Cumberland Market was a London market between Regent's Park

Regent's Park

Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...

 and Euston railway station

Euston railway station

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...

. It was built in the early 19th century and was London's hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

 and straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...

 market for a hundred years until the late 1920s. An arm of the Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London....

 was built to the market. The market was surrounded by modest housing, and in the early 20th century became an artistic community. The original houses were demolished during and after the Second World War and it is now a housing estate, known as Regent's Park Estate

Regent's Park Estate

Regent's Park Estate is a housing estate in the London Borough of Camden.The estate lies on either side of Robert Street, between Albany Street and Hampstead Road. It is immediately to the east of the Regent's Park estate owned by the Crown Estate...

.

Origins

The land to the east of John Nash

John Nash (architect)

John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London.-Biography:Born in Lambeth, London, the son of a Welsh millwright, Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor. He established his own practice in 1777, but his career was initially unsuccessful and...

’s Regent’s Park development had originally been laid out as a service district with small houses for tradesmen and three large squares intended for the marketing of hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

, vegetables and meat., Only Cumberland Market, the northernmost square survived as a commercial area. London’s hay market relocated here from the Haymarket (near Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...

) in 1830 although it was never to prove a great success, being described in 1878 as “never [having] been very largely attended”.

The Regent’s Canal was developed as a means of delivering goods into the North of London. It linked the Grand Junction Canal

Grand Junction Canal

The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford...

's Paddington Arm with the River Thames at Limehouse

Limehouse

Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east....

. The Cumberland Arm was built as a spur off it and led between Nash’s Park Village West and Park Village East to the Cumberland Basin which was lined by a collection of wharfs and warehouses. Hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

 and straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...

 were brought in for sale at the Market and for the nearby Albany Street

Albany Street

Albany Street is a road in London running from Marylebone Road to Gloucester Gate following the east side of Regent's Park. It is about three-quarters of a mile in length....

 cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 barracks. Barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

s, each capable of carrying thirty tons, would also arrive with heavy goods such as stone and lime for building; coal and timber for the neighbouring coach-building and furniture trade. Ice, too, was brought in for the ice-merchant, William Leftwich, who had an icehouse

Icehouse (building)

Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation.During the...

 that was eighty-two feet deep and with a capacity of 1,500 tons under the Market. Vegetables and cattle were carried in as well, thus reducing the need for the latter to be driven into the city.

Clarence Market, the next square to the south, was intended to be a centre for the distribution of fresh vegetables brought in from the market garden

Market gardening

A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...

s of Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

. It was later cultivated as a nursery garden and became Clarence Gardens. The houses in Clarence and Cumberland Markets were modest and the work of speculative builders who put up “run-of-the-mill products without the slightest obligation to make architecture.” The southernmost square began as York Market but it never found use as a trading place and the name was later changed to Munster Square. Although its houses were tiny, with a single window on each of their three storeys, they were well-designed and perfectly proportioned.

In the NW corner of Cumberland Market, in Albany Street

Albany Street

Albany Street is a road in London running from Marylebone Road to Gloucester Gate following the east side of Regent's Park. It is about three-quarters of a mile in length....

, John Nash had built the Ophthalmic

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

 Hospital for Sir William Adams

William Adams (oculist)

Sir William Adams also known as Sir William Rawson after 1825. He was born at Morwenstow in Cornwall. He was well known as an ophthalmic surgeon and was founder of Exeter's West of England Eye Infirmary. John Nash had built the Ophthalmic Hospital for him on Albany Street, London...

, George IV

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

’s oculist. For several years Adams gave his services free to soldiers whose eyesight had been affected in the military campaigns in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. The hospital was closed in 1822 and for a time it was used as a factory for manufacturing Bacon’s and Perkin’s ‘steam guns’. In 1826 it was purchased by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney

Goldsworthy Gurney

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was a surgeon, chemist, lecturer, consultant, architect, builder and prototypical British gentleman scientist and inventor of the Victorian period....

 for the construction of his famed ‘steam carriages’, one of which made the journey from London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Bath and back, in July 1829. However, unable to market these vehicles Gurney was forced to sell the premises in 1832. Bought by Sir Felix Booth

Felix Booth

Sir Felix Booth, 1st Baronet was a wealthy UK gin distiller. His earlier family had founded Booth's Gin in London in 1740. In 1832 Booth bought the site of the old Ophthalmic Hospital in Albany Street, Regent's Park as a site for his distillery...

