C&J Greenwood London Map 1830

Christopher Greenwood (1786–1855) and John Greenwood (fl.1821–1840) were brother cartographers who produced large-scale maps of England and Wales in the 1820s. Their partnership began in 1821, using the imprint "C.&J.Greenwood".

You can see a magnificent version of their large scale map of London in 1830 online, courtesy of Harvard Library, here. 

Reproduced below is a section of this map showing the Cloudesley area just at the moment that it was being developed from largely agricultural land into the Georgian streets and houses we know today - a modern map of the area roughly covered by the Cloudesley Association is shown alongside for comparison.  Note that the area to the West of the Cloudesley development is largely fields and what eventually became Lonsdale Square was in 1830 a cattle yard bordered by a workhouse to the North!  Pulteney Street and Pulteney Terrace have been obliterated (I think due to bomb damage) and subsumed within Barnard Park.  While to the South, White Conduit House was the venue for a dinner to celebrate the pardon of the Tolpuddle martyrs in 1836 and White Conduit Fields nearby was the birthplace of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Meanwhile, a minor mystery.  The engravings of the exterior and interior of Holy Trinity Church below, familiar to users of this website, are by CJ Greenwood and H Greenwood respectively (courtesy of the Collage collection at the London Metropolitan Archives).  Are these gentlemen connected in any way with the C & J Greenwood brothers?  Despite much Googling, I can't find out.  Does anyone know?

More maps 

Here's two more early maps, from 1817 and 1835 respectively.  In 1817 building in the Cloudesley Estate had not started whereas by 1835 it was about three-quarters completed. 

In the magnificent 1817 map below, the two "Stony Fields" can be seen as pastures to the West of the Back Road (now Liverpool Road), and opposite Pied Bull Lane (now Theberton Street).  This map was published by Robert Wilkinson and is reproduced courtesy of the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).  You can view it in high detail on the LMA website using their zoom facility here (click the magnifying glass icon in the top right hand corner then scroll around - highly recommended!).  Various interesting features are clearly marked:

• White Conduit House with its characteristic curved front and gardens to the West of White Conduit Street (now the South end of Cloudesley Road)
• The Workhouse, North of the Cloudesley Estate on Liverpool Road and opposite the West end of Barnsbury Street
• A Pasteboard Manufactury, opposite the East end of what will become Cloudesley Place
• The five Albion Cottages overlooking a cricket ground - one of these is the site of the Albion pub, previously the Albion Tea House (see below)
• The intended line of the Regents Canal, passing by a white lead factory (!) before entering the tunnel which will take it under White Conduit House just to the Souht of the Cloudesley Estate

In contrast, in the 1835 map below, courtesy of the Cloudesley Trust, building on the Cloudesley Estate is in progress.  The terraces on Liverpool Road, Cloudesley Square and Islington Terrace (now Cloudesley Road) are complete, Stonefield Street and Elizabeth Terrace (now Cloudesley Place) are half finished, and there are as yet none of the villas which will be built on Cloudesley Street (at that time known as the South part of Stonefield Street).  Note that the Albion Tea House - now the Albion Pub on Thornhill Road - is clearly marked.  The Pastebord Manufactury seems to have turned into a Wesleyan chapel, and present-day Lonsdale Square is still green fields!

Finally, here is an extract from a detailed map of London created by Edward Weller in 1868.  The building of the Cloudesley Estate in the bottom right corner is now complete as indeed is most of Barnsbury as we know it today.  Note the Pentonville "Model Prison" at the top left!

Maps Online

Several excellent maps are available online:

• The Harvard Library website mentioned above, has a superb map of London in 1830 by C&J Greenwood.
• Also mentioned above is the LMA website which features the 1817 Wilkinson map with a useful "zoom" facility.
• MapCo features an 1868 map by Edward Weller, which can be expanded to show the Cloudesley area in detail (see above)
• The wonderful Layers of London features several maps which can be superimposed on each other.  The Cloudesley Association has been in contact with Layers of London and we have added historical data to the site.
• Mapping Islington - Historic Maps and Plans of Islington (1593 - 1894) was an excellent exhibition curated by Islington Council.

Charles Booth's Poverty Maps

Charles Booth was a remarkable Victorian who, amongst other achievements, produced a series of maps of London with the streets colour-coded to indicate levels of poverty and wealth.  LSE has a superb website where you can view the maps online and also access the notebooks of investigators who compiled the data on which the maps are based, often by accompanying local policemen on their beats.  Illustrated below is the Booth map of the Cloudesley area in 1898-99, together with extracts from the notebooks of one George Duckworth, accompanied by Inspector Arthur Mason.  Highlights include brothels around Chapel Market, gambling throughout the area, and herds of cows, sheep and pigs wandering the streets!  Perhaps surprisingly, the map of the Cloudesley Estate is coded as predominantly "Fairly Comfortable. Good ordinary earnings.", with an enclave of "Middle class. Well to do." at the North end of Stonefield Street and Lonsdale Square!

Layers of London LIDAR Maps

The remarkable Layers of London (LoL) website was referred to above.  They are continually adding new maps and one of the most interesting is based on LIDAR - a technique whereby laser light is shone on to a surface and detailed 3D images reconstructed from the reflections.  Just keep clicking "Show More" on the maps page until the LIDAR map appears, then select it.

Here's the LIDAR map of the Cloudesley Estate.  The image appears reversed (to my eyes at least) with protrusions such as buildings showing up as depressions.

Now, zooming out a bit, here's the whole of Barnsbury from the distinctive cutting of the North London Line running under Arundel Square in the North to the square mound of the covered reservoir in Claremont Square in the South.  You can see clearly what Jenny refers to as the "Barnsbury Bump" - ie, here in the Cloudesley Estate we are significantly higher than our neighbours to the East in, say, Upper Street, or to the West as the ground slopes down to Kings Cross.  This explains the raised pavements in places like the North side of Liverpool Road, as Jenny has pointed out elsewhere - nothing to do with sparing ladies skirts from the muddy streets!

Finally, zooming out some more, you can see how Islington is in the "foothills" of the "mountain range" which runs from Highgate to Hampstead.  By fading out the LIDAR map on LoL we can establish that the other "mountain range" south of the Thames river basin runs in a South-Westerly direction from Honor Oak, through Sydenham to Thornton Heath.  Who would have guessed?