ECONOMIC HISTORY
AGRICULTURE.
Hackney was not mentioned
in Domesday Book, which included most of it
in the bishop of London's Stepney manor. Four
hides in Stepney held by Robert Fafiton may
have been the later manor of Kingshold and had
land for 3 ploughs, of which Roger the sheriff
had 1 hide, 2 villeins had 26 a., and an unspecified
number of bordars had 3 virgates; there was
woodland for 60 pigs. (fn. 52) Hackney (later Lordshold) manor was still administered with
Stepney in 1318 and probably until after the
Black Death. By 1386-7 separate account rolls
signified the lord's policy of retaining a few
meadows while leasing out the other lands
piecemeal. (fn. 53) The total receipts of c. £142 for
Hackney included £18 in fixed rents and £16
for parcels of the demesne let to 10 tenants, in
some instances for five years. (fn. 54) Rents from the
demesne, both arable and pasture, were higher
in the 1390s than in the 1380s but much lower
in the early 15th century; they were stable,
totalling £12 16s. 8d., for much of the early 16th
century. (fn. 55)
On the Templars' estate in 1185 the land given
by William of Hastings had 13 tenants of whom
eight held 5 a. apiece and paid 1s. 6d. rent and
provided one man's labour for the hay harvest;
tenants of 10 a. or ½ virgate paid and owed twice
as much, and the single holder of a virgate twice
as much again, from which figures a virgate has
been estimated at 20 a. and a hide at 80 a. Similar
services and slightly higher rents were owed on
land given by Ailbrith. The customary works
were all done on meadow land. (fn. 56) Mowing works
survived in 1307-8 and, for the Hospitallers, in
1331. (fn. 57) On the bishop's manor commuted works
were worth £23 17s. 6d. in 1386-7, when mowing
and carting hay were among the expenses, and
in 1464-5. (fn. 58) The Hospitallers complained in
1384 that their rights of free warren in Hackney
had been infringed. (fn. 59)
Hay from the demesne was carted to Stepney
for the bishop's use in 1386-7 and in 1464-5,
when some was taken to London. Hay was also
sold, while in the 1380s corn was bought. (fn. 60)
Arable was rarely recorded: Wick manor supported 26 cattle and 4 horses in 1400 (fn. 61) and
pasture predominated on the Hospitallers' estate
at the Dissolution. (fn. 62) By the early 17th century
little arable apparently survived, other than in
Hackney Downs, in the open fields which became known as the Lammas lands. (fn. 63)
Copyhold tenure was confirmed as gavelkind by
an Act of 1623, (fn. 64) itself confirming a Chancery
decree on the customs of Hackney and Stepney
manors. The form of descent was division
among a tenant's sons or, in default, his daughters, the youngest coheir to have first choice. It
applied to named copyholders who had compounded with Thomas, Lord Wentworth (d.
1640), or his father, as did other benefits including
the right to fell trees, dig the waste before their
houses, let their buildings decay, or make leases
for up to 31 years 4 months without licence. (fn. 65)
Such subdivision and short leasing were to
militate against substantial planned development on the north-east side of London. (fn. 66)
The demesne of Hackney manor in 1652 consisted of Scotland farm, c. 138 a., with another
30 a. south of Homerton, 6 a. abutting Millfield
Lane, and 64 a. dispersed in the marsh. Nearly
half of its value of £101 7s. came from fines,
almost as much from quitrents, and £7 from
fishing, which had been leased in the 1460s, and
two ferries. (fn. 67)
Grass, whether for pasture or mowing, covered
some three-quarters of the land subject to tithe
in 1711, when 1,004 a. were 'upland' and 382 a.
marsh. Apart from hay, the largest crops were
oats on 146 a., peas on 106 a., barley on 86 a.,
wheat on 60 a., and rye on 26 a.; beans and
potatoes took up 80 a. (fn. 68) Four ploughed fields
stretched from the west end of Dalston Lane
southward to the parish boundary and eastward
from Kingsland Road to London Fields in 1745,
when their depiction as the only arable was
probably a simplification. (fn. 69) Arable was recorded
in 1794 between Stoke Newington and Clapton
and in 1800 in small patches in most parts of the
parish and in Hackney Downs. (fn. 70)
In the 1790s the farms were occupied mainly
by cowkeepers, who bred few animals but fed c.
600 on rich grass. (fn. 71) Hackney had 1,570 a. of
grass, including the marsh, and 580 a. of arable
in 1811. (fn. 72) The titheable land included 1,062 a.
of grass and 154 a. of arable in 1842, (fn. 73) when there
had been some recent reversion to arable on
Hackney Downs and pasturage rights had been
infringed by delays in moving crops. (fn. 74) Agriculture was said to employ only 49 of the 3,125
families in 1811, compared with 838 in trade or
industry, but 582 families out of 6,307 in 1831. (fn. 75)
The extensive commonable lands of the parish,
on which.landholders enjoyed rights of pasturage
from 1 August (Lammas rights), comprised
Hackney Downs, London Fields, Well Street
common, North and South Mill Fields, and
most notably Hackney marsh. The regulation of
Lammas rights chiefly concerned the marsh,
where in 1185 the humbra or marshy meadow
was distinguished from the quabba or bog. (fn. 76)
Hackneymead was an alternative name for Hackney
marsh in 1535. (fn. 77) Annual appointments of manorial drivers and the lord's charge for impounding
were confirmed in the Act of 1623, (fn. 78) after intrusions by newcomers. In 1804 no records could
be found of the extent of the lands or of the
vestry's right to permit encroachment. (fn. 79) The
lord's ancient scale of rights, allowing from three
head of cattle for parishioners' holdings rented
at £10-£15 a year to an unlimited number for
those worth more than £100, was amended in
1836 to favour the poor. (fn. 80) Cattle and horses were
to be branded HM in 1736, and often were
rescued illegally from the pound. Asses and
mules were to be impounded as not commonable
in 1802 and goats, sheep, and pigs in 1814. An
account of all impounding was to be kept by the
marsh keeper, the drivers' deputy, from 1802. (fn. 81)
The profits from marking and impounding were
to be spent on improving the marsh in 1817;
gates were to be set up and tolls paid by strangers
riding across the land during the closed season. (fn. 82)
The traditional grazing period ran from Lammas
day (12 August from 1752) to Lady Day; premature entry was condemned in 1605 and the
start of the season was sometimes postponed, for
10 days in 1692 and until 14 August in 1696 and
1703. (fn. 83) A shorter season, from 26 August until
25 March, was ordained in 1817. (fn. 84)
A later start for grazing enabled crops, whether
hay or corn, to be harvested after bad weather.
