For I will consider my road Holloway

In the 1980s there were plans to widen the Holloway Road. Many serious things could be said about this, but for now and for here I'll only note that the list of petitions presented to Parliament has the rhythm of a Kit Smart poem: 

'There is a petition from the residents of Church Garth and St. John's road pointing out the destruction that the roads will cause to the environment.

There is a petition from the residents of Windermere road demonstrating that they, too, believe that the new road will cause severe destruction of their lives.
There is a petition from the residents of Witley road. They believe that the East London assessment study will threaten their homes with demolition.
There is a petition from the residents of Brunswick terrace and elsewhere. They believe that the road proposals will be harmful to the community affected. .
There is a petition from the residents of Barton road, Dalmeny road and Camden road. They believe that the proposals will destroy homes and businessess.

There is a petition from residents of Davenant road, Fairbridge road and elsewhere. They believe that the widening of Holloway road will reduce, and in some cases eliminate, green space available for public recreation.
There is a petition from residents of Tufnell Park road, Fairbridge road and elsewhere. They believe that recreational facilities and the livelihoods of employees will be destroyed.
There is a petition from residents of Rickthorne road and Stanley terrace. They believe that the amenities and environment of their community will be harmed and destroyed.
There is a petition from residents of Hornsey road, Clifton court and elsewhere. They believe that the road proposals will be detrimental to the health of their children.
There is a petition from residents of Sussex way. They believe that the road proposals will make their lives miserable, and will devastate the community in which they live and work.
There is a petition from residents of Bovingdon close. They believe that more pollution and a decline in their quality of life will result from the road proposals.
There is a petition from residents of Elthorne road. They believe that increases in noise and pollution will result from the road. There is a petition from residents of Tollington way. They believe that the road proposals will be detrimental to their environment, their community and their amenities.

There is a petition from residents of Holloway road and elsewhere. They believe that the road proposals will involve the loss of their neighbourhood and community.
There is a petition from residents of Yerbury road. They believe that the road will destroy their community and amenities. There is a petition from residents of Highwood road. They believe that noise and pollution will increase.
There is a petition from residents of St. John's way. They believe that the road would cause great disturbance to them and their lives. 
There is a petition from residents of Partington close. They believe that the road proposals will not accord with any of their wishes and decisions for their local neighbourhood.
There is a petition from residents of Mercer's road and Holloway road. They believe that the proposals will involve the demolition of homes and places of work.
There is a petition from residents of Kingsdown road, and teachers and parents at Acland Burghley school. They believe that the road proposals will directly affect their local community.
There is a petition from residents of Junction road and Davenant road. They believe that the road works will disrupt their local services, destroy their local community and work places and pollute their environment.
There is a petition from residents of Yerbury road, Sussex close and Wedmore street. They believe that the schemes will be very detrimental to their community, and will increase traffic. 

There is a petition from residents of Fairbridge road, St. John's grove and Marlborough road. They believe that the ELAS scheme will be detrimental, and urge the Secretary of State to abandon it. 

There is a petition from residents of Church Garth. They believe that the demolition of local shops, churches and homes will result from the road proposals.
There is a petition from residents of Fairbridge road. They believe that traffic noise and lead pollution will increase.
There is a petition from residents of Miranda road. They believe that shoppers and residents will be affected detrimentally. 

There is a petition from residents of Fairmead road and Dunmow walk. They believe that the road scheme should be abandoned. 

There is a petition from the residents of Eburne road. They believe that the road proposals will be harmful to their environment. 
There is a petition from residents of Newcommon house, Sussex way, Hornsey road and Gladsmuir road. They believe, especially as parents of children attending St. John's Church of England primary school in Upper Holloway, that the widening of Holloway road would be severely detrimental to the health and welfare of their children.'

Soap and the British Economy

There's a hackneyed narrative of national decline that goes something like this: Britain used to be Great when it bashed bits of metal together and made Stuff and now we're overrun by advertisers and estate agents. Things are more complicated (in 2008 we were the sixth biggest manufacturer in the world) but it is true that London used to be full of people making things (ostrich feather dyers, wooden pulley makers, people who used dog shit to tan leather...) and now it's mostly not. This is not wholly a bad thing (see above re: dog shit) but one of the many things to love about Hornsey Road forcefield is that within in it there's light industry galore. We've a make-up school, a French mime academy, a harp-maker, a cabinet maker descended from Richard III and we've also got in the All Natural Soap Co makers of very lovely, well, soaps. 

