The 2020s

THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES - AND THE KING AND QUEEN OF JEFFREYS STREET.

Jeffreys Street gathered on 9th May 2023 to mark the coronation of King Charles by crowning their own longest-serving residents, Paul Watkins and Anne-Marie Salmon, as Lords of Misrule and King and Queen of Jeffreys Street.

The streety party started when our tiny Town Crier, Dawud, rang his bell to call everyone out. Musician Keith Thompson, played traditional instruments as neighbours brought out food and drink to share for a big street lunch.

As our Lords of Misrule processed through the crowd to Zadok the Priest, with many page boys and girls carrying the velvet robes and holding a large plastic sword, our very own temporary Archbishop of Canterbury, Dominic, undertook the ceremony, holding a suitably hooked walking stick and a sacred orb of French raspberry liqueur. Rousing words were spoken before our new King and Queen took to their thrones, seated above the Scone of Destiny. The King thanked Local Cllr and former Mayor of Camden, Richard Cotton, for playing along by knighting him and giving him a ribboned head-dress.

After the royal couple had waved to their masses from the upper balcony at 23, we were entertained by Keith Thompson and the Westminster Morris Dancing side, who got plenty of people to join in.

The King and Queen were delighted to taste all the baking entries and pick the winners. Congratulations to Phil for his honey cake, to Holly for her lemon cheesecake and to Eileen for her exceptional chocolate hazelnut cake, which won the top prize.

Children chased around and soaked each other with water pistols in between triumphing at splat-the-rat, whack-a-mole, Jenga and lucky dip. Our excellent games master Fergus kept the silly races and bidding games going right up to the raffle.

Thanks to all the people of Jeffreys Street who helped set up and clear up, who laid out the food, borrowed tables and chairs, organised games, offered gazebos, made lucky dips, provided sweeties, prizes, wine and teddies, marked out race tracks, made a splat-the-rat, baked and cooked, brought plates and cups, found ice, opened wine, offered sound systems and made regal crowns worthy of Lords of Misrule.

The film clips and photographs have been collated from many people there on the day. Some images by the King’s relative Ian Cook were gratefully used by the local and international press. The Camden New Journal, gave Jeffreys St front page, plus page two and three; the Ham and High did a double-page spread; and The National did a page for the ex-pats, who might have been wondering what normal things Londoners were getting up to for the coronation. Thanks to photographer Ian Cook for some of the images (tagged) used on here too.

JEFFREYS STREET THE FILM SET

Filming commenced in January 2023 for a film celebrating the life of Amy Winehouse. For several days Jeffreys Street was turned into a film set.

Jeffreys street in the pandemic

As the local hospitals filled up with the sick in March 2020 and news came that everyone was to be confined to their homes, Jeffreys Street pulled as many neighbours into the WhatsApp and email groups as they could, where they continued to swap hints about where to order vegetables or milk. They often helped deliver each other’s shopping or medication and caught up with news by calling and waving over back garden walls. Christmas Day 2020 saw neighbours come to their doorsteps to raise a glass of wine and pass on good wishes from a safe distance. At Halloween the street’s children visited pre-arranged doors to receive sanitised bags of sweets which were often tied to railings.

The 2010s

2016 Bicentenary celebrations

On Saturday 2nd July 2016 there was a street party to celebrate that it was 200 years since the first four houses on Jeffreys St, 25, 27, 29 and 31, had been completed and inhabited. Neighbours in Regency costumes brought food, baking and a bottle or two for a buffet lunch and some music, fun and games. 
 

Roland’s Jeffreys Street Bicentenary Film

Programme

12 noon - Musician Keith Thompson
12-1.30pm -Shared lunch
1.30pm - Music from The Clerkenwell Village Band  
Fun and games: hoopla, beanbag game, ping pong tournament
2.15pm - Wacky races: egg and spoon, hoop and stick, slow race and more
3pm - Speeches:
* A welcome from John Green  
* The beginnings of Jeffreys Street by Lindsay Douglas
* Jeffreys Street through the ages by historian and author Gillian Tindall
* The great party of '77 by Paul Watkins
* The Jeffreys Street chickens by Charles Christie-Webb
3.30pm - A grand cake for the whole street.
3.45pm - Group photo
4.30pm - Music from Whiskey Mick
A sudden downpour around 6pm made the tidying up very speedy.

HS2

It was proposed to build a Euston spur for the High Speed 2 rail project that would cut through Camden and involve the demolition of several nearby brick railway arches.  For years, works traffic was to use Jeffreys St as a route to the building works. Happily, in the face of swift local objection, determined lobbying and the escalating price of the project, the scheme was abandoned.

