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Sudbury to Brentford – 31st December 2016

Six years ago on New Year’s Eve we walked with a couple of family members from Sudbury to Brentford. This year because of rail and health problems none of our family are staying with us and “South Western Railway services between 18 December and 8 January are subject to change and may not operate”, so if the weather is fine we will probably do a rather shorter walk from home.

The trip in 2016 to Sudbury Hill station was reasonably fast; a short train journey then a bus and a couple of short hops on the Piccadilly line got us there in a little under an hour and a half, and within a few minutes we were walking along suburban streets to Horsenden Wood, where we walked to the top of the hill.

Unfortunately it was a dull and damp day, and we could only see the extensive views this part of the walk would have given us had the air been clear dully through the murk, but the path up through the wood was enhanced by the slight mist. We walked down the hill to cross the Grand Union Canal.

Soon we reached the highpoint of the walk for some of us, the 1930s trading estate leading to the Art Deco Tesco on Western Avenue, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners and built in 1933 for Hoover, along with the 1930s moderne canteen, now an Asian restaurant. We chose the Tesco both for a tiny bit of shopping and the toilets, then walked west to the footbridge to cross the busy road.

Almost immediately on the path the other side of Western Avenue we came to St Mary the Virgin Perivale, now used for concerts, with just an occasional service.

This Grade I listed redundant church dates in part from the 13th century and was the smallest church in Middlesex (outside London.) We explored its graveyard and sat down on a rather damp seat there to eat our sandwiches in what was either heavy drizzle or light rain.

The next section of the walk took us beside the River Brent, another of London’s minor rivers and like the rest of our walk going to Brentford, though we had to make some deviations to follow roads and footpaths. This was a relatively quiet and sometimes boring section of the walk, though its always good to walk beside the river, and there was a rather dumpy viaduct for a doomed railway, a council estate and a long foot path to a Cuckoo Lane where no cuckoos were to be heard except for our ludicrous imitations.

Things got more interesting again when we reached Hanworth Church, and early work of George Gilbert Scott who later called it ‘a mass of horrors’ and Brent Lodge Park, where I ignored the pleas of some of my cfo-walkers and led us firmly away from a tea-room – we were already and hour or so behind schedule if we were to finish the walk during daylight.

Brunel really knew how to build a viaduct, and here was the first major engineering work on the new Great Western Railway in 1836-7, with 8 semi-elliptical arches each of 70 ft span and rising 19 ft supported on hollow brick piers – the first time these were used in a railway viaduct. 886 ft long, the height to the parapet is 81 ft, and when built it was 30 ft wide to carry two broad gauge lines. Later it was widened to 55ft with a third pier added to each existing pair, and it could then take four standard gauge tracks, which were laid in 1892. We walked under this impressive structure beside the River Brent to the south side which is the earlier part and carries the arms of Lord Wharncliffe, chair of the committee that gave permission for the GWR.

We continued by the Brent to join the Grand Union Canal, another earlier great engineering acheivement along with the rest of the canal system, at the Hanwell flight of locks. Our route now ran along the towpath, so navigation was simple, all the way to the Great West Road.

There was still just enough light to take a few photographs, but my companions were flagging and our walk was getting slower and slower.

By the time we reached the road for the short walk to Brentford Station it was truly dark and they had slowed to a snails pace, and despite my urging them to catch the next train we arrived there to see it just departing, for once dead on time, though we were an hour and a minute later then planned. It had been a good walk but would have been better without the 29 minutes wait there for the next train.

You can see many more pictures from the walk on My London Diary at New Years Eve Walk.

On the Buses & Consent

I was reminded the other day by a long thread on a private Facebook group about the controversy over taking photographs of people in public without their consent. It’s something that had a significant effect on my own practice in the 1980s before I finally came to a conclusion.

Back in 1938 and 1941, Walker Evans spent a great deal of time making a photographic study of people on the New York subway – their equivalent of London’s Underground system. He used a 35mm camera, a Contax, hidden under his overcoat with just the lens poking out and a cable release running down his sleeve to his hand to remain unnoticed by those he was photographing on seats opposite.

