1989 | >Re-PHOTO

Houses, Station, General Booth and more Houses

My account of this walk from 5th February 1989 began in Camberwell with the previous post, A Pub, Ghost Sign, Shops And The Sally Ann.

*House, Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-51*

I ended my previous post with pictures of William Booth College and a statue of Catherine Booth. Before-crossing the railway I had gone down Windsor Walk, and the overall picture of the college was taken from there across the cutting containing the lines and platforms. Even from there the top of the tower was only just in frame, and unfortunately I cropped it slightly when I made the scan. I think more recent building at Denmark Hill station now partly obscures the view.

This impressive house at 16 Windsor Walk is a part of local development in the 1860s-80s, largely a speculative development built as private houses but many pressed into service in post-war years as nurses homes and medical centres for the nearby Maudsley and Kings College Hospital. Although this house looks in good condition, it deteriorated rapidly and was boarded up for years before extensive refurbishment in 2014-6. From the outside it again looks much as it did in 1989.

*House, Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-53*

These houses at 17-18 Windsor Walk were also derelict a few years ago and have also been restored along with the next two properties on the street.

*Phoenix Firkin, Denmark Hill Station, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-55*

Denmark Hill Station and its offices were Grade II listed only in 1998. The buildings date from 1864-66 and were gutted by fire in 1980. By 1989 the station was home to the Phoenix Firkin pub, named as it had arisen from the ashes. It remains in business, though now called simply The Phoenix. Denmark Hill, a busy station, is entered through the southern part of the building at right, from which several people are emerging in my picture.

*William Booth statue, William Booth College, Salvation Army, Champion Park, Denmark Hill, Southwark, 1989. 89-2a-41*

The station buildings with their pub are on a bridge over the railway lines, here in a cutting, and this leads to Champion Park with its Salvation Army College. Here I photographed both the statue of Catherine Booth in the previous post and this one of her husband and co-founder of the Army, William Booth, born April 10th 1829. Promoted to glory August 20th 1912. Sculpture by George Wade, 1929.

Their two statues are situated symmetrically on the lawn in front of the college, close to the road.

*Canning Cross, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-43*

Champion Park leads to Grove Lane, and a few yards down from the corner is a narrow turning, Canning Cross, next to the George Canning pub, which leads to Stories Mews, and as a footpath only to Camberwell Grove. I took this picture from Canning Cross looking roughly north up Stories Mews, and although there has been considerable rebuilding in the area I think this view remains much the same.

Canning, a prominent Tory politician was until recently the British Prime Minister to have been in office for the shortest time, being Prime Minister for only 119 days in April to August 1827. But his time in office was cut short by his death and not as Liz Truss’s by disgrace. Canning was also the last PM to have fought a duel after he, then Foreign Secretary was challenged by the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. Fought with pistols on Putney Heath, Canning’s shot went extremely wide of the mark, but the war minister was a rather better shot and Canning was wounded in the leg.

*House, Champion Hill, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-46*

I walked on down Grove Lane to Champion Hill, turning down here and going past a two houses in what seemed to me an Arts and Crafts style dating from 1907, as the lozenge on the central chimney records. Champion Hill is an odd street with several branches and a central cross-roads where all four signs point to Champion Hill. Fortunately I had a map and knew to turn right to take me towards Denmark Hill and Ruskin Park, where the next post on this walk will continue.

Laundry, Timber and Glengall Road

The previous post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was Housing and the Grand Surrey Canal – 1989 .

*Elite Laundry, Willowbrook Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-65*

The Elite Laundry at 48a Willowbrook Road was on the edge of the canal walk and had obviously been closed for some time when I made this picture. It has since been demolished but the property in the left half of the picture, behind the roadside structure made mainly of corrugated iron sheeting has been renovated and is now on the Surrey Linear Canal Park. For some time it was the Willowbrook centre, a community planning and education centre of Southwark Council but they decided to sell it in 2017. It is Grade II listed as Willowbrook Urban Studies Centre.

The canal bridge a little further down Willowbrook Road is almost identical to that on Commercial Way, and both were built for the St Giles Camberwell vestry around 1870. This was then named Hill Street Bridge, though the 2015 map still refers to it by the older name of Taylor’s Bridge. The map also names the wharf here as Langdale Wharf. It was the site of timber merchants William Sharvatt & Son Limited.

*Timber Yard, Colegrove Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-66*

Timber from the Surrey Docks was the main cargo of the barges which came down the Grand Surrey Canal, and this yard will once have been a wharf on the canal. I’m unsure exactly where on Colegrove Road it was as this side of the street is now a large run of modern flats and I think all the buildings shown, both those on the wharf and the more distant flats have been demolished.

