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Newington Greenby Rab MacWilliam
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p18 Sitting at the foot of busy Green Lanes and situated on the border of Hackney and Islington, Newington Green is an apparently nondescript staging post on the average commuter's journey home. However, the area is rich in history, and it is currently undergoing regeneration in an attempt to bring back the affluence and sophistication it once enjoyed.
Attracted by the area's rural charm, relative seclusion and a sympathetic Lord of the Manor, the non-conformists arrived in the mid-17th century and established various 'academies' on the Green. Chief among these seats of dissenting learning was Charles Morton's Academy, which was attended by Samuel Wesley and Daniel Defoe and flourished between 1667 and 1696.
The Unitarian Chapel was built in 1708 (the date is still clearly visible
on the building to the north of the square) and enlarged in 1865. It is today the oldest
non-conforming place of worship in London. The Reverend Dr Richard Price became minister
in 1758. Price was a philosopher, mathematician and friend of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, David Hume and Tom Paine, and his writings in favour of the French and American
Revolutions prompted a counter-attack from Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the
Revolution in France. Intellectually lofty the area may have been, but baser instincts
were also represented not too far away, principally at John Ball's entertainment house,
which encouraged bull-baiting, drinking and general lechery, while the local duck hunters
enjoyed their sport at the Ball's Pond. Footpads, cutpurses and assorted villains lay in
wait between the villages, and care had to be taken when travelling along the path to
Stoke Newington half a mile to the north.
The religious impulse in Newington Green, however, remained strong, and
several Christian Missions, including the Mildmay and South Indian, were established in
the mid-19th century. The China Inland Mission, on the west side of the Green, was founded
in 1872 by missionary James Hudson Taylor, and was transformed into the Alliance Club in
1964. Schools were also being built in the area, with St Jude's Primary School opening in
1865 and Newington Green School shortly afterwards. Since then, Newington Green has become more cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic,
although physically the area has become an indistinguishable part of the inner city.
However, its position between the increasingly wealthy Stoke Newington and Islington, and
its proximity to Canonbury's bourgeois belt, is leading to a welcome upsurge in new
businesses, shops and services in the area. The Peabody Trust flats/restaurant development
on the junction with Albion Road is an indication of things to come. It is to be hoped
that the latest planning initiatives succeed in re-creating the cultural and economic
vibrancy of an historically significant part of London. |
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Newington
Green came into being in the 15th century as a hamlet hewn out of the huge Middlesex
Forest and remained a predominantly rural area until the late 18th century. The early
residents were wealthy, as was evidenced by the grand houses and hunting lodges owned by
such grandees as Percy, Earl of Northumberland. Henry VIII had a hunting lodge here, as
well as several rooms for his mistresses, and the corpulent Tudor monarch took his daily
constitutional along the nearby King Henry's Walk. Also of architectural interest are the
four houses at numbers 52-55, which were built before the Great Fire of London. This
terrace is one of the oldest in London. 
