Lisson Grove


Lisson Grove is a district and a street of the City of Westminster, London, just to the north of the Inner Ring Road. The area is predominantly residential, with a very high population density and extensive social housing, and is less affluent than Westminster as a whole.Westminster City Council - Church Street Ward Profile https://www.westminster.gov.uk/sites/default/files/church-street-ward-profile.pdf The Church Street ward covers roughly the same area.

History

For a history of the etymology behind the district's street names see Street names of Lisson Grove
Lisson Green is described as a hamlet in the Domesday book in 1086, the edges of the settlement defined by the two current Edgware Road stations facing onto Edgware Road or Watling Street as it was previously known, one of the main Roman thoroughfares in and out of London. Occasionally referred to as Lissom Grove, originally Lisson Grove was part of the medieval manor of Lilestone which stretched as far as Hampstead. Lisson Green as a manor broke away c. 1236 with its own manor house.
Until the late 18th century the district remained essentially rural. It developed into a slum in Victorian London, notorious for drinking, crime and prostitution, as well as the extreme poverty of the people and the squalor and dilapidation of the homes they lived in. The arrival of the Regent's Canal in 1810 and the railway at Marylebone in 1899 led to rapid urbanisation of Lisson Grove.
Following World War One, Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced a policy of "Homes Fit for Heroes", leading to a housing boom from which Lisson Grove was to benefit. In 1924, St Marylebone Borough Council completed the Fisherton Street Estate of seven apartment blocks in red-brick neo-Georgian style with high mansard roofs grouped around two courtyards. Noted for their innovation as some of the first social housing to include an indoor bathroom and toilet, in 1990 the estate was defined as a conservation area The blocks were named mostly for the notable former residents of Lisson Grove and its surrounding areas, which drew Victorian landscape painters, sculptors, portraitists and architects:
Following the Second World War, further social housing was completed at the Church Street Estate and the more extensive Lisson Green Estate. In 1960 a new Labour Exchange was established on Lisson Grove to much fanfare, and later featured in punk music history as the place where members of The Clash first met. The area also became known for its antiques trade.
In the 2010s, Westminster City Council have proposed extensive regeneration of the area.

Notable former residents

The area has a long association with art, artists and theatre. In 1810 the Royal Academy catalogues give sculptor Charles Rossi's address as 21 Lisson Grove, where he had bought a large house. By 1817, Rossi was renting out a section of the house to painter Benjamin Haydon. A blue plaque on the corner of Rossmore Road and Lisson Grove marks the spot and in 2000 author Penelope Hughes-Hallett wrote The Immortal Dinner with the focus on Haydon's dining companions invited to his Lisson Grove abode on 28 December 1817. Haydon's protégé Edwin Landseer lived north on Lisson Grove on the corner of St John's Wood Road from 1825.
The arrival of Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema at nearby 44, Grove End Road in the late 1870s inspired the naming of one of the Lilestone Estate apartment blocks built in the 1920s as Tadema House. Eastlake House, situated opposite Tadema House, is possibly named for Charles Eastlake whose Eastlake Movement's underlying ethos of simple decorative devices that were affordable and easy to keep clean would have been of interest to those developing social housing in the 20th Century.
On Bell Street, the Lisson Gallery, established in 1967 by Nicholas Logsdail, championed the new British sculptors of the 1980s and continues to show new and established artists, with expanded premises further along Bell Street. Mark Jason Gallery at No 1 Bell Street specialises in promoting contemporary British and international artists. At No 17, Bell Street Vintage Wireless London has existed since 1979, selling a wide assortment of vintage turntables, radiograms, wirelesses, dansettes, reel-to-reels, amps and mikes.
In 2006 the Subway Gallery arrived in the Joe Strummer Subway which runs under the Marylebone Road. Conceived by artist Robert Gordon McHarg III, the space itself is a 1960s kiosk with glass walls which creates a unique showcase for art, interacting naturally with passers by, visitors and the local community.
The Show Room is on Penfold Street, next to the main Aeroworks factory. The Show Room is a non-profit space for contemporary art that is focused on a collaborative and process-driven approach to production, be that artwork, exhibitions, discussions, publications, knowledge and relationships.
Church Street runs parallel to St John's Wood Road and plays host to a varied market Mondays–Saturdays, 8am–6pm selling fruit and vegetables, clothes, and bags amongst other items. Towards the Lisson Grove end of Church Street is Alfie's Antique Market, London's largest indoor market for antiques, collectables, vintage, and 20th century design is in the former Jordans Department Store, decorated with an Egyptian art deco theme similar to the Aeroworks - the indoor market, "houses more than 200 permanent stall holders and covers in excess of 35,000 sq ft of shop space on five floors." Opened in 1976 by Bennie Gray, in the then derelict department store, the Antiques Market has since spawned twenty or so individual shops at the Lisson Grove end of Church Street specialising in mainly 20th-century art and collectables

