Paradise Row

The detail of the 1855 Paris h Map of St Mary, Stoke Newington shows that Paradise Row has been built and some of the original houses can still be seen today. Many of the of the houses have been refronted re-fronted in later styles and later still converted into flats.

The original houses, built in warm, red brick, with pediments, varied in size. Some were five windows wide and some three. Over the years, several have been altered. Some have window openings framed in stucco, with Gibbs brackets, just like the 1860 houses in Clissold Raod. By the 1860's, the Paradise Row houses were considered old fashioned, so some proud owners brought them up to date. One has a bay window on the ground floor, built at about the same period. Another one, five bays wide, has the ground floor rendered and lined to represent stone and a handsome doorway in fine, Queen Anne style. The fronts have been changed. No two seem alike but the window openings and shapes are identical. Finally, the red brick reveals their age. Compare the rendered ones with the houses in Clissold Road. The stucco is the same, but in Clissold Road the bricks are yellow stocks.

The Sawyer

The sluggard's in bed, sots in alehouses sit,
The idler sees boys play at taw,
My partner's above. I'm below in the pit,
And we pull up and down the great saw

The Bricklayer

The line and plummet guide the tool,
And keep the trowel under rule,
The firm foundation lay with care,
Nor lay thy castles in the air.