Gospel Oak

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Gospel Oak
Middlesex

Oak Village, Gospel Oak
Location
Grid reference: TQ285855
Location: 51°33’14"N, 0°8’53"W
Data
Post town: London
Postcode: NW3, NW5
Dialling code: 020
Local Government
Council: Camden

Gospel Oak is a town in Middlesex within the metropolitan conurbation, surrounded by contiguous districts, except in the north where the great, green expanse of Hampstead Heath opens out. Gospel Oak is positioned between Hampstead to the northwest, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-east, and Belsize Park to the south-west. It is served by Gospel Oak station on the London Overground.

The River Fleet, the most famous of the subterranean rivers of Middlesex, flows hidden under Gospel Oak. It rises on the Heatrh in two streams which unite at Gospel Oak and continue as one river, albeit now underground, following the line of Fleet Road, and crossing under Southampton Road, Kingsford Road and continuing along the line of Malden Road to eventually meet the Thames.[1]

History

The name Gospel Oak derives from a local oak tree, under which parishioners gathered to hear regular gospel readings when the area was still rural. The oak of Gospel Oak marked the boundary between the parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras, and was said to be situated on the corner of Mansfield Road and Southampton Road. The oak vanished sometime in the 1800s and was last recorded on a map of the area in 1801.[2]

There are reports that the founder of Methodism John Wesley preached from the oak,[3] with the 18th century farming population meeting there regularly. The small street named Wesleyan Place, off Highgate Road, was the original site of a very early Methodist chapel that was connected with the famous oak.[4]

Local resident Michael Palin attempted in 1998 to re-plant a new oak tree for Gospel Oak in Lismore Circus, but the tree has not survived.[2]

The history of Gospel Oak can be traced as far back as the history of Hampstead, which was documented in 986 by Ethelred the Unready to the Abbot of Westminster.[5] Situated as it is in the southern part of Hampstead Heath, the area was, in years past, referred to as nearby South End Green. When the now-lost great oak tree of Gospel Oak became famous as a preaching spot in the 1700s, the area was referred to as Gospel Oak, and the name continues today.

The neighbourhood began serious development in the mid-1800s when Lord Mansfield, Lord Southampton and Lord Lisburne were the local landowners. Plans were drawn up for elegant streets radiating from Lismore Circus but after two railway lines were extended across the area in the 1860s the first buildings were two- and three-story cottages, based around present-day Oak Village. The area was for many years rather remote from the rest of the wider Kentish Town development and streets were not fully completed and the housing stock was regarded as relatively sub-standard.[6]

During this early building period, there was a risk that Parliament Hill Fields (the southernmost part of Hampstead Heath, entered from the 'Gospel Oak Entrance' near Gospel Oak station) would be built over. In the 1840s, Lord Southampton's estate initially proposed building on the fields, but a campaign led to the fields being bought in 1889 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as an extension to the already protected Hampstead Heath.[7] The fields now host Parliament Hill itself, the Parliament Hill Lido, an athletics running track, a bandstand, café and various children's play areas.

Being so affected by the arrival of the railway lines, it was inevitable that a rail disaster would hit the Gospel Oak area. On the evening of 2 September 1861, an excursion train returning from Kew Gardens hit an empty train on the bridge next to Gospel Oak station. The engine left the line and plunged down the embankment, killing 14 and injuring 300.[8]

A curious story of Victorian Gospel Oak relates to a story that appeared in the local press of the time, called "The Elephants of Gospel Oak". In March 1884, Sangers Circus was booked to perform at Gospel Oak (presumably on Parliament Hill Fields). Four elephants were transported by train to Kentish Town but on leaving the train, two of the elephants bolted and ran up Fortess Road, knocking over a child, running further beyond Tufnell Park station and ending up falling into cellars in Pemberton Gardens. The other two elephants were then drafted to pull out the trapped elephants using ropes. All four elephants then paraded down the streets of Dartmouth Park, accompanied by hundreds of onlookers, arriving back at Gospel Oak where the elephants performed to packed audiences.[8]

Later development including the areas of the Mansfield Conservation area to the west of Gospel Oak station led to the neighbourhood becoming more respectable and solidly residential - although in 1909 when John Betjeman's family moved to the more affluent Highgate they obviously felt that they were a cut above Gospel Oak:

Here from my eyrie, as the sun went down,
I heard the old North London puff and shunt,
Glad that I did not live in Gospel Oak.

[9]

Bombing during the 1940s and post-war regeneration affected Gospel Oak considerably. During the Second World War, the area around Gospel Oak station was bombed, and on the night of 16 November 1940, Mansfield Road School (Gospel Oak Primary School is now on this site) and other parts of Gospel Oak were bombed. The school was acting as a fire station at the time and 4 local residents died and many more injured.[10] The present-day school was subsequently built on the site, and the damaged Victorian houses opposite were torn down to make way for the more modern estates that are seen today.

