Upper Street looking at 133, built as Mr Edgcliffe's Academy
The Islington Literary & Scientific Society was founded in 1832 and met in rooms in No. 133, now flats over two shops..This watercolour shows the buildings to the right of the alleyway next to it, demolished in 1888 when Upper Street was widened. No. 138 Upper Street is partly visible on the right of the picture
Houses on the corner of Almeida Street
Looking across Upper Street at Nos. 138 - 140 Upper Street.Wilson died in 1826 and it was after his widow’s death in 1830 that his sons as trustees of the estate demolished the house and built the three houses now numbered 138, 139 and 140 Upper Street. In 1837 they sold a plot behind those houses to the Islington Literary and Scientific Society to build its new premises.On the opposite corner stood Dr Strahan's house, seen in this 1841 watercolour with a sign to the Islington Literary and Scientific Institution.Now cross Upper Street to the next viewpoint on the north side of Almeida Street.
Looking at the Almeida Theatre
In 1837 land behind the new houses at 138-140 Upper Street was leased to the Islington Literary & Scientific Society where they built the premises now occupied by the Almeida Theatre. That society had been founded in 1833 and originally occupied rooms in Mr Edgeworth’s Academy in the building now numbered 133 Upper Street. Their new building, designed by Gough and Roumieu in the neo-Grecian style, was constructed in record time by William Spencer Dove (founder of Dove Brothers),By the 1870s the Islington Literary & Scientific Society was struggling to continue as the changing demography of Islington reduced its middle class clientele, and eventually it was wound up. The building was sold in 1875, being operated as the Wellington Club until 1885, when it was purchased by William Booth and radically altered for use as a Salvation Army Citadel. The Salvation Army ceased to operate there in 1956 after which the building was sold to Beck’s British Carnival Novelties and used as a warehouse and factory to supply their shop at 139 Upper Street. . Following the murder of the Beck’s proprietor in 1972 (by his son-in-law who was appalled to discover he was a transvestite) the building was sold and went through various owners as a warehouse. Attempts by several organisations to gain planning consent for theatre use finally bore fruit in 1981 when the Almeida Theatre Company was formed by Pierre Audi and friends newly-graduated from Oxford University. They acquired the building with financial support from Pierre’s father, a Lebanese banker, and the Almeida Theatre opened that year.
Looking across to Nos. 1-4 Almeida Street
At about the same time as the construction of the Lit & Sci in 1837, Nos. 1-4 Wellington (now Almeida) Street (two linked pairs of semi-detached houses) were built by the Wilson estate as part of an intended new square. They had been built by 1838, being listed as empty in that year’s rate books. License to demise for up to 99 years in respect of the land behind the three Upper Street houses and 40 feet to the north had been granted to Stephen and Josiah Wilson as trustees of the Wilson estate in 1836 “in consideration of building substantial brick dwelling houses of not less than the third rate or class and each house not to be of a less annual value than £40”.They were listed Grade II in 1972 along with the Lit & Sci building on the initiative of Laurence Isaacson, an architect then resident at No. 4.
Looking across Almeida Street towards Battishill Street
After the building of the Literary & Scientific Institution and Nos. 1-4 Almeida Street in 1837-8, the remainder of the estate was let as market gardens until 1846, when the Manor of Barnsbury granted licence to demise their copyhold property to Stephen & Josiah Wilson for up to 99 years “in consideration of building good and substantial dwelling houses of not less than the fourth rate or class, each house fronting Wellington Street not to be of a less annual value than £40 and each of the other houses not to be of less annual value than £25”.The four streets now named Almeida Street, Battishill Street, Napier Terrace and Waterloo Terrace were laid out and building leases granted on the north side of Almeida Street (Nos. 17–28) in 1846, both sides of Battishill Street (1846–52), the north side of Waterloo Terrace (1851–52), the south side of Almeida Street (Nos. 5–16) (1852), parts of Napier Terrace (1853–54) and four houses (later numbered 19–22) on the south side of Waterloo Terrace, originally named 1-4 Wellesley Terrace (1854).Now cross into Battishill Street and enter Battishill Gardens by the gate just beyond two pairs of council maisonettes.
Looking up Almeida Street
After the building of the Literary & Scientific Institution and Nos. 1-4 Almeida Street in 1837-8, the remainder of the estate was let as market gardens until 1846, when the Manor of Barnsbury granted licence to demise their copyhold property to Stephen & Josiah Wilson for up to 99 years “in consideration of building good and substantial dwelling houses of not less than the fourth rate or class, each house fronting Wellington Street not to be of a less annual value than £40 and each of the other houses not to be of less annual value than £25”.The four streets then named Wellington Street (now Almeida Street), Hardinge Street (now named Battishill Street), Napier Terrace and Waterloo Terrace were laid out and building leases granted on the north side of Almeida Street (Nos. 17–28) in 1846, both sides of Battishill Street (1846–52), the north side of Waterloo Terrace (1851–52), the south side of Almeida Street (Nos. 5–16) (1852), parts of Napier Terrace (1853–54) and four houses (later numbered 19–22) on the south side of Waterloo Terrace, originally named 1-4 Wellesley Terrace (1854).The passageway at the end of Almeida Street through to Milner Square was created when the east side of the latter was built (also by William Spencer Dove) in 1844.
