The crescent was named after the Earl of Mornington, brother of the Duke of Wellington. Comprising three curved terraces grouped in a crescent form around communal gardens, the north side of the crescent was constructed first, dating from the 1820s or earlier. With 36 spacious houses suitable for professional people, the crescent was originally surrounded by green fields, enjoying views across open country to the front and rear, yet was conveniently close to town. However, the building of the railway line into the Euston terminus, and encroachment from the nearby working class districts of Kings Cross and Camden Town led to a change in the demographics of the area during the Victorian era. More and more, the houses were subdivided into houses of multiple occupancy with flats housing artists and artisans. The communal gardens of the crescent are occupied by a large Art Deco building, known as the Carreras Building. Originally built as a tobaccofactory in 1926–28 by the Carreras Tobacco Company, it is a striking example of early 20th CenturyEgyptian Revival architecture and a distinctive local landmark, not least because of the large bronze statues of the Egyptian cat god Bastet which adorn the front. In the 1990s the building was restored and converted into an office building and renamed Greater London House.
Cultural associations
The crescent has a number of literary and artistic associations. The artistFrank Auerbach has a studio nearby and has often painted the crescent and surrounding area. The crescent was a popular subject of the Camden Town Group; the painter Walter Sickert lived there from 1905, at number 6, and Spencer Gore lived at number 31 from 1909 to 1912. Clarkson Stanfield lived at number 36 from 1834 to 1841. The painter Harden Sidney Melville lived for a time at number 34. Dickens went to a school, Wellington House Academy, on Granby Terrace adjoining Mornington Crescent, after his spell working in a blacking warehouse.
Cultural references
In art
Spencer Gore Fireside scene at Mornington Crescent, Leeds city art gallery collection. Oil on canvas. Spencer Gore painted many views from his room at no 31, looking over the Crescent. Two are Mornington Crescent, looking north-east, 1911 and Mornington Crescent, looking south c. 1911. Both are reproduced in London in Paint, by Galinou and Hayes, Museum of London 1996, pp. 356–358.
Painter Walter Sickert lived on the street in 1907 at number 6, at the time of "the Camden Town Murder", and later renamed a group of his paintings The Camden Town Murder.
In business
In 1967, Heinz launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz". The phrase was created by advertising executive Maurice Drake and went on to become one of the best-known advertising slogans in the United Kingdom. Drake later said the slogan was "written over two pints of beer in The Victoria pub in Mornington Crescent".
In film
Mornington Crescent was used as a filming location for the films An Education and Brighton Rock.
In literature
Iain Pears's novel Stone's Fall references an apparently fictional murder case called the "Mornington Crescent trial". The murderer is a man named William Goulding, who kept the head of his victim in a box under his bed.
In music
The band Belle and Sebastian have a song titled 'Mornington Crescent' on their album The Life Pursuit.
William Hargreaves' song "The Night I Appeared as Macbeth" includes the lines: "They made me a present/Of Mornington Crescent/They threw it a brick at a time".
