Thursday 1st November, a typical cold, rainy London day, around 3:20pm I set off from the Waitrose on St John St in Clerkenwell in an attempt to further delve into the area which has surrounded me for the last 20 years. This walk I embarked was aimless in the sense that I had no destination in mind, however, I had the particular aim of uncovering the area, rich with history. (Please excuse my excuse for a map)
The walk took about one hour and I turned back when reaching a plaque commemorating Lenin’s stay there in 1905.
Plaque on Percy Circus commemorating Lenin
Personally, the more interesting part of the walk was the first half an hour, around Clerkenwell. Walking towards Clerkenwell Green I passed St. James Church, which was originally built in 1160, rebuilt in 1788-92. Walking through a small park past this church I arrived in the Green, within this small space exists a couple pubs, notably the Crown Tavern, where it has been said that Lenin and Stalin met for the first time. Near-by is number 37a is the Marx Memorial Library. Founded in 1933, it was formerly a publishing house, The Twentieth Century Press, who published early English editions of Marx and Engles’ works, the building later housed Lenin from 1902 to 1903 where he produced the journal ISKRA “The Spark” which was to be illegally distributed in Russia, as a prelude to the Revolution. Before it was a publishing house, this building was a Welsh school established in 1738, a school which took in the “children of Welsh artisans living in poverty in Clerkenwell.” There was something I quite enjoyed about starting and ending the walk with a reference to Lenin’s time in London.
Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ Club, Clerkenwell Green
In looking further into the history of this seemingly unremarkable row of buildings, Clerkenwell Green was a hub for radical ideas and movements, in the 19th century, as it was a place populated by many artisans and creatives. Clerkenwell was a district known for watchmaking and other artisanal crafts, such as Hatton Garden for jewelry. It was also a hub for taverns and coffeehouses like the famous Lunt’s Coffee House and reading rooms, which perhaps explains why this road had such a revolutionary character.
From the Green I turned onto Farringdon lane in which many of the buildings have kept their façade but are now chain coffee shops or real estate agents, which really highlights the constant contact London has between its past and present. Throughout this walk there is the constant disruption of construction, an unavoidable element of life in and around central, and wider London. In some ways it is a shame as it disrupts the flow of a city but at the same time the constant nature of it really shows how the city never remains the same.
From Farringdon road, I got a glimpse into the back of the Clerkenwell Peabody Estate. Built in 1884, this Victorian building remains largely unchanged, the initial layout of the building, reminds me of some ideas of communist housing, in that there were many shared spaces, bath houses and laundry rooms, but it is more likely that this was due to the cost than any political reasoning. Although there is something inherently political in the nature of Estates, as the Peabody estates, located all around London were a part of the Metropolitan Board of Works’ schemes to clear out London’s slums. Clerkenwell’s Estate was bombed in 1940, during the Second World War in which 12 people were killed.
Peabody Estate, Farringdon Road
After passing this Estate I walked straight onto Farringdon Road, instantly a lot noisier and busier, there are a few landmark sites, like The Eagle pub and Gazzano and Son’s Italian deli, a remnant of what was once known as the little Italy of London. On the opposite side of the street is a massive car park in an unusually beautiful building. At the end of Farringdon road is Exmouth market, where both independent and chain restaurants, hairdressers, hardware stores, plant shops and various others exist. As I walked down this street, I was surrounded by multicultural men cleaning and packing away their stalls from the market earlier. While the market is active, it really showcases the multicultural nature of London’s society, in a very short stretch one can typically find food from all over the world, cooked and served to you by chefs local to their cuisine. However, this market also highlights the relentless gentrification of the city as right behind this is a massive ‘Veggie Pret’ a chain which seems to exist on almost every street in the city.
I turned left off Exmouth market and onto Yardley Street where it became instantly residential and very calm, I had now left EC1 and entered WC1, which consisted of places I had never been to before. I passed the Margery Estate, and headed towards Kings Cross Road. On this road is a building which now houses a youth hostel but was once a magistrate’s court. Cases such as these really show how there is a sense of constant change but at the same time a kind of continuity in London. The City’s laws against changing certain buildings or facades shows that there is a direct desire in maintaining the physical history of the city, and oftentimes we do not realize how much history has been conserved around us. This is when I reached Percy Circus and decided it was time to make my way back to St. John street. With a quick peak at Citymapper I headed down Prideaux Place where any other noise was drowned out by what looked like hundreds of green parakeets, a bird not native to London but has found a home here. Which I thought was a telling symbol of the multicultural nature of the city.
Parakeets, Prideaux Place
On my walk back I passed a significant number of squares, Vernon Square, Granville Square, Lloyd Square, within the space of five minutes, which I thought was quite interesting. Once on Amwell Street I walked passed the Clerkenwell Parochial School. Established in 1699 as one of the first 20 charity schools in London. Charles Dickens used to host ‘penny readings’ at the school and used a lot of streets in and around Clerkenwell in his works. Turning left on Rosebury Avenue I was back in an area familiar to me. On the other side of the road sits a beautiful building I have never properly taken into consideration, Finsbury Town Hall. Built in 1845, as a town hall it was later transformed into a dance studio, not the most fascinating history but a beautiful piece of architecture nonetheless.
Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebury Avenue
From Rosebury avenue, I went along the opposite end of Exmouth Market towards Spa Fields, where I noticed for the first time a pillar containing text about the “Bone House and Graveyard,” a morbid explanation of the former graveyard in which “each night bodies were exhumed and burnt… to make room for fresh burials.” To continue with this somewhat morbid theme, further along the road is a massive building which served as a boy’s school, and prior to that a prison. Originally constructed in 1617, this building is rich with history, it was demolished by fire in 1780 with the Gordon Riots (White, 2011). In which because of religious, political and economic strains London broke out in a kind of civil war for about two days in 1780. And in 1893 it was made into the Hugh Myddleton School, an exceptionally impressive building.
Hugh Myddleton school, Sans Walk
There was no theme of this walk, nor did I set out with a particular destination or aim in mind, I simply wanted to look around somewhere familiar to me with a new mindset, without the distraction of having a purpose or place to be. It showed me that although I may have been in and around this area for my twenty years of life, it is impossible to truly know anywhere in London, in a complete sense.
Bibliography
“Clerkenwell Close Area: St James Clerkenwell | British History Online”. 2018. British-History.Ac.Uk. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp39-54.
“Clerkenwell.” In Brewer’s Britain and Ireland, edited by John Ayto, Ian Crofton, and Paul Cavill. Chambers Harrap, 2005. https://search-credoreference-com.gold.idm.oclc.org/content/entry/orionbritainireland/clerkenwell/0?institutionId=1872
“In Pictures: Inside Clerkenwell House Of Detention Catacombs”. 2018. Londonist. https://londonist.com/2010/03/in_pictures_catacombs_of_the_clerke.
Mair, Catheleen. 2018. “We Uncover Clerkenwell’s Radical Secret | Gasholder”. Gasholder. https://www.gasholder.london/2017/06/22/uncover-clerkenwells-radical-secret/.
“Pear Tree Court And Clerkenwell Close Peabody Estate – A London Inheritance”. 2017. A London Inheritance. https://alondoninheritance.com/london-streets/pear-tree-court-and-clerkenwell-close-peabody-estate/.
“School History | Clerkenwell Parochial CE Primary School”. 2018. Clerkenwellprimary.Org. http://www.clerkenwellprimary.org/school-history/.
White, Jerry. 2011. The Gordon Riots, 1780. Ebook. London: London Historians. http://file:///Users/evakennedydoig/Downloads/Gordon%20Riots%201780.pdf.
Walking Through London's History 2018 