Wednesday 29 January 2014

Medieval Hornsey Road

The inner North London suburbs are all 19th century-ish, built just in time for Charles Pooter to move in. The roads though, that's a different story.

Hornsey Road peaked during the reign of Edward I when it was part of the Great North Road out of London. By 1300 it was so crowded that a relief road was built up Highgate Hill. By 1494 the Hornsey Road/Holloway Road corner was called Ring Cross. It was an execution site and the cross may have been a boundary marker of the Knights of Saint John.

File:Eduard1.jpg
Edward I via wikimedia commons

[This is a very lazy post. I've drawn almost all of it from British History Online. In my defence, research libraries tend not to welcome nine month olds. I can't think why. Doubt he'd chew up more than a dozen books per afternoon.]