Camberwell | >Re-PHOTO

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 George’s Tavern and North Peckham 1989

More pictures from my walk on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk is Houses, British Lion & Elmington Estate.

*Wells Way, Coleman Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-31*

From Camberwell Road I hurried along Bowyer Place and New Church Road to take my next pictures along Southampton Way, going past The Brewers pub (since closed and converted to residential use) and then down Parkhouse Street and on to Wells Way. None of the nine pictures I made on this section of the walk seemed worth putting on-line, perhaps I was hurrying too much.

The view in this photograph has not changed radically, with the row of houses along Wells Way at right still much the same. You can still see the St George’s Tavern some way down Coleman St on the corner of Rainbow St, though it has lost the signage on the wall. It has apparently been there since at least 1851, though it was closed and boarded up, but re-opened in April 2021. But the estate towering above the end of the road is no longer there.

*1JKC and St Georges Tavern, Coleman Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-32*

I didn’t expect to see a Bentley with a personalised number plate on the street close to the ‘friendly neighbourhood pub’. I wondered who might own it, and there were certainly some very dubious characters in the area at the time. The registration plate 1KJC would have been expensive to buy – and now probably well into five figures if available, a serious vanity symbol.

The pub at that time was still owned by Taylor Walker whose Barley Mow Brewery in Limehouse and 1,360 pubs and off-licences and were bought by Ind Coope in 1959 – and brewing ceased the following year. The name was revived and used by another pub owning company for its London pubs from 2010 but then they were taken over by Greene King in 2015 and again re-branded.

*Houses, Newent Close, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-35*

6-22 Newent Close, Peckham, were Grade II listed in 1972 as in Peckham Grove, Peckham. The nine linked villas date from 1838. This is a remarkable Regency (or rather immediately post-Regency as Victoria came to the throne in 1837) enclave in the area. These houses are on the west side of the street.

*Houses, Newent Close, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-36*

The other end of this short row of houses with the blocks of the North Peckham Estate at the right. These houses were clearly rather run-down when I photographed them.

*Houses, Newent Close, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-22*

The houses on the east side of the street have these weighty porches. At right is a part of the Gloucester Grove Estate, one of the five estates often known collectively as the North Peckham Estate. Although this gained a terrible reputation, many former residents have fond memories of living there and the quality of their accomodation.

*Houses, Newent Close, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-24*

Another view of houses on the east side of Newent Close. The long block at right is I think part of the actual North Peckham Estate, completed around 1972. The five estates were all part of the largest regeneration scheme ever approved in 1994, and were demolished at a cost of £260m over the next ten years or so.

*Houses, Newent Close, Peckham Grove, Camberwell, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-26*

Another view of this remarkable street with the Gloucester Grove Estate in the background at left. I did take one picture of Nailsworth House on the North Peckham estate but haven’t digitised that.

*Cottage Green, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-16*

Eventually I managed to drag myself away and stop taking pictures of the remarkable short section of street at the top of Peckham Grove – now surrounded by rather mediocre looking properties from the regeneration of the North Peckham estates. I walked back towards Wells Way and down to Cottage Green – where the next post on this walk will begin.

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

Houses, British Lion & Elmington Estate

This post continues my walk in Camberwell on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk from January 1989 is St Giles, It’s Churchyard and Wilson’s School.

*Houses, Benhill Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-11*

Benhill Road runs north from Camberwell Church St opposite St Gile’s Church and includes the site of the former vicarage and St Gile’s Parish Hall. These houses are I think mid-Victorian and I admired the slender decorative pillars at the doorways.

Opposite the Parish Hall just inside the property is a small building with a blue plaque which I photographed but have not put online as the lighting was rather poor. It now has a London Borough of Southwark blue plaque with the totally misleading message ‘The Parish Church of St Giles Porch and Doorway Relocated to its current site in the vicarage garden where it was used as a summer house after the church was accidentally burnt down on 7th February 1841.’

