Angel

This is the 17th station I have visited on the Northern Line and 205th out of 272 tube stations. The original station opened in 1901 as the northern terminus of a new extension from Moorgate. In 1907 the line was extended to Euston so Angel became a through station. 

When built it had an island platform with trains running on either side with the tracks going through a single tunnel. The platform was only 3.7m across and for years was considered a major safety issue.

Consequently the station was rebuilt between 1989 and 1992. A new northbound tunnel and platform were built and the lifts and old station building were closed. This photo shows the southbound platform which is really wide as it was the original island platform.   

 Because of the distance between the new entrance and the platforms, two flights of escalators were needed. The old station building houses the ventilation system and other services for the platforms below. You can only access the platforms via the escalator which, with a vertical rise of 27m and length of 61m is, not only the longest on the underground, but also in the UK.

There is work being carried out around the outside of the station so it wasn't possible to get a clear photo.

The station exits onto Islington High Street. In the 16th century the road was lined with inns and taverns catering, in particular, for those bringing livestock to London. Nothing of those early buildings still remains but in the late 17th and 18th centuries there was an increase in road transport and three important coaching inns emerged, the Peacock, The Angel and The White Lion.

The most important was  the 'Angel Inn' built in the early 17th century and a crossing nearby became  known as the 'Angel'. Properties on the site were rebuilt many times with the current building opening as the Angel Hotel in 1903.  The building was bought by J. Lyons and Co in 1921 and opened as a restaurant.  In 1935 it was chosen as a property for the UK version of Monopoly. It was also responsible for the area and underground station being called Angel.

 The building is currently used as offices and is Grade II listed.

Like the Angel, the White Lion was frequented by cattle drovers and at one point in its history was as big as the Angel. It  was first built as an inn in the 17th century. It became a public house in 1897-8 when it was rebuilt. 

The Lion Panel of 1714 was reset into the wall when it was rebuilt. Another one dated 1898 was placed on the other side of the window.

 

In the late 1960s the White Lion closed and was purchased by the Greater London Council for proposed road widening. In 1984 it was bought by Land and Equity group and was refurbished with offices above a bank.

A little further along from the White Lion is another listed building. This former theatre was built in 1913. It became the Odeon cinema in 1963 but closed as a cinema 9 years later. The auditorium was demolished and offices constructed on the site. However, the tower and Balcony entrance were retained although bricked up for the next 25 years. It wasn't until 1999 when Starbucks bought the building, refurbished it and opened it up as a coffee shop. that the balcony and tower were opened again.


I left the High Street and followed the signs to the Sadler Wells Theatre. Sadler's Wells history began with the discovery of a mineral Spring in 1683 by Richard Sadler in the grounds of his music house. People would came to experience the 'healing properties' of the well and then stayed for the entertainment. Eventhough the well dried up, audiences still came and the performances continued for hundreds of years. There was a variety of entertainment from Shakespeare and opera to vaudeville. Sadler's Wells has played a very important role in the history of the theatre with the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal ballet and the English National Opera all starting life here. In the 1990s the theatre was redesigned to incorporate a purpose built dance theatre, three rehearsal theatres and a bigger stage with more seating.

 

Next to Sadler's Wels on Roseberry Avenue is the historic site of New River Head. Originally this was the London terminus of the New River, an artificial watercourse that was opened in 1613 to supply water to London. A circular reservoir known as Round Pond collected the water. From here it was taken through a network of wooden mains which conveyed the water to the cisterns in London. It continued to be developed with further ponds and buildings covering an area of 7 acres. In 1708 a new upper Pond was constructed on higher ground to increase the pressure so as to serve more distant areas in the West End of London. At first this was pumped from the Round Pond by windmill and horse power but in 1768 a steam engine was added and was replaced over the years with other engine power. In 1820 the offices of the New River Company moved from the City of London to New River Head to administer London's water supply.  Between 1915 and 1920 the Metropolitan Water Board( successor to the New River Company) constructed this new head office. 

