Islington: Economic history

Economic history

Agrarian history

In 1086 there were 12 hides and 1 virgate in cultivation, roughly half the acreage of Islington, including the land which Hugh de Berners held of the bishop, which was probably in the parish. There were six holdings, varying widely in size. Berners held 5 hides and 1 virgate with land for 4 ploughteams, of which one was in demesne and the rest held by villeins. One villein held 1/2 hide, six shared 3 virgates, two bordars shared 1/2 virgate, and three cottars shared 2 1/2 a. There was meadow to support 4 teams, and woodland for 150 pigs. (fn. 85) The canons of St. Paul's had two holdings of 2 hides each. On one there was arable for 1 1/2 team but only 1 team was kept. Three villeins held 1 virgate, and there was common pasture for their cattle. The other holding had land for 2 1/2 teams and was held from the canons by 4 villeins; there were also 4 bordars and 13 cottars. (fn. 86) Ranulf held Tollington, consisting of 2 hides with land for 2 teams. One hide was in demesne with 1 team, but the villeins had 2 teams. Five villeins each held 1/2 virgate, two bordars held 9 a., and there was a cottar and a serf. There was pasture for the cattle and woodland for 60 pigs. The two holdings were 1/2 hide each, with land for half a team. Derman's holding had one villein, (fn. 87) and Gilbert's holding had one villein and one bordar. (fn. 88)

By the early 14th century Islington was divided between five manors, three wholly within the parish and two mainly in Clerkenwell. Neither of the two Clerkenwell manors had demesne land in Islington. Barnsbury had 180 a. of arable and 5 a. of meadow in demesne in 1297, when the 48 customary tenants owed annual works at haymaking and harvest. (fn. 89) In 1388 the lord still had demesne in hand with 123 a. of arable, of which 30 a. were fallow that year, 100 a. of pasture, and 20 a. of meadow. He had 28 a. of corn and 60 a. of oats under crop and kept 39 cows, a bull, four stots, and six steers. (fn. 90) The manor had roughly equal amounts of arable and pasture in 1502 with a smaller proportion of meadow. (fn. 91) By the mid 16th century at least 134 a. of demesne were leased out. (fn. 92) Sales and grants of demesne were made in the 1550s and in 1639 (18 a.), 1654 (65 a.), 1656 (17 a.), 1667 (118 a.), 1675 (18 a.), and by 1678 (27 a.), (fn. 93) which included the site of the manor house and probably accounted for all the demesne.

Canonbury manor was nearly all demesne in 1306. The 18 customary holdings consisted of only 17 houses and 12 3/4 a. of land, while the demesne in hand was 157 1/2 a. of arable, 3 3/4 a. of meadow besides a close near the manor house, 30 a., of sheep pastures, and 4 a. of grazing around the arable fields for tethered horses and cattle. A 20-a. field called Randulffesfeld was let to Richard de la Pyry. (fn. 94) William Yon had a lease of all or part of Canonbury and Cutlers in 1467. (fn. 95) By 1529 Thomas Cromwell held a lease of the manor and demesne from the prior of St. Bartholomew's. (fn. 96) In 1540 the mansion, garden, dovecot, and six closes of more than 25 a. nearby were let to farm, and eleven other parcels of demesne were let to named tenants; no demesne was apparently in hand. (fn. 97) William Rickthorne held some or all of the demesne with his lease of Canonbury House from 1565 and by his will of 1582 made subleases for the rest of his 31-year term of c. 30 a., included three closes of little Cutlers and one close of Fulplasshes. (fn. 98) The lease of the mansion to Sir Francis Bacon also included c. 70 a. of demesne. (fn. 99) In the 1650s Lord Northampton was leasing out parcels which accounted for most of the land held with the house in the 1540s. (fn. 1) The demesne continued to be let, mainly to local tenants, until built over from c. 1800. (fn. 2)

