Stoke Newington is an area in North London, England, located in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. Stoke Newington was part of the former county of Middlesex.
The historical core on Stoke Newington Church Street retains the distinct London village character that led Nikolaus Pevsner to write in 1953 that he found it hard to see the district as being in London at all.The Buildings of London; 1953 "Stoke Newington is not entirely London yet"
Boundaries
The modern London Borough of Hackney was formed in 1965 by the merger of three former Metropolitan Boroughs, Hackney and the smaller authorities of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch. These Metropolitan Boroughs had existed since 1899 but their names and boundaries were very closely based on parishes dating back to the Middle Ages.
Unlike many London districts, such as nearby Stamford Hill and Dalston, Stoke Newington has longstanding fixed boundaries; but to many, the informal perception of Stoke Newington has blurred over time, to stretch east of the originally Roman A10 to overlap areas of the former Ancient Parish and subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
Formal ancient limits The Metropolitan Borough largely adopted the Ancient Parish's boundaries, including the eastern boundary, which followed the A10 road, though there were minor rationalisations, notably the transfer of areas of Hornsey.
Stoke Newington's northern and western boundaries have become the north-west borders of the modern London Borough. The eastern boundary was formed by the A10 road, where it goes by the name Stoke Newington High Street (originally High Street, until a name change in 1937) and Stoke Newington Road (meaning the road to the hamlet of Stoke Newington) further south.
These boundaries included the sites of the small hamlet of Stoke Newington and part of Newington Green, but excluded the open space known since the early 20th century as Stoke Newington Common (originally Cockhangar Green). Stoke Newington railway station was built close to, but just outside, this area.
Wider contemporary perception More recently, many have come to see Stoke Newington as extending east of the A10 to overlap the AP\MB of Hackney to include West Hackney, an ill-defined area of the N16 postal area that includes Stoke Newington railway station, Rectory Road railway station and Stoke Newington Common.
As a consequence Stoke Newington, like nearby Stamford Hill, has become closely associated with the N16 postcode, though a significant part of western Stoke Newington is covered by the N4 postcode district.
Governance and representation
Stoke Newington was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England.
Civil parish The vestry of the civil parish was entrusted with various administrative functions from the 17th century. In 1837 it became a part of the Poor Law Union of Hackney. In 1855 the parish was included in the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Together with Hackney, Stoke Newington formed the Hackney District of the Metropolis. In 1889 the district was included in the new County of London.
In 1891 as its population had increased the parish of St Mary Stoke Newington was divided into five wards (electing vestrymen): Lordship (15), Church (15), Manor (12), Clissold (9) and Palatine (9).
It was dissolved in 1894 with Hackney and Stoke Newington vestries forming separate local authorities. In 1900 the civil vestries were dissolved, and the Stoke Newington parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington. At the same time, Stoke Newington absorbed most of the parish and urban district of South Hornsey, which had been an exclave of Middlesex in the County of London. The civil parish and metropolitan borough were abolished in 1965 and used to form part of the London Borough of Hackney.
Ecclesiastical parish
The ancient parish, dedicated to St Mary, was in the Diocese of London and was sometimes called Newington Canonicorum., full download available via Google Books Stoke Newington Church Street is one long road along which the village developed.
As the population increased the parish was divided: In 1849 a new parish of Stoke Newington, St Matthias was formed from part of the ancient parish and part of neighbouring Hornsey. St Matthias Church was completed in 1853 to the designs of William Butterfield, services previously being held in a local school. It was known as one of London’s foremost High Churches, as part of the impetus and money for its founding came from a rich doctor named Robert Brett,Allardyce, p33. who thought that the Dissenting chapels such as Newington Green Unitarian Church were attracting so many worshippers in part because the Anglican pews were full.'Stoke Newington: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 204-211. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=4732 Date accessed: 29 May 2009. In 1873 two new parishes of Stoke Newington, All Saints and Stoke Newington, St Faith were carved out of the parishes of St Mary and St Matthias. All Saints church was in Aden Grove, replacing an earlier iron structure, in 1876. It was demolished in 1956. St Faith's church was built on Londesborough Road in 1873, badly damaged by bombing in 1944, and finally abandoned and demolished in 1949. In 1883 the parish of Stoke Newington, St Andrew was created from part of St Mary's parish and part of Stamford Hill. The church was built in 1884 on Bethune and Fairholt Roads. The final division of the parish was in 1892, when Stoke Newington, St Olave was formed from part of St Mary's, part of St Andrew's and also included parts of the parishes of Stamford Hill, Vartry Road and Hanger Lane. The church, in Woodberry Down, was completed in 1893 to the designs of Ewan Christian. The bells, font and pulpit from the City of London church of St Olave's, Jewry, demolished in 1891 were moved here. There was also the parish of Stoke Newington Common, created in 1886. This was outside the area of the ancient parish, being made from parts of Stamford Hill and West Hackney.