*Factory, Glengall Rd, Latona Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-51*

Glengall Road and Latona Road were still full of the industrial units that grew up around the Grand Surrey Canal, twith the large building on the corner and the adjoining property on Glengall Road in 1989 being occupied by Hays Chemicals Ltd. These buildings still remain, now occupied by Gadmon Industries, a German company specialising in steel tubing and pipelines, but those further down Glengall Road at the left were demolished in 2022.

*Factory, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-52*

Some of the older factories and warehouses in the area had been replaced by more modern buildings, which I have now also been demolished. I think this particular warehouse was built on the actual filled in canal where it went under Glengall Bridge, no trace of which remains. I’m unsure what these stacks are, but I think they were probably made from wood. The peeling paint at left looked to me like a map of some unknown part of the world.

Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-53

The house at left is 41 Glengall Rd, which has since been extended. The factory buildings have been replaced by a modern equivalent built with a slight echo of the previous structures and is not the Glengall Business Park. The canal ran just to the south of here. I think this was the Glengall Works, where Chubbs moved their Patented Safe Manufactory in 1868, producing fire and burglary resistant safes and strong-room doors. They closed the factory in 1908 moving all production to their Wolverhampton works.

*Travellers Camp, Surrey Linear Canal Park, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-54*

Caravans were parked on a part of the canal park. The building at left is still there but the block of flats was demolished as a part of the North Peckham regeneration scheme.

Houses, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-55

Houses on Glengall Road were built on open fields to the south of the Old Kent Road between1843-and 1834 in what was then called Glengall Grove to emphasize its rural nature – though a short walk would have taken the new middle-class occupants to some noxous industries beside the canal. The street was planted with lime trees, some of which survive.

*Houses, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-42*

These houses are thought to have been designed by the well-known architect Amon Henry Wilds who also designed other houses in the area including some still remaining on the Old Kent Road. But I don’t think there is any sign of his trademark decoration and perhaps he was not personally involved in their construction though providing the look of the houses.

*Houses, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-43*

Nos 1-35 (odd) & 24-38 (even) Glengall Road are all Grade II listed, as well as similar houses in Glengall Terrace.

*Houses, Glengall Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-46*

The listings date from 1972, but in 1989 some of the properties were still in a poor state of repair. This picture shows houses which are part of a terrace at 36-50, a later development probably from the 1860s. Having spent some time photographing the houses at the top of Glengall Road I was walking back down the street when I made this picture.

My walk will continue in a later post.

The first post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was Windows, A Doorway, Horse Trough and Winnie Mandela

Housing and the Grand Surrey Canal – 1989

The previous post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was Peckham – Pubs, Shops, AEU And A Fire Station.

*Derelict House, Peckham Hill St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-22*

These two large semi-detached houses are still there on Peckham Hill Street but now restored and in a very different condition. I think they are at Nos 102-108. Built around 1820 they were Grade II listed in 1972 and are part of the Peckham Hill Street Conservation Area designated in 2011. Although that at right seemed still occupied the left-hand pair looked to me as if it had been left empty to decay and I suspect may have once been squatted.

*Bonar Garage, Bonar Rd, Peckham, Southwark 89-1h-14*

Bonar Road was constructed across the back gardens of some of the houses in Peckham Hill Street and led to a depot for the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell formed in 1901. Although this is now a part of the conservation area, no part of the Bonar Garage has survived. The house with the chimneys at left is I think onf of the listed buildings in the picture above, but whatever building had the square brick chimney on the right side has been demolished.

*Surrey Canal Walk, Canal Bridge, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-12*

A number of schemes for canals south of the Thames in London were proposed in the late 18th century and two were approved by Acts of Parliament in 1801. These were the Kent and Surrey Canal (later known as the Grand Surrey Canal) and the Croydon Canal from Rotherhithe. The horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway roughly following the course of the River Wandle from Wandsworth to Croydon was also given approval the same year. A canal scheme for this was turned down as there were too many mills relying on the water from the Wandle.

Surrey Canal Walk, Canal Bridge, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-16 — *Surrey Canal Walk, Canal Bridge, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-02*

The Grand Surrey Canal was authorised to go from Rotherhithe to Mitcham, with provision for branches, including to Vauxhall, but the proprietors had ambitions to extend it as far as Portsmouth. They began at the Thames in Rotherhithe and soon became a part of the new Surrey Docks scheme with an expanded basin and ship lock completed in 1807 into what became Stave Dock, with the canal running what became Russia Dock. Plans to join with the Croydon Canal at Deptford rather than that canal having its own line from the Thames provided an incentive to open the canal as far as the Old Kent Road by 1807.

