Nightingale Hall, Wood Green c1894

Comment by Allen Cullen on April 16, 2022 at 7:27

A fancy building! I was just wondering why you say the gothic facelift was later Victorian. If these maps can be trusted, I'd say mid C19, but maybe you know something we don't? Please tell me, thanks! In this screenshot we have the 1844 Tithe Map on the left (Layers of London), then the OS Maps (1860s bottom & 1890s top). So the added conservatory does look late Victorian, yes, but the rest? Ta!

Comment by Hugh on April 16, 2022 at 8:54

My original source was, the now sadly deceased, Albert Pinching, who is probably to best authority on Wood Green. But, if you prefer the cartographic, looking back before the mid-nineteenth century, we can start with 1832, Environs of London, published by Baldwin & Craddock.

Next stop in our cartographic journey through the history of the house would be via Cary's map of 1786.

The first non-cartographic reference to a building on what became known as the Nightingale Hall Farm estate was in the Tottenham Court Rolls in 1732 (when it was known as the Woodreddings estate). Pinching says "the building may have been Elizabethan in origin". 

Then we come to the upside-down Dorsett Map of 1619, which may or may not show the building depending on what cartographic precision we demand of its originator, Thomas Clay. There is a building in about the right position, though it looks further north that you might expect and it is not sited on the land marked as Woodreddings, as we would expect.

Comparing the field boundaries with the 1869 OS map (below), we can see that, had it existed in the same position as the eighteenth cnetury building, Nightingale Hall ought to have been in the plot marked on the 1619 map with 'Wood...... Mrs Candler'. Returning to the 1869 map, it shows a field boundary further north around a small plot which may well have been the house marked on the 1619 map. If so that house had gone by the mid-nineteenth century. Could there have been two buildings: an Elizabethan one further north, replaced with a a newer building in the early eighteenth century?

So, Pinching, was equivocal in his ascribing a date of origin. At this point we can't confirm an Elizabethan origin. However, we can say with some certainty that the house probably exited by 1732 and with absolute certainty that it did by 1786.

As far as the refurb is concerned, I agree, certainly not late Victorian: the peak of gothic was past by then. Certainly pre-1869, probably pre 1863. I've clarified my original description. 

By the way, the Mrs Candler noted on the 1619 map was the grand-daughter of mercer Sir William Locke. She married Richard Candler a Middlesex JP who was involved in the cases of Agnes Godfrey, the so-called 'Witch of Enfield'.

Comment by Allen Cullen on April 16, 2022 at 9:54

Lots of interesting info & ideas! But I wanted to know about the C19 facelift date. I thought mid century, but you'd said late, & I just wanted to know why. What did Pinching say about it all? Ta! 

Comment by Hugh on April 16, 2022 at 10:20

Haven’t I answered that in my penultimate para? I didn’t say ‘late’, I wrote 'later', but a comma was missed so it became ‘later in the Victorian period’, rather than ”later, in the Victorian period”. Thanks for identifying the omission. 

Comment by Paul lucas on September 1, 2023 at 8:55

was a block of flats called nightingale house built on the site?

Comment by Hugh on September 1, 2023 at 10:07

No, it wasn't, Paul. As shown in the map above, it was on Bounds Green Road almost opposite Commercial Road. 

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