Near the High-road was an old house called “The Beggars’ Lodging-house.” It was a great boon to tramps, as they found accommodation here for a very small sum. A large fire was always burning brightly in the winter evenings.

The National School for Boys was built in 1841, and the Drill Hall in 1864. Here the Vestries were held for some years. There were two nurseries on the left hand side of the lane, and then on both sides fields till one came to Willoughby-lane. Here stood Willoughby House; there was not much architectural beauty about it; it was a one-storied, straight-looking, white building, with three windows on either side of the door, and seven on the floor above. There was not much land attached to it, only a little over nine acres in all. Mr. Henry Lewis Smale was the owner and the last occupier. In the eighteenth century it belonged to Daniel Booth, Esq., the Governor of the Bank of England.

“The Crow’s Nest,” a quaint old house, was on the opposite side of the way, and next came Willoughby Farm, the property of the Rector of St. Luke’s, Old-street, E.C. There was an old farmhouse and upwards of fifty-one acres of land.