*Surrey Canal Walk, Canal Bridge, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-61*

The Croydon Canal, not being involved with the new docks, got on with digging and the stretch from the Surrey Canal at Deptford was opened to West Croydon in 1809. It didn’t last too long never attracting a great deal of traffic and closed in 1836, though many of us will have travelled along parts of it as it was bought by the London & Croydon Railway company for their line from London Bridge to a station on the former canal basin at West Croydon. Parts of its route not needed for the railway are now parks and nature reserves.

The Grand Surrey Canal company had run out of money and needed another Act of Parliament in 1807 to raise money to go further and were able then to extend the canal to Camberwell, opening this section in 1810. Apart from the entrance lock there are no locks on the canal, but they would have been necessary to go further, and the company could not afford the extra expense, and this was the furthest it ever got, despite the original plans and dreams.

Two more Acts of Parliament were needed to enable the company to raise money to cover costs and a short branch to a a large basin at Peckham was added, ocpening in 1826. Other plans put forward for extending the canal to Vauxhall and even Reading failed to attract investors.

But the Surrey Docks were developing and the canal got a new entrance lock in 1860, close to the earlier lock but leading into a new basin, Surrey Basin. There was a new entrance lock into the canal itself at Russia Dock. When Greenland Dock was extended in 1904, a lock from there became the start of the canal, almost a mile from its original entrance from the Thames.

*Surrey Canal Walk, Canal Bridge, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-64*

Surrey Docks were mainly used for timber, and this also made up much of the traffic on the canal, but an important customer was George Livesey’s South Metropolitan Gas Company with its Old Kent Road gas works relying on coal being brought to it on the canal on its own fleet of barges. Production of gas stopped on the site in 1953.

Other traffic on the canal also fell off dramatically, with many of the industrial sites which had sprung up beside it at various wharves along its length turned to road transport and new companies moved in which had no need for bulk transport. The canal became disused and most of it was filled in by 1960. The section down to the basin at Peckham now occupied by Peckham Library is a pedestrian and cycle route called both the Surrey Canal Walk and Surrey Canal Linear Path.

London Canals has a good account of the canal with some old photographs along with more recent images of various remaining features.

*Flats, Willowbrook Estate, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-14*

Close to the canal was the Willowbrook Estate constructed by the London County Council in the early 1960’s and handed over to the London Borough of Southwark in 1980. It became a part of Southwark’s drastic 1995 Five Estates Peckham Masterplan and the large block at the left of this picture, the 112 home Tonbridge House was demolished, along with Tilbury Close while most of the lower maisonettes remain. The regeneration of the estate had begun in 1988 and was completed by 1995, although there has been considerable refurbishment since the estate voted to be taken over by Willowbrook TMC in 1998.

My 1989 walk in Peckham will continue in a later post.

The first post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was Windows, A Doorway, Horse Trough and Winnie Mandela.

Windows, A Doorway, Horse Trough and Winnie Mandela

I went back to where I had finished my walk on 27th January 1989 two days later on Sunday 29th January, beginning with a couple of pictures of the former St Giles Hospital which I used in the final post on that walk.

*Motor Vehicle Spares, Southampton Way, Rainbow St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-66*

I walked up Havill St to Southampton Way. Across the road was Rainbow Street with this building with bricked up windows and doorway on a large house converted to commercial use. Rainbow Street was not present in 1870 but appears on the map surveyed in 1893 and this building was almost certainly built between those dates, after the window tax was repealed in 1851 and so the bricking up of windows was for practical reasons – and clearly was the doorway.

This building is now home to a small 24hour supermarket on the ground floor with two of the top floor windows now opended up and a door replacing the right-hand ground floor window presumable giving access to living accommodation above the shop. The large notice area is still there, though without notices when I last saw it.

Rainbow Street was for some time the home of Great Train Robber Buster Edwards who many of us saw regularly at his florists stall near Waterloo after his release from jail in 1975.

*Doorway, 201 Southampton Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-51*

Further south on Southampton Way was this house with iron screenwork, lions and mosaic path which made it stand out. In the background is the North Peckham estate. Unfortunately this doorway was altered around 2012. The estate was redeveloped under the Five Estates Peckham Masterplan approved by Southwark in 1995, which resulted in the net loss of 1184 social-rented dwellings. The chimney was for the estate heating system.

