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Coordinates: 51°36′55″N 0°04′15″W / 51.6154, -0.0708

Edmonton


The church of All Saints
Edmonton, London (Greater London)
Edmonton, London

Edmonton shown within Greater London
Population 96,493 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference TQ335925
London borough Enfield
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region London
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district N9, N18
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
European Parliament London
UK Parliament Edmonton
London Assembly Enfield and Haringey
List of places: UK • England • London
For other places with the same name, see Edmonton (disambiguation).

Edmonton is an area in the east of the London Borough of Enfield, England, United Kingdom with a long history as a settlement distinct from Enfield. The man-made River Lee Diversion adjoins the east of Edmonton and forms the boundaries between Enfield and Waltham Forest.1

Contents

Location

Edmonton is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) north-north-east of Charing Cross and stretches from just south of the North Circular Road in the south to just past Edmonton Green in the north and from the Great Cambridge Road in the west to the River Lea in the east. The northern part of Edmonton (N9 postal district) is known as Lower Edmonton and the southern part (N18) as Upper Edmonton.

Demography

2001 Census

Edmonton had a population of 96,493 in the 2001 census2

The three white groups made up 66.1% of the population and thirteen ethnic groups the remainder.2

Constituency profile April 2004

Edmonton has a young, ethnically diverse population. It has significantly higher proportions of Muslims than the borough average. It is clearly the most deprived part of Enfield and has the highest crime rate. Satisfaction with the area is as high as for Enfield as a whole with environmental concerns ranking highest.2

Edmonton today

Since the 1960s Edmonton has been transformed from a predominantly white, working class industrial suburb into a multicultural area by commonwealth immigration and in recent years asylum seekers.2

In 2008 the Edmonton Green ward has been identified as having one of the highest numbers of working age adults living on state benefits in the UK.3

In the first three months of 2008 five young men have been murdered, most of them victims of knife crime. The area has become known as "Shank Town".4

The Edmonton Green area is currently being redeveloped by St. Modwen Plc. The £100 million project will include new housing, bus station, clinic and refurbishment of the shopping centre.5

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson visited Edmonton in November 2008 to release his Time For Action plan. He claimed his proposals would help stop young people becoming repeat offenders. 6

Sites or buildings of historic interest

  • All Saints'Church The mostly 15th century church is located in Church Street. It is the oldest building in Edmonton.
  • Angel Place. A mid 18th century block of two linked Grade II listed houses, plus a block of three which were altered in the middle of the 19th century. Located in Fore Street A1010 road and standing close to the junction with the A406 road. The houses were adjacent to the now demolished Angel public house.7
  • Charles Lamb Institute. The grade II listed building is located in Church Street. Designed by J S Alder and opened in 1908. The building today is used as a gymnasium.8
  • Edmonton Central Library. The former public library (closed 1991) opened in 1897 at Fore Street. Designed by Maurice B Adams with bequests provided by the John Passmore Edwards foundation. Today the Grade II listed building is used as a religious and community centre. (Inside the library by the main entrance were two portrait plaques of Charles Lamb and John Keats by George Frampton,1908. The plaques can be viewed at Community House, 313 Fore Street, Edmonton )9
  • Edmonton Federation Cemetery. The roughly triangular shaped cemetery was founded in 1889 with land given by Samuel Montagu.10 The walled cemetery is bordered by Salmons Brook which forms part of the Pymmes Brook Trail and a footpath which follows the course of the disused Lower Edmonton low level railway.11 Rabbi Eliezer Gordon is buried here . The entrance is in Montagu Road B137 road. The site also incorporates the Western Synagogue Cemetery10 founded in 1884 and adjoins the Tottenham Park Cemetery.12
  • Edmonton Girls' Charity School. The simple yellow brick structure with red brick dressings is located on the south side of Church Street. Initially the school , founded in 1784, had been on a different site. However the benefactor, Obadiah Legrew, grew tired of the children close to his home. He had the original school demolished, drew £170 from the trust, and purchased another plot of land. In 1793 the new school was built afresh, away from his delicate ears. Pupils aged between 7-14 were clothed and educated, although the main purpose was to fit them for domestic service. The facade carries a figure of a charity girl and the words A structure of Hope founded in Faith on the basis of Charity. The school closed in 1904.1314
  • Lamb's Cottage. Formerly known as Bay Cottage. The cottage is believed to have been built in the 1680s and is located in the Church Street conservation area.7 Writers