, the gin

Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...

 distiller the building survived as a landmark, although badly bombed, until demolition in 1968.
Beside the Ophthalmic

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

 Hospital was Christ Church (now St. George’s Cathedral), built by Nash’s assistant, Sir James Pennethorne

James Pennethorne

Sir James Pennethorne was a notable 19th century English architect and planner, particularly associated with buildings and parks in central London.-Life:...

 in 1837 to serve the largely working class district. However, a series of later alterations gradually made the church more appropriate for high-church worship, and in time the windows were filled with stained glass, including a panel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...

, whose family worshipped there.

The steeple of Christ Church, dominated Cumberland Market as did the nearby chimney of William Grimble's gin distillery, also in Albany Street

Albany Street

Albany Street is a road in London running from Marylebone Road to Gloucester Gate following the east side of Regent's Park. It is about three-quarters of a mile in length....

. In 1840 Grimble decided to embark on producing vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

 from spirit left over from the distilling process. He went into partnership with Sir Felix Booth

Felix Booth

Sir Felix Booth, 1st Baronet was a wealthy UK gin distiller. His earlier family had founded Booth's Gin in London in 1740. In 1832 Booth bought the site of the old Ophthalmic Hospital in Albany Street, Regent's Park as a site for his distillery...

, and they set up premises in the North East corner of the Market. The venture was unsuccessful so they turned to the more conventional method of vinegar brewing. The brewery burnt down in 1864 and was rebuilt and extended soon after.

Growth of Railways

The growth of the railway network and the opening of Euston Station

Euston station

Euston station may refer to one of the following stations in London, United Kingdom:*Euston railway station, a major terminus for trains to the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and part of Scotland...

 in 1837 caused enormous upheaval and was one of the factors that led to the rapid decline of the area. Bringing in “noise, dirt, Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 navvies, and semi-itinerant railway workers” Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 likened the railway works cutting their way through Camden Town

Camden Town

-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

 to a “great earthquake”. More industry developed in the area than was originally planned as factories began to spring up near the canal and railway and this put even more pressure on land for housing. Houses that were originally built for middle class families were taken over by incomers. The terraces of Mornington Crescent

Mornington Crescent (street)

Mornington Crescent is also a street off the A4 near Heathrow Airport.Mornington Crescent is a street in Camden, London, England. It was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London. The crescent was named after the Earl of Mornington, brother of the Duke of Wellington...

 and Arlington Road, for example, were ideal for multi occupation for as many as nine or ten people could be accommodated in each.

By 1852 the Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

 was transporting around a fifth of the total coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 through both Euston

Euston railway station

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...

 and King’s Cross. Although still in use the Regent’s Canal carried less and less until by the 1850s the Cumberland Basin was described as “no better than a stagnant putrid ditch”. Cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

 spread through the families of men who were employed on the barges and in the wharves around it and took hold in the overcrowded neighbourhood.

The housing situation was to become worse in the following decade. Some 4,000 houses were demolished in the area to the east of Cumberland Market to make way for the new St Pancras Station

St Pancras railway station

St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...

 in 1868. As many as 32,000 people were displaced, most with no form of compensation. By the late nineteenth century a dramatic social divide had developed in this part of London with Cumberland Market in the middle. Just over one hundred metres to the west were the wealthy occupants of Nash

John Nash (architect)

John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London.-Biography:Born in Lambeth, London, the son of a Welsh millwright, Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor. He established his own practice in 1777, but his career was initially unsuccessful and...

’s Chester Terrace

Chester Terrace

Chester Terrace is one of the neo-classical terraces in Regent's Park, London, designed by John Nash and built in 1825. The terrace has the longest unbroken facade in Regents Park . It takes its name from one of the titles of George IV before he became king, Earl of Chester...

 while a short distance to the east were areas characterised by Charles Booth

Charles Booth (philanthropist)

Charles Booth was an English philanthropist and social researcher. He is most famed for his innovative work on documenting working class life in London at the end of the 19th century, work that along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree influenced government intervention against poverty in the...

, the social commentator, as being occupied by the very poor, of those in “chronic want”.

