Private Investigations

The Gorse Fox was puzzled. The census refers to Canonbury Avenue as the location of part of his family in 1891 and 1901. Canonbury Avenue doesn't appear on the present maps. There's Canonbury Road, Square, Gardens, Grove, Crescent, Place, Park North, and Park South... indeed there is a surfeit of Canonburys. But there is no avenue. Digging into his archive he extracted an Ordnance Survey map from the 1890s (you would be surprised what the Gorse Fox has tucked away) and started to review the area.

No Canonbury Avenue.

Google was not a significant help, either. However, it did point the Gorse Fox at the Charles Booth archive held by the LSE. There, deep in the recesses of his notebooks, the Gorse Fox found the clue he sought.

"the open space on the map north of Canonbury Square is now occupied by Canonbury Avenue - 2 rows of buildings next to the Board School. 4 Stories - working class; paved passage down the middle"

The Gorse Fox can now rest. The mystery is solved. He no knows where the McDonald side of his family lived in the 1890s and early 1900s.