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In this issue

How safe are our streets
Nimby roadblock
Whose land is it anyway?
News in brief
Group therapy
The bells of St Mary's
Festival news
Ladies who lunch
Straight to the Point
The Ermine Road
Local talent
Music Listings
Arts Stuff
Daniel Defoe
Vortex at the Ocean
Surfing N16
Cheep frills
How does your garden grow?
Man in the North Bank
Crossword

UP AND DOWN THE ERMINE ROAD

Mike Roberts concludes his personal history of Stoke Newington High Street

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As you walk along Stoke Newington High Street today, much of what you see was built between the 1850s and the start of World War One. The shop fronts might have changed but the character of the street can be traced back to a single event ­ the coming of the railway.

Up until the 1850s Stoke Newington was very much an up-market country village with many fine houses for both the gentry and literary classes. For centuries the church owned the surrounding land and the right to build new houses was strictly controlled.

One of the few exceptions is the small group of large 18th century houses at 187-191 High Street. With the growth in population the wealthy residents moved further afield. And in 1830 an invalid asylum founded by Mary Lister 'for respectable females' moved into 187. It remained there until it was moved to Stevenage during World War Two. In 1864 The Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington dispensary moved into 189 and survived until 1952. The third house was used for a period as an orphanage then returned to use as a private house. In 1884 it was taken over by the London Female Penitentiary 'for the rescue and reclamation of betrayed and fallen women'. This survived until 1939. The three houses fell into disrepair before being modernised and used as Council offices. The Council has just sold the buildings for £1.38 million.

The High Street was the main road from the City to East Anglia, the Northeast and Scotland, with very little building along it except for pubs, inns and blacksmiths serving the passing trade. In 1812, an Act of Parliament allowed the leaseholders of the land to build property. During the next 60 years growth was steady but slow. This, however, was all to change.

It wasn't until about 1852, when land values increased, that you could get a better income by building than farming. And so Stoke Newington slowly took on a prosperous suburban outlook, although not everyone was happy about it. In 1864 Shirley Hibbard, a major Victorian garden writer who lived in Lordship Terrace, noted with worry that new building works was 'a cordon of bricks' around the old heart of the village and was threatening the local nightingales.

The great explosion in building and the development of the High Street came about because of the development of the railway. In 1872 the Great Eastern Railway opened Stoke Newington Station allowing rapid access to the City and, as today with the Underground, the opening of a new station meant that adjacent house prices and the value of land shot up. And at about the same time the North Metropolitan Tramways Company began to lay tracks along the course of the High Street through Dalston and into the City. These were electrified in 1907.

With the huge influx of people, disease became an ever-increasing worry. As early as 1831 a severe case of cholera stuck the area and yet, as building work increased, very little was done in the way of safeguarding health. The Hackney Brook, which crossed the High Street very near to the entrance to Abney Cemetery, was described as the 'receptacle of everything offensive'. It wasn't until 1856 that the ancient Brook was culverted. The Brook still exists as a major drain to this day.

With the boom in housing, shops and entertainments opened up to serve the new community. By the end of the 19th century the local press described Stoke Newington as 'chock full'. At the southern end of the High Street, near to Princess May School, Stoke Newington's own theatre was opened in 1897. The Alexandra at 65-67 Stoke Newington Road was designed by Frank Matcham and seated 1,700 people. After struggling for many years it finally closed in 1950 and was pulled down to create new housing. During the 20th century the popularity of the movies saw a number of cinemas open along the street down to Dalston ­ cinemas such as The Vogue, recently converted into a restaurant and flats, and The Coliseum at 31-33 Stoke Newington Road, which closed in 1972.

However, it is shopping that has dominated the High Street since the late 19th century and which provides us with clues to its past. By the Edwardian era, the High Street had reached its prime, to quote from a report of the time:

'Stoke Newington is one of the brightest and pleasantest of the London boroughs, and from a residential standpoint its attractiveness is enhanced by its excellent shops. These, for variety and the useful services they render, are second to none in any London suburb. The moneyed members of the community, to whom price is not a primary consideration, seldom find it necessary to go to the West End to satisfy the most exacting requirements; while for those who are content with the best quality and reasonable charges there is a wide choice of shops, equal to every demand and covering the whole field of temporal necessities.

If the question be "Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" there are tradesmen, not a few, who can show you the dernier cri in dainty dresses and charming hats, or the last word in things sartorial; while if the query be: "With what shall we be filled?" scores of enterprising shop-keepers can prove to one's satisfaction that for quality, selection and prices their goods cannot be surpassed in all London.'

You can still see clues to the former glories of High Street shopping. London Pride occupies the former site of Mark's and Spencer's ­ if you look up above the shop front today you can still see the outline of that famous brand name. Woolworth's is the oldest retailer to have continuously occupied the same building. And there is still a grocer's shop in what was Dyson's the grocers. High above the Post Office on the corner of Brooke Road is the old advertising notice for the shop.

Writing about Stoke Newington in the 1930s, Doris Robson in Gaslight on the Cobbles describes the delights of M&S and Woolies, 'Marks and Spencer's was then known as the Penny Bazaar, though not everything that they sold cost a penny. It was a long shop with bare floor boards and had a counter running down the whole length And a few doors further on was Woolworth's ­ the thruppenny and sixpenny store. Here, everything really did cost 3d or 6d. Woolworth's was wonderful and quite impossible to walk past without going in.'

As each generation has come and gone it has made its mark on the High Street. Today it offers a wide range of foods from around the globe and in many instances you can shop twenty-four hours a day. It would be interesting to return in a hundred years and see what has changed, but today with a little bit of detective work you can discover much of the rich history of this vibrant highway.

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