A water testing laboratory was added to the site in 1937. Ten years later the London end of the New River was moved to Stoke Newington with the water being fed into the East Reservoir there and the operational usage of the site was no longer needed. However the laboratory and the Head Office continued to be used by the Metropolitan Water Board and later Thames Water as it is now known

. In 1964 a seven storey block of staff flats was built on the site but once the Head office of Thames Water was relocated to Reading in 1989, all the buildings were converted to apartments. Some of the sites industrial buildings still exist such as the engine room, coal stores and windmill base. This site is now going to be the new home of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration which should be opening sometime this year,

Further down Roseberry Avenue is the old Finsbury Town Hall. The building was built in two stages. The first part was built in 1894 and became the Clerkenwell Vestry Hall and adjoined the early 19th century vestry hall. The new vestry Hall had a mixture of influences including art nouveau which is evident in the iron and stained glass canopy. Inside there apparently is a stunning great hall with a series of winged female figures holding sprays of foliage with light bulb flowers. I was not allowed into the building so have only seen photos of the magnificent interior.

 In 1897 the building was extended over the original vestry hall. The building was renamed Finsbury Town Hall in 1900 when there was a reorganisation of London's local government and Finsbury became a Metropolitan Borough. In 1965 Finsbury was absorbed into the London Borough of Islington. Although no longer needed as a town hall it was still used for council offices. It was also used as a registry office for civil weddings until 2003. In 2005-6 the building was restored and used by a performing arts school. The venue is also used for wedding ceremonies and receptions with all profits going to the Urdang performing arts school.

I walked back towards the High Street and came across Duncan Terrace Gardens. I can never resist wandering through green areas in built up areas.


A brief history of the gardens revealed that they formed a link in the New River Walk series of green spaces. The New River is not a useful descriptive name as it is neither a river nor new. As I mentioned earlier when I was looking at the Metropolitan Water Board headquarters, it is a water supply aqueduct completed in 1613 to bring drinking water from Hertfordshire to North London. Before this London's water supply was the Thames, local streams and wells which were often contaminated. Thames Water , alongside other partners has created a 28 mile long distance path following the river's course.

I walked through the park and crossed over a road and followed a downward path to Regent's Canal. Although it looked an inviting walk I needed to return and have a look at the areas closest to the tube station. Looking the other way along the canal is a long tunnel, the Islington Tunnel. On a notice board next to the tunnel it said:

'rather than building a flight of locks to climb the hill at Angel, the Regent's Canal Company held a competition to design a tunnel. The entries were disappointing and in the end the chief engineer, James Morgan ended up designing a tunnel himself. It took three years to build from 1815 to 1818 and was dug by a group of navvies (labourers used in the excavation and construction of roads, canals or railways). '

There was no path through the long tunnel so I needed to go back up to the road. The term 'leg-it' comes from the time before boats had engines. The boatmen would lay on their sides and walk the boat through the tunnel which they did here in the 878 metre long Islington tunnel.

I returned along St John Street passed the Red Lion Pub. There has been a pub on this site since 1415. The current building was constructed in 1899. Then in 1979 the pub opened as a theatre as well as a pub. It is an important venue for new playwrights and performers.

This is Myddelton Square, developed by the New River Company in 1824-27. It's named after Sir Hugh Myddelton who was responsible for building the New River. The houses on the north side were destroyed in the Blitz in 1941 and were subsequently rebuilt in 1947 by the new River company as purpose built flats, making them look similar to the rest of the square.

 In the centre of the Square is St Mark's church which was also damaged in the Blitz and was restored in the 1960s.

I left Myddelton Square and walked the short distance to Pentonville Road, another location on the British Monopoly board.

This used to be a chapel but is now home to the Crafts Council Gallery. It holds free exhibitions and events highlighting various crafts such as bookbinding, rugmaking, pottery and so on. 

Just off Pentonville Road is another London Square, Claremont Square. I was expecting the usual elegant houses on each side with a church or garden in the centre. The houses were as I imagined but I was taken aback to see that the centre of the square was not a garden but a reservoir. The reservoir is about 55m square, 6.5m deep and holds about 16 million litres. Claremont Square was built in the 1820s around the Upper Pond of the New River Company which was constructed in 1709. The first reservoir was open to the sky and provided water for the surrounding district which lies at a lower level. The Upper Pond was drained in 1855 and replaced with an enclosed brick structure. It was covered with grass and trees were planted. Railings surround the reservoir preventing public access. The water was originally supplied by pumping it up from the New River Head. Today the reservoir is supplied from the Thames Water Ring Main. This was a huge surprise to me as I know of no other London Square that has a reservoir at its centre.