Highbury manor had a large proportion of arable to meadow, pasture, and wood in 1338, (fn. 3) and the lord had corn and grass growing there in 1380. (fn. 4) Only 34 a. out of 300 a. demesne were specified as arable in the 1530s when the land and the grange were leased to Thomas Cromwell. (fn. 5) In 1541 the farm of the demesne was let by the Crown for 21 years to Sir Thomas Wroth (d. 1573), through the agency of his father-in-law Sir Richard Rich. New leases were obtained by Wroth in 1562 (fn. 6) and 1572 for 21 years, (fn. 7) by his six sons in 1585 to run until 1605, (fn. 8) and in reversion by Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1594 for 60 years. (fn. 9) The lease had been assigned to Lord Compton by 1611 when he held 426 a., (fn. 10) and came to William Halliday, who was succeeded by his wife Susanna in 1623. She assigned it to trustees in 1625 and left it to her daughter Anne (d. 1657), wife of Sir Henry Mildmay, and Anne left the lease in trust for her son William Mildmay. (fn. 11) The lease presumably expired in 1665 and the lord, Thomas Austen, let 138 a. for 30 years in 1669 (fn. 12) and probably other parcels on similar leases. Two other parcels of demesne were leased separately in the 16th century, Dambottom or Danesbottom (12 a.) and Longmead (19 a.). Leases of 21 years were granted in 1541 to Sir Henry Knyvett, of the king's household, in 1560 to Thomas, duke of Norfolk, to run from 1562, and in 1568 to Robert Wiseman, gentleman pensioner, from the end of Norfolk's lease. (fn. 13) These were probably the two meadows of 32 3/4 a. held by Sir Nicholas Coote in 1611 on a lease dated 1588, (fn. 14) and a lease for 60 years for the land was granted in 1610-11 to an unknown lessee. (fn. 15) By 1718 they were in the hands of the lord of the manor again, and they were included in the sale of the manor and demesnes. The demesne in 1718 covered c. 380 a. excluding Highbury woods. (fn. 16) Sales of demesne were made in 1732 to Peter Abraham Maseres (135 a.) and in 1773 to John Dawes (247 a.). (fn. 17) Customary land accounted for at least 418 a. in 1540, of which 281 a. were at Tollington and Stroud, 62 a. in Islington, and 75 a. at Newington Green. (fn. 18) In 1611 the manor included 414 3/4 a. of copyhold, 113 3/4 a. held by eight freeholders, and 459 a. demesne. (fn. 19)

There is no evidence that Islington had open arable fields, but there were parcels of common land such as Newington green, Kingsland green, and Islington green, which were manorial waste. A small area called Islington common in 1817 (fn. 20) probably originated as Hyde Lane. (fn. 21) In the 17th and 18th centuries a field in the south-east corner of the parish was called the common field of Islington but by 1618 it had been inclosed and divided among copyholders of Highbury, (fn. 22) and in the 19th century was the site of City Gardens. (fn. 23) It may have been part of the 'common fields about Islington, Hoxton and Shoreditch' where in 1513 Londoners destroyed new hedges and ditches, in order to regain access for archery and other pastimes. (fn. 24) The fields were evidently open pastures, in view of their use for sports. Much customary land in Islington, Holloway, and Tollington apparently had been turned into inclosures which had more than one tenant and varied land use. (fn. 25) In the early 16th century arable and pasture existed within the same closes of Cutlers estate and Highbury demesne. (fn. 26)

Winter wheat was growing in the 1380s; (fn. 27) in 1420 an inhabitant bequeathed cows, pigs, sheep, ewes, a horse and harness, and 6 a. of crops. (fn. 28) In 1542 John England, a leading parishioner, bequeathed 15 cows, timber, two dung carts, two other carts with two plough-horses, five oxen, and a yoke and chains. (fn. 29) By the 16th century, however, the proximity of London had made grazing important and by 1556 there had been several conversions to pasture of land that had been in tillage for four years in the previous 40. Among local residents Thomas Turvyn was presented for 7 a. at Stroud Green, Thomas Caysar for 30 a., Christopher Newton of Holloway for 6 a., Mistress Wrothe for 30 a. at Highbury, and Lionel Biggins for 40 a.; Londoners included Robert Barton for 16 a. at Tollington, George Deeping for 31 a. at Holloway, the London innholder leasing Trayeshill for 80 a., and one Martin, an innkeeper, for 16 a. at Holloway. (fn. 30) London butchers leased large pastures to fatten cattle before slaughter, (fn. 31) and John Parnell, a London draper, who had moved to Newington Green, in 1537 was owed by one tenant a fortnight's grazing for 11 beasts at 3d. each per week. (fn. 32) The earl of Rutland was renting a close at Islington in 1554 for oxen and sheep. (fn. 33) Deals involving horses and hay were also important in the 17th century and it was still common for both innkeepers and farmers to buy cattle for fattening in the 1690s. (fn. 34)

Walter Burton bought cows in Oxfordshire and elsewhere c. 1710 and 1720 for himself and his brother-in-law John Radcliffe, who kept them in a shed in Islington. They also obtained grain, besides dung and night-soil for their meadows. (fn. 35) Islington, a major source of London's milk supply, was one of the parishes to which special attention was given during an epidemic of cattle distemper (Rinderpest) in 1714. When the disease abated after 2 1/2 months, 667 cows had been destroyed and 550 saved: (fn. 36) John Radcliffe had lost 12 cows out of 200, a Mr. Rufford 62 out of 72, and Samuel Pullin 38 out of 87. (fn. 37) In the mid 18th century several small grass farms in Upper and Lower streets and Holloway had herds of 20-100 cows. (fn. 38) Stock was bought at local markets, such as Islington or Barnet, or on commission in Yorkshire in batches of 10-20. The large cattle were called Holderness but many came from farther north, such as Durham or the North Riding. (fn. 39) Very few cows were bred by the keepers; calves were generally sold at birth and the cows fattened after 4 to 7 year's milking. Milking was done by retailers, who contracted for a certain number of cows. The cowkeeper needed only 5 or 6 men to tend 300 cows. The cows were fed grain twice a day even in summer in addition to grass, and also ate turnips, hay, and other supplements. Cowkeepers' meadows were mown two or three times each summer from early May onwards and heavily dressed with manure, to obtain a soft, grassy hay. Demand for milk fell in the summer, when the milk was rich and much was used for butter, the buttermilk being fed to pigs. (fn. 40)

