Near the High-road was an old house called “The Beggars’ Lodging-house.”
It was a great boon to tramps, as they found accommodation here for a
very small sum. A large fire was always burning brightly in the winter
evenings.
The National School for Boys was built in 1841, and the Drill Hall in
1864. Here the Vestries were held for some years. There were two
nurseries on the left hand side of the lane, and then on both sides
fields till one came to Willoughby-lane. Here stood Willoughby House;
there was not much architectural beauty about it; it was a one-storied,
straight-looking, white building, with three windows on either side of
the door, and seven on the floor above. There was not much land attached
to it, only a little over nine acres in all. Mr. Henry Lewis Smale was
the owner and the last occupier. In the eighteenth century it belonged
to Daniel Booth, Esq., the Governor of the Bank of England.
“The Crow’s Nest,” a quaint old house, was on the opposite side of the
way, and next came Willoughby Farm, the property of the Rector of St.
Luke’s, Old-street, E.C. There was an old farmhouse and upwards of
fifty-one acres of land.