known novelist – he moved to Devonshire Terrace. The house was built c. 1807-9, and restored as a museum in 1925. It demonstrates the lay-out typical of these houses: basement service rooms, back washroom and wine cellar reconstructed; front ground-floor dining room with curved end, opening into a back parlour; first-floor drawing room, decorated and furnished in the style of c. 1837. In the garden a keystone with head of Jupiter from 1 Devonshire Terrace. There is a "Dingley Dell" kitchen in the basement.
49 Ellis Fellowship of the New Life
London House hostel for male Commonwealth students, architect Herbert Baker, opened Queen Mary, 1937, more planned
57 Delafield surprisingly sturdy Greek Doric entrances
59surprisingly sturdy Greek Doric entrances
Duke’s Road
127 The Place Theatre built for Middlesex Artists Rifle Volunteers.
Flaxman Terrace. Early St.Pancras flats. 1907-8 by Joseph & Smithem. Six storeys, with much consciously pretty detail: roughcast top floor, domed comer towers and Art Nouveau railings.
Lodge - engaging lime caretaker's lodge at the corner of Burton Street.
Shops. Not to be missed, three-storey Grecian frontages and shop windows belonging to the original Cubitt design of c. 1822. The shops have curved bay windows; the upper windows are tripartite, smartly decorated with paterae. Built for the Bedford Estate, on its border, so that the shops would not disturb the prime residential areas.
17, The Place Theatre. Built as the drill hall of the Middlesex (Artists') Rifle volunteers, 1888-9 by their colonel R. W. Edis. Attractive terracotta front with free Renaissance detail, and a medallion of Mars and Minerva by |Thomas Brock.
Duke’s Walk
Built for the Bedford Estate
Elm Street
Euston Road
Flute business of Joseph Wallis
Penton Primary School. Queen Anne style
Euston Music Hall
St.Pancras Station. Enormous, the second chief terminus of the London Midland Region, was built in 1868- 74 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and displays the romantic spirit of the Victorians in its most effusive manner. The Great Northern Railway's great rival. Train shed and booking hall. The vault over the platforms behind (by W. H. Barlow), severely functional in comparison, has a length of 690 ft and an exceptional span of over 240 ft. Steep gradient and very dangerous. Cellars underneath used for storage of beer from Burton. Printing works in the basement. Corbels on the west wall are interesting. Private roadway entrance. Line to Bedford opened 1868. Retaining wall and shops. Shires Bar. Bombed. The barrier of the Regent's Canal was to give problems to three major railway companies when they came to force their ways from the north into the new terminals of Euston, King's Cross and St. Pancras. Considerable engineering feats were involved. Trains into Euston cross the canal and then descend sharply down Camden Bank. The railway into King's Cross burrows under the Canal in ‘‘ a tunnel, and the Midland Railway's trains crossed the Canal so close to the terminus that St. Pancras, unavoidably, had to be 15. Feet above street level. It occurred to the designer of the train shed at St. Pancras, W. H. Barlow that in view of the Midland Railway's close connections with Burton, the space underneath the platforms might be used for storing beer- barrels. The length of a beer barrel had a direct influence on the spacing of the columns supporting the train shed, and no large-diameter pillars could be included in the design. This meant that Barlow had to forego supporting pillars for his roof. The result was a single span of 240 feet, at that time an unprecedented width. The vault, which abolished the conventional distinction between the walls and the roof, is 105 feet high at its apex, and 690 feet long. It is slightly bowed in order to relieve tension from contraction and expansion. The outward thrust of the vault was checked by tie- beams connecting the base of each pair of ribs; these tie-beams under the platforms were also the girders forming the roof of the warehouse below. The station was opened in October 1868. Features in films 'McVicar’, ‘The Servant’, ‘Smashing Time’, ‘Brannigan’, ’The Fourth Protocol’, ‘Just Ask for Diamond’, ‘Shirley Valentine’, I Hired a Contract Killer’, ‘Chaplin’, ‘Howard’s End’, King Ralph’, ‘Shining Through’.’Keep the Aspidistra Flying’, 102 Dalmations’, Spider’,’Five Seconds to Spare’, ‘The Golden Bowl’.
