St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Orphanage occupies No.'s 1, 2, 3, Holly
Place. To the west are big National schools and playgrounds, and a
curving hill called Hollybush Vale runs into the modern part of Heath
Street. On the west of Heath Street are Oriel Place and Church Lane. At
the corner of the latter is the Sailors' Orphan Girls' Home. This is a
big formal building, with none of the architectural beauty which marks
the sister establishment on Rosslyn Hill. The institution, however,
claims an older date, having been founded in 1829. The present building
was opened in 1869 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The girls are kept from six
to sixteen years of age and trained for domestic service. Their uniform
is the naval colour, dark blue. This road, running past the building
formerly called Greenhill, is now merged into Fitz John's Avenue.
Church Row is almost entirely old, one of the most lovable and quiet
parts of the parish--houses of brick with flat-sashed windows,
projecting porches with carved brackets, here and there red tiles, here
and there a bower of jasmine and ivy. One house covered with rusticated
woodwork projects above the ground-floor in a bay carried up to the
roof.
Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and a great theological and
controversial writer in the reigns of William III. and Anne, and Dr.
Arbuthnot were former residents in the Row, and the great Dr. Johnson
stayed at Frognal Park in the vicinity. Mrs. Barbauld (see p. 25) and
Miss Aikin are also to be numbered among the residents. There is an
industrial school for girls, and at the western end of the Row the
parish church (St. John the Evangelist) rears its tower beyond a line of
small lime-trees. The place has, however, recently been disfigured by
high mansions.
The parish of Hampstead was originally included in that of Hendon. The
churchwardens of Hampstead first appeared at the Bishop's visitation in
1598, which therefore marks the beginning of an actual parochial
settlement, though the register commences in 1560, nearly forty years
earlier. Until 1561 it was considered as a donative or free chapel, and
after that date it became a perpetual curacy, subject to the
jurisdiction of the Bishop and the Archdeacon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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