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Stamford Hill

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Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the largest concentration of orthodox Ashkenazi in Europe.

The district takes its name from the eponymous hill, which reaches a height of 108 ft (33m) AOD,<ref>Archaeological Study of Hackney, see page 3 https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/planning/apa-hackney.pdf</ref> and the originally Roman A10 also takes the name "Stamford Hill", as it makes its way through the area.

The hill is believed<ref name="british-history.ac.uk">Template:Cite web</ref> to be named after the ford where the A10 crossed the Hackney Brook on the southern edge of the hill. Sanford and Saundfordhill are referred to in documents from the 1200s, and mean "sand Ford".<ref>Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, Ekwall, 4th Edition 1990</ref> Roque's map of 1745 shows a bridge, which replaced the ford, referred to as "Stamford Bridge".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The hill rises gently from the former course of the Hackney Brook to the south, and its steeper northern slope provided a natural boundary for the traditional (parish and borough) extent of Hackney, and now does so for the wider modern borough.

History

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File:Hackney Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg
A map showing the Stamford Hill ward of Hackney Metropolitan Borough, as it appeared in 1916.

Stamford Hill lies on the old Roman road of Ermine Street, on the high ground where it meets the Clapton Road, which runs from central Hackney. By the 18th century, the Roman road (now numbered as the A10) was subject to heavy traffic, including goods wagons pulled by six or more horses, and this caused the surface of the road to deteriorate. The local parishes appealed to Parliament in 1713 for the right to set up a Turnpike Trust, to pay for repairs and maintenance. Gates were installed at Kingsland and Stamford Hill, to collect the tolls.<ref>Georgian Transport Template:Webarchive (Brickfields Spitalfields) accessed 18 May 2009</ref>

Roque's map of 1745 shows a handful of buildings around the Turnpike, and by 1795, the A10 was lined with the large homes and extensive grounds of wealthy financiers and merchants attracted, in part, by the elevated position.<ref name="auto">The London Encyclopaedia, Weinreb and Hibbert, 1983</ref>

Stamford Hill had a gibbet that was used to display the remains of criminals executed at Tyburn in the 1740s. In 1765, a map of the area showed the Gibbet Field south of the road from Clapton Common, behind Cedar House.<ref name=bho38>"Hackney: Newington and Stamford Hill." A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney. Ed. T F T Baker. London: Victoria County History, 1995. 38-44. British History Online. Web. 15 December 2018. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp38-44.</ref>

The area remained essentially rural in character, and little more was built until the arrival of the railway in 1872,<ref name="auto"/> and the tram system at about the same time. Stamford Hill was the point where the tram line coming north from the City<ref>The North Metropolitan Tramways Co. inaugurated 1872, and ran from Moorgate via Kingsland and Stoke Newington Roads to Stamford Hill</ref> met the Hackney tram line,<ref>The North Metropolitan from Bishopsgate ran through Mare Street, and thence to Clapton, opened in 1872, and was extended to Clapton Common in 1875, reaching Stamford Hill in 1902,</ref> and so, it became a busy interchange, with a depot opening in 1873.<ref>'Hackney: Communications', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 4-10 Date accessed: 1 November 2006.</ref> Electrification commenced in 1902 and by 1924 a service was commenced between Stamford Hill and Camden Town along Amhurst Park.<ref>'Hackney: Communications', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1995), pp. 4-10. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp4-10 [accessed 23 December 2022].</ref>

Stamford Hill had many eminent Jewish residents, including the Montefiore family. Italian-born Moses Vita Montefiore (died 1789) was living there in 1763. His son Joseph (died 1804) married Rachel Mocatta, and his grandson Abraham Montefiore (died 1824) married Henrietta, whose father, the financier Nathan Meyer Rothschild, lived near the modern Colberg Place from 1818 to 1835. The Montefiores' property a little further south was to be transformed by Abraham's grandson, Claude Montefiore, into Montefiore House school. With the increased development of the area, many distinguished families moved away: In 1842, there were few remaining of the wealthy Jews who had once settled in Hackney.<ref name=brithist>'Hackney: Judaism', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 145-48. Date accessed: 31 October 2006.</ref> The philanthropist and abolitionist MP Samuel Morley had a residence here from about 1860. The gardening writer and cottage gardener Margery Fish was born here in 1892.<ref>ODNB entry by Catherine Horwood. Retrieved 2 November 2012. Pay-walled.</ref>

