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Hackney Wick history

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Early history

Hackney Wick was part of the Ancient Parish of Hackney, which became the Metropolitan Borough of London in 1900. The area had its roots in the landholding called Wick Manor, which was farmed from a large building known as Wick House. The former Hackney Brook once flowed through the area, with a confluence with the Lea a short distance to the south.

Industrial history

During the 19th and (early) 20th centuries, the Wick was a thriving well-populated industrial zone, as the Hackney Wick First World War memorial in Victoria Park testifies (see picture right) —the lower part of the obelisk is densely inscribed on all four faces with the names of Wick men who died in that conflict. When Charles Booth surveyed Hackney Wick in his London-wide survey of poverty during the 1890s he would have noticed that there were, amid the noxious fumes and noise, areas of lessened deprivation. Streets south of the railway such as Wansbeck and Rothbury Roads were a mixture of comfort and poverty. Kelday Road, right on the canal seemed positively middle class. To the north of the railway, streets either side of Wick Road, e.g. Chapman Road, Felstead Street and Percy Terrace were described as “very poor”, with “chronic want”. It was no doubt conditions such as these which hastened the involvement of Eton College about this time to instigate their urban mission in Hackney Wick, a philanthropic and perhaps more accurately pedagogical outreach shared with several other public schools. The Eton Mission lasted from 1880 to 1971 when the college decided that a more local social project was appropriate for changed times, and has left as legacy a fine church by G. F. Bodley, a noted rowing club, and the 59 Club. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, water mills on the Hackney Brook were adapted for the manufacturer of silk, and in particular crêpe. In 1811, it was said that ‘the works at these mills are moved by two steam engines, on an improved principle, which set in motion 30,000 spindles, besides numerous other implements of machinery used in the manufacture.’ The world’s first true synthetic plastic, parkesine, invented by Alexander Parkes, was manufactured here from 1866 to 1868, though Parkes’ company failed due to high production costs. In contrast shellac, a natural polymer was manufactured at the Lea Works by A.F. Suter and Co. at the Victory Works for many years. The factory at nos 83/4 Eastway commenced operation in 1927. Subsequently, they relocated to Dace Road in Bow. For many years Hackney Wick was the location of the oil distiller Carless, Capel & Leonard, credited with introduction of the term petrol in the 1890s. The distinguished chemist and academic Sir Frederick Warner (1910 – 2010) worked at Carless’s Hackney Wick factory from 1948 to 1956. William J Leonard (1857–1923) was followed by his son Julian Mayard Leonard (1900–1978) into the firm, where he became managing director and deputy chairman. The firm of Brooke Simpson Spiller at Atlas Works in Berkshire Road had taken over the firm of William Henry Perkin at Greenford Green near Harrow in 1874, but subsequently disposed of some operations to Burt Bolton Heywood in Silvertown. Nevertheless, Brooke Simpson Spiller is the successor company to the founding father of the British Dyestuff Industry. The company employed the brilliant organic chemist Arthur George Green (1864–1941) from 1885 until 1894, when he left to join the Clayton Aniline Company in Manchester and ultimately, when the British chemical industry failed his talents, to the chair of Colour Chemistry at Leeds University. At Hackney Wick, Green discovered the important dyestuff intermediate Primuline. He was a contemporary of the organic chemist Richard John Friswell (1849–1908) who was from 1874 a research chemist, and from 1886 until 1899 director and chemical manager. Perhaps even more distinguished was the Jewish chemist, Professor Raphael Meldola FRS, who is remembered for Meldola’s Blue dye and is commemorated by the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Meldola Medal. He worked at Hackney Wick from 1877 until 1885, where Meldola’s Blue was discovered. Friswell went on to succeed Armstrong as Professor of Chemistry at Finsbury Technical College. Friswell eventually left Hackney Wick to work for the British Uralite Company at Higham although he was still a director there in 1893 when he wrote to H.E. Armstrong to describe bad trading conditions at Atlas Works. A large collection of Hackney made dyestuffs is on view at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia. The firm of W.C.Barnes of the Phoenix Works was also engaged in the aniline dye industry at Hackney Wick. The confectioner Clarnico is synonymous with Hackney Wick. The company, known as Clarke, Nickolls, Coombs until 1946, arrived in Hackney Wick in 1879. Despite being taken over by Trebor Bassett, the name lives on in Bassett’s Clarnico Mint Creams and also in the CNC Property company. Just after the second world war, Clarnico was the largest confectioner in Britain but moved further across the Lea to Waterden Road in 1955 where it survived for another 20 years. The company had its own brass band in the early 20th century. Another pathfinding entrepreneur in Hackney Wick was the Frenchman, Eugene Serre. His father, Achille Serre, who had settled in Stoke Newington, introduced dry cleaning to England. Eugene expanded the business into a former tar factory in White Post Lane which still carries traces of the firm’s name.

Post Industrial history

In post-industrial times, Hackney Wick has seen many changes to its topography. Little remains of the inter-war street pattern between the Hertford Union Canal and Eastway (the western part was then known as Gainsborough Road) Many of the street names have permanently vanished due to later redevelopment.

  

Hackney Wick map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Hackney Wick Map

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Walkfo Hackney Wick travel map key: visit National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top travel destinations in Hackney Wick