Exploring with my camera
I just need to visit one more area in Clerkenwell before returning to Islington with Mr Bradshaw! The Nunnery of St Mary, ‘..a house of Augustinian canonesses, [some say ‘Benedictine’..?] was founded shortly after the adjacent Hospitaller priory of St John … Continued
Percy Circus is named after Robert Percy Smith, the brother of a Director of the New River Company and this was the last development on land belonging to the Company, begun in 1841 and completed in 1853. The northern end of Percy … Continued
In 1828 George Randell’s lease on land alongside the Fleet River expired. He made bricks and tiles, and as the drawing below shows the surrounding area was still countryside. Randell was required to fill in the workings but apparently did a … Continued
Lloyd Square was built between 1820-40, on a hillside which slopes steeply downhill to the Fleet River valley in King’s Cross Road (Bagnigge Wells Road). In Mediaeval times the land was two fields, Black Mary’s Field and Robin Hood’s Field, which … Continued
Myddelton Square was named after Sir Hugh Myddelton (1560-1631), a successful businessman who planned and partly financed the New River water supply to London from Hertfordshire. This square is on land owned by the New River Company and developed for housing alongside Claremont … Continued
Claremont Square was built between 1815 and 1828 – three sides of housing around a square, bounded on the north by The New Road (Pentonville Road) – on land belonging to the New River Company. Unusually for these residential squares there … Continued
Wilmington Square was built between 1818 and 1840 on land which belonged to the Northampton family, the Spa Fields Estate. The building here followed on from the development of Wood Close. The estate remained privately owned until 1949. The square is named … Continued
Northampton Square is on land owned by the Earls of Northampton from end 1500s to mid 20C. The area was known as Woods Close. Although it was effectively countryside until developed in the 1800s it was apparently not attractive. The area accommodated the main … Continued