*Doorway, 201 Southampton Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-52*

This house is at the corner with Peckham Grove and I think probably dates from the mid-19th century, possibly from around the time the houses nearby in Peckham Grove (now Newent Close) were developed from 1837 on. Unfortunately this doorway was altered around 2012, although the lions, steps and mosaic are still there. The houses around the corner were built in 1843 and are listed as is a lamp post on the corner outside this house.

House, Peckham Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-54 — *House, 46, Peckham Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-54*

This is now called “Listed House” and is at 46 Peckham Grove although its neighbours are also covered by the listing of 40-46 and attached railings. Built in 1843 and now flats.

*Lamp post, Horse Trough, flats, Southampton Way, Peckham Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-41*

And this is the Grade II listed Gothic Revival late 19th century hand pump converted in the 20th century to an electric lamp post, with a horse trough and drinking fountain beside it. Across Peckham Grove is the London Borough of Southwark’s Samuel Jones Industrial Estate and beyond that the North Peckham Estate.

The lampost and the rest of the corner along with tall chimney are still there, but the rest has been replaced by new housing.

The message on the horse trough, ‘”BLESSED ARE THE PITIFUL” – THE WORK OF ST LUKE’S BAND OF MERCY’ seems a little strange to me. It is a translation of Matthew 5 v7, more normally ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy’ and means that those who show pity are to be blessed rather than those to be pitied. Some translate it as ‘Blessed are the humble’, but in this context it rather seems to me that St Luke’s Band Of Mercy were showing pride rather than humility. But horses need water and were doubtless grateful.

Men and women need water too. In my youth every park had its drinking fountain, providing not only water but also fun for kids as we used them to spray each other. Since then we have had decades of them being removed on grounds of hygiene (and I sometimes wonder how we survived back then.) Recently we have seen a huge fad of ‘hydration’, with people walking and running around our cities clutching water bottles – and the growing provision in a few places of free water bottle filling stations.

*Winnie Mandela House, Peckham Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-44*

At the end of Southampton Way I came to Peckham Road and opposite me was Winnie Mandela House. Once described in the Daily Telegraph as a “viciously ugly 1960s office block” with a “shabby façade”, Winnie Mandela House looked more to me a 1930s art deco factory building, and not without its own charm.

Its former name was ‘Pelican House’, the words almost legible on either side of the clock, and now back under that name has been imaginatively converted to provide eighty new affordable housing apartments for shared ownership and rent for Amicus Horizon Group with the lower floors housing an arts café and gallery.

At right of this picture is the frontage of Kennedy’s Sausage Factory. Occasionally on my walks I felt hungry and would stop at one of their shops to buy a sausage roll. But they were closed on Sundays.

I crossed the road to take this second picture from the wide pavement outside.

The factory was was begun by The Surrey Association for the General Welfare of the Blind in 1885, and rebuilt in this form in 1936 (by which time it was the London Association for the Blind – and later became Action for Blind People) with new offices in Pelican House completed in 1952.

The factory employed blind men in the production of handmade baskets, the manufacture of casein and metal knitting needles, and injection moulded plastics. Production moved to Verney Road Peckham in 1974 and Pelican House was sold in 1976.

I find it hard to define a clear boundary between Camberwell and Peckham, and this part of the walk had been on the borderlands. From here on I was clearly walking into Peckham for the next part of my walk.

Art School Nude to Hospital Tower

The final set of pictures from my walk on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk is The Workhouse, Town Hall, Council Offices and Art School.

Sculpture, South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-26 — *Nude, South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-26*

A bronze nude by Karel Vogel was at the entrance to the gallery, and in 1989 seemed under threat by the tree emerging behind. I think both the sculpture and the tree behind it have gone although a large tree closer to the road remains. Vogel, (1897-1961) was a Czech sculptor who came to England fleeing the Nazis in 1938 and taught at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1948, and became in charge of the School of Sculpture there.

Perhaps his best-known work in this country is his 1959 Leaning Woman, Grade II listed in 2016, situated close to the A4 by St Peter’s Church in Hammersmith.

*The London Institute, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-11*

The Art School and gallery designed by Maurice Adams was built in 1896-8 is Grade II listed. It’s extravagantly baroque exterior includes a number of caryatids in supporting roles. ‘The Buildings of South London’, page 620, describes the 1960 addition at left by Murray, Ward & Partners as “totally unsympathetic” and it is certainly and doubtless intentionally a complete contrast. But it deserves to be seen and judged on its own.

*Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Havil St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-14*

The Havil Street frontage of the Poor Law Guardians building whose frontage on Peckham Road featured in the previous post in this series. It was built in an vaguely Art Nouveau style in 1904. I found the octagonal building with the rectangular blocks behind with its rhythmic patterns of windows and odd towers, together with the odd street wall, its curves echoed by the hood around the doorway quite enchanting.

