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It appears to be named after the Giesebach Falls in Switzerland but it's difficult to come up with a reason why a street in Archway should be named after a Swiss waterfall. All I can find out (from the excellent Streets with a Story, Eric A. Willats - unfortunately out of print, relying on a library copy) is that the name first appeared in an Islington directory in 1878 and that permission to name it such had been applied for to the Metropolitan Board of Works (forerunner to LCC) in 1873. At least that dates the street if not much else.
On the corner Thomas Brothers, the hardware shop that has been a feature of this community for almost a century was in the final phases of its closing down sale. I really hope the Archway regeneration won't drive out too many more local businesses.
(Now, at the time of writing, it's closed and may be demolished to be rebuilt as flats - another thing to keep an eye on.)
As you enter the street you are greeted by a repurposed phone box. "Say it with flowers," I found myself thinking.
Now that public telephones have largely become redundant, its good that these icons are being preserved. For the nerds among you, this is a K6 designed by Giles Gilbert Scott of Battersea Power Station fame - another icon that's currently being repurposed.
The building opposite used to be the parcels office. If it still was, today's journey would have been at an end...
Set into the pavement is a plaque commemorating 'street renewal' in 2007. The significance of this eludes me. How is a street renewed? What made it so special as to warrant a plaque? Why is this the only such plaque I've noticed around the Borough?
I walked along the street, past the tidy rows of two-storey Victorian terraces on each side. On the left, at the end of the street is a St John Ambulance Training Centre that I'd never noticed before.
And opposite that a little park - Giesbach Road Open Space - with flowerbeds and benches.
Islington has the lowest ratio of open space to built-up areas of any London borough; in the nineteenth century rush to develop housing no-one thought about preserving it until the only open space of any significance left was Highbury Fields. So, small as they are, little oases such as this are a valuable commodity.
All photos from Giesbach Road
After the park the road bends round to become Boothby Road.
And having discovered the wonderful Willats book, I now can't resist checking the origins of every street name! This street was, until 1907, formerly known as Summerfield Road and Summerfield Villas. Why its name was changed is not clear but it's named after Sir Brook Boothby who was a "Baronet and poet, classical scholar and translator of Sappho". Apparently he was a sometime resident Islington although I can't find any reference to this. Willats cites pp.33-34 of William Fox Jr, La Bagatella, 1801. All seems a bit obscure to me!
It's a short street with modern three-storey flats on the left and older three-storey terraces on the right.Toward the end of the street the houses give way to the sides of a former bomb factory, now a drama school, on the left
All photos from Boothby Road
By the school, at the junction with Elthorne Road, I turned left as this was the direction I needed to go in to get to the sorting office. I couldn't afford to get too sidetracked or it would close before I got there! But as a result I've only photographed half of Elthorne Road and haven't really done it justice. I made a mental note to go back and photograph the other half, leading up to Holloway Road, another time.
Opposite me was the private, gated development, Old Forge Road which runs round as a crescent and comes out further along. It can't have an entry of its own as I could only photograph the gates! I did find myself wondering about the forge though. Another thing to find out...
Beyond Old Forge Road (on the right hand side of Elthorne Rd) are mainly two-storey Victorian Terraced houses. The opposite side is dominated by the former bomb factory, some of which is to let as studios.
Graffiti on the end of the building looked like flames leaping from the post.
There were cricket stumps painted on the wall bounding the Elthorne Estate. To score a run you'd need to cross the road; perhaps a game played here should be called 'Chicken Cricket'?
All pictures from Elthorne Road
At the end of Elthorne Road I turned right into Ashbrook Road.
The majority of the street was demolished when the estate was built in the 1970s but there are a few terraced houses remaining along this end. A lost cat poster was tacked to a telegraph pole. I wonder whether they ever found Pursie. It's heartbreaking to lose a cat and even worse when you don't know what became of them.
A glass-topped wall warned of the danger of attempting to climb over.
All photos from Ashbrook Road
I turned left into Zoffany Street; the A to Z of N19 in a single step!
A short street. One the left, modern flats built by Islington and Shoreditch Hosuing Association; a mix of social housing and shared ownership.
and the original terraced houses on the right.
It's named after the eighteenth century painter Johann Zoffany but his connection with Islington is not clear to me.
All photos of Zoffany St
Scholefield Road runs across the other end of Zofanny Street.
Like Ashbrook Street, it's been truncated by the estate but a few of the original terraced houses still remain - being refurbished, so much builing work going on in London...
