De Beauvoir Town
| De Beauvoir Town | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of De Beauvoir Square | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ3384 |
| Location: | 51°32’37"N, 0°4’50"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | N1 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Hackney |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Hackney South and Shoreditch |
De Beauvoir Town is an urban village or neighbourhood in Middlesex, deep in the metropolitan conurbation, two miles north of the City of London. It is sometimes described as a part of Dalston.[1] Its traditional cockney nickname is Beavertown,[2] (and the usual pronunciation of 'De Beauvoir' is indeed De Beaver).
The area was developed during the mid-19th century in a part of the ancient parish of Hackney. Most of its development was carried out as part of a plan for a new town to attract prosperous residents, though it includes a range of housing types and other land uses. The new town was based around De Beauvoir Square and primarily built in the Jacobethan style.
The special character of the neighbourhood has been retained and is recognised by the designation of the 'De Beauvoir Conservation Area' and 'Kingsland Road Conservation Area'.
Boundaries
The boundaries of De Beauvoir Town are defined by its highly geometric streets and an early 19th century canal. They are: Kingsland Road to the east, Regents Canal to the south, Southgate Road to the west and Balls Pond Road to the north. The area enclosed by these roads is just over 173 acres. Direct neighbours are Canonbury, Dalston, Hoxton and Haggerston areas.
History
19th century
Until 1820 the area now covered by De Beauvoir Town was open country with a few grand houses. In 1821, stimulated by the opening of the Regent's Canal the previous year, developer and brickmaker William Rhodes (1774–1843) (a grandfather of Cecil Rhodes)[3] secured a lease for 150 acres of land from Peter de Beauvoir. Rhodes planned to build residences for the upper classes set on wide streets in a grid pattern, with four squares on diagonal streets intersecting at an octagon. However, work stopped in 1823 when Rhodes was found to have obtained his lease unfairly and after a court case spanning over 20 years the land reverted to the de Beauvoir family in 1834.[4]
The delay in the building had meant that Rhodes' clientele had since moved on to the new suburbs of the West End. The scheme was scaled down and of the planned squares only the southeastern was built, as De Beauvoir Square, although the diagonals partly survived in Enfield Road, Stamford Road and Ardleigh Road. Occupied in the 1840s by the newly emerging middle classes, the estate was almost wholly residential except around Kingsland Basin and the south-west corner where a factory was leased from 1823.[4]
20th century
In 1907, the Fifth Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held at the Brotherhood Church on the east side of Southgate Road, attended by included Lenin, Stalin, Maxim Gorky, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky. The congress debated strategy for a communist revolution in Russia and strengthened the position of Lenin's Bolsheviks.[5]
In 1937, due to its easy access to Kingsland Basin, the southeast corner between Downham Road and Hertford Road was re-zoned for industrial use. Soon afterwards, the areas south of Downham Road were included. These were distinguished from the north side, which was already zoned for business and acted as a buffer for the mainly residential streets beyond. In 1938 De Beauvoir Crescent was suggested as another business zone to protect housing to the north.
In the early 1960s the northern part of De Beauvoir Town between Buckingham Road and Tottenham Road was rebuilt as a council estate, the Kingsgate Estate. In the late 1960s a larger area west of the canal basin, which contained many small factories, made way for the De Beauvoir Estate. The east side of De Beauvoir Square was also rebuilt as the Lockner Road estate.
In 1968 the De Beauvoir Association was formed to fight Hackney Council's plans to demolish the area and build new build council estates on it. The rest of the square with the area bounded by Englefield Road, Northchurch Road, Southgate Road, Hertford Road, and Stamford Road became a conservation area in 1969. This area was later extended to cover most of De Beauvoir Town; the eastern edge, however, is in the Kingsland conservation area.
In the 1970s experimental measures were installed in De Beauvoir Town to reduce through vehicle traffic and make streets safer for children's play. These were designed by the architect Graham Parsey who lived in the area and was chairman of the De Beauvoir Association. This included filtered permeability measures on roads including Downham Road and Northchurch Road.[6]
In the arts
Parts of the feature films 28 Weeks Later and The Gentlemen were filmed in De Beauvoir Town.[7][8]
Walking and cycling
The Regents Canal towpath is easily accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. Travelling east, provides access to Victoria Park, and to the west, Islington.
Outside links
- Brickfields: Georgian landscape Template:Webarchive (Building Exploratory, n.d.)
- The De Beauvoir Association
References
- ↑ Brewers Dictionary of London Phrase and Fable, Chambers Publishing, 20th Ed, 2018
- ↑ "Meet the craft beer brewer | Behind the scenes" (in en). 2014-04-11. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/11/craft-ales-beavertown-brewery-logan-plant-behind-the-scenes.
- ↑ William Rhodes' eldest son, Rev. Francis William Rhodes (1807–1878), was the father of Cecil
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 10 pp 33-35: Hackney: De Beauvoir Town (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Bartholomew, Emma (20 October 2017). "How a tiny Southgate Road chapel played a big role in Russia's 1917 October Revolution". https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/southgate-road-de-beauvoir-chapel-lenin-russian-october-revolution-3570754.
- ↑ "Hackney cyclist: The history behind how De Beauvoir Town became a low traffic neighbourhood in the 1970s". 2015-10-28. http://hackneycyclist.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-history-behind-filtered.html.
- ↑ The Horror and heartache, Karyn Michael, Hackney Today, Issue 158, p.5, 7 May 2007
- ↑ "The Gentlemen at Lancresse Court - filming location". https://www.sceen-it.com/sceen/4316/The-Gentlemen/Lancresse-Court.