Canonbury Tower, ca.1879

From: Henry Dixon & Son

RA Collection: Art

The Manor of Canonbury was an appendage of the Priory of St Bartholomew, and appears to have been given to the Priory by Ralph de Berners, in the time of Edward I. The manorial house, rebuilt by the last Prior, or last but one, of St Bartholomew, " Prior Bolton, with his bolt and ton," was at the dissolution of religious houses given by Henry VIII. to Thomas, Lord Cromwell. After several changes it came in 1570 into the possession of Sir John Spencer, who built the tower shown in our photographs. Other remains of old buildings, portions of Canonbury House, greatly diguised, are still to be found in houses in the rear of the Tower. Here, according to Sir John Hawkins, not a very trustworthy authority, Goldsmith wrote the Vicar of Wakefield:-"of the booksellers whom he styled his friends, Mr Newbery was one. This person has apartments in Canonbury House where Goldsmith often lay concealed from his creditors. Under a pressing necessity he there wrote his Vicar of Wakefield" (Life of Johnson, quoted in Forster's Life of Goldsmith, i., p.385).

Authorities on the subject of Canonbury are John Nicols, in Bibliotheca Topographica, vol.ii., and Nelson's History of Islington. An interesting paper on Canonbuty Tower, by Mr C.A.Ward, appeared in the Builder, for July 19, 1879.

The above description by Alfred Marks was taken from the letterpress which accompanies the photographs.