St Giles' Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark 1989-1g-15 — *St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark 1989-1g-15*

In 1889-90 a new 4-storey ward tower fronting onto Havil Street was opened for the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary, later St Giles’s Hospital. Circular in design (which was fashionable at that time), it had cost about £14,500. Each storey contained 24 beds radiating around a central shaft, in which heating and ventilation services were located. This Grade II listed building is now flats. The pile of rubble behind the wall is from the demolition of unlisted hospital buildings.

St Giles' Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-16 — *St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-16*

Another view of the hospital tower seen from Havil Street. Designed by Robert P Whellock it is Grade II listed. This was the last picture I took on Friday 27th January 1989, but two days later, Sunday 29th I came back here to begin another walk, beginning with more pictures here and a little further along Havil Street and I’ll include these here.

St Giles' Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-02 — *St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-65*

Much of the former St Giles Hospital was in 1989 a demolition site with just the listed buildings being left standing. The area is now filled with rather dreary housing with two and three storey solid-looking blocks around ‘St Giles Tower’. I think this picture was taken from the corner of Brunswick Villas, just after I had made a picture (not on-line) of the Grade II listed Bethel Asylum for aged women founded by William Peacock in 1837 at 159-163 Havil Street.

*House, Brunswick Villas, (Brunswick Rd) Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-62*

I walked up Havil Street to the corner with Brunswick Villas, formerly Brunswick Road as the stone pillar still asserts. These houses are presumably a part of W J Hudson’s Brunswick Park development begun in 1847, though rather less grand than some.

From here I made my way towards Peckham – where my next series of posts on my walk on 29th January will begin.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto.

The Workhouse, Town Hall, Council Offices and Art School

More pictures from my walk on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk is
Baptist Chapel, Fine Houses, A Queen And A Hospital.

*Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-55*

I walked down St Giles Road to the Peckham Road, turning east along it. At the end of the block on the corner of Havill Street is the former Guardians Offices built in an vaguely Art Nouveau style in 1904 for the Poor Law Guardians who ran the workhouse of which it was part. The sundial has the text ‘Do Today’s Work Today‘. The building is Grade II listed.

Under the 1929 Local Government Act the LCC took over the workhouse and infirmary buildings on the site and the same act abolished the Board of Guardians system in 1930. Many workhouses were redesignated as Public Assistance Institutions but Camberwell’s became St James’s Hospital and these offices became the Divisional Health Offices. Southwark Council inherited the building in 1966 but closed its offices here when it moved to Tooley Street in 2009. The building was bought in 2010 by homelessness charity Thames Reach who use it as an Employment Academy. There is also a cafe and tea room on the Havill Street side as well as a Montessori Nursery on the site.

*Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-45*

A wider view of the building, still then in use by Southwark Council.

*Camberwell Town Hall, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-56*

On the east corner of Havill Street is the former Camberwell Town Hall designed in a Classical style by Culpin and Bowers and opened in 1934. It became the town hall for the London Borough of Southwark when this was created in 1965 and was still this when I took my picture. They sold it to a developer in 2009 when the council moved to Tooley St and it was converted into student accommodation for Goldsmiths College.

*South House, 30-32 Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-41*

This row of houses are Grade II listed and were built as separate houses ca 1790. Like the council offices across the road they were also in use as council offices until around 2010 with the house and have also been converted into student accommodation, with a total of 125 bedrooms in the three blocks including also listed Central and East Houses on the north side of Peckham Road and South House.. Joined to them the east end of the block (out of picutre at left) is still the Southwark Register Office.

34 Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-33 — *Southwark Register Office, 34 Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989*

Southwark Register Office is also Grade II listed and was built around 1790. At some unknown date it was liked to No 32 at right at second floor level, with the curious rooftop extension you see here. Presumably the tall archway in the middle had some purpose, and was possibly at one time without the lower wall and arch. Perhaps giraffes were kept in the gardens behind? Suggestions are welcome in the comments here or on Flickr.

*The London Institute, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-23*

John Passmore Edwards gave money for the erection of the South London Gallery and the College, architect Maurice Bingham Adams, in memory of Lord Leighton. The gallery opened in 1891 and the Technical Institute in 1898. It became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.

*South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-25*

The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. It became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.

My next post will start with a couple more pictures of Camberwell College of Arts before taking a walk up Havill Road.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto.