By c. 1810 many small dairy farms had been replaced by the concerns of Richard Laycock and Samuel Rhodes, who alone held extensive land or farmstock in Islington. Both men needed large acreages for hay and pasture. Rhodes's farm adjoined Pullins Row in High Street and had formerly belonged to Samuel Pullin who had kept 300-400 cows. Rhodes's stock varied from 400 to 600, the greatest number being kept in winter, and he made several thousand loads of hay which c. 1829 were stacked near Colebrooke Terrace. (fn. 41)

Laycock, whose farm lay on both sides of the lane later called Laycock Street, occupied more than 500 a. in Islington, with land at Enfield, and in addition to his farmstead used premises in Hornsey Road to stack hay. He kept 600-700 cows and also more than 100 heavy horses with carts for carrying turnips, potatoes, and grains, mainly for cattle-feed. His premises extended from Upper Street to Liverpool Road and included loose boxes, stables, barns, cowhouses, crop storehouses, grain pits, blacksmiths', wheelwrights', and carpenters' shops, timber yard and sawpits, nos. 4-11 Sebbon's Buildings fronting Upper Street, which included his own residence, the Angel and Crown inn, and six small houses called Moulder's Row at the Liverpool Road end. On the west side of Liverpool Road he owned houses and some building land used as sheep pens in 1835. By that date much of his income came from his covered cattle lairs (often spelt layers), used for keeping animals overnight on their way to Smithfield market. The lairs had been built by the 1820s to hold several thousand bullocks and sheep, and were more advantageous than lairage in the open pens used elsewhere along Liverpool Road. Laycock died in 1834 after 40 years in business, and both he and Rhodes had turned much of their land first to brickmaking and then to building. (fn. 42)

In 1841 the occupier of Laycock's farm had six cowsheds, each with 64 cows, pens with 5,000 sheep, and other buildings spread over 16 a., in addition to two or three farms farther from London. (fn. 43) There were still some small cowkeepers in the 1840s. A Mr. Briggs had premises at the back of Clifton Place, Holloway Road, where his cows were brought to calve; George Smith had a cow yard and kept 19 cows behind Claremont Row, Barnsbury Mews; a Mr. Vorley had cattle lairs in Upper Holloway in 1849 and he too had turned to brickmaking on some of his land by 1853; a Mr. Dunham, of Gray's Inn Lane, had fields next to the Mother Red Cap inn and in Hornsey Road, where he spread dung. (fn. 44) In 1857 there were 54 separate establishments, equally divided between west and east Islington, containing a total of 924 cows. The two chief cowkeepers had 293 and 119 cows respectively, the remainder from 2 to 46. Space, ventilation, and cleanliness were inadequate: only about half the cows received from the country by the largest keeper escaped lung disease during the first two months in sheds and most had to be sold for slaughter. Two very unhealthy sheds were removed, from George's Place and from Lower Road. Licensing was introduced in 1862, for 69 cowhouses then and 71 in 1864. (fn. 45)

In 1865 cattle plague started in Mrs. Nicholls's sheds in Liverpool Road (probably the former Laycock's farm) and spread quickly around London. Within three months the number of cows had fallen from 1,317 in 71 licensed cowsheds to 314 in 45, many beasts having been sent away for safety. By the end of the year 625 cows had died, leaving 274 in the parish. (fn. 46) In 1866 there were 61 licensed cowkeepers with 474 cows. The plague discouraged cowkeeping and produced new arrangements for the public supply of milk. (fn. 47) In 1866-7 there were still six infected premises. (fn. 48) In 1870 there were 33 licensed cowkeepers with 56 sheds, which were carefully checked, and 67 milk-sellers. (fn. 49) In 1878 there were 62 sheds licensed for 1,054 cows but not full, and in 1879 there were only 54 sheds. (fn. 50)

Incomplete records from 1867 suggest that between 1870, when there was still one agricultural occupier with more than 50 a., and 1885 the number of stock-keepers fell slightly while the number of cows increased, but by 1895 no stock was recorded. (fn. 51) A great many pigs were kept, in small numbers, by the poor in areas such as Belle Isle, Britannia Row, Duddy's Rents, and othe\?\ alleys off Lower Street. Larger piggeries were common, especially around Brandon Street and Belle Isle, where there were six with more than 20 pigs each c. 1855. (fn. 52)

Nurseries and market gardens

From 1668 to c. 1682 part of the grounds of Draper's house near the churchyard was planted with fruit trees and herbs, and the lessee, Catherine Comondall, supported herself by selling the fruit. (fn. 53) Andrew Butter leased 1 1/4 a. on the north side of Church Lane in 1692, where he cultivated fruit trees and other plants and where his landlord built a house for him. (fn. 54) Part of the grounds of a large house was let to another gardener, together with a greenhouse, in 1727. (fn. 55) In the 18th and early 19th centuries there were several well known nurseries and botanical gardens, some started by amateurs such as Dr. Pitcairn. (fn. 56) William Redmond advertised a fine auricula called Triumph in 1756, and in 1810 Mr. Gabell of City Gardens was charging 6d. to inspect his tulips. (fn. 57)