The marsh in 1745 comprised 283 strips of very
variable size with 35 owners, the chief being
Stamp Brooksbank with 74 a. in 17 strips and
F. J. Tyssen with 72 a. in 61 strips. Only six
other holdings exceeded 10 a. and most were less
than 5 a.; Brooksbank's was exceptional in including a large block, c. 46 a. astride the later
cut between Homerton bridge and Cow bridge. (fn. 85)
The lands of the poor of Hackney, 29 a. in 27
strips, were staked out in 1786. (fn. 86) Larger divisions existed in Well Street common, by 1700 in
two fields held by the Cass family and one each by
the Norris family and the parochial charities, (fn. 87)
and in London Fields, in 6 strips with 4 owners
in the early 19th century and with five owners
in 1860. (fn. 88) The Mill fields and Hackney Downs,
like the marsh, lay in narrow strips in the mid
18th century, when F. J. Tyssen, Lord Brooke,
William Parker, and St. Thomas's hospital held
parcels in all three. Stoke Newington common
was apparently owned by the lord but subject to
rights of common pasture throughout the year. (fn. 89)
In 1605 the early lifting of hay from London
Fields was held to be no justification for the
owner having put his cattle to grass before the
accepted date. (fn. 90) In 1837 Adamson, the tenant
farmer of 20 a. of Hackney Downs, failed to
gather his harvest by Lammas, whereupon one
parishioner turned cows on to the land and
another seized part of the wheat. Their acquittal
by the magistrates prompted rumours that the
crop was public property and led to its despoilment by a crowd estimated at 3,000-4,000. (fn. 91) If
such activity curbed any tendency to revert to
arable, the increasing isolation of the detached
commons combined with encroachments to lessen their value as pasture. Brickmaking and
building were planned on part of London Fields
called Nursery field, once used for sick cattle, in
1812. (fn. 92) Hopeful vendors in 1862 stressed London
Fields' appeal to builders and dismissed the
Lammas rights as rarely used and of little
value. (fn. 93) It was gravel digging which brought
riots and litigation after most of the commons
had passed into public ownership in 1872, although continued grazing postponed Hackney
marsh's final conversion to recreation until
1893. (fn. 94)
Sheep and pigs made up most of the sales from
Marsh farm c. 1815 to 1840. (fn. 95) Livestock in the
parish in 1867 included 534 cattle, 600 sheep or
lambs, and 95 pigs. Sheep and pigs had fallen in
number by 1880, risen again to 450 and 65
respectively by 1890, and disappeared by 1914.
Cattle, mainly dairy cows, numbered 571 in
1870, 1,116 in 1880, 719 in 1890, and 140 in
1914. Thirty-nine people in 1880 and 25 in 1890
farmed land, while another 44 in 1880 and 30 in
1890 merely kept livestock, as 11 still did in
1914. The decline of both groups was attributable to the spread of building and also to the
extinction of Lammas rights: no corn and very
few green crops were grown from the late 1860s,
and perhaps earlier, whereas in 1890, before
Hackney marsh was taken over for recreation,
there were c. 600 a. of permanent grass, of which
c. 320 a. were not to be cut that year for hay. (fn. 96)
Cowkeepers who had no land suffered from
increasingly stringent safeguards for public
health. Eighty-three cowsheds and 65 slaughterhouses were inspected in 1876 and 81 cowsheds
and 47 slaughterhouses were licensed in 1889;
licences had dwindled to 39 and 33 in 1900, to
18 and 21 in 1912, and to 3 and 13 by 1930. A.
Stapleton at Brookfield farm, Northwold Road,
had 5 sheds in 1889 and 1900 and 3 in 1912. The
Welford family, prominent dairymen on the
north-west side of London, had 3 sheds in 1901
and one in 1912. Welford's made way c. 1928
for United Dairies and Stapleton's later for
Home Counties Dairies. The largest cowkeeper
in 1930 was Edward Mason, with 29 in Downham
Road, although the longest survivor was S. P.
Snewin, relicensed in Oldhill Street in 1946 and
still there with a dairy in the 1960s. (fn. 97)
MILLS.
On a site where there was apparently
no mill in 1185 the Templars had in 1278 a
watermill in Leyton and in 1307-8 adjoining
mills under the same roof, one in Leyton and
one in Hackney. Both watermills passed with the
Templars' estate to the Hospitallers and in 1540
to the Crown, which in 1593 leased them for 40
years with adjoining lands, as Ruckholt and
Temple mills, to Clement Goldsmith. (fn. 98) They
were subleased in 1600 by Goldsmith to Edward
Ryder, who sold his interest to George Bromley
in 1601 but reserved all fishing and the right
to operate his recently built flood gates. A
former leather mill on the premises was the
forerunner of many industrial buildings, but the
main mills were still to be used for grinding
corn. (fn. 99) They were sold by the Crown, probably
in 1633, to Richard Trafford, whose son John
leased them to Abraham Baker in 1637. Baker
as tenant had already improved the old mills and
built new ones, all of which were sold in 1668 by
John Trafford's son Sigismund to John Samyne,
grocer of London, whose family sold them soon
after 1680. (fn. 1) Several short lived industries were
later started by owners or lessees of the mills. (fn. 2)
Adjoining land which had been sold with the
mills in 1668 and probably in 1601 was mortgaged in 1769 on behalf of George Petty,
together with a rent charge on the mills; (fn. 3) it was
conveyed without the rent charge in 1772 to
Edward Leeds, (fn. 4) whose son Richard conveyed it
in 1812 to William Turner, a farmer on the
Ruckholt estate in Leyton. (fn. 5)
The mills in 1812 adjoined the south side of a
bridge across the Lea, through whose centre ran
the parish boundary. Buildings immediately to
the west included the White Hart, south of
which a narrow peninsula stretched between the
river and a wide ditch or sewer. On the Essex
bank were c. 6½ a. in Leyton and West Ham. (fn. 6)
The mills had been demolished by 1854, (fn. 7) probably by a new owner whose heir offered the
entire estate, which was underlet, for sale in
1899. (fn. 8)
A mill from which North Mill field in 1381
and South Mill field in 1443 were named (fn. 9) was
presumably the forerunner of corn mills at Lea
bridge which were for sale in 1791. (fn. 10) The flour
mills in 1829 lay south-east of Lea bridge across
an arm of the river to an island at the north end
of the Hackney cut. (fn. 11) The buildings apparently
survived but their island had been joined to the
East London Waterworks Co.'s land to the south
by 1865. (fn. 12)
MARKET GARDENS AND NURSERIES.