St.Pancras Chambers - Midland Grand Hotelopened 1873. Closed 1935 to become offices. Two towers. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Space for 600 guests. Gothic bulk. Its great facade embodies details from French and Italian Gothic architecture, and it has a soaring clock-tower 300 ft high. The west tower rises to 270 ft. Possibly site of a separate Hydraulic Pumping Station. The Hotel was finished subsequently (1873-6), with a fine disregard for site-mate. Note the way in which the windows at the back make no concessions to the line of Barlow's arched roof. Still the generator of heated and conflicting opinions and enthusiasms, it was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott who only reluctantly, and under pressure from friends, entered the competition with a design specifying two storeys more than the Midland's Directors requested. He won, nevertheless, and subsequently (and characteristically) wrote in his autobiography that the hotel was possibly 'too good for its purpose'. Fortunately we can still admire the profusion of Gothic details and the steep pinnacled towers, which from a distance in the evening give an almost Wagnerian grandeur to a prosaic part of London. Features in films 'Voyage of the Dammed’, ‘The Secret Garden’, ‘Batman Begins’, ‘Chaplin’, ‘Richard III’
Water tower part of old pumping station. Site of Hydraulic Pumping Station. Which was under viaduct, site can be recognised north of station by footings of accumulator tower
Somers Town goods site. Northern coal site. Goods yard 1887 for the Midland railway. By 1900 it was a single depot for the inward traffic. St.Pancras goods yard took the outward traffic. Hydraulic Pumping station and accumulator still there in 1979. Engine house is under the switchgear electricity goes to the engine beds. Red brick to match the rest of the building
237 3rd City of London Regiment
Fleet Square
Low-key neo-vernacular housing of the 1980s fills the area
Frederick Street
Part of ambitious layout by Cubit. 1827-32 His building yard lay just to the south off Cubitt Street. Minor grandeur in Nash manner is achieved by the exploitation of vistas and by of groups with giant pilasters, or with stuccoed pediments on-floor windows.
48-52 have elegant covered balconies
Where Lenin's friend Alexeyev lived
Gloucester Street
19 Edward Irving, the preacher. His followers built the Irvinite cathedral in Gordon Square
Gough Street
Green Yard. Worth a special look sympathetically scaled infilling by Pollard Thomas & Edwards completed 1990: stock brick comer house with mews houses behind. Perky but not over obtrusive late c20 details of early Modernist derivation. Ground-floor portholes and mesh balconies.
1 Henry de Costa, 1861
50
Granville Square
Lloyd Baker Estate – Baker had married the niece of the anti slavery campaigner, Granville Sharpe. Routine three-storey 1841-3. The square was the last part to be built of the Lloyd Baker estate planned in 1826 but not realised until 1841, on ground, which had been used as a rubbish tip by the builders of surrounding streets. At first it was named Sharp Square, after Thomas Lloyd Baker's wife, niece to William Granville Sharp, Esq. but probably for euphony, the philanthropist's middle name was adopted Granville Square's peculiarly oddity in layout was that, although it lies NE/SW along the estate's main axis, because of the tapering-off of the site it was entirely enclosed by Wharton and Lloyd Baker Streets, clasping it like pincers and making it accessible by road only by short entries through the middle of its long sides. The resulting effect is cosy, or depressing, depending on its current fortunes. It was connected with King's Cross Road by a flight of 20 granite steps. Note Arnold Bennett's novel in which the square itself is named "Riceyman Square.” In the 1940s, the square was almost as shabby and slatternly as Bennett described them. Tram cars still ground uphill to Mount Pleasant, as did the shabby men on their way to a kip at Rowton House the square's fortunes have not been greatly favoured. For its first few years the rubbish tip still remained: as late as 1906, apart from the architecture of church, square and surroundings was sadly unfashionable, "dismal space of uncared-for ground, covered with rubble, bricks and rubbish.” By the 1980s, after the Council had acquired the houses subsidence was again a threat, and piece-by-piece the whole square has been dismantled and carefully reconstructed, and the houses converted to flats and maisonettes. Alone among the streets of the Lloyd Baker estate, Granville Square was built in conventional terrace style, its houses in groups of six, the corner houses standing clear of each other. Indeed it would have been almost impossible to build in any other form, for while the restricted space allowed for neatly slotting in a small square it would not have accommodated such idiosyncrasies as the Lloyd Square villas. Squeezed between two converging streets, the square abuts slantwise against Wharton Street, which cuts off garden space. The square is the orthodox result of thought on the Lloyd Baker Estate, conforming even in style to normal terrace form, whereas the other streets on the estate are unusual to the bizarre. A close look at the site shows how only such a tight plan would cut space, the back of Granville Square's corner actually poking out into Wharton Street.