Charles and Mary Lamb occupied the house between 1833-34, and is where Charles Lamb died.15 The cottage was sold to its new owners in June 2008.16

  • Millfield House. The late 18th century house has been used as a workhouse school, hospital and a refugee centre before closing in 1971. The house re-opened as an arts centre in 1979 in a complex that includes the Millfield Theatre and Weir Hall Library.
  • North Middlesex Hospital. The hospital is located in Sterling Way, Upper Edmonton. Built in 1842 by the Edmonton Board of Guardians as the Edmonton Union Workhouse. A separate infirmary block was opened in 1910. Much of the building was taken over for use as a military hospital. it was returned to civilian use in 1920 and re-named The North Middlesex Hospital.17
  • Salisbury House. The house dates to the late 16th/early 17th century, and is the oldest building in Edmonton apart from All Saints' Church. The house which is located in Bury Street West, Lower Edmonton has been a private residence and a school before it was bought by Edmonton council in 1936. The building was established as an arts centre in 1957 (the first to be provided by a local authority in London).18 In 1992 it underwent a major restoration. The house is Grade 11 listed along with some of the surrounding walls.19
  • The Crescent. A terrace of twenty five Georgian houses located in the Hertford Road. Built between 1826-51 by a London solicitor. By the late 19th century the Crescent had been largely split into flats.2021

Infrastructure

Schools

For further details see article List of schools in the London Borough of Enfield

Secondary

Primary

  • Brettenham,
  • Churchfield,
  • Cuckoo Hall,
  • Eldon Road (J),
  • Fleecefield,
  • Galliard,
  • Hazelbury (J),
  • Latymer All Saints CE,
  • Raynham,
  • St. John& St.James CE,
  • Starks Field, Wilbury

Places of worship

  • All Saints' Church. A mainly 15th century church located in Church Street.
  • St Aldhelm's church. Is located in Silver Street Upper Edmonton. Built in 1903 and designed by William Douglas Caroe22
  • St Alphege's church. Was erected in 1958 and designed by Edward Maufe. The church can be found at the junction of the Hertford Road and Galliard Road.23
  • St Edmund's RC church. Built between 1905-1907 . The church is on the junction of the Hertford Road and Bounces Road.

Shopping

The main shopping centre in Edmonton is at Edmonton Green which has a popular market, the second largest is at the Angel, Edmonton which is a high street.

Politics

The Member of Parliament for Edmonton is Andy Love (Labour) who polled 18,456 votes (53.2%) at the General Election held on 5 May 2005

History

Angel Road, Edmonton, at dusk. Edmonton gasworks on horizon. (February 2006)
Edmonton gasworks seen from Tottenham Marshes

The old highway Ermine Street passed through what is today Edmonton. Ermine Street was the main Roman Road from London through Lincoln and on to York. Edmonton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is recorded as Adelmetone- 'a farmstead or estate of a man called Ēadhelm' from an Old English personal name and tūn. 24

