THE NORTH-WEST: HACKNEY ROAD.
Despite its antiquity, Hackney Road was, on its
southern, Bethnal Green side, (fn. 45) almost devoid
of buildings until well after 1700. The land
belonged to freehold estates created from demesne
land: Milkhouse Bridge in the west, where a
farmhouse was apparently built between 1682
and 1703 (fn. 46) slightly north of the junction with
Crabtree Lane, the Barnet charities in the centre
with, in 1679, a house and outbuildings at the
eastern end of Crabtree Lane at the junction
with a field way (later Gibraltar Walk) and a path
(later Birdcage Walk), (fn. 47) and Sickle Penfield to
the east. Most of the western part of Milkhouse
Bridge was garden ground in 1703. The Nag's
Head inn fronted Hackney Road at the eastern
end of the estate and was occupied c. 1706-12
by Edward Carnell, a cowkeeper who in 1710-12
was described as brickmaster, (fn. 48) although in 1720
there was no building nearby except for a few
cottages at the Crabtree Row end. (fn. 49) The inn's
licensee in 1722 and 1730 was John Pritchard, (fn. 50)
whose family was in possession, probably as
lessees, of Carnell's interests, which included
Sickle Penfield, by 1751. (fn. 51) The family may have
been responsible for a small settlement around
the Nag's Head and for a few cottages at the
northern end of Birdcage Walk by the mid 18th
century. (fn. 52)
Development later quickened. Between 1786
and 1789 26 houses were built, mostly by Baker
at Greengate north of Crabtree Row, including
Crescent Place and Somerset Buildings. (fn. 53) In
1789 John Allport (d. 1807), lessee of the western
part of Milkhouse Bridge which he ran as a
nursery, bought 6½ a. where in 1797 the Middlesex chapel was built fronting the curve of
Hackney Road. (fn. 54) Houses were being built
nearby in 1807 (fn. 55) and Middlesex Terrace existed
by 1826. (fn. 56) In 1822 the Allport family made an
agreement with John Poole, who built behind
the chapel in Chapel, King, Queen, and Charles
(later Hassard) streets. (fn. 57)
To the east Andrew Pritchard, in 1789 a
tilemaker of Hackney Road, (fn. 58) built 11 houses
near the Nag's Head in 1789-91 (fn. 59) and bought
part of Milkhouse Bridge in 1790, (fn. 60) when John
Pritchard, similarly described, took a 99-year
lease of ground and five houses on the east side
of 'the pathway from Spitalfields to the Nag's
Head'. (fn. 61) The pathway was presumably Birdcage
Walk, named after the public house which by
1760 had replaced the 17th-century farmhouse
on the southern boundary of Barnet hospital
estate. (fn. 62) Seven houses were built in Birdcage
Walk in 1787-8, (fn. 63) partly by the licensee Samuel
Lazonby. (fn. 64) Most were at the northern end,
forming a settlement with Edith Gardens, Nag's
Yard, and fronting Hackney Road near the
Nag's Head by 1800. (fn. 65)
At the southern end of Milkhouse Bridge,
north of Crabtree Row and east of Crescent
Place, Nova Scotia Gardens existed by c. 1779 (fn. 66)
perhaps only as gardens or allotments. Crude,
probably wooden, cottages which may have
originated as sheds existed by 1800 (fn. 67) and became
notorious as the home in 1830-1 of John Bishop
and Thomas Williams, the Resurrectionists,
who murdered an Italian boy there. (fn. 68)
In 1807 Nag's Head Field, 8 a. of Milkhouse
Bridge between Allport's and Pritchard's estates,
was leased for 80 years to James Waddilove and
John Crispin of Cambridge Heath and Charles
Fichet of Hackney. Thirty-eight houses had
already been built, mostly two-storeyed and
fronting Coldharbour (or Coleharbour) Street at
the western end. (fn. 69) The ground was staked out,
presumably in building plots, around London
Terrace fronting Hackney Road and a group of
new streets: Coldharbour, Caroline, Henrietta,
and Nelson streets, all projecting south from
Hackney Road, and Bath Street, parallel with it.
The three men jointly granted building leases
before partitioning the ground in October
1808. (fn. 70) Among the builders, whose work was
well advanced by the end of 1808 and apparently
complete by 1812, (fn. 71) were Thomas Merrett, of
St. Luke, Middlesex, (fn. 72) Isaac Clapson, carpenter
of Henrietta Street, (fn. 73) Claxton Catchfield (fn. 74) and
William Causdell, (fn. 75) of Hackney Road, and
Joseph Foulkes, of London Terrace. (fn. 76) James
Blake, a Bishopsgate Street auctioneer, had a
large area (fn. 77) which he in turn leased out in plots
1 Milkhouse Bridge, 2 Barnet: a Chancel b Jesus Hospital, 3 Sickle Penfield
to two carpenters, Robert Scott, of Hackney
Road, and William Brailey, of Bishopsgate, and
a bricklayer, John Gardiner, of Holborn. (fn. 78)
Queen Street formed a westward continuation
of Bath Street by 1823. (fn. 79)
The North-west: principal estates
1 Milkhouse Bridge, 2 Barnet: a Chancel b Jesus Hospital, 3 Sickle Penfield
Ten houses built in Hackney Road in 1786-9 (fn. 80)
may have included some new ones on Sickle
Penfield assigned to Thomas Darling, a Southwark carpenter, in 1795. (fn. 81) The estate joined
Rush Mead and there was building on the west
side of Elizabeth Street, the boundary, and in
Wellington Place at its south-western side by
1826 (fn. 82) and in Warner Place by 1828. (fn. 83) The
Barnet charity lands remained virtually empty
until the 19th century, one building fronting
Birdcage Walk being added at the northern end
of the Jesus Hospital charity estate by 1760 (fn. 84) and
another opposite the Bird Cage at the southern
end of the Chancel estate by the 1790s. (fn. 85) Willow
Walk at the northern part of Jesus Hospital
estate had at least one house by 1807, (fn. 86) 11 houses
by 1820, (fn. 87) and 21 by 1836. (fn. 88) The Chancel lands
on the west side of Birdcage Walk were built up
in the 1830s, with Barnet, James, and Ravenscroft streets. (fn. 89) There were 855 houses in the
area in 1836, with space for more in the south
and east. (fn. 90)