Eliza started the company because she was struggling to find toiletries that worked for her sensitive skin and soon became addicted to soap-making. Apparently it happens quite often. Bit like horse-riding.

The soaps are made of olive oil, with aromatic plants, charcoal, honey and suchlike added to a secret recipe in a hidden-away workshop.

They're sold in Spitalfields market and should soon be for sale in the Organic Stall.

The only downside to using them is the usual downside to nice things: I'm beginning to dislike my usual second-cheapest-showergel-from-supermarket.

Website

Lower Holloway Sands and whatever happened to Leslie Compton

There are two posts on the Derelict London website about the old Hanley Arms and the damage that was done to it in the name of restoration (as M'Turk didn't quite say to Stalky 'Ruskin says that any man who'll restore a pub is an umitigated sweep'). 

 

I've tried to track down confirmation of the Compton rumour and pictures of the old Hanley arms and got nowhere. 

Here are the posts: 


John writes: 'the licensee during the 60s and I think 70s was one of the Compton brothers of cricketing fame not sure whether it was Denis or Lesley we used to have a couple of pints in there and then go a bit further up the road and have pie and mash'

Ian writes: 'This used to be a lovely pub with a wonderful ornate late Victorian fire surround and sparkling engraved glass all around the walls. I've no idea where it all went and the only current sign of the pubs past glory is the decorative wrought iron surrounding the entrance and above the fascia, what a shame .I remember going in there few years ago and was shocked to see that the glass had all disappeared and had been replaced with flock wall paper. It's not my local but I used to go to the art school at the top of the hill and have the occasional pint there on the way home. Very enjoyable environment to drink in then. He told me that he'd got the pub redecorated in exchange for the glass, or at least I think that's what he said. He seemed quite satisfied with the deal. God knows where it's all gone, beautiful stuff. I live in Holloway and have lived there for years and I'm quite amused at the new names given to areas like these: Crouch End Village, Crouch End Heights. I remember reading an article a few months ago from someone who lives in Gravesend, he said some places wear their names around their necks like a stone: Wormwood Scrubs, Pentonville, Holloway. I wonder how they'll muck around with Holloway when they get round to it, Holloway Bay, Lower Holloway Sands, Great North Avenue and so on maybe. The Globe Hotel opposite the Sobell has gone too, another great pub in its day. What I liked best about it was the heated foot rail at the bar. Wonderful on wet and cold evenings.'

Beloved Readers, do you remember more? Are any of you John or Ian?

Shed Seven and no swimming pool

In the mid 90s there were half a dozen shops in Milan that sold both the NME and Melody Maker. I preferred the latter but bought both, knew which shops got the new editions in first, and learnt the name of the writers like they were my friends: Caitlin Moran, Everett True, Peter Paphides, Sarra Manning, Taylor Parkes, Neil Kulkarni, Alexis Petridis, Tania Branigan, David Stubbs, Dave Simpson and Simon Price who's been so nebbishly fired by the Independent on Sunday.

Italian radio never played anything they wrote about, so the only way to hear the music was to risk a week's disposable income on a review and a name, and I could never get past Shed Seven's name.

C'mon, you've got all of English to choose from and you choose that? I suppose at least it's not Pearl Jam.

Anyway all this is to say that Shed Seven recorded the video for 'Dolphin' in a derelict Hornsey Road Baths, and that they turn out to be rather less bad than I'd imagined. Go badly named bands.

How to find somewhere you didn't know existed

Go to St Saviour's and take the path on the left of the entrance,

turn right

and you'll find a derelict building and half a field. 

The building's 1899.

F.A. Bevan, I think, is Francis Augusts Bevan (1840-1919) who was Barclay's Bank's first chairman. The Bevans were Quakers, but I can't find a Quaker connection for St. Saviour's. 

A.J. Ard was interviewed by Booth and a Rev. A.J. Ard sailed from Liverpool to Quebec in 1904.

That's all I can find about them. 

Anyway, the point is that this is an illogical, inefficient, uneconomic use of space. There's an old joke about an economist seeing a £10 note on the pavement and not picking it up because if it had been worth anything someone would have done it already. This is the land use version of that, space that somehow escaped becoming something useful and so stays there, a patch of miraculous scrubland in the middle of London.

