Tag: Hoxton

George and Vulture, Pitfield Street, N1

Pitfield Street is a historic London street going north from Old Street. About half-way along is the George and Vulture pub.

The George and Vulture describes itself as the tallest pub in London. The current building dates from 1870, according to the pub’s website.

The George and Vulture, Pitfield Street. Sketched 29 Jan 2025, in sketchbook 15

The “Pubs History” website lists licenced victuallers from 1827 onwards. Here is a scrap from Robsons Street Directory in 1832.

https://londonwiki.co.uk/streets1832/Haberdashersstreet.shtml

The original address of the pub was 35 Haberdashers Street. Much of the land round here was owned by the Haberdashers Livery company, bequeathed to them by Robert Aske, a merchant (1619-1689). In 1862 the Haberdashers company offered new leases on properties here:

Haberdashers’ Estate, Hoxton.
A free public-house, adjoining the high road, and 66 dwelling-houses.
To be let, by tender, by the worshipful Company of Haberdashers, Governors of Aske’s Charity Estate, Hoxton, on repairing leases, for 21 years, from Midsummer, 1863:—
The free public-house, known as the “George and Vulture,” situate in Haberdashers’ Street, which might be enlarged so as to form a corner house to the main street.
Also 12 houses, Nos. 1 to 12, Haberdashers’ Place, which may be converted into shops, at the option of the lessee.
Also 19 houses, Nos. 1 to 19, on the south side of Aske’s Terrace; and 35 houses, Nos. 1 to 35, on the north and south sides of Haberdashers’ Street, in the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, in the county of Middlesex.
Plans of the property, and specifications of the repairs to be performed, may be seen at the offices of Mr. William Snooke, the surveyor to the governors, No. 6, Duke Street, London Bridge, between the hours of 10 and 4 o’clock.
Tenders, in writing only, are to be sent in to Haberdashers’ Hall, Gresham Street West, on or before Thursday, the 27th day of November 1862.

City of London Livery Companies Commission, ‘Report on the Charities of the Haberdashers’ Company: Appendix’, in City of London Livery Companies Commission. Report; Volume 4(London, 1884), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/livery-companies-commission/vol4/pp478-486 [accessed 30 January 2025].

One of the properties to be let, as you see, was
“The free public-house, known as the “George and Vulture,” situate in Haberdashers’ Street, which might be enlarged so as to form a corner house to the main street.”

Evidently the lessee enlarged the pub, as the Haberdashers Company suggested, and it does indeed form a corner house to the main street. The address of the pub is now 63 Pitfield Street. Here is the 1877 map which shows the pub as a “corner house”. The road layout on the west of Pitfield Street is largely unchanged. Singleton Street is now called Haberdasher Street.

1972 Ordnance Survey map, from the National Library of Scotland, re-use: CC-BY (NLS)

The area was bombed extensively in the 1939-45 conflict, but the pub survived. Bomb maps show that the area adjoining Aske Street on the other side of Pitfield Street was damaged beyond repair. A plaque on the row of shops just North of the pub describe the re-building.1

“Haberdashers Place was destroyed by enemy action on 11 May 1941 and re-built in 1952 when on first July this stone was laid by the master of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers S.A. Last-Smith.
Clerk W B(?)revett – Builder W Philips & Son -Architect Terence C Page”
Photo: January 2025

Here is the 1872 map alongside a modern map. You see that the rows of terraced houses on the east of Pitfield Street have gone, and are replaced by low-level residential housing blocks with a different layout.

(c) openstreetmapcontributors
National Library of Scotland CC-BY(NLS)

I sketched the pub on a cold January day. I did the pen and ink on location and then retreated to my desk to do the colour.

Sketchbook 15

I cannot discover why the pub is called the “George and Vulture”. Why “vulture”? There is another pub in London of the same name, in the alleys of the City close to the Jamaica Wine House. That one was established in 1175. There was also a George and Vulture in Tottenham, 490 High Road, N172, from around 1759, now demolished.

The George and Vulture Tottenham in 1950,
image from: https://tottenham-summerhillroad.com/old_pubs_of_tottenham.htm

Can anyone throw any light on the meaning of the name?

  1. The site “urbannarrative” by local architect Steven Smith, comments on this re-building: https://urbannarrative.com/DITCHWATER ↩︎
  2. Website: “Pubology.co.uk”: https://www.pubology.co.uk/pubs/9402.html ↩︎

Hoxton Trust Community Garden – Clock Tower, London N1

Hoxton Street is busy with market stalls, shops, cafés. People walk to and fro. If you walk North, there’s a small garden on the right, behind a fence. Above the trees there’s this odd white tower. What is it? The gate is open and you can go in.

Hoxton Trust Community Garden N1- Clock Tower, sketched 29 August 2024 in Sketchbook 15

This is the Hoxton Trust Community Garden. Their website tells me that the Clock Tower was rescued from the Eastern Fever Hospital which was built 1869-1871. It is made of wood, and is possibly older than the hospital.

The clock tower sits on a framework made of steel girders. On the day I was there, the clock had stopped at half-past six. So in a timeless interlude, I sketched from a wooden bench amongst the trees.

Near the bench is a small monument to the “Hoxton Five”. Who were they?

“One was stabbed, and his four friends were killed in a car crash returning from the funeral.”

The Hoxton Community Trust is a registered charity “working to make Hoxton and Shoreditch a better place”. According to their website, they provide free legal advice and assistance to people who need it. They maintain this community garden for the benefit of everyone. The charity was established in 1983: “At the time, Hoxton was very unfashionable, with high levels of poverty and a very poor quality urban realm”, their website says. They bought and renovated three buildings, 150-156 Hoxton Street, adjacent to the garden. These buildings are now let out. Rents from these buildings supplement the income of the Hoxton Trust, which is also funded by grants from the National Lottery, Hackney Council, and other sources (2023). The work of the Trust is also supported by volunteers, some of whom work in the garden.

The garden is lovely. There are fruit trees and a herb garden, and plenty of seats. A sanctuary.

Sketching in the Hoxton Community Trust Garden.
Sketchbook 15

Roof of the “Museum of the Home”, Geffrye Street, E2

On Geffrye Street near Hoxton Overground station, is the marvellous bakery “Fabrique”. My feet somehow took me there on a sunny day, after I had done my errands in the nearby area. Well, perhaps my errands were not quite nearby. But those cinnamon buns exude an aroma detectable at a considerable distance, like pheromones. So there I was sitting at a table on a sunny pavement and looking for something to sketch. Here’s what I saw.

Roof of the “Museum of the Home” 136 Kingsland Road
London E2 8EA, 3rd February 2023, around noon, in Sketchbook 12

The “Museum of the Home” used to be called the “Geffrye Museum”.

Here is work in progress on the drawing:

Here are the raspberry buns at Fabrique, and a map so you can find them:

St Monica’s Church, Hoxton N1

On a cold day, suddenly the sun came out and lit up the stone of St Monica’s Church.

Bell tower of St Monica’s Church, Hoxton Square. 26th January 2022, 13:40 in Sketchbook 11

This church was built in 1866, to the design of E.W. Pugin. It was part of the Augustinian Priory on this side of Hoxton Square.

E.W. Pugin (1834-75) is the son of A.W. Pugin, who collaborated with Charles Barry on the design of the Houses of Parliament. E.W. Pugin designed a large number of churches, 60 English churches are listed in his Wikipedia entry, with another 6 or so in Wales and Scotland and 16 in Ireland.