Hampstead and Marylebone

by G. E. Mitton

Infant, National, and Catholic Schools lie near North and Richmond Streets. One or two of the houses to the north of the latter have still retained a certain cottage-like appearance, a memory of the bygone village. Lyon's Place, a straggling mews, preserves the name of the benefactor who left the estate he had bought here to found Harrow School; and the names Aberdeen, Cunningham, Northwick, etc., are associated with the school.

The Regent's Canal runs under Aberdeen Place. Emanuel Church, a curious little square building with an Ionic portico, was formerly known as Christ's Chapel. It was largely remodelled in 1891, and seats over 1,000 persons. On the interior walls are several memorial tablets.

Edgware Road forms the western boundary of the parish. It is a very ancient road. In the 1722 edition of Camden's "Britannia" we read: "Towards the Northern boundary of Middlesex a military way of the Romans commonly called Watling Street enters this country, coming straight along from the older Verulam to London over Hampstead Heath; not the road which now lies through Highgate, for that, as is before observed, was opened only about 400 [marginal note, 300] years ago by permission of the Bishop of London, but that more ancient way (as appears by the old charters of Edward the Confessor) which ran along near Edgeworth, a place of no great antiquity."

The difficulty of accounting for the entrance of the road at this particular point has been solved in various ways. It has been suggested that a circuit had been made to avoid the great Middlesex forests, but a more likely theory is that it followed this route to avoid the Hampstead and Highgate hills. Edgware was the name of the first town it passed through after the forests of Middlesex.

We have only to deal with the east side of the road at present. This is lined with shops, varying in quality and increasing in size towards the Marble Arch. There are no buildings of importance. The road ends in Oxford Street, the ancient Tyburn Road, a name associated with the direful history of the gallows.

The Tyburn gallows were originally a huge tripod, subsequently two uprights and a cross beam. The site was frequently changed, so that both Marylebone and Paddington can claim the dreadful association. Timbs says that the gallows were erected on the morning of execution right across the Edgware Road, opposite the house at the corner of Upper Bryanston Street. This house has iron galleries from which the Sheriffs watched the execution, and in it after the ceremony the gallows were deposited. Galleries were erected for spectators as at a gladiatorial show, and special prices were charged for special exhibitions. Among the people who suffered at Tyburn, the best known are: Roger de Mortimer, for treason, 1330; Perkin Warbeck, 1449; the Holy Maid of Kent and her confederates, 1534; Robert Southwell, the Elizabethan poet, 1595; Mrs. Turner, murderess of Sir T. Overbury, 1615.

In 1660-61, on the anniversary of Charles I.'s execution, Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were dragged from their graves and hanged at Tyburn, after which their heads were cut off and exposed on Westminster Hall, and their bodies buried beneath the gallows.

Jack Sheppard was hanged here in 1724, and the last person to suffer at Tyburn was John Austin, in 1783. The turnpike gate across the road near the gallows remained until 1825. It was a double turnpike, with gates on both the Edgware and Uxbridge Roads.

The Marylebone Road was at first called the New Road, when it was cut in 1757. The Bill for its making had met with strong opposition in Parliament from the Duke of Bedford. In consequence of his opposition a clause was introduced prohibiting the erection of any building within 50 feet of the road, and the effect of this prohibition is to be seen in the gardens which front the houses.

The new road was later subdivided into the Marylebone and Euston Roads. Beginning at the Edgware Road, the first building on the south side to attract attention is St. Mark's Church, designed by Blomfield. This church is of red brick, and is prettily built and surmounted by a high steeple. The schools form a part of the same building. The consecration ceremony took place on June 29, 1872. A few doors further on are the Christian Union Almshouses, founded in John Street, 1832, and extended to Marylebone Road in 1868. These are supported by voluntary contributions, and are for the benefit of old women or married couples of the parishes of Marylebone, Paddington, or part of St. Pancras. The inmates receive sundry gratuities, coal and lodging, but the eligible must possess not less than 4s. 6d. per week.