Shacklewell is a small locality to the east of Roman

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

(now the A10), in the

London Borough of Hackney The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

.'Hackney: Shacklewell', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1995), pp. 35–38. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp35-38 etrieved 28 June 2022 Shacklewell green2

The area was originally a hamlet that developed on Shacklewell Lane in the

Ancient Parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

and later

Metropolitan Borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...

of Hackney, now a part of the larger modern London Borough of Hackney. The place name is no longer commonly used, and the areas is now generally regarded as part of

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas i ...

, which was originally a separate hamlet 500 yards to the south, and also part of the Parish and Borough of Hackney. Shacklewell took its name from "some springs or wells which were of high repute in former days, but the very site of which is now forgotten."

History

The place name was first recorded in 1490, when Thomas Cornish, a London saddler, had a tenant there.'Hackney: Shacklewell', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10, Hackney, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1995), pp. 35–38. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp35-38 etrieved 3 July 2022 The hamlet was one of four small settlements within the Parish of Hackney, (

, Newington, Shacklewell, and Kingsland), which were all grouped for assessment purposes, together having only as many houses as the village of Hackney. The village of Shacklewell was settled on the eponymous

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

,''Hackney: Dalston and Kingsland Road'', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 28–33
Retrieved 7 December 2007 along Shacklewell Lane.''Hackney: Shacklewell'', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 35–38
Retrieved 11 December 2007 Shacklewell lay a little over 500 yards north of the hamlet of

, which stood on Dalston Lane, with which it was linked by Cecilia Road. John Heron, reputedly the richest man in Hackney, with extensive land-holding had his manor house at Shacklewell. Cecilia More, the youngest daughter of

Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry V ...

, the Roman Catholic martyr, married into the family in 1525. The house was later occupied by the Tyssen family, who owned large parts of Hackney. One municipal building still standing is the former Shacklewell Washing Baths. This was a communal bath and washhouse. Simple bathhouses like these were once of great importance. Even into the 1960s, in some working-class areas of London many dwellings did not have their own bathrooms. Largely residential in the mid-19th Century, the district gained some light industry later on, including

Eyre & Spottiswoode Eyre & Spottiswoode was the London-based printing firm established in 1739 that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, a publisher prior to being incorporated; it once went by the name of Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & co. ltd. In April 1929, it ...

's printworks and a saw mill. Although some industry remains, largely in Turkish hands, the area is no longer a significant commercial centre. Although the place name is now little used, the historic street pattern of the original hamlet remains.

Growth and loss of sphere of identity

During the 19th century the area was urbanising and local identities were more fluid than before or since. For some of this period, Shacklewell was informally considered to extend north into

West Hackney West Hackney is a former parish which was situated on the eastern side of Ermine Street, the major Roman Road better known as the A10. The place name is no longer widely used. The parish was part of the Ancient Parish and subsequent Metropolit ...

to include Rectory Road and the northern end of Amhurst Road. It was sometimes also seen to extend west of Stoke Newington Road to include the most southern part of

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney, England. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington (parish), Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. S ...

. That sphere of self-identification has been almost completely lost. It is no longer common for a Londoner to refer to themselves as living in Shacklewell, the only people to do so now living in the immediate vicinity of the village core, and these would normally also consider the area a part of

. In its way the district is an illustration of the mutable nature of place names in the capital. The lack of a railway station using the name Shacklewell and the consequent omission of the name from railway maps of the capital will have contributed to the decline of the name.

Electoral ward

There is a Shacklewell electoral ward for Hackney Council, which, as electoral wards require roughly equal electorates, corresponds only very roughly to the area after which it is named. The post-2014 ward boundaries straddle Stoke Newington Road, with the village core and its immediate surroundings (now part of

) to the east, while the area west of the road is the southernmost part of

Transport

The nearest

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

station is the Dalston Kingsland railway station.

Education

Primary schools in the area include Shacklewell School and Halley House, and the secondary school the Petchey Academy, located on the site of the former Kingsland Secondary School

Entertainment

The Shacklewell Arms is a well known pub and live music venue. The pioneering

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

production duo Shut Up and Dance immortalized the Shacklewell Arms in its former life in their track ''The Green Man''.Know Your History: Shacklewell Arms (The Green Man)
Minimum Wastage, 6 July 2011

In popular culture

* In the book '' Career of Evil'' (2015) a murder in Shacklewell leads to the perpetrator being known as the "Shacklewell Ripper".

Nearest places

Hackney Central Hackney Central is a sub-district of Hackney, London, Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney in London, England and is four miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross. The Hackney Central area is focused on Mare Street and the retail area ...

References

{{LB Hackney Districts of the London Borough of Hackney Areas of London