The 1990s

Road closure

After many years of campaigning, the Jeffreys Street Residents Association, led by Philip Kemp, succeeded in having the road closed to traffic. Photographs show Philip Kemp and Paul Watkins celebrating the first blocking of the road.

The 1970s

Camden Town Bypass – motorway hell 

As the Westway was being built in the 60s it was planned that further stretches of motorway would sweep along and meet in a huge roundabout over Camden Town overground station. The Growth of Camden Town: AD 1800-2000 by Jack Whitehead says:  “At Camden Town there would have been an enormous three-level interchange at a roundabout linked to a Camden Town bypass. There it was to cross the east-west route from the White City and Edgware Rd, and continue south over the railway yards at St Pancras and Kings Cross.” 

Gillian Tindal says, in The Fields Beneath: “The Motorway Box, effectively blighted the prospects of the streets… Jeffreys St, Ivor St, the tops of Camden St, Royal College St and St Pancras Way, one of the oldest and architecturally homogenous corners of the district”.  

Streets Of Camden Town adds: “… the uncertainty, not finally resolved until the scheme was abandoned in the mid 1970s, ushered in a period of decay, as small businesses collapsed, shops lost most of their trade, and no public grants were available for public works or housing projects.”  

However the book then suggests that the resulting cheap rents attracted artists and craftsmen and helped create Camden’s famous bohemian character. 

Queen Elizabeth’s silver Jubilee Day

The street celebrated for the Queen's silver jubilee in 1977. Four or five current residents were there. Photos of the day are from Paul Watkins of No 23. The whole street contributed to the day, as you can see from the accounts below, and organised a programme of events that included donkey rides and a grand opening from Harold Bennett, who played young Mr Grace in Are You Being Served, and lived in the basement of No 13 at the time.

Jubilee programme designed by Paul Watkins at 23.

The 1950s

Elizabeth II Coronation Day

Jeffreys Street held a street party to celebrate the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2nd of June 1953. In later years the Camden Chronicle published an article featuring photographs given to them by Mr L Bedford who had been a baby at the time. The article also featured a photo of a girl's fifth birthday party in 1948, held at No 22.

Former residents have been able shed some light on some of the people in this photograph. The lovely girl in the centre, holding up her jolly younger brother is Linda Sherville, and her brother Peter - staying with her aunt, Mrs Churchill at No 10. There are more of her cousins in the front row. In the image below ‘Chris and Jennifer’ are standing next to Linda and Peter.

Mrs Churchill was very involved in the organisation of the street party. Her son Bill Churchill is one of the small boys in a celebratory hat. Friend John Molina is towards the back in a fair isle pullover and lived on the top floor of number 12, with Ruby and Len Young living on the lower floors. Standing in the doorway of No 25 below is Lily Goodyear and her elderly mum also Lily. Lily Goodyear was born there in 1922 and her son Tom bought the house years later where they lived till 1965.

Children in Jeffreys St, Ivor Street and Camden Street did sometimes play together. Everyone in these streets did their laundry at the “bag wash shop”, the recently restored building on the corner of St Pancras Way and Wilmott St. The crooked doorstep of No 10 broke while dragging a bag back from the bag wash shop in 1955. Some of the large crowd of children in the party pictures were visiting family or lived on neighbouring streets. There was a similar coronation party on Ivor Street. Everyone there took shelter in The Eagle during a sudden downpour but when it stopped they had a party with a conjurer. The Jeffreys St party ended with a bang when someone threw a firework into the firework box.

(With grateful thanks for the memories and lots of Jeffreys St warm wishes to Bob Young, formerly of Ivor Street, Martin Goodyear son of Lilly, Bill Churchill formerly of Jeffreys St, John Molina formerly of Jeffreys St, Rita Hockey cousin of Linda Sherville.)

World Wars One and Two

Jeffreys Street First World War losses

In collaboration with The Imperial War Museum, the website astreetnearyou.org allows you to search for which houses on your street received news that they had lost someone during the First World War.

Jeffreys Street’s lost neighbours are as follows:

War damage: the night the bombs fell

Joan Fee, late resident of No 9, was living on Jeffreys St during the Second World War when the other end of the street was hit by a bomb. Though it came down in the gardens of houses on Royal College Street, the upper floors of nearby Jeffreys Street houses needed to be rebuilt and it blew out the windows stretching down the street.

An Esso garage was eventually built on the bomb site. Paul Watkins of No 23 remembers that the old buildings on Royal College Street still stood until Philia House replaced both houses and garage in the 1980s.