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A Sequence of Maps of Stoke Newington

Part 2: From 1868

last revised: December 13, 2007 12:11 PM

The 1868 Ordnance Survey Map is a very beautiful example of cartography. It shows that many houses ha been built in the South Hornsey part of the area but the Stoke Newington fields were lagging behind. The road we call Clissold Crescent and the area behind, was one long estate consisting of three large fields, well landscaped and edged with sheltering trees. These three today hold long terraces of houses and a factory estate.

The Booth Poverty maps 1889-90

THE STOKE NEWINGTON SHEET

The contrast of rich and poor areas of London in 1889, especially when looking at on the coloured maps, is startling. London Topographical Society reproduced the maps for most of London on four large coloured sheets. Lay out these maps in one block and the yellows and reds, colours of light and wealth and warmth, are concentrated in smallish areas on the north-west sheet. All the others are drab purple and blue, with areas of dark blue and even black, the colours of cold and outer darkness.

The London School of Economics published more maps including one fro Stoke Newington which reaches up as far as Lordship Park. This is the northern limit of the Booth maps.

This is the Stoke Newington section and is the most northerly area covered. The map did not extend up to Woodberry Down, but the colours would have been similar to the ones at the lower end of Lordship Road.


Part of Map Descriptive of London Poverty, 1888-89

Sheet 3 Northern District

London School of Economics.

KEY
Wealthy (three or more servants; houses rated £100 or more)
Well to do (one or two servants)
Working class comfort
Comfort mixed with poverty
Standard poverty
Very poor

The lowest grade

There will be more detailed 1889 Booth Maps of Stoke Newington for the schools south of, and including, Grazebrook. The other school histories will refer to the Booth map. The only modern school which would have been in a "Very Poor" area was St Mary's Primary. William Patten school building was built in 1892 as Church Street School in a "Well To Do" area.

The 1894 Ordnance Survey Map

The 1894 map shows how quickly the houses were built, covering field after field as people ran away from the dust and confusion of London. Between 1860 and 1880 London was like the Wild West. Railways, sewers and roads were being built everywhere and nine tenths of the population fled to the suburbs.

Link later to the Summerson page.

1914 Ordnance Survey

By the time of the 1914 Ordnance Survey map the street pattern had been set. There would not be much change, apart from some building of Local Authority flats and a few new houses with garages in the Woodberry Down area, until the end of the Second World War.

1935 Ordnance Survey

At this period there was hardly any change but the Derwent House and Hewely House, in Mathias Road, blocks of flats were being planned and would be built just before the Second World War.

They survived the war and and recently been modernised.
Most maps after this date are still in copyright, so I have not copied them. No doubt Schools will have their own copies and the right to photocopy them, while others will have road maps and other ones from other sources.

The London County Coucil Bomb Damage Maps, 1939-45

A small piece of the Bombing Map1939-45

This is a very small part of the L.C.C. Bombing map of London which was compiled immediately after the Second World War to show the extent and the nature of the bomb damage. The darker the colour, the more serious was the damage. This ranged from Black- total demolition, to Yellow- slight blast damage. The large circle denoted a flying bomb.

London Topographical Society’s magnificent edition of the map, published in 2006, is the most important individual piece of information about London that has been published for years. Anyone wanting to know why building styles change along a street, must consult this book. It is invaluable.

Copies of any particular area can be obtained, for private or school use, from London Metropolitan Archives who own the copyright.

Comparing these coloured Bombing Maps
with my original back and white photo-copies.

I first found these maps in the Lower basement of County Hall forty years ago. The architects kindly gave me black and white photocopies which I used in several books to explain why post-war estates were built where they were, or why a new building stands in a terrace of old houses for no apparent reason. One architect had been called in to rebuild a house which was collapsing. They were digging down to find the reason and were still bringing up complete window frames from 5 metres down. The bombing map proved that the house had been built on a huge bomb crater. Rubble from bombed houses had been thrown into the hole and forgotten. Years later a new house had been built on the site and had now collapsed. A court case followed.

The black and white copies give only a crude illustration of the damage. The coloured ones show the centre of impact in a dark colour and rings of lesser damage around it in lighter ones. The coloured maps are far more specific are even more important than I had previously thought.

Insert the GIS New Street map

 

Google Map 2005

Stoke Newington South

Google Map 2005

Stoke Newington South

Part 1: Uptil 1868

Index