Baptist Chapel, Fine Houses, A Queen And A Hospital

More pictures from my walk on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk is St George’s Tavern and North Peckham 1989

*Cottage Green, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-01*

Robert Browning the Victorian poet (1812-89) was born in Rainbow Cottage, Cottage Green and grew up in the area – there is a Rainbow Street not far away but the cottage is long gone. But the area still felt a little out of place in the middle of twentieth century London.

The tree is still there on the corner with Wells Way and so too is the chapel down the street and the house beyond on the corner of Southampton Way. At right the brick wall and fence remain, but the site behind, not visible here, has been sold for development. I’m not sure why the foreground railings on the pavement edge were there, but they are now no longer. At left instead of the corrugated iron there is now housing almost up to the pavement and the 11 storey block facing the end of the street has been replaced by flats of half the height.

Browning’s parents – his father was a clerk at the Bank of England on what was for the time a pretty decent salary – moved a few yards to Hanover Cottage on Coleman Rd when he was around 12, and there is a more or less illegible stone plaque on a wall of the shop on the corner of Southampton Way and Coleman Road with a more recent Southwark blue plaque higher up.

*Cottage Green Baptist Chapel, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-61*

The chapel was built in 1844 and became a Baptist chapel ten years later in 1854. Owned by the Copleston Centre, a Peckham Community Church in Copleston Road it has been in use as a Christian nursery, the Destiny Day Nursery registered in 2007.

When I took this picture is still in use as a Baptist chapel. The commercial building beyond the chapel is still there as is the brick building at left, though the fences have been replace by a low brick structure, perhaps a bin store.

*Cottage Green Baptist Chapel, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-62*

A second picture gives a clearer view of the church noticeboard with its message ‘SUNDAY FAMILY SERVICE 11.00AM’. I would like to know more about the windowless building to the right.

*Haulage Yard, Housing, Southampton Way, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-63*

The houses at 73-77 were built in the early 19th century and are Grade II listed. A planning application was made in 2021 for the development of the yard which has an ‘L’ shape behind the houses on Southampton Way to another entrance on Cottage Green, opposite the chapel and next to another listed building, Collingwood House at 1-3 College Green – which I did not photograph.

*Brunswick Park area, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-64*

I think these houses are near Brunswick Park, but cannot identify the exact location. There are a number of houses of a similar mid-Victorian age and style in the area which was developed by W J Hudson who bought the area in 1847, naming the open space in the centre after the estranged wife of George IV, Caroline of Brunswick. Long separated from her husband she had become a very popular figure by the time he became king in 1820 and died (possibly not naturally) shortly after his coronation in 1821.

The garden at the centre of the square was bought by the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in 1901 and opened to the public as a park in 1907.

*Brunswick Park, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-66*

Finding the exact location of photographs I took 33 years ago is much easier when they include street names as this picture of houses on the corner of Brunswick Park does. Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the daughter of George III’s sister and had a surprising introduction to this country as she first landed at Greenwich at what was then the Royal Hospital for Seamen and asked “Are all Englishman missing an arm or a leg?“

The future George IV married her for her money and for the need to provide the country with an heir. She was “short, fat, ugly and never changed her undergarments, and rarely washed. Her body odour was overwhelming.” George had already made a secret and illegal marriage to the beautiful but Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert around ten years earlier, but as he had not had his father’s consent for this, the second marriage was not bigamous. Both George and Caroline got very drunk at their wedding and somehow despite their mutual repulsion a daughter and heir Princess Charlotte was born the following year.

The couple separated shortly after. George made a number of unsuccessful attempt to divorce her, including setting up a Royal Commission called the ‘Delicate Investigation’ which failed to find evidence of adultery, possibly because their heart wasn’t really in it, perhaps due to the overwhelming evidence against George.

Caroline left Britain in 1814 for Europe, shocking people in various countries by her behaviour (which included often appearing in public with her dress open to the waist, dancing topless in Geneva and becoming the mistress among others of Napoleon’s brother-in-law.)

When George became king in 1820 as they were still married she was automatically queen consort and decided to return to Britain. The government tried to bribe her, offering her £50,000 to stay away, but she came back and set up house in Hammersmith. She was very popular with the public (at a distance) many of whom were disgusted by her husband’s immoral behaviour, both towards her and with his various mistresses. A mob surrounded Parliament daily when the House of Lords tried for over 7 weeks to dissolve her marriage, eventually forcing them to abandon the attempt.

Uninvited, she tried to attend George IV’s coronation in 1821, but had the door of Westminster Abbey slammed in her face. She died 19 days later, convinced she had been poisoned. It seems more than likely this was so.

