Stoke Newington Common

Name changes

The common was originally known as Cockhanger Green but renamed as the surrounding areas were being developed in the Victorian era. The name Shacklewell Common was used for a time, as was Newington Common, after a West Hackney hamlet of that name which lay on the west side of the common. The hamlet of Newington was part of Hackney and unconnected with either Stoke Newington or Newington Green.

The current name of Stoke Newington Common was in exclusive use in the first half of the twentieth century.

History

This is old common land that came under public ownership in 1872.

The now buried and lost Hackney Brook once ran across the north of the common, but this has long been replaced by the busy Northwold Road. This was due to the increased population at the time of its burial reducing the brook to no more than an open sewer.

A 400,000-year-old palaeolithic flint axe factory was found by W.G. Smith in 1878 on the south side of the common and in market gardens on the north side of the common. This Palaeolithic floor is associated with an ancient terrace carved by the River Thames called the Upper Taplow Terrace that extends from Stoke Newington past Canonbury as far as Rosemary Branch. It is a remnant of a plain where extensive evidence the earliest human occupation of Britain has been found, notably at Swanscombe in Kent.[[Image:Stoke newington raines court 1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The innovative Raines Court development on Northwold Road. (December 2005)]]The north side of the common was overlooked by Gibson Gardens; an early example of quality tenement dwellings for working class people built in 1880 and still unchanged today, some parts are highly desirable for owner-occupiers. Gibson Gardens is now masked from the common by the innovative Raines Court on Northwold Road on the site of the old dairy. Built by the Peabody Trust, this is just the second multi-storey modular housing development to be built in Britain, and offers one approach to the increased demand for housing in the area. Local residents campaigned unsuccessfully to have Rectory Road closed off over the common and the railway roofed for many years with the prohibitively high cost of the works reducing the possibility of success to zero.

Nearest stations

• Rectory Road railway station
• Stoke Newington railway station

Notable people

The common can claim at least one internationally famous resident, Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex, who lived at 25 Stoke Newington Common, on the south side, from birth until the age of 15.

Another more or less famous resident was Frederick Lewis Demuth (1851-1929) who died here at "13 Stoke Newington Common" on 29 January 1929. Demuth was the illegitimate son of Karl Marx and his servant Helena Demuth.

References

References

1. . (2013). ["Common Land in England Stoke Newington Common"](http://common-land.com/lands/view/2134). *common-land.com*.
2. Overview of the Common's history by Stoke Newington Common User Group. Taken from the LBH website https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-0gio-3R8NoWJ4CW8teKJIgf7qsr0eyn/view
3. "Hackney: Newington and Stamford Hill | British History Online".
4. Smith W: On a Palaeolithic Floor at North-East London. ''The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 13, (1884), pp. 357–384.
5. "Finding Geology in Buildings and the Geology of the Lea Valley".
6. "The Physique of Middlesex | British History Online".
7. Stringer, C. FRS. ''Homo Britannicus''. Penguin (2006) pp. 68–89.