“They were deep in conversation, but as I got level with them one looked up and turned to me as though she wanted me to settle a difference of opinion they’d been having.
‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘You’ve heard that expression “the seven-year itch”? Well, what does it mean exactly?’” (Bleeding London, p.192)
They sought Stuart’s reassurance that when “a man goes off on a seven year itch he always comes back, doesn’t he?” His reply, “sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t” left them “gloomy and disappointed.”
Magdala Avenue runs between Dartmouth Park Hill and Highgate Hill. I turned into it from the DPH end. There are four bus stops; a pair approximately at each end of the street. In fact, it seems that the sole purpose of this road is to provide a bus route. It has no entry in the Willats book. There is a Magdala Road (c.1882) listed followed by a brief note: "Until 1971." No mention of the origin of the name. Magdala, probable birthplace of Mary Magdalene, the name of the Hampstead pub where Ruth Ellis shot her lover in 1955. This disappeared Magdala Road gave its name to today's Magdala Avenue. It ran parallel to Anatola Road and was subsumed by the Girdlestone Estate (See Part 2). This all becomes clear when you look at the 1938 A-Z.
Magdala Avenue seems to be slightly to the north of the previous Road and provides a cut through between DPH and Highgate Hill conveniently accommodating bus stops outside the hospital and beside the estate. I found myself wondering what route the buses took before it was built but that was a distraction too far!
So back to the bus stops. I can't imagine that anyone would ever get on a bus at either of the stops on the left. It would be quicker just to walk to Archway than sit on a bus winding its way round the (soon to be abolished) gyratory to Macdonald Road - perhaps why the penultimate stop on the route doesn't warrant a shelter.
There were people waiting at the stops on the other side.
The C11 will take you to Brent Cross. Perhaps that's where the women Stuart encountered were headed. Off to buy sexy lingerie to tempt the man back from his seven year itch? But as it hove into view the woman with the stick made no move so perhaps she was waiting for the 4.
The 4 will take you to Waterloo although if that is where you want to get to you'd be better off taking the tube. It takes a meandering route. Highbury Corner via Finsbury Park and Blackstock Road (almost quicker to walk to Highbury Corner). Then along Upper Street to the Angel and down past the Barbican to St Paul's before winding its way through the City to Waterloo. I sometimes catch it if I fancy a scenic tour.
Magdala Avenue has no houses of its own. The Whittington Hospital runs along the complete lefthand side of the street and the back of the estate along the right.
My favourite features of the hospital are the Victorian balconies where tuberculosis patients would have taken the air
and the black Whittington cat over the new entrance.
In the courtyard of the new entrance I was intrigued by the solar powered bank of bike hire lockers.
All photos from Magdala Avenue
Across and left up Highgate Hill; another long road that I seem to be documenting piecemeal. Past the back of the closed hospital buildings with 24/7 live-in guardians to keep out squatters.
Originally opened as the Highgate Union Infirmary in 1879, part of the Whittington until the 1990s then the Archway Campus of the Middlesex University - a research facility for healthcare professionals. It stood empty after they moved out in 2013 but has now been bought by Peabody and is awaiting redevelopment as housing. The main parts of the original hospital building are to be retained as part of this development. The history of the hospital warrants a blog post of its own and the building is better viewed from Archway Road. One thing at a time...
Next door to this building is The Academy, a Victorian school building now flats - although those who live there probably call them apartments.
On the opposite side of the road the Whittington & Cat pub, dating from the 1880s, was still open but is closed at the time of writing. It's future still seems to be uncertain but hopefully at least the facade will be saved.
I by-passed Despard Road, with the aim of coming back to it later, and continued up the hill. Past a bench that looked as if it was made for giants
All photos from Highgate Hill
I turned into Waterlow Road.
I'd always assumed this was named after Sir Sydney, the donor of the Park, but Willats informs me that it's named after his fourth son, David Sydney Waterlow (1857-1924). He was Liberal MP for North Islington 1906-10 and LCC member for North St Pancras 1898-1910. (So has closer connections with Islington than his father as Waterlow Park is in Camden!)
The street was developed in the 1880s and originally called Bismarck Road. It was re-named in 1919; presumably as part of a post-war purge of all things Germanic. But the renaming also meant that an address with a grisly past was effectively obliterated from the map. 14 Bismarck Road was where George Joseph Smith, the notorious Brides in the Bath murderer drowned his third and final victim, Margaret Elizabeth Lofty, in December 1914. Initially her death was assumed to be an accident and it was not until the similarity with a death in Blackpool a year earlier was noticed that the net began to close around Smith (who had been operating under several aliases). He was convicted of three murders and hanged in August 1915. The undertaker for Margaret Lofty's funeral (before foul play was suspected) was Herbert Francis Beckett. There's still a Beckett's funeral directors on Junction Road today so perhaps he was the grandfather of the current proprietor.
