Haggerston
Houses in Queenbridge Road
Haggerston is located in Greater London
Haggerston
Haggerston
Location within Greater London
Population10,376 
OS grid referenceTQ340835
 Charing Cross3.1 mi (5.0 km) SW
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLONDON
Postcode districtE2, E8
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly

Haggerston is a locale in East London, England, centred approximately on Queensbridge Road.[1] It is within the London Borough of Hackney and is considered to be a part of London's East End. It is about 3.1 miles (5 km) northeast of Charing Cross.

Haggerston historically formed part of Shoreditch borough, and was divided into the following ecclesiastical parishes: All Saints, St Chad, St Columba, St Mary, St Paul, St Augustine, and St Stephen.[2]

In 1965, the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch became part of the new London Borough of Hackney. There is an electoral ward called Haggerston within the borough. In the 1990s a number of the area's more rundown housing estates were refurbished and some disused public buildings were privately converted into gated communities. In 2010, Haggerston railway station re-opened, a little to the north of the original station.

History

Haggerston is first recorded in the Domesday Book as Hergotestane, possibly of Viking origin, and an outlying hamlet of Shoreditch. On Rocque's 1745 map of Hackney, the village is shown as Agostone[3] but by the 19th century it had become Haggerstone,[4] and part of the growing urban sprawl, with factories and streets of workers' cottages lining the canal.

The Cat & Mutton Bridge that spans over the Regents Canal, which still carries the name of a former alehouse which stood on the site at the extreme right, closed since at least 1919. The present pub on a new site was built in 1909 as the Sir Walter Scott but is now known as La Vie en Rose.[5]

Nichols Square was a development built in 1841, and featured two rows of Tudor gothic villas at its centre, and was later enhanced in 1867-9 by the addition of St Chad's church. In 1963, Nichols Square was demolished by a compulsory purchase order in order to build the Fellows Court Estate.[6]

Ronald and Reginald Kray, identical twin gangsters known as the Kray twins, were born on 24 October 1933,[7] on Stean Street [8] to Charles David Kray[9] and Violet Annie Lee[10]

The architect George Finch had worked on the Suffolk Estate, which was an early low-rise, high-density scheme built in the 1950s, that has a mix of flats and houses.[11]

Haggerston Park was developed in two phases, the previously industrial northern half of the site became a public park in the late 1950s and the southern part of the park was fully developed in the 1980s. Formerly the site had been occupied by gas works such as the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company.[12]

The Little Sisters of Jesus are a Roman Catholic community of religious sisters inspired by the life and writings of Charles de Foucauld, founded in Algeria in 1939 by Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus (Madeleine Hutin). They have had a community of Sisters at their council flat on the 13th Floor of Fellows Court Tower Block in Weymouth Terrace, since 1989.[13]

In August 1990, PC Laurence Brown was responding to a 999 call along Pownall Road in Orwell Court on the Suffolk Estate, when Mark Gaynor, an unemployed 20-year-old, pulled out a shotgun and fired directly into him. He then collapsed in a car park off Pownall Road where he died.[14]

By 2015, due to Haggerston proximity to Shoreditch, had made the area popular with students and workers in the creative industries, as these nearby areas have grown more expensive. In recent years, escalating property prices have driven commercial art galleries further into east London, which has exacerbated this effect. For the same reason, Haggerston has been attracting tech start-ups over Silicon Roundabout in Old Street, with some people calling the area "Hackerston".[15]

Governance

The Haggerston electoral ward forms part of the Hackney South and Shoreditch constituency. The ward returns three councillors to Hackney Council, with an election every four years. At the election on 6 May 2010, Ann Munn, Jonathan McShane, and Barry Buitekant, all Labour Party candidates, were returned. Turnout was 54 per cent; with 5,006 votes cast.[16] Current councillors (2020) for the Haggerston ward are Ajay Chauhan, Humaira Garasia and Patrick Spence.[17]

Geography

Education

Secondary schools in the area include Haggerston School and The Bridge Academy.

Landmarks

Haggerston School is a Grade II listed building, designed by the modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger and built in 1964–65.

Culture

Gasometers at Haggerston Gasworks viewed from the Regent's Canal, October 2005

Besides the Regent's Canal, Haggerston Park, on the site of a demolished gasworks on Hackney Road, provides much-needed open space in the area. Also in the area is the Hackney City Farm. The Regent Estate provides the Regent Estate Pensioners Club/Hall and the Regent Estate Community Centre/Hall which together provide community services and spaces for hire. The Regent Estate Pensioners Hall is also used as a polling station.

The Grade II listed Haggerston Pool, designed by Alfred Cross and opened in 1904, was closed in 2000. In June 2009, after a long community campaign, a £5m grant was announced from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to refurbish and reopen the pool. The building would also contain community facilities and a GP surgery.[18]

This area of Hackney has a long association with clowning. Holy Trinity Church still hosts an annual clowns' service to commemorate Joseph Grimaldi and All Saints Centre at one time housed the Clowns Gallery and Museum, including props and a unique collection of painted eggs, serving as the 'registration' of clowns' make-up. Much of the collection is now on display at Wookey Hole.[19] Other Anglican churches in Haggerston are All Saints, Haggerston Road; St Columba, Kingsland Road; and Sts Mary and Chad, Nichols Square.[20] The Little Sisters of Jesus have had a community of sisters within Fellows Court, Haggerston, since 1990.

