Stoke Newington Church Street is a road in north London of the borough of Hackney. The road links Green Lanes (A105) in the west to Stoke Newington High Street (the A10, formerly Ermine Street), in the east. Stoke Newington is one of the villages swallowed by the growth of London in the 19th century, and Church Street retains some of this neighbourhood feel, with many restaurants, pubs, and independent (non-chain) shops.
First noted in 1329, what is now Stoke Newington Church Street was recorded as Newington or Newton Lane in 1403, then Church Street in 1576 and as the current name from 1937, making it the longest-used street name in Greater London.
Various parts of the street have had different names in the past. On the south side and starting in the west at Green Lanes, the section up to Clissold Crescent was the site of Newington Hall. The next section, occupying almost all of the street from Clissold Crescent to Clissold Road, was known as Paradise Row (now 229-249 Stoke Newington Church Street). A large part of this is occupied today by Kennaway Estate: Garland House (built 1953) is on the site of The Willows, while Millington House (built 1937) is on the site of Paradise House. [1] Paradise House had a long association with the Quaker community, being the birthplace of Samuel Hoare Jr and later occupied by William Allen. The abolitionist Thomas Clarkson described it as "The very first house in the country, about London, in which I was received and encouraged, in my early pursuits in the cause of the Abolition of the Slave Trade...". [2] One of its final incarnations before demolition was as Paradise House School.
Continuing east from Paradise Row to Clissold Road, the next property was Glebe Place. This is now occupied by Gaskin House, Manton House, Thoresby House and Lloyd House, built by the London County Council around the same time as Millington House. (All of these blocks of flats are named after former rectors of Stoke Newington. [3] ) The current Spensley Walk was previously Park Crescent. The section from Albion Road to Woodlea Road was Sister's Place and beyond Defoe Road were Abney Place and Langel Place. [4]
Clissold Park marks one end of Church Street. Near to it, at the junction with Albion Road, is the municipal town hall and assembly hall of the old Borough of Stoke Newington, refurbished during 2009-10. Abney Park Cemetery, set up as a non-conformist cemetery and arboretum in 1840 on the site of parkland of the same name and now run as a nature reserve, has an entrance on the street. This is next to the fire station, which was built on the site of Fleetwood House and Abney House, [5] where Newington Academy for Girls, an innovative Quaker girls' school, ran from 1824. It commissioned the world's first school bus, which ran from Church Street to Gracechurch Street meeting house in the City, taking the pupils to worship.
There are two churches on the street, both known as Saint Mary’s. The first, St Mary's Old Church, was built in 1563 and was partially rebuilt in the 19th century and then again in the 1950s after heavy bomb damage during World War II. The second church is the impressive mid-Victorian St Mary's New Church with its 250-foot steeple. This church, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, was built in 1858, and completed in 1890. [6]
The street has become famous for its large number of public houses and restaurants providing a wide range of food, drink and entertainment. There are a number of licensed venues serving alcohol and hosting live music. For entertainment Ryan’s Bar and the Auld Shillelagh have live music licences. The Daniel Defoe pub (named after the author of Robinson Crusoe , who lived nearby) offers a good range in real ales and has a passable beer garden. The Rose and Crown is a Grade II listed pub built in 1930-32, and designed for Truman's Brewery by their in-house architect A. E. Sewell. [7] For dining, the two Rasa restaurants offer Kerala cuisine (Rasa Travancore not being vegetarian), Il Bacio and Il Bacio Express specialise in Italian cuisine. Other popular places include the Spence bakers for a good range of breads.
In addition to public houses and restaurants, the street is also home to a wide range of independent shops and boutiques offering unusual craft items, jewellery, cutlery, musical instruments, and clothes.
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough in Inner London. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, its principal district. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly regarded as being part of east London, with the northwest belonging to north London. Its population is 281,120 inhabitants.
Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is five miles northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish.
The Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965 when it became part of the London Borough of Hackney.
