David Rosenberg, author and radical walker, gave a colourful talk on Clerkenwell’s left leaning past at the Annual General Meeting on May 16. In past times this was an area with London’s most abject slums, and during the nineteenth century had London’s highest murder rate.

The radical tradition started in the area’s coffee houses in the eighteenth century. These were meeting places for groups such as the London Corresponding Society – described as ”a motely crew of housebreakers and revolutionaries” – which met in Jerusalem passage.

But it was in the 1860s that Clerkenwell Green became almost synonymous with radicalism. Between the 1870s and 1890s, working-class meetings and marches attracted large numbers of local artisans. In 1887 William Morris addressed a crowd on the Green about the evil of unemployment, then led the procession to Trafalgar Square where they were attacked by police in what became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

In 1902 the exiled Vladimir Lenin shared the office of Harry Quelch, editor of the British Social Democrat weekly, Justice, at 37A Clerkenwell Green. From this address he printed the radical journal ISKRA (The Spark) to be smuggled back into Russia. In 1933 the building became the Marx Memorial Library and Workers School

You can read more about the radical history of London in Rebel Footprints by David Rosenberg published by Pluto Press 2015, or by joining one of his walks: www.eastendwalks.com

At the 2016 Amwell Society AGM Alex Smith from the Islington museum gave us a fascinating talk on Bevin Court, and the restoration of the Peter Yates mural ‘Day and Night, Winged Bulls’ which stands in the entrance hall.

Holford Square, built in 1841 with a bowling green in the central gardens, suffered major bomb damage in the second world war and was bought by Finsbury in 1948 to provide local housing. The commission went to Tecton Group architects and Berthold Lubetkin designed the building. Famous for the dramatic, single, central staircase which formed the social hub of the flats, with the Finsbury coat of arms proudly displayed at the top of the stair shaft, the original name was “Lenin court”, as Lenin lived in Holford Square in 1902.

The Peter Yates mural at the entrance represents an abstracted form of the Finsbury crest.  Over time it suffered water damage, vandalism with graffiti and was repaired by overpainting on at least two occasions.
The restoration, funded by a lottery grant, is described in detail on the Bevin court website.  The team used old photos taken before the building was opened – showing that at one stage the Bull had two wings! Painstaking work on paint samples has allowed the subtle, dusky 1950’s blue to shine again

      

The special Cycling Newsletter in December drew well over 30 responses.   Members’ views were summarised in a letter to the Islington Tribune, published on 15th January.  That letter and another on the same topic can be seen here

Transport for London has now published the intended route for Crossrail 2 which will have a station at the Angel.  The route has been changed to avoid having to demolish the Angel building itself and other listed buildings on Islington High Street.  This is good news.  The route is open for consultation until 8th January 2016.  Details can be found here

Readers will know that the Amwell Society has been campaigning for years for the creation of a Heritage Centre around the listed buildings on the undeveloped portion of the New River Head site.  Although our Council has supported this aspiration through successive planning briefs, they inadvertently allowed the site to be sold to a developer, Turnhold (Islington) Ltd, who has come forward with various schemes for residential development. These would effectively put paid to any notion of a viable heritage facility.
The most recent proposals came up before the Planning Inspectorate at an appeal hearing in October 2015. Members of the Society spoke against the scheme. The Inspector also considered two alternative proposals:
1. A scheme from the Heritage of London Trust, which foresees mixed heritage and commercial use of the site, and which was granted planning permission earlier this year
2. A fully commercial option, providing studios and office space for small businesses and start-ups (there is a shortage of such units in Islington because so many have been converted to residential use).
The Inspector has now ruled against that part of the Turnhold scheme that was of greatest concern to us, namely the conversion of the Engine House to residential use.  He considered that a fully commercial scheme would (a) be viable, and (b) do less harm to the listed assets and their setting.
What does all this mean? We have averted, at least for the time being, the most serious threat to the site, but does that bring our Heritage Centre any closer to realisation? That depends largely on what Turnhold do now. Will they come forward with a revised scheme which enjoys the support of the local community, abandon their plans and put the site up for sale, or hunker down and hope for a less rigorous planning regime in the future? Time will tell. In the meantime we will continue to liaise with the Islington Buildings Preservation Trust and other interested parties to try and secure the best possible outcome.