Hackney Address

[vita]

I have an 1871 census reference to College Lane Farm Place St John at

Hackney but am unable to trace exactly where this was.

Could anyone please help?

[maggie_4_7]

I always use this site:-

http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/Old_to_New_Abolished_London_Street_Names.htm

But I can't see it listed.

[vita]

Thanks Maggie - I couldn't find a ref to it as a changed name, either.

[Merry]

I've found it. Not sure if this link works properly....

http://london1868.com/weller10.htm

When you open the page the third rectangle from the top right of the map (in the top row) should be highlighted red. If it isn't, then click that square. Scroll down and you will find that map area enlarged. Look right at the bottom right of the enlargement and you should see College Lane.

[Merry]

It runs north to south through the R of the word 'HOMERTON' :)

[Merry]

On this current day map I think it's the unnamed road just above Homerton Fire Station, to the left of, and parallel to, Wardle Street.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Saint+John-at-Hackney+Church/@51.5488888,-0.0468787,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xeb38cfb1fc87c300

[Merry]

I've just checked the 1871 enumeration district description and the other streets in the district are all around College Lane on the map, so must be the right place. I presume Farm Place was a terrace of houses somewhere along the lane.

[vita]

What can I say? Magnificent Merry Triumphs Again!

Thanks so much.

[Merry]

Now we just need a Victorian photo of the street!!!

[vita]

Now we just need a Victorian photo of the street!!!

Mind reader! I've found one of Homerton High St.in 1870, which gives me

some idea. What I'm really interested in is the poverty level in the immediate

area. G/grandfather relocated there from Central London after a spectacular

downfall resulting in prison sentence.

[Merry]

So you need to check out Charles Booth's maps - the date will be a bit later, but should give some idea.


http://www.umich.edu/~risotto/

[Shona]

On the Booth poverty maps, the area is classified as 'very poor and in chronic want'.

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&m.l=1&m.d.l=1&m.p.x=12031&m.p.y=3829&m.p.w=500&m.p.h=309&m.p.l=1&m.t.w=128&m.t.h=80&b.p.x=21138&b.p.y=3070&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=2&b.p.p.l=2&m.move.left.x=7&m.move.left.y=4

[vita]

So you need to check out Charles Booth's maps - the date will be a bit later, but should give some idea.


http://www.umich.edu/~risotto/

Thanks Merry - I was just checking that out.

[vita]

On the Booth poverty maps, the area is classified as 'very poor and in chronic want'.

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&m.l=1&m.d.l=1&m.p.x=12031&m.p.y=3829&m.p.w=500&m.p.h=309&m.p.l=1&m.t.w=128&m.t.h=80&b.p.x=21138&b.p.y=3070&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=2&b.p.p.l=2&m.move.left.x=7&m.move.left.y=4

That's what I feared, Shona - he had no furniture & broke down at his

sentencing. Can't type that without getting emotional.

[Shona]

The Booth maps were drawn 20 to 30 years after your great-grandfather lived there, but it seems as if the area had been declining for some years.

British History Online suggest social decline may have started with the expansion of the workhouse, factories and industry. Construction of the railway and speculative building of cramped terraces further enhanced social change. By 1860, some of the streets around Wardle Street were being described as slums. The construction of Homerton Fever Hospital next to the workhouse added to the mix.

Good map of the vicinity from the Workhouses website.

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-EFever/

[vita]

Thanks Shona - yes, I did see some of that myself. I'd love to know what caused him to

neglect the family business so badly that he lost everything. Newspaper report refers only

to it being "through his own neglect."

Thanks for link too.

[maggie_4_7]

British History online description the area:-

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22703&strquery=homerton%20high%20street

I love this excerpt:-

"Hackney Wick, notorious for its jerry building, (fn. 41) was described in 1879 as a district of 6,000 people who had sunk to the lowest depths. (fn. 42) They included many drifters and, being downtrodden, were found by the Salvation Army in 1897-8 to be less violent than those of Bethnal Green;"

My family mostly came from Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Hoxton :) :) this place they describe is just up the road they talk about it like its miles away :)

[vita]

Wonder what their standards were, Maggie?

I lived in Bethnal Green in the 50s - bomb sites, pea-soupers & nowhere to pay but the

patch of concrete outside the front door. Still have the scars on my knees where I kept

falling over. Loved it, though - happy days!

[vita]

PS - that should read "nowhere to play!"

[Margaret in Burton]

The most recent Lost Cousins newsletter has an article on finding locations in early 19th century London.
http://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/midoct14news.htm

[vita]

The most recent Lost Cousins newsletter has an article on finding locations in early 19th century London.
http://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/midoct14news.htm


Thanks Marg - most helpful of you.