[1] It is named after Sir John Spencer, a wealthy city merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1594, who lived in nearby Canonbury House as his fashionable country retreat.

[2] The neo-Georgian open quadrangle apartment blocks, bordered by Compton Road, St. Pauls Road, Prior Bolton Street and St Mary's Grove,[3] were built on land sold in 1954 by the Earl of Northampton to property companies Western Ground Rents[4] and Oriel Property trust.

[5] It was designed by William Floyd Nash in a neo-Georgian style reflecting the 18th century architecture of Canonbury.

In the early 1950s, most of the Victorian villas on the site were bomb-damaged or dilapidated and planning permission for a development was granted in 1963 by Islington Borough Council.

[6] The development, comprising 80 apartments of one to three bedrooms, was built by Canonbury Construction Co. in 1963-4.