The Herne Hill Society blog

Our new website goes live

We had been working on a new site - off and on - for about six months, but had to move a bit quicker than planned when our old site went down... permanently.

So, after several late nights and some frustration over 'domain mapping', we put the new Herne Hill Society website live earlier this week, in time for the Herne Hill Christmas Fayre. We hope you like it and find it useful.

So what is different about the site?

• 4 news stories and our Twitter feed appear on the home page
• More, larger and dynamic images appear throughout the site, which can also support video
• Some pages allow you to post your comments
• Enquiries are now directed to the appropriate committee member
• Links page is much more comprehensive
• It looks and works better!
• Our first ebook: Jeffrey Rumble’s A Brockwell Boy can be downloaded for free

Try it now.

See you tomorrow at the Herne Hill Christmas Fayre. We'll have a stall.

Walter Bor Media Awards

At the Walter Bor Media Awards last night, the Herne Hill Society was presented with a 'commended' award for the Short History of Herne Hill and a 'highly commended' award for Herne Hill magazine.

 
Particular thanks are due to Nick Baker, who redesigned our magazine last year and also designed and produced the book from John Brunton's text.
 
The winner of both the newsletter award AND the website award was the Sydenham Society - so our sincere congratulations go to them.

The Hackney Society won the book award.

Herne Hill Abbey

A correspondent wrote to us recently concerning a map he had bought that shows a building labelled 'Herne Hill Abbey'.

But, sadly, it seems there was never such a religious institution in Herne Hill. The
'Abbey' was in fact an early 19th-century  grand private house, long demolished. Hence
'Abbey Mansions' (next to 'Herne Hill Mansions') on the same spot today.

Samuel Lewis, the publisher of this map, was active between c.1830 and c.1865.  Probably, the maps were drawn by somebody else and merely published by him.

Lewis also published historical material on Islington - 'Islington as it was and is.'

If you are seeking out demolished abbeys and the like, the 'environs' maps of London are the best opportunity of finding similar information.

You can locate zoomable images from the Crace collection of London maps on the British Library's website.

And Frederick Crace (1779–1859), the great interior designer, map and print collector, and sewer supremo, was a Herne Hill man himself, living at 'Springfield', Half Moon Lane. Though he claimed to be from Dulwich...

Herne Hill Forum website

Congratulations to the Forum on the launch of their new website.

 

Lots of information and ways to get involved. Check it out now. Add your event. We've added ours.