Where the hell is the Gospel Oak? It’s question we’ve all asked, as we weave through the estates, pass under the dank viaducts on the way to Parliament Hill Fields, or pop for a pint to the Southampton. Well let us tell you something: it existed once.
If you’re oak-curious, here’s how to find the spot. Take a right out of busy old Gospel Oak station, glancing at the bridges made famous by Sinead O’ Connor in her titular 1997 EP, and walk past Kristin Baybar’s toy shop to the most north-westerly point of NW5 (a short hop from rowdy boozer The Stag, in fact).
There, on the corner of Southampton Road and Mansfield Road, eyeing up NW3 like its life depends on it, you’ll find the Dunboyne Road estate. And larks, the nominal tree grew just near its gated entrance.
A popular place for outdoor preaching, not much is actually known about the tree, other than it gave its name to the area – Gospel Oak Fields. The bad news is that the tree had disappeared by 1821 (1827 in some accounts); the last record of it was on the parish map in 1801.
But despite falling or being destroyed nearly two centuries ago, it served as a boundary mark for many years, and was quite the place for outdoor preaching, sermons and gathering, not to mention an annual fair held in the Fields until 1857. In 1854 a stone was rumoured to have been erected on the spot where the “old oak” stood, although it seems this too had disappeared by the 1860s, with the onset of Midland Railway.
Despite the haziness of the Old Oak story, it’s still worth a trip to Dunboyne Road, especially if you’re an architecture nut, as it’s now the recently Grade II-listed Neave Brown modernist estate, comprising of 71 two bedroom houses, designed in the late 60s, but not completed until 1977. And its combination of stark white structures and overgrown foliage feels quite magical.
In a footnote to this jumble of history and hearsay, back in June 1998 Oak Village resident Michael Palin attempted ceremonially to plant a “Gospel Oak” on the fringes of nearby Lismore Circus – but the tree has, alas, not survived. Over a decade later and he was at it again, planting a sapling on an extremely rainy day in Lismore Circus Community Woods. The former Monty Python didn’t hesitate to pick up a shovel as he planted a new “Gospel” oak tree to help the volunteers group celebrate their 10th anniversary.
And therein lies a typical Kentish Town tale of faith, loss, hope and ambition. Happy ending included.
