Newington Green started in the 15th century as a forest clearing. Some of the earliest surviving terraced buildings in London, dating to around 1650, can be found on the west side of the green, and Bishop's Palace, which stood on the North West corner of the green until the late 18th century, was supposed to have been occupied by Henry VIII and several mistresses.
Around 1660, Newington Green became a haven for Non-conformists. After the Act of Uniformity in 1662, about 2,000 clergymen from across the country were banished from the church and many came here to worship in secret. Several academies were set up to educate those refused entry to Oxford and Cambridge for religious reasons. Both Daniel Defoe and Samuel Wesley were educated at Charles Morton's Academy (1667-1696). Daniel Defoe married a girl from the area and tried to raise civet cats on the Green for their perfume!
In 1689 the Act of Toleration was passed, allowing dissenters to worship in public and the Unitarian Chapel at the north side of the green was built in 1708. It still stands, and is the oldest non-conformist church in the UK still in use for worship. Dr Richard Price, a philosopher, mathematician and economist was a minister of the chapel in the late 18th century. He was a friend to several prominent American revolutionaries including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, David Hume and Tom Paine - several of whom visited him on the Green - and his writings in favour of the French and American Revolutions prompted Edmund Burke to write his Reflections on the Revolution in France arguing in favour of the monarchy.
Mary Wollstonecraft
The writer of the seminal work, "Vindication of the rights of Women" and mother to Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein was another famous resident. She ran a girl's school in the area from 1784-1786 despite having little formal education herself.
Samuel Rogers, the poet and wit, lived in the area 1763 to 1793 and the poetess Leatitia Barbauld moved to the area of the green in 1802 - this may account for nearby Poet's Road.
Edgar Allen Poe went to school nearby. He wrote of the green in 1817-20 as being "a misty-looking village of England with gigantic and gnarled trees... deeply shadowed avenues... and a thousand shrubberies!".
In 1805, Newington Green was still largely surrounded by farmland.
19th Century
Newington Green at the turn of the century
By the middle of the 19th Century, the North London railway was run through the area, and it changed rapidly. By 1870 it had changed from a sleepy suburb to a part of inner London. By 1900 it was served by horse-trams and horse-buses and the Green was lit by electric light. The big houses in Mildmay Grove, Mildmay Road and to the west of the Green were occupied by families with servants, and most of the rest of the area was inhabited by skilled workers.
WW II and beyond
The Newington Green area was heavily damaged by bombing during the war - Newington Green school was partially knocked down, and 22 were killed when a bomb fell on Poet's Road. The site (where Masefield Court is today) was used as a prisoner of war camp. After the war, new housing estates were built on the bomb sites, and more were built after extensive re-development schemes in the 1960s.
Newington Green Festival, 1976.
We hope that with your help we can once again make make the green a focus for the community.
All members will receive "A Short History of Newington Green" written by our treasurer, Pat Haynes, who has also recently written a short history of the China Inland Mission building on the West side of the Green.
The Islington Society has produced a walking trail (which you can download or get from local libraries) that covers the Green and surrounding areas, showing places of historical interest.
The Building Exploratory has also produced a handy guide to the area.