Buildings of Aberdeen Park

One of the reasons Aberdeen Park is a Conservation Area is its varied yet harmonious array of buildings in a spacious and verdant setting. There are 314 addresses in Aberdeen Park. The predominant form is domestic architecture, which covers a span of some 150 years. But there is also a well-known church (St Saviour’s), some large houses converted for public use, and a Christian budget hotel (the Higbury Centre, formerly called the Foreign Missions Club).

The southern and eastern perimeters of the Park are lined by handsome, four storey, Victorian villas, some semi-detached and some detached. Constructed for prosperous City merchants and well-to-do local families from the 1850s and 1860s, these houses were the first buildings in the new, gated private community of Aberdeen Park. Some are adorned with Italianate towers and most have extensive gardens. A number were destroyed or damaged during the Second World War and some property was compulsorily purchased and demolished by Islington Council to create room for the, originally Council, flats at Numbers 6-10.

Several other of the Victorian villas have been converted into flats and Numbers 30 to 32 are a convent. Numbers 16-28 have been combined into one building, the Highbury Centre, formerly the Foreign Missions Club. Established in the nineteenth century to provide economic accommodation for missionaries visiting London, the centre is today a Christian budget hotel. Further details about the centre’s rooms and rates are available on the internet.

Although built at about the same time as the first Victorian villas, Number 19 is in a completely different, more Ruskin-esque style. It is a large detached house on the south-west corner of the inner circle. Originally built as the vicarage for St Saviour’s church, to which it was connected by a path from the back garden, Number 19 is now accommodation run by Camden & Islington Health Authority.

A row of varied late Victorian and Edwardian houses, Numbers 1-15, lines the northern edge of the entrance road leading to the circle. There are other late Victorian and Edwardian houses, most of them large and several detached, on the southern and outer rim of the circle as it begins to swing towards the east and north.

However, the period of the most active building in Aberdeen Park was between the wars. We have roughly two types of domestic architecture from this period. Numbers 31-41, on the southern rim of the inner circle, were put up in the early 1920s and are scaled down versions of more generous Edwardian houses. Their design, however, prefigures the large number of the second type of inter-war property, constructed during the house building boom of the 1930s. The remainder of the inner circle from the north side of the church dates from this time, as does the western side of the outer circle. All of these inter-war houses are semi-detached and remain comfortable family homes. Many have good-sized gardens.

Apart from all its houses, Aberdeen Park also has several blocks of flats. Some of those at Numbers 6-10, built in the 1970s as Council flats, are now privately owned. Escuan Lodge, on the south-west corner of the circle opposite Number 19, and Mostyn Lodge, on the south-east corner of the spur leading from Aberdeen Park to Aberdeen Road, are post-war blocks of private flats. Between Numbers 19 and 31 lies the Newcombe Estate, a group of blocks of flats owned by the Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association and opened by the actress Joyce Grenfell in 1950. On the north side of the spur is the Woodlands, a largish block of Council flats.

These are all mainly undistinguished buildings. Perhaps the most interesting block of flats is Number 70, Aberdeen Court, opposite the church on the east side of the outer circle. The flats were erected in the 1920s by a speculative builder and the block sports balconies and Dutch style gables. The same builder also constructed several adjacent houses. One of these, Number 72, is built onto the side of Aberdeen Court and was said to have been occupied by the builder and his family.

Aberdeen Park’s outstanding building is St Saviour’s Church. Completed in 1866 to a design by William White, St Saviour’s echoes the contemporary Oxford movement and Pre-Raphaelites. Its proportions, brick adornment and tile motifs remind the observer of Keble College, Oxford. John Betjeman, the poet, has recalled how he worshipped at the church as a boy with his family, who lived in nearby Highbury New Park.

Unfortunately, as Highbury’s fortunes declined, attendance at St Saviour’s all but vanished. The church was closed and almost abandoned for many years, and its physical condition deteriorated. It was probably during this period that the decoration on the ceiling faded badly. However, in the early 1980s funds were found to restore the building’s fabric and make it safe for use. In 1988 it became the home of the Florence Trust, a charity established by the English artist Patrick Hamilton (who lived and worked in Florence, Italy) to provide a peaceful space for artists to develop their work. As of January 2021, we understand that the Florence Trust are no longer in occupation and the Diocese of London is looking to sell the church. We hope that the handsome building of St Saviour’s will continue to have a role in the community for which it has been a focal point since Aberdeen Park’s early days.

Points of Interest

St Saviour's Church

St Saviour's Church is a grade 1 listed building. From 1988 to 2021 it was home to a charity called the Florence Trust which provided support and studio space to 12 artists each year.  At the moment its future is uncertain.

Highbury Centre (formerly Foreign Missions Club)

The Highbury Centre is a Christian Guest House and Conference Centre at 20-26 Aberdeen Park.  It is also home to the APMC office and our AGM is held there each year.  For more information visit their website at: www.thehighburycentre.org

Penfold Pillar Box (1866-76)

Found at the junction between Aberdeen Park and Highbury Grove and dating back to the 19th century, this Penfold Pillar Box has an interesting history. According to Historic England:

“In 1913, the pillar box was damaged by militant suffragettes from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the group founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 which used direct actions in its campaign for votes for women. In November 1911 Emily Wilding Davison became the first suffragette to attempt to set fire to a pillar box, and over the next three years suffragettes attacked pillar boxes throughout Britain using paraffin-soaked rags, corrosive liquids, ink and incendiary bombs, in order to destroy the mail inside. Attacks were often carried out at night and the perpetrators were rarely caught. On 30 January 1913 a postman discovered this box in flames; most of the contents were destroyed.”