Many Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian people have formed communities in Haggerston and nearby Shoreditch. Outside the area, the most visible sign of this is the profusion of Southeast Asian restaurants on nearby Kingsland Road in Shoreditch and on Mare Street in Hackney. There is also a notable Russian community focused on bars and cafés along Kingsland Road.

Haggerston is home to The Free Association improvised comedy theatre and school[21].

Transport

London Overground train at Haggerston station.

Railway stations

Walking and cycling

The Regents Canal towpath is easily accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. It provides access to Victoria Park to the east and Islington to the west.

Public art

The condemned Haggerston and Kingsland Estate was scheduled for demolition in the 1990s but the process did not get underway for another 20 years. In 2009 the artists Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Lasse Johansson, who lived on the Haggerston Estate on Dunston Road, created the I AM HERE project, placing on the building large portrait photographs of the current estate residents who were about to be moved out so the building could be demolished. These faced the Regent's Canal and were popular with passersby.[22] The project came down in April 2014.

A feature film Estate, a Reverie (83 mins, Zimmerman) about the Haggerston estate was completed in 2015. Filmed over seven years, Estate, a Reverie reveals and celebrates the resilience of residents who are profoundly overlooked by media representations and wider social responses. The film was nominated for several awards, including the 2015 Grierson awards.[23][24][25][26][27]

On the Kingsland Estate in Whiston Road, Egyptian painter Nazir Tanbouli created the "King's Land" project where, in the space of four months, he covered all of the buildings of the condemned estate with murals.[28][29][30] The Kingsland Estate was demolished in late 2013.

Little Sisters of Jesus

The Little Sisters of Jesus are a Roman Catholic community of religious sisters inspired by the life and writings of Charles de Foucauld, founded in Algeria in 1939 by Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus (Madeleine Hutin). They have had a community of Sisters at their council flat on the 13th Floor of Fellows Court Tower Block in Weymouth Terrace, Haggerston since 1989.[31]

Notable people

References

  1. M (20 January 2014). "Edith's Streets: North London Railway - Haggerston". Edith's Streets. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  2. "Parish Map Of London 1877, by Edward Stanford". mapco.net. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  3. "The northern suburbs: Haggerston and Hackney | British History Online". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  4. "Stanford's Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1872". London1872.com. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  5. "Geograph:: Regent's Canal: Cat & Mutton Bridge (C) Dr Neil Clifton". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  6. "Nichols Square in Haggerston is demolished (1963)".
  7. "The Kray Twins | London Murderers | Ronnie Kray | Reggie Kray". 15 June 2022.
  8. "The story of Ronnie Kray's queer machismo". 10 June 2022.
  9. http://www.wargs.com/other/kray.html
  10. Barratt, Robin (24 February 2011). The Mammoth Book of Hard Bastards. C & R Crime. ISBN 978-1-84901-759-6.
  11. "Architect of the Brixton Rec".
  12. http://www.hackneysociety.org/documents/Highlights_of_Haggerston1.pdf?
  13. "Jesus Caritas News & Archive of the Spiritual Family of Charles de Foucauld". Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  14. "Memorial service for Hackney policeman shot dead 20 years ago". September 2010.
  15. "Why tech start-ups are swerving Silicon Roundabout for Haggerston". 11 June 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  16. Council Elections 2006 results for Haggerston Archived 11 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine (LB Hackney) accessed 11 May 2010
  17. "Haggerston Ward". Hackney Labour. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  18. June 2009; Cash for historic baths—what the Edwardians did for us Peter Sherlock 25 June 2009 (Hackney Gazette) accessed 27 June 2009
  19. Dangerfield, Andy (4 February 2013). "BBC News - Clowns in Joseph Grimaldi church tribute service". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  20. Blagdon-Gamlen, P. E. (1973) The Church Travellers Directory. London: Church Literature Association; p. 3
  21. The Free Association
  22. 1 2 Daniel Baird (29 July 2011). "I Am Here - review". Hackney Citizen. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  23. "The Grierson Trust - Nominations". Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  24. "Relationship remembered". openDemocracy. 14 June 2015. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  25. Wilkinson, Tom (17 June 2015). "Estate: Self-portrait of a community on the edge | Thinkpiece". Architectural Review. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  26. "Cuts and austerity in real time – a review of Estate: A Reverie | Creolita". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  27. "Estate of mind". openDemocracy. 13 June 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  28. "Kingsland Road Murals - Nazir Tanbouli - Distorted". Distortedarts.com. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  29. "GLOBAL STREET ART — Nazir Tanbouli and The Kingsland Mural Project". Blog.globalstreetart.com. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  30. Lizzy Buchan (27 April 2012). "Mythical creatures take over the King's Land". Hackney Citizen. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  31. "Jesus Caritas News & Archive of the Spiritual Family of Charles de Foucauld". Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  32. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1903 Randal Cremer". nobelprize.org.
  33. Clerke, Agnes Mary (1911). "Halley, Edmund" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). p. 856.
  34. "Ancestry of the Kray twins". Wargs.com. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  35. "People and Media Responses". I Am Here. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  36. "Fugitive Images' Projects, I Am Here". Fugitiveimages.org.uk. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2017.

    Further reading

    • Jones, T. E. (2003?) Father Wilson of Haggerston: a life simply offered. London: Anglo Catholic History Society (biography of Herbert Arthur Wilson of St Augustine's church, Haggerston)
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