I crossed over and walked through Chapel market back onto Islington High Street.

Walking along the High Street I noticed this large building set back from the main road. It looked an interesting design so I went over to have a closer look. The security man on the door very kindly said I could go in to take photos of the inside. Once inside I was blown away by the scale of the building. It was built in 1862 to house the Smithfield Show which continued until the outbreak of war in 1939.

During that time the venue hosted a variety of events including circuses, balls, military tournaments and motor shows. It held the first Cruft's dog show here in 1891.

During the Second World War the building was requisitioned by the Post Office and was not used again as an agricultural hall. By the 1980s it had fallen into neglect. Sam Morris, founder of the Business Design Group, realised its potential as an exhibition centre and had it restored to its original splendour.

In October 1986 it opened as the new Business Design Centre and holds a variety of events from conferences, exhibitions to the annual London Art Fair.

This is the Screen on the Green cinema. It is one of the oldest cinema buildings in Britain that is still in use. It opened in 1913 with the double doors opening straight into the auditorium. A foyer was not added until 1981. The original seating capacity was for 600. The addition of a foyer reduced this to 300 and then in 2010, the introduction of luxury armchair seating and a licensed bar reduced the seating even more to just 120.

What is now Cafe Nero used to be another cinema. The Electric Theatre opened in Feb 1909. The exterior remains the same as it did over a hundred years ago. The single storey building with its domed roof is still adorned with a female figure holding a lighted torch. The Electric theatre closed in 1913 and went through a number of different guises from an antiques emporium to a clothing shop until 1917 when it became a branch of Cafe Nero.

Looking at the Franco Manca restaurant I could see there was a blue plaque above the first floor windows. I couldn't possibly read it and I do wonder why these plaques are placed in unreadable places. Anyway, I zoomed in with the camera and was surprised to see that this is where Gracie Fields (1898-1979) lived. 

Born in Rochdale she had a very strong Lancashire accent so I assumed she had always lived in the North. She was a writer, actress, singer and comedienne and was the highest paid actress in the world in 1937. Her most famous song was 'Sally'  which she sang at the start of every performance since 1931. She entertained troops during WW2 and became a Dame shortly before her death in 1979.

I was intrigued by the name at the top of this building 'London Salvage Corps'. Further research informed me that it was formed in 1865 to reduce the loss and damage caused by fires, salvaging both premises and goods affected by fire. The corps was funded by insurance companies. During the 1930s the service was accused of participating in a criminal arson scandal. It was claimed that the arson group had taken half a million in false insurance claims. The ringleader was sentenced to 13 years in jail. 

On the other side of the High Street is Islington Memorial Green. The original war memorial of an obelisk needed to be replaced and in 2007 a new one took its place. The twisted concrete wreath was designed by the artist John Maine.

At the head of the Green is this large statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton (1560-1631). He was a Welsh clothmaker, entrepreneur, mine owner, goldsmith, banker and self taught engineer. He was responsible for the construction of the New River and bringing fresh water into London. Until visiting Angel I had no idea that a source of fresh water had been brought into the city via the construction of channels, locks and aqueducts as early as the beginning of the 17th century. I had assumed it all happened in the 19th century. The 38 miles of the New River was completed in 1613. The 1862 statue depicts Myddleton holding a map of the New River in one hand and a spade in the other.

At the other end of the Green is another statue which probably attracts much more attention than Myddleton's. This is Bob the cat still dressed in his Christmas outfit.

This is a much better photo of the bronze statue

https://londonist.com

In 2007, James Bowen, a local busker, found the stray cat when it was injured and he took it to a local pet charity and then nursed the cat back to health. At the time James was a drug addict and homeless. The friendship was the turning point in his life. James went on to write a series of books about their time together and in 2016 a movie was released based on the books: 'A Street cat named Bob.' Bob died in 2020 and this bronze statue was sculpted in his memory by Tanya Russell. The statue is positioned on the side of a pink granite bench with the words :

 

On the other side of the Green is Waterstone's bookshop. You can buy the many books written about 'Bob' the cat here. But this hasn't always been a shop. It started as a pub with a theatre as far back as 1790. In the early 1860s it was bought by Samuel Collins who renamed it Collin's Music Hall. After being rebuilt and extended, it reopened in 1897 and continued as a variety hall until 1958 when fire at the Wood Merchants behind the theatre caused so much damage that the theatre had to close. It remained empty for many years. In 1963 it was used as a wood store until it was demolished in 2000. However, the facade was kept and is now the entrance to Waterstone's.