While the church was burnt down in 1841 this was never its porch and doorway, though it was largely built with material from the burnt out church and was probably not used as a summer house – and more recently has been used for rubbish bin storage. An article in the Camberley Quarterly by Donald Mason, Old St Giles: blue plaques and history, reveals its true nature and has some excellent illustrations.

*British Lion, pub sign, Elmington Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-12*

On the corner of Benhill Road and Elmington Road I photographed a bicycle and the British Lion pub sign. The pub itself at 112 Benhill Road was a rather boring 1960s building rebuilt at around the same time as the flats around it. But there had been a pub on the site since at least 1871, The Prince Of Prussia, a name that probably became rather unpopular in the First World War.

*Edmund St, Elmington Estate, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-14*

I think the’ London County Council’ built the first flats on the Elmington Estate shortly before WW2, but there were four of these large blocks desgned by the LCC Architects department and built around 1956. The winter sun produced a rather elegant repeated pattern of light and shade on the frontage.

I think this large eleven floor slab block and its neighbours on the Elmington Estate, dating from around 1960 were demolished in 1999-2000. The flats passed to Southwark Council, formed in 1965 who lacked the cash to maintain them properly and they were in poor condition by the time I photographed them, and many flats were squatted in the 1990s.

*Edmund St, Elmington Estate, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-01*

In 1999 Southwark Council decided to demolish the whole of the Elmington Estate and these blocks were a part of the first phase of the redevelopment. Southwark Notes gives a great deal of detail about how this progressed.

In the first phase, most of those who lived in the flats were rehoused in council housing built on the site, but not all were too happy with their new homes. The article quotes one: ‘You will never know what privacy is like again. You will hear your neighbours and everything they do. And they will hear you. Your rooms will be smaller. You’ll be paying more for it. One day you’ll wake up and realise that you’d give anything to be back in your old home’.

The council for Phase 2 adopted “a whole new regeneration model premised on partnership with either corporate developers” or housing associations. Their partner here was the large and aggressive Housing Association Notting Hill Housing Trust who would offer zero social rented homes in the scheme (social rent being the equivalent rent of a council home). Some flats were available at so-called “affordable” rents, roughly twice those of council properties in the area, and unaffordable for most previous tenants. It was a process of ‘social cleansing’, forcing most of the poorer residents out of the area.

*Bradbury, Solicitors, 119, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-52*

I walked throught the Elmington Estate and on through Burgess Park to Camberwell Road, turning south where a few doors down on the east side I photographed the railings and doorways of 119 and 121. Numbers 117-129 and attached railings are Grade II listed.

From 1863 to 1887 photographer and portrait painter Henry Death (1820-1900), born in Moulton, Cambridgeshire, had his studio at 119 Camberwell Road, having moved there from nearby Addington Place where he set up a studio in 1856. He sold the house when he had to give up his business through ill health in 1887 and died in Camberwell thirteen years later. In !989 it was the offices of Bradleys Solicitors.

No 121 was the premises of the charity IAS, Independent Adoption Service, first registered in 1982 and voluntarily removed in 2009. I think both properties are now private residences.

*147, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-53*

No 147 Camberwell Road is a part of a terrace of around ten houses directly south of Cambridge House on the corner of Addington Square. These house look in rather better condition now and the tree here was removed a couple of years ago. Most of these houses are now divided into flats.

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.

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.

St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto

This post completes my walk on 8th January 1989 which began in at he Elephant and took me through Walworth to end in neighbouring Camberwell – the first post on this walk was Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road.

It was almost two weeks before I was able to come out and take pictures again and my next walk began at Camberwell on Friday 27th January 1989. I’d been teaching all morning but had managed to arrange my college timetable so I was free from around noon and could rush out to catch a train into London. In return for this I was teaching an evening class on Tuesdays.