A field called Gardenplot belonged to the king's
manor in 1535 (fn. 13) and artichokes were grown on
an orchard of Grumbolds c. 1580. (fn. 14) The herbalist John Gerard (d. 1612) praised small turnips
grown in Hackney for sale in London. (fn. 15) He also
obtained foreign seeds from Lord Zouche,
whose collection at Homerton was supervised by
Matthias de Lobel (d. 1616), after whom the
lobelia was named. (fn. 16) Both Evelyn in 1654 and
Pepys in 1666 admired Lord Brooke's garden,
where oranges grew. (fn. 17)
The garden of James Thynne at London Fields
in 1666 was presumably the nursery advertised
in 1694 and occupied by John Thynne in 1695. (fn. 18)
By 1745 nurseries and market gardens lined both
sides of Mare Street and stretched south of Wick
Lane. (fn. 19) Middlesex's main market gardens lay
farther west (fn. 20) and Hackney was less noted for
horticulture than was Hoxton (fn. 21) until building
drove nurserymen farther from London.
Johann (John) Busch, from Hanover, had
small nursery sites on the west side of Mare
Street from 1756 and may have sold them to
another Hanoverian, Conrad Loddiges, in 1771.
He then worked in Russia, as did his son Joseph
Charles Bush, who was born in Hackney. (fn. 22)
Conrad Loddiges (d. 1826), who produced a
trilingual catalogue from 1777, began business
from a shop at the corner of London Lane and
Mare Street. He held scattered fields before
moving c. 1786 to grounds east of Mare Street,
where he later acquired Barber's Barn. (fn. 23) The
firm, soon noted for exotics, (fn. 24) flourished under
his younger son George (d. 1846), publisher of
the Botanical Cabinet. With glasshouses up to 40
ft. high and an arboretum begun in 1816,
Loudon considered Loddiges's a commercial
botanic garden of model design. The arboretum
was imitated at Chatsworth for the duke of
Devonshire (d. 1858), a frequent visitor, whose
protégé Sir Joseph Paxton probably secured the
finest specimens for the Crystal Palace in 1854, (fn. 25)
when the main lease was shortly to expire. After
St. Thomas's had sold most of the land,
George's son Conrad (d. 1898) kept some small
glasshouses and remained at no. 222 Mare
Street. (fn. 26)
John Abercrombie (d. 1806) was at Hackney
by 1767, when he published Every Man His Own
Gardener, but by 1779 was in Tottenham. (fn. 27) In
1786 he listed the Smiths' nursery at Dalston,
Shoobert's in Homerton, Richards's in Kingsland, and Ross's in Stoke Newington Road. (fn. 28)
The first, founded by Warren Luker (d. 1784)
between Dalston Lane and the later Graham
Road, was known as Luker, Smith & Lewis from
1780 and as Smiths' from 1785 until 1849. (fn. 29)
Under Edward and Samuel Smith it offered
foreign flowers in 1794 and covered 30 a. by
1800. (fn. 30) John Smith traded in 1842 and part of
the grounds survived until shortly after 1865. (fn. 31)
John Shoobert or Shuport had previously held
3 a. in south Hackney. (fn. 32) Thomas Richards was
assessed 1784-1802 and Mary Richards in 1805
held a nursery which was probably the large
ground between Lamb Farm and London Fields
occupied 1811-24 by James Grange. (fn. 33) The Ross
family was represented from 1811 to 1837 by
John Ross, in 1825 a landscape gardener at the
Caledonian nursery; his ground lined the south
side of Wellington Road in 1837, when it was
partly built upon and when he secured a long
building lease. (fn. 34) Unlisted nurserymen included
John Meek, successor to Thomas Meek, in
Lamb Lane by 1782, (fn. 35) William Archer, lessee
from Meek in 1803, and James Kelvington,
Archer's underlessee in 1807. (fn. 36) Meek's lands,
originating in a lease of 1746 to his grandfather,
were the subject of lawsuits which led to his
widow's imprisonment. (fn. 37) A nursery of c. 4 a.
west of London Fields in 1790 survived until
building spread south of Wilman Grove. (fn. 38)
Early 19th-century nurserymen (fn. 39) included the
Scots Thomas Shepherd, who with his son
Thomas William emigrated in the 1820s, John
MacKay in Upper Clapton Road, and Hugh
Low (d. 1863), who joined MacKay in 1823.
Hugh Low's son Stuart Henry (d. 1890) and
grandsons continued at Clapton until their move
to Enfield in 1882; another son Sir Hugh (d.
1905) was an authority on tropical plants. (fn. 40)
Nurserymen in the 1830s included Thomas
Gellan at Shacklewell, Richard Mitchell in
Lower Clapton, Thomas Waredraper in Well
Street, (fn. 41) and William Dulley at Lamb Farm,
perhaps as James Grange's successor. William
Holmes, gardener to Dr. Frampton in 1848,
acquired Frampton Park nursery, where his son
William succeeded him; Eliza Jane Holmes's
nursery was listed at no. 1 Frampton Park Road
in 1902. (fn. 42) William Chitty (d. 1894), with a
nursery at Stamford Hill, was connected with
the horticultural writer Shirley Hibberd.
