Hackney Road and Columbia Road – incredible histories

Thursday, 8 September, 2020

Every now and again I take a walk down Hackney Road. It was on my list of places to revisit and Krish suggested adding in Columbia Road on a non-market day. Add to that my increasing ‘need’ for Vietnamese food and we had a deal.

Home at the top and the areas I visited at the bottom of the map
Home at the top and the areas I visited at the bottom of the map
My route along Hackney Road and Columbia Road
My route along Hackney Road and Columbia Road. It was slightly twistier than this but it’s close enough. It felt like a long way

The days are shorter and the temperature is staying in the 17 to 20C range. It suits me well. Any warmer than 23 and I’m not so happy being out for long walking. There’s an added layer to being out these days. The kids have gone back to school. In the mornings and around 3:30, the buses and roads get much busier. I’ve read that they are suggesting as many students as possible ride bikes or walk to school and stay off public transport. While this must be happening, it’s also true that car traffic has increased. There must be a lot of parents driving students to school and, at peak times, there’s a lot of stop and go traffic outside the window.

At any rate, added to the ‘Covid caveats’ of avoid the post office on a Friday and Monday, stay away from the supermarket on the weekend, don’t walk on the Narrow Way unless you have no choice, I’m adding don’t travel on the buses till after 10am or between 3:15 to 4pm.

Look how many buses on Dalston Lane by The Pembury
Look how many buses on Dalston Lane by The Pembury! This is almost as bad as it usually gets on Oxford Street. They increased the number of buses for the returning students

We missed most of the buses but then one showed up and we got in as far as Cambridge Heath Station. That’s where Hackney Road begins. Hackney Road is thought to follow a prehistoric route and into the 1700s was farmland with very few homes.  During the 19th century this changed dramatically, as commercialisation became more the norm, and it took on a very urban look.

Before we set out we explored Clare Street, which runs along  the Cambridge Heath railway arches. We had a little chat with some guys in the motorcycle shop. They reported business was quiet.

Top of Hackney Road
Top of Hackney Road
Motorcycle shop
Motorcycle shop under the arches at Clare Street

There's always a lot of art on Clare Street

There’s always a lot of art on Clare Street but I don’t think there’s been anything new since I was last there

We took a little walk back towards Hackney Road again passing new and old buildings and some which seemed a mix.

This building looked like they’d built modern stories on top of the original house
Duke of Cambridge
The old-new building turned out to be the ex Duke of Cambridge. Krish pointed out that was at Cambridge Heath and that was how it was named

The last time we went down Hackney Road, we hadn’t enjoyed it as much as usual so this time we wandered slightly off the road and looked at what was around the corners. There were some cool discoveries along the way.

Mama Shelter
This has been a hotel for a while and now it’s a Mama Shelter. This chain calls itself an urban refuge – lively, unique and quirky There are hotels in 12 cities and 7 countries
Colourful houses on Pritchard's Road
Colourful houses on Pritchard’s Road, and the east end hold-out, Billy’s Cafe
Old council flats on Coate Street
Old council flats on Coate Street. The balconies seemed random
Lovely old Charrington's Pub on Coate Street
Lovely old Charrington’s Pub on Coate Street. Around here there would have been pubs on almost every corner

We also came across two very interesting buildings as we turned back to Hackney Road. On the corner with Garnet Street is the former Adelphi Chapel School date “1853, enlarged 1868”. This was a missionary school with 30 pupils  built as a day and Sunday school, but also used as a chapel. And then we saw a baby blue building and couldn’t decide if it was cool or just ugly. It turned out to be a significant building. Built for £300,000 in 2002, FAT’s Blue House is a live-work house with an over-emphasised street-facing façade. The practice considers it to be one of the most important houses of the 21st century, or so the FAT website says.

Adelphi Chapel School building

Adelphi Chapel School building
FAT Blue House
FAT Blue House

The plan to divert occasionally was working out really well, but we were back on the main road and headed towards Columbia Road. At Goldsmith’s Row, there are two more treasures. First the old Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital.  Also known as the North-Eastern Hospital for Sick Children, it was  founded in 1867 and admitted 10,000 patients each year. For years we would walk past this then-derelict building. It was large and sombre. Then one day we noticed it was going to be developed into new flats. I seem to remember feeling a bit crestfallen that the blackened historical building would be gone. It’s not so bad, though.

It’s called Mettle & Poise, and was a sell-out success, with every new home sold off plan two years before the completion of the redevelopment in 2017.

On the other side from the old hospital (now M&P) is the lovely wooded Hackney City Farm. It was established in 1984 as a community and educational resource and to give borough residents, particularly young people, experience of animals.  There’s a farmyard, area for grazing, garden and a tree nursery with butterfly house.  The farm is home to a range of animals, including poultry, sheep, rabbits, bees, pigs and a donkey. Hackney City Farm also runs workshops and sells honey and free range eggs, among other things. A city oasis.

