Clerkenwell Revealed
A major two-volume study of the buildings of Clerkenwell, one of the capital’s most historic and varied districts, has launched today (Wednesday 16th April, 2008). The volumes are the latest in the long-established Survey of London series, the first of which came out in 1900. This official history chronicles London’s topography and architecture in an authoritative but accessible way. Nothing like it exists in any other major world city. The new books are published for the first time by Yale University Press in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Andrew Saint, General Editor of the series, said: ‘The Clerkenwell volumes are the most ambitious so far, in breadth of coverage and in the number and quality of the illustrations – more than 500 per volume. Clerkenwell is a fascinating area with a rich heritage of buildings dating back to the 12th century, which has gone through massive change, physical and social, but somehow retained its special character.’
Clerkenwell, known today for its concentration of architectural, design and media businesses, was one of London’s most important industrial areas, and was especially associated with clock and watch making and printing. But it began in the middle ages as a settlement along the river Fleet and around three religious houses, including St John’s Priory, headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was a favoured address for the aristocracy, sought after for its healthy air.
Until the late eighteenth century the northern part around what became Rosebery Avenue and the Angel, was semi-rural, with pleasure grounds, spas and places of entertainment, of which the most famous was Sadler’s Wells, the true story of whose origins is revealed here for the first time. Pentonville, which was to become a byword for poverty, began at this time as an exclusive suburb. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 the area was caught up in a building boom which saw London expand dramatically. Some of London’s finest developments of the period can be found here, in and around Myddelton Square, Lloyd Square and Percy Circus.
Clerkenwell remained industrial until after the Second World War, with a tradition of small-scale craft workshops. But it was also home to such big names as Kodak and Columbia Records.
From late Victorian times, residential Clerkenwell declined, as it became possible to commute from outlying suburbs, and industry too was moving further out. Finsbury Borough Council, which ran the area from 1900 to 1965, threw its efforts into housing and other improvements, embracing Modernism. Perhaps the most famous of all London’s inter-war Modernist buildings is Finsbury Health Centre of 1937–9, designed by Berthold Lubetkin.
Based on original research and fieldwork, the Clerkenwell volumes will be essential reference for anyone interested in the history of the area and have a wider relevance in the study of architectural and urban history generally.
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