That east-west railway was mostly constructed in the 1860s. The station we know as South Tottenham was actually called ‘South Tottenham and Stamford Hill’ from its opening in 1871 until 1949. The north-south line & Seven Sisters station opened in 1872, but its entrance was off-picture on West Green Rd until The London Underground’s Victoria Line came in the late 1960s. The Seven Sisters Curve (connecting track) was used for the Palace Gates line, which opened in 1878. The coming of these railway lines helped push Tottenham’s growth, from largely rural to mass residential & industrial.

 So, much of this area was a construction site at this time. Indeed, they were trying to get images of areas in transition, places that had changed since the Ordnance Survey mappers had last toured the country in the 1860s, & this was their best picture! 

The old Stonebridge House mansion is gone, & the new roads & terraced houses are coming. These lasted until the 1970s, as did those on The Crescent that you can see at the bottom, now called Ermine Rd. Most of the buildings in the whole Seven Sisters - St Ann’s - High Rd triangle were demolished & then replaced in the post-WW2 era: “slum clearance”.  

 The block between Crowland & Ferndale Roads (bottom right, just east of The High Rd) & Westerfield Rd (just left of top middle) look like building sites in Shadbolt’s photo too.

Some of Stonebridge Brook is also above ground here, but it’s hard to make out. If you want to see it, find the 1890s OS Map below & then you can distinguish it more easily in this main photo.   

Cecil Shadbolt was born in 1859 and baptised at St Mary’s Church in Hornsey. The family lived at Cecil House, Crouch Hill, Hornsey/Crouch End from 1865 to 1879. They then moved far south the river, around Chislehurst/Bromley, & that is also where they were buried.  

Cecil was a pioneering aerial photographer, who made many balloon voyages from Alexandra Palace, Crystal Palace & elsewhere from 1882-92 with his pilot, Captain Dale. His innovations apparently inspired those undertaking aerial surveys in both World Wars, & his work is still greatly respected in photography circles today.  

Both Cecil & Captain Dale died relatively young, after an accident while ballooning from Crystal Palace in 1892. Dale’s son and a Tottenham banker’s clerk named John Henry Mackintosh also flew with them that day, but survived.

  Cecil’s 1882-1892 collection of 76 glass lantern slides was found at a car boot sale & then later bought by Historic England at an auction in 2015.  

Cecil’s father, George Shadbolt, was a groundbreaking photographer too. Indeed, Haringey Council placed a Green Plaque on their old residence at Cecil House, Crouch End to commemorate George & his work, & Bruce Castle Museum holds some of his photographs of the area. 

George Shadbolt also had a profession as a woodbroker. In the 1885 London Directory he had premises at 11 Billiter Square, Fenchurch Street, London. Also shown at this address were his son Cecil Shadbolt and a Walter P Shadbolt.

Back to the main photo: I used to walk this way from my house off Philip Lane to primary school at St Ignatius many moons ago, coming down Westerfield & cutting through Stonebridge to The High Rd. Of course, I had absolutely no idea about this groundbreaking photograph, taken way above my head a century before!