Hackney Wick

infobox UK place
official_name= Hackney Wick
map_type= Greater London
region= London
country= England
london_borough= Hackney
constituency_westminster= Hackney South and Shoreditch
post_town= LONDON
postcode_area= E
postcode_district= E9,E15
dial_code= 020
os_grid_reference= TQ375845
latitude= 51.542584
longitude= -0.016247

Hackney Wick is an area in the London Borough of Hackney in East London. It is an inner-city development situated convert|5|mi|km|1 north east of Charing Cross. It is not especially close to Hackney Central, the historic centre of Hackney Borough (something that often confuses visitors).

It is in the far east of the borough on the edge of the planned 2012 Olympic Park and near the boundary with the London Boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets.

The Lee Navigation and the Hertford Union Canal come to a junction at Hackney Wick and it is at the southern tip of Hackney Marshes. The River Lee is nearby and it forms part of the Lower Lea Valley.

History

Early history

Prior to 'modern times', Hackney Wick was an area prone to periodic flooding. The construction of the canals and relief channels on the River Lee alleviated that and allowed the development of the area. In historic times, the marshes were used extensively for grazing, and there was limited occupation around the 'great house' at Hackney Wick. This area then, and the history of the marshes were a part of Lower Homerton.

Industrial history

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Wick was a thriving well-populated industrial zone, [ [http://www.brickfields.org.uk/text/victorian-work.html Brickfields History of Hackney] ] as the Hackney Wick First World War memorial in Victoria Park testifies (see picture right) —the lower part of the stele is densely inscribed on all four faces with the names of Wick men who died in that conflict.When Charles Booth (philanthropist) surveyed Hackney Wick in his London-wide survey of poverty he would have noticed that there were, amid the noxious fumes and noise, areas of lessened deprivation. [ [http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&m.l=1&m.d.l=0&m.p.x=12870&m.p.y=4054&m.p.w=500&m.p.h=309&m.p.l=0&m.t.w=128&m.t.h=80&b.p.x=22735&b.p.y=3497&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=1&b.p.p.l=1&b.v.x=165&b.v.y=133 Booth Poverty Map Online Archive 1898-9] accessed 14 Dec 2007] [ [http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b346/jpg/157.html Booth's notebook,22 July 1897 pp156-73] accessed: 16 December 2007] Streets south of the railway such as Wansbeck and Rothbury Roads were a mixture of comfort and poverty. Kelday Road, right on the canal seemed positively middle class. To the north of the railway, streets either side of Wick Road, e.g. Chapman Road, Felstead Street and Percy Terrace were described as "very poor",with "chronic want". It was no doubt conditions such as these which hastened the involvement of Eton College about this time to instigate their urban mission in Hackney Wick.

The world's first true synthetic plastic, parkesine, invented by Alexander Parkes, was manufactured here from 1866 to 1868, though sadly, Parkes' company failed due to high production costs - he was simply too far ahead of his time.In contrast shellac, a natural polymer was manufactured at the Lea Works by A.F. Suter and Co.at the Victory Works for many years. The factory at nos 83/4 Eastway commenced operation in 1927. Subsequently they relocated to Dace Road in Bow. [ [http://www.afsuter.com/Profile.htm A.F.Suter and Co.,Shellac Manfacturers] accessed: 11 December 2007] For many years Hackney Wick was the location of the oil distiller Carless, Capel & Leonard, credited with introduction of the term petrol in the 1890s. ["London's Lea Valley -More Secrets Revealed", Jim Lewis (Phillimore 2001) pp.65-7] The distinguished chemist and academic Sir Frederick Warner FRS worked at Carless's Hackney Wick factory from 1948-1956. [ [http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0609warner.html Papers of Sir Frederick Warner FRS] accessed: 10 December 2007] . William J Leonard (1857-1923) was followed by his son Julian Mayard Leonard (1900-1978) into the firm, where he became managing director and deputy chairman. [ [http://www.open.ac.uk/ou5/Arts/chemists/index.htm Biographical Database of the British Chemical Community] accessed 11 Dec 2007]

