Stoke Newington - Architecture

Architecture

Although Stoke Newington contains only one Grade I listed building (St Matthias Church), it contains a fair number of Grade II* buildings for one London district. Unsurprisingly, given its nature, residential buildings are strongly represented, and this becomes even more clear when the lowest grade, Grade II, is considered, where almost whole streets are listed in some cases.

Grade I

• St Matthias Church, Wordsworth Road

Grade II*

• 187–191 Stoke Newington High Street
• 81/83 Stoke Newington Church Street
• 85/87 Stoke Newington Church Street
• St Mary's Old Church
• St Mary's New Church
• Clissold House, Clissold Park
• St Andrew's Church, Bethune Road
• The Castle Climbing Centre, Green Lanes

Grade II

• Stoke Newington Town Hall (restorationin 2010 won the Wood Awards) and Library
• Abney Park Chapel
• Newington Green Unitarian Church
• 113 Stoke Newington Church Street, one time residence of the poet and writer Anna Laetitia Barbauld
• Sanford Terrace

There are many Grade II listed properties on Stoke Newington Church Street, the historical heart of the district, and two other notable residential streets to the west of the district – Albion Road and Clissold Road – are replete with listed properties.

Close to the local pub The Lion, local resident and property owner Sofie Attrill gave consent for pop group Blur to create some publicity for their 2003 single "Crazy Beat". The album's cover and single artwork were undertaken by graffiti artist Banksy, with the single featuring a spoof image of the British Royal Family, replicated as a mural on the building. By 2009 it had become a tourist attraction, but Hackney Council had wanted to remove all graffiti from the area and tried to contact the building owner to gain her agreement to remove the artwork. Unable to contact her due to incorrect Land Registry records, they started painting over the artwork with black paint. They were stopped after they had partly covered the mural.