*St Giles Hospital, Flats, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-52*

St Giles Hospital was opened in 1875 as the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary and blocks were added here on St Giles Rd (then Brunswick Rd) around 1900. In 1913 it became the Camberwell Parish Infirmary and in 1930 it was taken over by the London County Council. On joining the NHS in 1948 it became St Giles’ Hospital. It closed in 1983 and the blocks here were converted into flats.

*St Giles Hospital, Flats, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-54*

Another picture from the four I made of the former hospital in St Giles Road on the east side of Brunswick Park. I walked down the road back to Peckham Road, where my walk will continue in a later post.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto.

St Giles, It’s Churchyard and Wilson’s School

*St Giles Camberwell, Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-42*

I didn’t spend a lot of time photographing old churches, not least because most had already been photographed ad nauseam as I found when opening boxes of photographs in the library of the National Building Record. Vicars back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had plenty of time on their hands and many became keen amateur photographers, and seem to have spent much of their energy in photographing their churches.

But I made a slight exception for St Giles, largely because it appeared in some rather odd views such as this. Although there had been a church here in the middle of fields in Anglo-Saxon times, its wooden structure later replaced by stone, it burnt down in 1841. The replacement was the first major Gothic building by George Gilbert Scott, who later went on to build the monstrosity of the Albert Memorial. The top part of the spire had to be rebuilt in 2000.

The picture was taken on the usually busy street here and I rather liked the billboard – perhaps an advert for a lager – showing another busy street with a lorry apparently stuck in traffic.

*Churchyard Passage, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-31*

Another image with a little flare from working into the sun, either just out of frame or hidden behind the tree trunks at the right of picture.

*Thos Bourne, gravestone, St Giles Churchyard, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-32*

Parts of the inscripton were difficult to read:

‘Ah Cruel Death could nothing move Thy Pity Awe thy Power
To Spare the Object of my Love of all my Hopes the Flower
Thos Bourne Defuncti Pater Poni Fecit
Thos Bourne (1656- 1729)

The inscription was at some point re-inscribed as the two lines most visible the above picture, having previously been as four, a few words of which can still be made out. The tomb has been restored since I photographed this stone.

*St Giles Churchyard, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-34*

Long shadows from the trees from the low winter sun, and some remarkably wiggly branches on the central tree in the picture. Without any leaves the picture illustrates why I generally prefer trees in winter but meant I was unable to decide on the species.

The building along Wilson Road in the background was built for Wilson’s School in 1882, architect E R Robson. This is an ancient grammar school founded on another site in Camberwell by Edward Wilson, Vicar of Camberwell, in 1615. They left the building in 1975 and moved to Wallington in Sutton to escape becoming a comprehensive school under the Inner London Education Authority and continue there as a boys’ grammar school. The buildings are now a part of the University of the Arts London.

*St Giles Churchyard, Churchyard Path, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-36*

Another view of the churchyard and Churchyard Path between the railings at the right, looking directly towards the sun. My position in the shadow of some of the bare trunks enabled me to greatly reduce the amount of light flare in the picture. The grass was I think covered with drops of water from frost which had recently melted, giving it a slightly unnatural pale tone.

*Camberwell College of Arts, Wilson Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-23*

After taking a couple more frames of the remarkable tree shown above I walked on to Wilson Road to photograph the Grade II listed Wilson School building and the west-facing terrace along the street beyond. Above the school doorway is the Wilson coat of arms, which includes a wolf salient – leaping up – and above it a Fleur de Lys and two gold coins.

Camberwell College of Arts, whose main buildings are on Peckham Road later became a part of the University of the Arts London.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.

Court, Wash-House, Baths and Camberwell Grove

The previous post on the walk I made on 27th January 1989 was Camberwell Green to Addington Square 1989

Brisbane St: Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-61 — *Brisbane St: Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-61*

I walked back down from Addington Square towards Camberwell GGreen stopping to photograph this view of the back of the Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, hiding the sun behing a large tree on the corner of the path and the road, though some of its bright winter light has caused some flare which I find rahter atmospherice.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-62 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-62*

Moving forwards and into some shade enabled me to eliminate any flare but still to take advantage of the light and shade to clearly show the three-dimensional nature of the building. Little has yet changed, though there may well be some differences as the building is redeveloped.

*Camberwell Public Wash-Houses, Harvey Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-63*

Camberwell Public Wash-Houses in Harvey Rd are at the back of the Camberwell Public Baths, an early public baths, designed by Henry Spalding and Alfred WS Cross and completed in 1891. Although much around them has changed they remain much the same and are now in use as part of Arco Academy, a sports specialist alternative provision school.

