Canonbury

(N1) Named from Canons'-bury (bury being synonymous with burgh, a dwelling) , the country house of the Prior and the Canons of St. Bartholomew. Canonbury Tower, now a ruin, is believed to have been built by Sir John Spencer of Crosby Place. For many years it was used as a lodging-house. Amongst its tenants was Ephraim Chambers, whose Cyclopaedia originated all the modern cyclopaedias in English and other European languages. Chambers died at Canonbury in 1740, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Here lodged Newbery, the bookseller, in whose rooms Goldsmith often lay concealed from his creditors. Here the Vicar of Wakefield was written.