1-6carefully rebuilt by Islington
1 front door in wide recessed frames with a spacious effect. Houses are necessarily low-rise, three floors and basement: front doors are simple double-panelled; and typically for its date, all features, including the lacy, Gothicky fanlights, are square
23 home of Grego, art critic
26 Lenin used for communications with Iskra editors
25/26 has fanlights of three circles and segments. Windows have 'balconettes'; on the ground floor they have margin panes, on the first and second, heavy surrounds. The sole distinguishing features are slight advances of the centre and end houses, which have stringcourses above the first floors.
27-40 have been rebuilt, 1985-7, in keeping with the 1860s rebuilding, with triple ground-floor windows, brackets, small window-guards, bracketed cornice, and parapet.
28-38 these are of a slightly later date than the rest of the square, possibly because they may have been rebuilt after the construction of the Metropolitan -Underground Railway in 1861. Lurid stories of the time speak of the bursting of the Fleet Seuer into the railway workings; of men being drowned; of moments of terror and horror. In his History of Clerkenwell (1881), Pinks says:"The railway from Wharton Street to the corner of Exmouth Street is completely shut off from the public and a high hoarding prevented all inspection of the works which were going on ..... most inconvenient, state for traffic, for struts-were placed against most of the houses to keep them from falling in, and the pavement in many places was sunken, making the path dangerously uneven ..... Many houses, having been reported by the police surveyor as unsafe. Were vacated by their occupants."
29-38 In the 1850s the Metropolitan Railway was built beneath the site, and the railway company acquired and demolished the whole corner.
30 the square's most famous resident was the assiduous young historian William Pinks, who spent six years compiling his History of Clerkenwell at Mr Green's, and died with it still unfinished on 12 November 1860, aged only 31.
39/40, fanlights of three circles and segments. Windows have 'balconettes'; on the ground floor they have margin panes, on the first and second, heavy surrounds. The sole distinguishing features are slight advances of the centre and end houses, which have string courses above the first floors.
41 front door in wide recessed frames with a spacious effect. Necessarily low-rise, three floors and basement: front door simple double-panelled; and typically for its date, all features, including the lacy, Gothicky fanlights, are square
Randall’s' tile kilns had stood at what is now the short South west end of the square where the ground fell sharply away, George Randell's tile kilns were near Bagnigge Wells, on the banks of the River Fleet below. The kilns appear not to have been worked after 1824, but Randell's occupied the site until 1831, by which time his Maiden Lane kilns had been set up north of Battle Bridge. Meanwhile, sales were still carried on at the old works, though by 1829 negotiations were in hand for filling in the excavations. By that time, new suburbs were rising above old Bagnigge Wells’s pleasure gardens, and the Fleet was already a polluted ditch. From the 1770s two large tile kilns at the roadside belonging to Gorham & Co and then 1783-1803 to George Randell. He excavated the hillside earth to an extent that created a steep slope. These artificial cliffs were of burning red and brown hue, lending a strange distinction to the surroundings of Bagnigge Wells. In the 1820s, at least partly under pressure from the Lloyd estate on 'environmental' grounds, the firm moved their kilns to Maiden Lane where in time they were themselves dug out by the encroaching railways.
Riceyman Steps. Built in 1826. Go up to the last bit of Lloyd-Baker Estate. Flight of 20 granite steps. Known locally as "Plum Pudding Steps", but nowadays are more popularly called Riceyman Steps" after Arnold Bennett's novel of that name 1923. A double archway through the Ryan Hotel in King's Cross Road, leads to a flight of steps "divided by a half-landing".
St.Philip's, 1832. The church round, which the square was laid out, preceded building. W J Booth, architect of the estate, had been invited to submit designs, but the commanding central site required too great attention for the miserable sum of £4,418 including fee. The church was instead designed by Edward Buckton 1831-3, as a simple Commissioners' affair of light stock brick. It was without tower or spire, adorned merely with large pinnacles and a massive cross above the West front. Nave and short chancel of the same width, with a carved stone reredos, and a west gallery. A clumsy three-decker pulpit obscured the unimpressive sanctuary, and the church was filled with the usual heavy pews, for which parishioners were charged a fee. In 1854 the Rev Warwick Reed Wroth, a 30-year-old clergyman of 'Puseyan' views, was appointed perpetual curate, and St Philip's entered a period of some notoriety after he began to work gently but inexorably towards 'improvements' in line with the Oxford Movement. In 1859, he declared the pew rents abolished - the first church where this was done. He was also eager to introduce those liturgical changes, which at that time caused a great outcry against 'papistical' practices. The church, only a quarter of a century old, had been undermined by the building of the Metropolitan Railway and the clergyman called in William Butterfield for repairs and a restyling of the internal arrangements. In January 1860 St Philip's reopened with a new 'ritual chancel', oak clergy- and choir-stalls, the organ re-installed north of the choir, a better proportioned altar to draw the eye and a low pulpit so as not to obscure it. Low open seats for the congregation replaced the pews, and the dreaded polychrome appeared, in elaborately coloured marble inlay font. The press attacked "Puseyism in Clerkenwell.” Wroth weathered the noisy opposition, but at the cost of his health, and he was shortly obliged to retire, dying a few months afterwards in April 1867. ; Seventy years later all passion was spent, the once dense population had fallen, and in 1935 St Philip's was combined with the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Exmouth Street; but after being used for some time as a Council day nursery, it was demolished as redundant in 1938. Saint Philip's Church, designed by the architect, Mr. Armitage, has built in the square in 1832. It was demolished after the 1st World War. There was seating for eleven hundred and six-people. The fabric of the church was chiefly yellow brick with free-stone dressings at the angles. It is interesting to note that when houses 1 to 6 were rebuilt in 1984, great care was taken to retain the character of the front elevation and on this the Islington Council should be congratulated.