On my way back to the station  I passed this building which dates from 1906. It was built to house an Electrical Transformer for the local tramways. In 1979 it was repurposed as an antiques shopping arcade. Angel was well known for its antiques trade. A couple of minutes walk away is Camden Passage, once a major location for antiques. The building is no longer an antiques centre but an Amazon food store. 

Camden Passage is still here with its numerous shops but it is no longer a centre for antiques, although this stall seemed to be attracting a number of customers. 

 

This is a very long post so a huge thank you if you stayed with it until the end. I found Angel  a fascinating place to visit, with so much to see within a few minutes walk from the station. The research took me longer than anticipated and so my plan of posting about an underground station twice a month has failed in the first month!

Old Street

 

I started my 'Underground Challenge' 10 years ago when I decided to visit each of the 272 tube stations and explore the areas in which they are situated. This is the 204th station I've visited in those 10 years and this is the 17th station I have written a blog post on this year. I always have high hopes that I will post two a month but never achieve that number. Maybe next year I will do better.

Old Street station serves both the Northern Line and National rail. Originally built in 1901 it has gone through a few reconstructions since then, the latest being completed this year.

A series of corridors  and escalators takes you to the ticket hall.

The new above ground station looks very eco friendly with its green roof. Unfortunately work underground hasn't made much of an impression as they haven't even got lifts going down to the platforms. Lots of unseen work apparently done on the wires, cables, communication and fire safety systems.

Between 2009 and 2018 there have been 215 collisions on the roundabout where the station is sited. The collisions resulted in a number of injuries and two fatalities. It is known as one of the most dangerous spots on the Central London road system. 12 years after the improvement project was announced and a huge amount of money spent, the hoardings are down and the new, hopefully safer, roundabout revealed.   

Whilst it looks a lot cleaner and smarter it has been criticised for not delivering the promises of  it being a large civic space in the UK's first tech city. It has changed from a square roundabout to a three way junction

Now referred to locally as silicon roundabout, it is surrounded by new office blocks with an emphasis on information technology.

I can see why some people refer to this building as 'The Buttocks'.

I decided to go down each of the roads from the roundabout and explore the area that way. My first stop on City Road was The Wesley Chapel. This is John Wesley's house and the Museum of Methodism as well as a chapel. Wesley commissioned the house to be built in 1778 and he moved in in 1779. He used it as his London base during the winter as during the rest of the year he travelled the country, on horseback, preaching and spreading the word. After his death in 1791 the work at the chapel continued. In 1898 his house was opened to the public as a museum.

Across the road is the Bunhill Fields cemetery. The name Bunhill is derived from 'Bone Hill' as the area is reputed to have been a burial site for over a thousand years. It became the burial ground for non conformists in the 18th and 19th century, A burial ground for people  who did not conform to the Church of England but were of other faiths such as Baptists, Methodists, Quakers etc  It was closed to burials in 1854 with about 123,000 people having been interred here. Among those buried here are William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. 

Daniel Defoe was an author  and journalist who gained fame after his death in 1731, mainly from his book ' Robinson Crusoe'. The monument was erected 140 years after his death. The inscription reads:

 This monument is the result of an appeal in  The Christian World newspaper to the boys and girls of England for funds to place a suitable memorial upon the brave Daniel Defoe

It represents the united contributions of seventeen hundred persons

Sept 1870

The grave of John Bunyan

  

The gravestone of William Blake, English poet and painter.



Next to Bunhill cemetery is Armoury House home to the Honourable Artillery Company which has been home to the HAC since 1735. The company was formed in 1537 and is the oldest regiment in the British Army. Finsbury Barracks is next to Armoury House and all members of the regiment train here weekly. Soldiers from the HAC are frequently deployed on operations in support of the Regular Army.

