Archway Streets and Buildings
Originally Archway was little more than a hamlet with a few buildings, notably pubs, on the way up to the village of Highgate. The first print shows the view from Upper Holloway looking towards Highgate, and the second is of the original Mother Redcap pub, possibly the place the Gunpowder Plot conspirators stopped for a drink before travelling on to Hampstead Hill for a view of their hoped explosion at Westminster.
There were a number of big houses such as Bowman Court, photographed here in 1898, and in 1826-8 the church of St John's was built, seen in the print. Next to that is a drawing showing the bottom of Highgate Hill looking particularly rural.
Since then much has been demolished, the big houses to make way for shops with housing above, seen in this photograph of the top end of Holloway Road, next to Giesbach Road. Later these too were demolished to make way for road building
Other areas were demolished to make way for modern housing estates, notably the roads in what is now the Elthorne Estate. The pub pictured is the original Royal Oak on St John's Way.
And this is one of the buildings lost in the demolition to make way for the unloved Archway Gyratory.
However, older photographs show some streets looking more or less the same as they do today. Examples are St John's Grove or Dresden Road in Whitehall Park, though in the 19th century they were bare of the street trees planted later.
The Islington Workhouse was an imposing building set back from St John's Way - for a print image scroll down at www.workhouses.org.uk/Islington. Later renamed Hillside, the main building was demolished to make way for the housing estate but what was reported to have been the offices and board room survived, currently an evangelical church and housing.