St George's Church, Wells Way, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-56 — *St George’s Church, Wells Way, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-56*

One of the ‘Waterloo’ churches, built 1824, architect Francis Octavius Bedford with seating for 1,734, enlarged in 1893 with an apse by Basil Champneys. Bedford, a distinguished church architect was the father of the notable photographer Francis Bedford (the two are sometimes confused.) It was Grade II listed in 1954 but in1972 was declared redundant, closed for worship and was deconsecrated.

A new St George’s Church was built as a part of the Trinity College Centre, a community centre in nearby Coleman Road which was dedicated in 1982. The old church was sold in very poor condition to the Celestial Church of Christ in 1977 and was broken into and vandalised on several occasions, before large parts were destroyed by fire in 1980 leaving an empty shell behind its fine portico. In 1993-4 the church was restored by St George’s Housing Co-operative as 30 one-bed flats.

Christ, Arild Rosenkrantz, St George's Church, Wells Way, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-41 — *Christ, Arild Rosenkrantz, St George’s Church, Wells Way, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-41*

This war memorial statue by Danish artist Rosenkrantz was stolen in August 1991, but after a newspaper appeal by a local curate was discovered in a Brixton scrapyard two weeks later and returned to the site.

*Camberwell Rd, Bullace Row, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-43*

This block at 305-315 Camberwell Rd on the corner of Bullace Row looks very similar now except in better condition, though possibly significantly different behind the facade. Even some of the old shop fronts have survived though not with the same businesses. Bullace Row was at some time before 1912 known as Little Orchard Row, and almost certainly the name comes from the Bullace plum, similar to a damson. The shops with flats above are I think late-Victorian.

My walk on 8th January ended here on Camberwell Road from where I caught a bus to Waterloo.

*Camberwell Green, Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-44*

I jumped on my bike shortly after my morning’s teaching ended on Friday 27th January, pedalled the two miles home as fast as I could, dropped my bike, grabbed my camera bag and rushed to the station for a train to Vauxhall, where thanks to a 36 bus was in Camberwell by around 1.30pm. Days in January are short but I still had a couple of hours to take pictures before the light went. I got down to business straight away with this picture taken more or less from the bus stop, look east along Church Street.

*Gate, Camberwell New Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-45*

I walked west, cross the junction with Camberwell Road and into Camberwell New Road along which my bus had come. This gate, with its wrought iron work matching the spirals at the top of both gate posts is still there immediately to the west of The Old Dispensary, the pub almost at the end of this road at Camberwell Green. The rather attractive building with the curved side is still present, as well as the pair of gate posts, only one of which is in my picture.

*Absolutely Board Ltd, Timber Merchant, Camberwell New Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-46*

The timber merchant with the signs that caught my attention, particularly the bored looking man sitting on a branch next to a bird’s nest and projecting out from the building has gone long ago.

*Absolutely Board Ltd, Timber Merchant, Camberwell New Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-31*

This business at 348A Camberwell New Road (street numbers here seem a little random) was replaced by a modern infill which for some years was the home of Southwark Reach. The property immediately to its west, a Tripe Dresser has the number 344 on the shopfront and has since had various identities including a property business and Merric Barbers, but now appears to be selling bikes ans scooters.

Alberto, Ladies & Gents Hair Stylist, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-32 — Alberto, Ladies & Gents Hair Stylist, Camberwell Green, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-32

I decided to leave Camberwell New Road for later and returned to the crossroads, going north up Camberwell Road, (here called Camberwell Green), where Alberto is still offering Gents and Ladies Hairdressing just few yards up the road at 14 Camberwell Green. The hairdressers is now only in the right hand part of the shop, with a money transfer business in the left part. There is still a single-storey small café next door, though now under a different name. At the left you can see the rather odd lighthouse of the The Old Dispensary public house. The sign on the front of the building above the hairdresser’s shop has gone and that on its side is now illegible.