Edmonton Hundred was a division of the historic county of Middlesex from Saxon times, an area of some 31,000 acres (125km2) stretching up the west bank of the Lea from Tottenham to the county boundary south of Waltham Cross, and west into what is now Hertfordshire as far as South Mimms. Local government in the modern sense began in 1837 with the Edmonton Union, set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. This also covered a wide district of 47,102 acres (191km2), including the modern boroughs of Haringey and Enfield, plus Cheshunt, Waltham Abbey and Waltham Cross. The population of this area grew rapidly, reaching 445,875 by 1911 and would today be about 615,000. As the population mushroomed Middlesex was subdivided into many small local government areas, a much smaller Edmonton of 3894 acres (16km2) eventually achieving the status of borough (main article Municipal Borough of Edmonton) in 1937. At the 1961 census the borough had a population of 91,956.25 This was absorbed into the London Borough of Enfield in 1965, and the former Town Hall and civic buildings were controversially demolished by Enfield Council in 1989.26

Pymmes Park with its historic walled garden is Upper Edmonton's park. Pymmes Park originated as a private estate. In the late 16th century it was owned by the powerful Cecil family. In 1589 Robert Cecil, later 1st Earl of Salisbury, spent his honeymoon at Pymmes. The estate was eventually acquired by Edmonton Council and opened as a public park in 1906. Pymmes House was destroyed by fire during World War II and the remains were demolished. Robert Cecil was a protege of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's chief spymaster and he succeeded him as Secretary of State in 1590.

In the 17th century the then rural Edmonton had a reputation for supernatural activities. In approximately 1600, a play entitled The Merry Devil of Edmonton was performed in London about a wizard who lived there.

In 1621 the villagers accused an old woman, Elizabeth Sawyer, of witchcraft and she was subsequently executed at Tyburn; her story was told in a pamphlet by Henry Goodcole, and in a 1621 play entitled The Witch of Edmonton.

The historic All Saints' Church is situated in Church Street as is Lamb's Cottage, which was home to writers Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb.

John Keats, the poet, was apprenticed to surgeon Dr. Hammond in Church Street between 1810-1816. The house was demolished in 1931 to be replaced by Keats Parade. An extant shop carries a blue plaque in commemoration.8

Edmonton was the home town of Sir James Winter Lake, director of the Hudson's Bay Company. The company's trading outpost named after Edmonton is now the capital of what is today the Canadian province of Alberta.

The Diverting History of John Gilpin

The statue of Gilpin's Bell at Fore Street
Gilpin House
The Gilpin's Bell public house

William Cowper, the 18th century poet relates the comic tale of John Gilpin a linen draper of Cheapside London, who was probably based on a Mr Beyer, a linen draper of the Cheapside corner of Paternoster Row.27

Gilpin's spouse decides she and her husband should spend their twentieth wedding anniversary at The Bell Inn, Fore Street, Edmonton. The journey is beset with misfortune from start to finish. Gilpin loses control of his horse which carries him on to the town of Ware ten miles (16 km) distant. On the return journey, Gilpin is still unable to handle his steed, as he once again he fails to stop at The Bell. The horse gallops back to Cheapside much to the dismay of his concerned spouse.28

Gilpin is remembered in Edmonton by the statue at Fore Street. The Wetherspoons outlet the Gilpin's Bell public house opposite the site of the original inn and the 1950s council housing Gilpin House in Upper Fore Street.

Industry

Edmonton was home to many industries which included manufacturing of gas appliances, electrical components and furniture. Most of this has been lost in the latter part of the 20th century. Some of the household names that produced goods here include MK electric, Ever Ready batteries, British Oxygen, Glover and Main gas appliances. Eley Industrial Estate was named after Eley Brothers the firearms cartridge manufacturer. Its shot tower was a distinctive landmark on the Edmonton skyline, demolished late 20th century. Due to its close proximity to the River Lee Navigation, timber was transported by barge from the London docks and stored in riverside wharves. As a result many furniture makers including Nathans, Beautility and Homeworthy had factories here. Today Parker-Knoll products are manufactured at the former B&I Nathan factory on the Eley Industrial Estate [1]. The skyline here is dominated by the 100 metre Edmonton Incinerator chimney which was built in 1971. Other major employers here include Coca Cola. [2]

Railway and transport

The railway arrived in 1840 with the opening of the first section of the Lea Valley Line from Stratford to Broxbourne. A station was provided in Water Lane (Angel Road). As the station was badly sited and the trains were slow and expensive, few people used the railway in the early days, preferring the horse buses. In 1845 there were buses every 15 minutes along Fore Street, travelling alternately to Bishopsgate and Holborn.

