Sunday 30 September 2007

A local feature

No guessing for this occasion! This picture is of the clock tower at Highbury Barn in Islington. I like it as as a structure and I think it bears some similarity with one of Evie's latest photographs, viz. that of Blackfriars Bridge, in its construction or materials and painting.
During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 (Wat Tyler and all that) when the peasants of Essex and Kent and elsewhere rose up against the Establishment because of their hard lot in life and went a-rampaging around London, some of them came upon the manor house situated behind the houses in the background and burnt it down. The place then became known as Jack Straw's Castle, after the London leader of the revolt. In the 18th century a new house was built, which has now also gone. Then the area became a place to rest and take the air and a Tavern providing entertainment called Highbury Barn was built to the right of those houses and a few yards up the road. Rather like modern-day comedy programmes this went from gentility to scurrility and was closed in 1871. Nowadays the entertainment (genteel or otherwise) and the revolts and suchlike are provided by the local football team, whose ground was once called Highbury, being only just down the road but now is much a little further away.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting bit of history. Is that where Jack Straw's Castle in Hampstead gets its name from?

bachman said...

A good question which I have asked myself and have not researched for an answer.