Throughout its existence the hay market operated for three days a week alongside a general produce market. The central cobbled market place, enclosed by cast-iron posts linked with chains, was surrounded by modest houses of varying styles. Most of the houses were of three storeys, some with a basement. Although originally they do not appear to have had shops the lower floors of many were subsequently converted to business. Twenty-one separate businesses are recorded in Cumberland Market at the beginning of the twentieth century together with four pubs

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

.

The canal had proved to be a very efficient means of bringing in stone to the Cumberland Basin and a number of monumental masonry

Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...

 and statuary businesses had sprung up in the Euston Road

Euston Road

Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England, and forms part of the A501. It is part of the New Road from Paddington to Islington, and was opened as part of the New Road in 1756...

 to take advantage of this.

Artistic community

As well as monumental statuary the availability of stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

, combined with cheap rents and its proximity to the centre of town had attracted a number of sculptors and artists to set up studios in the Cumberland Market area. Amongst the former were Mario Raggi

Mario Raggi

Mario Raggi was an Italian sculptor who settled in England.Raggi was born at Carrera, Italy where he learnt to sculpt, although much of his reputation was made in England, where he first exhibited busts at the Royal Academy in 1878, and continued to do so until 1895...

; John Henry Foley

John Henry Foley

John Henry Foley , often referred to as JH Foley, was an Irish sculptor, best known for his statues of Daniel O'Connell in Dublin, and of Prince Albert in London. Both are still considered iconic in each city.-Life:...

 and Sir Thomas Brock

Thomas Brock

Sir Thomas Brock KCB RA was an English sculptor.- Life :Brock was born in Worcester, attended the School of Design in Worcester and then undertook an apprenticeship in modelling at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works. In 1866 he became a pupil of the sculptor John Henry Foley. He married in 1869,...

. Sir Frederic (later Lord) Leighton also had his sculptor's studio in Osnaburgh Street.

Fred Winter, the treasurer of the New English Art Club

New English Art Club

The New English Art Club was founded in London in 1885 as an alternate venue to the Royal Academy.-History:Young English artists returning from studying art in Paris mounted the first exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1886...

, sculpted at No.13 Robert Street and Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert

Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....

 painted in the next door studio in 1894 sharing it for a while with his former master Whistler

James McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...

. Some years later C.R.W. Nevinson

Christopher R. W. Nevinson

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was a British figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W...

 rented the same studio and it was there that he painted his works for his second exhibition of War Paintings at the Leicester Galleries of 1918.

In 1909-10 Sickert had taken a studio at No. 21 Augustus Street, which he called the "Vinegar Factory" as it had been part of Grimble's Factory. Here he taught etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

. His Cumberland Market painting of ca. 1910 which was made at the south end of Augustus Street shows the side window of Charles Chase's bakers shop at No. 24 Cumberland Market.

Today Cumberland Market is best remembered as the home of Robert Bevan

Robert Bevan

Robert Polhill Bevan was an English painter, draughtsman and lithographer. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group, the London Group, and the Cumberland Market Group.-Early life:...

's Cumberland Market Group

Cumberland Market Group

The Cumberland Market Group was a short-lived artistic grouping in early twentieth century London. The group met in the studio of Robert Bevan in Cumberland Market, the old hay and straw market off Albany Street, and held one exhibition.-History:...

 for it was in his first floor studio of No. 49 that he and his colleagues held their Saturday afternoon "At Homes" in the early days of the First World War.

The artist William Roberts

William Roberts (painter)

William Roberts was a British painter of groups of figures and portraits, and was a war artist.-Education and early career:Son of an Irish carpenter and his wife, Roberts was born in Hackney, London...

 also worked in the Market at this time and mentioned other neighbours as having been Bernard Meninsky

Bernard Meninsky

Bernard Meninsky was a figurative artist, painter of figures and landscape in oils, watercolour and gouache, draughtsman and teacher. He was born in Karotopin now in the Ukraine but raised in Liverpool where he attended the Liverpool School of Art in 1906 after initially attending evening classes...

, John Flanagan, Colin Gill, and Geoffrey Nelson.

In her "The Hay-Market" of 1914 Charlotte Mew

Charlotte Mew

Charlotte Mary Mew was an English poet, whose work spans the cusp between Victorian poetry and Modernism.She was born in Bloomsbury, London the daughter of the architect Frederick Mew, who designed Hampstead town hall and Anna Kendall. She attended Lucy Harrison's School for Girls and lectures at...