Clubland, Electrical Supplies & Addington Square

This continues my posts on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The previous post was Walworth Road, Harker’s Studios & John Ruskin.

From John Ruskin Street I walked back to Camberwell Road and turned south to walk the short distance to the next turning on the west side, Grosvenor Terrace

*Clubland, Grosvenor Terrace, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-13*

Clubland, designed by Sir Edward Maufe was opened in 1939 as “the most celebrated and controversial venture in church youth work of the 20th Century“, launched by the Reverend James Butterworth (1897-1977) as ‘a house for friendship for boys and girls outside any church’. The old Wesleyan Methodist Church on the site whose small congregation mainly drove in from the suburbs was pulled down and replaced by this ‘Temple of Youth’. After bombing in the war, the building was rebuilt and reopened by the Queen Mother in 1964. It now has the message ‘METHODIST CHURCH’ above the door as well as the CLUBLAND’ sign.

*Walworth Methodist Church, Camberwell Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-14*

Although the Clubland entrance remains the same, there is now a new Methodist Church here and this part of with its mission statement ‘CLUBLAND – LOYALTY & SERVICE’ as well as the dove dive-bombing the illuminated METHODIST CHURCH sign have gone. The boards showing the activities offered by the church include the Freddie Mills Club and Wesley Guild as well as services and youth club meetings. Both the sign in Japanese and the Bethel Apostolic Church and Calvary Healing Temple reflect the multicultural nature of the area.

*Camberwell Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-15*

These well-proportioned large Georgian terrace houses are still there on Camberwell Rd, most now divided into a large number of flats. The terrace of 15 houses is on the west side of the road south of Urlwin St opposite the end of Burgess Park. Most are now residential and one has been restored with the ground and basement floors and “a new rear extension to become an enterprise workspace for architecture and planning”.

*Range Electrical Supplies, Camberwell Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-16*

This large property at 86 Camberwell Road is now at least 19 flats. According to the Survey of London, “No. 86 Camberwell Road and the buildings forming the entrance to the yard next to it were erected in 1814–15 (as No. 16 Grosvenor Place) for Messrs. Garland and Fieldwick, masons and builders. The firm continued to occupy the premises until 1869.” A plate shows a 1951 photograph when the buildings were occupied by a number of businesses, including one with ‘Branches Over South London ‘ selling ‘Gold Medal Poultry, Dog, Pigeon & Bird Food’ with the decorated building selling what appears to be ‘Feather Flake Flour’.

*Range Electrical Supplies, Camberwell Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-66*

Although these finely decorated buildings are still there on the Camberwell Rd they have been smartened up and altered. The carriage entrance in the central section has disappeared and the smaller window above it replaced and this section of the building made symmetrical. There are also now two windows in the right hand section making this also symmetrical; both windows are new, but a reasonable match with the previous window. A discretely set back floor has been added on the right two-thirds of the building. There is no longer the large sign on the left wall of the front yard of the property which rather attracted me – and the wall has been replaced by a fence. It’s a decent conversion but I preferred the rather more quirky version in my pictures.

*Fowlds & Sons, Manufacturing Upholsterers, Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-51*

Since 2014 the ground floor of 3 Addington Square has been Fowlds Cafe, on the corner of Addington Square and Kitson Road but the upholstery business, a family business since 1926, apparently continues upstairs.

*Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-53*

The rather curiously shaped Addington Square was developed between 1810 and 1850, and I think this at 13-16 was probably one of the fairly early groups of houses. The railings in front were only added around 1960 but are also included in the Grade II listing. Possibly they were a replacement for some removed for wartime metal appeal. I think all the houses in the central part of the square are listed.

*Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-54*

At the north side of the square was the Camberwell Basin of the Royal Surrey Canal, completed in 1810, and the first houses to be built in the square, now 47 and 48, were for its engineer Nathaniel Simmonds. In 1820 one of south London’s first swimming baths opened beside the canal and a second came later. There were ambitious plans for the canal to continue, at first to Mitcham and further afield, but it never crossed the Camberwell Road. There were wharves for stone on the canal bank, with a small dock.