It seems a reasonable assumption that the street wasn't renumbered when it was renamed so today's 14 Waterlow Road (left of picture) is probably where this murder took place a hundred years ago.
At the end of the street I reached Archway Road but before crossing I doubled back to take in the other two streets between it and Highgate Hill. First down the hill to Lidyard Road.
The entrance to Whitehall Mansions is on the left as you turn into the street.
A large, impressive block running along Archway Road between the hospital building and Lidyard Road. Built in 1891 as the date on the Archway Road frontage informed me.
On the corner, another 'No Dumping' sign seemed to be having little effect.
Almost as if people know that if they leave stuff here it will be cleared away...
The houses attractively follow the curve of the street.
All photos from Lidyard Road
I came out part way along Despard Road which, like Waterlow Road, runs between Highgate Hill and Archway Road.
At the Highgate Hill end a woman was busily sweeping the street.
On the corner with Archway Road is the Charlotte Despard pub.
Charlotte Despard was a Suffragette, Sin Fein activist, novelist, vegetarian and anti-vivisectionist. She remained politically active into her 90s and died in 1939, aged 95. She devoted much time to helping the poor in Battersea (where there is a Charlotte Despard Avenue). I'd always assumed that Despard Road was also named after her although, beyond the fact she was twice imprisoned in Holloway (as were many of the Suffragettes), I had never been able to find any connection with this area. In fact, the street is not named after her at all but after a military commander, General John Despard (175-1849) who fought in the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence. Not surprising really as Despard Road dates from 1887, before Charlotte Despard became politically active. The next question, to which I have no answer, is what connection did John Despard have with Archway?
Now again I found myself on Archway Road.
Although this is a long road, running from Archway up to beyond Highgate (where it becomes the Great North Road), only a small section of it - between Archway roundabout and the bridge, is in N19. After the bridge it becomes N6 and also changes borough from Islington to Haringey. The road is best known for the bridge which gave Archway its name - this grey, overcast day was not the best weather for photographing it.
The current bridge is dated 1887, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, although it wasn't officially opened until 1900. Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise, performed the opening ceremony and then continued on across the bridge to unveil the statue of Sir Sydney Waterlow in the park. It replaces the earlier stone bridge, designed by John Nash which was much more arch-like.
The Highgate Archway Company, set up in 1810, had originally planned to tunnel a road under Hornsey Lane to by-pass the steep Highgate Hill but the tunnel collapsed during construction, hence the need for a bridge at all.
The last vestige of subterranian Archway is the subway that runs under Archway Road from the end of Despard Road. It will be closed when the gyratory is abolished so not much time left to sample it's pleasures! The painted ceiling is rather splendid.
There used to be an fairly extensive network of subways under the gyratory but they were closed sometime in the 80s. I wonder what has become of these. Have they been blocked up or just closed off? If they're still there it would be great to have a tour! The only real reminder of them is the old subway sign above the closed off entrance by the library.
Coming out on the other side of Archway Road, I paused to take a photo of the road sign showing the gyratory. Not much longer before they'll have to change that as well.
All photos from Archway Road
The subway brings you out into Pauntley Street.
Another of Archway's Dick Whittington connections as it gets its name from his birthplace - Pauntley in Gloucestershire.
But there used to be much more than just the street name to remind us of him here. Dick Whittington made his fortune as a merchant and in addition to being four times Mayor of London he was three times the Master of the Mercers' Company, the premier City of London Livery Company. In accordance with the terms of his will, the Sir Richard Whittington Charity, still in existence today, was set up in 1424 and managed by the Mercers' Company. In 1822 they built a row of gothic alms houses, The Whittington College, here. These were demolished in 1966 when Archway Road was widened and the alms houses moved to East Grinstead.
But there's still a reminder of the Mercers here in the form of the Mercers' Maiden, the heraldic emblem of the Company, over the entrance to the 1930s Pauntley House.
As the maiden did not formally become the coat of arms of the Company until 1911, the symbols are of varying design, often depicted wearing the fashions of the time. They mark buildings belonging to the Company and can be found in many places in London; unsurprisingly there are a large number in Mercer Street, Covent Garden. The Mercers must have owned land here as they built the alms houses. Did they also build these flats? Do they still own them, or at least the land they are built on, or is the maiden just a reminder of by-gone times?