You can see some of the pictures he took on a page on ASX. The group at the top of the page there shows that he at least sometimes made multiple images of the same person, so he must have put a hand inside his coat to wind on between each picture. The Contax had a wind-on knob which takes a noticeable pressure to turn and its hard to see how he managed this without being obvious, but I suppose people were then completely unaware of the possibility of being photographed in this environment, and few would have identified the glass fronted object between Evan’s coat buttons as a camera lens.

Evans worked in this way to produce portraits that were entirely natural that would only rely on the individuality of the people he sat facing, a kind of raw photography where the only control he retained was over when to press the release.

Although Evans showed the pictures to friends – and got his collaborator the writer James Agee to write an introduction to them – which included the words ‘Each, also, is an individual existence, as matchless as a thumbprint or a snowflake‘ in 1940, he had reservations about publishing them about the invasion of privacy that was involved. It was only in 1966, over 25 years after they were taken, that he finally felt able to publish them in the book ‘ Many Are Called‘.

It’s clear in UK law that people have no copyright on their faces, they are not intellectual property, and that here we can generally take pictures in public of whatever we like – subject to a few specific restrictions and laws such as those governing decency and preventing stalking. But it isn’t always clear what spaces are public and which are private, and at least in theory bylaws may prohibit photography even in some that seem clearly public, including Trafalgar Square and many recent developments.

UK law makes a distinction between being in public and being where we have “a reasonable expectation of privacy“, and I think this is a very useful guide. On the open street – or on the subway or Underground – there is no such expectation, though there are still certain rules of behaviour we should observe, whether or not we are taking photographs. Generally we should not be rude or obtrusive, threatening or interfering unless there is very good reason to be so.

Apart from this, if we take and publish photographs – with or without consent – I think we have a responsibility towards those we photograph not to misrepresent them or treat them in a derogatory manner. That doesn’t mean always making ‘nice’ photographs, and if people are behaving badly there is nothing wrong with pictures that make that clear.

So, do I ask for consent when taking pictures? Occasionally but only very occasionally. Generally it seems less of an intrusion not to do so. Most of the pictures I take are of people involved in events where there is at least an implied permission and often an actual desire to be photographed. If you are taking part in a protest you are making a public statement and wish that to be recorded and publicised – and should there be some particular reason for your face not to appear, then you can always wear a mask – something Covid has made even more acceptable.

So when do I ask, either verbally or by gesture? Mainly when I want to invade someone’s personal space, going in close for an image, just very occasionally when I want them to do something. I never actually pose people but occasionally may ask them to face in a particular direction or hold a placard higher – or turn it the correct way up.

I had to sort out my views on consent clearly around 1990, when I took part in a project on transport in London which was exhibited at the Museum of London. I had two sets of pictures in the show, one of which showed the building of the DLR extension to B which involved no such problems, though perhaps a little trespassing to get the viewpoints I wanted.

But for a second set I decided to photograph people on buses, which very much did. There seemed to be no way I could make any kind of pictures I wanted by always asking for permission. I decided to make pictures, not quite like Walker Evans, but without seeking consent, sometimes holding the camera away from my eye when taking pictures, partly to get a more interesting viewpoint. A few people did see me taking pictures but only one objected – the man wearing a snake.

It’s perhaps time now, over 30 years after taking these pictures that I made a book of them.

A Market, Chapel & More Houses – Peckham

The previous (and first) post on this walk was Aged Pilgrims, Sceaux, Houses & Lettsom.

*House, Lyndhurst Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-25*

At the end of Lyndhurst Grove I came to Lyndhurst Way and had to make the choice of whether to turn left or right along it. Both ways looked interesting but I chose left and found a short terrace or four rather unusual houses at 13-19, two of which had the decoration on the window bays. There are also differences in the treatment of the doorway and windows of these two houses, which are the only ones of the four with entrances leading down to the pavement – those at the end of the block have their doors at the sides.

I continued to Lyndhurst Square then turned back, walking down Lyndhurst Way to Holly Grove, taking a few pictures on the way, none of which are online.

