Union Terrace, Camden Road Villas, Camden Town

[Josh P]

I have a family letter dated 1868 written from 3, Union Terrace, Camden Road Villas,, "3 doors down from the Brecknock".

I am trying to trace where exactly this row of houses stood in order to determine whether they survive, or whether any picture can be traced that shows them.

Anyone have local history knowledge of this stretch of Camden Road?

Many thanks!

[KGarrad]

Union Terrace is referred to in this document:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/david-hayes-a-history-of-camden-town-1895-1914-r1104374

It's not pretty reading!
Referring to the poverty maps of Charles Booth, it says:

This area was shaded by Booth in a mixture of pink (‘fairly comfortable, good ordinary earnings’) and purple (‘mixed: some comfortable, others poor’).
So, too, were large parts of Camden Town proper, but here there were several pockets of real poverty, coded blue: off the High Street, for example, in Stanmore Place, a row of ten especially mean houses with small yards to the front but no space at the rear; Carlow Street and Nelson Street (now Beatty Street), barely a hundred metres from Mornington Crescent, where one small house contained twenty-one inhabitants; and Union Terrace, a particularly squalid street north of the Camden Town Underground station site.

Another useful site is The Hunt House, which lists present and former street names in London:
http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/New_to_Old_Abolished_London_Street_Names.htm#U

That site says that Union Terrace is now called Dewsbury Terrace.
(Camden is in St Pancras parish)

[Josh P]

Thanks for this.

Bit of a puzzle though, as the family member writing the letter was rather well-to-do, staying in London briefly with her six children between their travels through Paris, Rome and Stockholm.

Brecknock Road is closer to Holloway than Camden Town, so could it be there was another Union Terrace, which is why it was addressed "Camden Road Villas"?  Or had the area just dramatically declined between the 1860s and Booth's observations in the 1890s?

[KGarrad]

Reading that article (go on! do it!!) suggests a gradual decline in the latter half of the 1800's.

Found a reference to Dewsbury Terrace!
Referring to Markets in London:
Electric Ballroon, Camden High Street, south of junction with Dewsbury Terrace, NW1.


Also I presumed the reference to "The Brecknock" was a reference to a pub?
The Brecknock Arms Tavern used to be at 227 Camden Road.

[Bookbox]

Brecknock Road is closer to Holloway than Camden Town, so could it be there was another Union Terrace, which is why it was addressed "Camden Road Villas"?

Yes. The 1861 census street index shows two Union Terraces in Camden. The one you want is listed as Camden New Town, RG9/120 folio 31.

The enumerator’s description page for that piece says ... “This part of the said Parish Commencing at Union Terrace Talbot Road, near the Brecknock Arms, and ending at corner of Gloucester Gardens ...”

Weller’s 1868 map shows this Brecknock Arms further north-east, on the corner of Camden Road and Talbot Road, close to the border with Islington.

http://london1868.com/weller05.htm (bottom of the map square, centre).

Since the 1861 census piece actually began at Union Terrace, this was probably the block of houses nearest to the Islington border, shown on the above map as lining Camden Road.

Talbot Road has now been renamed Brecknock Road. Google Streetview shows that the pub is still there (now called the Unicorn), but apparently not the houses. Search on 227 Camden Road London.

So I think KGarrad (above) had the right pub but the wrong Union Terrace. 

[KGarrad]

Very confusing having 2 terraces with the same name so close together!

At least, that's my excuse!!

[Josh P]

Superb!  Thank you both for your generous help with this.  And that map site is a marvel!
My hope is now to find a view of the pub or street that might give some glimpse of the adjoining houses.
Wishing you well in your own research.

[Bookbox]

Very confusing having 2 terraces with the same name so close together!

Agreed. Made my head spin for at least 30 minutes 

My hope is now to find a view of the pub or street that might give some glimpse of the adjoining houses

One good place to try for London images ...

Collage
http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=page/Search

If you can’t find anything online, see if one of the Local Studies libraries can help. They both have large photo collections.

Camden
http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/leisure/local-history/

Islington
http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/history-heritage/heritage_lhc/Pages/default.aspx

[Josh P]

Thank you Bookbox, I shall pursue these leads!