Charlotte Amelia Martin (#32) was born at 29G Beaconsfield
Buildings, 23rd October 1884.
Extracts from The Illustrated London News,
May31, 1879, on the Beaconsfield Buildings:
The Victoria Dwellings Association, with limited liability,
established to provide healthy and comfortable dwellings for the labouring
classes, have constructed and let a portion of their new buildings at
Stroud-vale, Islington, near the Metropolitan Cattle Market. On Saturday last,
the Right Hon. R. Assheton Cross, Secretary of the State for the Home
Department, laid the foundation-stone of an additional block of these buildings,
which are henceforth named after the Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield,
who in June, 1877, opened those previously completed in Battersea....
The two blocks already finished and occupied by tenants suffice
to accommodate 1100 persons, and that which is now begun will provide for 900
more...
Mr. J. Walter, M.P., opened the proceedings by explaining that
the object of the promoters, in imitation of the example set by such
philanthropists as Mr. Peabody, was to afford facilities for the convenience and
comfort of the working-class population in the town, and at the same time to
diminish the rate of mortality, which in some localities of the metropolis had
reached the high figure of between forty and fifty per thousand...
Mr. Cross then laid the stone with the customary formalities,
and named the whole group of dwellings the "Beaconsfield Buildings". A vote of
thanks to him, proposed by Lord Stradbroke and seconded by Lord Stanhope, was
unanimously adopted. In reply, he said that the reason why the buildings opened
at Battersea two years back had not been so completely successful as those at
Islington was because of the toll crossing the bridge. But the toll had
disappeared that day, and artisans would now have free access to them...
Extract from
British History Online on the area around Beaconsfield Buildings:
Beaconsfield Buildings was acquired by the G.L.C. in 1966; the
383 flats, known as one of the worst slums in the area and nicknamed the
Crumbles, were cleared over seven years from 1967. The site became Bingfield
park and an adventure playground, with the Crumbles play castle put up in 1975
by children and architectural students and described as an adventurous example
of self-help. The Barnsbury estate was also extended in several places to fill
the area between Barnsbury and Caledonian roads south of Copenhagen Street,
while to the north the streets between Barnsbury Road and Matilda Street were
cleared to form much needed open space...
