Lismore Circus is a
housing estate
A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...
located in
Gospel Oak
Gospel Oak is an area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-ea ...
in the
London Borough of Camden
The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...
. Constructed in the 1960s and 1970s it replaced the older road layout centred on the circular street of the same name.
Lismore Circus takes its name from the Irish aristocrat
Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore
Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore PC (I) (2 October 1775 – 30 May 1857) was an Irish Whig politician.
Biography
He was the son of Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Baron Lismore and Frances Ponsonby. He succeeded to his father's title ...
who owned the land on which it was built on. In 1855 he envisaged it and the surrounding streets to be a "spacious suburb of semi-detached
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...
s" but the development was slower and less co-ordinated than he had planned. It was structured around a
garden square
A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large.
...
(although circular in shape) and was originally residential. A variety of other roads ran off the circus including Lismore Road, Rockford Street, Lamble Street and Elaine Grove.
The
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...
passes underneath the estate and from 1868 until 1916 it was served by
Haverstock Hill railway station
Haverstock Hill railway station was opened by the Midland Railway on 13 July 1868 when it built its extension to St Pancras station. It lay between Belsize Tunnel and Lismore Circus, and served Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park and Gospel Oak, L ...
. The area changed towards the end of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
to be a busy shopping area
As part of post-
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
urban planning the Gospel Oak area was marked down for comprehensive redevelopment. In the original 1962 plan the rebuilt Lismore Circus was to have a shopping centre but the new Camden council abandoned this in 1965. Instead a
tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...
was chosen to be built. Much of the Victorian streetscape was demolished with only a few stretches surviving including Elaine Grove. The redevelopment was completed in completed in 1981
Oak Village
To the north of Lismore Circus a group of small adjacent residential streets are named Oak Village and numbers as a single entity. It is named due to its proximity to the old Gospel Oak that gave the district its name. Although it was planned to demolish these as part of the redevelopment of Lismore Circus, the residents successfully campaigned to save the roads from destruction. Today Oak Village largely retains its nineteenth century appearance. Oak Village once also included a stretch of properties close to
Gospel Oak station including the Old Oak pub but these were later renumbered as part of
Mansfield Road.
[Denford and Hayes p.84]
References
Bibliography
* Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''London 4: North''. Yale University Press, 2002.
* Denford, Steven & Hayes, David A. ''Streets of Gospel Oak and West Kentish Town''. Camden History Society, 2006.
Streets in the London Borough of Camden
Hampstead
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