Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Saint Mary's Nunnery of Augustinian canonesses, founded in 1140, was dissolved in 1539 and the church converted to the parish church of Clerkenwell, dedicated to St James. In the 1780s the building was declared ruinous and demolished. The present church was built 1788-92 by the architect James Carr, on the site of the choir of the mediaeval nunnery.
Pentonville was laid out as a planned development on land belonging to Henry Penton. The developers provided a church, constructed from 1787, but the parish of Clerkenwell refused responsibility for it. However, when the parish trustees required funds to rebuild St James's in 1788, they purchased the new church in return for a loan to their building fund. The Pentonville church thereafter operated as a chapel of ease to the parish church.
Bagnigge House was situated off King's Cross Road, Clerkenwell. Bagnigge Wells was established as a popular spa resort in 1758 when the owner of the House, Thomas Hughes, found that water from his well was a good purgative. He opened his gardens to the public, charging 3d to taste the waters, and adding entertainments, tea rooms, flower gardens, fish ponds and benches beside the Fleet River, which flowed through the garden. Concerts and entertainments were held in the pump rooms. The Wells were a fashionable retreat until the beginning of the 19th century; by 1810 they were the resort of 'lower class tradesmen' (Lysons). The Wells were closed in 1841 and the site was built over.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).