It'd make perfect allotments. 

The St Mellitus Times

The outside of St Mellitus is church imperial, church triumphant: a monumental portico and vast brick walls stretching out behind. Inside it's painted in garish blue and red, a colour scheme far more authentic than the reverential Farrow & Ball recreations of the Past as packed with tasteful Period Features. The colours make the space feel welcoming and unexpected.

The lobby has the usual Tablets and Catholic Times, but there's also a lot about support for migrants and nothing that I could see against equal marriage or contraception.

Curious, I went online and found that St Mellitus' priest has an unofficial blog: www.davidawalter.blogspot.com

It's a rabbit hole well worth falling down, a funny, angry, despairing read that's left me more optimistic about the Church than I've been in years because if there are priests like this there's hope yet. Highlights reproduced below, but you really should read the whole thing. 

Someone give the man a column.

Full disclosure: I'm not a parishioner at St Mellitus or anywhere else. I can just about claim cultural Catholicism. I grew up in Italy where Church is the Catholic Church (a schoolfriend was seventeen when she first heard that Protestants were Christians and I don't think she believed it), I've been on a retreat to Pluscarden Abbey and I spent four blissful years getting paid to write about 14th century Franciscans (John of Montecorvino, the first archbishop of Beijing, was a great man), but I've never believed or practised.

The Disgraceful State of Hornsey Road

This is from the 29 December 1865 edition of the Islington Gazette. I've taken the title from the original, but despite the outraged tone it wasn't a prominent article. Ragged children hurling filth at passers-by seems to have been news, but only just, and only if someone died.

'An inquiry was held at the Queen's Arms, Queen's-Road, Hornsey-Road, on Saturday last, to inquire into the death of Eliza Mary Timbrell, aged 13, who was knocked down by a horse and cart on Thursday last. 

Ann Timbrell, of 62, Ashburton Grove, sister to the deceased, said deceased was brought home insensible about nine on Thursday last. She did not think the driver of the cart was to blame. Had heard that some girl had run after the deceased and frightened her, and she had heard that boys were in the habit of doing so on some occasions. 

William Dunderdale, MD, stated that he was called to the deceased on Thrusday last, at a quarter past nine. He found her insensible and she expired in about ten minutes in his presence. He had made a post-mortem examination and had found a graze passing down the left leg, but no sign of violence sufficient to cause death. Internally, he found the liver ruptured, which accounted for death.

Jesse Jones, of Turningmill-Place, deposed that he was going up the Hornsey road on Thursday and saw a cart coming down the road, the driver being in the cart. It was being driven at the rate of about seven miles an hour. The deceased was on the pavement, and suddenly started from it and ran in front of the horse, which knocked her down. The cart was near the middle of the road and it passed over her body. He saw no one near her. The driver tried to pull up, but had no time. He stopped immediately after passing over the body. He did not see any possibility of the driver's avoiding the accident. The deceased got up and ran to witness after the accident.

Thomas Fisher, of 27, Hornsey Road, said 'I am the owner of the cart. I had just turned out of the Holloway- road, when the deceased ran suddenly from the pavement in front of the horse's head. I had no time to pull up. The road is narrow at that part. I did not see any other children. On the coroner asking if there was any evidence to show that he child had been frightened by any other children. The Rev. Mr. Mackenzie stepped foward and stated the neighbourhood abounded with a horde of rough boys and girls, who assailed respectable children with stones and sticks. At his school (the Holloway Free Schol) the scholars were constantly annoyed on their way to and from the school.

Several of the jurors also bore testimony of a similar kind, and stated that is was dangerous for even grown men to go down the road, as they were not infrequently pelted with stones and filth. 

The attention of the police had been called to the nuisance, but they had refused on several occasions to take persons in to custody, on the ground that they did not see the offence committed.

Dr Lankester expressed his surprise at the conduct of the police, when Inspector Barber said that the public seemed to think that the police possessed more power than they really did. By law no constable could take anyone into custody unless he saw the assault committed. Persons so assaulted could take out a summons. 

The Coroner summed-up and expressed a hope that the press would give publicity to the state of the neighbourhood, so that something might be done to abolish the nusiance. He thought that more police ought to be put on duty there. The jury returned a verdict of 'Accidental death'.'