Coal hole covers lots of covers in York stone paving
Gray's Inn Road
Tudor times called Gray's Lane. A route to the north
19 Churston Mansions was Clovelly Mansions, home of Middleton Murray and Kathleen Mansfield. A series of tall redbrick mansion flats of c. 1900: enlivened by curved parapets and curly gables
200 ITN building. 1989 for Stanhope Properties. Foster & Partners' first major commercial building in London. 1989 taken over for Independent Television’s news and media offices. A deep-plan atrium building with glass and aluminium curtain walling, with the firm's usual good proportions and immaculate detail. It has a sleek pale front and eight-storeys All white and coloured mobile by Ben Johnson Which bravely challenges struggling to lend vigour to an otherwise artless place. The result is an impression of potential unfulfilled.
233 used to have cherubic telephone operators on the façade but they have gone, leaving a row of silent phones along the wall of this exchange of c.1940.
236 New Printing House Square for the Times by Siefert.
236, with a heavy-handed rhythm of concrete arches, was built as New Printing House Square, for The Times, 1972-6 by R. Seifert & Mer after the 1967 merger of the paper with the Sunday Times, which had presses here Four ranges of seven to eleven storeys, kept low.
245 wood block paving in the entrance under the tarmac
252 Calthorpe Arms
258-274 Calthorpe Project. a community garden, a series of intimate spaces created by local effort in 1981-4, the outcome of a campaign to thwart an office block. beam-and-beam timber community building, 1991 by Architype, following Walter Segal's self-build construction principles. Deep overhanging eaves; flat roof planted with herbs. An inspiration to Londoners everywhere, colourful and well designed gardens. Marked out from the main road by its big red gates, sculptural sign and tufty turf roof, the project site is entered by a curved bridge that passes over a lower rock garden. Exuberant planting is combined with mosaic paths and walls to create a vibrant feeling and divide the garden into a series of connected areas with different uses and atmospheres. There are secluded areas hedged in by hornbeam, undulating grass for family picnics, a paved area for musical and other organized events, a living willow bower, a wildlife garden, a childrens vegetable plot and a beautiful modern pine and Perspex self-built greenhouse The project describes itself as 'the back garden for the local community' .
277 Whitbread bottling store 1868 in a building which had been Robert Owen's Exchange and Co-operative Bazaar. HQ of the Irvingites, Madame Tussaud, theatre, North London Carriage Dept and North London Repository
328 Pindar of Wakefield, now the Water Rats. It survived until just a few years ago when it was taken over and renamed. The original Pindar opened in 1517. Pindar of Wakefield. It was the centre of a small, scruffy hamlet. There were two springs there. It is the site of Bagnigge House pub. Tea room, pond with a fountain and a cupid. Where Bob Dylan played his London debut in 1962.
356-264 Willing House Carving by Aumonnier. Mercury on the roof Stanley Young, fanciful three-bay front of freely mixed Tudor and Baroque elements. Good annexe Listed Grade II Offices built 1909 to design of Alfred Hart and Leslie Waterhouse for Messrs Willing Advertising.
364-6 St. Chad's Well was dedicated to the seventh century St Ceadda, first bishop of Lichfield and patron saint of healing springs. It was probably the oldest well in the district according to its dedication, but there are few references until the eighteenth century. The water of this well was strongly impregnated with sulphates of soda (Glauber's salt) and magnesium (Epsom salts) and was imbibed by hundreds each morning at 3d a head. Its later history is chequered, St. Chad's Place being built on the extensive gardens about 1840, but the Pump Room, rebuilt in 1832, survived until 1860, when it was removed to make way for the Metropolitan Railway.