The single-track line from a junction just north of Angel Road to Enfield Town opened on 1 March 1849, with an intermediate single-platform station at Lower Edmonton, located at the edge of the village green. The service was infrequent and often required a change of train at the junction. This, coupled with the train taking the long way round through Stratford to get to the terminus at Bishopsgate, meant that the railway offered little competition to the existing horse coaches and buses.

The direct line from London to Enfield Town was opened in four stages, from Bethnal Green to Stoke Newington on 27 May 1872; from Stoke Newington through to Lower Edmonton High Level on 22 July 1872, with stations in Edmonton at Silver Street and a new High Level station at Lower Edmonton, which was renamed Edmonton Green in 1992; the short section from Lower Edmonton High Level to Edmonton Junction (where the new line met the original Eastern Counties Railway route from Angel Road to Enfield Town via Lower Edmonton Low Level) on 1 August 1872; and the suburban platforms on the west side of Liverpool Street station on 2 February 1874.

The stations were well sited and offered exceptionally cheap workmen's fares of just 2d on trains arriving at Liverpool Street prior to 07:00, 3d on those arriving between 07:00 and 07:30, and half-price returns on those arriving between 07:30 and 08:00. A horse tramway along Fore Street opened in 1881. The tramway was re-constructed and electrified during 1905, lasting until 1938 when trolley buses took over.

Leisure and recreation

Parks, gardens and open spaces

For further details see article Enfield parks and open spaces

  • Bury Lodge gardens. The gardens are located in Bury Street West. Built on land belonging to Bury Lodge house (demolished 1935) and the nearby Salisbury House. The ornamental garden includes brick pillared pergolas, rose gardens and a pond. Other facilities are a playing field. The southern boundary of the park is bordered by Salmons Brook.3435
  • Churchfields Recreation Ground. The recreation ground is located close to the A10 in Lower Edmonton. The grounds facilities include playing fields and children's play area. The site is the home to London's only complete World War II Civil Defence Centre.3635
  • Craig Park TQ3448092570. The park is located in Upper Edmonton and lies close to Angel Road A406. Facilities include sports pitches, children's play area. and hardcourt.
  • Jubilee Park. Covering 37 acres (150,000 m2) of land previously used for brick-making. The park opened on June 24, 1939 to commemorate King George V Silver Jubilee in 1935. Facilities include, the Henry Barass stadium, formal gardens , pitch and putt, sports pitches, tennis courts and wildlife area.3738
  • Montagu Road Recreation Ground TQ3511193199. The recreation ground is located in Montagu Road B137. The facilities include playing fields, children's play area and hard courts.
  • Plevna Road Open Space.Open space close to Edmonton Green
  • Pymmes Park. This historic park is located in Upper Edmonton and borders the North Circular Road
  • Tatem Park and Hollywood Gardens. The park and the gardens opened in 1938 and were built on a former gravel pit which belonged to the Tatem sisters, who donated the site to Edmonton Borough Council in the 1930s, for use as a public park. The gardens are named after Alderman Hollywood, former Mayor of Edmonton. The ornamental gardens occupy a triangle between two main roads A10 and the A111. In 1983 a nature area was created with the accent on wildlife conservation.39

Theatre and the arts

Edmonton is the home of the Millfield Arts Centre and Face Front Inclusive Theatre Company.40

Popular culture

  • The Empire Music Hall was the venue for Marie Lloyd's last stage performance in 1922. She was taken ill on stage and died several days later43

Watercourses

Nearest places

Railway stations

Notable residents

The following people were born in or lived in Edmonton:

