A Brief History of Lamb Works and the Area

Lamb Works must be one of the rare buildings in London that does not have a street number. I have over the years had quite a lot of people ask me why we have no street number. I hope that the following text and pictures will briefly explain the history of the area and how Lamb Works got its name.

Tradition has it that Copenhagen House and Copenhagen Fields were named in honour of a noble but otherwise unknown Dane, who lived there in the 17th century and possibly the house may have been visited by the King of Denmark when he came to see his brother-in-law James I in 1606.

By the 1750's the grounds of the house were a tea-garden, and later in the century it was used for skittles, fives, dog-fighting and bear-baiting.

In 1780 the landlady of Copenhagen House was given troops to protect her property against Gordon Rioters, on their way to burn Lord Mansfield's mansion at Ken Wood.

Demonstration on Copenhagen Fields on 21st April 1834 against the sentences of transportation imposed on the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Between 35,000 to 100,000 people attended the demonstration and marched through London to Kennington Common with a wagon carrying a petition with over 200,000 signatures for the remission of the Martyrs' sentences.

In 1835 a cricket ground was opened on the Copenhagen fields and athletics were occasionally practiced there in the 1840s in the form of highland games and occasional sports meetings.

Between 1850 and 1853 the Copenhagen House running grounds became the main track in London. The first championship belt races were run there and records were set at each distance from 1 to 10 miles.

John Garratt was the owner in 1850, when legislation was introduced to ban professional running from the roads, where it had traditionally taken place. On September 24th 1850 he built a 200yd sprint track and over the winter he built an eight-foot fence and laid a track of fine gravel around the boundary of the cricket ground. It opened on 17th March 1851 and was believed to be one third of a mile. His innovation for racing for championship belts was a huge success. On 22nd March 1852 as many as 16,000 people paid to watch the 10 mile championship On 26th July 1852 Charles Westhall ran the mile there in 4:28.0, the first sub-four-thirty mile on a track.

The track was closed on the 21st March 1853, after damage from a severe storm in December.

In 1855 the Metropolitan Cattle Market opened which was to replace the live cattle market at Smithfields.

Caledonian Road, Islington, was opened in 1855, by the late Prince Consort. Mr. Bunning designed it, the City architect; cost nearly £500,000 and occupies seventy - four acres within the walls. The average weekly sale of beasts in this monster live-stock emporium is 25,000 sheep and 5000 oxen, besides calves, pigs, &c. There are "pens" here for 34,890 sheep; bullock-posts for 6616 beasts; two taverns on the north side of the market, public- houses at each corner, twelve banking-houses, and en electric telegraph office, open only on market-days, ranged around the clock-tower. All sales are for cash.

Cruchley's London in 1865: A Handbook for Strangers, 1865

Copenhagen Fields - This, the great cattle market of London, lies up the Caledonian-road, King's-cross. At a mile and a quarter from King's-cross Market-street is reached, and then turning to the left, in a hundred yards or so the visitor finds himself at the great gates of the cattle-market. The market is of immense size, but large as it is, it is insufficient to contain the animals sent up for the Christmas markets. In the centre is a clock tower, round which are the offices of the market clerk and other officials. On one side is the cattle-market, upon the other the sheep-pens. The calves are for the most part under roofs with open sides, and the pigs have also their own portion of the market. The number of cattle and sheep sold here weekly is prodigious, and the arrangements are excellent both as regards regularity, and, as far as possible, the comfort of the animals. Although upon some days of the week the number of beasts is much larger than at others, there are always a good many there, and a visitor pressed for time can therefore choose his own day. NEAREST Railway Stations, Barnsbury and Holloway; Omnibus Routes, Camden, Caledonian and Holloway roads.

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879

THE CATTLE MARKET, Caledonian Road, King's Cross, is an immense emporium for the sale of sheep, cows, pigs, and calves, formerly held in Smithfield. The market days are Mondays and Thursdays, and great numbers of animals are exhibited for sale, especially on Mondays, when they sometimes number over 15,700. In the centre of the market is a clock tower, around which are the offices of the clerk and other officials.

During the early part of the twentieth century the market became famous for its weekly Pedlars' Market. In 1939 the market closed and today only the clock-tower, railings, pubs and Lamb Works remain to remind us of the past history of the area.