77 Christopher Francis Buckle, Manufacturing chemist,
85 with a dark, glossy exterior by Comprehensive Design Group, completed tower with a convex bite and a grid of blue soleil
Acorn House. National Union of Journalists Headquarters is by Robert Sharpe & Son, 1966.
Amalgamated Society Railway Union,
BattleBridge House seven storeys, red brick bands, with yellow brick at the side. Sidney Kaye, Firmin & Partners, c. 1975
Bridge was built when North London tramways were electrified to bring Gray's Inn Road and Caledonian Road into alignment over the Metropolitan Railway
Calthorpe Estate was the first housing project of Thomas Cubitt
Chichester Place
Daily Sketch
Dulverton Mansions.A series of tall redbrick mansion flats of c. 1900: enlivened by curved parapets and curly gables
Eastman Dental Hospital. Formerly part of the Royal Free Hospital. The building is Sir John Burnet's last work, 1926. Still firmly in the Beaux Arts tradition. Festive pilastered and pedimented centre and wings with central entrance to an inner courtyard. A c19 part, a nice plain classical composition of 3-7-3 bays, brick with stone bands and keystones, horribly insulted by modern glazing. Recessed centre with tripartite entrance. This began life as the Light Horse Volunteer Barracks: centre 1842; wings 1855, 1876.
Fort - Holborn Fields and Pindar of Wakefield's Fort on the right of Gray's Inn Lane. 'The Committee for the Militia of London have given order that Trenches and Ramparts shall be raised”. The decisive factor during the Civil War - 1642-6 was the attitude of London, and it was on the City that the King, concentrated his aim. In February 1842 the City Corporation ordered a comprehensive scheme of protection by means of 18 miles of trenches, linking 24 fort and redoubts round London's perimeter streets leading out into the suburbs were also barricaded. ramparts—three yards thick and the ditch side six yards high.
Holy Trinity
Kingsway College. Two parts: the front is an aggressive composition of ribbed concrete surfaces, blocky projections and angled windows, containing teaching areas, dining room and common room; 1974 by the GLC for ILEA, a clumsy relation of Pimlico School. Along Sidmouth Street, behind trees, the LCC restrained earlier classroom block of c. 1960: neat white cladding above a set-back ground floor, unfortunately reglazed in the 1990
National Union of Journalists
Pattenmakers Company
Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital
St Andrew's Gardens .small neighbourhood park which is a former burial ground - gravestones are stacked up along the boundaries. It's at its best in early spring, when swathes of crocus are backlit by the low sun. Otherwise, there are old-fashioned rose beds and a stab at New Perennial-style gardening in the central beds.
St. Andrew's. Associated with Chatterton
St.Chad's Place
Tilverton Mansions. A series of tall redbrick mansion flats of c. 1900: enlivened by curved parapets and curly gables
Trinity Court. Blue and white 1930s apartment block. Features in films 'Mona Lisa’
Tyndalls Buildings
UCL Centre for Auditory Research funded by the Welcombe Trust.
Great Percy Street
Gradient is the Fleet bank
18
26 Percy Arms
Sanders House
Clerkenwell Magistrates Court. 1906. by J.D. Butler, a fine design, with his typical oversize keystones and a recessed centre with semicircular pediment.
Grenville Street
8 Barrie
11 Knight Frank and Rutley. Foundling Estate office
Guilford Street
Burton terraces. Original terraces of 1791-4 survive in patches, mostly rather altered. Ground leases by Bedford Estate and Foundling hospital. Built up in 1831. Layout by Bacon of the garden
Guilford Place, a wider area with Drinking Fountain of 1870 opposite the entrance to Coram’s Fields. Sculpture of girl kneeling and pouring water from a jug. Francis Whiting Fountain 1870
3-6 sensitively restored in 1985 when converted to sheltered flats; two delicate fanlights, blue-painted railings.
20 1968-9, also by B Easton & Robertson and curtain-walled, but routine.
Children’s Hospital 1936
30 Institute of Child Health, 1953-5 by S. E. T. Cusdin of Eastern & Robertson, built as a maternity and child welfare centre at the corner of Guilford Place; enlarged 1962-6. A varied and successful design; curtain-walled front with ground and top floors treated differently; a brick flank steps back to Guilford Place with a projecting window strip at third-floor level. Two storeys of lightweight attic floors with lively monopitch roofs, 1994 by ORMS
58 home of Vera Brittain and Winifed Holtby
70-72 original terraces 1793 onwards, fill what was once the vista from Queen Square, hence their unusually grand elevations with giant Doric half-columns and pilastered attic floor.