*House, Holly Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2e-55*

Holly Grove was developed by George Choumert (1746-1831), a Frenchman who married Lydia Fendall from a wealthy family of tanners in Bermondsey. He had a number of houses built in what was then George Lane around 1815-20. This picture shows No 14 and 15 – the houses are numbered consequently as there are no houses on the north side of the road which is Holly Grove Shrubbery, ‘a Victorian shrubbery with a serpentine boundary with a footpath winding through it’ between Holly Grove (then South Grove) and Elm Grove. All the houses from 5-24, 32 and 33 are Grade II listed.

*Indoor Market, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2e-56*

Peckham Indoor Market was built around 1938 or shortly after as Rye Lane Bargain Centre with an imposing frontage for a narrow arcade leading back to a large covered market. It’s a style that rather makes it look like a cinema. Across the top is the message ‘Come Rain Or Shine It’s Always Fine at Peckham Indoor Market’.

In the early 2000s the market at the back was reduced in size with part now redeveloped as flats but the front section remains and is now Rye Lane Market, housing over 50 small shop units.

*Rye Lane Chapel, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2e-41*

You can read a detailed history of the chapel up to 1927 on the web. The first Baptist worship in the area was begun around 1817 when Mr Spencer, a deacon from Blackfriars Baptist church moved into what is now Peckham Hill St, a more rural location, for the sake of his health and began services in his home. Soon the congregation got too large for this and they bought a plot of land on Rye Lane and built a large and expensive chapel on the corner of Blenheim Grove and Rye Lane which opened in 1819.

Unfortunately when the railway came the chapel was exactly where it ran and the railway company were to build their station. So the chapel had to go, and a new chapel was built on the opposite side of the road a short distance to the north in 1863. That one was built on a firm concrete foundation and is still standing and still in use, having been restored after wartime bomb damage.

*Houses, Elm Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2e-43*

I turned back west from Rye Lane along Elm Grove, which contains a number of houses of interest, including half a dozen that are Grade II listed but it was this group that prompted me to take a photograph.

Elm Grove was developed around 1830 although from the maps it appears much was added later in the century, and these probably date from the middle of the century. In the Holly Grove Conservation Area document the photograph from Elm Grove of these houses comes with the description “a row of pale brick houses (No. 48-54) built with prominently projecting square bays and distinctive Gothic features on the upper storey, particularly the window glazing patterns and parapet detailing.” There is more about them and other houses in Elm Grove later in the document

This walk will continue in a later post.

Vestry Road, Camberwell to Lyndhurst Grove, Peckham

The previous and first post on this walk was Aged Pilgrims, Sceaux, Houses & Lettsom.

*Vestry Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-53*

Vestries such as that in the parish of Camberwell St Giles were the bodies that provided municipal services before local government was organised into boroughs – and in this area the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell took over their duties in 1900. In the 1820s and 1830s the Vestry here was responsible for the closing down of Camberwell Fair, as a part of “widespread campaign in the early 19th Century, to impose social and moral control over the growing working classes“.

Perhaps Vestry Road got its name as the vestry bought the land and began the development there. The road is not present on Cary’s New Plan of London in 1837, but was present with these houses shown on the Ordnance Survey‘s map surveyed in 1869 to 1871, when the road ended a little past Grace’s Road. These houses were probably quite new then. The road was extended further south by thhe mid 1890s.

*The Maisonettes, Vestry Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-55*

The Maisonettes at the north end of Vestry Road face Lucas Gardens. They were built in 1907.

Immediately to the north of these maisonettes is the Camberwell Bunker Garden, on top of the now disused Southwark Borough Control Bunker, a cold-war control centre built underneath a now demolished health centre on the corner of Peckham Road and Vestry Road.

*Houses, Vestry Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-56*

This long terrace of mid-19th century working class homes at 2-24 is probably the earliest development on Vestry Road.

*Trees, Lucas Gardens, Vestry Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-42*

Around 1790 a terrace of 12 Georgian houses was built on the south of Peckham Road called East Terrace, and in the 1880s these became an extension to the Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum which had opened on the opposite side of Peckham Road in 1846. It was one of the largest asylums in London, with only that at Bow being larger.

The asylum remained private when the NHS was formed and closed in 1955. It had extensive gardens for its patients to roam, and those on the north side provided a site for the Sceaux Gardens estate while on the south they formed this public park, Lucas Gardens.

