Primrose Hill Revealed - CAAC photo archive shows genteel 'village' was once an ‘ordinary working-class area’

Published: 03 March 2011
by DAN CARRIER

THEY offer a tantalising glimpse of a world rapidly disappearing – and could well help preserve what is left.

A unique photographic archive of Primrose Hill was first shot in 1972 by a borough engineer called Donald Hartman. Now, nearly 40 years on, the Primrose Hill conservation area advisory committee (CAAC) have commissioned the collection to be updated – and the result is a fascinating record of how a picturesque neighbourhood has evolved.

CAAC secretary Pam White, who helped co-ordinate the project, said the project came about after the 1970s collection became grubby and dog-eared. This prompted the committee to have them digitised – and hit upon the idea of updating them on a special DVD.

She said: “We have used them time and again at meetings when we have been discussing planning applications, but they were well-thumbed. With it now updated, we plan to use the archive to be able to make informed comments on planning applications, but it is also so interesting for people who live here and is a practical way to help raise funds for our committee.”

The archive, which starts in 1790, includes historic documents that shine a light on how fields became homes. 

Among the treasures are adverts dating from an auction in 1840 that offer 200 acres of freehold building land from Lord Southampton’s estate showing how the area was originally developed. 

There are also landscape paintings of  the rural idyll that lies beneath the streets of today.

But while offering a window on the past, it also fills Mrs White with a sense of loss. 

She added: “It is marvellous to look at some buildings and see what still remains, but there have been some which were lost and that fills us with regret.

“We lost some fantastic buildings in the mid-20th century.”

Primrose Hill became a park in 1841 and was followed by developments in the streets behind the main thoroughfare: it was marked by workshops and small factories, including a piano and organ works. 

Some of the buildings now gone include those that tell the story of Primrose Hill’s industrial past. The images show such former landmarks as the London Film Co-Op in Gloucester Avenue and an electric blanket factory in Princess Road, long since knocked down.

Mrs White said: “The electric blanket factory had a hooter that sounded out across the area at the start of the day. The women of Primrose Hill would drop their children off at the primary school and then go in to do a day’s shift next door. 

“It illustrates that this was once an ordinary working-class area.”

• Copies of Primrose Hill Revealed may be bought from Ms White at 45 Princess Road, NW1. Price £10.