Foundling Hospital 1740s. There were donations of pictures and a fashion for small art exhibitions 1739. Now demolished. Founded by Thomas Coram of Lyme Regis. Now a children’s playground following a public appeal in the 1930s.
Public toilets Features in films 'The Sandwich Man’
Gwynne Place
Originally Granville Place
"Riceyman's" second-hand bookshop below the steps was a seedy establishment
In the 1970s amid general local demolition Gwynn Place was pulled down make a car park, although the Steps were retained and the square restored. The London Ryan Hotel was insensitively planned to straddle the protected steps, which had by now become historic.
Handel Street
Handel gave performances of his Messiah in the Foundling Hospital chapel to raise money for the orphans)
4-7 Scattered late Georgian houses among miscellaneous medical institutions
Drill Hall for 1st City of London Regiment
St.George’s Gardens. between Handel Street and Gray's Inn Road . 1713 it waqs opened as the burial ground for St George's Bloomsbury and St George the Martyr and was made into a garden with the help of the Kyrle Society in 1888. Repairs and landscape improvements were planned in 1998. It has Winding paths between c18 sarcophagi with bulgy pilasters, an obelisk, a big altar tomb with urn, to Robert Nelson, 1715. Terracotta figure of Euterpe from a series in Fitzroy Doll's Apollo in Tottenham Court Road, demolished 1961. By the Handel Street entrance is a plain early c19 pedimented lodge with Attached to it A pretty engraved tablet with rustic architectural ornament to Clare Taylor, 1763, and other members of her family; 'life how short. Eternity how long'; signed W. Wooton Kegworth. Altar tomb, etc. coffin-like tomb of the grand-daughter of Oliver Cromwell, Anne Gibson, who died in 1727. The atmosphere in this small narrow garden is something rather special, especially if you catch it empty, early on a spring morning. Like nearby St Andrew's Gardens and St John's Wood Church Grounds this was one of several eighteenth-century burial grounds planned in then open countryside to relieve the pressure on unhealthily crowded inner city churchyards. churchyard was converted into a park, with ornamental bedding displays among the fine chest tombs. A hundred years later, however, it had fallen into grim disrepair, with drug dealers using some of the cracked open tombs to stash their wares; the park was scruffy and no longer felt safe. Thanks to a thorough restoration project overseen by the Friends of St George's Gardens with funding from the new Urban Parks Programme, the garden (reopened in 2001) is once again a pleasant place to sit or stroll beneath the canopies of the huge London planes. Many of the tombs (and the garden's surrounding crumbling brick walls) have been expertly and sensitively repaired (check out that of Anna Gibson, grand-daughter of Richard Cromwell the Protector, and an impressive obelisk pushing through the canopy of an oak tree). The flowerbeds have also been planted in best gaudy Victorian fashion - dahlias, crocosmias and red hot pokers among the banks of lavender and sarcococca. An annual St George's Day event is organized by the Friends. Features in films 'Born Romantic’.
Hastings Street
are part of the endowment of Tonbridge School bequeathed by its founder, Sir
Andrew Judde
Features in films 'Shadowlands’.
Heathcote Street
Herbrand Street
London Taxi Centre built as Daimler Garage. Art Deco. Lovable landmark of the 1931 by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners. Stuccoed concrete, with a bold spiral ramp continuing to the roof, as if more were intended; abstract Art Deco ornament around windows and staircase entrance. Daimler-owned cars were kept on the upper floor, private cars below, with waiting rooms below.
Peabody Estate in the usual brick contrasts with three red brick gabled ranges of flats
Holford Square
Last square in Islington to be developed. 1847. Swallowed up what had been Myddleton Gardens. Allotments to the north. Early development dismissed as ‘respectable’. Bombed flat in the Second World War.
Myddleton Gardens had contained the Voelcker gymnasium
Bowling Green opened 1934. Balloon site in the Second World War. Heavily bombed.
Holford Square Estate. Designed by Lubetkin. Tecton. Site of Holford Square. Last square to be built in Clerkenwell. Bombed. Addresses are in Cruikshank Street
30 where Lenin lived. Lenin bust by Lubetkin is now in the Town Hall
Reservoir at the southern end
Hunter Street
3-4 Scattered late Georgian houses
8 Health Centre Built as the London School of Medicine for Women, established by Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. 1897-8 and 1900 by M. Brydon; Queen Anne domestic with some Baroque dormers.
54 where John Ruskin was born RSA plaque
Renoir Features in films 'Born Romantic’, ‘Low Down’.