Commercial gardening was still concentrated
in southern Hackney c. 1800. (fn. 43) Market gardeners
were estimated to occupy 110 a. and nurserymen
40 a. in 1806; (fn. 44) together they held 139 a. out of
the 1,560 a. subject to tithe in 1842. (fn. 45) Business
was driven northward by builders, although in
1865 gardens remained at London Fields and at
the eastern end of Cassland Road; a patch was
kept by the builder Charles Butters's son Walter
behind King Edward's Road in 1891. (fn. 46) The
main areas by 1865 were behind Stoke Newington High Street and Road as far as Rectory
Road, south of Hackney Downs between Amhurst and Pembury roads, around the sites of
Navarino Grove (formerly Smiths') and
Colvestone Crescent, and east of Brooksby's
Walk. (fn. 47) All were soon built up, although in 1868
a large, presumably temporary, nursery bordered the projected Fountayne Road. (fn. 48)
Watercress beds lay between the railway and
Morning Lane, on the site of Chalgrove Road,
until the 1870s. (fn. 49)
Later nurseries included Brick's in Shacklewell Row, Baddeley's on the site of Alvington
Crescent, Hollington's in Downs Road, Allen's
in Downs Park Road, and Prince's. (fn. 50) J. Noble's
Pond Lane (later Millfield Road) nursery, established in the 1840s, supplied trees for municipal
open spaces in the 1880s; potential building land
in 1882, it made way for Elmcroft and Hilsea
streets in 1896. (fn. 51)
TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
Hucksters from
Hackney, selling cheese in London, were accused
of regrating in 1377. (fn. 52) Occupations included
those of sawyer in 1566, (fn. 53) embroiderer and joiner
in 1598, (fn. 54) locksmith in 1613, poulterer and hackneyman in 1614, carpenter and cordwainer in
1615, blacksmith, tailor, and baker in 1616,
cutler in 1617, and butcher and shoemaker in 1618. (fn. 55)
More numerous were 'moniers' (presumably
money-changers or bankers), (fn. 56) victuallers or
vintners, (fn. 57) brickmakers, (fn. 58) and silkweavers, (fn. 59) the
two last representing activities for which parts
of Hackney were later noted. Tradesmen's tokens, mostly of innkeepers, included one issued
by a chandler in 1656. (fn. 60)
Brickhill and the Gravel Pit were crofts at
Clapton in 1535. (fn. 61) Brickmaking on 1½ a. near
Balmes was banned on the complaint of Sir
George Whitmore in 1631. (fn. 62) The Whitmores in
1660 leased land immediately south of the
grounds of Balmes House to John Waxham, a
Hoxton brickmaker, (fn. 63) and from 1670 to Ralph
Harwood, a brickmaker later described as a
gentleman. (fn. 64) The Rowes in 1687 had forfeited
land for having dug brickearth near Kingsland
Road. (fn. 65) Some gravel pits south of Morning
Lane, soon to be commemorated in the name of
a meeting house, were old in 1697. (fn. 66) A lease by
Thomas Lee of land east of Mare Street in 1704
allowed digging to make bricks. (fn. 67) Thomas Scott,
brickmaster of Shoreditch, reserved the
brickearth when settling land in Hackney, Stepney,
and Shoreditch in 1706 on the marriage of his
son Thomas, who soon moved to Hackney. (fn. 68)
Brickmaking was allowed north of Dalston Lane
in 1709, (fn. 69) on unidentified sites in 1717-18, (fn. 70) by
Thomas Waxham at Stamford Hill in 1721, (fn. 71) on
part of the poor's land in 1729, (fn. 72) and east of
Stamford Hill in 1760. (fn. 73) The earl of Warwick
owned three brickfields at Upper Clapton, totalling c. 17 a., in 1762. (fn. 74) Balmes farm had fields
called Further, Hither, and Middle Bricklands,
totalling c, 27 a., in 1756; (fn. 75) Samuel Rhodes (d.
1794), as lessee of the farm, could dig brickearth
in 1785. (fn. 76)
'Vast quantities' of bricks and tiles had been
made around Kingsland by 1795. (fn. 77) By 1798
manufacturers' rent for brickfields had trebled
within 20 years to £300 an acre. (fn. 78) The Tyssen
estate required £500 an acre in 1803 from
Richard Dann for land behind Church Street (fn. 79)
and supplements of £400 in 1805 from Edward
and Samuel Smith for their nursery ground,
where they might also extract potter's clay. (fn. 80)
Brickfields occupied 170 a., more than market
gardens and nurseries, in 1806. (fn. 81) Spurstowe's
charity leased 14 a. for digging brickearth to
Dann in 1818. (fn. 82) Several leases, as of land at
Shacklewell in 1806 and High Hill ferry in 1822,
exacted a premium rather than additional rent. (fn. 83)
Alternatively a charge was levied, 1s. 9d. for
every 1,000 bricks at Shacklewell in 1845, when
it was hoped to make 3 million within four years,
and 3s. 3d. at Upper Clapton in 1865. (fn. 84) Many
leases were made by the Tyssens to Thomas (d.
1856) and William'Rhodes (d. 1843). (fn. 85) William
was still extending their holding in 1843, when
the Middletons leased him 24 a. south of
Shrubland Road, in Haggerston. (fn. 86) Among his
successors were Robert and William Webb of
Newington green, whose land in 1845 included
pug or chalk mills at the south-west corner of
the projected intersection of Downs Park and
Amhurst roads. (fn. 87)
Although exhausted brickfields were always to
be manured for return to cultivation, lessors
increasingly reserved the right to reclaim and
build. On land between Stoke Newington Road
and Shacklewell Lane leased in 1806 and 1815
the high road frontage accordingly was to be
dug first; (fn. 88) parts of 61 a. leased in 1814, near the
high road or Downs and Dalston lanes, could be
resumed. (fn. 89) Whereas De Beauvoir Town was
built up largely with materials shipped from outside to Kingsland basin, (fn. 90) in 1845 brickearth
from Shacklewell was not to be sold for manufacture elsewhere. (fn. 91) When other areas were built
over, Clapton became the centre of brickmaking:
the victims of a boating accident in 1840 were
nearly all the sons of brickmakers from Caroline
and Brook streets. (fn. 92) A brickfield leased with a
wharf at Lea dock, north-west of Lea bridge, to
James and Alfred Stroud in 1865 (fn. 93) was the only
one marked in 1883; probably it had gone by
1901. (fn. 94)
Silkweavers were recorded from 1609, (fn. 95) apprentices were bound to a local weaver and a silk
stocking and frame maker in 1647, (fn. 96) and the
parish supplied an old silkweaver with a loom in
1659. (fn. 97) Local expertise perhaps contributed to
the choice of Hackney Wick for a factory by
Leny Smith, who from 1787 was leased 31 a.
with a tobacco or snuff mill, previously a fulling
mill, and who had a London office by 1791.