A green Islington Borough plaque on the wall of the flats informs us that Archway toll gate stood 'near here' from 1813 (when the road was built) and 1864. The road and bridge were built by the Highgate Archway Company and tolls were charged, as they were for most major roads and bridges at that time, to enable shareholders to make a profit on their investment. It cost 6d for a horse and cart and 1d for pedestrians. Tolls weren't abolished until 1871 but this sign suggests that the gate was removed before that. The toll house itself seems to have been somwhere nearer to Lidyard Road. It's difficult to envisage exactly where everything was under the current road layout!
There are no actual houses in Pauntley Street. Most of it is taken up by the blocks of the 1970s Miranda Estate - so named as it backs on to Miranda Road - one of the 'Shakespeare' streets of Whitehall Park (coming in a future instalment).
I lived in a Pauntley Street flat briefly in the mid 80s -- a spacious maisonnette flat with great views out across London. Like the Girdlestone Estate (see Part 2), the flats are named after the streets they replaced.
The grey sky was now threatening rain but I decided to try to cover a couple more streets before heading home. I walked up Pauntley Street, parallel to Archway Road, past the Islington Gardeners Forgotten Corner which was providing a lovely spring display.
All photos from Pauntley St
At the end I turned into Gladsmuir Road (which I decided to leave for another day) and then into Whitehall Park.
This, along with the surrounding streets, is part of Islington's Whitehall Park Conservation area CA07. The area was developed in the mid-late C19. The Whitehall Park Area Residents' Association (WHPARA) website has an excellent history documenting the history and development of each street. (The other streets in this area will be covered in a later episode.)
On the corner as you turn into the street is the impressive red brick St Andrew's Church. The foundation stone was laid in 1894 and the church opened the following year.
The new church replaced an earlier temporary church which had been opened as a mission room in 1886. The Guardian from London, 8 July, 1894 includes a description of the laying of the foundation stone. The Islington North MP, George Trout Bartley (Conservative) "delivered an introductory address, remarking on the. wonderful growth of the district during the past seven years. Where once there had been seventy cottages there were now 700 houses and a population of about 5,000 souls." Once the church was consecrated the district would become a new Parish. It had been the unanimous wish of the Building Committee that Lord Kinnaird lay the foundation stone and they wished "to thank his lordship for attending, and to express their regret that ill-health prevented Lady Kinnaird from being present." In reply, Lord Kinnaird "said he believed that there was a great future before them as a Church." And indeed there has been as the church has continued in its original function to this day whereas many others built in that era have now, if they remain at all, been converted into flats. But who was Lord Kinnaird? I can only assume that he was the 11th Lord, Arthur Kinnaird, famous footballer. What a lot of history from one foundation stone!
And so on along Whitehall Park. The council conservation area leaflet says that it "contains the grandest houses, with fine views. They are mainly large three storey red brick properties with Westmoreland slate mansard roofs, cast iron decorative railings and gabled dormer windows."
And some fine porches.
The road then turns to the left and runs up to Hornsey Lane. There's an odd sort of cross road at this point. What would seem to be the natural continuation of Whitehall Park becomes Gresley Road and a right turn takes you down Cressida Road which actually seems more logically to be part of the top of Whitehall Park. Presumably this somewhat confusing arrangement came about due to the different times that the roads were developed and is also why the street sign has to note that it leads to Cressida Road.
Whitehall Park, or at least the majority of it, seems to be one of the last parts of this estate to be developed. Some of the houses post-date the church.
There's what looks like an old street lamp-post outside no. 86.
I'm always fascinated when I come across artifacts such as this - no longer serving any useful purpose and not, usually, maintained in any way. I'm glad it's been left there but find myself wondering why - and do many people even notice it? It does get a mention in the WHPARA history: "In June 1883 the Lighting Committee reported to the Vestry that a new lamp should be placed in Gresley Road. That might be the one outside number 86 Whitehall Park." Suggesting that this might have once been part of Gresley Road?
I was amused by the juxtaposition of the 'No Parking' sign with the garages to let sign.
How long will it be before someone tries to redevelop the garages as housing - but perhaps the conservation area status precludes this?
I followed a man with a guitar up to Hornsey Lane.
All photos from Whitehall Park
Hornsey Lane, fascinating though it is, is N6 so I turned left and then left again down Fitzwarren Gardens.
My last street of the day and another Dick Whittington connection; Alice Fitzwarren was the master's daughter who Dick Whittington married. Another oddly orientated street as it curves round in a crescent to rejoin Hornsey Lane but also has a spur leading back down to Whitehall Park. Houses date from the early C20. Builders were at work on one.
By now it was drizzling and a wind was starting to get up.
I returned to Whitehall Park and back home the way I had come.
< Part 9
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