Stamford Hill is an area in
Inner London
Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was u ...
, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of
Charing Cross
Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of
Hackney, the major component 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 ...
, and is known for its
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
community, the largest concentration of Hasidic Jews in Europe.
The district takes its name from the eponymous hill, which reaches a height of 33m
AOD, and the
originally Roman A10 also takes the name "Stamford Hill", as it makes its way through the area.
The hill is believed
to be named after the ford where the A10 crossed the
Hackney Brook
The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Old Ford, with its source in Holloway.
Course of the River
...
on the southern edge of the hill. Sanford and Saundfordhill are referred to in documents from the 1200s, and mean "sand Ford".
Roque's map of 1745 shows a bridge, which replaced the ford, referred to as "Stamford Bridge".
The hill rises gently from the former course of the
Hackney Brook
The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Old Ford, with its source in Holloway.
Course of the River
...
to the south, and its steeper northern slope provided a natural boundary for the traditional (
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
and
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
) extent of
Hackney, and now does so for the
wider modern borough.
History
Stamford Hill lies on the old
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
road of
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln (''Lindum Colonia'') and York (''Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earningas'', ...
, on the high ground where it meets the Clapton Road, which runs from
central Hackney. By the 18th century, the Roman road (now numbered as the A10) was subject to heavy traffic, including goods wagons pulled by six or more horses, and this caused the surface of the road to deteriorate. The local parishes appealed to Parliament in 1713 for the right to set up a
Turnpike Trust
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th b ...
, to pay for repairs and maintenance. Gates were installed at
Kingsland and Stamford Hill, to collect the tolls.
Roque's map of 1745 shows a handful of buildings around the Turnpike, and by 1795, the A10 was lined with the large homes and extensive grounds of wealthy financiers and merchants attracted, in part, by the elevated position.
[The London Encyclopaedia, Weinreb and Hibbert, 1983]
Stamford Hill had a
gibbet
A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, decapitation, executioner's block, Impalement, impalement stake, gallows, hanging gallows, or related Scaffold (execution site), scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows- ...
, that was used to display the remains of criminals, executed at
Tyburn
Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone.
The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern Ox ...
in the 1740s. In 1765, a map of the area showed the Gibbet Field south of the road from Clapton Common, behind Cedar House.
["Hackney: Newington and Stamford Hill." A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney. Ed. T F T Baker. London: Victoria County History, 1995. 38-44. British History Online. Web. 15 December 2018. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp38-44.]
The area remained essentially rural in character, and little more was built until the arrival of the railway in 1872,
and the tram system at about the same time. Stamford Hill was the point where the tram line coming north from the City met the
Hackney tram line, and so, it became a busy interchange, with a depot opening in 1873. Electrification commenced in 1902 and by 1924 a service was commenced between Stamford Hill and
Camden Town
Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...
along Amhurst Park..
The growth of London, and the corresponding population growth led to further amenities being required. A Jesuit college and church were built nearby in 1894-96, at the foot of the hill, on High Road, Tottenham. The present Romanesque church building opened in 1903.
Stamford Hill had many eminent Jewish residents, including the
Montefiore family.
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
-born Moses Vita Montefiore (died 1789) was living there in 1763. His son Joseph (died 1804) married Rachel Mocatta, and his grandson Abraham Montefiore (died 1824) married Henrietta, whose father, the financier
Nathan Meyer Rothschild
Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836) was an English-German banker, businessman and finance, financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, he was the third of the five sons of Gutle (Schnapper) and Mayer Amschel Roths ...
, lived near the modern Colberg Place from 1818 to 1835. The Montefiores' property a little further south was to be transformed by Abraham's grandson, Claude Montefiore, into Montefiore House school. With the increased development of the area, many distinguished families moved away: In 1842, there were few remaining of the wealthy Jews who had once settled in Hackney.
['Hackney: Judaism', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 145-48]
Date accessed: 31 October 2006. The
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
and
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
MP Samuel Morley had a residence here from about 1860. The gardening writer and
cottage garden
The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Ho ...
er
Margery Fish
Margery Fish (née Townshend) (5 August 1892 – 24 March 1969) was an English gardener and gardening writer, who exercised a strong influence on the informal English cottage garden style of her period. was born Margery Townshend in Stamford Hill in 1892.
