Frankfort Lodge, Park Road and Crouch End Playing fields c1905

Comment by Agabus on August 2, 2024 at 18:04

What is the Addam's Family style house to the left of the terraced houses? Also where would the photographer have been standing - on the site of Hhigate Wood School?

Comment by Agabus on August 3, 2024 at 0:27

Looks to be exactly on the footprint of the Malindi Court block of flats. 

Comment by Hugh on August 3, 2024 at 12:41

Agabus, That building was originally 'Frankfort Lodge'.  Built in the early 1880s, it was advertised for sale already leased on a 99 year lease in 1883. It doesn't seem to be noted in any local history records. The map extract below shows it on the OS 1895 Town Plan. The road opposite was marked Abbeville Road on the map, but quickly became Barrington Road.

! agree with you about the photographer's location. At the time that the 1895 map was surveyed, Glasslyn Road had just been laid out, but not yet built up, It look. I wonder if that is what we see in the bottom right hand corner of the photo. 

The date of construction of the Lodge suggests that it may have been the result of an early 1880s grid plan devised by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to develop the area. In his book on Hornsey, Steven Denford identified Tivoli and Montenotte Roads as the only surviving relics of the plan. After a building slump put a hold on the scheme,  a number of sporting clubs collaborated under the auspices of Crouch End Playing Fields Ltd to lease the land.

A sale ad in the Hornsey Journal in 1903 describes Frankfort Lodge as, "Detatched; 7 bedrooms, bath (hot and cold), three reception rooms, kitchen, etc.; large garden, with greenhouse; open situation ..."

The earliest and probably first occupant of Franfkfort Lodge was, in 1882, one Gustavus Adolphus Metzger, Manager of the London and Hanseatic Bank in Lombard Street. Naturalised Brit, Gustavus was born, you won't be surprised to hear, in Frankfurt. By 1891, he had moved his family out of Crouch End and over to Richmond and Henry Parkhouse had taken occupation. Records show him there until 1898. In 1895, he is recorded as having been the Honorary Secretary of the Crouch End Playing Fields. It is possible that this period coincides with the time that Crouch End Playing Fields Ltd was negotiating, or had just negotiated the lease of the playing fields land.

From 1902 until his death in 1921, the house was the home of Frederick Joseph Hytch, an editor with publishers Chatto and Windus. In the census of 1911, aged 66, he was living there with his two sisters.

After the editor's death the house was renamed as 'The Mount', I imagine in no small part as a reaction to the trauma of the recent war. The occupant in 1924 was Henry Sewell. From 1925, the house became home to a short succession of physician/surgeons. The first, James T. D. Clark was there from 1925 until the end of the decade. The house (and possibly the practice based there) was then then taken on by Alfred Rudd who apparently dropped the Mount name and referred to it simply as number 161. He is not recorded as having been there after the Second World War.

By the time of the mid-1950s Ordnance Survey map, although now surrounded by neighbouring houses, number 161 was still standing. On the map, I note a dotted line between the house's garden and the playing fields, suggesting a relationship of some sort between the two. 

The house was demolished and replaced by Malindi Court as part of the wave of large house demolition in Crouch End in the 1960s. 

Comment by Agabus on August 3, 2024 at 12:46

As ever, brilliant. Thanks

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