Theatres and music halls

The Metropolitan Music Hall, re-launched with great refurbishment and extended capacity in 1867, was situated at 267, Edgware Road, opposite Edgware Road tube station entrance/exit and Bell Street. Paddington Green police station is now situated on this spot, having moved to make way for the Marylebone flyover.
The Royal West London Theatre was on Church Street, a commemorative plaque above the Church Street Library marking its place. From 1904 onwards Charlie Chaplin trod the boards as a teenager.
Currently Lisson Grove has two theatres.
The Cockpit Theatre on Gateforth Street is a purpose built fringe theatre venue promoting "Theatre of Ideas and ensemble working. Its regular classes and workshops, comfortable bar and friendly team enable this creative hub to support performers, the industry, diverse audiences, the local community and free radicals alike."
The Schmidt hammer lassen-designed City of Westminster College at 25 Paddington Green contains the Siddons Theatre, named for the much acclaimed 18th century tragedienne Sarah Siddons, buried at St Mary on Paddington Green.

Architectural landmarks

Places of worship

Christ Church, Cosway Street, designed by Thomas Hardwick in 1822–24 and closed in 1973, now used as a leisure facility.

Parks and playgrounds

There a number of nurseries in Lisson Grove, two run by London Early Years Foundation at Luton Street and Lisson Green.
Primary schools are , Gateway Academy on Gateforth Street and King Solomon Primary.
King Solomon Academy, an Ark school, was recently established on the site of the former Rutherford School for Boys. The main building of the secondary school is Grade II* listed, designed by Leonard Manasseh and Ian Baker in 1957 and completed in 1960. Mannaseh's style has been described as displaying a digested influence of Le Corbusier with traits including "crispness", glazed or tiled pyramids, window walls with fine black mullions, "assertive" gables, and Baker's bold geometrical masonry forms, and grand symmetry and rhythms. The interior lobby is lined in Carrara marble, with corridors lined with Ruabon tiles. When asked "Why the marble, Mr Manasseh?" he was reported as saying "Because it's boy-proof."

Public houses

Not a particularly popular name for a public house, this was named for the magical artefact, a speaking brass head, 13th century Friar Roger Bacon created, and the subject of legend circulating in the 16th century. The most famous Brazen Head features in James Joyce's Ulysses.
The legend is that the pub is named for a herbalist had lived on the site of the pub, due to the nearby spring which had curative properties. Noted for the eye lotion produced from the spring water, all subsequent leaseholders were obliged to sign a clause requiring them to offer the eye lotion for free on request, in his memory.
As recently as 1954 Stanley Coleman wrote in his 'Treasury of Folklore: London' "that you may ask for eye lotion and the publican will measure you out an ounce or two" though it no longer came from the well in the cellar which had dried up when Edgware Road Tube station had been built on the site.

Tube stations

The nearest London Underground stations are Baker Street, Edgware Road, Edgware Road, Paddington station, Warwick Avenue and Marylebone.

Bus routes

Bus routes serving the road Lisson Grove are 139, 189.
Edgware Road bus stops for Lisson Grove are served by bus routes 16, 6, 98, 414.

In literature

In Pygmalion, the leading character Eliza Doolittle was partly inspired by a child prostitution scandal in Lisson Grove and the West End, and Higgins claimed to be able to pinpoint her way of speaking to Lisson Grove.