From the 1880s,
a new influx of Jews arrived from
Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...
in the
East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
, and, in 1915, the New Synagogue was transferred to Stamford Hill to serve this growing population. In 1926, the
Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations
The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations is an umbrella organisation of Haredi Jewish communities in London, and has an estimated membership of over 6,000. It was founded in 1926, with the stated mission "to protect traditional Judaism", and ha ...
was established in Stamford Hill, and this became a magnet for other strictly observant Jews, many fleeing
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
persecution in the years before the
Second World War
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 ...
.
[ Also, many Jewish families came to the area from other areas of London, refugees in their own way from bombing and post-war clearances for new housing. One of the early Hasidic leaders in Stamford Hill was the Shotzer Rebbe. The Hungarian uprising also led to an influx of Haredi Jews fleeing hardship under ]Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
rule. Another notable Jewish resident, from 1955 until his death in 2000, was the spiritual head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa
Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa (17 August 1908 – 16 August 2000) was a world-renowned Orthodox Jewish posek, Talmudist and rabbinic leader.
Early years
Chanoch Dov Padwa was born on 17 August 1908 (20 Av 5668 in the Hebrew calendar) in Busk, a smal ...
.
Governance
Stamford Hill has never been an administrative area in its own right; it has always been an area of Hackney. Hackney was an administrative unit with consistent boundaries from the early Middle Ages to the creation of the larger modern borough in 1965. Hackney was based for many centuries on the Ancient Parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...
of Hackney.
Parishes in 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 ...
were grouped into Hundreds, with Hackney part of Ossulstone
Ossulstone is an obsolete subdivision (hundred) covering 26.4% of – and the most metropolitan part – of the historic county of Middlesex, England.British History Online Hundreds of Middlesex/ref> It surrounded but did not include the ...
Hundred. Rapid Population growth around London saw the Hundred split into several "Divisions" during the 1600s, with Hackney part of the Tower Division (aka Tower Hamlets). The Tower Division
The Tower Division was a liberty in the ancient county of Middlesex, England. It was also known as the Tower Hamlets, and took its name from the military obligations owed to the Constable of the Tower of London. The term ‘Hamlets’ probably ...
was noteworthy in that the men of the area owed military service to the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
- and had done even before the creation of the Division.
The Ancient Parishes provided a framework for both civil (administrative) and ecclesiastical (church) functions, but during the nineteenth century, there was a divergence into distinct civil and ecclesiastical parish systems. In London, the Ecclesiastical Parishes sub-divided to better serve the needs of a growing population, while the Civil Parishes continued to be based on the same Ancient Parish areas.
The London Government Act 1899
The London Government Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. 14) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the administration of the capital. The Act divided the County of London into 28 metropolitan boroughs, replacing the 41 parish ...
converted the parishes into Metropolitan Borough
A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...
s based on the same boundaries, sometimes with minor rationalisations.
In 1965, Hackney merged with Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
and 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 ...
to form the new 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 ...
.
Boundaries
The area's usual definition is based on the physical feature of the hill and the neighbourhood's location within the Ancient Parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...
and subsequent (with almost identical boundaries) Metropolitan Borough of Hackney
The Metropolitan Borough of Hackney was a Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, Metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. Its area became part of the London Borough of Hackney.
Formation and boundaries
The borough ...
. It also reflects the fact that what was originally the Roman A10 also takes the name 'Stamford Hill' as goes over the hill between the brook and the borough boundary.
Northern boundary with 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 ...
: Takes the northern boundary of the AP\ MB of Hackney. This corresponds to the current boundary between the modern borough of Hackney and Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of ...
.
Western boundary with 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 ...
: Takes part of the AP\ MB of Hackney's boundary with the AP\ MB of Stoke Newington along Bethune Road and down to the A10.
Southern Boundary with West Hackney
West Hackney is a district in the London Borough of Hackney, situated on the eastern side of Ermine Street, the major Roman Road better known as the A10.
The area was part of the Ancient Parish and subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Hackney, bu ...
: The east–west course of the Hackney Brook
The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Old Ford, with its source in Holloway.
Course of the River
...
, which may have been as wide as 22m at this point, provided a natural southern boundary for the district, however the river was culverted and it is now difficult to discern its former course on the ground. This has led to very ambiguous boundary, along its former course, in the Cazenove\Northwold Road area.
East and south-east boundary with Upper 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 origi ...