Churches

  • Church of England:
    • All Hallows (in Savernake Road): is a vast hall-style Gothic church, described by The Times in 1914 as "the Cathedral of North London",[11] consecrated in 1901
    • St Martin's (in Vicars Road). A listed building which architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described as "the craziest of London's Victorian churches".[12]
  • Greek Orthodox: The Church of St Anargyre

Places of interest

Lismore Circus Estate (early 1970s)

Residential areas

  • Oak Village, and its neighbouring road, Elaine Grove, are some of the prettiest residential parts of Gospel Oak. These streets remain relatively unchanged since the cottages were built in the early Victorian period.
  • The Mansfield Conservation area, contained by Roderick, Savernake and Mansfield Roads contains the bulk of Gospel Oak's larger terraced Victorian and Edwardian properties.
  • Lissenden Gardens, a mansion flat estate consisting of Parliament Hill Mansions, Lissenden Mansions and Clevedon Mansions, is a popular residential area of Gospel Oak, with its own interesting and diverse history, famous as the birthplace of John Betjeman.[13]
  • Kiln Place, an estate in Gospel Oak, was built on a former brick kiln, called the 'Gospel Oak Brick Works'.[14]
  • The Dunboyne Road estate is an award-winning Grade II-listed modernist estate, designed by Neave Brown in the late 1960s.[14]
  • Waxham, a low-rise estate block running along much of Mansfield Road was completed in the 1970s and is said to be the longest single block of public housing in Europe.[14]

Transport links

  • Gospel Oak is the name of a station on the London Overground network, which is the junction where the Barking line meets the Stratford to Richmond loop.

Gospel Oak station dates back to 1860, first by the name 'Kentish Town' until 1867 when it was renamed 'Gospel Oak'. There was a movement in the 1950s to rename Gospel Oak station "Parliament Hill"; a proposal defeated by local residents.[14]

Cultural references

  • 'Parliament Hill Fields' is the title of a famous poem by John Betjeman, born in Gospel Oak. The poem describes a tram journey up Highgate Hill from Kentish Town ending near his home in Parliament Hill mansions, Gospel Oak.
  • 'Gospel Oak' is the title of a 1997 EP by Sinéad O'Connor, the cover of which depicts the railway arches of Gospel Oak station.
  • 'Gospel Oak' is the title of a track written and performed in 2012 by St. Vitus Dance, and features the line; "So you think you might make it down the Smoke, get yourself a place down by Gospel Oak."
  • Gospel Oak was described in the 1924 John Buchan novel The Three Hostages as "shabby gentility on the very brink of squalor."
  • Mister Corbett's Ghost at the Internet Movie Database, 1987 television film, is set here
  • Notes on a Scandal, 2006, features locations in Gospel Oak
  • The Gospel Oak area was one of the locations for the 2010 Kelis music video Scream.

References

  1. ↑ Bolton, Tom (2011), London's Lost Rivers – A Walker's Guide, Strange Attractor Press, ISBN 978-1907222030
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2012/03/14/wednesday-picture-where-the-hell-is-the-gospel-oak
  3. ↑ Weinreb, Ben & Hibbert, Christopher (1983), The London Encyclopaedia, Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-57688-8
  4. ↑ Denford, Steven (2005), Streets of Kentish Town, Camden History Society, ISBN 0-904491-62-5
  5. ↑ Richardson, John (1985), Hampstead One Thousand, Historical Publications, ISBN 0 9503656 8 8
  6. ↑ Richardson, John (1997), Kentish Town Past, Historical Publications, ISBN 0-948667-42-7
  7. ↑ Richardson, John (1999), A History of Camden, Hampstead, Holborn & St Pancras, Historical Publications, ISBN 0-948667-58-3
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Colloms, Marianne and Weindling, Dick (2009), Camden Town and Kentish Town, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7524 2922-9
  9. ↑ Betjeman, John (1960). Summoned by Bells, p 5.
  10. ↑ Whitehead, Jack (1999), The Growth of Camden Town: AD 1800-2000. Whitehead, ISBN 0 9509362-9-4
  11. ↑ Cox, Jane (1996), Camden History Review 20, Camden History Society, ISBN 0-904491-36-6
  12. ↑ Richardson, John (1997), Kentish Town Past, Historical Publications, ISBN 0-948667-42-7
  13. ↑ Bayley, Rosalind (2009), To Paradise by Way of Gospel Oak, Camden History Society, ISBN 978-0-904491-78-4
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Denford, Steven (2005), Streets of Gospel Oak and West Kentish Town, Camden History Society, ISBN 0-904491-65-X
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