Described as a silk throwster and later as a crepe
manufacturer, (fn. 98) he or his son Leny Deighton
Smith (fn. 99) was the country's largest producer in
1811, with a mainly female workforce of 600-700
at Hackney Wick and another at Taunton
(Som.). (fn. 1) The elder Smith mortgaged property
to the Hope Insurance Co. in 1831, (fn. 2) shortly
before the mill was taken for Brenton's asylum. (fn. 3)
Smith's family had long been out of business by
1842, when a smaller workforce at the mills
produced flock and horsehair for George Kent. (fn. 4)
Part of the old snuff mill estate was offered in
38 plots by Marmaduke Matthews in 1849 and
later built up as Wick Road. Sir John Musgrove
was also among the estate's developers. (fn. 5)
Water power at Temple Mills served many
industries. (fn. 6) Before 1593 a little leather mill had
stood there, (fn. 7) where there was later. a powder
mill, itself probably replaced c. 1627 by a mill
for grinding smalt. A watermill built on Hackney
marsh for Prince Rupert (d. 1682), where the
secret of 'prince's metal' for guns was reputedly
lost on his death, may have been at Temple
Mills. (fn. 8) A company formed in 1695 to make
brass, tin, and latten utensils was disputed between its past and present managers in 1721. (fn. 9)
Manufacture of sheet lead had begun by 1757
and continued until 1814 or later. In 1792 the
points of needles were ground by Messrs.
Sharpe, under a lease of 1783, and tree trunks
were bored to make water pipes. (fn. 10) Flockmaking
was probably the last activity there c. 1829-32. (fn. 11)
Turner & Sons, papermakers and embossers,
sold up a recently built mill in 1765; called
Hackney Wick House, its site had abundant
water and was probably by Hackney brook. (fn. 12)
A calico ground at Temple Mills lay on the
Ley ton side in 1772. (fn. 13) Two calico printers and
a calenderer recorded in 1795 (fn. 14) were probably at
Spring Hill, where there was a large calico
factory in 1774 (fn. 15) or at High Hill ferry, where
George Baker and William Burch occupied intermingled buildings, backed by drying
grounds, in 1826. Burch was normally styled a
calico printer and Baker a dyer. (fn. 16) They were
there c. 1845 (fn. 17) and may have been represented
in 1855 by Baker & Hudden, calenderers, and
James Burch, who had a carmine works. (fn. 18)
Baker's Hill by 1880 contained the Lea Valley
bleaching and dyeing works of William Connell
& Co., whose Lea Valley laundry was taken over
in the 1960s by Initial Services. (fn. 19) Also at High
Hill ferry were Robert Lyon, a bleacher in 1826
and 1838, (fn. 20) and George Wickenden, a glazier or
presser in 1845 and 1855. (fn. 21) Another calico
printer was John Hammond, who was building
immediately south of Lea dock in 1832 and
acquired more land in 1838. (fn. 22)
Trade, manufacture, and handicrafts were said
to employ 838 families by 1811 and 2,505 by
1831, but the figures appear unreliable. (fn. 23) Industries of note included an unlocated 18th-century
porcelain factory, a rope works in the 1820s on
the site taken for the church of St. Mary of Eton,
a perforating works in John Street, London
Fields, employing c. 50 in 1842, (fn. 24) and an optical
glass works, mentioned in 1849, which was
presumably that of Samuel Froggatt, by 1821 an
optician at Hackney Wick, where Frogatt's mill
stood east of the rope works. (fn. 25)
Riverside or canalside wharves served builders,
industry, and later public utilities. By 1830 the
De Beauvoir Town estate had made leases of 4
wharves on the Regent's canal west of Whitmore
bridge and of 16 in Shoreditch (later Kingsland)
basin. (fn. 26) In 1870 most received manure or building materials, those on the east side of the basin
having frontages to Kingsland Road. (fn. 27) Wharves
accounted for 7 per cent of the probate value of
the De Beauvoir Town estate in 1935 (fn. 28) and for
c. 15 per cent of its rental in 1950. (fn. 29)
Early wharves on the Lea were at Hackney
Wick, the neighbourhood of Lea bridge, High
Hill ferry, and Spring Hill. Three were at Spring
Hill in 1774. (fn. 30) Near Lea bridge, where Paradise
(later Lea bridge) dock and Lea dock existed by
1831, (fn. 31) the boundary crossed the river to include
Essex wharf, opposite Middlesex wharf, where
a lease was renewed to Thomas Saunders, a coal
merchant, in 1815. (fn. 32) North of Hackney Wick the
cut was almost serted in 1865 but industry had
spread to Marsh gate or Homerton bridge by
1891 and had filled any gaps there by 1910.
Hackney district board had a wharf or stone
depot at the Homerton end of the later Lee
Conservancy Road (so named from 1907) and
another at Kingsland basin, no. 297 A Kingsland
Road; (fn. 33) in 1913 the council also used a wharf
leased from the Lee Conservancy board for
bringing coal to the electricity works and refuse
destructer. Homerton wharf was retained for
refuse disposal until the 1970s. (fn. 34) James Latham,
18th-century timber merchants from Liverpool
who in 1815 had moved to Shoreditch, from
1912 were also in Hackney, where in 1991 they
employed 100-250 at a site which included
Middlesex wharf. (fn. 35) Building contractors included Frederick Wise, by 1899 at no. 146
Dalston Lane; the site was sold in 1985 to Travis
Perkins, which in 1991 also occupied Metropolis
wharf at no. 305A Kingsland Road. (fn. 36)
The manufacture of colour, later of paint, (fn. 37) was
brought to Hackney from Shadwell in 1780 by
Lewis Berger (formerly Steigenberger, d. 1814).
