It all started at the Tanners (The Rochester Castle), sitting over a quiet lunchtime beer and mulling over what to take as a start-off point for this issue. I had almost made my mind up that, as the nights are drawing in, maybe I should take a look at the wide range of genealogy websites. It struck me that this is a great project for long winter nights. And on the back of this, to have a brief look at how to find out about the history of your home and local buildings, etc.

Sitting with my pint (real ale, none of this foreign stuff) I picked up a copy of The Full Pint, the North London CAMRA mag that had been left lying on the table. I quickly spotted a brief website review featuring old derelict London pubs, and somehow I got diverted. 

Having crashed through a major birthday and feeling something of a wreck myself, I thought I would have a quick look to see if any of the old pubs of Stoke Newington featured. It had been my intention to have a quick butchers and bugger off. It was not to be.

Promising photos of old wrecks (no, not sexy, older housewives), I tapped in www.derelictlondon.com/pubs.htm . The first thing to note is that none of the many pubs closed in our area featured. Finsbury Park, yes; Shoreditch, yes; Stoke Newington, no. It can't be too long before a number of of our former boozers make the list. However there are 70 plus images on this one page. And well worth a visit.

At the top of the page was a 'back link'; intrigued by the site's title I followed the link back to the front page. With a series of 30 links, covering a diverse range of subjects including People, Cemetery and Churchyards, Vehicles and Toilets, this is a real eclectic mix. Here I have to raise a couple of minor niggles. 

The first is that the overall site uses what is called a 'frame set' to hold three individual pages together on the screen. So, what you see is a single spread. The three parts are made up of a title page at the top, a sidebar to the left and then the main content page. On some sites this can be very useful, but here it just seems a waste of space. The other thing that can be a bit of a pain is a point I mentioned earlier: many of the main pages have 50, 60, 70 images, some of them quite a size. It's OK on a broadband connection, but on a dial-up account it can take forever to download.

St Mary's Lodge
www.thepoint2point.co.uk/stmaryslodge/index.htm 
A real gem of a site, St Mary's Lodge's web site is an example of how using the web in a clear, concise manner can achieve real impact. Well constructed and well thought-out, the disgrace that is the sad sorry story of the decline of this important historical building, designed by one of the Victorian era's most respected architects, should be used as a model for other future campaigns.

The site has a good history of the building and a similarly laid out page covering the current position regarding the battle to save St Mary's, each with links to more detailed information. The star of the site is an excellent floor plan, which by clicking on each room provides a good set of photographs.

To give you a taster I have included an extract from the history page: 

'St Mary's Lodge (present-day address: 73 Lordship Road, Stoke Newington, London N16) dates from around 1843 and is the last remaining of several equally-grand homes built on the west side of Lordship Road around that time. [(See MAP) separate link]' 'In 1843, Lordship Road north of Hackney Brook (where Grazebrook Road is now) had very few buildings on it yet.

Lordship Park did not exist at all. At the junction with Manor Road, there was a tollgate across Lordship Road [(PHOTO) separate link], which charged for passage towards Seven Sisters Road. Where the Manor Road United Reformed Church is now situated stood the gatekeeper's house.'

[All following brackets with CAPS link to another page] 'St Mary's Lodge was designed and constructed by the architect/surveyor John Young (b. Suffolk, 1797) for himself and his wife Caroline Pettis Young, their 9 children, and two servants. A prominent architect of the day - whose work includes the 1860's Cancer Hospital in the Fulham Road (the present-day Royal Marsden Hospital; see drawing HERE) and Laughton Lodge (PHOTOS), the Sussex mansion of the 1848 Lord Mayor of London Sir James Duke - Young was to serve as District Surveyor of the city's Eastern Division for 25 years. (See John Young's 1877 obituary HERE.)'

It is a real crime that such an important building should have been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair; this site is to be congratulated for highlighting the decline.

Casenove Area
www.cazenovearea.org.uk  
Formerly the Kyverdale Area Action Group, the present Cazenove Area Action Group reflects local boundary changes. It is a campaigning group who make good use of the web to provide clear, concise information to the 650-odd households of the neighbourhood area. Although it has not been updated for some time, there is plenty of useful information available. There is also a section of Roque's map of London published in 1746, covering the Cazenove area, Stamford Hill, Church Street and down to Newington Green. I liked the details of a local walk with short histories of many of the local buildings.

And I promise that I won't get distracted in the next issue and will have a look at tracing your family history on line. If you have a local site that you want us to feature, drop me an email to info@n16mag.com . I am particularly keen to visit websites that explore online art.