| Dalston/Kingsland | Hackney Central | Shoreditch | Stoke Newington | About this site |
 |
  |
Dalston/Kingsland Info
‘I love walking in London,’ said Mrs. Dalloway, ‘Really, it’s better than walking in the country.’ Virginia Woolf, 1924
Walking through Dalston is a very much the kind of urban experience that Mrs. Dalloway might have enjoyed if she had ever found her way there. There are three delightful town squares, plenty of interesting architecture and history plus rich, cosmopolitan street scenes. It is a walk of contrasts from the vigorous bustle of Ridley Road market to the leafy tranquillity of Albion Square; from towering edifices to bijou villas.
The name Dalston is Anglo-Saxon in origin and derived from Deorlafs’s farm (tun) on the banks of the Hackney Brook. By 1300 it had become a hamlet known as Derleston centred around the junction of the present day Ridley Road and Dalston Lane. The hamlet of Kingsland grew up in medieval times at what we now call Dalston Junction. By the 1830’s the hamlets had merged and linked to the north with the hamlet of Shacklewell and to the new development of De Beauvoir Town in the south as London expanded into the surrounding countryside.
The ancient thoroughfare of Kingsland Road, around which this walk weaves, originated as Ermine Street - a Roman road from the bridge on the river Tamesis in the township of Londinium to military garrisons at Lincoln and York in the north. It was travelled by John Gilpin and Dick Turpin and runs, today, straight as a die through the borough of Hackney.
Until the mid 19th century, Dalston was still largely rural but around the 1830s the principal landowners of the area, the de Beauvoirs, the Rhodes, and the Tyssen-Amhursts began selling plots of land to developers, gradually creating the Victorian suburb that is still evident today. The demand for vast quantities of bricks was supplied locally from Hobson’s brickfields, on the east side Kingsland Road, as market gardens were dug up for the clay beneath. The ‘march of the bricks’ had started in earnest.
Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary on 25th April 1664 ‘ – so to Hackny, where I have not been many a year, since a little child I boarded there. Thence to Kingsland by my nurse’s house Goody Lawrence, where my brother Tom and I was kept when young’. After a detour to Islington he continues, ‘and so through Kingsland again and so to Bishopsgate, and so home with great pleasure – the country mighty pleasant’.
Will Self in his novel, ‘How The Dead Live’ (2000) makes a rather bizarre reference to a place called Dulston, a sort of limbo district where the newly dead assemble.
" Where is Dulston?", asks Lily, one such person, of her stygian mini cab driver, ‘I mean, we appear to be heading in the direction of Dalston’. ‘Yairs well. It’s right alongside of it’ he replies. ‘It’s like a skinny district, yeh? One minute yer on the Kingsland Road, the next yer turnin’ into Dalston Lane. If yer not quick you can miss Dulston.' "
Designed by Hawkins Brown Architects and completed in 2004 this new building was described in the Guardian as 'not a work of great architecture' however it was also stated that it's just what London needs being both imaginative and completed to a demanding budget. Try and see after dark when the front fascia is illuminated.
Other Hawkins Brown projects are on site with the market retail pods on the south side that have won design awards and the main HCD building on Bradbury St.
The next phase of development of the area extends into Gillett Square where, beyond the car park, a business centre, library, studio spaces and housing are planned with the redevelopment of the Stamford Works, watch this space.
This is a very busy street market particularly on Saturday when hundreds of stalls sell food and other goods from all over the world. The market has been the commercial centre of Hackney since the 1920’s. Until the 50’s it was mainly Jewish (the 24 hour bagel shop reflects this period) but now Asian, Turkish, Caribbean, African, Vietnamese and Cockney stall holders all rub shoulders together.
On Saturdays Ridley Road Market is complemented with a large market south of Dalston Junction (on Glebe Road) known as the Waste. This was originally a long strip of manorial wasteland developed as smallholdings in the 18th century.
The Rio started life as an auctioneer's shop but converted in 1909 into a makeshift picture house. In 1913, cinema architects Adams & Coles of Hackney converted the premises into a proper cinema. Its present Art Deco form internally and externally dates from 1937 when Fredrick F. Bromige gutted the earlier building and created the Classic Cinema which was refurbished as the Rio in 1998. It is a Grade II* listed building and the only mainstream cinema in Hackney.
4 Centreprise 136 Kingsland High Street
Founded around 1977, it was then the only real bookshop in Hackney. But it was much more than a bookshop. It was, and still is, a café, community centre and a base for the local Workers Educational Association. The ‘Peoples Autobiography of Hackney’ is also based here and the memories of many Hackney residents have been published through this project.