William Watson founded a nursery behind Colebrooke Row by 1770, when he and his brother James took a lease of 6 a. of Hattersfield from Sir George Colebrooke, building on it a hothouse and greenhouse. (fn. 58) The nursery, a specialist one, in 1771 took part in a great exchange of exotic plants with the Chelsea Physic Garden. The firm became William & James Watson in 1776, but in 1785 James assigned his share of the lease to his brother. Another brother, Thomas, took over at William's death in 1792, and in 1798 was the first person to bring into flower the Pontic azalea, recently sent from the Crimea. The nursery closed in 1824 (fn. 59) and the land was later sold to Thomas Cubitt. (fn. 60)

A nursery of 19 a. on the west side of Kingsland green was run by Lewis & Co. in 1786. Robert Mackie joined in 1787, and the firm of Lewis & Mackie was described in 1797 as a 'patent nursery manufactory'. Thomas Bassington took it over from 1800 but part of his land was taken for brickmaking and building, and by 1810 he had only 8 a. George Henry Bassington had succeeded by 1822 and George Hockley Bunney, a partner from 1824, ran the nursery from 1826 until it closed in 1844. Bunney, who specialized in fuchsias and orchids, was one of the hybridizers of the fuchsia in the 1830s and also had premises at Bedford Conservatories, Covent Garden, by 1833. (fn. 61)

A nursery was founded in 1791 by Thomas Barr at Ball's Pond, on the west side of Newington Green Road. It increased in 1798 and covered over c. 11 a., formerly Hopping field, in 1806. Samuel Brooks, Barr's partner from 1819, later took over the nursery, which in 1822 had a good reputation and sent plant collectors to distant countries. Brooks left for Chicago in 1832 and the land was used for building. (fn. 62)

Andrew Hogarth was a nurseryman in Lower Street in 1797. His nursery may have been taken over c. 1800 by Henry John & Co., of the Seed and Root Warehouse, opposite the Thatched House inn. (fn. 63)

Cooksfield, on the west side of Upper Street between Park and Barnsbury streets, covering 5 1/2 a., became a nursery in 1806 run by a Mr. Townsend, who also rented 2 a. in Frog Lane. George Smith took over after 1810 and remained until the land was built over c. 1827 by Thomas Cubitt. In 1827 Smith made an agreement with Cubitt for no. 11 Manchester Terrace, Liverpool Road, and all the land behind not required for domestic gardens, and on it he built a large conservatory, where he still exhibited plants in 1835. (fn. 64) Smith had a market garden of c. 3 a. on the north side of Richmond Avenue in 1848. (fn. 65)

Woods

In 1086 Hugh de Berners had woodland for 150 pigs, yielding 3s. 6d., and at Tollington woodland for 60 pigs yielded 5s. (fn. 66) No wood was mentioned at Barnsbury in the Middle Ages, but many holdings in the northern part of the parish included standing timber. Copyhold at Holloway belonging to John Kitchin in the 1580s had at least 200 mature trees, (fn. 67) and copyholders could still fell many in the 18th century: 40 on one holding in 1716 and 80 on another in 1778, both in Holloway. (fn. 68) There was still wood and underwood at Yveney or Seveney Grove, on the east side of the later Essex Road near Ball's Pond, in 1430 when the dean and chapter let it to John Hert of Islington and others, with permission to fell the trees, plough and sow the land and to fill in all ditches except that enclosing the grove. (fn. 69) By the 16th century, however, Highbury alone retained land set aside as woodland, divided into Highbury wood, just north of the manor grange, and Little St. John's wood farther north-west. Each was said to contain 33 a. in 1569, from which 2 a. were to be set aside for hedging and fencing. Highbury wood had 31 a. of underwood, partly c. 19 years old and partly c. 10 years old but spoiled by livestock owing to the keeper's negligence. St. John's wood had 1 a. of waste without any timber and 30 a. set with underwood c. 12 and 8 years old, also very spoiled. The woods were to be let, reserving to the Crown all standing timber and oak saplings, and the young wood was to be protected for seven years after felling. (fn. 70) However, in 1605 it was found that the keeper had let the herbage and allowed stray cattle to damage young growth; within the last three years between 40 and 80 oaks had been felled, between 250 and 500 young trees shrouded, leaving only three or four boughs, and c. 300 loads of timber had been made from oak saplings. (fn. 71) There were 371 mature trees by 1650, when Highbury wood was estimated to be 43 1/2 a. and St. John's 35 a. Part of Highbury had recently been grubbed up; if all the wood were to be converted to tillage, the annual value would be £59 13s. 4d. instead of £4 11s. 8d. (fn. 72) By 1710 only 25 a. of coppice were left, with no mature trees, and in 1716 the lessee was licensed to grub them up. (fn. 73)

Mills

Hugh de Berners had a mill worth 66s. 8d. in 1086. (fn. 74) In 1271 land at Highbury given to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem included a mill. (fn. 75) The manor of Canonbury included a windmill valued at 40s. a year in 1306. (fn. 76) No later record of a cornmill in the parish has been found.

