Clissold Park could have been built on in the 1880s had it not been for a determined local campaign to preserve it for the public.
Amir Dotan, Stoke Newington historian and Clissold Park User Group park history representative, tells the story of a campaign that could very easily have ended differently.
Stoke Newington’s disappearing open spaces
By the 1880s, much of Stoke Newington’s open land was disappearing beneath new streets and houses as London expanded northwards.
Clissold Park was still a private estate. In 1884, its owner, George Crawshay, began discussions about selling part of the property, prompting Joseph Beck and other local residents to explore whether it could instead be preserved for public use.
Those early negotiations were unsuccessful. In 1886, Crawshay sold his interest in the estate to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who intended to make the land available for building. The threat of development led to a renewed public campaign.
Following a public meeting at Stoke Newington Assembly Rooms on 30 June 1886, the Clissold Park Preservation Committee was formed, chaired by Joseph Beck, a local resident and manufacturing optician.
The campaign followed earlier efforts to protect open spaces from development in north London. Hackney Downs, London Fields, Stoke Newington Common and other Hackney commons had been secured as public open spaces in the 1870s, while Highbury Fields was preserved in the 1880s. Joseph Beck himself cited Highbury Fields and Hampstead Heath as precedents when making the case for the preservation of Clissold Park.
The campaign to save Clissold Park
The campaigners argued that preserving the park would improve the health and wellbeing of people in the area by providing open space where they could walk, relax and enjoy fresh air. They also argued that preserving the park would benefit the surrounding area economically.
The campaign involved public meetings, deputations to local authorities, extensive press coverage and a petition signed by 11,000 people.
One of the main difficulties was that acquiring the park required cooperation between several public bodies. The estate also crossed administrative boundaries, while the cost of purchasing it was far beyond what Stoke Newington could meet on its own.
Funding the purchase
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners agreed to sell the park for £95,000, even though contemporary reports stated that a syndicate of builders had offered substantially more.
The largest contributions towards the purchase came from the Charity Commissioners, which provided £47,500, and the Metropolitan Board of Works, which contributed £25,000.
The remaining money had to be found by local authorities:
- Stoke Newington: £10,000
- South Hornsey: £6,000
- Hackney: £5,000
- Islington: £2,500
Securing these contributions proved difficult. The committee argued that although the park lay within Stoke Newington and South Hornsey, people in neighbouring Hackney and Islington would also benefit from it as a public open space.
Not everyone agreed.
Opposition to the purchase
It might seem surprising today that there was opposition to preserving more than 50 acres of open space, but the proposal faced substantial resistance, particularly in Islington and Hackney.
Arguments made against contributing to the purchase included:
- The money could be better spent elsewhere
- The campaign primarily benefited wealthy homeowners whose properties overlooked the park
- Finsbury Park already provided open space nearby
- Islington and Hackney should not have to pay towards a park outside their boundaries
- Local rates were already high enough
- The park was described by some opponents as a “swamp” that was not worth buying
Islington proved particularly difficult to persuade. It was originally asked to contribute £10,000. This was later reduced to £5,000 and eventually to £2,500.
The final gap was effectively closed when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners agreed to waive interest that had accumulated while the purchase was being negotiated.
The park is secured for the public
Parliament had already passed the Clissold Park (Stoke Newington) Act 1887, giving the authorities the powers needed to acquire and preserve the land as a public open space.
By July 1888, the campaigners had secured the commitments needed to fund the purchase. The formal acquisition took several more months to complete.
On 10 January 1889, the £95,000 purchase price was paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The following day, the keys to the estate were handed to the Metropolitan Board of Works.
The Metropolitan Board of Works was replaced by the newly created London County Council in March 1889, and Clissold Park officially opened to the public on 24 July 1889.
Joseph Beck and John Runtz, Stoke Newington’s representative on the Metropolitan Board of Works and another central figure in securing the park, both died in 1891. The park’s two ponds, Beckmere and Runtzmere, commemorate their roles in the campaign.
Explore the campaign
The story of the campaign survives in an extensive collection of press cuttings, letters, maps and other documents preserved by Joseph Beck’s family for more than a century.
In December 2015, Amir became aware of the collection, comprising around 175 items. He photographed every item and created a dedicated website, the Clissold Park Campaign Archive, making the collection available online in full.
Explore the Clissold Park Campaign Archive:
https://clissoldparkarchive.wordpress.com/
The archive includes newspaper reports, correspondence, maps and other documents from the 1880s. Each item has been photographed, transcribed and accompanied by a summary, creating an almost week-by-week account of the campaign and allowing the original material to be explored online.
Watch Amir’s talk about the creation of Clissold Park and the campaign that saved it from development, drawing on material from the archive to tell the story of how the park came into being.
You can also listen to Joseph Beck’s 1888 letter to the Weekly Recorder, read by his great-grandson Jonathan Shaw and accompanied by a photo montage of the park.