Many of the churches were severely damaged by bombs during World War II. Although both St Mary's and St Matthias were eventually restored, the extent of the damage, combined with a decrease in the population of the area, led to a number of these parishes being combined in the 20th century. For instance, in 1951 St Faith and St Matthias parishes were merged. in 1956 they were again merged with All Saints to form Stoke Newington, St Faith with St Matthias and All Saints In 1974 the name of the combined parish was shortened to Stoke Newington, St Matthias.
As of June 2006 the parishes are known by the following names: St Mary, Stoke Newington St Matthias, Stoke Newington St Andrew, Bethune Road St Olave, Woodberry Down
Manor The manor of the parish was originally called Nentone, and later took the name Stoke Newington. The manor is co-extensive with the parish, and was the property of the Prebend of Newington, which is one of the prebends of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the gift of the Bishop of London. This right is thought to have existed back to the time of Edward the Confessor. Administrative history The manor (estate) of Stoke Newington was part of a huge block of land around London held by the Diocese of London. This broad area comprised many estates, stretching from the Manor of Stepney in the east (of which neighbouring Hackney was a part), to Willesden in the west and Hornsey in the north. The Manor is recorded, as Neutone, in the Domesday Book of 1086, as part of the Ossulstone hundred of the county of Middlesex.Open Domesday Online: (Stoke) Newington, accessed May 2018. Domesday also records that the manor was held by St Paul's both before and after the Norman Conquest. Stoke Newington was a Prebendary Manor, providing an income to the work of the cathedral.
The ancient parish of Stoke Newington was established to serve the area of the manor with which it was coterminous and, like other parishes, would have had its boundaries permanently fixed by the 1180s,Source describes common theme of parishes becoming fixed in the late 12th century as a result of emerging Canon Law, History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham, 1986 p19 even if the underlying manor's boundaries changed (though manor boundaries were generally stable at that date).
From the Tudor period, parishes were obliged to take on a civil as well as ecclesiastical role, with the administration of the new Poor Relief Act 1601 (43 Eliz. 1. c. 2).
In the 17th century, the Ossulstone Hundred was subdivided, with the parish of Stoke Newington, on the west side of Stoke Newington High Street, becoming part of the new Finsbury division and the parish of Hackney to the east becoming part of the Tower division.
The ancient parishes provided a framework for both civil (administrative) and ecclesiastical (church) functions, but during the 19th century there was a divergence into distinct civil and ecclesiastical parish systems. In London the ecclesiastical parishes subdivided to better serve the needs of a growing population, while the civil parishes continued to be based on the ancient parish areas.
The Metropolis Management Act 1855 merged the civil parishes of Hackney and Stoke Newington into a new Hackney District. This proved very unpopular, especially in more affluent Stoke Newington, and after four unsuccessful attempts the two parishes regained their independence when they were separated by mutual consent under the Metropolis Management (Plumstead and Hackney) Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 55).
The London Government Act 1899 converted the parishes into metropolitan boroughs based on the same boundaries, sometimes with mergers or minor boundary rationalisations. Stoke Newington was smaller than desired for new boroughs, and there were proposals to re-merge it with Hackney, or to detach Hackney's northern part and join it with Stoke Newington. These proposals were rejected due to the experience of "intolerable and interminable feuds" between the districts when they were previously "forced together", and because Parliament recognised that there was "great ill-feeling and mutual ill-will... between the inhabitants of the two districts".
Stoke Newington was permitted to become an independent borough, and most of South Hornsey (also a part of the Finsbury Division was transferred to it to increase the new authority's size. Parts of South Hornsey had previously been exclaves that separated southern Stoke Newington from the rest of the area. The Finsbury Division was abolished.
Stoke Newington lost its independence in 1965, when it merged with the metropolitan boroughs of Hackney and Shoreditch to form the new London Borough of Hackney.
Representation Stoke Newington is part of the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, which has been represented by Labour MP Diane Abbott since 1987.
History Early
Stoke Newington, or 'new town in the wood', has been lightly settled for hundreds of years, close to larger neighbouring Saxon settlements near the River Lea. In the 19th century it was discovered that Stoke Newington Common and Abney Park Cemetery had been part of a Neolithic working area for axe-making, some examples of which can be seen in the Museum of London.