High up on the corner of Crossway and Stoke Newington Road look for two iron shields dated 1901 which denote the boundary between the Metropolitan Boroughs of Hackney and Stoke Newington. These boroughs as well as Shoreditch to the south were brought together to create the new London Borough of Hackney in 1964.
A pair of semi-detached houses built by architects Dominic Cullinan and Ivan Harbour for their own use and finished in 1998. Reinforced concrete, anodised aluminium and timber are used in the construction and an ingenious central staircase in the form of a double helix is incorporated. Leonardo da Vinci first invented this type of construction for the Chateau of Amboise in the Loire Valley, France.
Schools like this, over 550 in total, were built all over the inner London area, for the School Board for London, after the Education Act of 1870 which introduced compulsory education for all up to the age of 12. This school dates from 1900 and as would be expected for the period is eclectic in style with strong Arts and Crafts movement influences. We shall see several similar schools on this walk some, having become redundant through falling school roles, are being converted into flats thereby preserving an important part of London’s architectural and social history.
The ‘rag trade’ has played a very important part in Hackney’s economy in the past and to a lesser extent still does. This building in Art Deco style by architects Hobden & Porri is built of red stock brickwork with bands of glazed bricks known as faience between each floor and dates from 1929. The building was extended into Somerford Grove in 1933. Simpson’s of Piccadilly developed the DAKS brand here in 1935. After the company vacated the building in 1981 it was put to use by the Turkish community and is known as the Halkevi Community Centre. Parts of the building are now being converted to loft appartments refelecting the changing forthunes of the borough.
Elizabeth Robinson writes ‘Hackney contains some of the most experimental, historically significant, and notorious examples of post war public housing in the country’. The Somerford Estate is an excellent example of the first two categories. It was the first mixed public housing development in England consisting of low-rise blocks of flats, terraces of two storey houses with front and back gardens, and bungalows. It was built by Hackney based architect Frederick Gibberd in association with the Borough Engineer G.L.Downing between 1946 and 1949. It won a prestigious Festival of Britain award in 1951. The Architectual Review at the time commented that it ‘represents an attempt to design an environment which should have an urban scale and visual variety. The plan is clearly based on the precintual theory, with interconnected squares, throughout which the pedestrian receives priority. Apart from the brilliant handling of this major design problem, the attention paid to planting and to such details as external floor surfaces shows an understanding of what the contemporary landscapist’s job is about.’ What a shame that the human scale of this project was ignored in later high rise estates many of which, in Hackney at least, have since been demolished to give way once more to terraces of houses.
10 April, Seal and Perch Streets
These streets are a Victorian exercise in the provision of similarly inspired human scale dwellings for the working class in contrast to the rather austere tenements favoured, for example, by the Peabody Trust. They have well stood the test of time and despite opening straight onto the pavement have a charm which merits their retention within the contemporary street scene. Above each paired and linked, rounded arched doorways is a terracotta plaque proudly proclaiming the building date. We can thereby follow the progress of the development from 1881 to 1886 as Hoxton builder John Grover completed his task. (Cherry)
Until the late 18th century Shacklewell Manor House, a substantial mansion stood on the site of Seal Street. Dating back at least to the early 16th century it was once the home of Sir John Heron who as Master of the Jewel House was controller of the royal purses of both Henry VII and VIII. He made a significant contribution to Hackney life when in 1519 he provided finances to rebuild Hackney parish church. His son Giles married Sir Thomas More’s youngest daughter Cecily and they lived here in Shacklewell until Giles’ execution for treason of in 1541 (a fate he shared with his father in law!). After this, Sir Ralph Sadleir of Sutton House in Homerton, was granted possession of the property. He may have supported Cecily at her time of distress, he certainly took two of her sons into his employ. Later the house became the property of the wealthy Rowe family (Sir Thomas Rowe was Lord Mayor of London) and with alterations in the 17th century, the home of Francis Tyssen, Lord of the Manor of Hackney.
This church, tucked away inside a triangle of housing and only approachable by a passageway at the side of the church hall is, according to Robinson ‘one of the hidden gems of Hackney’.It was built to serve the East End missionary work of the Merchant Taylors’ School by Charles Reilly in 1911. Reilly was an alumnus of the school and later head of the Liverpool School of Architecture. The round arched basilica form and the use of reinforced concrete make it an interesting and unusual ecclesiastical building.
