PENTONVILLE

PENTONVILLE, a suburban district of London and chapelry in the parish of Clerkenwell, Finsbury division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, 1½ mile N.E. of St. Paul's.

It lies between the Angel at Islington and Battle Bridge on both sides of the New-road, and occupies the site of a farm given by the Mandevilles to Clerkenwell nunnery. It was founded by the Pentons, from whom it takes its name, between 1773 and 1780, and now constitutes one of the most populous suburbs of the metropolis, having a population of near 10,000. There are situated the London Female Penitentiary, founded in 1807, the government model prison in the Caledonian-road, built in 1842 at a cost of £84,000, for 1,000 convicts, and White Conduit House. The living is a perpetual curacy with Christ Church, in the diocese of London, value £300, in the patronage of the Incumbent of Clerkenwell. The chapel, dedicated to St. James, was erected in 1788, by Hurst, and contains the altar-piece, by Fearon, "Christ Raising Jairus' Daughter." There is also the district church of St. Mark, situated in Myddelton-square, which is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of London, value £535, in the patronage of the bishop. The church was erected in 1828, at a cost of £16,000. There is, besides, Claremont Independent chapel, erected in 1819.

[Description(s) from "The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland" (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]
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