Until the late 20th century, East London was the focus of Jewish life in England, with settlement heavily focussed on an area in and around Whitechapel, extending from Bishopsgate to Cable Street.<ref>Mapping Society, The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography, Laura Vaughan https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/67/91/5048/</ref> The area was chosen because of its cheap rents and the independent trades, notably weaving and textiles, known colloquially as "the rag trade".<ref>East London Papers, Volume 6, Number 2, December 1963</ref> Prosperity, integration and later severe wartime bomb damage saw the community disperse to other parts of East London and more widely. From the 1880's, Stamford Hill received a new influx of Jews from the core area of East End settlement<ref>Kosher in the country', The Economist 1 June 2006 accessed 14 August 2007</ref> and, in 1915, the New Synagogue was transferred to Stamford Hill to serve this growing population.

In 1926, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations was established in Stamford Hill, and this became a magnet for other strictly observant Jews, many fleeing Nazi persecution in the years before the Second World War.<ref name=brithist/> Also, many Jewish families came to the area from other areas of London, refugees in their own way from bombing and post-war clearances for new housing. One of the early Hasidic leaders in Stamford Hill was the Shotzer Rebbe. The Hungarian uprising also led to an influx of Haredi Jews fleeing hardship under Soviet rule. Another notable Jewish resident, from 1955 until his death in 2000, was the spiritual head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa.Template:Citation needed

Governance

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Stamford Hill has never been an administrative area in its own right; it has always been an area of Hackney. Hackney was an administrative unit with consistent boundaries from the early Middle Ages to the creation of the larger modern borough in 1965. Hackney was based for many centuries on the Ancient Parish of Hackney.

The area was part of the historic (or ancient) county of Middlesex, but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets), a historic 'county within a county', under the leadership of the Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets (the post was always filled by the Constable of the Tower of London). The military loyalty to the Tower meant local men served in the Tower garrison and Tower Hamlets Militia, rather than the Middlesex Militia.<ref>The London Encyclopaedia, 4th Edition, 1983, Weinreb and Hibbert</ref><ref>East London Papers, Volume 8, Number 2, The Name 'Tower Hamlets'. M.J. Power, December 1965</ref>

The Ancient Parishes provided a framework for both civil (administrative) and ecclesiastical (church) functions, but during the nineteenth century, there was a divergence into distinct civil and ecclesiastical parish systems. In London, the Ecclesiastical Parishes sub-divided to better serve the needs of a growing population, while the Civil Parishes continued to be based on the same Ancient Parish areas.

The London Government Act 1899 converted the parishes into Metropolitan Boroughs based on the same boundaries, sometimes with minor rationalisations. In 1965, Hackney merged with Shoreditch and Stoke Newington to form the new London Borough of Hackney.

Geography and boundaries

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Stamford Hill is a gravel topped feature, overlooking the Lower and Middle Lea Valley, which reaches a height of 108 ft (33m) AOD.<ref>Archaeological Study of Hackney, see page 3 https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/planning/apa-hackney.pdf</ref><ref>'The Physique of Middlesex', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1, Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, the Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes To 1870, Private Education From Sixteenth Century, ed. J S Cockburn, H P F King, K G T McDonnell( London, 1969), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp1-10 [accessed 22 January 2025].</ref>

The district's usual definition is based on the physical feature of the hill and the neighbourhood's location within the Ancient Parish and subsequent (with almost identical boundaries) Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.<ref name="british-history.ac.uk" /> It also reflects the fact that what was originally the Roman A10 also takes the name 'Stamford Hill' as goes over the hill between the brook and the borough boundary.

