Stroud Green

Stroud Green is the name of a suburb (and administrative ward) located adjacent to Finsbury Park in the northern part of Greater London. To find a flat or house to rent in Stroud Green, London contact the Black Katz Islington office.

Stroud Green is the name of a suburb (and administrative ward) located adjacent to Finsbury Park in the northern part of Greater London. While most of Stroud Green is administered by the London Borough of Haringey, the buildings along the whole of the south-west side of the Stroud Green Road - the area's principal thoroughfare - are administered by the London Borough of Islington. This reflects the historical fact that the Stroud Green Road represents a border between the ancient ecclesiastical parishes of Islington and Hornsey.

To find a flat or house to rent in Stroud Green, London contact the Black Katz Islington office. Black Katz have flats and houses to rent in Stroud Green and across London. If you are a landlord wishing to rent out your property contact Black Katz.

Overview

Records for Stroud Green date back to the start of the fifteenth century, but today it seems that nothing remains as physical evidence of Stroud Green's distant past, and the area is now dominated by housing that dates from the late-nineteenth century. Destruction of some parts of Stroud Green was caused by aerial bombing during the Second World War, and this led to the creation, by the then Hornsey Borough Council, of several zones of public housing.

Since c.2003 much of Stroud Green has been designated as a Conservation Area (Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990), defining the areas as: "the triangular area enclosed by Stroud Green Road and the Haringey/Islington border to the south and west, Mount View Road to the north, and the railway line to the east" (see the full rationale below: Twenty-first-century appreciation). This geographical zone seems to mirror the area referred to as Stroud Green throughout the Victoria County History of Middlesex (1980), which, unless otherwise indicated, is used as the basis for much of the historical data provided here.

At one time, this part of Hornsey parish, and thus Stroud Green, stretched into what is now Hackney, following the present-day Blackstock Road as far as the junction with Mountgrove Road, all south of the Seven Sisters Road (created c.1832) that today forms Stroud Green's southern boundary. Here in that former southern part of Stroud Green was the site of the Eel Pie House, a tavern on the New River (approximately the site of the present-day Arsenal Tavern at 175 Blackstock Road): then the New River ran above ground at this point. This was originally in a wooden, lead-lined aqueduct - known locally as the Boarded River - but eventually that wooden construction was replaced by a raised earth embankment, atop which the river ran. Nowadays the new river runs underground in this area.

The area's principal thoroughfare, Stroud Green Road is well known for its range of shops and restaurants.

Urban development

Nineteenth-century growth

Until the mid-19th century, in this part of Hornsey parish, there were no houses between Crouch End and Archway Road to the west and only the huge Harringay House between Crouch End and Green Lanes. To the south, Stapleton Hall stood alone at Stroud Green, near to recently enclosed common land, and Hornsey Wood House (in what is now the park of Finsbury Park). Several cottages were in Wood Lane, near the present day Seven Sisters Road. A path led south-west to a bridge over the New River. Here, facing Blackstock Road, had stood since before 1804 the old Eel-Pie house, later (by 1847) the Highbury Sluice House tavern, with riverside gardens and the sluice-house itself immediately to the south. Other than those, and houses in 'South Hornsey detached' (now the area of Brownswood Road, south of Finsbury Park), there was nothing else south of the so-called 'Northern Hog's Back', a ridge of land that runs west-east from Highgate to the present-day Harringay (West) station, across the northern edge of Stroud Green.

In effect, modern-day Stroud Green dates from the 19th century. New building at first was slow, perhaps partly because of poor sewerage, until the 1860s. Stapleton Hall remained the only house in Hornsey between Crouch End and Seven Sisters Road as late as 1861, but the streets of Islington were fast approaching towards Stroud Green Road, along the east side of which now stood several large houses. Rapid growth followed the opening of local stations at Seven Sisters Road (Finsbury Park), Crouch Hill, and Crouch End, as well as the new Stroud Green station.

In 1863 Joseph Lucas of Stapleton Hall leased land for building and in 1868 Mount Pleasant Road (now Mount Pleasant Crescent and Mount Pleasant Villas) had been built from the corner of Stapleton Hall and Stroud Green roads over the Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway. In due course the Edgware, Highgate & London Railway would traverse that part of the road that is now Mount Pleasant Villas (see 'Railways', below).

Building development in Stroud Green was so rapid that the 1871 census was already considered unreliable by 1875, yet country houses were still being built in other parts of Hornsey parish until the 1880s; Muswell Hill and Fortis Green were still little altered by 1891.

It was during the building boom of the 1870s that Stroud Green had started to become part of an (even today) ill-defined urban area called Finsbury Park, which included Brownswood Park and parts of Islington.

There were 25 houses in Mount Pleasant Road in 1871. To the south, a grid of streets was already planned in 1868 and Osborne Road and Albert Road and Upper Tollington Park contained 49 houses in 1871, by which time the roads in the angle of land bordered by Stroud Green Road and the Great North Railway were largely built up. Stapleton Hall Road had been laid out by 1876 and Ferme Park Road was driven over the 'Northern Hog's Back' ridge towards Tottenham Lane in 1880.