Markets

Sales of fat bullocks were made at Islington in the 1790s a day or so before Smithfield's weekly market. (fn. 77) John Perkins built a large cattle market on the east side of Lower Road under an Act of 1835, completed in 1836, but traders preferred Smithfield and his venture failed in 1837, being used for lairage only thereafter. His market was bought by speculators c. 1847 and reopened in 1849 but had closed by the early 1850s, when the land was laid out for building. (fn. 78) The Corporation of London bought a site in Copenhagen Fields for a metropolitan market to replace Smithfield for the sale of live animals. Designed by the City's architect J. B. Bunning, the market was opened in 1855 and covered at least 30 a., mostly with stalls for 7,000 cattle, 3,500 sheep, 1,500 calves, and 900 pigs. The central tower contained a telegraph office and 12 banks. Five taverns were built, one at each corner of the market and the fifth on the opposite side of York Way for the drovers and butchers; two hotels, the City Arms and the Queen's Arms, became tenement dwellings by 1873, and the Drovers' hall was added in 1873. The market later became more general, selling a range of goods until 1939, when the market closed. (fn. 79)

Trade and industry

Early occupations included those of carter in 1352, (fn. 80) baker in 1404, (fn. 81) smith in 1410, (fn. 82) currier in 1445, (fn. 83) courser in 1462, (fn. 84) drover and labourer in 1465, (fn. 85a) and loriner in 1474. (fn. 86a) At the end of the 16th century there was a wide range of tradesmen and craftsmen in the town: collar-maker, vintner, glazier, shoemaker, tailor, wheelwright, weaver, (fn. 87a) tanner, (fn. 88a) and brewer. (fn. 89a) Some brewers had their own inns but others, such as Francis Marsh in 1624, supplied innkeepers. (fn. 90a) There was a confectioner in 1667. (fn. 91a)

Digging clay was permitted to Henry Frowyk on land on the Prebend manor in the 1340s. (fn. 92a) A field in the same area, straddling the footpath from Islington to Finsbury, was being dug for bricks in the 1590s, and again in 1633 by Francis Tredway, who interfered with the City's archery practice. (fn. 93a) By c. 1580 Islington's brick-kilns were said to be a resort of rogues and vagabonds. (fn. 94a) In 1668 a licence was given to dig brick and tile earth on 4 a. behind the Swan inn, High Street, and 1 3/4 a. in the common field adjoining, (fn. 95a) all in the area of Tredway's operation. An Islington brickmaker rented 2 a. on the boundary with Shoreditch in 1673, paying 6d. for every thousand bricks made, and was said to have made up to 1,700,000 bricks during the first summer. (fn. 96a) Another agreement covered 20 a. in 1691, with permission to make bricks during the first ten years; by 1692 c. 1 1/2 a. had been dug up 4 yards deep. (fn. 97a) Land on the Woods' estate including Vale Royal, Charterhouse Closes, and Commandery Mantels (Clerkenwell) was dug for clay and gravel in the 1680s. (fn. 98a) Hattersfield, by River Lane (St. Peter's Street), had brick-kilns in 1727 and 1735 and was often called Tilekilnfield, and in 1735 there were also brick-kilns between Wells's Row (Highbury Corner) and the Back Road. (fn. 99a) Thomas Bird used the field behind Bird's Buildings for brickmaking in 1769. (fn. 1a) Thereafter, until Islington was completely built up, kilns were a common sight, as building plots were used first for brickburning. (fn. 2a) In addition to temporary brickburning, two tilemaking firms were long established in Maiden Lane. Adams's tilekilns or a predecessor was at Belle Isle by 1810, making garden and chimney pots. (fn. 3a) In 1829 the premises included 8 a. for tilemaking and brickburning, a large kiln in operation, a smaller one temporarily used as a storehouse, and sheds and cottages. (fn. 4a) It was still a pottery in 1865 but had been taken over for Tylor's instrument factory by 1870. (fn. 5a) Farther south in Maiden Lane were Randell's tilekilns, which moved from Bagnigge Wells Road, Clerkenwell, in 1828 (fn. 6a) and whose site was taken for building in the 1860s. (fn. 7a)