It is an awe-inspiring experience to enter this impressive church. Sometimes known as the Cathedral of the East End (although Stepney folk would argue that Dalston isn’t in the East End at all!) it is the biggest parish church in London, towering over the surrounding substantial gothic style houses. Surveyor of the Manor of Hackney, Chestor Cheston (Jnr.) was the architect of the church consecrated in 1870. The impressive tower was added in 1877-80 by E.L.Blackburn. The builders were Dove Brothers of Islington who are still in business today. Bridget Cherry describes the tower as a piling on of ‘Teulonesque effects with its ‘boldly striped upper part, the octagonal top with circular turrets and large gargoyles clustered around a stumpy gabled spire’ (S.S.Teulon was the 19th century architect of among other London churches St. Stephen’s Hampstead. Pevsner described him as ‘impressive’ but ‘hamfisted’). It possesses implanted in its side a working barometer, unique in Europe.
John Betjeman describes the interior as aglow with ‘scalding glass’. Over the years its Victorian character has been carefully preserved, particularly by the previous incumbent over many years, the colourful and controversial Rev. Donald Pateman. The Parish Magazine for Spring1985 carried the following full-page imprecation:
In 1945 A.Hitler was DEMOLISHED
In 1985 A.Scargill is being ROUTED!
SO MAY ALL THINE ENEMIES PERISH, O YAHWEH
Dating from around 1800 this is fine a three storey detached house in yellow stock brick with a stone coped parapet and a stuccoed projecting porch with pilasters. It was until recently the headquarters of a housing association. It was originally known as Graham House and stood just to the west of what was known as Dalston Manor House which in 1849 became a Refuge for Destitute Females, an institution founded by William Wilberforce and others in 1805. The inmates had been recently released from prison and provided the middle class neighbourhood with a source of domestic labour which hopefully was trustworthy.
Near the route, further along Dalston Lane
Carrara House No. 164
Formerly the premises of monumental mason James Elves and named after the Italian marble he often carved (see the trough in the front garden). His stone yard around the back has how been turned into a trendy gated mews. The white stuccoed house (to first floor level) has a full width iron balcony and dates from the late 18th century.Navarino Mansions
A flamboyant Edwardian block designed by Nathan Joseph for The Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company for Jewish artisans and built in 1904 in Art Nouveau style. The true glory of the mansions came to light when in the 90s when years of grime were cleaned off and the estate restored by architects Hunt Thompson.Chalmar House No.127
An attractive mid 19th century house with double full height curved bay windows.Sigdon Road School
Another School Board for London school this one built in 1898 with a fine bas-relief pediment in cement showing a school mistress and master teaching reading and writing and the Latin motto Lux mihi laus.Hackney Downs Station
Built for the Great Eastern Railway out of Liverpool Street Station in 1872.Eastside Academy, School of Industry
A school on this site was built in 1837 to provide an education for girls in the parish. Antiquarian William Robinson wrote, ‘at present there are forty girls who are brought up in the principles of the Church of England and instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, needlework and the older girls are taught housework before they leave school. The clothes they wear are made by themselves’. The present building was built by the London County Council as can be seen by the prominent plaque over the door. In the late 1990s it closed as a college of further education and was converted into the flats we see today.
15 German Hospital / North London Railway line
There has long been a German community in London and by 1900 there were around 50,000 people of German origin (40,000 German males were interned at the outbreak of the First World War). The hospital was established on this site in 1845 to provide for sick and poor Germans in what had been the Dalston Infants Asylum. The present building dates from 1864 and was designed by T.L.Donaldson, Professor of Architecture at University College London. He was a renowned champion of classicism so it seems somewhat strange that he should create the Tudor Gothic structure in red brick with black diapering we see before us.
Only the poor would go into hospital in the 19th century, the rich would be treated at home. With good reason for you were more likely to catch an infectious disease inside hospital than outside. Conditions were somewhat improved in the building of the German Hospital which followed the principles set down by Florence Nightingale (who twice visited the former building) in a pavilion style with no direct communication between wards and plenty of fresh air and light. The hospital was staffed with German doctors and nurses. (An innovative extension in the 1930s will be dealt with in the section on Fassett Square). After World War II the hospital became part of the National Health Service providing psychiatric and geriatric care. Closed for some years it is now partially converted to flats.
The North London Railway Line was opened in 1851 and provides a link from Hackney to Stratford and North Woolwich in the east and Hampstead and Kew in the west. The building of the railways in the 19th century was a key factor in the gradual social change of Hackney from a middle class suburb to a poor inner-city area.
16 The Faith Tabernacle Church of God
Formerly the Hamburg Lutheran Church it served the patients and staff of the hospital next door and was built in 1876 by Habershon and Brock. McKellar describes it as ‘an exuberant and rather idiosyncratic neo-Old German Gothic concoction’. The church continued to function during the inter-war period but by the outbreak of World War II disgrace had been brought to it by the then minister the Rev. Schonberger. He was a fervent Nazi who fled this country in 1939. Many of the nurses in his congregation were interned at the time. In 1982 the church was bought for its present congregation and a fine 17th century reredos, which had been incorporated from an earlier German church, was given to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This square of two-storey terraced houses of the 1860s surrounds a central garden. A pilot version of EastEnders was filmed here (the provisional name for the programme was E8) and it became the model for Albert Square. It was, however, rejected itself as a location, much to the relief of the residents, as the extension of the German Hospital in one corner was considered too dominant a feature.