I walked through the cemetery and turned right following a sign for the Quaker garden.

The meeting house stands on the edge of what was, between 1661 and its closure in 1885, the principal Quaker burial grounds in London. The meeting house is only a fragment of a much larger complex of late Victorian buildings. Today the building is used by community groups.

 

Next to the meeting house is a former large burial ground known as Quaker Gardens. The present area is only the eastern part of the burial ground and is surrounded on all sides by buildings. A large London Plane tree stands in the centre with smaller ones at the corners. The large tree was planted when the burial ground closed in 1855. The ground is maintained by The Society of Friends and Islington Council.

This garden is on the site of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground which was acquired by the Society of Friends(Quakers) in 1661. The remains of many thousands of friends lie buried here including George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends who died 13th Jan 1691

Overlooking the garden and old burial ground is a secondary school which  has been converted into flats.

I walked through the gardens and round the school onto Chequer Street and the Whitecross Estate. In the late 19th century, there was growing pressure to clear the slums of London and this area had some of the worst slums. An American banker and philanthropist, George Peabody, set up the Peabody Trust with a large part of his own fortune to try and improve the housing for the poor in London. In 1883 Peabody built two estates on either side of Whitecross Street. One estate consisted of 21 blocks of flats and the other one had 11 blocks of flats. The blocks were constructed round courtyards and were generally five or six stories high with a laundry room in each block but not a bathhouse. They did have 32 pram sheds though.

None of the original blocks remain. The estate was badly damaged in the Second World War. After the war it was decided not to rebuild the original blocks but to demolish the ruins and start again with more modern facilities. The blocks of flats we see here today were opened in 1957. The Peabody trust still exists to create homes and communities. Today there are 108,000 Peabody homes with 220,000 residents.

In the middle of the estate is the Whitecross Street community centre.

On the side of the centre is this mosaic made by the children from the local primary school.

I was now on Whitecross Street and was struck by the number of murals and art related places.

  

  

The artworks are painted each year during the 'Whitecross Street Party' by different participating artists. I must look out for the date of next year's event and come along to have a look.

I walked the length of the street to see what the giant obelisk at the end was. It turned out to be the spire on the top of St Luke's church.

Although the church was designed by John James, the obelisk spire and west tower were by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The church was closed in 1864 due to subsidence but it has now been restored by the London Symphony Orchestra as a space for rehearsals, performances and educational purposes.

In the street behind the church is Ironmonger Row baths. Renovated in the 21st century at a cost of £16.5  million, the baths now have 2 swimming pools. a gym. a spa and squash courts. A far cry from the original public baths and laundry that opened here in 1931. An association for promoting cleanliness among the poor was founded in 1844. The condescending aims of the 1846 Public Baths and Washhouses Act were typical of Victorian social reform.  

To promote the health and cleanliness of the working classes, and as a necessary consequence, improve their social condition and raise their moral tone, thereby tendering them more accessible to and better fitted to receive religious and secular training.

Born in the early 50s in the North of England I remember the bathhouses where the men would go for their weekly bath and the women would take their laundry to wash. It was 1959 before we moved to a house with an indoor toilet and bathroom. 

The swimming pool and a small Turkish baths were added here in 1937.

I needed to retrace my steps to the roundabout. As I was about to cross the road I looked back and saw this huge ghost sign. As the sign says this building used to be a Salvation Army hostel for the homeless. The charity was founded by William Booth in 1865 and moved to Old Street in 1890. The men would work in the factory here in exchange for food. Work at the factory included sorting and mending old clothes, cutting wood, making mattresses and brushes. The building was in need of renovation and the factory moved to Whitechapel. The Salvation Army raised the funds to refurbish the building and it reopened in 1900 as a hostel with accommodation for 450 people. It was at this time that the sign was painted on the building. The hostel closed in 1969. The building is now the headquarters of Shelter, a charity for the homeless.

This impressive building on Old Street used to be the Margolin Gramophone Company factory. It used to manufacture the Dansette record player until cheaper Japanese and other Far Eastern Hi-Fi equipment arrived in the shops. Production ended here in 1969 when it went into liquidation.