Northern boundary with Tottenham: Takes the northern boundary of the AP\MB of Hackney. This corresponds to the current boundary between the modern borough of Hackney and Haringey.

Western boundary with Stoke Newington: Takes part of the AP\MB of Hackney's boundary with the AP\MB of Stoke Newington along Bethune Road and down to the A10.<ref>Describes Stoke Newingtons boundaries with Hackney and other neighbours https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol8/pp139-140</ref>

Southern Boundary with West Hackney: The east–west course of the Hackney Brook, which may have been as wide as 22m at this point,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> provided a natural southern boundary for the district, however the river was culverted and it is now difficult to discern its former course on the ground. This has led to very ambiguous boundary, along its former course, in the Cazenove\Northwold Road area.

East and south-east boundary with Upper Clapton: Upper Clapton is also part of Hackney and shares much of the eastern side of the hill. There is little tradition of a particular border. The post code boundary is sometimes used but this is arbitrary: post code areas are not intended to define districts.

Demography

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The high fertility of the Haredi community contributes to the area having one of highest birthrates in the UK, with a crude birth rate of more than 25 per 1,000 of the population, twice the UK average.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The data table shows 2011 ONS Census data<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for the wards around Stamford Hill, where respondents indicated a religion:<ref>In the 2011 UK census, respondents were voluntarily asked to identify their religion.</ref>

Ward All Christian Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh other No religion not stated
Cazenove 13,392 3,823 93 70 2,868 2,210 122 53 2,730 1,423
Lordship 12,280 3,251 80 49 3,179 977 98 56 3,119 1,471
New River 12,551 3,965 102 40 3,591 1,362 48 33 1,870 1,540
Springfield 12,378 3,799 57 39 3,604 1,745 111 46 1,436 1,541
Seven Sisters 15,968 6,219 165 165 2,883 2,338 75 73 2,639 1,411
Total 66,569 21,057 497 363 16,125 8,632 454 261 11,794 7,386
The London Borough of Hackney has expressed its concern that Haredi Jewish residents are seriously under-counted in the Census data, as the religion question is voluntary.<ref>'Torah, worship and acts of loving kindness' - Christine Holman and Naomi Holman, De Montfort University, November 2002.</ref>

Haredi Jewish community

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File:Stamford hill.jpg
Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill.

Stamford Hill is at the centre of an Ashkenazi strictly-Orthodox Jewish, and predominantly Hasidic, community estimated to be some 15,000 strong, and growing at a rate of around 5% each year.<ref name="destinationhackney.co.uk">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is the largest Hasidic community in Europe, and referred to as a square mile of piety,<ref name=brithist/> reflecting the many Jewish men seen walking in their distinctive clothes on their way to and from worship. The congregations often represent historical links with particular areas of Eastern Europe in their dress and their worship. Many also retain links with congregations around the world. The largest of these congregations is the Satmar dynasty, which has five directly associated synagogues; Belz is another large community, with four synagogues. As well as Stamford Hill's own Jewish population, there are also many observant Jews in neighbouring Upper Clapton, West Hackney, Stoke Newington, and Tottenham; there may be as many as 80 synagogues in this wider area.Template:Citation needed

A volunteer emergency response first-aid service called Hatzola (the Hebrew word for rescue) and a volunteer community watch group called Shomrim<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (the Hebrew word for watchmen) are run by, and largely for, the Jewish community.<ref> Jewish health service offers local care - BBC Health 19 January 2003 accessed on 11 December 2006</ref>

