Narrative

The houses in Cloudesley Square were built on the "Stony Fields" land originally bequeathed by Sir Richard Cloudesley in 1517 to the parish of St Mary's Islington.  Three centuries later, the Cloudesley Trust, which owned the freehold, was allowed by the 1811 Stonefields Act of Parliament to lease this land in plots to speculative builders.

16 Cloudesley Square was most probably built by John Emmett, a carpenter, who was responsible for many of the houses in the Square and indeed other streets in the Cloudesley Estate.  Building progressed sporadically through the 1820s (it was a time of recession) and No 16 was first recorded as being occupied in 1829 by Charles Haydon, according to "Poor Rate" Books for the time (source: Islington Local History Centre - ILHC).  The map of the Cloudesley Estate in 1830 here shows building mostly completed and the location of No 16 marked by a red spot.

The Rate Books only record the main tenant and not  family members or others sharing the house.  But we know that, in common with most tenants in the Square, he paid an annual Poor Rate rent of £30 to St Mary's Parish. Other tenants paid £34 or £36 pa (for example Nos 28 and 34 paid a little extra for stables). 

The precise ownership of the houses is difficult to establish.  The Cloudesley Trust always owned the freehold and sold ground-leaseholds, most commonly of 81 years, renewable in 1900, to the builders.  But the builders then sold on their leaseholds or sold sub-leases to other parties, in a chain.  The eventual tenants identified here such as Charles Haydon, probably rented their properties either directly from the Trust or more probably from a builder or intermediary, although it is possible that some had bought the leasehold to their properties.

No 16, along with another 8 houses, was offered at auction in 1825 as a half-completed "carcass" with a 76 year lease.  So it seems likely that John Emmett started building in 1820, raised money through a sub-lease in 1820, but maintained some kind of ground-lease since his name is still associated with most of the Cloudesley Square leases when they were renewed in 1900 (source: Cathy Ross - "Cloudesley: 500 Years in Islington").

The Cloudesley Square properties were all "3rd Rate" houses (more than 17 ft wide) with 8 rooms each arranged over 4 stories, a small garden and forecourt.  They were intended for "respectable middle class" families and indeed the census records for 1841 through 1881, which identify all occupants and their employment status, reveal that No 16 was mainly lived in by single families with middle class occupations, usually with a servant and perhaps a lodger or two.  This is also typical of most houses in the Square.  An advertisement of 1830 for Nos 17 and 19 refers to them as "fit for the immediate reception of genteel families"!

The London Diocese image below of Holy Trinity Church, probably in 1844, gives some idea of what Cloudesley Square looked like at the time, with a couple of houses on the South side of the Square in the background, more or less unchanged today.  Although No 16 is not shown, it will have been effectively identical to these other houses.  Note the respectable looking residents strolling about in their finery!

In the first available census record for 1841 we find Anne Coxwell, of "Independent" means, her son John, another lady who could be a lodger or companion, and one servant.  Anne and John were the mother and brother of the famous victorian balloonist Henry Tracey Coxwell, pictured below.  Moreover, it seems probable that Henry spent some time living at No 16 (or perhaps "John" is himself Henry), before moving to Tottenham, as suggested in the following quote from the excellent "Islington Past" (2000) by John Richardson:

"Henry Coxwell (1819-1900), had his first ascent from Pentonville in 1844 and thereafter was a frequent balloonist, at one time achieving well over 30,000 ft in height.  He lived in Barnsbury Road and Cloudesley Square, as well as in Highgate"

Two more quotes from the Wikipedia entry for Henry Coxwell:

"Glaisher lost consciousness during the ascent, his last barometer reading indicating an altitude of 29,000 ft (8,800 m) and Coxwell lost all sensation in his hands, but managed just in time to pull the valve-cord with his teeth before losing consciousness"

" In 1864 his balloon, Britannia, was destroyed during the Leicester balloon riot"

In 1951 (censuses were carried out every 10 years) the house is occupied by Matthew Type, a "Japanner", with his wife and 29 year old daughter.  Japanning is a type of laquerwork and in Matthew Type's case he appears to have applied it mainly to manufacturing tea trays (see here for a contemporary newspaper cutting). As a skilled artisan, he is typical of many Cloudesley Estate residents of the time.

In 1861 there is Elizabeth Brecknell, a "Proprietoress of Houses", with just one servant, and in 1871 Robert Reed, a surveyor, with his wife, one housekeeper and a lodger, George Snell, an Engineer's Assistant, who ended up as Draughtsman and Secretary to Wombwell Colliery in Yorkshire, where he died in 1915 aged 67.  Thanks to Ancestry, we have the fine photo of him, below:

Of course there will have been other residents in the years not covered by the census results.  For a list of residents gleaned from Commercial and City Directories (which give head of household only) see here. 

