Walk #3 Stoke Newington

This walk takes you along Stoke Newington Church Street, starting in Abney Park Cemetery and finishing in Clissold Park.

The village of Stoke Newington dates from before the Norman Conquest. It was centred on the old parish church, between the Roman Ermine Street (now Stoke Newington High Street) and Green Lanes. From the time of the civil war, Stoke Newington was home to a close-knit group of non-conformist families, able to enjoy the tranquillity of the countryside without being far from their businesses in the City.

By the 17th century there were houses, gardens and orchards all the way along the street between the church and the High Street. On the north side the residents enjoyed gardens stretching back to the Hackney Brook.

Many of the great social reformers of the 18th and 19th centuries visited or lived in houses on Church Street. Daniel Defoe and Isaac Watts were both educated at a Nonconformist Academy at Newington Green. Eventually a number of the larger houses became schools (Edgar Allan Poe was a pupil there for a few years) before being demolished for residential development.

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