Tag: Hoxton

Hippo and Hoxton

The Augustinian Priory of St Monica, Hoxton Square, London N1

I recently had a chance to play the pipe-organ at the Augustinians’ priory in Hoxton Square, just north of the City of London. Who knew that the  Augustinians continue a 150-year presence in Hoxton, or that the Hoxton Priory was the first Augustinian house to have been established in England since Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries?

Hoxton Square, London (UK), the north end of the eastern side, showing (l-r) the school, church and priory of St Monica, built 1864-66 for the Augustinians, by E. W. Pugin (1834-75).
Hoxton Square, street sign
Hoxton Square, London, (UK), looking towards the the north end of the eastern side, showing (l-r) the school, church and priory of St Monica, built 1864-66 for the Augustinians, by E. W. Pugin (1834-75).

Hoxton Square was built up by London merchants during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. By the time of the Augustinians’ arrival in the 1860s the area was – as Charles Booth’s ‘poverty maps’ (1889) indicate – a socially very mixed area with the comfortably off living side by side with the very poorest. At this time the area was largely given over to trade and manufacture, especially the furniture trade. It was also home to alms-houses and private mad-houses (lunatic asylums).

A legend, for Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/).
Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/).
Detail of Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/). The Priory church, house and school, occupies the northern end of the eastern side of the square.

Just thirteen years later, Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London (1902) gave a bleak assessment of the population:

The character of the whole locality is working-class. Poverty is everywhere, with a considerable admixture of the very poor and vicious … Large numbers have been and are still being displaced by the encroachment of warehouses and factories … Hoxton is known for its costers and Curtain criminals, for its furniture trade … No servants are kept except in the main Road shopping streets and in a few remaining middle class squares in the west.

This area is now seeing much better days, and is best-known for its trend-setting creative industries and galleries, popularly satirised of late for its population of so-called ‘hipsters’, or should that now be ‘yuccies’?

Hipsters or yuccies?
Hipsters or yuccies?
Hipsters or yuccies?

The Augustinians’ priory buildings (1864-66) – church, priory house and school – were designed by E. W. Pugin (1834-75). The church is dedicated to St Monica, the mother of the Order’s patron, St Augustine of Hippo (354-430); the town of Hippo is now present-day Annaba in Algeria. The elaborate decoration of the church’s chancel has recently been restored and is splendid.

St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); part of the restored decoration of the chancel
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); original wall decoration.
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); part of the restored decoration of the chancel
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); nave, looking east, before the renovation of the chancel decorations.
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); aisle, looking west.

The pipe-organ (1866) is on a gallery at the west end of the church made by the London firm of Bishop and Sons, probably for this church. The handsome case however, belies an incomplete and dull instrument. My guess is that it arrived incomplete for want of funds and was never finished.

The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); pedal board
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); cooer left-hand stop jamb
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); lower left-hand stop jamb
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); right-hand stop jamb
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)

Nowadays it is in a sorry condition and scarcely passes muster. The poor-sounding pipework and the worn-out mechanics are probably not special enough to warrant restoration, but  even if restored this pipe-organ would not be particularly useful. I suspect that the case and visible pipework will always have to remain, being part of the historic fabric. Meanwhile, we can only hope for a generous benefaction finally to allow the commissioning of  a new instrument for the old case that is worthy of the location and its traditions.