An excellent opportunity to acquire an end-terrace Grade II Georgian townhouse dating from the 1780s and modified in the 1820s, when the attractive bow-front was added.
An excellent opportunity to acquire an end-terrace Grade II Georgian townhouse dating from the 1780s and modified in the 1820s, when the attractive bow-front was added. The property was home in the mid-nineteenth century to
the noted local historian Benjamin Clarke before becoming a doctors' surgery. (See 'full details' for further historical information). Converted back to a single house and restored by the present owner, the house has great presence and character and is spread
over the three principal floors with (unusually) a light and spacious entrance hall that runs along the imposing side elevation to Darnley Road. Well-appointed but authentic-feeling internally and well-presented externally, the property benefits from a rear
garden and extensive roof terrace. The sense of seclusion once inside belies the fact that it is close to all amenities, including the Hackney cultural quarter (Hackney Empire, Hackney Picture House and new library) centred around the Town Hall. The immediate
environment is attractive: the Georgian terrace is intact and across Darnley Road is a fine Victorian building, now apartments, and a small workshop for craftsmen-joiners, while the rear aspect is screened by an avenue of protected trees.
224 Mare Street is entered through a fine front door, with scroll bracketed doorcase, set on a quiet side street. The entrance hall is one of the impressive features of the house, a generous six feet wide and thirty-three feet long and functioning in itself
as a gathering space for social functions. The hall leads at one end to a bathroom, perfect for departing guests, and at the other to an impressive bow-fronted dining room. Set off the hall is the kitchen, with steps up to a charming pantry. The staircase,
generously proportioned in the manner of the 1820s, when it was remodelled, leads via a spacious landing to two good-sized first floor rooms, a drawing room at the front and a bedroom with ensuite contemporary wet room at the rear. On the top floor are three
additional bedrooms, the largest 16'x15', and a further bathroom. Collapsible steps set flush into the ceiling lead to the spacious illuminated roof terrace, ideal for warm summer evenings.
The basement is a separate leasehold property (approx 90 yr lease) with the freehold belonging to the owner of the principal house, who is entitled to claim from the leaseholder a nominal annual ground rent and 30% of scheduled maintenance and building insurance
costs.
Some further notes on the history of the house
Joseph Spackman, a pewterer from Cornhill in the City of London, obtained in 1771 a lease for 51 years for the land which includes the current 224 Mare Street. Spackman built the terrace, reserving the largest house (1 Spackman's Buildings, now 224) as his
own residence.
From 1780 until 1868, Spackman's Buildings (Richmond Terrace from about 1840) marked the beginning of Hackney Village. Benjamin Clarke, a doctor and noted Hackney historian, was resident at 224 from 1850 -1863 and the house was home to a succession of local
doctors, continuing as a doctor's surgery into the 1980s. A surviving feature from this period is the door in the central hall, with its metal studding, which led down to the dispensary.
The house was partly remodelled at some point between 1820 and 1840 when Darnley Road was built, hence the internal stone steps, unusually broad hallway and surviving back staircase, now providing access to the kitchen larder. In 1902, the main road was widened
and the terrace was integrated into Mare Street.
A particular point of interest is that the Tyers patented railway safety signalling system, which paved the way for the modern rail system across the United Kingdom, Australia and Russia, was first demonstrated in the dining room of the house and is documented
in Benjamin Clarke's book, Glimpses of Ancient Hackney & Stoke Newington (republished by the Hackney Society and the London Borough of Hackney in 1986).