18TH - EARLY 19TH CENTURY ISLINGTON

In the eighteenth century the resident population of Islington began to grow noticeably. The number of houses in Islington, estimated at 325 in 1708, rose to 937 in 1732, 1,060 in 1788, 1,200 in 1793, and 1,745 in 1801 when the population was 10,212. The view of Islington Green and St Mary's church, above, dates from around 1780.

The late 18th century brought an increase in the range of services and trades in the town catering for the better-off, with 11 hairdressers, a Staffordshire-warehouse, a tea and muslin warehouse, a wine merchant, and a toy shop. Terraces along the main roads and some streets behind them were built for middle class residents, attracted by the air or the nearness of London, so that by 1819 Islington was said to be chiefly composed of the dwellings of retired citizens and others connected with the metropolis. It retained an air of antiquity, however, from its many old buildings: once the residences of prominent people, they had generally been converted into shops and inns.

There were already signs that this was becoming a desirable area when Charles Lamb arrived and wrote "I have a cottage in Islington. I feel like a great lord, never having had a house before."

18th to early 19th century: About My Project

Left: The earliest parish map of Islington, 1735.

18th to early 19th century: Welcome

Canonbury still remained predominantly fields where people enjoyed walking, but houses were being built on the south side of Cross Street. The first group being finished in 1771 with the remainder of the 17 houses occupied by 1779. With the exception of Fowler's house and the lodge in the garden, the north side, including where Florence Street now is, remained undeveloped and was called Canonbury Fields.

The New River provided a pleasant aspect to a walk across the fields as, at that stage it still flowed above ground until the end of Asteys Row where it was tunnelled under Essex Road until Colebrooke Row. The painting above shows the New River flowing through Canonbury Fields in 1819.

William Fox in his noted descriptive poem La Bagatella completed in 1801 included:

“See o'er the grassy slope majestic shows
Old Canonbury's tower and ancient pile
To various fates assigned and also by twas
Measures and grandeur love alternate reigned

“Pleased in this antiquate this silent tower
A wanderer long now anchored and at home
Through distant realms to track the traveller's way
There learned Chambers treasured lore for men
And Newbery there his ABCs for babes.”

Even as during the early part of the nineteenth century when London was growing rapidly, travellers were attracted by it being a peaceful area close to the City. Washington Irving (creator of Rip Van Winkle) spent some time here in the 1820s, resulting in part of his book 'Tales of a Traveller' being set in Canonbury. In this he notes: "I had some difficulty in finding a place to my mind, when chance threw me in the way of Canonbury Castle. It is an ancient brick tower, hard by "merry Islington;" the remains of a hunting-seat of Queen Elizabeth, where she took the pleasures of the country, when the neighbourhood was all woodland."

However, even for him, all was not perfect as: "Sunday came, and with it the whole city world, swarming about Canonbury Castle. I could not open my window but I was stunned with shouts and noises from the cricket ground. The late quiet road beneath my window was alive with the tread of feet and clack of tongues; and to complete my misery, I found that my quiet retreat was absolutely a 'show house!' the tower and its contents being shown to strangers at sixpence a head. There was a perpetual tramping up-stairs of citizens and their families, to look about the country from the top of the tower, and to take a peep at the city through the telescope, to try if they could discern their own chimneys."

Returning to the environment of one his notable ancestors, Thomas Cromwell in 1835 said that "the walks around Canonbury were long noted for their extreme pleasantness but around 1823 a great change in the face of things took place." This was the builders coming in to start building Canonbury Square which also resulted in a diversion of the New River.

18th to early 19th century: About Me