Notable people educated in Edmonton

Literature

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edmonton, London

Gallery

Edmonton Green market

Edmonton Incinerator viewed from the River Lee Navigation

Edmonton Green bus station completed in 2007

References

  1. ^ Lower Edmonton - The River Lee (or Lea)
  2. ^ a b c d Enfield observatory census 2001 Retrieved February 27, 2008
  3. ^ The Sun news report Retrieved April 07, 2008
  4. ^ Daily Mail news report Retrieved April 07, 2008
  5. ^ St. Modwen Plc Retrieved April 20, 2008
  6. ^ Time For Action Retrieved 12 November 2008
  7. ^ a b Church Street and Fore Street conservation areas Retrieved March 29, 2008
  8. ^ a b Church Street Retrieved April 01, 2008
  9. ^ Passmore Edwards Library Retrieved April 05, 2008
  10. ^ a b Jewish history in Enfield Retrieved March 28, 2008
  11. ^ Lower Edmonton low level railway Retrieved March 28, 2008
  12. ^ Tottenham Park cemetery Retrieved March 28, 2008
  13. ^ Edmonton Girls' Charity School fn43 Retrieved April 08, 2008
  14. ^ GodfreyA. (notes to) Old Ordnance Maps: London Sheet 1, Lower Edmonton 1894 Alan Godfrey Maps, ISBN 0850549663 Retrieved April 08, 2008
  15. ^ Charles and Mary Lamb Retrieved March 29, 2008
  16. ^ Lambs cottage details Retrieved March 29, 2008
  17. ^ History of Enfield hospitals Retrieved March 31, 2008
  18. ^ British history Retrieved April 01, 2008
  19. ^ Salisbury House Retrieved April 01, 2008
  20. ^ Godfrey A. (notes to) Old Ordnance Survey Maps: London Sheet 2, Edmonton (Pickett's Lock) 1894 Alan Godfrey Maps, ISBN 0850549671 Retrieved March 25, 2008
  21. ^ Photos of The Crescent Retrieved March 25, 2008
  22. ^ St Aldhelms church Retrieved March 29, 2008
  23. ^ Edmonton churches and places of worship Retrieved March 22, 2008
  24. ^ Mills, A, D, Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names (2001) p74 ISBN 0198609574 Retrieved 19 October 2008
  25. ^ Census and boundary data from Vision of Britain - Edmonton Middlesex through time
  26. ^ Short architectural description of the Town Hall Buildings of England pp425 London:4 North Bridget Cherry& Nikolaus Pevsner ISBN 0-14-071049-3 Retrieved December 02, 2007
  27. ^ The poetical works of William Cowper, P 212,London: Frederick Warne and Co, 1892
  28. ^ The Diverting History of John Gilpin Retrieved June 10, 2008
  29. ^ Edmonton Cricket Club Retrieved April 07, 2008
  30. ^ Norsemen Football Club Retrieved April 07, 2008
  31. ^ Edmonton Leisure Centre Retrieved March 22, 2008
  32. ^ Angling downstream of Pickett's Lock Retrieved March 31, 2008
  33. ^ Angling upstream of Pickett's Lock Retrieved March 31, 2008
  34. ^ Bury Lodge gardens Retrieved March 11, 2008
  35. ^ a b Photos of Bury Lodge Gardens and Churchfields Recreation Ground Retrieved March 11, 2008
  36. ^ World War 2 Civil Defence Centre Retrieved March 11, 2008
  37. ^ Jubilee Park Retrieved March 10, 2008
  38. ^ Jubilee Park Management Plan 2007-2011 Retrieved March 10, 2008
  39. ^ Tatem Park and Hollywood Gardens Retrieved March 11, 2008
  40. ^ Face Front theatre company
  41. ^ Some Mothers Do 'Av 'Em Retrieved March 10, 2008
  42. ^ Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - Video Retrieved April 10, 2008
  43. ^ Marie Lloyd Retrieved March 10, 2008
  44. ^ Lostprophets- The Videos Retrieved April 09, 2008
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