: Upper 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 origi ...
is also part of Hackney and shares much of the eastern side of the hill. There is little tradition of a particular border. The post code boundary is sometimes used but this is arbitrary: post code areas are not intended to define districts.
Demography
The high fertility of the Haredi community contributes to the area having one of highest birthrates in the UK, with a crude birth rate
The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...
of more than 25 per 1,000 of the population, twice the UK average.
The data table shows ONS Census data for the wards around Stamford Hill, where respondents indicated a religion:
:''The London Borough of Hackney has expressed its concern that Haredi Jewish residents are seriously under-counted in the Census data, as the religion question is voluntary.''
Haredi Jewish community
Stamford Hill is at the centre of an Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
strictly-Orthodox Jewish, and predominantly Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
, community estimated to be some 15,000 strong, and growing at a rate of around 5% each year. It is the largest Hasidic community in Europe, and referred to as a ''square mile of piety'',[ reflecting the many Jewish men seen walking in their distinctive clothes on their way to and from worship. The congregations often represent historical links with particular areas of Eastern Europe in their dress and their worship. Many also retain links with congregations around the world. The largest of these congregations is the ]Satmar
Satmar (Yiddish: סאַטמאַר, Hebrew: סאטמר) is a Hasidic group founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, in the city of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania). The group is an offshoot of the Sighet Hasidic dynasty ...
dynasty, which has five directly associated synagogues; Belz
Belz ( uk, Белз; pl, Bełz; yi, בעלז ') is a small city in Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, located between the Solokiya river (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream. Belz hosts the adminis ...
is another large community, with four synagogues. As well as Stamford Hill's own Jewish population, there are also many observant Jews in neighbouring Upper 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 origi ...
, West Hackney
West Hackney is a district in the London Borough of Hackney, situated on the eastern side of Ermine Street, the major Roman Road better known as the A10.
The area was part of the Ancient Parish and subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Hackney, bu ...
, 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 ...
, and 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 ...
; there may be as many as 80 synagogues in this wider area.
A volunteer emergency response first-aid service called Hatzola
Hatzalah (; he, הַצָּלָה, lit=rescue, relief) is one of several Jewish volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) organizations serving mostly areas with Jewish communities around the world, giving free medical service no matter their ...
(the Hebrew word for rescue) and a volunteer community watch group called Shomrim (the Hebrew word for watchmen) are run by, and largely for, the Jewish community.
The strictly Orthodox Jewish community relies mostly on private education for schooling, with almost all Jewish children attending private, single-sex Jewish schools. In 2005, the Stamford Hill Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School
Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School is a state-funded Jewish secondary school for girls, located in the Stamford Hill area of the London Borough of Hackney, in England. The school primarily serves the Charedi Jewish community of Stamford Hill. ...
achieved voluntary-aided
A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In mo ...
status. In 2014, the Oxford, Cambridge, and RSA (OCR) Exam board, having conducted an investigation into alleged exam malpractice, concluded that the school had redacted questions involving the evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
of species on GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
science exam questions. Ofqual
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is a non-ministerial government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England. Colloquially and publicly, Ofqual is often referred to as the exam "watchdog ...
subsequently ruled that blocking out exam questions is malpractice, and, accordingly, not permissible. The same year, it was reported by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
s in the area "usually don't provide any maths, English or science" classes and were operating "without the most basic health, safety, and child welfare checks". In an article on Stamford Hill yeshivas, ''
as saying that between 800 and 1000 boys aged between 13 and 16 are "missing" from the school system in the borough of Hackney alone.
Haredi families, on average, have 5.9 children, almost 2.5 times the average for England and Wales, and many families live in over-crowded flats.
National planning regulations are applied by the local council, prohibiting development of family housing. This has led to conflict between the council and the Jewish population, represented by the
.
is active in developing housing for the Jewish community in Stamford Hill.
. They settled in Stamford Hill, after fleeing
. The Adeni Congregation synagogue, Nahalat Yosef, is named after the original Adeni synagogue in Yemen. A further wave of immigration of Yemenite Jews occurred in the 1990s and 2000s when several families escaped antisemitic persecution from
in the north of Yemen.
In 2014, the community met with controversy after a sign was spotted in the location reading, "Women should please walk along this side of the road only".
The sign was reportedly put up for a Torah Procession parade, and was meant to provide directions for members who wished to avoid contact with the opposite sex.