Stamford Hill

Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill  Stamford Hill shown within Greater London
Area	5.2 km2 (2.0 sq mi)
Population	68,050 [1]
– density	13,087/km2 (33,900/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ335875
– Charing Cross	5.5 mi (8.9 km)  SSW
London borough
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N15, N16, E5
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
London Assembly
List of places UK England London

Coordinates: 51°34′14″N 0°04′22″W / 51.5705°N 0.0727°W / 51.5705; -0.0727

Stamford Hill is a district in north London consisting of four wards in the London Borough of Hackney (Cazenove, Woodberry Downs, Stamford Hill West and Springfield), and one ward in Haringey (Seven Sisters).^[2] It is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) NNE of Charing Cross.

The area is particularly known for its 30,000 Hasidic Jews,^[3] making it the largest concentration of Haredi Jews in Europe. Due to the high fertility among this community, the area has one of highest birthrates in the UK, with a crude birth rate of more than 25 per 1,000 of the population - twice as high as the UK average.^[4]

Stamford Hill is also the name of part of the A10 road running through the area from Stoke Newington High Street to the start of Tottenham High Road.

History

A map showing the Stamford Hill ward of Hackney Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916.

Stamford Hill lies on the old Roman road of Ermine Street, on high ground above Stoke Newington, where it crosses the road from the medieval village of Clopton (the modern Upper and Lower Clapton) into Hackney. By the 18th century, the road was subject to heavy traffic, including goods wagons pulled by six or more horses, and this caused the surface of the road to deteriorate. The local parishes appealed to Parliament in 1713 for the right to set up a Turnpike Trust, to pay for repairs and maintenance. Gates were installed at Kingsland and Stamford Hill to collect the tolls.^[5]

Development of the area began around 1800, and many prosperous dwellings were built around Stamford Hill over the next 100 years. The London Road became a busy commercial centre to serve the needs of the burgeoning population. Around 1880, not only were railways serving the area, but this was the point where the tram systems coming north from the city^[6] met the Hackney tram system,^[7] and so it became a busy interchange, with a depot opening in 1873.^[8] Electrification commenced in 1902 and by 1924 a service was commenced between Stamford Hill and Camden Town along Amhurst Park.

Stamford Hill had many eminent Jewish residents, including the Montefiore family. Italian-born Moses Vita Montefiore (died 1789) was living there in 1763. His son Joseph (died 1804) married Rachel Mocatta, and his grandson Abraham Montefiore (died 1824) married Henrietta whose father, the financier Nathan Meyer Rothschild, lived near the modern Colberg Place from 1818 to 1835. The Montefiores' property a little further south was to be transformed by Abraham's grandson, Claude Montefiore, into Montefiore House school. With the increased development of the area, many distinguished families moved away: in 1842 there were few remaining of the wealthy Jews who had once settled in Hackney.^[9] The philanthropist and abolitionist MP Samuel Morley had a residence here from about 1860. The gardening writer and cottage gardener Margery Fish was born Margery Townshend in Stamford Hill in 1892.^[10]

From the 1880s, a new influx of Jews arrived in the area escaping from the poverty of Stepney in the East End^[11] and, in 1915, the New Synagogue was transferred to Stamford Hill to serve this growing population. In 1926, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations was established in Stamford Hill, and this became a magnet for other strictly observant Jews, many fleeing Nazi persecution in the years before the Second World War.^[9] Also, many Jewish families came to the area from other areas of London, refugees in their own way from bombing and post-war clearances for new housing. One of the early Hasidic leaders in Stamford Hill was the Shotzer Rebbe. The Hungarian uprising also led to an influx of Haredi Jews fleeing hardship under Soviet rule. Another notable Jewish resident from 1955 until his death in 2000, was the spiritual head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa.

Haredi Jewish community

Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill.

Stamford Hill is at the centre of an Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Jewish and predominantly Hasidic community estimated to be some 30,000 strong and growing at a rate of around 5% each year.^[3][12] It is the largest Hasidic community in Europe, and referred to as a square mile of piety,^[9] reflecting the many Jewish men seen walking in their distinctive clothes on their way to and from worship. The congregations often represent historical links with particular areas of Eastern Europe in their dress and their worship. Many also retain international links with other congregations around the world. The largest of these congregations is the Satmar, which has five directly associated synagogues; Belz is another large community with several synagogues. In the surrounding area there may be over 50 synagogues, and many observant Jews in the neighbouring areas of Stoke Newington, Upper Clapton and Tottenham identify with Stamford Hill.

A volunteer emergency response first-aid service called Hatzola (the Hebrew word for rescue) and a volunteer community watch group called Shomrim^[13] (the Hebrew word for watchmen) are run by, and largely for, the Jewish community.^[14] The need for dietary observance means that Stamford Hill has a large number of shops selling specifically Kosher food.