Clissold Park is an open space in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bounded by Greenway Close, Church Street (south), Green Lanes (west) and Queen Elizabeth's Walk (east); the south-east corner abuts St Mary's Old Church, now an arts venue. The park is 22.57 hectares in extent. The main building within its boundaries is the Grade II listed Clissold House, run as a cafe and events venue.
Abney Park cemetery is one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries in London, England.
Green Lanes is a main road in North London which forms part of the A105 road. Covering a distance of 6.3 miles (10.1 km) between Newington Green and Winchmore Hill, it is one of the longest streets in the capital, passing through the N16, N4, N8, N13 and N21 postcode areas.
The London Borough of Hackney, one of the inner London boroughs, has 62 parks, gardens and open spaces within its boundaries, totalling 330 ha. These provide the "green lungs" for leisure activities. Hackney Marshes contain the largest concentration of football pitches in Europe.
Abney Park is in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13-hectare (32-acre) park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Abney, the wife of Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor of London in 1700 and one of the first directors of the Bank of England and associated with Dr Isaac Watts, who laid out an arboretum. In the early 18th century it was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions: her own manor house and Fleetwood House. Both fronted onto Church Street in what was then a quiet mainly Nonconformist (non-Anglican) village. In 1840, the grounds were turned into Abney Park Cemetery, where 200,000 people were buried. Abney Park now serves mainly as a nature reserve.
The London Borough of Islington is short of large parks and open spaces, given its status in recent decades as a desirable place of residence. In fact, Islington has the lowest ratio of open space to built-up areas of any London borough. The largest continuous open space in the borough, at 11.75 hectares, is Highbury Fields.
The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Old Ford, with its source in Holloway.
Stoke Newington was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England.
Mary, Lady Abney inherited the Manor of Stoke Newington in 1701 from her brother. The property lies about five miles north of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. She had a great influence on the design and landscaping of Abney Park, including the planting of the two elm walks that lead to Hackney Brook.
Joseph Woods was an English Quaker architect, botanist and geologist born in the village of Stoke Newington, a few miles north of the City of London. A Member of the Society of Antiquaries, and an Honorary Member of the Society of British Architects, he was also elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Geological Society in recognition of his original research.
George William Alexander (1802–1890) was an English financier and philanthropist. He was the founding treasurer of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839. The American statesman Frederick Douglass said that he "has spent more than an American fortune in promoting the anti-slavery cause ..."
Samuel Hoare Jr was a wealthy British Quaker banker and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, then to the north of London in the county of Middlesex. From 1790 he lived at Heath House on Hampstead Heath. He was one of the twelve founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Newington Green Unitarian Church (NGUC) in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. It was founded in 1708 by English Dissenters, a community of which had been gathering around Newington Green for at least half a century before that date. The church belongs to the umbrella organisation known as the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and has had an upturn in its fortunes since the turn of the millennium.
The Dalston Synagogue was a Jewish place of worship in the London Borough of Islington, North London, from about 1885 to 1970. Jews fleeing the pogroms of the Russian Empire, and those beginning to leave the East End of London and move northwards towards Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill established a congregation in the neighbourhood by 1876. The Victorian Gothic building was erected in Poets Road in 1885, a street just outside the boundaries of Dalston, and became one of the leading members of the United Synagogues.
The Newington Academy for Girls, also known as Newington College for Girls, was a Quaker school established in 1824 in Stoke Newington, then north of London. In a time when girls' educational opportunities were limited, it offered a wide range of subjects "on a plan in degree differing from any hitherto adopted", according to the prospectus. It was also innovative in commissioning the world's first school bus. One of its founders was William Allen, a scientist and businessman active with the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
James Brooks (1825–1901) was an influential English Gothic Revival architect and designer. Brooks established his reputation through a series of landmark churches built in the East End of London in the 1860 and 1870s, and was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal in 1895.
Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Historically it was within the county of Middlesex.