The strictly Orthodox Jewish community relies mostly on private education for schooling, with almost all Jewish children attending private, single-sex Jewish schools.<ref name=telegraph-20110225>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2005, the Stamford Hill Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School achieved voluntary-aided status.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014, the Oxford, Cambridge, and RSA (OCR) Exam board, having conducted an investigation into alleged exam malpractice, concluded that the school had redacted questions involving the evolution of species on GCSE science exam questions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ofqual subsequently ruled that blocking out exam questions is malpractice, and, accordingly, not permissible.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same year, it was reported by the BBC that many of the yeshivas in the area "usually don't provide any maths, English or science" classes and were operating "without the most basic health, safety, and child welfare checks".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In an article on Stamford Hill yeshivas, The Daily Telegraph cited government documents obtained by Channel 4's Dispatches and the Jewish Chronicle as saying that between 800 and 1000 boys aged between 13 and 16 are "missing" from the school system in the borough of Hackney alone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=eveningstandard>Template:Cite news</ref>

Haredi families, on average, have 5.9 children, almost 2.5 times the average for England and Wales, and many families live in over-crowded flats.<ref name=Ynet>Ynet London Haredim considering move (Reuters/YNET 1 October 2006) accessed 19 June 2009</ref> National planning policy and guidance are applied by the local council, prohibiting development of family housing. This has led to conflict between the council and the Jewish population, sometimes represented by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Agudas Israel Housing Association is active in developing housing for the Jewish community in Stamford Hill.<ref name=telegraph-20110225 />

There is also a notable population of Yemenite Jews, especially Adeni Jews who originated in the port city of Aden in Yemen. They settled in Stamford Hill, after fleeing anti-Jewish violence at the end of the Aden Protectorate. The Adeni Congregation synagogue, Nahalat Yosef, is named after the original Adeni synagogue in Yemen.<ref>The synagogues are named for the book Nahalat Yosef by Shemu'el Yosef Yeshuah. The book is named for his father, but contains a systematic exposition of rabbinical law and ethics. A second part details his travels in Palestine and the particular customs of Adeni Jews. In The Jews of the British Crown Colony of Aden, Reuben Ahroni, pp. 170–1 (Brill, 1994) Template:ISBN</ref> A further wave of immigration of Yemenite Jews occurred in the 1990s and 2000s when several families escaped antisemitic persecution from Houthis in the north of Yemen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2014, the community met with controversy after a sign was spotted in the location reading, "Women should please walk along this side of the road only".<ref name=Independent>Template:Cite web</ref> The sign was reportedly put up for a Torah Procession parade, and was meant to provide directions for members who wished to avoid contact with the opposite sex.<ref name=Independent/> After complaints about the sign were raised, a group of Shomrim who regularly police the area contacted the organisers to tell them that the posters "lacked explanation". The posters were removed, and the organisers agreed to take the signs down more quickly the following year.<ref name=Evening>Template:Cite news</ref>

Since the 2011 census, there has been a migration of Stamford Hill Hasidic Jews to Canvey Island, in Essex. Canvey Island has a fairly homogenous ethnic make-up, and did not previously have a significant Jewish presence, but community relations appear to be good, and were the subject of a TV documentary.<ref>Jewish Chronicle article describing the migration and the BBC documentary https://www.thejc.com/culture/tv/tv-review-canvey-the-promised-island-1.451767</ref>

Education

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Template:For

The Jesuit order founded St Ignatius' College, nearby, at the foot of the hill, on High Road, Tottenham, in 1894,<ref name="Victoria County History, 1976">Template:Cite web</ref> The school consisted of two houses called Morecombe Lodge and Burleigh House. In 1907, the college was recognised by the Board of Education, and began to receive public money. Notable former pupils of St Ignatius include Alfred Hitchcock and Cardinal Heenan. It remained as a grammar school until 1968, and then became a two-form entry comprehensive school, the Lower School being located at the old Cardinal Allen School in Enfield, and the Upper School in new premises at Turkey Street, Enfield.

Today, Lubavitch Senior Girls' School, Our Lady's RC High School, Skinners' Academy, and Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School are secondary schools located in the area.

There are also many independent or Haredi schools in the area.

Notable people

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Transport and locale

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Nearby areas

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Nearest stations

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References

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