Wealthy residents, together with officials of the ancient parish, had at various times since the early seventeenth century, provided cottages for the poor at different locations, often on waste land.
A piece of land, formerly the manorial bowling green, had been given for the benefit of the poor some time before 1697 by a person ‘out of memory’. Two rent free cottages with small gardens, occupied by two widows, chosen by the Rector and churchwardens, stood on this half-acre site in Hornsey High Street. Beside the cottages was a garden area rented, in the early nineteenth century, by Jacob Warner of ‘The Priory’ near the bottom of Muswell Hill. His rent went into the parish’s Waste Land Fund.
This postcard from the Albert Pinching Bequest shows these two thatched cottages under one roof. They were demolished in 1896 amidst the rebuilding of the High Street, including the rebuilt Three Compasses public house, designed by John Farrer.
Image credits
Hornsey Historical Society