*House, Crofton Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-34*

I walked down Vestry Road to Lyndhurst Grove and then east along this to Crofton Road. There are a very large number of similar houses in this area and I cannot decide exactly where I made this picture. These houses are I think late Victorian.

House, Talfourd Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-36 — *House, Talfourd Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-36*

Charles Booth described Talfourd Road as ‘good middle-class‘ and it has a varied selection of houses. Some of these were already present on the 1860 map. Wikipedia lists two notable Talfourds:
“Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854), English judge, politician, and writer” and “Francis Talfourd (1828–1862), English lawyer and dramatist, son of Thomas”. Neither seems to have any obvious connection with Peckham, but the street seems to have been named after the judge.

Although my contact sheet labels this as Talfourd Road and it is certainly somewhere close I cannot find the exact location of this property.

House, Lyndhurst Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-24 — *Houses, *Lyndhurst Grove, Peckham,*, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-24*

96 and 98 Lyndhurst Grove are rather easier to find, roughly opposite the end of Denman Road. According – as usual – to Wikipedia, John Copley, born in 1772 in Boston became 1st Baron Lyndhurst and “was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain” and “Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, PC was an English lawyer, judge and politician” and Lord Chief Justice between 1832 and 1850. This is a thoroughly legal area.

Aged Pilgrims, Sceaux, Houses & Lettsom

I began another walk from Camberwell on Sunday 12th February 1989, starting from a bus stop on Camberwell Road I made my way east towards Sedgemoor Place.

Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims' Friendly Society's Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-23 — *Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society’s Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-23*

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society was established in 1807 by a group of Christians concerned about “the aged and infirm Christian poor”. William Wilberforce, best known as an anti-slavery campaigner, was its Vice-President in the early years. At first it provided life pensions to Protestants over 60 whose income was less than 5s (25p) a year and by 1825 had supported over 800 pensioners with pensions of five or ten guineas a year.

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society were given a site in Camberwell by William Peacock Esq and raised the money to build their first almshouses there, opening in 1837 to house 42 pensioners. The Tudor-style building is Grade II listed. It was sold by the Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society who by then had added an ‘ly’ to there name in 1991 and is now flats.

Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims' Friendly Society's Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-24 — *Almshouses, Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society’s Home, Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-24*

The Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society were given a site in Camberwell by William Peacock Esq whose donation is recorded above the doorway and raised the money to build their first almshouses there, opening in 1837 to house 42 pensioners. The Tudor-style building is Grade II listed. It was sold by the Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society in 1991 and is now flats.

St Giles' Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-26 — *St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-26*

The picture shows the demolition of former workhouse and the start of the conversion to flats of the Grade II listed circular ward tower fronting onto Havil Street. This was built in 1889-90 for the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary, later St Giles’s Hospital, architect W S Cross. Each fllor contained 24 beds radiating around a central shaft, in which heating and ventilation services were located. I had photographed this building on a walk a few weeks earlier and had gone back to see if work was progressing and I could get a better view.

*Statue, sculpture, Sceaux Gardens Estate, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-12*

Plans for the Sceaux Gardens estate in the mature grounds of the former Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum were approved in 1957 and included two 15 storey tower blocks, Lakanal House and Marie Curie House. The estate was named after Sceaux near Paris which Camberwell had twinned with in 1954. I’ve visited Sceaux a few times and it has a rather better palace and park where festivals are held.

The Lakanal fire in 2009 killed 6 and injured at least 20 more; the recommendations from the enquiry were not implemented but would have prevented the later even more disastrous fire at Grenfell Tower. I think this block is probably Lakanal, but can find no details about the statue – and it certainly isn’t Lakanal.

Joseph Lakanal (1762 – 1845) was a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France and one of the leading administrators of the French Revolution and responsible for educational reforms. He spent some time in the USA and helped to found and became President of what later became Tulane University before returning to France.

*Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-63*

I walked back west along Peckham Road to Camberwell Church St, pausing to take a couple of pictures not online and then this view of houses and a shop on the south side of the street, possibly at 70-72.

*Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-65*

I was on my way to Camberwell Grove to make photographs in the northern part of the street which I had not visited on my earlier walks. Just a few yards down the street I turned around and took this view looking up towards Camberwell Church St. At left is the path to Chamberlain Cottages mentioned in an earlier walk.

*Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-66*

A little further down I found this terrace with two porches on houses in the centre. Like most of the buildings along this part of the street this is Grade II listed, described as ‘Early C19 with some later C19 alterations’.

*Flats, McNeil Rd, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2d-52*

The flats at left are 125-151 Camberwell Grove and you can see the spire of St Giles Camberwell in the distance. This is the Lettsom Estate, named after John Coakley Lettsom (1744-1815) who lived in Grove House, just beyond the southern end of Camberwell Groce, long demolished. He was Quaker physician and herbalist, who was friends with Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Johnson, Boswell and other leading figures of the day. This land had been a part of Lettsom’s estate.

When the flats were built in the early 1970s their scale was designed to match the nineteenth century housing along this section of Camberwell Grove – although they have four floors rather than the three in most of this. Their brickwork is also of a similar colour but they lack any of the interesting features of the older buildings and are relatively bland.

I made my way through the estate and on to Vestry Gardens where my next post on this walk will begin.

Lordship Lane & North Cross Road – 1989

My previous post about this walk on 5th February 1989 was Peckham Rye to Goose Green – 1989

*The Dulwich Club, 110a Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-55*

Lordship Lane is a longish road that goes vaguely south from Goose Green around a mile and a half to the Horniman Museum at Forest Hill, but I only walked a fairly short section at its north end on this walk. Much of the first section was covered by shops in which I found little of interest.

The Dulwich Club, a members only drinking establishment at 110 Lordship Lane was affiliated to the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, CIU, which was set up in 1862 to promote education and temperance among the working classes, who soon took over what had been a philanthropic middle-class gesture and began also to provide cheap beer as well as other cheap products and services.

Most early clubs were set up as either Liberal or Labour clubs (Conservative Clubs didn’t join, having higher class aspirations) and but the movement as a whole was non-political. This one – as the notice-board shows was assisting its members in council housing to take advantage of the ‘right to buy’ introduced by Thatcher.

If you were a member of any CIU club you could go into any of the other CIU clubs around the country and take advantage of the facilities – particularly the bar.

This building was demolished around 2000 and the site is now housing. The house at left it still there.

Bassano St, Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-56

Just a few yards down Bassano Street from Lordship Lane is this religious building, with a cross in the brickwork above the doorway. It was the Epiphany Mission, built in 1908 by architects Nixon, Horsfield & Sons and used as an Anglican church from then until 1927 and then later from 1941-51 as a replacement for St John’s which had been bombed and then as a parish hall until sold in 1994 to finance the Goose Green Centre at St John’s.

My picture is not quite sharp enough to read the name on the notice clearly but I think it says ‘The Epiphany Hall’. At right there is obviously a later extension, perhaps from the 1950s.

The building is now still in religious use as the Church of God (7th Day) Sabbath Keeping Temple.

*Lordship Lane Tyres, Lordship Lane, Bawdale Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-43*

One of the more interesting late-Victorian buildings peppered around the area this decorated frontage is at the end of a rather dull terrace with ground floor shops.

I’m unclear as to the intertwined initials at the top of the building , hardly visible in my photograph, but even looking at them more clearly, I’m unsure if they are just D and G or are intended also to include an E.

The shop no longer has the profusion of signs which appealed to me, including two Michelin men, and the billboard higher up has also gone. No longer tyres, the shop is now Franklin’s Farm Shop, a good indication of the extent of gentrification in the area.

*Hairdresser, Window, North Cross Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-46*

North Cross Road, running east from Lordship Lane, had (and still has) a long row of small shops I found of more interest, including this hairdresser’s window with a poster showing various hair styles from a company in Lagos.

*Hairdresser, Interior, North Cross Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-32*

The poster could have been on the window of this hairdresser, though there were several to chose between on the street. This is Ena’s and has a poster advertising a Jamaican Easter Shipping Sale.

*Hairdresser, North Cross Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-33*

Molly, another hairdresser on the street appears to cater for a more traditional white clientèle. The stained glass window at left with the word SHAMPOOING has a distinctly 1930 feel – and presumably there was once a similar panel on the other side of the doorway. The FOR phone number was for the FORest Hill exchange and went out of date in 1996 when we moved to all figure numbering.