The firm of Brooke Simpson Spiller at Atlas Works in Berkshire Road had taken over the firm of William Henry Perkin at Greenford Green near Harrow in 1874,but subsequently disposed of some operations to Burt Bolton Heywoodd in Silvertown [ [http://colorantshistory.org/HistoryInternationalDyeIndustryRev1/HistoryInternationalDyestuffIndustryFirefox/dyestuffs.html History of the International Dyestuffs Industry] accessed 11 Dec 2007] . Nevertheless, Brooke Simpson Spiller is the successor company to the founding father of the British Dyestuff Industry. [ [http://www.colorantshistory.org/PerkinBiography.html W.H.Perkin] accessed: 11 December 2007] The company employed the brilliant organic chemist Arthur George Green(1864- 1941) from 1885 until 1894,when he left for Clayton Aniline in Manchester and ultimately, when the British chemical industry failed his talents, to the chair of Colour Chemistry at Leeds University. At Hackney Wick, Green discovered the important dyestuff intermediate Primuline. He was a contemporary of the organic chemist Richard John Friswell (1849-1908) who was from 1874 a research chemist, and from 1886 until 1899 director and chemical manager. Perhaps even more distinguished was the Jewish chemist, Professor Raphael Meldola FRS, who is remembered for Meldola's Blue dye and is commemorated by the Royal Society of Chemistry's Meldola Medal. He worked at Hackney Wick from 1877 until 1885. ["Obituaries, Royal Society of Chemistry"] where Meldola's Blue was discovered. [ [http://www.chemexper.com/chemicals/supplier/cas/7057-57-0.html Meldola's Blue] accessed 11 Dec 2007] [ [http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/meldolas_blue.html Meldola's Blue] accessed 11 Dec 2007] A large collection of Hackney made dyestuffs is on view at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia. [ [http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/index.php?irn=234586&search=simpson&
] accessed: 11 December 2007] The firm of W.C.Barnes of the Phoenix Works was also engaged in the aniline dye industry at Hackney Wick.

The confectioner Clarnico is synonymous with Hackney Wick. The company, known as Clarke, Nickolls,Coombs until 1946,arrived in Hackney Wick in 1879 [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22708 "Hackney: Homerton and Hackney Wick", A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 92-101] accessed: 10 December 2007] [ [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/FullImage.aspx?EvanID=024-000004617&ImageId=52143 British Library Catalogue] accessed 6 April 2008] Despite being taken over by Trebor Bassett, the name lives on in Bassett's Clarnico Mint Creams [ [http://www.parkcatalogue.net/AgencyOnlineWeb/browsecatalogue?category=C15&catname=Confectionery&item=504887&title=Bassett%26%23039%3Bs+Mint+Creams&description=504887 Clarnico Mint Creams] accessed 10 Dec 2007] and also in the CNC Property company. [ [http://87.117.199.26:8006/corporate_history.asp CNC Properties-History] accessed 10 Dec 2007] . Just after the second world war, Clarnico was the largest confectioner in Britain but moved further across the Lee to Waterden Road in 1955 where it survived for another 20 years. The company had its own brass band in the early 20th century.

Another pathfinding entrepreneur in Hackney Wick was the Frenchman, Eugene Serre. His father, Achille Serre, who had settled in Stoke Newington, introduced Dry Cleaning to England. [ [http://www.vads.ahds.ac.uk/diad/article.php?year=1970&title=261&article=d.261.25 Design Journal 1970 (6)] accessed 9 Dec 2007] [ [http://www.laundryandcleaningnews.com/story.asp?sectionCode=58&storyCode=2038957 The Achille Serre Story by Roy Brazier] accessed 9 Dec 2007] Eugene expanded the business into a former tar factory in White Post Lane and which still carries traces of the firm's name.

Murder and the railways

Hackney Wick station is near the scene of the first "railway murder". The victim, Thomas Briggs of 5 Clapton Square, was returning from dining with his niece in Peckham in July 1864 and had the misfortune to meet his murderer on the train. [ [http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/archbishop-mccloskey.htm Harper's Weekly,10 Sept 1864] accessed 1 Dec 2007] Two clerks discovered a compartment sticky with blood at Hackney, but Franz Muller had slipped away unnoticed to return to his lodgings at 16 Park Terrace. The victim was discovered on the line between Bow and Hackney Wick and was brought initially into the Mitford Castle public house (now the Top o'the Morning) in Cadogan Terrace and subsequently taken home where he died. A hat belonging to Muller was discovered in the compartment. In the next few days, a Cheapside jeweller came forward with Briggs's missing watch and chain, and a description of Muller. The theft was to pay for Muller's emigration to America, and he departed soon after on the "Victoria", but the police went to New York by a faster boat and were awaiting his arrival in New York. He was returned to England and hanged at Newgate Prison. [ [http://knowledgeoflondon.com/murders.html London Murders] accessed 21 Jan 2007]