The East Wing was designed by architects Burnet Tait & Lorne and built in 1936. The Hackney Society says that it, ‘reflects a pioneering spirit to the design of healthcare buildings. With its roof terraces and sun lounges, generosity of space and fine detailing, the building pays homage to Alvar Aalto’s design at the Paimio Sanitorium in Finland built between 1929 and 1933.’
Near the route, further along Graham Road
Marie Lloyd plaque at No. 55 Graham Road
Marie Lloyd, probably the most famous of all music hall artistes, was born in Hoxton in 1870. She lived in Graham Road with her first husband for three years in the 1890s. The Blue Plaque was unveiled in August 1977 by Mr. Ellis Ashton, President of the British Music Hall Society in the presence of two of Marie’s nieces and many show business stars.Note also the extraordinary lion swags over the doorways of no.92 Graham Road.
18 Wilton Estate, Lansdowne Drive
Architects Norman & Dawbarn planned this estate which was opened in 1950. The architects were a leading firm in the provision of post-war public housing in London. The projecting balconies to every flat and the coloured facing panels are reminiscent of the Scandinavian style of the 50s. Although the current state of the landscaping around the estate leaves something to be desired it is understood that environmental improvements are likely soon. Access to the inner gardens can be made via a pathway from Lansdowne Drive.
Also on Wilton Way is another fine example of a London School Board building, recently refurbished for residential usage.
In the early 1970s this was the centre of a vigorous campaign to prevent the wholesale demolition of the area which estate agents now call London Fields. Thankfully this was successful and put an end to a rolling programme of, so-called, slum clearances in Hackney. It is now the centre of the Mapledene Conservation Area.
A candidate for a Blue Plaque, sometime in the distant future, could be No.59 Mapledene Rd, the first married home of Hackney Labour Party members Cherie and Tony Blair. They bought it in 1980. Blair’s biographer John Rentoul writes it was ‘an area that saw an influx of young people buying their first houses in the early eighties. Blair and Booth’s house was one of a row of four early Victorian three storey houses’. What they paid for it is not documented but it is undoubtedly worth considerably more now that the area has become gentrified.
Ironically, had the plans been fulfilled for clearing the Mapledene area it might be going through the same metamorphosis as the Holly Street area is today. Three tower blocks and numerous horizontal slab blocks put up in the 60s have now been blown down, to the delight of most. A low-rise development, remarkably retro in style, of 500 new homes by Levitt Bernstein has replaced them. New roads have been laid out with names like Jacaranda, Mulberry and Celandine, no doubt intended to complement Holly Street.
Bridget Cherry describes it as ‘a satisfyingly complete picturesque Italianate composition of 1846-49’. It was built by Islip Odell with villas grouped in twos and fours surrounding a pleasant railed garden with a restored and working water fountain.
Its completeness is derived from a recent development (1995) in matching style on the west side which was for many years an open space following the demolition of an earlier Literary and Scientific Institute (Albion Hall) on the site.
A remnant of former Lammas land this open space and playground has a concrete and mosaic serpent snaking across it created by Dalston based Free Form Arts Trust who have been responsible for many other public artworks in the borough.
Near the route
Kingsland Crescent
This was a very smart crescent of 3 storey houses in the early 19th century but now partly in industrial use. Since 1995 improvement works have been carried out and gaps filled in matching style to recreate, to some extent, its original splendour.
This grand town square was laid out in the late 1830s by the Huguenot architect, R.L. Roumieu (who also built the French Protestant Hospital in South Hackney). It was part of a major development, most of which survives, named De Beauvoir Town after the landowners. In the 70s this was also scheduled for demolition. A councillor at the time when asked if De Beauvoir Square would be spared replied 'of course – we will only knock down the houses!' Thankfully the houses survived and have been well looked after by their fortunate owners. Elizabethan or perhaps Jacobean in style, many have shaped Dutch gables and some have their original lozenge shaped leaded windows. They surround well- maintained rose gardens and a children’s playground. Altogether it is a happy survivor from a period of unenlightened local authority policies.
Designed by Fredrick Gibberd ten years after his Somerford Estate (1958-61). Three terraces of maisonettes with gables and a block of flats are arranged around a central courtyard. The Gibberd practice still has its office in Shoreditch.
25 The Metropolitan Benefit Society Asylum
