Married where????

[caliope]

I'm hoping someone can help decipher where an ancestor of mine was married.

I've just received a marriage certificate stating my ancestor was married at All Saints Church in the parish of (now the tricky part) looks like Battle Budn(??) Kings something, Middlesex on Jan 21, 1877. Her brother was married at the same place and the certificate is even more illegible! The registration district is Islington. If anyone could give me any guesses/ideas, it would be most appreciated!

Thank you!

Liz

[DebbieAnn]

Any chance you could scan it, put it on, say, photobucket, and post a link? Sometimes it helps to take a look at it...

Debbie

[Mythology]

Battle Bridge, Kings Cross.

Otherwise known as just "All Saints, Islington"
Otherwise known as "All Saints, Caledonian Road"
Catalogued by the LMA as "ALL SAINTS, BATTLE BRIDGE, CALEDONIAN ROAD, ISLINGTON"

(Forgot... and known by Mythology as "All Saints, Kings Cross" because, like the vicar who wrote the page heading in that old register, Mythology is an awkward cuss who refuses to label anything that far west as "Islington" in anything other than administrative terms. :D )

[Mythology]

Afterthought.

And if you want to know where it was...

Find Kings Cross railway station on the map.
Go due east for a little bit, and turn left (north) up Caledonian Road.
Just before you get to the canal, is a turning on the left called (slight clue here ;)) All Saints Street. The church was on the corner there.
Why "Battle Bridge"?
Because that is the old name for the area which, thanks to the arrival of the Iron Horse, we now know as "King's Cross".

[IreneH]

I love your posts Myth. I sometimes think the only reason I read the posts is because I just know you are going to give me something to laugh at.

(Forgot... and known by Mythology as "All Saints, Kings Cross" because, like the vicar who wrote the page heading in that old register, Mythology is an awkward cuss who refuses to label anything that far west as "Islington" in anything other than administrative terms. :D )

And of course the history lessons :)

Irene

[Peter Goodey]

It may help those from more far flung parts to appreciate the distinction to point out that Islington and Kings Cross evoke quite different images.

Islington is an up-market district much favoured by the chattering classes. Kings Cross is much favoured by ladies of the night and their clients.

These are of course caricatures, not accurate descriptions.

[Mutley]

Myth,
I have to agree with Irene, my family always ask "why are you giggling?" I reply "it's Mythology, he is so funny" and they now say "Oh Him again!" Your fame is spreading.

Peter,
Childhood memories in the 50's of Islington was the pictures, the Old Time Music Hall and the market (apple fritters). Was much more downmarket then!
Kings X. was where I was taken with a label round my neck to be put on the train (looked after by the guard) to visit with relatives for the summer holidays. (Couldn't imagine that nowadays)

Mutley

[caliope]

Thank you to all who replied! Mythology, I would never have guessed "Bridge" from the certificate but can see the word "Cross" now that you've mentioned it. Thanks also for the directions, you've been very helpful. I'll be checking out a map as I remember now I was at Kings Cross subway station in 1998. My English cousins hurried us through that station on our way back to Enfield so they must have thought it a rough area then! Thank you for clearing that up, Peter, because I have to admit, I didn't understand Mythology's comment about Islington!

Liz

[Peter Goodey]

Kings Cross subway station in 1998. My English cousins hurried us through that station on our way back to Enfield
There could have been another reason for hurrying through Kings Cross Underground Station. It was the site of a serious fire (31 killed) in 1987. Even 10 or 11 years later, Londoners whether or not they believed in ghosts tended not to dawdle there.

[Mythology]

Yes, in terms of both the people you are likely to encounter there and the safety of travellers, King's Cross does indeed have a bit of a reputation. Camden Council, in their wisdom, have handed out "Anti-social Behaviour Orders" left, right and centre, so the girls who never did anyone any harm are now "somebody else's problem" down the road.
The drunks and drug-addicts, of course, don't have a clue where they are half the time anyway, so still wander back into the area they are barred from, and, while the front of King's Cross main line station looks a little "cleaner", you can still enjoy a game of "dodge the swaying wino" in York Way, Pentonville Road and various other local streets, and when the local kiddies go out to play, instead of "hunt the thimble" they can still play "hunt the needle". :)

However...

It's only because of the geography that I (and, I would think, most Londoners or even visitors) would call that patch "King's Cross" not "Islington" - honest!

[Mythology]

If you take a look at the GenUKI map of parishes (http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Islington/outline.htm) in the Islington deanery in 1903, somebody has had the good sense to mark King's Cross railway station on it, even though it's outside the boundary, so you get an idea of where you are. The parish we're looking at is number 37 on the map - it couldn't really be much closer, could it?

Registration districts (and ecclesiastical deaneries) generally cover a large area and often give very little sense of the "real life" locality. Indeed, some of them appear to have been dreamed up by somebody who had far too many in the pub at lunchtime, so, to pick a few places that even non-Londoners should recognise...
Somebody who wandered down from Oxford Circus towards Piccadilly Circus in 1872 and dropped dead of shock half way down Regent Street when they saw the prices in the shops there would have a "Westminster" reference in the GRO index.
Somebody who got mugged while foolishly taking their wallet out in front of Westminster Abbey and died of their injuries on the spot would not - because the "Westminster" that we all know and love had been transferred to St George Hanover Square registration district a few years previously!