Northampton Square, a green town square, is in a corner of Clerkenwell projecting into Finsbury, [1] in Central London. It is between Goswell Road and St John Street (and Spencer and Percival Streets), has a very broad pedestrian walkway on the north-west side between university buildings and is fronted chiefly by main buildings of City, University of London.
The area began to be developed in the industrial revolution. The land was laid out as a residential square in 1803-04 and the houses were built between 1805 and 1814. [2] The square took its name from the local landowner, the Marquess of Northampton. The gardens were opened to the public in 1885, with funding from the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. The Association's landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson designed the gardens, and included a drinking fountain and bandstand, both of which remain, as does a circle of London plane trees. [3] The fountain in the square commemorates the 1885 restoration of the gardens by Shropshire magistrate Charles Walker, who had been born in Clerkenwell. [4] Lady Margaret Georgiana Graham, daughter of William Compton, 4th Marquess of Northampton, opened the restored gardens on 8 July 1885. [5]
The square has historically housed clockmakers, jewellers, silversmiths and other fine crafts. The print-maker George Baxter lived and worked at No.11 from 1844 to 1860. The site is marked by a plaque on the modern building at that address. [6] In 1878, Walter Thornbury reported that No.35 head-quartered the British Horological Institute, “for the cultivation of the science of horology, and its kindred arts and manufactures”. [7] By the 1960s such trades had left the area and the buildings were a mixture of flats and offices. [8]
No.18, on the corner of Ashby Street, replaced the Ashby Castle pub (from 1813 to 1882). [9]
In 1891, the Northampton Institute was founded, and its original building opened in the Square in 1896. [10] In 2001, a fire gutted the Grade II listed College Building; it was fully restored, re-opening in July 2006. The Institute evolved to become The City University, created by Royal Charter in 1966 and housed in a major new campus, designed by Richard Sheppard Robson and Partners in 1962, and completed in 1976, dominating the north side of Northampton Square. [11] The 2008 film Incendiary starring Ewan McGregor was filmed partly at this location.
The bandstand in the centre was built by Finsbury Borough Council in 1930 as a public amenity. It is unusual in being a bandstand in a residential square rather than a large public park. [12] In August 2008, Northampton Square bandstand was the inaugural venue for the musical entertainment Big Summer Busk. [13] In 2010, it was a venue for the Bandstand Busking event. [14] After a major refurbishment, the bandstand was reopened in 2011 by the Mayor of Islington and the Vice-Chancellor of the University. [15]
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough which forms part of Inner London, England. Islington has an estimated population of 215,667. It was formed in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, by the amalgamation of the metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury.
Clerkenwell is an area of central London, England.
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the southeastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers. Outside of New York, buskers is not a term generally used in American English.
Farringdon is an area in London and is located in the London Borough of Islington. It lies just north of the border with the City of London in Central London and close to Holborn. The term is used to describe the area around Farringdon station.
The Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury was a metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington.
Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the River Walbrook and its tributaries.
Goswell Road, in Central London, is an end part of the A1. The southern part ends with one block, on the east side, in City of London; the rest is in the London Borough of Islington, the north end being Angel. It crosses Old Street/Clerkenwell Road. In the north it splits Clerkenwell from Finsbury; the south was sometimes used as a demarcator but all but the southern corporate/legal/financial end in the modern era forms the heart of the highly developed mixed-use district Barbican.
Richard Seifert was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing the Centre Point tower and Tower 42, once the tallest building in the City of London. His eponymously named practice – R. Seifert and Partners was at its most prolific in the 1960s and 1970s, responsible for many major office buildings in Central London as well as large urban regeneration projects in other major British cities.
St Sepulchre was an ancient parish which had its southern part within the boundaries of the City of London and its northern part outside. Its former area is now within the contemporary neighbourhoods of Smithfield, Farringdon and Clerkenwell.
Finsbury Circus is a park in the Coleman Street Ward of the City of London, England. The 2 acre park is the largest public open space within the City's boundaries.
Charterhouse Square is a garden square, a pentagonal space, in Farringdon, in the London Borough of Islington, and close to the former Smithfield Meat Market. The square is the largest courtyard or yard associated with the London Charterhouse, mostly formed of Tudor and Stuart architecture restored after the London Blitz. The square adjoins other buildings including a small school. It lies between Charterhouse Street, Carthusian Street and the main Charterhouse complex of buildings south of Clerkenwell Road. The complex includes a Chapel, Tudor Great Hall, Great Chamber, the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and a 40-resident almshouse.
William George Spencer Scott Compton, 5th Marquess of Northampton, KG, known as Lord William Compton from 1877 to 1887 and as Earl Compton from 1887 to 1897, was a British peer and Liberal politician.
Northampton Guildhall is a municipal building in St Giles' Square in Northampton, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Edward Daniel Johnson was a London watch and marine chronometer maker. He was a founder member and vice President of the British Horological Institute, which was formed in June 1858.
The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company (IIDC) was a Victorian Model dwellings company founded in 1863 by the printer, philanthropist and later Lord Mayor of London Sir Sydney Waterlow. The company operated predominantly in Central London as a provider of block dwellings for the working classes, employing a strict selection and discipline regime amongst its tenants to ensure a healthy return on investment. Starting with a capital of £50,000, the IIDC became one of the largest and most successful of the model dwellings companies, housing at its height around 30,000 individuals.
This is a list of the etymology of street names and principal buildings in the London districts of Clerkenwell and Finsbury, in the London Borough of Islington. The Clerkenwell/Finsbury area has no formally defined boundaries - those used here are: Pentonville Road to the north, Goswell Road to the east, Clerkenwell Road to the south and Gray's Inn Road to the west. Finsbury was traditionally roughly the northern part of the area covered here, however in practice the name is rarely used these days.
Wilmington Square is a garden square in Clerkenwell, Central London. It is bounded by Regency and Victorian terraces, most of which are listed buildings. The central public gardens contain flower beds and mature trees, a pavilion or shelter, and a water fountain.