Victoria Park railway station was on the North London Railway to Poplar, which closed to passengers in 1943. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22703 "Hackney: Homerton and Hackney Wick", A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 51-59] accessed: 04 December 2007] and to goods in the early 1980s, was on the site of the present East Cross Route. It opened in 1866 at the former junction of the Stratford and Poplar lines, replacing a short-lived station of 1856 on the north side of Wick Lane (now Wick Road). No trace of either remains. The redundant viaduct carrying the former goods line to the Millwall docks over the East Cross Route was removed in the 1990s. The present Hackney Wick railway station was built on the 1854 spur from the original North London Line to Stratford. The entrance poles to the former Hackney Wick Goods and Coal Depot (a site, now occupied by housing) are still to be seen beside the Kenworthy Road bridge. ["Branch Lines of East London", J.E.Connor (Middleton Press 2000)]

History of Bus Services

Before the reopening of the railway station, good bus services were vital for the functioning of Hackney Wick as a place of work or of residence. A bus station existed in Eastway, now the bus park, and several famous routes bore the name Hackney Wick as their destination through central London: the 6 from Kensal Rise and the 30 from Roehampton. The 6 route was instigated by the Vanguard Omnibus in 1906 from Kensal Green to Liverpool Street. London General gradually extended it eastwards to reach Hackney Wick by 1914. A peak hour 64 service, later numbered 26, was introduced in the 1920s to connect with Waterloo, later becoming the 6A. In the 1929 General map of London, the 30 route is shown connecting Putney Heath and Hackney Wick. Traffic congestion and privatisation caused the loss of most long-distance cross-city routes by the 1990s.The present 26 is a derivative of the 6A . ["The Motorbus in Central London", Kenneth Warren (Ian Allen 1986)] In addition the circuitous single-deck 236 service, established in inter-war period between Leyton and Finsbury Park, now starts from this terminus. [ [http://www.red-rf.com/rf-343 London Transport 236 route] accessed 13 Dec 2007] and still travels to Finsbury Park as it did in the 1930s. The 208A [ [http://www.red-rf.com/rf-343 London Transport 208A route] accessed 13 Dec 2007] was the first ever to travel along Carpenters Road (closed on 2 July 2007 for construction of the 2012 Summer Olympics), running as a single-deck route between Clapton Pond and Stratford from 1941. Many journeys terminated at Hackney Wick, serving the numerous factories there. In 1959 the 208A was converted to double deck, and renumbered 178, buta low bridge under the Great Eastern Railway necessitated the use of a special low-height London Transport vehicle through Hackney Wick, the RLH, [ [http://www.countrybus.org.uk/RLH/RLH.html The London Transport RLH] accessed 9 Dec 2007] which ran until April 1971. This bus [ [http://www.timebus.co.uk/rlh/routes-garages/route178/178.gifRoute 178,1971] accessed 13 Dec 2007] also served the works of Lesney Products in Lee Conservancy Road. It was partly replaced by the single-deck S3 route which only ran initially as far west as Hackney Wick. This transient service was subsequently extended to Hackney Central and later Stoke Newington,to mutate into the 278 between Stoke Newington and Victoria and Albert Docks in 1982,via Carpenters Road. This service itself became the 276 in late 1984, serving variously Beckton and the Woolwich Ferry (including midibus operation) until settling on Newham Hospital as the terminus. [ [http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/Routes/276-3.htm Route 276] accessed 4 April 2008] The 208 service dating from 1933 connected Cadogan Terrace with Bow and Clapton Pond. [ [http://www.red-rf.com/rf-309 London Transport Route 208] accessed 13 Dec 2007] until 1970 when it was replaced by the present S2. [ [http://www.eplates.info/lettersPW.html London Transport Routes S2 and S3] accessed 13 Dec 2007] The new N11 night bus was introduced in 1984 from Turnham Green and Trafalgar Square with its eastern terminus gradually reaching Hackney Wick. This service has also disappeared to be partly replaced by the N26 to Chingford, although a night bus still terminates at the Wick, in the shape of the 236.

