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Highbury New Park, LONDON, N5 2EY

A prosperous and leafy residential area behind the busy thoroughfairs of Highbury. "The southern and eastern perimeters of the Park are lined by handsome, four storey, Victorian villas, some semi-detached and some detached. Constructed for prosperous City merchants and well-to-do local families in the 1850s and 1860s, these houses were the first buildings in the new, gated private community of Aberdeen Park. Some are adorned with Italianate towers and all have extensive gardens."

Hard to see amid the surrounding greenery but this is an eye-catching church in the quiet surroundings of Aberdeen Park. It was built in 1866 under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite and Oxford movements, with a full complement of Victorian-gothic features, but became redundant in 1980 after attendance dwindled. "It is a Grade One listed nineteenth century Neo-Gothic style former Anglican Church. The church was designed by the architect William White (1825-1900). Once described as someone “who see-sawed between madness and genius, and ultimately fell off the wrong side.” St. Saviour’s, his masterpiece, was restored from its derelict state by English Heritage in 1988. The building is an imposing red brick edifice, with many unique details, from its echoes of Moorish and Dutch architecture, to its Arts and Crafts use of coloured bricks to create the internal decoration of the church. The church also has strong connections with John Betjeman, who worshipped here, and wrote of it in his poems." From the website of The Florence Trust which now owns it and runs it as studios providing shared space for artists to escape isolation http://www.florencetrust.org/ Betjeman wrote a poem with the title as above which begins: With oh such peculiar branching and over-reaching of wire Trolley-bus standards pick their threads from the London sky Diminishing up the perspective, Highbury-bound retire Threads and buses and standards with plane trees volleying by And, more peculiar still, that ever-increasing spire Bulges over the housetops, polychromatic and high. Stop the trolley-bus, stop! And here, where the roads unite Of weariest worn-out London - no cigarettes, no beer, No repairs undertaken, nothing in stock - alight; For over the waste of willow-herb, look at her, sailing clear, A great Victorian church, tall, unbroken and bright In a sun that's setting in Willesden and saturating us here.

John Betjeman's squat polychromatic church in Aberdeen Park Highbury. The solid Edwardian citizens who attended have been replaced by cutting-edge up-and-coming artists.

The wide central reservation marks the former course of the New River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_(England).

Running between Highbury New Park and Petherton Road, past Highbury Quadrant Primary School.

The wide central reservation marks the former course of the New River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_(England).

The wide central reservation marks the former course of the New River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_(England).

It's not New and it's not a River; the New River is an artificial waterway built in 17th century to bring drinking water from Hertfordshire to Sadlers Wells in London. The total length is about 38 miles and the river still serves its original purpose, except that the final stretch, south of Stoke Newington reservoir, is no longer used and is mostly covered over. A signposted footpath now follows the route. Here the course of the river runs under Petherton Road, London N5.