Our previous post looked at how Clerkenwell developed from being a predominantly rural landscape of freshwater wells and ecclesiastical houses, to its use as a leisure destination and the creation of the New River Head. Part 2 focuses on the creation of Hardwick Street and its use as a residential and industrial site.
The Building of Hardwick Street
From 1810 to 1850, the New River Company developed housing on its land surrounding New River Head. The south side of Hardwick Street was first laid out in the early 1820s, originally as plots for eight houses. An insurance policy taken out with the Sun Insurance Office in 1828 tells us that a Mary Beeby, widow, was living at 1 Hardwick Street. Her house would have been roughly where part of our new home now stands.
The former water testing laboratory building, dating from 1938
Over the years 1 Hardwick Street was inhabited by various tradespeople, including a bricklayer, a dressmaker and a wood carver. In 1851, the house was occupied by a jailer (the census gives his job title as “Turnkey”). He most likely worked at the nearby Middlesex House of Correction, which stood at the junction of Calthorpe Street and Farringdon Road, where the Royal Mail Mount Pleasant complex now stands.
These houses on the south side would originally have had a view across the road to the ponds and filter beds of the New River Head development. In the London Guardian of 1893 H Chipperfield described the abundant wildlife on the reservoirs which included nightingales, skylark, cuckoos, kestrels and crested grebe.
Over time the New River Company added more workshops and industrial buildings to its site, filling in parts of the north side of Hardwick Street. Most of these have since been replaced by modern redevelopment, but around the east end of the street two of their more impressive buildings remain. Firstly, set back from the road is the distinctive curved building of the water testing laboratory, completed in 1938. Here staff monitored the chemical and biological qualities of London’s water. The other, on the corner of Hardwick Street and Rosebury Avenue stands the former offices of the Metropolitan Water Board, which opened in 1920. The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal company which took over from the New River Company in 1904. Its headquarters incorporates internal features from the New River Company’s original seventeenth century premises including the Oak Room which housed an ornate painted ceiling and wood-panelled walls. Both these fine structures have subsequently been converted to flats.
The Coming of Industry
In the first years of the twentieth century the houses on the south side of Hardwick Street were demolished and replaced by workshops and small factories. The land was still owned by the New River Company and in 1919 the London County Council rejected their planning application to replace these small premises with larger industrial units. The rejection was on the grounds that Hardwick Street was too narrow for such large industrial buildings. In March 1923 the Company agreed to sell a strip of land along the roadside to the Council of the Borough of Finsbury so that the street could be widened by forty feet.
Work could now begin on the creation of three large industrial buildings. The middle of the three was completed first, in 1924. Known as 3-4 Hardwick Street it was built as premises for Grauer and Weil, electroplating outfitters. The easterly building, 5-8 Hardwick Street followed in 1926, constructed for EJL Delfosse of Pentonville Road and initially occupied by Osmond Engineering, manufacturers of screws. Lastly in 1930, the property known at the time as number 1-2 Hardwick Street was completed. It was designed by the firm of Lewis Solomon and Son. They were responsible for many factories and warehouses around Clerkenwell, as well as the Stoke Newington Synagogue and the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in Spitalfields.
The frontage of the former Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in Spitalfields
The first occupier of 1-2 Hardwick Street was the firm of Epstein Brothers, manufacturers of leather goods. By 1936 the premises had been divided into two; one section occupied by the organic chemists Richter Gideon and the other by Herring, Dewick and Cripps, paper manufacturers. This latter firm would remain in the building for over fifty years until 1989. Over the decades they shared the building with various other businesses, including manufacturers of camping equipment, hydrometers, lithographic plates and ladies’ underwear.
In October 1939, a few weeks into World War Two, an air raid shelter was built on Hardwick Street, alongside the offices of the Metropolitan Water Board. The south side of Hardwick Street survived the air raids of World War Two relatively unscathed, whereas the testing laboratory directly across the road was destroyed during an air raid in 1941.
More to Explore
The streets around our new office are rich with historic sites. These include Finsbury Town Hall which has a plaque dedicated to the educator and activist Dadabhai Naoroji, who in 1892 became the second person of Asian descent to be elected Member of Parliament. There’s Clerkenwell Green where in 1848 members of the Chartists group of social reformers held a series of open-air public meetings. Or there’s the Old Red Lion pub on St John Street. A pub of that name has stood on this site since 1415. There is much to explore. But as we embark on the next chapter of the College’s history spare a thought for those engineers, water chemists and working horses who strode down Hardwick Street before us.
