The gardens, which at this time occupied about four acres, were almost entirely situated within the old park wall of the Priors of St. Bartholomew’s, and the wall on the east divided them from the open fields. The old fish-pond of the Priors was also connected.
The Sunday Ramble describes Canonbury House in 1797 as “a place of decent retreat for tea and sober treatment.” In 1810 an Assembly was established at the tavern, and about 1811 the grounds consisted of a shrubbery and bowling green with Dutch-pin and trap-ball grounds and butts for ball-firing used by the Volunteers. The old tiled outhouses were used as a bake-house for the pastry and rolls till 1840, when they were pulled down.
About 1823 the builders had invaded the rural neighbourhood of Canonbury, but the tea-gardens continued to be frequented as a pleasant resort till 1843, or later.
At sometime between 1843 and 1866 the Canonbury Tavern was rebuilt. It now stands on the north side of Canonbury Place, a little to the east of Canonbury Tower and on the opposite side of the road.
A garden, though not of the old dimensions, is still attached to the tavern and open to the public during the summer.
[Nichols’s Canonbury, 1788, 33; The Ambulator, 1st ed. 1774, s.v. “Canonbury House”; Kearsley’s Strangers’ Guide (1793?), s.v. “Canonbury or Cambray House”; A Modern Sabbath, 1797, chap. vii.; Nelson’s Islington, 252; Brayley’s Londiniana, iii. 269, ff.; Picture of London, eds. 1802 and 1829; Lewis’s Islington, p. 310; Timbs’s Club Life, 1866, ii. 228.]
VIEWS.
Exterior of Canonbury Tavern (north view), a small engraving published in 1819 by R. Ackermann (W. Coll.); Crace, Cat. p. 602, No. 174.
COPENHAGEN HOUSE
Copenhagen House stood alone on an eminence in the fields, on the right-hand side of Maiden Lane, the old way leading from Battle Bridge to Highgate, being about midway between those places.[159]