Newington Green, looking north
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Newington Green, looking north by Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Newington Green, looking north
Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 27 Jul 2009
The green provided grazing for sheep and cattle for centuries until "In 1742 the green, previously 'a most rude wilderness with large old trees' was railed in... In 1761 Newington Green was a 'pleasant village' consisting of a 'handsome square' surrounded by generally well built houses, with a row of trees on each side and an extensive grass plat in the centre... Among the inhabitants was Daniel Defoe (c. 1660-1731), who was educated at Morton's academy and in 1684 married a girl from Newington Green, where in 1692 he tried to raise civet cats." The civet cats, of which he had 70, provided musk which was used to make perfume. This enterprise, like many more of Defoe's, failed and the civets cats were seized in lieu of arrears.
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Image Location
Latitude
51.552023
Longitude
-0.084552