Hackney City Farm
Hackney City Farm. The animal yards are closed for now but the cafe and shop are open for business

As you can probably tell, this is another area of Hackney (bordering on Tower Hamlets) that was overwhelming to read about. I’ve done my best!

There was one more stop for us before we found Columbia Road – the Phlegm mural on the Portuguese Love Affair cafe.

The Phlegm wall art in Ion Square on the Portuguese Love Affair Cafe building


Columbia Road is mostly known for its Sunday flower market. When I started reading up on it, I was stunned at how it had come to be there.

It was part of the road that was used to take animals to slaughter at Smithfield Market but fell to slums in the 1800s. At that time it was called Nova Scotia Gardens, a squalid part of East London. In its time it was described as “nothing picturesque in such misery; it is but one painful and monotonous round of vice, filth, and poverty, huddled in dark cellars, ruined garrets, bare and blackened rooms, teeming with disease and death.” Lovely! It was the site of a brickfield, extensively used to extract clay for brick making.

In 1831 it was also the site of some hideous crimes. Bodysnatchers Michael Shields, James May, and an unemployed butcher also known as Black Eyed Jack kidnapped, drugged and drowned victims which were then sold to anatomists from St Batholomew’s Hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College. When the crime was discovered, the men were hung. They confessed to stealing and selling between 500 and 1000 bodies over a period of twelve years.

In 1869, philanthropist Angela Burdett-Couts (two familiar east London names and surely one who had Canadian  connections) purchased the land of Nova Scotia Gardens and established Columbia Road Market and the area began to blossom, leaving its dark past  behind. It was not the market of today. It was a magnificent building which sold cheap and good food to East London’s poor. Sadly it wasn’t successful since the transport links were so poor and the market made no money. In 1871 it closed. A fish market was then tried but it too failed, until in the 1950s it was torn down to make way for new housing.

I could hardly believe this beautiful and ornate building, and wonder how it was ever demolished. Krish and I walked by a school on the way out of Columbia Road but I had no idea at the time that the railings and gateposts were of the original market. I wish now I had looked more closely and taken more photos.

The original railings to Columbia Market
The original railings to Columbia Market

But back to the beginning because I started and completed my walk without knowing much about the area. It was originally a Saturday street market but as was originally a street market selling surplus goods from Covent Garden and Spitalfields every Saturday. As the area became increasingly Jewish, the day was changed to Sunday and  the Jewish traders began selling surplus goods from Covent Garden and Spitalfields. Over time the market began to specialise in flowers. And that’s the short story of Columbia Road!

When you come here on any day but Sunday, the street is almost unrecognisable. It’s a typical old East London street but instead of ordinary front doors, there are shopfronts end on end.

Quilter Street
Quilter Street just off Columbia Road. What the east end streets are like without shopfronts
Columbia Road on a non market day
Columbia Road on a non market day

School garden
Each row was labelled with the school year that planted it – Year One, etc.
Shops along Columbia Road
Shops along Columbia Road
I loved this painted storefront
I loved this painted storefront
The Royal Oak Pub
The Royal Oak Pub

At the end of Columbia Road, when it again meets Hackney Road is an old apartment building which always reminds me of Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, with its stairs leading down to the street from front doors.

Flats at the bottom of Columbia Road
Flats at the bottom of Columbia Road

We were on our final leg for the day. Talking of legs, ouch! We avoided the corner and cut through Waterson Street over to Kingsland Road and Song Que. Waterson Street is a mix of old warehouse buildings and new flats and offices. It’s known for being the only unique street name in Great Britain.

The building in the distance reads 1860
The building in the distance reads 1860 as we walk along Waterson Street and its more modern buildings
Song Que, possibly the most popular Vietnamese restaurant in London
Song Que, possibly the most popular Vietnamese restaurant in London. This stretch of Kingsland Road is Little Vietnamese. It has so many Vietnamese restaurants. I don’t love any of them!
Song Que was packed before lockdown
Song Que was packed before lockdown. This is the new normal.

We once had a favourite Vietnamese restaurant in this area. Some Vietnamese friends had introduced it to us and ordered all the things that reminded them of home. We went so often and kept to some of those when we went alone. One day the place closed and there went our lovely choices and comfortable orders. We have yet to find another place that we can love.

We took our order home – a pho with tendon, tripe, rare beef and brisket, and a grilled pork with spring rolls and vermicelli (two seemingly reliable choices) – on a bus that began to fill with students a bit too alarmingly. At home we ate the food, which was just average, and we felt sad at what we were missing but happy enough to have that taste fix.

The blogs I haven’t written yet, the stories that I can’t tell, the people’s lives I don’t have time to talk about, the photos I have yet to share, the photos I took that I just couldn’t include here or it would be too much, are all taunting me. There are only so many hours in the day despite the increased ‘spare time.’ I can’t help but research things as I see them. What were they once like? How did it all change? Who lived here? It all takes time so I’m trying to keep it simple. If you’re reading this and find the time to look further, share it with me. I’m absolutely fascinated by what I find out but I’ll never know it all.