Modern times

In recent post-industrial times, Hackney Wick has lost most of its industry and much of its population. Very little remains of the inter-war street pattern between the Hertford Union Canal and Eastway (the western part was then known as Gainsborough Road) or indeed the masses of small terraced houses. Many of the street names have vanished for ever. Part of the Wick was redeveloped in the 1960s to create the GLC's Trowbridge Estate consisting of single-storey modern housing at the foot of 7 21-storey blocks.. ["From Tower to Tower Block", (Hackney Society,1979)] The demolition of these commenced in 1985. The East London artist Rachel Whiteread has, inter alia, made screenprints of photographs of the former Trowbridge estate as part of her series "Demolished" which are in the Tate Collection. [ [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=21649&tabview=text&texttype=10 Rachel Whiteread,Demolished, Tate Modern] accessed 11 Dec 2007] The Atlas Works of 1863,backing onto the Lee Navigation was demolished to make way for housing in the 1990s. ["Buildings at Risk in Hackney", (Hackney Society 1987)] In the 1930s it had been the home of the British Perforated Paper Co, famous for inventing toilet paper in 1880.Further along Eastway, the 2012 Olympic site has claimed industrial premises formerly used by British Industrial Gases (later British Oxygen Company,BOC) to manufacture Oxygen and Acetylene and Setright Registers Limited who made between the mid 1950s and mid 1960s the famous bus ticket issuing Setright Machine used throughout the country and abroad.

The historic Hackney Wick Stadium, well-known throughout the East End for greyhound racing and speedway, became derelict in late 1990s and closed in 2003. However, it will become the site for the new 2012 Olympic media and broadcast centre and, after the Games, will be turned over for commercial use.

There are many signs of revival. Not only should the area benefit from the future 2012 Olympics development, but London's artistic community, increasingly forced out of the old warehousing and industrial zones to the south of Hackney borough and in Tower Hamlets by rising rents, are taking an interest in the more affordable industrial buildings out at the Wick.

The notable 59 Club for motorcyclists was founded at the Eton Mission church in 1959 in Hackney Wick.

Future

The first stage in preparing the area for use as the 2012 Olympic Park will be the removal of the pylons that run from here to Canning Town.

Due its proximity to the Olympic Park, Hackney Wick is receiving (2006, onwards) community and public realm development grants. This should further contribute to improvements in the area.

Conversely, concerns have been raised over some of the local effects of the Olympic Park development, including the potential impact to the future of the century-old Manor Garden Allotments, which has inspired a vocal community campaign.

References

Education

Transport

Nearest places

*Hackney Marshes
*Old Ford
*Bow
*Homerton
*Leyton
*Stratford
*Victoria Park

Bus

The area is also a local public transport hub with several bus routes, including the 388, terminating near to Hackney Wick railway station. The 388 route to Blackfriars is the only double-deck service operated in the colours of CT Plus,the fleetname of Hackney Community Transport.This service was one of several introduced to coincide with the start of the Congestion Charge zone in London. Both the 30 bus, involved in the 7 July 2005 London bombings, and the 26 bus, involved in the 21 July 2005 London bombings were heading to Hackney Wick. The 276 service, formerly continuing along Carpenters Road from Hackney Wick, now travels to Stratford via Bow.

Road

Hackney Wick is connected to the National Road Network, with the A12 Eastway (completed late 1990s), and East Cross Route linking the area with the Blackwall Tunnel (1960s).

"The area has one of the few River Lee crossing points, and this leads to severe congestion at times of the day. Parking is likely to become more restrictive, both during the construction phase, and during the Olympic games."

Walking and cycling

Hackney Wick is on the Capital Ring walking route, much of which is accessible to cyclists. The River Lee Navigation, and other local canals, have a tow path which is accessible for both walking and cycling. The Hertford Union Canal is accessed via a ramp from Wick Road, near St Marks Gate. From here, eastward, the Lee provides a continuous route to Hertfordshire for the particularly determined. Westwards, the towpath proceeds to the Hertford Union junction with the Regent's Canal; to the south this proceeds to Limehouse Basin, and to the north-west provides a route through north London to Islington, Camden and Paddington.

"Some towpaths in the area may have restricted use during construction and the period of the Olympic games"

ee also

*Lower Lea Valley

External links

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22703 History of Hackney Wick] (at British History Online)
* [http://www.the59club.org.uk/history.html 59 Motorcycle Club]
* [http://www.iht.org/motorway/a102mhackney.htm The Motorway Archive]
* [http://www.timebus.co.uk/rlh/news/rlh25/index.htm 178 Route Anniversary,1996]
* [http://www.red-rf.com/rf-372 Hackney Marshes Vintage Bus event 2006]
* [http://www.hidden-london.com/hackneywick.html Hidden London-Hackney Wick]
* [http://www.stmaryofeton.freeuk.com/ St Mary of Eton Church]
* [http://www.eton-manor.com/id15.html History of the Eton Manor Clubs]