Letter from Ann Pembroke to Supporters in the work to restore Clerkenwell Green

It is good to receive your interest in the work of the Society and, despite, the closures brought about by the COVID pandemic, I want you to know of the progress by the Society you will have noted.

We have continued to liaise with Islington Council with regard to the repair and restoration of the Public Lavatories built underground on the Green in 1900. George Jennings was the Surveyor who undertook this task to relieve the problems of sanitation in a poor environment when the norm was unavailable.

At that time the Middlesex Justices sat in what is known as The Old Sessions House which was built to replace the Carolean Court House built at the junction of St. James Street and St. James Lane. The width of the road there relates to this lost timber-framed public building. The several prisons in the area brought increased work requiring larger premises. A terrace of houses at the western end of the Green were demolished and the Grade II* star building there today was erected in the 1790s.

The purpose of the underground Lavatories was to ensure there was no obstruction available which could affect prisoners’ release. The River Fleet flowing behind would convey prisoners to the hulks moored in the River Thames.

George Jennings had built underground public Lavatories for visitors to the Great Exhibition of 1850, where the profits from “spending a penny” and having a shave, allowed the South Kensington museums to be built.

The Public Lavatories on Clerkenwell Green have been closed for over 40 years. I have visited them and found an Aladdin’s Cave of tessellated marble flooring, a glass roof, porcelain sanitary fittings, brass taps, marble tops and slate dividers. Panelled WC cubicles and an Attendant’s cubicle. I was able to prevent cement poured over the Victorian tiles of the entrance steps by Islington Council by installing lockable iron gates fitted.

You will be pleased that Islington Council produced the Clerkenwell Community Plan in November 2021 in which the project will include the refurbishment of the Victorian toilets, although suggesting it will become a “community hub” for activities other than what it was built for, is both problematic, unwanted and unnecessary. Original fittings were removed for restoration. The budget for restoring the Lavatories for local and visitor use is from S106 monies £660,000. On the demolition of the Allied Brewery in St. James Street, £150,000 was allocated for the restoration of the Public Lavatories on Clerkenwell Green, which money was used by the Council north of the Borough. Let us anticipate that the original intention as Public Conveniences will be complied with. Our area is privileged in having large, enclosed space for such “hub” activities in the Crypt of neighbouring St. James’ Church.

The Society is also delighted with the long-awaited advent of Cross Rail at Farringdon Station, for which the opening of our Public Lavatories is an asset.

The Clerkenwell Community Plan also refers to an allocation of S106 monies of £1,037,000 in which all parking will be removed from Clerkenwell Green, which we trust includes the road blocking and hazardous LT Red Buses parked from south London. This exclusion of parking will allow the east and west ends of the public open space to restore its space to a larger environment for public pleasure.

Islington Council has the least amount of public open space than any other London Borough. This improvement will help remedy this lack.

Last July I held a meeting with Society members and senior LBI officers in which we expressed concern that the underground laying of cables under roads was introducing “Tarmac” to fill holes instead of replacing the existing granite setts which made the cobbled highways. The Society wishes the original York stone-style paving slabs to be renewed, since the small bricks and paving squares dislodge easily making an unsafe walking surface. The current road surfaces of Clerkenwell Green and Clerkenwell Close are a motley uneven surfaces in which Tarmac/Asphalt must be removed and the cobbles restored in the heart of Islington’s first Conservation Area.

The Society is surprised to read that Islington Council writes that a new statue of Sylvia Pankhurst will be installed on Clerkenwell Green. This statement goes against the decision made by a committee of local people, set up with Officers and elected Councillors at their last meeting in 2017. Other places for this statue had been refused. On the grounds that Sylvia |Pankhurst has no connection with Clerkenwell Green, having not been born or died nearby, nor spoken on the Green as is its heritage of Free Speech from the time of the Peasants’ Revolt up to May Day this year, and we do not even know if she visited the Marx Memorial Library! Clerkenwell Green has hosted orators to include William Gladstone, our Prime Minister, to Cardinal Manning and the Temperance Movement and even Cobbett there returned after his Rides. Many significant speakers occurred on the Green to further public health and prosperity, but Sylvia Pankhurst was not one of them.

Clerkenwell Green has no statue, and never has had a statue. The promoters of Sylvia Pankhurst must find another site for her statue. What we wish to see restored to the Green is the Victorian ornamental iron Temperance Drinking Fountain with its adjacent Gas Lamps which were removed.

The Lockdown of the COVID Pandemic brought many more people to enjoy the public open space of Clerkenwell Green with their dogs and exercises. The pedestrianisation promoted by the Society brought the closure of the south road whereby both noise and air pollution were reduced.

I, personally, undertook the repair and restoration of the two K2 Listed Red Telephone Boxes on the Green. Through my contact with BT South Wales, vandalism of posters was removed, the boxes cleaned inside and out, re-painted and the operation of the equipment restored. To keep, and maintain, this asset, we must ensure that the Telephone Boxes are used by everyone making at least one call a week!

We were pleased to have a grant to restore the Notice Board on the Green, which we now share with Clerkenwell Walks, the work undertaken by a Society Supporter.

The Metropolitan Horse and Cattle Trough, once planted and cared for by Highways Department, Islington Council, had long become a depository for waste plastic bags! Two of our Supporters took it upon themselves to replace the soil and re-plant with colourful flowering plants, whilst keeping the “rabbit ears” plants I put there some time ago. All now restored with water and loving care. It would be good to re-start this link with the Cattle Drive to Smithfield to also restore the twinned granite horse trough on Rew Street Bridge. Will local trades find the money, and can we have more volunteers to plant and maintain this part of our heritage?

More recently, the Society has ensured that the timber and metal public benches are restored. They are roomy and comfortable, in keeping with the local environment.

The Society is concerned that the site of the Clerks’ Well in Farringdon Lane is no longer open to the public. No longer providing spring water which residents used flowing from the Nunnery Wall. But with an awning and the widening of the pavement, which requires L.T. South London double-decker parked Buses to find another home.

I am attaching a Personal Supporters’ Questionnaire to my Newsletter as we would like to know more about you, what you want for Clerkenwell Green and if you are prepared to support the work of the Society with gifts of time, ideas and money?

We are very proud of the heritage of John Betjeman’s “First London Village” as I am sure you are.
With every good wish from

Ann M.F. Pembroke, B.E.M., OSt.J.,

Founder/Director,

Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society Ltd. (a local amenity non-profit-making company no. 4353031, run by Volunteers)

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD OUR APPLICATION FORM FOR CGPS SUPPORTERS