On a wall overlooking Fortune Park is this mural.   I have seen 3 or 4 of these memorials to Cato Heath who suffered from Cerebral Palsy and died at the age of 21. His mother, an artist, is hoping to complete one for each year of his life. So far she has completed 10.

“I decided that I wanted to do more about the days that he lived, and thought about doing a piece for every year of his life so used my diary and hospital records, to remember certain days which were unlike other people’s lives, and for the other days I used brighter colours to show that other side, which were more normal and happy.” Emma Douglas.

The large sign on this building needed a second look as I couldn't see a church. On closer inspection I saw the doorway on the right with a cross above it. A notice board next to the doorway enlightened me. The church is the successor to a school chapel of c.1850, replacing it in 1901 in the basement of a large new school block. St Joseph's school closed in 1977 and subsequently the floors above the church housed the offices of the Apostleship of the Sea, the Catholic Herald newspaper and the National Association of People abused in Childhood. The whole site is now being considered for redevelopment including plans for a new church and parish hall.

But this small door to the right of the building was the entrance to St Joseph's church in the basement of Lamb's buildings.


Once back at the roundabout I took a left onto City Road. This huge building was built in 1904 and financed by the Wesleyan Methodists. The Leysian Mission was one of about 100 large halls built in the industrial towns and cities of the UK. The halls were designed to look nothing like a church as the Methodists wanted to encourage people through the doors and away from the temptation of drink and the music halls. The Mission became a welfare centre for the poor of the East End. It provided health services, entertainment in the form of film screenings and lantern shows. The building was badly damaged in the Second World War and with the introduction of the Welfare state, the need for the Mission was diminished. It was sold in the 1980s and converted to flats. As the renamed Imperial Hall it is still an imposing and impressive building 120 years after it was built.

Almost next door to the Leysian Mission was The Alexandra Trust Dining rooms. Built in 1898 from funds provided by the tea magnate and philanthropist Sir Thomas Lipton. His idea was to provide a restaurant that offered very cheap meals for the poor. The Alexandra had three dining halls, each one seating 500 people, so that 1500 customers could be fed at one sitting. The kitchen was large enough to provide up to 12,000 meals a day. In 1898 you could buy a 3 course meal of soup. meat and two veg followed by a pastry for four and a half pence (2p). The slow decline of the dining rooms began after the First World War possibly because of the decrease of the population in the East End during the wars. By this time schools were providing food for the pupils and the need for such large dining rooms diminished. The Dining rooms closed in the early 1950s. Since then the building has been used as tobacco manufacturers, printers, offices, residential accommodation and  now a hotel.

As you leave the tube station you might notice this green line on the floor. Follow it and it takes you to Moorfield Eye Hospital.

I have been coming here for years but this is the first time that I noticed the clock in the shape of an eye.

Founded in 1804 by John Cunningham Saunders, it was the first hospital in the world to specialise in the treatment of eye disease. In 1837 Queen Victoria gave the hospital, which was in Lower Moorfields, its Royal Charter. It was renamed the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital but everyone still called it Moorfields. It moved to this site in 1899. The new building included many new innovations including central heating in the outpatient department, electric lighting and even an x-ray department. With the introduction of electric current in the operating theatre, it meant that powerful electromagnets for particle removal were now available. Surgical results were greatly improved. By 1902 58% of eyes were saved compared to 26% in 1895. 

During the Victorian (1837-1901) and Edwardian (1901-1910) eras this was a very industrial area and a number of the buildings are still in use either as offices or flats.

This was a pipe making company as in the smoking variety. It is now art studios for painters, printmakers, sculptors etc

Next to the John Redman building is this Victorian building which was once a fire station but in recent times was more well known as Jamie Oliver's 15 restaurant. Oliver launched the not for profit restaurant to train 15 disadvantaged, young, unemployed candidates into chefs. The project lasted 17 years with 150 apprentices completing the programme. The building now houses The Curve Club bar and restaurant as well as hosting events.

Some factories have been converted into hotels. 

The area is such a mix of old and new.  Just  across the road from the dining rooms that used to serve 12,000 cheap meals a day to the poor working class of the East End there is now a 5 star hotel - the Montcalm.

 I had been wandering around for what seemed like hours. My original plan was to continue walking and having a look at Shoreditch but I think I've seen enough for one day. Old Street had far more to offer than I realised.