Lisson Grove

For a history of the etymology behind the district's street names see Street names of Lisson Grove

Lisson Green is described as a hamlet in the Domesday book in 1086, the edges of the settlement defined by the two current Edgware Road stations facing onto Edgware Road or Watling Street as it was previously known, one of the main Roman thoroughfares in and out of London. Occasionally referred to as Lissom Grove, originally Lisson Grove was part of the medieval manor of Lilestone which stretched as far as Hampstead. Lisson Green as a manor broke away c. 1236 with its own manor house.

The Regent's Canal was completed in 1820.

Until the late 18th century the district remained essentially rural. It developed into a slum in Victorian London, notorious for drinking, crime and prostitution, as well as the extreme poverty of the people and the squalor and dilapidation of the homes they lived in.[6] The arrival of the Regent's Canal in 1810 and the railway at Marylebone in 1899 led to rapid urbanisation of Lisson Grove.

Following World War One, Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced a policy of "Homes Fit for Heroes", leading to a housing boom from which Lisson Grove was to benefit. In 1924, St Marylebone Borough Council completed the Fisherton Street Estate of seven apartment blocks in red-brick neo-Georgian style with high mansard roofs grouped around two courtyards. Noted for their innovation as some of the first social housing to include an indoor bathroom and toilet, in 1990 the estate was defined as a conservation area[7] The blocks were named mostly for the notable former residents of Lisson Grove and its surrounding areas, which drew Victorian landscape painters, sculptors, portraitists and architects:

• Lilestone: Named in reference to the medieval manor stretching to Hampstead before Lisson Grove became a separate manor in the 13th century
• Huxley: Thomas Henry Huxley the self-taught biologist and ardent Charles Darwin supporter was resident at 41 North Bank during the 1850s.
• Gibbons: Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721) a master carver who worked on St Pauls
• Landseer: Sir Edwin Landseer (famous for sculpting the lions in Trafalgar Square)
• Capland:
• Frith: For sculptor William Silver Frith (1850–1924)
• Orchardson: For painter Sir William Quiller Orchardson (1832–1910)
• Dicksee: For Sir Francis Dicksee, a noted Victorian painter
• Eastlake: For Charles Eastlake (1836–1906) British architect and furniture designer
• Tadema: For Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
• Poynter: For Sir Edward Poynter (1836–1919)
• Stanfield: George Clarkson Stanfield and his son, both artists.
• Frampton: George Frampton the sculptor had lived nearby at Carlton Hill from 1910 and may have given his name to Frampton Street and Frampton House
• Wyatt: Matthew Cote Wyatt who lived at Dudley Grove House, Paddington

Following the Second World War, further social housing was completed at the Church Street Estate (1949) and the more extensive Lisson Green Estate (1975).[8] In 1960 a new Labour Exchange was established on Lisson Grove to much fanfare,[9] and later featured in punk music history as the place where members of The Clash first met. The area also became known for its antiques trade.

In the 2010s, Westminster City Council have proposed extensive regeneration of the area.[10]

The area has a long association with art, artists and theatre. In 1810 the Royal Academy catalogues give sculptor Charles Rossi's address as 21 Lisson Grove, where he had bought a large house. By 1817, Rossi was renting out a section of the house to painter Benjamin Haydon. A blue plaque on the corner of Rossmore Road and Lisson Grove marks the spot and in 2000 author Penelope Hughes-Hallett wrote The Immortal Dinner with the focus on Haydon's dining companions invited to his Lisson Grove abode on 28 December 1817.[16] Haydon's protégé Edwin Landseer lived north on Lisson Grove on the corner of St John's Wood Road from 1825.

The arrival of Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema at nearby 44, Grove End Road in the late 1870s inspired the naming of one of the Lilestone Estate apartment blocks built in the 1920s as Tadema House.[17] Eastlake House, situated opposite Tadema House, is possibly named for Charles Eastlake whose Eastlake Movement's underlying ethos of simple decorative devices that were affordable and easy to keep clean would have been of interest to those developing social housing in the 20th Century.

The Lisson Gallery

On Bell Street, the Lisson Gallery, established in 1967 by Nicholas Logsdail, championed the new British sculptors of the 1980s and continues to show new and established artists, with expanded premises further along Bell Street. Mark Jason Gallery at No 1 Bell Street specialises in promoting contemporary British and international artists.[18] At No 17, Bell Street Vintage Wireless London has existed since 1979, selling a wide assortment of vintage turntables, radiograms, wirelesses, dansettes, reel-to-reels, amps and mikes.

The Joe Strummer Subway.

In 2006 the Subway Gallery arrived in the Joe Strummer Subway which runs under the Marylebone Road. Conceived by artist Robert Gordon McHarg III, the space itself is a 1960s kiosk with glass walls which creates a unique showcase for art, interacting naturally with passers by, visitors and the local community.[19]

The Show Room is on Penfold Street, next to the main Aeroworks factory. The Show Room[20] is a non-profit space for contemporary art that is focused on a collaborative and process-driven approach to production, be that artwork, exhibitions, discussions, publications, knowledge and relationships.

Church Street runs parallel to St John's Wood Road and plays host to a varied market Mondays–Saturdays, 8am–6pm selling fruit and vegetables, clothes, and bags amongst other items.[21] Towards the Lisson Grove end of Church Street is Alfie's Antique Market,[22] London's largest indoor market for antiques, collectables, vintage, and 20th century design is in the former Jordans Department Store, decorated with an Egyptian art deco theme similar to the Aeroworks – the indoor market, "houses more than 200 permanent stall holders and covers in excess of 35,000 sq ft of shop space on five floors."[23] Opened in 1976 by Bennie Gray, in the then derelict department store, the Antiques Market has since spawned twenty or so individual shops at the Lisson Grove end of Church Street specialising in mainly 20th-century art and collectables

• Grade II Listed Victorian 1897 public house Crocker's Folly
• Fisherton Estate Conservation Area
• In 1983, Jeremy Dixon (later of Dixon Jones' fame with fellow architect Edward Jones) designed a series of terrace houses on Ashmill Street.
• Between Hatton Street and Penfold Street the old Spitfire Palmers Aeroworks Factory[27] in operation from 1912 – 1984 manufacturing aircraft components including stand outs as a white Egyptian Art Deco landmark, the elevation facing onto Penfold Street having formerly been a furniture store. This was redeveloped by Terry Farrell in 1985-8 and includes their architectural practice. Next to the Aeroworks, another of the lower buildings now houses The Show Room.

In Pygmalion, the leading character Eliza Doolittle was partly inspired by a child prostitution scandal in Lisson Grove and the West End,[34] and Higgins claimed to be able to pinpoint her way of speaking to Lisson Grove.

Pineapples and Pantomimes: A History of Church Street and Lisson Green, Westminster Libraries, 1992, E McDonald and D J Smith

• LondonTown.com information
• Church Street Neighbourhood Centre
• North Paddington Guide
• Alfie's Antique Market
• Francesca Martire: 36, Church Street
• Designs for Discerning Rebels
• Decoratum: 31–33, Church Street
• Vincenzo Caffarella
• Deborah Woolf Vintage: 28, Church Street
• St. Edward's Catholic Primary School – Parent Teacher Association