*Camberwell Public Baths, Artichoke Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-64*

I walked around the block down Kimpton Rd into Camberwell Church St and then went up the delightfully named Artichoke Place to photograph the front of the Camberwell Public Baths, designed by Henry Spalding and Alfred WS Cross in a Flemish Renaissance style and completed in 1891. Now called Camberwell Leisure Centre the Grade II listed baths were saved from closure by a local campaign, refurbished and reopened in 2011.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-65 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-65*

The lighting with low winter sun was very different to when I had photographed the Magistrates Court earlier in the day, so I decided to go back and take another picture from D’Eynsford Rd.

*7-11, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-52*

I walked back to Camberwell Church St and along it to Camberwell Grove where these well-proportioned nineteenth century houses were also in a good light. Something that particularly caught my eye was a blind window. It was not just the bricked up window often found in properties built before window tax was abolished, but had rudimentary columns and a keystone of a doorway. The recessed doors and window of the property to the right were also of interest. The street was originally called Walnut Tree Grove but the name was soon changed.

*Chamberlain Cottages, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-55*

Chamberlain Cottages off the east side of Camberwell Grove between Nos 15 and 17 is described by estate agents as peaceful gated mews and a beautifully kept enclave of enchanting period cottages.

Joseph Chamberlain (1796–1874) was a successful manufacturer who lived 188 Camberwell Grove. His son, also Joseph, was born there and at 18 moved to Birmingham to work at the screw factory owned by his father and uncle John Nettlefold, helping the business to become England’s most successful screw makers, producing two-thirds of those made in this country. Later he became one of the country’s best known politicians and a radical social reformer.

St Giles Camberwell is a little further to the east and can just be glimpsed over one of the cottages where the alley turns to the right. Another picture of it in the next post.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=14008 St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.

Camberwell Green to Addington Square 1989

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began with the previous post at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto where I ended at Camberwell Greeen.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-34 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-34*

Walking across Camberwell Green I came to the Magistrates Court, built from 1965 and opened in 1971. It was closed in 2019 and has been sold to Criterion Capital for £13.5m – they plan to turn it into around 160 1,2 and 3 bedroom flats “Ideal for young professionals who want to live as well as work in Central London” with leisure and coworking space on the ground floor. So far it still looks fairly similar from the outside although the ground floor has been boarded up and the boards covered with graffiti.

But in front of it on what was previously a community orchard on council land, a new Camberwell Library was opened in November 2015. There had been considerable local opposition to the destruction of the orchard in 2013, but Camberwell had not had a permanent library since a V1 flying bomdb destroyed the Victorian Camberwell Central Library on Peckham Road in 1944.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-35 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-35*

In front of the Magistrate’s Court is this large ventilation tower, presumably for the two floors of underground parking below, though there may well be other underground facilities.

*Camberwell Business Centre, Lomond Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-36*

This Grade II listed early 19th century industrial building was, according to English Heritage a former Perfume Factory, though other sources suggest it was a former bakery. Quite likely both are correct. Jusst a few yards north from the Magistrates Court and is now a business centre with offices and light industry.

Beyond it is the also Grade II listed Bryanston House, an early 19th century large residence in the area, also now I think offices. Together the two buildings are Camberwell Business Centre.

*Flats, Drayton House, Lomond Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-21*

Drayton House, a maisonette block at 30-72 Lomond Grove was the last part of the Elmington Estate when it was built around 1960 and was around the last to be demolished in 2016-7, replaced by ‘Elmington Green’ development of largely market price flats in 2018.

The redevelopment of the estate began in 2002, and under this first phase almost 90% of those displaced from the estate were rehoused in the new flats, though many complained that the new buildings had smaller rooms and thinner walls that gave them little privacy. But in the next phase, “redevelopment became’regeneration'” and Southwark Council began a policy of social cleansing, with only a relatively small proportion of social housing in the new buildings. Things became even worse later, as Southwark Notes detail on their web site.

*Faces, Doorway, Kitson Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-23*

Faces, ferns, foliage on the capitals and worms – vermiculation – on the keyston of these doorways in Kitson Road, an attractive street parts of which face the south-west tip of Burgess Park, was described by Booth’s associates ten years after his orginal 1889 survey of London poverty in 1899 as “good working class”. These houses possibly date from around the 1880s.

*Houses, Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-26*

I wrote more about Addington Square in a post about my previous walk. Almost all the houses in this square developed between 1810 and 1850 are Grade II listed. These houses are at the north-west of the square and the road going off between the houses here is also called Addington Square.

Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-12

This view across the grassed area in the centre of the square shows the same houses in the distance with a few more at the right of picture. The fine trees are still growing.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began with part of St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.