The strictly orthodox Jewish community relies mostly on private education for schooling, with almost all Jewish children attending private, single-sex Jewish schools.^[15] In 2005, however, the Stamford Hill Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School achieved voluntary-aided status.^[16] The school has made headlines several times, most recently when some of its pupils refused to study Shakespeare due to his alleged anti-Semitic views, and the school's principal, Rabbi Abraham Pinter, saluted the girls for having pride in their beliefs.^[17] In 2014, the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) Exam board, having conducted an investigation into alleged exam malpractice, concluded that the school had redacted (deleted) questions involving the evolution of species on GCSE science exam questions.^[18][19] Ofqual subsequently ruled that blocking out exam questions is malpractice, and, accordingly, not permissible.^[20]

Haredi families on average have 5.9 children, almost 2.5 times the average for England and Wales, and many families live in overcrowded flats.^[21] National planning regulations are applied by the local council, prohibiting "excess" development of family housing. This has led to conflict between the council and the Jewish population, represented by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Agudas Israel Housing Association is active in developing housing for the Jewish community in Stamford Hill.^[15]

There is also a notable population of Yemenite Jews, especially Adeni Jews who originated in the port city of Aden in Yemen. They settled in Stamford Hill after fleeing the inter-community violence at the end of the Aden Protectorate. The Adeni Congregation synagogue, Nahalat Yosef, is named after the original Adeni synagogue in Yemen.^[22] A new synagogue has been built, modelled on the original one. Adeni Jews tend to consider themselves a different ethnicity to other Yemeni Jews, due to differences in traditions, prayers (pronunciation) and customs that have evolved under British rule. In recent years, many have moved to Southgate and Hendon.

In 2014 the community met with controversy after a sign was spotted in the location reading, "Women should please walk along this side of the road only".^[23] The sign was reportedly put up for a Torah Procession parade and were meant to provide directions for members who wished to avoid contact with the opposite sex ^[23] After complaints about the sign were raised a group of Shomrim who regularly police the area contacted the organizers to tell them that the posters "lacked explanation" the posters were removed and the organizers agreed to take the signs down more quickly the following year.^[24]

Demographics

The data table shows ONS Census data^[25] for the wards around Stamford Hill, where respondents indicated a religion:^[26]

The London Borough of Hackney has expressed its concern that Haredi-Jewish residents are seriously under-counted in the Census data, as the religion question is voluntary^[27]

Education

The Jesuit order founded St Ignatius' College on 10 September 1894, in two houses called Morecombe Lodge and Burleigh House near Tottenham High Road. In 1907 the College was recognised by the Board of Education and began to receive public money. Notable former pupils of St Ignatius include Alfred Hitchcock and Cardinal Heenan. It remained at Stamford Hill as a grammar school until 1968, and then became a two-tier, seven-form entry comprehensive school, the Lower School being located at the old Cardinal Allen School in Enfield, and the Upper School in Stamford Hill. In 1987, the Upper School also moved away from Stamford Hill, when both parts of the school were united in Enfield in the course of a major building programme.

Today, Lubavitch Senior Girls' School, Our Lady's Convent RC High School, Skinners' Academy and Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School are secondary schools located in the area.

There are also many independent or Haredi schools in the area.

Transport and locale

Neighbouring areas of London.

	Hornsey	South Tottenham	Walthamstow
	Manor House		Leyton
		Stamford Hill
	Finsbury Park	Stoke Newington	Upper Clapton

Districts within the London Borough of Hackney.

Nearest stations

• Stamford Hill railway station
• South Tottenham railway station
• Manor House tube station
• Seven Sisters station
• Stoke Newington railway station

Notable residents

• Sadik Ahmed (born 1977), British film director and cinematographer
• Ronald Wilberforce Allen (1889-1936), English lawyer and Liberal politician
• Bernard Butler (born 1970), English musician and record producer
• Michael Duane (1915-1997), teacher
• Aba Dunner (1937-2011), social and religious activist
• Lennie Felix (1920-1980), British jazz pianist
• Margery Fish (1892-1969), English gardener and gardening writer
• Leo Genn (1905-1978), British stage and film actor and barrister
• William Brodie Gurney (1777–1855), English shorthand writer and philanthropist
• Nathan Moore (born 1965), English musician and manager
• Shloime Gertner, Hasidic Jewish singer
• Samuel Morley (1809-1886), English manufacturer, philanthropist, and statesman
• Shulem Moshkovitz (died 1958), Shotzer Rebbe
• Richard Negri (1927-1999), British theatre director and designer
• David Pearl, property developer
• Harry Roy, (1900-1971), British dance band leader and clarinetist
• Moishe Sternbuch, vice-president of the Jerusalem rabbinical court
• Leona Lewis, singer, songwriter, vocal producer and animal welfare campaigner.

See also

• Hasidism
• Haredi Judaism
• Yemenite Jews
• Stamford Hill Shomrim
• Mavar, a organization which supports those who wish to leave the Haredi lifestyle in the UK, many of whom come from Stamford Hill.

References

External links

• memories of Montefiore House School 1944-1950
• 2001 Census profile: The Jewish population of London - GLA Data Management Group (September 2006) accessed 13 December 2006
• The Reservoirs Nature Society (TeRNS)

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