*Fresh Fish, Shellfish, North Cross Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-34*

I think this yard with its Fresh Fish and Shellfish stall stored there was at the rear of shops on Lordship Lane, one of which was, from the trays, presumably a bakery. Perhaps the stall was wheeled out for use beside the pub on the corner, a historic pub, The Lord Palmerston built in 1862 (though it has since last ‘The Lord’.)

This was the end of my walk and I got on a bus, but got off my bus to take another picture on Camberwell Road in Walworth.

*Shops, Camberwell Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-36*

Rather to my surprise, there was a newsagents in the same shop here until around 2014. The larger house in this picture is now a hotel with a two storey street entrance.

My account of this walk from 5th February 1989 began with http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=14180 A Pub, Ghost Sign, Shops And The Sally Ann. I’ll post shortly about my next walk, a week later.

Peckham Rye to Goose Green – 1989

More from my walk in south London on Sunday 5th February 1989. The previous post was Around Rye Lane Peckham 1989.

*Antiques, Lock, Peckham Rye, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-62*

There is still a doorway here between 56 and 58 Peckham Rye, but the lock above it has gone and it now has a sign for Ezel Court at 56 A and B and 58 A and B. The Antique shop was for some years Delta Tavern, an Arfican Restaurant, then a café called Pedler and most recently a bar and restaurant Good Neighbour. The building building to the right of the doorway is also now a bar.

At top left of my picture who just get a glimpse of the rather finely decorated upper storeys of the two late Victorian buildings at 58 and 60, though for some reason I didn’t bother to cross the road to photograph these.

*Shop Window, Peckham Rye, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-64*

This window was just a few doors further down at No 64 and I liked the symmetry of its display, though broken by the two identical photographs of a woman looking in the same direction. I don’t think I was at all clear as to what was behind this window – or what the woman in her strongly patterned dress and gloves was meant to represent. And at the centre of the window display is a thick book on a table, a Thesaurus.

The attractive grille above the door is no longer there, and was probably salvaged and sold when the shopfront was updated. In more recent years this has been occupied by an estate agent, a pizza takeaway and beauty salons.

In the reflection you can see the extensive premises of G Austin & Sons Ltd offering secondhand furniture and antiques, now I think replaced by a three-storey block of flats.

*Man, Regency Carriage Company, Peckham Rye, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-65*

I was always happy to photograph people who saw me taking pictures and wanted to have their picture made, though I very seldom took down details so I could give them pictures. So this young man, posing for me in 1989 will not have seen this picture, unless he has visited the page on Flickr only since January 2021 – it has never been published elsewhere.

The Regency Carriage Company has long gone from this site, though the building remains, rather altered. It was for some time an estate agents but has for around ten years been Rye Cars. But the yard in which the cars for sale were neatly aligned is now covered by flats.

*St John the Evangelist, East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-66*

St John the Evangelist was built in 1865 to the designs of local architect Charles Bailey, but was badly bombed in 1940. Reconstruction began in 1947, incorporating the remaining apse and tower which dominate my picture and was completed in 1951.

*House, East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-52*

126 East Dulwich Road faces the west end of Goose Green on the corner of Grove Vale and I liked the uncompromising stare of the head above its simple but impressive doorway.

*Houses, East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-53*

A pair of doorways with heads, with a simiilar design and I think on the same row of houses facing Goose Green as the previous image.

*Goose Green School, Grove Vale, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2c-54*

I walked a few yards north up Grove Vale to photograph this fine Grade II listed example of a school built as Grove Vale School for the School Board for London in 1900 to the Baroque Revival designs of T J Bailey

I turned around here and walked down to Lordship Lane where my next post on this walk will begin.

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

Around Rye Lane Peckham 1989

The previous post about this walk on Sunday 5th February 1989 was East Dulwich and Peckham.

*Choumert Square, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-25*

From Blenheim Grove I turned into Choumert Grove. George Choumert (1746-1831) was a Frenchman from Lorraine, a tanner who married into a wealthy Bermondsey family. When he became a British citizen in 1796 he probably didn’t have to pass a silly exam asking questions that few British people could answer. People could just come and live and work here as foreigners but it isn’t too clear that there was any real way for foreigners to become British back then, though they could become a British subject by a process known as denization, which granted them all the rights of citizens except political rights.

