- Little Green Street
Little Green Street is in danger. This narrow, cobblestone street is the only intact Georgian street left in London. It survived the London blitz in World War Two, but will be hard pressed to survive a contractor’s plan to flood the street (more a lane or pedestrian path) for four years with lorries carrying building supplies to and debris from a landlocked site. (View A Walk Up Little Green Street below to see how the lives of residents will be affected.)
Most of us have come to associate Georgian architecture with the great or exceptional houses that are shown in tv and movie adaptations of classic novels, or visits to Great Britain. The majority of people lived in humbler dwellings. Second “rate” houses were built by merchants, for example, and were no more than 500-900 sq ft in size. These houses, small by modern standards, would have been termed “large”. The most important rooms would have been given the largest windows. On Green Street, “eight of the homes are bow-fronted and were originally shops, selling goods such as ribbon and coffee. The street’s name also has historical connotations, as Highgate Road was once called Green Street. Historian Gillian Tindall, whose best-selling book The Fields Beneath chronicles the growth of Kentish Town, has called the plans ridiculous. She said: “They cannot be allowed to rip this street up. It is important as a ‘survival’ of historic homes – there is nowhere else like it.”-Camden New Journal
Generally speaking, the preservation of grand buildings and palaces is guarded more zealously by zoning laws than the humbler homes of the middle and merchant classes. To jeopardize an historic street for the sake of “progress” strikes me as supreme folly and short sightedness, especially when this is the ONLY remaining street in London that is truly all Georgian.
Save Little Green Street
A Walk Up Little Green Street
Jane Austen's World 
[…] Little Green Street Little Green Street is in danger. This narrow, cobblestoned street is the only intact Georgian streets left in London. It survived the London blitz in World War Two, but will be hard pressed to survive a contractor?s plan to flood the … […]
World wide attention may save this little street, thanks for sharing. By the way, I LOVE THE SNOW on your page!
Oh no that’s awful!
I’ve posted the information about Little Green Street to several yahoo loops on which I’m a member, and included a link to the preservation efforts on http://www.joannawaugh.blogspot.com
Thanks for bringing this to the attention of Regency writers and lovers of history everywhere!
Hi all,
This zoning makes no sense to me. Then again, our US economy is in shambles, so who am I to question the rules and regulations of another land? Still, in this day and age there are practical solutions to this problem that do not warrant the upheaval of the lives of every family who live on this tiny street, and all the pedestrians who use it as a walkway.
Maybe I will not visit this little green street, never, but I would love to know that it will be preserved
I hope you’re able to save this little bit of history! It would be tragic to lose this.
Please add my name to the petition to save Green Street. There is so little left to us of history. I hope this piece of it will be there for my grandchildren.
[…] Seen over the ether, this post on The official Bill NighyExperience: The Official Website, a detailed explanation of what is in store for Little Green Street for the next two years if truck traffic is allowed unlimited access. Little Green Street is the only remaining all Georgian Street in London. The road is quite narrow, and the street is used as a pass through by pedestrians and school children. Read my other post about the topic in this link. […]
London is an interesting, exciting city mainly because of places such as Little Green Street – if people dont want a world where every thing is the same (boring shopping malls, useless banks)…then Save Little Green Street.
Please add my name, and my husband, Den’s, to the list to save this beautiful street.
Kath Miller
I completely understand the fight to save little green street district. In NYC, we’re always fighting the large, money-hungry real estate developers. There is so much history and nostalgia with areas such as this. The best way to go about fighting them is by having the city/state/county declare this district an official landmark. once that is declared, it is untouchable by any developer.
you have to reach out to the government and have petitions signed.
good luck!
your work is a very nice
i would like to see little green street saved as my mother was born at number 9 in the twenties we used to go there to visit my grandmother after she married my father and moved up north to lancashire