At the right of the picture where the baths and canal once were is now park. The baths had become very much out of date towards the end of the nineteenth century and had been converted into a laundry, but were demolished by Camberwell Council in 1901 for the site to become a refuse depot. In 1938 this became one of many parks created across the country as a memorial to King George V, and in the 1970s became a part of the Burgess Park. The square was in such a dilapidated state in 1970 that it needed a public campaign to stop the GLC demolishing it to become part of the new park that now surrounds it.

To be continued. The first post on this walk was Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road.

South of the River

Cafe, Norwood Rd, Herne Hill, 1991 TQ3274-001 — Café, Norwood Rd, Herne Hill, 1991

I think I only took my first pictures on colour negative film in 1985. When I began in photography at the start of the 1970s it was quite clear that colour neg was just for amateur snaps and social photography, but real photographers – if they stooped to colour – did it on transparency film.

Cafe, Loughborough Junction, 1989, TQ3275-001 — Café, Loughborough Junction, 1989

Most publications – books, magazines, newspapers etc – . still used only – or mainly – black and white, and when colour was used it was almost invariably from colour transparency. Images taken on colour neg were only used at a last resort, and usually then duped onto transparency for repro, or occasionally printed onto black and white paper to be used. You could get special panchromatic black and white paper which gave some chance of normal tonality, but it was a pain to use as normal darkroom safelights fogged it, and often normal black and white paper was used despite the often very poor tonality it gave.

Shops, Flaxman Rd, Loughborough Junction, 1987 TQ3276-002 — Shops, Flaxman Rd, Loughborough Junction, 1987

Though colour transparency was great for repro, making prints from it had its limitations – as did using transparency film. I found myself too often having images with empty black shadow areas or unusably blown highlights as it the film had a limited exposure range. You could get great punchy saturated colour prints, fine for advertising (which was never my scene) but it was difficult to achieve subtlety. Fed up with telling printers what I wanted and being told it wasn’t possible I began making my own prints, working at times with complicated unsharp masking for Cibachromes. My German project I deliberately printed on outdated Agfa direct reversal paper.

Shops, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, 1989 TQ3276-004 — Shops, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, 1989

In the 1980s, Fuji shook up colour negative (and, to a lesser extent transparency film), producing new film and print materials that gave greater fidelity, longer print life and greater flexibility in the darkroom. Seeing the prints that other photographers were making (and the fact I wasn’t actually selling my slides professionally) was a conversion experience. Since then I don’t think I’ve ever taken pictures on slide film.

Hairdresser, Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, 1989, TQ3276-007 — Gee P. Johnson, The People’s Salon, Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, 1989,

At the same time I was beginning a major black and white project to photograph the fabric of London, and saw my colour work as separate to that, but dependent on it. I don’t think I ever went out to visit a place or area to take colour pictures, but simply did so when opportunities arose as I visited various areas.

I didn’t have a particular interest in cafes or hairdressers, but saw these and other shops and offices as example of small businesses with relatively low start-up costs which reflected both the aesthetic of their owners and of the people of the area which they served. Gee P Johnson’s unisex ‘The People’s Salon’ for me expressed that sense well.

TQ3276-013 — Daneville Rd, Camberwell, 1989, Southwark,

Filing selected trade prints in albums according to their grid references was a way to explore the differences between different areas across London – and I chose to do so in these 1km wide south-north strips. It was also a kind of cataloguing system for my work, though not always as well documented on the prints it should have been.

Garage, Camberwell Station Rd, Camberwell, 1989 TQ3276-017 — Garage, Camberwell Station Rd, Camberwell,

These examples come from the first thirty or so images in my Flickr album TQ32 London Cross-section, which contains a little over 300 pictures. I’ll perhaps look again at some more shortly.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.