At Homerton he rented a farmhouse in Shepherd's Lane with a field stretching west to
Hackney brook. The farmhouse was rebuilt as a
residence, a factory was set up at the southern
end of the field, near a well, and the brook was
diverted through the grounds to prevent floods
in Water Lane. (fn. 38) The business was expanded by
Lewis's sons Samuel (d. 1855) and John (d.
1860) and from 1860 by John's sons Capel
Berrow and Lewis Curwood Berger, who began
making paint and varnish. A limited company
called Lewis Berger & Sons, formed in 1879, was
bought in 1905 by the American paint makers
Sherwin-Williams. Overseas expansion was accompanied in 1926 by the establishment of a
public company and in 1960 by a merger with
Jensen & Nicholson, itself taken over in 1970 by
Hoechst AG, which sold Berger, Jensen &
Nicholson in 1988 to Williams Holdings, who
sold to Crown Paints.
Berger's occupied almost all the land between
Shepherd's and Water lanes, c. 5 a. (fn. 39) bounded
on the north from 1848 by the N.L.R. line.
Samuel and John replaced the original works
with a Lower factory and added an Upper
factory near the house. In 1860 the site contained
only the two factories, Berger House, an adjoining clock tower of 1805, and ornamental water
representing the diverted brook, but by 1890 it
had been almost entirely built over. Employees
numbered 60-70 at Homerton and at a City
office in 1860 and 400 at Homerton alone by
1910; they were noted for long service, although
industrial sickness led strikers in 1911 to denounce the company's 'sheds of death'. (fn. 40) Berger's ended its connexion with Homerton in
1960. The buildings were replaced, except for a
laboratory of 1934 at no. 205 Morning Lane, (fn. 41)
used in 1991 by Hackney L.B.'s social services.
The first plastics in Britain (fn. 42) were patented, as
parkesine, by Alexander Parkes in 1862 and
produced from 1866 at a works next to the
waterproofers George Spill & Co. in Wallis
Road, Hackney Wick. The company went bankrupt in 1868 but Spill's brother Daniel
continued at the same works with improved
material from 1869 until 1874, when his Xylonite Co. also failed. In 1875 he moved to no. 124
High Street, Homerton, and L. P. Merriam,
who had tried to promote celluloid, the American equivalent of xylonite, (fn. 43) moved into no. 122.
In 1877 they respectively formed the British
Xylonite Co. and the Homerton Manufacturing
Co., which merged in 1879. Merriam (d. 1889),
whose factory in the garden made combs from
the sheet xylonite made next door, assumed sole
control in 1884 and finally prospered after acquiring the Impermeable Collar and Cuff Co. of
Bower Road, Hackney Wick. His son C. F.
Merriam moved sheet production to Suffolk in
1887. The Homerton site was sold after the
production of finished articles was moved in
1897 to Hale End (Essex).
Water provided access and a means of waste
disposal for noxious industries at Hackney Wick.
George Spill had a works there by 1862 and
James G. Ingram & Son, vulcanized rubber
manufacturers founded in Hoxton, from 1866. (fn. 44)
The Victorian iron works west of Wallis Road,
a ropery in Gainsborough Road, an aniline dye
works north of the parkesine works, and a
varnish works all lay within Hackney by 1870,
when the Hackney cut led to an isolated rubber
works and a tar and chemical works beyond
Wick Lane bridge. (fn. 45) The group of works at
Hackney Wick included several using noxious
substances on the Bow side of Wallis Road and
in White Post Lane. (fn. 46) In 1875 the aniline dye
works was the Atlas works of Brooke, Simpson
& Spiller, and Ingrams had extended their factory in Chapman Road. (fn. 47) By 1880 the Hackney
side of Wallis Road had a printer and makers of
printing ink, bedsteads, paving, and book
cloth. (fn. 48)
Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs, (fn. 49) confectionery
and jam makers established in 1872, were at
Hackney Wick by 1879 and on both sides of
Wallis Road by 1910, when they had also spread
south of the G.E.R. line and to the previously
underdeveloped east bank of the Hackney cut in
both Hackney and Bow. (fn. 50) The company, probably the district's leading employer, was one of
the first to introduce profit sharing in 1890, (fn. 51)
acquired a convalescent home at Clacton (Essex),
and formed many social clubs. (fn. 52) It was registered
as Clarnico in 1946 and described as having been
the country's largest confectioners in 1948, when
war damage had led to plans for a factory in
Waterden Road. Clarnico moved to Waterden
Road c. 1955 and, as Trebor Sharps, left Hackney
c. 1975.
The industries which employed the greatest
numbers were widespread away from the river
and were often organized in small firms. Furniture trades were noted in the 1890s, although
fewer than in Shoreditch or Bethnal Green. (fn. 53)
Small carpentry or cabinet factories abounded
in side streets, as around the G.E.R. line between Mare Street and London Fields or by the
G.N.R. line south of Homerton's high street. (fn. 54)
In 1901 over 5,000 people worked in wood,
including 1,852 cabinet makers and 504 french
polishers. (fn. 55) Piano making was well represented:
of 34 north London manufacturers listed in
1880, 14 were in Hackney, besides a piano
warehouse. There were fewer by 1900 but in
1924 they included the Helmsley works of
Broadwood, White & Co., which in 1951 was an
office equipment factory. (fn. 56) Charles Crop & Sons
in Brooksby's Walk made tobacco pipes by 1872;
by 1898 the London exporters Adolph Frankau
& Co. had a steamworks at no. 112 (later no.
