Lyndhurst Hall was a Victorian mission hall built by Hampstead's Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church. [1] Located in Warden Road, Kentish Town, it was later sold on and used as a community hall, before being demolished in 2006 to make way for flats.
The hall was built in 1891 under the leadership of Dr Robert Forman Horton, then minister of the Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead church. The foundation stone was laid by local MP Samuel Smith on 29 July 1891 and the building formally opened to the public on 14 March 1892. [2] [3] It was extended in 1911, with a new memorial stone laid on 8 April 1911 by Dr Horton, and the official opening took place on 30 October 1911. [4] [5] Funding for the building and extension was provided by members of the Hampstead Church congregations. [6] The architects for the extension were Spalding and Spalding who were connected with the Lyndhurst Road Church (and were probably responsible for the original building). [7] [8]
Lyndhurst Hall was a resource for the local community a time of general poverty in Kentish Town – Charles Booth poverty maps (1898–99) describe the locality as: "very poor, casual, chronic want". [9] It hosted a range of events, including clubs for boys, girls, men and women, bible classes and Sunday services, as well as entertainment and legal and financial advice. [10] During World War I it was an emergency shelter and operation centre for voluntary aid detachments. [11] Similarly, in World War II it was used as a shelter. It was itself hit by a bomb, which shattered most of the glass in the building. [12]
During the 1950s, community activities in the hall included the Boys' Brigade, Sunday schools, youth club and children's nursery. [13] The youth club was taken over by the Christian Teamwork Trust from 1958, with activities run by the club's membership and minimal input from the Trust – a controversial management style for the time. [14] [ self-published source? ] Hampstead's Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church sold the building to Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras (later to become part of Camden Council) in 1963, and it reopened as a community centre two years later. [15] It was available for hire for private functions — such as the 1972 and 1973 editions of Comic Mart [16] [17] — and was also home of St Pancras Amateur Boxing Club (SPABC). [18] In the mid 1980s, most of the first floor was taken over and run by Camden Workers Social Club. [19] [ self-published source? ] SPABC moved into alternative premises in 1984 and the youth club closed in 1989. [20] [21] By early 2000, Camden Council had decided to close and sell the premises. [22] The building was finally sold in 2005 and demolished a year later, with anger being expressed by some residents about loss of facilities and a mural inside the building. [23] [24] A block of flats now stands on the site, and the 1911 memorial stone has been incorporated into the foundations and can be seen at street level in Warden Road. [25] [ self-published source? ] Hampstead's Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church, founder and original owner of the Kentish Town mission hall, closed in the 1970s and is now a recording facility for Air Studios.
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest museum in the United Kingdom, and several educational institutions, including University College London and a number of other colleges and institutes of the University of London as well as its central headquarters, the New College of the Humanities, the University of Law, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association and many others. Bloomsbury is an intellectual and literary hub for London, as home of world-known Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of the Harry Potter series, and namesake of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of British intellectuals which included author Virginia Woolf, biographer Lytton Strachey, and economist John Maynard Keynes.
Chalk Farm is a small urban district of north west London, lying immediately north of Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden.
Hampstead is an area in London, England, which lies four miles northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough of Camden, a borough in Inner London which for the purposes of the London Plan is designated as part of Central London.
Highgate is a suburban area of London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, 4+1⁄2 miles north-northwest of Charing Cross.
Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the open spaces of Hampstead Heath.
St Pancras is a district in central London. It was originally a medieval ancient parish and subsequently became a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough then merged with neighbouring boroughs and the area it covered now forms around half of the modern London Borough of Camden. The area of the parish and borough includes the sub-districts of Camden Town, Kentish Town, Gospel Oak, Somers Town, King's Cross, Chalk Farm, Dartmouth Park, the core area of Fitzrovia and a part of Highgate.
St Pancras was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of St Pancras became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Camden in Greater London.
Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-east, and Belsize Park to the south-west. Gospel Oak lies across the NW5 and NW3 postcodes and is served by Gospel Oak station on the London Overground.
Robert Forman Horton, British Nonconformist divine, was born in London.
Holborn and St Pancras is a parliamentary constituency in Greater London that was created in 1983. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister since 2024 and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.
Camden London Borough Council in London, England is elected every four years. Since the last boundary changes in 2022, 55 councillors have been elected from 20 wards.
Haverstock is an area of the London Borough of Camden: specifically the east of Belsize Park, north of Chalk Farm and west of Kentish Town. It is centred on Queens Crescent and Malden Road. Gospel Oak is to the north, Camden Town to the south.
The London Borough of Camden was created in 1965 from the former area of the metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St Pancras, which had formed part of the County of London. The borough was named after Camden Town, which had gained its name from Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden in 1795. Since the 17th century, many famous people have lived in its various districts and neighbourhoods.
The London Borough of Camden is a London borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies 1.4 mi (2.3 km) north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 and includes the former Central London borough of Holborn, and St Pancras and Hampstead.
Camden London Borough Council, also known as Camden Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2010. The council meets at Camden Town Hall and has its main offices at 5 Pancras Square.
Alfred William Stephens Cross (1858–1932) was a British architect.
The coat of arms of the London Borough of Camden were granted on 10 September 1965. The borough was formed by the merger of three former boroughs, namely the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead, the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn and the Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras, from whose arms elements were utilised in the arms of the new borough.
Roy Edwin Shaw was a Labour Party politician in London, England. He was the Leader of Camden London Borough Council from 1975 to 1982, serving on Camden Council and its predecessor councils continuously for 51 years until just before his death, making him the longest-serving councillor in the UK. Shaw was known nationally as an expert on local government.