Battishill Gardens
Around 1970 Battishill Gardens were created by Islington Council as part of a wholesale redevelopment of the central block (excluding the Almeida Street frontage) with a small park fronting Battishill Street and pairs of maisonettes along Napier Terrace and at the south end of Battishill Street. Designed by Helen Stafford, project architect, they have integral garages, small back yards for the lower maisonettes, and balconies for the upper ones. The original Battishill Street houses were small with tiny back yards, many taken up by WW2 Anderson Shelters, and can be glimpsed at bottom right in the 1947 aerial photograph.
Paved area with stone frieze
A small paved area on the Napier Terrace side of Battishill Gardens includes a 19th-century stone frieze originally carved by Musgrave Watson in 1842 for the Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street, which was demolished in 1922. There is a tablet recording the opening of the gardens by Sir John Betjeman in 1975.
Looking across Napier Terrace
The present terrace of 11 three-storey town houses with integral garages on the west side of Napier Terrace was built in 1980/81. It reprised an award-winning design by Michael Brown Associates which had been used in their 1972 development in Hippodrome Mews, W11. The terrace replaced an industrial building and yard which was attached to the British Syphon Company’s factory (that later became a greetings card factory).
Looking across towards the back of Nos. 1-4 Milner Square
The British Syphon Company’s factory was built around 1897 on the site of the former Islington Proprietary School fronting Barnsbury Street and in 1936 expanded into Nos. 1-4 Milner Square. The factory was demolished in 1984 and redeveloped in 1987 as Waterloo Gardens, a block of flats and ground floor commercial, with a rear entrance to its courtyard at the end of Waterloo Terrace and including a reconstructed Nos. 1-4 Milner Square. It seems the developers failed to honour their pledge to reinstate the ornate entrance from Waterloo Terrace shown below, although there is an iron arch over the present entrance which echoes the outline.
Looking across Waterloo Terrace towards Premier House
The Metropolitan Street Improvements Act of 1883 (inter alia authorising the widening of Upper Street from Islington Green to the Unitarian Chapel on the east side and from Waterloo Terrace to Barnsbury Street on the west side) required the rehousing of “the number of persons of the working classes displaced by the improvements”. That number was fixed by the Home Secretary at 140 persons and the Metropolitan Board of Works set apart a site in Waterloo Terrace to accommodate this number. The site, coloured blue in the plan, included No. 1 Waterloo Terrace and various stables and outbuildings behind the properties in Upper Street.The site was sold for £950 on a 999 year lease at one shilling per annum ground rent, with the purchaser bound to erect dwellings for 140 persons within 9 months and to expend £4,000 on the buildings. They were completed in October 1887 permitting the widened street to be opened for traffic early in 1888.
Bouton Place
Opposite Premier House, Bouton Place is a gated courtyard development by Aitch Group, built around 2004. Eight houses and 6 flats face each other across a narrow space, with 2 ground floor offices facing Waterloo Terrace. The name derives from the site’s previous occupation by a garage used by the de Dion Bouton motor company, which had an active presence in London from 1907 until the 1930s. Latterly the building, which can be seen in the 1947 aerial photograph, was occupied by a wholesaler of hairdressers’ supplies, and still had the French company’s name over the entrance.
Looking south along Upper Street
According to Dent’s 1805/6 Survey of Islington, in addition to Dr Pitcairn's estate Wilson also owned 9 houses in Upper Street between Barnsbury Street and Terrett’s Place (as well as one in Terrett’s Place itself), which included those either side of a secondary access to Dr Pitcairn’s garden depicted in Shepherd’s watercolour of 1841, that became the access to Waterloo Terrace. Wilson leased “three cottages and two rooms over a gateway” in 1799, reserving a right of way through the yard to his garden. The Royal Mail public house (now Hoxley & Porter) was one of these, and its footprint extended into the area that became Bouton Place, which it still does.
Terrett's Place
At the far end of this paved alleyway is an interesting Georgian building, No. 3 Terrett's Place, dating from before 1746, which extends behind the buildings on the right so is twice as wide as the visible facade.In his will John Wilson left this freehold house and its appurtenant yard used as a fowl yard and drying ground to one of his sons, John Wilson Junior. He specified that this bit of ground should be sold to any purchaser of the Copyhold Estate (i.e. Dr Pitcairn's House and Garden) if terms could be agreed upon after his wife ceased to occupy that house (i.e. what had been Dr Pitcairn's house on the corner of Almeida Street) but while she continued to occupy the house it should continue in her possession and for her use without any charge or rent whatever.John Wilson Junior died in 1832, after his mother, who had died in 1830, leaving the house and yard to his son Frederick on similar terms. What had been the yard now as No. 4 Terrett's Place contains a former warehouse/factory converted into flats.