154) High Street, Homerton, where briar pipes
were later made by Marechal Ruchon and in the
1970s by Fairfax Traders. (fn. 57) Large furniture
firms included from 1895 the Acme Wood
Flooring Co. from Vauxhall, perhaps supplied
by the neighbouring timber merchants G. Ellis
& Co., in Gainsborough (later Lee Conservancy)
Road until the 1920s, (fn. 58) and Greaves & Thomas,
inventors of the Put-U-Up settee-bed, in Northwold Road, where their premises included the
Amherst works, from 1911 until c. 1965. (fn. 59)
The making of clothes and footwear employed
over 15,000 in 1901. One third, including 2,686
bootmakers, were men; women included over
2,000 dressmakers, over 2,000 shirtmakers or
seamstresses, 1,000 tailors, over 900 milliners,
and over 900 artificial flower makers. (fn. 60) Although
never so concentrated as they were farther south,
clothing workers multiplied until by 1964 there
were almost as many in Hackney as in London's
old East End. Both areas were centres of Jewish
enterprise: Hackney in 1964 was noted for its
large factories for men's tailoring, its dispersed
production of shirts and underwear, and for
clothing accessories. The industry ranged from
factories with their own retail outlets to homeworkers paid by contractors. (fn. 61)
Simeon Simpson in 1894 established a firm in
Stoke Newington (fn. 62) which opened a model factory in 1929 at nos. 92-100 Stoke Newington
Road, where 2,000 were employed. The company patented Daks clothing in 1934 and,
despite war damage and the opening of factories
elsewhere, (fn. 63) remained until c. 1982; Halkevi
Turkish community centre used the premises in
1991. Gerrish, Ames & Simpkins, of Basingstoke
(Hants), bought Morley hall during the First
World War, built the adjoining Carlington
works (fn. 64) in 1932, and remained until c. 1962.
Home Bros, had a model factory at Durigo
House, King Edward's Road, from 1922 until c.
1987, and Swears & Wells were at no. 1 Downs
Park Road by 1938 until c. 1976. (fn. 65) Barrymore's
made clothing in Retreat Place in 1934 and later
at Pembury works in Glaskin Mews off Pembury
Road. (fn. 66) Their successors Willerby & Co. employed 410 there in 1955 (fn. 67) and remained until
after 1964. The outfitters Moss Bros, had a
workshop between Ball's Pond and Bentley
roads by 1961. (fn. 68)
The East End clothing firm of Alfred Polikoff
(d. 1943) had a plant in London Lane by 1915,
when a factory was built at nos. 148-50 Mare
Street which was burned down in 1932. New
premises were opened in 1933 in Chatham Place,
where part, used by a subsidiary called Sportown, was rebuilt after bomb damage. Polikoff's,
which opened Welsh and Irish factories, was
acquired by Great Universal Stores in 1948 but
kept its own name in the 1970s. Amenities for
its staff included a sports ground at Springfield
park from c. 1955. By 1952 Polikoff's shared
premises with Burberry's, which had had a
London shop from 1901; Burberry's was also
taken over by G.U.S. and employed c. 315 at
nos. 29-53 Chatham Place in 1991. (fn. 69)
Bootmaking was at first concentrated south
and south-east of London Fields: in 1880, of 43
wholesale boot manufacturers listed in north
London, 38 were in Hackney, including all but
one of the 8 businesses in Ash Grove and 6 of
the 10 in Mentmore Terrace. (fn. 70) Poverty in the
1890s was attributed to the hangers-on of boot
finishers, whose northward drift from Bethnal
Green had made a second centre for their trade. (fn. 71)
In 1938 London's footwear industry was centred
on Hackney, (fn. 72) where long established firms, all
with Jewish names, were to survive until the
1960s. Jacob Kempner, at no. 236 Mare Street
and Paragon Road in 1898, was at nos. 31 and
33 Well Street by 1911, called Kempner &
Brandon by 1920, at Victory works in Shore
Road in 1934 and 1948, and later in Dalston
Lane. (fn. 73) Reuben Lazarus, in Hackney Grove by
1911, had one of three boot factories between
Richmond and Ellingfort roads in 1934 and was
in Ken worthy Road in 1948. (fn. 74) Eleazer Phillips,
who replaced a Barnardo's home and the
Y.M.C.A. at nos. 273-5 Mare Street, claimed to
be Hackney's oldest shoemakers in 1948. (fn. 75)
The varied industries included several other
firms which became household names. A large
works of the King's printers Eyre & Spottiswoode (before 1831 Eyre & Strahan), originally
for producing bibles, was in Shacklewell by
1829 (fn. 76) and until c. 1936; later occupants included
Swears & Wells. Reeves & Sons moved their
artists' colour factory in 1866 from the City to
Beech (later Ashwin) Street, replacing Luxembourg
hall, surviving war damage c. 1940, and moving
away c. 1955. Tyer & Co., inventors of a railway
signalling system, were also in Ashwin Street
until the 1960s. (fn. 77) W. J. Bush & Co., England's
first makers of flavouring essences, had moved
from the City by 1880 to Ash Grove, where their
Grove chemical works had expanded by 1930
and was occupied by the firm, from the 1960s
called Bush Boake Allen, until c. 1973. Achille
Serre, the dyers and cleaners, were in White Post
Lane from c. 1896 to c. 1928. (fn. 78) Nalder Bros. &
Thompson moved in 1899 to Dalston Lane,
where they made electrical measuring instruments and employed c. 400 in 1948 and remained
until c. 1969. Siemens Bros., based at Woolwich,
made electric tantalum lamps at Dalston from
1908 until 1923. (fn. 79) E. C. Barlow & Sons had
moved from Shoreditch to Urswick Road by
1903, where from 1929 they formed a branch of
Metal Box, enlarged the factory in 1940, and
employed 320 in 1948; the company left Urswick
Road c. 1983 and a second local works in Theydon Road c. 1987. Venus Pencil Co. was at nos.
169 and 171 Lower Clapton Road from 1903 (fn. 80)
until c. 1970. The War Department's National
Projectile factory was opened in 1915 on part of
the marsh near the G.N.R.'s sidings and the
Hackney cut. (fn. 81) Mentmore Manufacturing Co.,
at no. 16 Mentmore Terrace in 1921, moved c.
1923 to Tudor Grove, where in 1948 it claimed
to be Europe's biggest fountain pen maker at
Platignum House; it moved to Hertfordshire c.
1963.
