Stoke Newington Common
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Stoke Newington Common is an open space in Stoke Newington in the London Borough of Hackney. It is east of Stoke Newington High Street, with Northwold Road to the north, and it straddles the busy Rectory Road.
This is old common land that came under public ownership in 1872. It was originally known as Cockhanger Green and later became Shacklewell Common, but Shacklewell's contracting sphere of influence led to it being named for a time 'Newington Common' (not to be confused with Newington Green) until finally in the early 20th century it acquired its present name.
Not merely the common's name has been mangled by time. Unlike its near neighbour, Hackney Downs, this land has been cruelly dissected by London's burgeoning transport links. The deep cutting of the railway line between Stoke Newington and Rectory Road railway stations cuts straight through the common from north to south, and the parallel Rectory Road slices off another strip to the west. Finally a busy bus route chops off a section to the south.
However, local residents are campaigning to have Rectory Road closed off over the common and the railway roofed over as part of a campaign to scrap the gyratory or one-way system there.
It should also be noted that the now lost Hackney Brook once ran across the north of the common, but this has long been replaced by the busy Northwold Road and the brook runs somewhere underground. In the 1860s, however, on what were the banks of the old brook hereabouts, a 200,000-year old palaeolithic flint axe factory has been found - this is among the earliest evidence of human occupation of Britain.
The north side was also overlooked by Gibson Gardens, an early example of quality tenement dwellings for working class people built in 1880 and still unchanged today, though highly desirable for owner-occupiers. Gibson Gardens is now masked from the common by the innovative Raines Court on Northwold Road on the site of the old dairy. Built by the Peabody Trust, this is just the second multi-storey modular housing development to be built in Britain, and may offer one approach to the endemic demand for housing in London.
The common can claim one internationally famous resident, Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex, who lived at 25 Stoke Newington Common, on the south side, from birth until the age of 15.
[edit] Nearest stations
[edit] External links
- History of Stoke Newington Common (from the Cazenove Area Action Group)
- Restore the Common (from scrap the gyratory campaign)
