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Clapton

CLAPTON, a hamlet, in the parish of St. John, Hackney, union of Hackney, Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county of Middlesex, 3 miles (N. by E.) from London; containing 5475 inhabitants. This place is divided into Upper and Lower Clapton. The latter consists of various ranges of handsome buildings, with several large detached mansions and villas on both sides of the road, extending from Hackney church for about a mile, and occasionally interspersed with ranges of smaller houses and shops. The former, from Lower Clapton to Stamford Hill, consists of numerous well-built and spacious houses of modern erection, with grounds tastefully laid out, besides the Old and New Terraces, the latter of which forms a lofty and extensive pile. The houses are supplied with water from a reservoir at Lower Clapton belonging to the East London Water-Works Company, into which it is conveyed from the river Lea by a steam-engine. There is no trade, except what is requisite for the supply of the immediate neighbourhood; the nursery-grounds are extensive, and the adjacent country is richly wooded, and comprises much pleasing scenery. A proprietary chapel was built at Upper Clapton in 1777, which has lately been enlarged; and in 1841, a church was built upon a piece of ground given by the Rev. T. B. Powell, at a cost of £6300, in addition to which, a considerable sum derived from private sources was expended on embellishments: it is dedicated to St. James, and the living is in the Rector's gift. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. The London Orphan Asylum at Lower Clapton, founded in 1813, for the maintenance and education of destitute orphans, of whom about 400 are now in the institution, is a handsome building of lightcoloured brick, the centre of which, forming a chapel, has an elegant portico of four lofty fluted columns of the Grecian-Doric order, supporting a triangular pediment.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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