Park Street, Islington

3 Park Street, Islington, 

1806-1809

This address first appears in February 1806. Crabb Robinson visited her there a month later. The last reference to this residence appears in February 1809. Park Street begins at Upper Street directly across from Canonbury Lane and Canonbury Square. Park Street was originally Kettle Lane and then Park Lane, becoming Park Street in 1806, the year Hays moved there. The street ran for about two blocks until ending at Park Place, a row of terrace homes along each side of what is now Liverpool Street. The first house built at the corner of Park Place and Park Street was in 1790 and still stands (see image below), providing a glimpse into what Hays's home might have looked like. 

John Hays appears in the 1806 Survey Map of St Mary Parish, Islington, at 3 Park Lane (soon to be Park Street), but it does not appear that he ever lived there. The previous occupant was a James Trimmer, his name recorded in the 1805-06 Poor Rate Book for 3 Park Lane and then marked through with "Hays" written to the side. Above Trimmer's name is written "Mary," an addition made to the Rate Book most likely at the request of Mary Hays.  Having her name added to a Rate Book was an important moment in her life, for it was the second time (the first being at Camberwell) that Mary Hays would live as an independent woman. While living in Park Street, she took upon herself the care and education of John Dunkin's three youngest daughters, Emma, Sarah, and Marianna, 1807-08. At the juncture of Park Street and what is now Liverpool Street was Park Place; to the left was Park Terrace.  About three blocks down the street was Felix Terrace, where Sarah Hills would soon live. Both Park Street and Felix Terrace were not far from Upper Terrace, where Elizabeth Hays Lanfear lived at that time. Within a few years Emma Dunkin Hills, Mary's niece, moved into a townhome in Canonbury Lane, just across Upper Street from Park Street

The Rev John Evans, Mary Hays's correspondent from 1793 and prominent Unitarian minister at Worship Street since 1792, lived in Islington at 7 Pullins Row, along High Street near present day Duncan Street. A John Lidiard, living at that time in Park Street, may have been the father, husband, or brother of the Miss Lydiard to whom Hays writes in June 1822. During Mary Hays time at this residence, her Historical Dialogues for Young Person of both Sexes was published by Joseph Johnson and Joseph Mawman in three volumes (1806, 1807, 1808). Mawman advertised these volumes in his catalogues continuously between 1809 and 1820, as well as in the London and provincial papers.  

Hays left Park Street in February or March 1809, around the time of Ambrose Lanfear's suicide.  She moved into the home of Thomas Hays, her brother, atWandsworth  Common, remaining there into 1813..