City, University of London, in Northampton Square №18, on the corner of Ashby Street, replaced the Ashby Castle pub (from 1813 to 1882). By the 1960s such trades had left the area and the buildings were a mixture of flats and offices. In 1878, Walter Thornbury reported that №35 head-quartered the British Horological Institute, “for the cultivation of the science of horology, and its kindred arts and manufactures”. The site is marked by a plaque on the modern building at that address. The print-maker George Baxter lived and worked at №11 from 1844-1860. The square has historically housed clockmakers, jewellers, silversmiths and other fine crafts. Lady Margaret Georgiana Graham, daughter of William Compton, 4th Marquess of Northampton, opened the restored gardens on 8 July 1885. The fountain in the square commemorates the 1885 restoration of the gardens by Shropshire magistrate Charles Walker, who had been born in Clerkenwell. The Association's landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson designed the gardens, and included a drinking fountain and bandstand, both of which remain, as does a circle of London plane trees. The gardens were opened to the public in 1885, with funding from the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. The land was laid out for housing, as a residential square, in 1832, taking its name from the local landowner, the Marquess of Northampton. The area began to be developed in the industrial revolution. It is between Goswell Road and St John Street (and Spencer and Percival Streets), has a very broad pedestrian walkway on the north-west side between university buildings and is fronted chiefly by main buildings of City, University of London. Northampton Square, a green town square, is in a corner of Clerkenwell projecting into Finsbury, in Central London. View of the main building of City, University of London, from Northampton Square.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |