Mornington Crescent (street)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mornington Crescent is a street in Camden, London, England.
It was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London. It comprised 36 spacious houses suitable for professional people, surrounded by green fields yet conveniently close to town. It was named after the Earl of Mornington, brother of the Duke of Wellington.
However, the building of the railway line into the Euston terminus, and encroachment from the nearby working class districts of Kings Cross and Camden Town led to a change in the pattern of residents throughout the Victorian era. More and more, the houses were subdivided into flats for artists and artisans.
An art deco tobacco factory known as the Carreras Building was built on the crescent's communal garden in the early 20th century. In the late 20th century, the building was restored and converted into an office building and renamed Greater London House.
The crescent has a number of literary and artistic associations. Charles Dickens went to a school there called Wellington House Academy after his spell working in a blacking warehouse, and the painter Walter Sickert lived there. The artist Frank Auerbach has a studio nearby and has often painted the crescent and surrounding area, as did Spencer Gore who lived for a time at number 31.
[edit] Cultural References
- Spencer Gore Fireside scene at Mornington Crescent, Leeds city art gallery collection. Oil on canvas
- William Hargreaves' song "The Night I Appeared As Macbeth" (1922) includes the lines "They made me a present/Of Mornington Crescent/They threw it a brick at a time".
- The band Belle and Sebastian have a song titled "Mornington Crescent".
