Clissold House

Clissold House is a small stately home in Clissold Park in the London borough of Hackney in Stoke Newington, and was erected in 1793. Although relatively modest in its scale and decoration, it still essentially bankrupted its first proprietor, which is a pity, as it belonged to Jonathan Hoare, a successful merchant and anti-slavery campaigner. Its original name was Paradise House, so its present name I regret.

It eventually fell into the hands of William Crawshay. An overbearing father and singularly unpleasant-sounding man, one of his daughters ran off with an army captain, while another, Eliza,  fell in love with Rev. Augustus Clissold, vicar of St Mary’s at Stoke Newington. Crawshay was antagonistic towards religion and built, in 1816, a ten-foot-high wall to prevent the parish church from being seen from the house. Perhaps it was also to dampen his daughter Mary’s affections for its parson. When Rev Clissold sent romantic notes to Eliza, Crawshay threatened to shoot the messengers. When the latter died in 1834, the then middleaged couple quickly married, and moved into the very house which had been blocked from view.

Sadly, the tragedy did not end with the happy marriage, for Clissold abandoned his orthodoxy and converted to the Swedenborgian Church. He then spent his remaining years defending and publishing its weird doctrines. Truly, it was right to change the name of Paradise House and name it after a man who promulgated man-made religion.

Today, it sits in the middle of a busy and popular park, though the house itself and the café are closed, victims of economic difficulty and/or mismanagement. It witnessed financial failure, romantic failure and spiritual failure, yet it remains an attractive little pile and is still enjoyed by many thousands each week. I daresay that all homes have hosted triumphs and tragedies, joyful hearts and broken hearts, pains and pleasures. Thank God, we Christians have a heavenly home being prepared for us, where pain, failure and misfortune are barred and banned.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” John 14:1-4, NKJV