Silver Street, Edmonton, North London: photos from
around the early 1900s
Thanks are due to Cliff Raven for the majority
of photos on this page which he obtained courtesy of Enfield Local Studies
and Archives. (Old Edmonton is now Enfield.)
Silver Street is significant for this website for several reasons:
Silver Street formed (and still does form) the southern and east to
west boundary of the estate of terraced
houses which feature largely on this website.
Silver Street gave its name to
Silver Street School which
also features large on this website.
Silver Street was the shopping
hub of the area which my mother describes in some detail.
Silver Street, Edmonton, showing the entrance to Pymmes Park on the right.
Another view of Silver Street, taken further back,
showing Pymmes Villas, in 1935. They were destroyed in the
Edmonton blitz of World War Two
in 1940.
Silver Street, 1905. The globes on top of a column at the entrance to Pymmes Park can just be seen in the distance.
Silver Street shops 1906
Photo courtesy of Cliff Raven who has written
the following commentary based on his research at Enfield Local Studies
and Archives. (Old Edmonton is now Enfield.)
This first block of six shops was built before 1894, was
by Warwick
Road and Sheldon Road which is out of sight down to the left. Those
shops are
shown on the ordinance map of that year. The picture is giving us the
view towards the west. If travelling in an easterly to westerly direction,
the Gibralter Fuller cycle works on the corner of Sweet Briar Walk would
be the first shop on the estate. (This runs south/north.) From there
you would have seen as you do now, the back gardens of the Warwick Road
houses. On the other corner is the
oil shop that your mother
spoke of. The adverts above give an indication of the type of wares
that were sold there. The shop is now (May 2009) a fish and chip outlet.
The next shop along was at about this time in history of the
Roths Haberdashery, again mentioned
by your mother. All this building line remains the same today and just
beyond the lamppost on the left and not quite discernable is the Co-op
building on top of which is a brick facia giving the time of building.
I think, it was built around 1902 or just a little earlier. These first
six shops are still with us, five have completely changed with new aluminium
shop fronts but the one on the nearest corner of Warwick is a pet and
grain store which still retains the tongue and groove wall boards on
the inside. Alas, though, this shop front had a car smash into it and
the owner had to have the original Victorian door and windows replaced
with modern fitting.
Silver Street looking west.
Photo courtesy of Cliff Raven who has written the following
commentary based on his research at Enfield Local Studies and
Archives.
In the distant mist you can just see the spire of St Aldhelms Church
which was built 1903, and to its left, again through the mist, you may
be able to make out the three storey
Silver Street School
which was built in 1900.
At that point would be the far west of the estate with roads running
south to north: Millfield Road and Windmill Road - houses built prior
to 1894, coming The closer buildings jutting out are Myrtle Villas
and four cottages built 1870. Out of site just here would have been
the Bull public house in Lopen Road, built about 1904.
By the lampost and where the group of children have crossed is Bulwer
Road which also runs south to north. The houses here were about built
1898. The terrace of bay windowed houses would again have been built
around this time. The clear jutting out properties are two shops and
these form one corner of Haselbury. I believe that one of the German
bakers was here. It later became a greengrocers. At the Bulwer Road
corner the two shops in the photo still exist (2009) but the old butchers
is now a pet store and the other shop is a Caribbean takeaway.
The Two Brewers Pub was opposite.
Photo is courtesy of Cliff Raven who has written the
following commentary based on his research at Enfield Local Studies
and Archives.
The Bull Pub, Silver Street, looking down Silver Street towards the
west.
This building was demolished in 1904 a new Bull Pub was erected
on the adjacent yard site where the dog is. Three house were also erected
on the site vacated by this demolition, and the Lopen Road was opened
to the left where the clapboard building is. So the photo does not show
the Bull that my mother would have known.
Looking North along Windmill Road. St Aldhelm's Church hall
is on the left. For a labelling of the significant
features of the
area, including the Edmonton windmill, see Richard Cole's annotations
on the windmill
page.
Around 1960 repairs were being made to the steeple of
St Aldhelm's Church at the junction between Silver Street and Windmill
Road. Andrew Dickson had the opportunity to climb to the top of
the scaffolding where he took these pictures which are probably
unique.
Click an image for a larger one.
Looking East down Silver Street: On the right
is the corner of St. David's Hospital.
Looking Southwest: The main gate of St David's
Hospital. At street level, the high walls prevented views inside.