A wide range of industries existed from the late 18th century. At the Rosemary Branch a windmill for grinding white lead was built in 1786 by Samuel Walker & Co., ironmakers of Rotherham (Yorks.), and a second beside it in 1792, the factory being managed by Walker, Maltby & Co. of Upper Thames Street. By 1829 the firm was called Maltby, Parkers, & Co., and the factory employed 30-40 people. (fn. 8a) A 20 h.p. steam engine powered the mills by 1835, when the firm was T. and C. Maltby & Co., employing c. 50; two thirds of the workforce were women, reputedly less injured by the process used than men. (fn. 9a) The works were still there in 1865. (fn. 10a) In the early 19th century Thomas Wontner & Sons, hatters, of the Minories, had a large factory in Greenman's Lane, where 40-50 men and women sorted beaver, seal, and other skins, and R. Kear had a smaller fur factory in Lower Street opposite the Thatched House. Nearby in Britannia Row were Messrs. Bull & Smith, makers of cut-glass, and a factory making watch-springs. (fn. 11a) Farther north along Lower Road a floor-cloth factory was built c. 1812 and belonged to Samuel Ridley in 1829. (fn. 12a) Lower Street also had premises used in the 18th century for rectifying spirits to make gin and for soap-making. (fn. 13a) A patent for water-proofing of 1801 was acquired by Elizabeth Duke & Co. which built a factory at the south end of Hornsey Road and mainly produced water-proofed clothing for the army but also treated ships' sails and other canvas articles. The business declined after the Napoleonic Wars and passed to Ingram & Lermitt, who let the premises to a Mr. Jones, who converted it to a dye-house. The building was demolished c. 1833. (fn. 14a)

Pasteboard manufacturers equipped with horse-mills were located in Islington in 1808 and 1816. The second of those belonged to Thomas Creswick and lay near the southern end of the Back Road. (fn. 15a)

Several industries, including noxious ones, were established in Maiden Lane by the early 19th century, before there were many residents nearby. At Battle Bridge in 1829 there was a varnish factory that had formerly been a pottery, a factory making patent yellow paint belonging to Mr. Scheldt, and premises for boiling bones for sale to manufacturers of knife handles or buttons and to farmers. (fn. 16a) At the south end of Maiden Lane the factory of Rood, Heal, & Co., feather dressers, of Compton Street, Soho, existed in 1811 and 1829. The premises of R. P. Smith, Vaux, & Bell, making stone-blue and mustard, were there in 1811 but unoccupied by 1829. An ale and table-beer brewery in 1811 was probably the brewhouse used for vinegar-making in 1829. Farther north at Belle Isle were Warner's coach and cart grease factory, Margett's chemical laboratory (Parkes's in 1829), a large varnish factory belonging to Wallis & Sons of Long Acre, Adams's tilekilns, a soap-boiling house unoccupied by 1811, and premises for slaughtering horses. (fn. 17a) Those or similar industries were still carried on in the 1850s, when they had become a health hazard to occupants of new houses. The manufacture of varnish and enamel black, various japanning processes, and the boiling of linseed oil were extensive industries at Belle Isle in 1856, with about 10 factories. The largest belonged to Messrs. Wilkinson & J. S. C. Heywood in Caledonia Place, who had patented a method of condensing the vapours in order to render such manufactures inoffensive. Another varnish factory was owned by a Mr. Schweizer. Two large factories making blood manure closed c. 1856 and in 1857. Fat melting and gut-scraping for sausage skins were particularly noxious, as were the boiling-houses, three of which were attached to knackers. A fourth, recently moved to Brandon Street from Cow Cross during the Clerkenwell improvements, received condemned meat from City markets and was so offensive that its owners were summoned before the magistrates three times in the year, to little effect. There were 100 slaughterhouses licensed in 1857, 49 in the west side of the parish and 51 in the east, rising to 109 in 1860. Many of those in the western half were concentrated around the Metropolitan market, which included land for abattoirs. Licensing helped to control health risks: a slaughterhouse in Brandon Street that was habitually used for diseased cattle was refused a licence and forced to close. (fn. 18a)

In 1868 there were complaints about Fretwell's manure works and Turner's varnish factory at Belle Isle, and japanning works at Ball's Pond. Turner's closed in 1870 and two other varnishmakers, Hatfield's and Wallis & Co., were warned to discontinue. Another, Jensen & Nicholson, had recently closed in 1869. Two more, Harman & Price and Mr. Naylor's, closed in 1876-7, leaving only one varnish factory, which did not create a nuisance. (fn. 19a) The emery works of Acton & Borman were reported a danger to their workers' health in 1869. In 1872 Belle Isle had 38 establishments, 13 fewer than in 1868, and none a threat to health. In 1878 it had 32 factories or yards, including horse-slaughterers and piggeries. (fn. 20a)

A lamp-black and printers' ink factory was built c. 1827 in Hornsey Road, nearly opposite Hanley Road, by Thomas Davision, a printer of Whitefriars Street. It was burned down three times before 1833, and between 1833 and 1835 a steam-engine was put in to replace horse-power. Complaints were made about the factory by local builders in 1827 and again in 1838. The business was sold to Shackell & Edwards by 1853, when their ink-making brought more complaints, and in 1869 the vapours constituted a nuisance. (fn. 21a) In 1932 the factory had to be restored after an explosion. (fn. 22a)

An india rubber factory was established c. 1830 by Messrs. Cornish & Sievier in Upper Holloway on the south side of Red Cap Lane, to make elastic webs for belts, braces, and similar articles. In 1837 the firm was incorporated as the London Caoutchouc Co. The factory employed c. 100 people and used steam-driven machinery. (fn. 23a)