All pictures from Scholefield Rd
I came out about half way along Fairbridge Road - a long, straight street with three-storey C19 terraces along each side connecting Holloway Road to Hornsey Road. I have to confess, if I'm walking between the two, I always try to avoid walking its complete length as it's a bit monotonous. It is a tempting cut-through in the car but not particularly enjoyable to drive along either what with the speed humps, the parked cars along each side making it a tight squeeze when there's oncoming traffic and the chicane by Sussex Way. I turned left toward Hornsey Road which brought me to Nicholay Road on the left.
Another street truncated by the estate with no houses of its own. But it does have a rather lovely Hovis ghost sign, irritatingly obscured by the lampost when you want to take a photo of it.
All photos of Nicholay Rd
Now to continue along Fairbridge Road.
Past the terraces.
Around the chicane.
Beyond Sussex Way the street has an industrial edge. A council yard and garage on the right.
Flats on the left where there used to be a builder's yard and then a discount carpet shop with a pirate looking down from above. Reminded me of watching Pugwash on tv as a child.
All photos from Fairbridge Road
When I reached Hornsey Road I was presented with the long road dilemma again. These long streets deserve to be documented as a whole but it's irresistable to take photos as you dip in and out of them. Again I decided to document the part that I walked.
The street is a curious mixture of residential and commercial. A bicycle factory.
Terraces soot-blackened by heavy traffic.
A dilapidated house, seemingly lived in as there was a car parked outside - or maybe it just provided convenient parking for a neighbour.
An engraved 'Tamworth Terrace' sign reminding me that once this street was made up of a succession of individualy named terraces.
The sorting office in a yard where there is also a gym.
As I set off back along Hornsey Road I spotted a couple carrying a matress. I found myself wondering whether they were just moving in together.
I turned left into Marlborough Road.
Another long road running between Hornsey and Holloway Roads, roughly parallel to Fairbridge Road but somehow less monotonous.
First a commercial fringe. The Belgravia Workshops on the left - a former industrial building now converted to offices, studios and workshops.
Opposite a garage repairing taxis, among other things.
A little further along was a driveway with a car parked in front of gates. I was amused by the scawled 'No Parks'. If whoever wrote it had tried a bit harder they could surely have managed to squeeze an 'ing' on instead of the 's'. As it was it sounded more like a rant against green space than an exhortation not to leave your car there.
Squeezed in between the terraces, just before the junction with Sussex Way, is a curious yellow-brick building with a pointed eave. I was so absorbed with trying to read the inscription stone that I omitted to cross the road and take a photo of the building itself! It looked as if it might once have been a church or perhaps a school. I haven't yet been able to find any reference to its former use.
The plaque informed me that it was erected in 1878 (so around the same time that the street itself began to be developed) in memory of a William Robert Perry who died two years earlier. Beneath this are two New Testament quotations:
"Whose faith follow" Heb.XIII.7
"Looking unto Jesus" Heb. XII.2
I wonder who he was? My initial research has not yielded anything about him.
The Prince Alfred pub stands on the corner of Sussex Way. Presumably named after Queen Victoria's second son but another possibility would be George III's ninth son (and 14th child) who died just before he was two after being innoculated against smallpox.
Next door to the pub are 1970s flats. Appropriately in a street named after the Duke of Marlborough, they are named after one of his famous victories - Blenheim Court. The opposite block, Constable House, is, according to Willets, named after the painter who, to my knowledge has no connection either with the Duke of Marlborough or Islington. The coat of arms above the entrance is that of the former Metropolitan Borough of Islington.
The motto 'Deus per Omnia' means 'God pervades all things'. The four quarters of the shield are almost a potted history of Islington: (top left) the cross of the order St John of Jerusalem - if you want to know more about them visit St John's Gate in Clerkenwell; (top right) from the crest of Sir George Colebrooke, whose family owned the Manor of Highbury; (bottom left); from the arms of Sir John Spencer, who owned the Manor of Canonbury in the 16th century - his descendant, the Marquess of Northampton still owns Canonbury Tower, the oldest building in Islington; (bottom right) from the arms of the Berners family who owned large areas of Islington after the Norman conquest and gave thier name to Barnsbury. The coat of arms was changed when the two metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury were merged to form today's LBI in 1965. Interestingly, Willets dates these flats 1965 so possibly they are the last to have borne this insignia.
After the flats the street continues as three-storey terraces. Just before it bends round for its final approach to Holloway Road there's a former parade of shops in the ground floors of the houses. This includes number 61 where Marie Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Britain in 1921. It later moved to Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia and the Birth Control and Advisory Bureau took over these premises. The plaque commemorating Marie Stopes was unveiled here in 1985.
All the shops have been converted to residential use now but it's nice to see that one of them still has the old tea signs. Long may they remain!
From there it was a short walk to Holloway Road which I didn't photograph on this occasion. Eleven streets taken and my parcel picked up as well!
< Part 8
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