In 1904 Hackney had 374 factories and 855
workshops, employing 17,714 people. Nearly a
third worked in the clothing industry, while
almost a tenth, mainly men, made articles of
wood and almost as many, mainly women,
worked in laundries; over 1,000 were employed
in the respective manufactures of fine instruments, of paper (or in printing), and of chemicals
or drugs. (fn. 82) That industrial workforce was less
than a fifth of all those occupied, in 1901 estimated at 101,606, of whom 65,379 were male. (fn. 83)
The larger figure included those in offices, in
domestic service, or with no fixed workplace,
and perhaps many who worked on their own. (fn. 84)
In Hackney, as in London as a whole, domestic
service was the largest single employer, (fn. 85) with
over 8,000, mostly unmarried women. Men in
commercial occupations formed a still larger
category, but one with wide subdivisions: 2,335
were merchants, agents, or accountants, 6,146
were clerks, and 1,199 dealt in money or insurance, most of them presumably in the City.
Building, including such allied trades as plumbing
or glazing, occupied 6,382 and transport nearly
5,000. The availability of sites presumably explained why in 1892 proportionately more
people were employed by builders in Hackney
and Stoke Newington than elsewhere on the
north and east sides of London. (fn. 86)
By 1938 the pattern of industrial employment
had not greatly changed, despite much smallscale conversion of private premises. (fn. 87) Hackney
had 2,071 factories and workshops, of which 922
made clothing or footwear, 401 made furniture,
and 310 were concerned with engineering. Only
5 of London's 28 boroughs had more factories
and only 3 exceeded Hackney's industrial workforce of 46,333. Clothing employed nearly
23,000, furniture making 7,580, and engineering
5,850. More than 2,000 worked in the production of food, drink, and tobacco, and in
papermaking and printing. A few firms, chiefly
furniture makers, had moved farther north or
east; both Hackney and St. Pancras had experienced an overall loss of 21 factories, more than
in any other metropolitan borough, since 1932. (fn. 88)
The departure of large firms was part of the
decentralization of London's industry which
gathered pace after the Second World War. (fn. 89) At
Hackney Wick the rubber makers Ingrams and
the manufacturing chemists E. Beanes, of the
Falcon works, survived for almost a century
into the 1960s, as did the only slightly younger
timber merchants G. Ellis, the drysalters Jessop
& Co., and several firms on the Bow side of
the boundary. In Bentham Road the Cassland
ropeworks established in 1848 by George
Oldfield similarly survived. (fn. 90) The most spectacular modern advance was made by Lesney
Products, pressure die casters at no. 1 A Shacklewell Lane by 1950, in Eastway by 1959, and
Lee Conservancy Road by 1975. Lesney began
to make Matchbox model vehicles in 1953. (fn. 91)
With a workforce of 1,500, it was thought to
be Hackney L.B.'s largest employer in 1982,
when it went into receivership and was bought
by the Hong Kong based Universal (International) Holdings. (fn. 92)
Industrial decline became more marked from
the 1970s, although statistics such as the 38
per cent fall in the manufacturing workforce
between 1971 and 1980 applied to the wider
area of the L.B. (fn. 93) The clothing industry was
critically threatened in 1980, both by recession
and by ephemeral back-street shops, (fn. 94) often
using immigrant labour. (fn. 95) Burberry's was one of
the few well known names to survive in 1991. (fn. 96)
A large factory might be taken over by several
businesses: Reeves's former works at no. 18
Ashwin Street was occupied by 5 firms, all concerned with clothing or accessories, in 1964 and by
8 in 1975. (fn. 97)
In 1826 a wide variety of shops in Church
Street served Hackney village and one in the
high road served Kingsland, Dalston, and Stoke
Newington. They included booksellers, watchmakers, wine merchants, and, in Hackney, 2
perfumers and 4 confectioners. Both Clapton
and Homerton had shops for everyday needs. (fn. 98)
Local retailers included Thomas Gibbons, who
started as a china and glass dealer in Morning
Lane in 1831. His daughter Elizabeth Gibbons
moved from Brett Road to Amhurst Road,
where, after making room for Matthew Rose &
Sons c. 1890, her cash furnishers' business acquired a row of nine shops and remained a family
firm at nos. 1-17 in 1991. (fn. 99) Matthew Rose,
Hackney's leading department store c. 1900,
began as a draper's at no. 335 Mare Street and
from 1868 expanded to include nos. 347-57
Mare Street and nos. 2-18 Amhurst Road, closing in 1936. (fn. 1) T. B. Stephens, a modest draper's
in 1904, built a three-storeyed department store
at nos. 230-240 Stoke Newington High Street,
where it survived until c. 1973. (fn. 2) Cooke's eel and
pie business, from Shoreditch, in 1910 opened
a branch at no. 41 Kingsland High Street; as F.
Cooke's, the shop retained its ornate interior in
1991. (fn. 3) Hackney and District chamber of commerce was founded in 1897 and renamed
Hackney and Tower Hamlets chamber of commerce in 1982. (fn. 4)
Street markets were held in 1893 in Kingsland
Road, Mare Street, Well Street, and the Broadway, London Fields. The Kingsland Road
market moved to Kingsland High Street, and in
1930 was in Ridley Road, where it remained
among the best known in London; Clapton had
a similarly large market, with 200 or more
licensed pitches, in Chatsworth Road, but Mare
Street's had disappeared. (fn. 5) Market streets contained c. 350 food stalls in 1927, besides itinerant
food sellers, and over 400 in 1930. (fn. 6)
National retail chains included Home & Colonial Stores, the grocers, with branches by 1895
at nos. 52 Kingsland High Street and 400 Kingsland Road, by 1898 at nos. 303 Mare Street,
218 Well Street, 120 Stoke Newington High
Street, and 50 Chatsworth Road, and by 1920 at
no. 166 Stamford Hill. Boots cash chemists were
at no. 382 Mare Street by 1911 and moved to
nos. 398 and 400 c. 1920. W. H. Smith & Sons,
the booksellers, were at no. 80 Stoke Newington
High Street by 1912. Marks & Spencer was at
no. 297 Mare Street by 1914, as the London
Penny Bazaar, and also at no. 156 Stoke Newington High Street by 1915; in Mare Street it
moved in the 1930s to part of Matthew Rose's
former premises. F. W. Woolworth & Co. was
at nos. 144-6 Stoke Newington High Street by
1917 and at no. 333 Mare Street by 1922. (fn. 7) In
1991 Hackney was served by national chains, by
individual shops, many of them catering for
ethnic minorities, by markets including a daily
one in Ridley Road, and by Dalston Cross
shopping centre, opened in 1989. (fn. 8)