Old Edmonton …

Back in June I made a visit to All Saints, Edmonton, north London.

The east end of All Saints church Edmonton, north London, c.1880, showing the 15th-century tower.

The east end of All Saints church Edmonton, north London, c.1980, showing the 15th-century tower.

All Saints church, Edmonton, north London, c.1980, a view of the south side, looking east.

Edmonton is an ancient settlement, rural and well-to-do and genteel in tone until the coming of the railway and London’s massive c19 expansion. I was born in the area at a time when the population was largely blue-collar lower-middle and working class.

All Saints is where, as a schoolboy in the 1970s, I learned to play the organ and sang in the choir. It was interesting to return after 40 years, and even to be remembered by some of the old ‘uns I bumped into.

All Saints church, Edmonton, north London, The present-day organ seen past the north side of the chancel arch.

All Saints church, Edmonton, north London, The present-day organ seen in the first bay of the chancel, north side.

All Saints church, Edmonton, north London, The present-day organ seen in the chancel, north side. Peggy Dell – who in the 1970s kept teenage choristers like me out of mischief – looks on.

The organ dates back to 1772, the gift of a City businessman called Samuel Spragg who had his country house in the parish. The organ was originally the work of George England (fl. 1740–88). Over the years and as the building has been altered much of the original work by George England has been removed. A recent renovation of the organ has restored the organ to the condition of its last major rebuilding in 1927, but in doing so it seems to me that quite a bit of the tonal vivacity that had been covertly added since 1927 – and which I remember from my school days – has been lost.

However, the church itself is most attractive, with fine nineteenth-century painting on the east wall. With its pleasant churchyard, sadly cleared of the majority of ancient tombs, the church is worth a visit, especially on a fine summer evening when the bellringers are practising.

Lamb’s Cottage. Church Street, Edmonton, north London

Plaque to John Keats on a building in Keats Parade, Church Street, Edmonton, north London.

Lamb's Cottage, Church Street, Edmonton, north London. Watercolour by P. Braddon (early c20). Enfield Museums Service

Lamb’s Cottage, Church Street, Edmonton, north London. Photograph sourced (xi. 2021) from estate agent website kingslygroup.com.

The essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) and and his sister, the writer Mary Lamb (1764–1847) are buried in the churchyard, and their house survives opposite the church on Church Street.

The poet John Keats (1795–1821) was a trainee pharmacist in a shop nearby. A more recent building on the same site in Church Street was still a pharmacy when I was a teenager, but it is currently a betting shop; a blue plaque notes the facts.

It was pleasing to see still remaining on Church Street the late eighteenth–century building that was formerly home to a Blue Coat Charity School for Girls and the original teacher’s cottage next door.