History  (Page 1 2 3)

St Paul's is sited on land which was part of the estate of the Marquis of Northampton and had been earmarked for a church building in the early 1800's. The pasture land was used for the extraction of clay immediately prior to building houses - which were to form the Marquis Estate in 1835. It is described as 'brick fields' in 1800. The farm land around had long been divided into market garden and plant nursery uses. The administrative Parish of Islington was very long in the north south dimension - just as the Borough is today. The subdivided north end of the Parish was to serve the growing population centred along Balls Pond Road and Newington Green. Major local development centred on the Angel area. There was a discontinuous scatter of building along Essex Road. To the north of the site the village of Newington Green was a long established village on the road to Stoke Newington and part of that Parish. The immediate site to the north, across Hopping Lane (St Pauls Road) was the Brooks Nursery, one of the largest plant nursery establishments in London in an area famous for these. Opposite stood a terrace with the original Schoolhouse. A small part of this terrace survives in the form of a Gothic style villa, now no 9 St Pauls Road. Facing the church across Essex Road was Glebe Terrace parts of which survive, and a planned group of streets with terraced houses predated the 1830's-50's development around what is now Leroy House, Dorset Street and Orchard Place. Balls Pond Road was a scattered line of artisan houses and middle class villas leading eastwards towards the Parish of Hackney. The size of the site was determined by the Church Building Commission. The government Order in Council controlling the expenditure of the Church Building Commission stipulated that there should be no burial grounds provided with new churches and that the land around the building should extend to no more than 18 feet from the footprint of the building. The Parish Plan of 1828 shows Hopping Lane (now St Pauls Road) as quite narrow with a line of trees on the South (Marquis Estates) side. This tree line is perpetuated by the limes and sycamores and chestnut of the churchyard today. The planning of the site caused some difficulty. The commissioners, whilst intent on economy, wanted some kind of prominence to the church in order to define its position in what would otherwise be a somewhat non-descript road junction. The principal entrance at the west end was therefore given a wide path from St Pauls Road and an expensive west window. The tower was then used as a landmark from the east along Dorset Street opposite. The entrance to the church, although the grandest visually, actually led only up to the galleries. next

Building Photographs