Little Green Street
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Little Green Street is an 18th-century street in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, located off Highgate Road in
Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...
.


Location

The street is located in
Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...
, part of 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 ...
, and is next to the B518 and the Gospel Oak to Barking train line. It is also on Bus route 88 and route 214, being a short distance from stops on both routes.


History

The street is diminutive, with only eight houses on one side and two on the other. The houses were built in the 1780s, are
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
, and remain one of the few intact Georgian streets in London. There are records of the small, bow-fronted shops selling ribbons and mousetraps, and previous inhabitants include manual workers such as
carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...
s. One of the first official mentions of Little Green Street is in the court records of the
Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
for 10 July 1805, where Mary Lee, a female servant was fined and sent to the
Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...
House of Correction for "simple grand
larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...
" (
theft Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...
under 40 s). Almost a century later, in 1898 or 1899, Charles Booth, in his survey ''Life and Labour of the People in London'', gave the following description of Little Green Street: : "Little Green St. (E. side of H. Road) with 8 old-fashioned cottages; 2 st. and 2 plus attics; round projecting windows; small panes of glass; quaint; been done up; decent. Pink. These on N. side. On the S. are 2 or 3 more modern but much worse houses; 2 and 3 st. light blue." (The colours in this description refer to Booth's poverty classifications. ''Light blue'' was: "Poor. 18 s. to 21s. a week for a moderate family". ''Pink'' was "Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings.")


"Dead End Street" by The Kinks

Little Green Street was the inspiration for the 1966 song "
Dead End Street A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet. Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...
" by
The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray Davies, Ray and Dave Davies, and Pete Quaife. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British ...
and was used as the backdrop to their video for that song. The video was filmed in
black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
and featured each member of the band dressed as undertakers, as well as playing various other characters throughout. With a length of roughly 3:15 in total, it represents one of the first true
music videos A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
.
Dave Davies David Russell Gordon Davies ( '; born 3 February 1947) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the English rock band the Kinks, led by his older brother (and principal writer and singer) ...
says that the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
disliked the film, claiming it was in bad taste.


External links

* Facsimile of Booth's notebooks from the Charles Booth Online Archive at LSE. * Resizable Victorian map of the area. * * . Duration 2m 40s. Uploader nickfarnhill 2006. Newscast on saving Little Green Street. * . Duration 3m 18s. Uploader The Kinks 2023. * . Duration 1m 58s. Uploader Dave Davies Kinks 2008. Dave Davies Visits Little Green Street.


References

{{Reflist Streets in the London Borough of Camden Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Georgian architecture in the London Borough of Camden Kentish Town