By 1877 Stroud Green was a new and fast-growing neighbourhood with a strong community feeling and its own newspaper. It was now inhabited mainly by commuters with third- and second-class season tickets.

The adjacent area of Harringay was built-up in the 1880s, while nearby Ferme Park and the Crouch Hall estate were partly built up by 1894. By 1894 there was a street fire station in Stapleton Hall Road, Stroud Green, and there were 26 alarm posts throughout the district. Building continued as late as 1893 in Stapleton Hall Road and in 1896 the area was virtually built up. No more building was possible.

Twentieth-century decline

In Stroud Green between 1901 and 1911, the population steadily fell. The declining size of families, however, permitted multiple occupation of houses and the provision of flats, which were associated with lower standards as early as 1900. Subdivision of houses caused concern by 1911, not only in Stroud Green but also in North and South Harringay. In 1921 1.35 families on average lived in each house, the trend being especially marked in the south and east and in 1923 linked to working-class immigration from Islington and correlated with a recent increase in poor-law cases. At Stroud Green houses were heavily divided and the district was in decay by c.1925.

Hornsey as a whole was heavily bombed during the Second World War, when over 80 per cent of the houses suffered damage. Hornsey Council's first major post-war rebuilding was at Stroud Green, where most of the land between Victoria Road, Stroud Green Road, and Lorne Road and Upper Tollington Park was cleared. Facing the main road Wall Court, a balconied block much admired when new, was completed in 1947, Lawson, Wiltshire, and Marquis courts and Brackenbury were built in Osborne Road in 1948, and flats in Nichols Close between 1948 and 1952. Wisbech and Fenstanton date from 953, the flats and shops of Charter Court from 1954, and Hutton Court from 1960. In 1948 Ronaldshay and Wallace Lodge, on opposite corners of Florence and Wallace roads, and Ednam House facing them were built and in 1952 an extension to Ronaldshay was finished. Carlton Court, 64 flats in Carlton Road, dates from 1947. On opposite corners of Oakfield and Connaught roads Connaught Lodge and Churchill Court were completed in 1949 and on the corner of Oakfield and Stapleton Hall roads Norman Court was completed in 1947. The cul-de-sac Osborne Grove was replaced by an old people's home by 1973. In 1974 Ennis and Woodstock roads were reprieved from demolition and in 1976 several yellow-brick terraced houses were being renovated.

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Twenty-first-century appreciation

In 2003 Haringey Council designated Stroud Green as a Conservation Area. Stroud Green is now regarded as an area of "special character or historic interest, the character and appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance", Section 69 (1)(a) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

The rationale for this decision was as follows:

The late 19th-century residential development in Stroud Green represents Haringey's most diverse examples of Victorian domestic architecture concentrated in any one area. The triangular area enclosed by Stroud Green Road and the Haringey/Islington border to the south and west, Mount View Road to the north, and the railway line to the east, includes a significant variety of 19th-century house types. These range from elegantly crafted artisans cottages to Gothic-revival and Italianate-renewal terraces, to Queen Anne style semi-detached houses.

The architecture of the initial phases of development varies to reflect the Victorian styles in vogue at the time. The early three-storey 1870s houses along Upper Tollington Park, Florence Road, Victoria Road, and Mount Pleasant Villas, for example, are predominantly Gothic. They display pointed or round arch windows with Venetian carved foliage, polychromatic brickwork and prominent gables with ornamental bargeboards. Other houses from the same period, and in the same streets, are plainer and combine more subtle Gothic detailing with classically inspired features such as Italianate eaves. A particularly attractive street from the first phase of development is Mount Pleasant Crescent, which is lined by two-storey terraces. These compact dwellings are exceptional for their attractive tri-partite Venetian-style windows with contrasting red brick arcades, and slender cast-iron columns.

The second phase of building, along the south-eastern slopes of the Hog's Back ridge, was delayed for several years by the landowner, Charles Turner of Stapleton Hall who strongly resisted development near his estate. When building finally began after Turner's death in 1882, the prominent house style in England hasd moved away from the Gothic-inspired houses of the 1870s towards the Norman Shaw influenced 'Queen Anne' style that would dominate the 1890s and early 1900s. The change in style is evident along the north part of Stapleton Hall Road, and in the streets beyond, where the houses are characterised by the use of red brick throughout, simple canopied porches, and multi-panelled decorative sash windows. The open setting of the Hog's Back ridge is used to its full advantage and development here is generally less dense than in the first phase. Trees, hedges, and planting add considerably to the setting of the houses and are in the spirit of the 'Sweetness and Light' philosophy behind the Queen Anne style.

In general the architecture of Stroud Green remains intact and has survived the damaging changes that have eroded the character of other neighbourhoods in the borough, e.g. replacement windows, loss of boundary walls, unsympathetic cladding &c. It is a unique example of a small area exhibiting the full range of domestic building styles from around 1870 to the end of the 19th century.

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