John Street
Built 1756 by John Blagrove carpenter. Wide and well preserved, a good demonstration of the mid c18 in contrast to the earlier streets. Yellow stock brick is used instead of red brick. Many-book Ionic doorcases and other good details.
1-9
2 doorcase, Greek Doric, and an iron overthrow. Stone staircase
3stone staircase
5 unusual Chinese fretwork staircase.
33, larger than with four bays and a pediment good first-floor ceiling
29-36
31 John Kirk House. Medallion of Kirk bronze on a marble slab. It says “Christian Philanthropist. The Children’s Friend’. 1925
RSA building and the Adams wall paintings
RNLI
Judd Street
part of the endowment of Tonbridge School bequeathed by its founder, Sir Andrew Judde
87-103 Skinners Estate housing taller stretch
95 with a Corinthian-columned shop front.
Salvation Army museum. 'The Salvation Army story'. Opened by Booth in 1911. Photos of the Booth family. Stead uniform. Salvation Army Publishing headquarters is a permanent exhibition illustrating the history and work of the movement from the days when William Booth left the Methodist New Connexion to launch his 'Christian Mission' in the East End. A photograph of the Fry family of Salisbury is a reminder that the first Army bandsmen were Wesleyans who turned out to give support to the persecuted Salvationists in that cathedral city.
Telephone Exchange
Clifton House on site of Euston Market
Regent Theatre destroyed in the blitz
Central London Eye Hospital now Institute of Ophthalmology
114 Skinners Arms. Independent pub, ex Greene King.
165 Medway Court. Experimental point block for St.Pancras 1949. In this area planned working-class housing began to replace the older terraces from the end of the c9, continued by a variety of new housing types after the Second World War. By Denis Clarke-Hall two others were intended. Nine storeys, made interesting by lively massing detail. Above a ground floor with shops the plan has three wings with only two flats to each access balcony. Concave and convex sides, and much use of patterning and colour.
Judd Place. Pond and sinking houses
Camden Town Hall. Formerly St Pancras Town Hall. St.Pancras Borough Council erected this building in 1935~7 competition winning design by Albert J. Thomas, Lutyens’ office manager. It has a steel frame with Portland stone. The principal facade has a third floor with columns above it decorated with carved keystones by I H King. The principal spaces include a marble lined entrance hall and stair. A controversial eight-storey office block was added in 1973~7 by Camden Architect's Department after the council decided to centralise its offices in the Euston Road. Features in films 'A Cry from the Streets’, ‘Bad Behaviour’.
Kenton Street
Housing by the Foundling Hospital estate. Working-class five-storey blocks with decent Neo-Georgian detail, refurbished in 1978
King's Cross Bridge
Short road covering the railway and with underground lines beneath
King's Cross Road
Was previously Bagnigge Wells Road. Changed in 1863. Bagnigge Wells was previously Black Mary’s Wells. Caledonian Road of 1826 was extended by King's Cross Road, created in 1910-12 over the line of the Metropolitan Railway of 1863.
61 Baggnigge Wells. Terrace of houses, all with balconies at first-floor level is the site of Bagnigge Wells. The Fleet flowed through the spa gardens. Today the only relic is the inscribed stone set into the front wall of the first house in the terrace, thought to mark the north- western boundary of the gardens. The stone is dated 1680, which is particularly interesting because this is about the time when Bagnigge House was used as a summer retreat by Charles II's mistress, Nell Gwynne. Nell's association with the area is commemorated in Gwynne Place on the opposite side of the road. The 'Pinder a Wakefeilde' mentioned on the plaque refers to a famous old pub called the Pindar of Wakefield on nearby Gray's Inn Road.
100 Kings Cross Hotel. Plaque to Lenin.
Royal Scot Hotel, unappealingly bulky. Occupies a triangular site behind the road. By Treheame & Norman, Preston & Partners complete 1972.
128-136 Cobden Buildings
170 Susan Lawrence Hostel
76 Traffic Warden Centre. A former Police Station 1869-70 by T. C. Sorby; five storeys, Italianate with big cornice. Bold stuccoed entrance with royal arms. Low cell block to the rear. Stables for horses behind. Beyond the magistrates' court and the police station, the road changes direction and swings round to the left, keeping close to the river's meandering course.
Fleet River ran across the pub grounds, between King's Cross Road and Gray's Inn Road. The route is now used by the Metropolitan Line. There were earthworks either side of it in this area during the Civil War. Tubinisation of the Metropolitan Railway took place in between November 1860 and May 1862. 29 ft wide 59 ft deep. The Fleet is now in a pipe. The tunnel is built on rubble in the river bed.
Lord Cobham's Head
Sir John Oldcastle
Site of 175 H.V.Brimson, non ferrous foundry
Site of Tile kilns of George Gorham and Randall
173 Part of a c1799 terrace with shops on ground floor.
Lansdowne Terrace
1-4 original terraces 1794
5 Payne
Leeke Street
Vail & Co.
Leigh Street
Skinners Estate a complete terrace survives with shops,
Lloyd Baker Estate
In private hands until 1978. Adjacent to the New River Estate, wedge-shape between Amwell Street and King's Cross Road. Planned from 1818 but begun only in 1825, to designs chiefly by W.J. Booth, son of the family estate surveyor. It is especially attractive and complete. Mainly semi-detached two-storeyed stock brick villas with emphatic Greda detail. The heavy shared pediments compose effectively in the sloping views. Three large fields developed in the 1820s by the son of the owner.
Mabledon Place
Hamilton House National Union of Teachers. Stately premises Edwardian classical by W.H. Woodruffe, 1913-14. Assembly hall added in the central courtyard 1961-2 by Hulme Chadwick
Marchmont Street
A service street for Brunswick Square preserves on its w side a long terrace of c. 1801-6 with a flourishing mixture of small shops and pubs. The contrast with the 'neighbouring Brunswick shopping centre should be pondered on.
Office block.
26 Shelley
Warehouse building. Mary Ward – Mrs Humphrey Ward tried first to start a settlement in Gordon Square which failed but the more imaginative residents of the new settlement rented a humble little building behind Marchmont Street, still used as a warehouse. Lectures and discussions there attracted a few working men but Mrs Humphry Ward could not rest until a real residential settlement was built.
Mecklenburgh Square
Built for Foundling Estate. Laid out c.1800 and so named in honour of Queen Charlotte, formerly Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, George III's consort. Building carried out from 1792 by James Burton, who was also involved in contemporary development of other estates. Laid out in 1794. Air raid shelters. Built from c. 1808 by Joseph Kay, Cockerell's successor as Surveyor to the Foundling Estate. Damaged in the Second World War but restored since. The frontage is in the new grand manner of street architecture adopted also for Tyburnia and for Nash's Regent's Park. Stuccoed eleven-bay centre with giant Ionic columns and angle accents with recessed giant columns.
The garden laid out in 1808-9 retains much of its original lay-out with four serpentine paths from the corners to the centre leafy, square, tucked directly behind Coram's Fields, with stunning Georgian architecture. A dense privet hedge all the way around affords privacy; but there are majestic planes and cherries, well tended borders and tennis courts. There is also an area dedicated to plants from New Zealand. It looks particularly beautiful at the end of a summer afternoon with leafy shadows dappling the lawns.
London House. Goodenough College. a college-type hostel built around a large quadrangle, for students from the Dominions. Planned 1933 by Sir Herbert Baker and built of Brick on a flint and stone base intended to symbolize different ages of building. The wings were added in 1936-7 on the same plan by A. T. Scott, 1949-50 and another wing was added 1961-3. There is a symmetrical front and the quadrangle has an arcaded cloister and balcony above. Characteristically pompous public rooms in the pre-war part -a dining hall with coved ceiling and gilded imperial emblems; a library with a ceiling in late c17 style and a grand stone staircase. plasterwork by Lawrence Turner. Chapel by Vernon Helbing, 1963. There is a bronze medallion to Frederick Crawford Goodenough who was the donor.
William Goodenough House. Hall of residence. Goodenough was Chair of the University Governors and founded a trust for women and married students.
18 Masefield
21 Tawney
37 Rodgers, Woolf
43-47 plainer original house
44 home of American poet, Hilda Dolittle.Lawrence
45 Whiting
46 Sala
Mecklenburg Street
Some plainer original houses
Millman Street
This area makes an interesting study in changing approaches to historic streetscape. On the side another terrace of 1721, which collapsed in 1971.Terrace collapsed 1970s and replaced by housing by Camden
1-25 rebuilt 1888 by the Rugby Estate pale brick with bands of coloured tiles, and restored by Donald Insall & Partners for Camden after 1975, when the borough bought some of the Rugby Estate property in order to set the pattern for much needed repairs
Camden Housing 1974 terraced housing by Farrell & Grimshaw, firmly c20, a little dour with its facing of hard uncoursed red brick. The minimal Georgian echoes in the form of simple round-arched doorways and stuccoed ground floors, unusual for public housing at the time, reflected the shift towards sympathetic infilling in historic settings
16 Borrow