Pickering Street Dwellings, Islington, London

[suzivegemite]

Hi
I'm researching London ancestors from Australia and am wondering if anyone can give me some background on the Pickering Street Dwellings at Islington.  What exactly are/were they? I'm guessing they were used to house the poor. I did some research on the Peabody buildings and could find heaps but have come up short for the Pickering Street Dwellings, were they similar ?
I hope I posted this in the right spot, soz (sorry) if I didn't
Thanks
S

[dawnsh]

Hi

I had a quick look at the London Metropolitan Archives catalogue but couldn't see anything obvious so my best suggestion would be to contact Islington Local Studies Library here

http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/history-heritage/heritage_lhc/Pages/contactlhc.aspx

Dawn

[suzivegemite]

Thankyou very much

[avm228]

Here are extracts from Charles Booth's notebook about Pickering Street as he found it in 1897:

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b348/jpg/107.html

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b348/jpg/110.html

Background here in case you are not familiar with the (wonderful!) Charles Booth archive:

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/static/a/index.html

[suzivegemite]

Thankyou so much for the links.
I had never heard of the Charles Booth Archive.  I can find information about just about every street my ancestors lived in, at the time they lived there, how remarkable. 

[Mean_genie]

From 'Streets with a story: Islington' by Eric Willatts:

'Pickering Street, Essex Road (1847)
In 1970 the street only contained Pickering Street Dwellings which were there as early as 1890 and these disappear by 1971. In 1956 nos 11 to 19 were condemned as unfit for habitation.
Named after Edward Rowland Pickering (1778-1859) of Stone buildings, Chancery Lane'

Mean_genie

[suzivegemite]

Thank you.  I'm getting some terrific information

[suzivegemite]

*********COMPLETED WITH THANKS***********

[DelDec]

hi s i was interested to read of your research into Pickering st dwellings i until 1969/70 lived in these houses.They were beautiful red brick with lots of windows in the flats and to the stairwells We lived on the top floor of the first block in the street three flats per block as far as i can remember .On the ground floor to the entrance of the street was a little shop selling sweets, milk , fags and papers
  Our flat had a coal fire bed rm for dad and mum a living rm bed rm for me and my brother the kitchen was small with a toilet at the back of it .There was no hot running water sept for that heated on the cooker in a pot or kettle.Having mentioned the lack of modern facilities it was always a lovely place to live warm and cosy especially at christmas .Our rent was about ten shillings and six pence 65p in current money.
   The street had a great sense of community with most of the kids going to the school at the bottom end of pickering called Charles Lamb ages five- eleven we all played in the street at that time there was quite a lot of derelict buildings to explore and hide .We were the last family to leave the street as they were pulled down in 1970ish i remember those last few months as a ten and half year old looking at all the empty houses and not wanting to leave.