![claptonsq3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Claptonsq3.jpg)
Clapton Square is the second largest garden square in the
London Borough of Hackney
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, located in
Lower Clapton
Clapton is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney.
Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross.
Geography and ori ...
,
Clapton. It is lined by buildings on three sides. Its
Conservation Area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
designated in 1969 – extended in 1991 and 2000 – takes in a larger green space separated by a stretch of open road: St John's Gardens. Those gardens have the tallest and largest building visible from all parts of the square's garden, the
Church of St John-at-Hackney
St John at Hackney is a Grade II* listed Anglican Church in the heart of the London Borough of Hackney with a large capacity of around 2,000. It was built in 1792 to replace Hackney's medieval parish church, of which St Augustine's Tower rem ...
, rebuilt in 1792-97 which contains older monuments. Two sides of the square are lined with tall, partly stone-dressed,
classical,
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
terraced houses.
Overview
![claptonsq5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Claptonsq5.jpg)
The inside of the square is a green with shrubs, trees and historic stone ornaments. Many buildings around the square are five-storey houses with leaded
fanlight
A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...
s,
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s and upper
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s (white ledges) and porticos. The houses have
sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s, ornamental cast-iron balconies, columns and porches. The frontages of some houses are adorned with trained
ivy
''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...
or
wisteria
''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...
. Houses along two sides were replaced in the late 19th century, leaving Georgian houses along the north and west. A
rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
was moved here in 2006.
History and notable residents
The square was laid out in 1816 in the fields of the manor of Hackney owned by the Tyssen family, as homes for senior merchants, officers and financial brokers in an upmarket residential square.
['Hackney: Clapton', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1995), pp. 44-51. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp44-51.] It has central gardens containing a finely restored drinking fountain donated to Hackney residents by Howard Morley in 1894.
19th century Jewish writer
Grace Aguilar
Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion. Although she had been writing since childhood, much of her work was published posthumously. Among those are her best know ...
lived in the square. Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
) visited, around 1905, his friend
Theodore Rothstein
Theodore Rothstein (russian: Фёдор Аронович Ротштейн, ''Fyodor Aronovich Rotshteyn''; 14 February 1871 30 August 1953) was a Soviet politician, journalist, writer and communist. He served as a Soviet ambassador in the 1920s. ...
who resided in the square.
The east side of the square was destroyed in the
London Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and rebuilt, to emulate as it was, at the start of the next century.
;Neighbouring comparable architecture
North-east of the square is Holly Villas in Clapton Passage, a short terrace of multi-storey bay-windowed
Victorian villas built in 1882.
Similar grand terraces to those in Clapton Square are on the south side of adjoining
Sutton Place.
![ClarencePlaceHackney](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/ClarencePlaceHackney.jpg)
Resident and eminent scientist
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
, a fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
wrote:
He lived at the house (demolished in 1880) on the corner of the Passage and Lower Clapton Road, in the 1790s. A mob had hounded him out of his house and laboratory in Birmingham who opposed his support for the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
. He was invited to come to Hackney to take up the post of
Unitarian Minister at the
Old Gravel Pit Chapel where he had many friends amongst the Hackney Dissenters. A
plaque
Plaque may refer to:
Commemorations or awards
* Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc.
* Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I
* Pla ...
marks the site of his house above the existing corner building in Lower Clapton Road. He emigrated to America in 1794 fearing a repeat of his family's persecution.
In a cottage behind Priestley's house, in the closing years of the 18th century, lived a
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
widow,
Louisa Perina Courtauld, a designer of gold plate who married a silversmith. Their son,
Samuel Courtauld (junior), founded the Courtauld dynasty of silk and artificial fibre manufacturers and a descendant founded the
Courtauld Institute
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
now in Somerset House.
5 Clapton Square - home of Thomas Briggs, chief clerk of Robarts, Curtis Bank, Britain's first railway murder victim on 9 July 1864 (Mr Biggs Hat, Kate Colqhhoun, 2011)
Conservation Area
Clapton Square is near the centre of the
London Borough of Hackney
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
its south side has long been part of a kink in north–south
Lower Clapton
Clapton is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney.
Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross.
Geography and ori ...
Road where the road took over from today's pedestrianised north end of Mare Street. East is
Homerton
Homerton ( ) is an area in London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south. In 2019, it had ...
and west is
Dalston
Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...
. Its land is mid-elevation. Most is on the deep Hackney gravels geological terrace. The Conservation Area spans parts of four electoral wards, and has approximately 250 homes.
["Clapton Square Conservation Area" The London Borough of Hackney]
/ref>
The Conservation Area contains two significant open spaces: Clapton Square and across the open south side the Churchyard of St. John-at-Hackney, known as St. John's Gardens, an L-shaped large green with permanent footpaths. The continuous bypass of the Lower Clapton Road which, open, forms the south side of the square (a hundred metres east turning into Mare Street, a pedestrianised shopping precinct leading to the nearest station) makes the greens, separate elongated and diversely of amenity value — to mid-rise apartments, Victorian villas, and grand classical homes on the north side of Hackney Central as well as Lower Clapton many of which have been subdivided into luxurious apartments.[
]
Local history
Hackney was a favourite residence of wealthy Londoners from the Middle Ages until the 19th century and the largest Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
parish included in the County of London
The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...
(created 1889). Near the south-western corner it was about 1,800 metres north of the bar (gate) of London at Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bishop ...
. From here a section of Ermine Street under various names led north for 3,800 metres to enter Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
at Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the l ...
. For part of its length, as Stoke Newington Road and High Street, it formed Hackney's western boundary. The parish stretched eastward about 3,600 metres to Temple Mills on the river Lea
The River Lea ( ) is in South East England. It originates in Bedfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and flows southeast through Hertfordshire, along the Essex border and into Greater London, to meet the River Thames at Bow Creek. It is one of t ...
. Besides Hackney village, the parish included Dalston, Shacklewell, Stamford Hill, Upper and Lower Clapton, Homerton, Hackney Wick, and parts of Stoke Newington village and Kingsland. The area of the parish was estimated with some accuracy at in 1765 and 1831.['Hackney: Introduction', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1995), pp. 1-4. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp1-4]
The Great Plague of London
The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that origi ...
and the Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
the following year, 1666, commended less densely populated land immediately around the city to those conducting high level business in the city. Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
, who lived in the border-village of Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish.
The ...
, described Hackney in the 1720s as comprising "twelve hamlets" and "having so many rich citizens that it contained nearly a hundred coaches". Hackney House was put up for the governor of the Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
, Stamp Brooksbank
Stamp Brooksbank (23 June 1694 – 24 May 1756) was an English MP and Governor of the Bank of England.
He was the eldest son of warehouseman and haberdasher Joseph Brooksbank of Hackney House and Cateaton St., Cheapside, London. He was the heir ...
(d. 1756).[ An earlier neighbour was a prominent expander of (the Honourable) ]East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
.
The London Building Act of 1774 was applied for many decades and presented a persuasive model into the 20th century. Dubbed the Black Act among some landlords because of its heavy impositions, it was passed to mitigate fire risk. It specified all houses to be of brick, windows recessed and with roofs of slate which do not overhang.
Listed buildings
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
around the square that are local landmarks are the medieval St Augustine's Tower, the Tudor period
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...
Sutton House, the neo-classical Church of St John-at-Hackney
St John at Hackney is a Grade II* listed Anglican Church in the heart of the London Borough of Hackney with a large capacity of around 2,000. It was built in 1792 to replace Hackney's medieval parish church, of which St Augustine's Tower rem ...
, and the High Victorian Round Chapel, Lower Clapton
Clapton is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney.
Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross.
Geography and ori ...
.
References
{{Commons category, Clapton Square, London
External links
Hackney Conservation Zones
Clapton Square on Hackney's Conservation Zone walk
Squares in the London Borough of Hackney
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Hackney
Streets in the London Borough of Hackney
Clapton, London