, the poet, gave a vivid picture of Cumberland Market and its residents. Her account of a woman walking across it with her young daughter might almost have been a description of one of Bevan’s better-known paintings of this period.

Another writer attracted to the area was the American "Tramp Poet" Harry Kemp, who rented two rooms in the Market in late 1913. It was there one morning, woken from an absinthe

Absinthe

Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood", together with green anise and sweet fennel...

-induced hangover

Hangover

A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...

, by the tap-tapping of a blind man in the Market below that he wrote "Blind".

Social Conditions

A few years beforehand, concerned by the poor conditions in which many were living Mary Neal

Mary Neal

Mary Neal CBE , born Clara Sophia Neal, was an English social worker and collector of English folk dances....

, a philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

, set out to help girls working in the dressmaking trade. With Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...

 she established the Espérance Girls’ Club

Espérance Club

The Espérance Club, and the Maison Espérance dressmaking cooperative, were founded in the mid-1890s by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade...

 at No. 50 Cumberland Market. This was open nearly every night of the week from 8 to 10 o’clock. One evening every week was set apart for a singing class, another for musical drill, another for games, or sewing or cooking. Having heard of Cecil Sharp

Cecil Sharp

Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...

’s collection of folk songs in 1905 she asked him for suitable ones that might be taught to the girls. This proved to be such a success that he was asked to recommend dances to go with the songs. Within a short time the Espérance girls were putting on demonstrations around the country. Sharp collaborated with Herbert MacIlwaine, the musical director of the club, to produce the first of the Morris books.

Mary Neal

Mary Neal

Mary Neal CBE , born Clara Sophia Neal, was an English social worker and collector of English folk dances....

 had been an early supporter of the Women's Social and Political Union

Women's Social and Political Union

The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...

 and the Espérance Club

Espérance Club

The Espérance Club, and the Maison Espérance dressmaking cooperative, were founded in the mid-1890s by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade...

 danced at many of their events. This proved to be one of the reasons for Sharp and Neal to fall out and although she went on to publish two Espérance Morris books, the Club closed during the First World War.

The theme of social change remained strong in Cumberland Market, for in 1916 Miss M.M. Jeffery, who had been the reformer Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family with a strong commitment to alleviating poverty, she herself grew up in straitened circumstances owing...

’s secretary, took over three rooms at No. 42. She had been appointed to manage the Cumberland Market (London) Estate of the Commissioner’s of Crown Lands (later the Crown Estate

Crown Estate

In the United Kingdom, the Crown Estate is a property portfolio owned by the Crown. Although still belonging to the monarch and inherent with the accession of the throne, it is no longer the private property of the reigning monarch and cannot be sold by him/her, nor do the revenues from it belong...

 Commissioners). This was an estate ‘of about 850 houses divided into about 2,000 tenancies, occupied by a population of about 7,000’.

Decline

A market continued on the site right up until the late 1920s, and the last trading barges ceased sometime in 1930. Local businesses were in terminal decline and by 1931 only five remained and the King’s Head was the sole surviving pub. In the same year the buildings on the north side of the Market were demolished, including Grimble’s Vinegar Factory, and replaced by council housing.

In August 1938 the Cumberland Basin was dammed off and drained and in the next two years it was formally abandoned. By 15 January 1941 the Basin had been filled in with rubble from London’s bombing and in the years following the Second World War the site was covered with topsoil

Topsoil

Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...

 and turned into allotments

Allotment (gardening)

An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...

.

Being so close to both Euston

Euston railway station

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...

 and King’s Cross stations it was inevitable that the area would have been so heavily bombed during the Second World War. A V1 rocket landed on the NE corner in 1944 and the buildings on the SE corner were damaged beyond repair. General blast damage was also sustained in the SW corner.

The remaining buildings were demolished in 1950 and in 1951 the Crown Estate Commissioners sold the 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) on which Munster Square, Clarence Gardens and Cumberland Market stood to St Pancras Borough Council

Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras

The Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras was a Metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead and the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn to form the London Borough of Camden...

for the building of a housing estate, known as Regent's Park Estate.

External links