London, England/london3-160
Previous | Home | NextThis is Hackney House, built in 1720. It became the Hackney Academy -- also called Hackney New College -- in 1786 (five years before Priestley arrived). Here Priestley taught history and natural philosophy. The institution was set up for Dissenters, and the suspicion was held by some officials in London that the school was a "hot bed of sedition." The building was demolished in 1802. The position of Hackney House was at the present site of the intersection of Median Road and Glenarm Road. Today the neighborhood is completely built up and there is no memento or plaque to indicate that the historic building ever existed. The entrance drive to Hackney house intersected the main road (present Lower Clapton Road) at about 60 meters south of the northern limit of Urswick Road (before it joins the sharp turn of Lower Clapton Road).
(CAUTIONARY NOTE: Confusion should be avoided concerning subsequent "Hackney Academies" which have no relationship to this academy where Priestley taught, which was disbanded in 1796; another site was established by the Dissenters on Homerton High Street, and the school was known as Homerton Academy or Homerton College; after an intermittent assimilation by the University of London in 1840, it moved to the University of Cambridge in 1894. Adding to the complexity, there was a "Hackney Academy" before Priestley, identified here as "Newcome's Academy," which was important because Henry Cavendish was a student here. Discussion of Newcome's Academy is relegated to the end of this presentation of Hackney.)
