Alfred Solomons

Who’s that man on my doorstep?

If your home dates back to the 19th or early-20th century, chances are there used to be a coal hole cover there, or on the pavement outside. The coal hole enabled coal – used for both heating and cooking – to be delivered down a chute direct to the customer’s basement. The cover, made of cast iron, was often quite a work of art. In Islington, there are still quite a few of them to be found, many of them naming the coal supplier.

One supplier commonly seen in these parts was Alfred (Aaron Moses) Solomons, who was born in Barnsbury. His parents, Moses and Martha, were both born in Spitalfields in the 1830s, and moved to Islington in the 1860s, living initially in Charlotte Street. This was just off the Caledonian Road, where several coal suppliers had their premises, presumably reflecting their proximity to the railway bringing coal from the North East. Moses, for his part, had a varied career, starting out as a confectioner, then a metal merchant, then a piano maker. Alfred, his son, started out as a lead and colour merchant, then broadened out to building and plumbing goods, and began supplying from 195-197 Caledonian Road the coal that went down his many customers’ coal chutes.

With his wife and two sons, Alfred lived at 16 Willow Bridge Road, Canonbury for much of his adult life. He was an active member of the North London Synagogue, serving as Warden in the 1920s. He was also active in serving the wider community in Islington, notably during the First World War when he was secretary of the local War Loan Committee, drumming up everyone, whether rich or poor, to donate whatever sums they could to support the war effort.

He is not the only Jewish resident of the borough whose name can still be found on our pavements and doorsteps. Look out also for Joseph Samuel, an ironmonger supplying Holloway and Highbury, who lived in Upper Street in the 1880s, and then in Barnsbury Street. Louis Jacobs, who was living at 135 Highbury New Park in 1901, was an apprentice to an ironmonger at the time, and appears to be the L Jacobs, with his works at 300 Caledonian Road, whose name is also found quite frequently on coal hole covers in Islington. And, if he too was Jewish, we can include S Saunders, whose coal chute covers tell us his premises were at 376 Caledonian Road.