John Webb started a mineral and soda-water factory at Lamb's Cottage, Colebrooke Row, c. 1830, using steam power. It still existed in 1861. (fn. 24a)

In 1831 there were 4,874 families supported by trade and manufacture, compared with 320 by agriculture and 3,381 others. Manufacturing of products such as white lead, varnish, horsehair, and soap engaged 174 men, excluding labourers, while 3,366 were in retail trade or handicrafts and 2,124 were wholesale merchants, bankers, capitalists, and professional men. The labourers employed by those three groups were 1,335. (fn. 25a)

The most important industry in the 19th century was building, with its allied trades. A great many small local builders, some of them mentioned above, did the building in Islington; (fn. 26a) a few of them emerged as large firms. Dove Brothers began with William Spencer Dove (1793-1869) who came from Sunbury and started as a jobbing builder and carpenter in St. Luke's and Islington in 1824, doing redecoration and such work as minor repairs to the church. From the late 1820s he was building houses, especially on the Milner-Gibson estate. His first major commission was the Islington Literary and Scientific Society's premises, Almeida Street, completed 1837, and in 1839 he began work on St. Stephen's, New North Road, the first of many churches built by his firm. In the 1840s Dove also continued as a shop-fitter, joiner, plasterer, and painter. In 1852 his sons formed the Dove Bros. partnership under the supervision of their father. They rented from their father the recently built premises at Moon and Studd streets which became their offices and yard, which in the 1870s had stabling for 12 horses, workshops, stone cutters, a mortar mill, and two steam engines. In 1881 they leased property in the City, where Tokenhouse Buildings was built to provide an office, but they kept their yard in Barnsbury, moving in 1901 to Cloudesley Place. The firm became a limited liability company in 1905, and the last member of the Dove family retired from it in 1970. Between 1858 and 1900 it built 130 churches, but from the 1870s it diversified with civil engineering contracts, besides constructing public buildings, shops, offices, and houses, becoming a major contractor, with a high reputation. Commissions eventually came from all over London, but much early work was done in Islington, where entire buildings included 15 Anglican churches and some nonconformist chapels. (fn. 27a)

Less widely known builders included in the 1860s Hill of Charlton Place, which later became part of Higgs & Hill. (fn. 28a) Thurman & White originated when John Thurman, a plumber and glazier, came from Shepton Mallet (Som.) in 1851 and leased premises in Canonbury Road. His daughter Elizabeth married John White, an oilman and colourman of Stoke Newington. The firm, which became a limited company in 1922, was chosen as contractor for the building of King Edward's Hall at Canonbury Place and the renovation of Canonbury Tower in 1907-8. It engaged in a wide range of building all over London and opened branches at Walworth (Surr.) and Hornsey Road. (fn. 29a)

C. P. Roberts & Co. was founded by Charles Philip Roberts, born in Islington in 1846, who set up as a builder and decorator in Alma Road in 1868. From carrying out small works he gradually took plots on building leases, letting each completed house before starting the next. His house and yard were in Alma Road and the adjoining no. 138 St. Paul's Road was the office. By 1884 he had converted a building at no. 36 Tyssen Street, Dalston Lane, Hackney, into a works yard, keeping his office at St. Paul's Road. In 1886 he became bankrupt for two years, regaining prosperity by rebuilding many of the area's poorly built houses. By the early 20th century the firm was carrying out new works all over London, many for the L.C.C. Roberts's son Charles Ernest took over in 1907, and in 1929 the company moved its offices to High Holborn. Building work in Islington included the Central library and Archway Central Methodist Hall. (fn. 30a)

Connected with the building industry was C.F. Anderson & Son, founded by Charles Frederick Anderson, who set up as a timber dealer in 1863, renting part of the former Jones's burial ground near Islington green. Anderson built a house in front of his yard, no. 13 Essex Road, and was assisted by his reputation among builders as a good judge of timber. By the mid 1870s he had become a wholesale timber merchant, and had taken over the grounds of no. 68 Colebrooke Row as additional storage. Anderson's son William Frederick took over the business on his father's death in 1899. The firm also occupied nos. 9, 11, and 19 Essex Road by 1901, and in 1902 opened a branch in Southgate. In 1904 it bought houses in Paradise Court adjoining the yard, and opened a glass and ironmongery department at no. 19 Essex Road, a new frontage being built when the road was widened for trams. Andersons was one of a few London firms to sell plywood before the First World War. It also specialized in supplying large quantities of timber to the film studios in Poole Street (Shoreditch) and, from the late 1920s, Elstree studios, where up to 800 sets a year were built. A two-storeyed warehouse was built in Paradise Court in the 1920s. In 1929 the firm became the distributor for new manufactured building boards, being instrumental in opening up markets in Britain for them, and no. 3 St. Peter's Street was leased in 1934 and converted into a wallboard warehouse. Additional premises were acquired during the Second World War and a sawmill was built there. Business in wallboards increased in the 1930s, especially for government building contractors, and in 1937 the firm bought the leasehold of Harris wharf in Graham Street, fronting the City Road basin, for storage. The adjoining City wharf was acquired and rebuilt in 1955. After a fire in 1958 the timber yard was rebuilt, incorporating the former Collins's music hall which had also been badly damaged. (fn. 31a)