1881 sees the start of a decline in the area with No 16 now housing two families, the Spratts and the Deanes - 8 individuals altogether.  Multi-occupancy is increasingly a feature of other houses in the Square, and even more so in neighbouring Stonesfield Street.

Then in both 1891 and 1901 the house is marked as Uninhabited (though, oddly, not in 1900 according to a City Directory - see above)!  It is not clear what is happening at this time.  It may be that the property had fallen into such a state of disrepair (see below) that it was, literally, uninhabitable.  Three other houses in the Square were uninhabited in the 1891 census and four in 1901.  Or there is a suggestion that some sort of legal dispute over ownership may have been involved (source: Cathy Ross, personal communication).

Whatever the reasons, by 1911 a major change had taken place with a new leasehold of 43 years agreed in 1901 between the Trust and one Walter Conway of 2 Stonefield Street.  The new lease was contingent on Conway making really quite extensive repairs and improvements, including the construction of a two-storey rear extension - now a feature of most, if not all houses in the Square.  The original lease document is available at ILHC and we have the plan for the extension, below (now a utility room on the ground floor with a flat-topped bathroom above).

From the Holy Trinity marriages records we know that John Kilburn and Florence Evans, who married on September 21, 1907, were at the time both living in No 16.  This is quite a common occurence for which we have no explanation.  Even more remarkable, on June 12, 1910, there was a double marriage of two Brazell brothers to their brides, all four of whom were apparently living at No 16 at the time!  Yet another marriage of No 16 residents happened on May 11, 1913.

By the 1911 census it is clear that the character of No 16 has changed markedly with Conway renting out the house to no less than four families, comprising a total of 15 individuals altogether.  Even with the new extension, it must have been a tight fit!  In Stonefield Street the situation was even worse, with one instance of 27 individuals in a house and several with over 20!  The inescapable conclusion is that the Cloudesley Estate had become very downmarket with a relatively impoverished population renting cramped and dismal accomodation from slum landlords.  The reasons for this decline have been covered elsewhere and Cloudesley Square appears to have remained a somewhat run-down neighbourhood until the 1960s (see below).

On the other hand there is evidence that the area became a real, thriving community, albeit solidly working class, with many shops in nearby Cloudesley Road, busy pubs, and the Dove Brothers building firm active in Milton Grove just over the wall at the bottom of the garden of No 16.

1921 sees the appearance for the first time of the remarkable Chesterman family, who occupied No 16 in one form or another until the early 1960s.  The Chestermans were part of a large extended Islington clan with friends and relatives throughout the Cloudesley Estate and beyond.  Thanks to the Chesterman family tree on Ancestry we have several splendid photos, including the one below of the marriage of James Cecil, son of James Christopher and Jessie, to Sarah Faulkner in 1935 (sadly, not at Holy Trinity, although James Cecil and his siblings were all baptised there in 1907).

Jessie Chesterman was still living at No 16 in 1961 where she died in 1964 aged 83.  Also in the house was Charles Arthur Holland-Goodwin, who astonishingly, had been born illegitimately in 1902 in the neighbouring workhouse on Liverpool Road.  The other occupants were Albert Lambeth and his German-born wife Waltraut.  Courtesy of ILHC, here's a photo of No 16 taken in 1970, together with the larger photo from which it was cropped, including the church, and another photo of the SW corner of Cloudesley Square including No 16 taken in 1916 - note the lack of cars!

Waltraut and her two sons continued living at No 16 until 1988 when it passed back to the Cloudesley Trust who undertook extensive renovations, including turning the concrete backyard into a proper garden before renting it out in 1991 to the present owner - me (Nick Collin)!

By this time the Cloudesley Estate, and Islington generally, was thoroughly gentrified, a subject covered extensively elsewhere.  The Collin family bought the leasehold in 1993 from the Cloudesley Trust and then the freehold in 1998, thus establishing an almost 500 year old debt to Sir Richard Cloudesley and his will of 1517!  We have "knocked through" the kitchen in the basement (the first floor living room was knocked through when we arrived, probably by the Cloudesley Trust), but apart from this and the extension, the house is more or less the same as it was in the early 18th century - a testament to the quality of Georgian builders! 

And finally, a House Through Time - 16 Cloudesley Square Today in 2019!