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HOLLOWAY

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

Gazetteer

HOLLOWAY, a suburban district of London, in the parish and union of Islington, Finsbury division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, 4 miles N.N.W. of St. Paul's. It consists of Upper and Lower Holloway, and includes the whole district lying in the hollow beyond Islington towards Highgate Hill, the southern spur of which forms part of Upper Holloway.

It has direct communication with the City and West End every five minutes by omnibus, besides two stations on the Great Northern railway, and the Highbury station on the North London railway. Here, on the rise of Highgate Hill, is the Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital, originally founded in 1746, but removed from King's Cross in 1850; and in Park Road, on the left of the Holloway-road, towards Camden-Town, is the new city prison, capable of receiving 400 prisoners, with a chapel in the centre, and a circular tower. Between this spot and Highgate Hill was the Whittington stone, now replaced by another, where the thrice Lord Mayor of London heard the sound of Bow bells; and a little further E. is the Whittington College, on the Archway-road, founded for the maintenance of the widows of decayed tradesmen, and under the patronage of the Mercers' Company. It has at present 28 pensioners, superintended by a clerical tutor and a matron. The district is under the jurisdiction of the Central criminal court, Clerkenwell police court, and the metropolitan police. For ecclesiastical purposes it forms seven districts, the livings of all which are perpetual curacies in the diocese of London, varying in value from £350 to £450. The old church, built in 1811, is a heavy brick building, erected at the cost of £30,000; St. James's church, Lower Holloway, was rebuilt and enlarged in 1850; St. John's, Upper Holloway, was built by Barry, and has a good tower surmounted by pinnacles. The Independents have a chapel in the Camden-road, and the Wesleyans one in Hornsey-road, besides numerous other ones. There are National and infant schools attached to most of the churches, also ragged and free schools in the Hornsey-road.

[Description(s) from "The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland" (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]
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