Islington lay in the Victorian manufacturing belt of London, which was based mainly on small workshops, often specializing in one stage of production and grouped in districts serving one another. Precision engineering in light metals, with jewellery, and precious metals, was concentrated in an area from Clerkenwell to Barnsbury and Holloway, and by the mid 20th century had diversified into a variety of engineering and metal trades. (fn. 32a)

John Taylor & Sons, who made water-metering instruments from 1787, built a 150-ft. tower in 1870 at their factory, formerly Adams's tilekilns, Belle Isle, which gave a constant known water pressure by which they could test the instruments. By 1967 the factory had been taken over by Ebonite Container Co. (Mfg.), which used the tower as a boiler flue in making plastic accumulator boxes. (fn. 33a)

William Hill & Son, organ-builders, had a factory in York Road, which was rebuilt in 1882, and built an organ for Westminster Abbey in 1884. They amalgamated with Norman & Beard of Norwich in 1916, continuing to use the York Road factory until it was bombed in 1943. (fn. 34a) Bryceson Bros., also organ-builders, were carrying on business from St. Thomas's hall, Highbury, in 1911. (fn. 35a)

A. C. Cossor was founded in 1896 in Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, making scientific glassware. In 1918 the firm moved to larger premises in Highbury called Aberdeen works, extended in 1927 with no. 22 Highbury Grove as offices and with the nearby balloon factory of the Spencer brothers, well known aeronauts, as an annexe called Melody works. Bulk production of valves and later of radios was undertaken, providing home construction kits that were easier to use than the old crystal sets. A large three-storeyed factory was built in 1929 in front of the parent factory and more land was bought near Melody works. In the early 1930s the firm developed cathode ray tubes for television, the first television receivers, and the world's first radar receiver. A five-storeyed factory replaced several old houses and gardens in Highbury Grove in 1935, with space for 1,000 additional radio workers, and a front administration block in 1936. (fn. 36a) The firm moved to Harlow (Essex) in 1958. (fn. 37a)

Key & Whiting, a bookbinding firm founded in 1799, moved from Harecourt chapel, Aldersgate, to a three-storeyed purpose-built factory in Canonbury in 1904, where it remained in 1949. (fn. 38a)

Stephens's Ink in 1892 opened a purpose-built factory in Gillespie Road, designed by Michael Stephens and modelled on a Venetian palace, with an illuminated chimney. (fn. 39a) The firm moved c. 1965 to a former dairy at the corner of Drayton Park and Martineau Road, and the old factory was demolished in 1972. (fn. 40a)

Beale's, confectioners and bakers, was founded in 1769 by a master baker John Beale, who opened a shop in Oxford Street. Edward Beale, his nephew, started his own business in 1829 at no. 45 Popham Street, Islington, and taught his own nephew William Beale, who in 1861 started his own small business at Highgate Hill, moving to Holloway Road in 1866. In 1889 an imposing four-storeyed building in Holloway Road was built on the sites of nos. 370, 372, 374 Holloway Road and nos. 2, 2a, 4, 6, 8, 10 Tollington Road, designed by F. Wallen in Gothic Revival style in red brick with stone and mosaic decoration. By the end of the century the firm was delivering to 2,000 families a day, with 15 horses and vans for deliveries and 15 horses and 10 vans for the catering department. There were banqueting rooms at the Athenaeum, Camden Road, and Assembly Rooms, Holloway Road. By 1969, however, their building, a Holloway landmark, was out of date. The offices moved to Southgate and the building was replaced by a branch of Sainsbury's supermarkets. (fn. 41a)

Jones Brothers' department store was founded by William Jones, who had come to London in 1867 and worked as a draper's apprentice until he and his brother John opened a small shop in Holloway. Their building was enlarged several times and by the 1890s included warehouses, workshops, stabling for 50 horses, and accommodation for assistants above the shop. In 1927 the store became one of the Selfridge Provincial Stores, and in 1940, it was bought by the John Lewis Partnership. (fn. 42a) In 1983 it was the only department store serving the area.

W. H. Hayden, wholesale stationers, founded in 1829 in Paternoster Row, London, moved to no. 52 Holloway Road in 1971. In 1972 it built Digby House and employed c. 70. (fn. 43a)

In 1956 Islington produced a range of metal manufactures, ink, radios, electric batteries, paint, pianos, laboratory and scientific equipment, cricket bats, tennis racquets, and cattle and poultry food. (fn. 44a) By the 1970s, however, employment in manufacturing had declined in Islington, possibly by more than the national average of 30 per cent for 1965-76. Many small workshops were closed when their areas were rebuilt because they could not afford relocation. Small industrial premises were still closely intermingled with 19th-century housing, but planners tried to keep industry in zones, principally around the former Metropolitan market, Belle Isle, and King's Cross. (fn. 45a)