Tufnell Park

Coordinates: 51°33′25″N 0°08′02″W / 51.557°N 0.134°W / 51.557; -0.134

Tufnell Park is an area of north London, England which straddles the border of the London Borough of Islington and the London Borough of Camden.

History

Origins

Tufnell Park Road runs along the line of an old Roman road which stretches from the Roman camp beneath Barclays Bank and Batten's Carpets on the Holloway Road, up Dartmouth Hill and over Hampstead Heath. For centuries the area was renowned for its dairy farms which kept London and the south supplied with milk.

It kept a rural air well into the 19th century in its important role as a base for a number of dairies supplying the capital. In 1753 the area became the property of William Tufnell who was granted the manor of Barnsbury by his father-in-law Sir William Halton. The manor (now demolished) stood on the site of the Holloway Odeon. The manor's gateposts can still be seen, however, towards the west end of Tufnell Park Road. Tufnell petitioned the Parliament for permission to develop his estate but the leases he was granted were left unused. William's father was Samuel Tufnell of Langleys in Essex. William also inherited Nun Monkton in Yorkshire and estates in Northumberland from his great-uncle, Nathaniel Payler. He also inherited Pleshy from his godfather William Joliffe. These estates went to his older brother John Jolliffe Tufnell of Langleys.