Wall to Rear of No. 23

Details

ISLINGTON

635-1/75/417 GOSWELL ROAD 30-SEP-94 (West side) Wall to rear of No. 23 (Formerly listed as: GOSWELL ROAD WALL ON FORMER TENNIS COURTS SITE, IMM EDIATELY WEST OF 23 GOSWELL ROAD)

II Boundary Wall, early C17, believed to be part of Thomas Sutton's hospital and school, built from 1611 onwards.

MATERIALS: Ragstone, limestone, greensand, flint, brick and tile. Some rendering and modern capping.

DESCRIPTION: The wall is located to the rear of No. 23 Goswell Road, Islington, centred at approximately TQ 32041 82084 and oriented roughly east-west. Its fabric incorporates a variety of materials including ragstone, limestone, greensand, brick, tile and flint. The range of materials undoubtedly reflects the re-use of materials from earlier buildings on the site. In the main it is a randomly coursed wall of large stone blocks. There is evidence of an in-filled former gateway towards the eastern end of the wall. This is approximately 3m wide at its narrowest point. Equally spaced putlog holes, now in-filled, are also present in the upper courses. This suggests that the wall was once of greater height as putlog holes were used to support timber scaffolding: these would not have been necessary had the wall not been of a much greater height than that which now survives. At the base of the wall are deliberately laid courses of stone with evidence for brick and tile banding. Towards the western end, on the north elevation, is a large patch of render (approximately 5m long) covering the stonework, with modern capping above. The section of wall listed in 1994 is 10.5m long by 2.55m high. The recently discovered, buried section is a continuation of the same to the west and of the same build. It is 5.75m long and 2.3m high giving a total length for the recorded wall of c.16.25m. However, a report by the Museum of London Archaeology Service (2008) acknowledges that the wall extends beyond the limit of excavation to the west, and therefore further remains can be anticipated although the length of the same cannot be predicted on current evidence.

HISTORY: In the medieval period this was the site of the monastery of Charterhouse, 'the House of the Salutation of the Mother of God', founded in 1371 and one of a number of religious houses located in the Clerkenwell and Smithfield areas, outside of the city walls. It was a house of the Carthusian order with buildings comprising a cloister and individual cells with gardens for the monks. The refusal of the monks to acknowledge King Henry VIII as the Head of the Church of England led to the suppression of the monastery in 1538. The site was subsequently bought by one Edward North who demolished the cells and built a fine townhouse here. In the late C16 it was owned by the Howard family, and also used as an ambassador's residence. Thomas Sutton, a wealthy merchant, bought the site in 1611 to build a hospital for the occupancy of pensioners such as former royal servants, sailors, soldiers, merchants or the victims of accidents (MOLAS 2008, 9) as well as a school for the education of 40 poor boys. Historical map evidence (Ogibly and Morgan's map of 1676) suggests that the wall is the northern boundary of the yards and buildings of the hospital and school. It is therefore likely to have been constructed soon after Thomas Sutton's purchase of 1611 to separate different areas and uses of the site; dividing and delineating the north garden and south courtyard with a gateway linking the two. The scale of some of the stone blocks and the range of materials strongly suggests that earlier buildings on the site were robbed for its construction.

Houses were built on the site in the C19 with those to the south of the wall known as Union Place. To the north of the wall the land was both school playing fields and a garden until the Church of St Thomas, Charterhouse was built in 1839, with attached schools, all then demolished in the early C20. The site was subsequently used for manufacturing before sustaining considerable bomb damage during the Second World War. It is not known when the upper courses of the wall were removed but this was prior to the construction of a car park here from about the early 1960s.

SOURCES: Museum of London Archaeology Service (2008), Land to the r/o 23 Goswell Road, London EC1, London Borough of Islington, Watching brief and standing structure report, November 2008. Site code GWO05. Unpublished Museum of London Archaeology report

REASON FOR DESIGNATION A substantial stone wall of the early C17 to the west of Goswell Road, Islington, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * This 10 metre long and 3m high stone wall (with an adjoining 5.75 metre length underground to its west) probably dates from 1611 when it was built as a boundary wall dividing the north garden and south courtyard of Thomas Sutton's hospital and school. * The wall is built of a mixture of different stones, and tiles, presumably derived from the earlier Charterhouse which had occupied the site from 1371.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

368918

Legacy System:

LBS

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