Choumert Grove, Choumert Road and Choumert Square are all named after him. Before his wife’s death he was responsible in 1815-1822 for building part of Rye Lane and Holly Grove, then called George Street. When Choumert’s wealthy wife died in 1825, he inherited her estates which gave him a very healthy income.

The grandly named Choumert Square is a later development, a narrow lane with no vehicular access, infill in the extensive back garden of a house in Rye Lane, but accessed from Choumert Grove. IdealHome ran an interesting piece on one of the small one-bed houses in it in 2018 under the headline Would you be brave enough to buy this London house of horrors for £525,000?

Girdler's Almshouses, Choumert Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-26 — *Girdler’s Almshouses, Choumert Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-26*

I turned left into Choumert Road to photograph Girdler’s Almshouses, also known as Palyn’s Almshouses. The Grade II listing begins “Row of 5 almshouses. 1852. By Woodthorpe.” The 2018 Trustees Report of the THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF GIRDLERS BEESTON’S, ANDREWES’ AND PALYN’S CHARITY informs us “Palyn’s Almshouses were built in 1980 to replace six almshouses built in 1852 in Montpelier Road, now known as Choumert Road, Peckham, which themselves replaced the original six almshouses founded in 1609 in Pesthouse Row, St Luke’s, Finsbury, as a result of a bequest from George Palyn, Citizen and Girdler.“

Girdlers were makers of belts and girdles and the Worshipful Company of Girdlers were granted the right to regulate trade in these items in the City of London in 1327 – and could seize and destroy any such items that did not meet their craft standards. Palyn was a Master of the guild and his will left money for the Finsbury almshouses.

*Bonanza Stores, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-13*

I walked up Choumert Road to Rye Lane turning south down it. The rather impressive frontage of No 213, previously Bonanza stores was the site of an “EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENT’ retaining the frontage but with an arcade of 10 shops.

Later it became the London Seafood Superstore and was renamed LOBO House. More recently it has again been redeveloped, along with the fish factory behind.

*Co-operative House, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-14*

Co-operative House proudly had its name across the top of the building, along with the dates 1868 and 1932. 1868 was the date when 20 workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich formed the Royal Arsenal Supply Association which a few years later became the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society with branches across south-east London, including this large store in Peckham, presumably built in 1932, though replacing an older store on the site.

Co-operative societies had stores like this across the whole country, and they played an important part in getting decent products including foodstuffs to working people. We shopped at the Co-op when I was a child and my mother’s six-digit Co-op number which we had to recite at the till is still deeply etched in my memory. Every year we got a ‘divi’ based on the amount we had spent, and I think it paid for us to have a few treats and presents at Christmas which our family could not otherwise have afforded.

There is now a new block here, with ground floor shops and flats above and it carries three large dates, 1862, 1932 and 2008.

Cooper's Timber, Sternhall Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-15 — *Cooper’s Timber, Sternhall Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-15*

Sternhall Lane is a turning off Peckham Rye opposite the north end of Co-operative House. Timber yards like this were common in 1989, but most like this one have since been redeveloped. About all that is left from this picture is the lamp post. Buying timber now usually means driving to the outskirts rather than finding it in town centres. The wall sign COOPER’S TIMBER AND intrigued me slightly though I think the stacked timber might only be obscuring the letters D.I.Y which are on the boards on the front of the premises. Appropriately this range of buildings appeared to me to have something of a D.I.Y quality.

*Nigel Rd, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-16*

Nigel Rd also leads off Rye Lane just a few yards to the south of Sternhall Lane. The buildings on the opposite side of Rye Lan in the centre of this picture are still there, but at the left of the row is the end of the Co-op buildings replaced in 2008. The buildings on the corner of Rye Lane at left are still there, but there is no longer a careers office out of picture whose notice is shown here.

The road layout has changed a little and the triangle in the foreground with its keep left signs, one toppled presumably by a driver who failed to obey has gone. It was hard to see what point it had back in 1989, opposite an un-named street leading to a block of council flats, built in the early 1950s.

To be continued….

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

East Dulwich and Peckham

The previous post on this walk on Sunday 5th February 1989 was The Groves of Camberwell.

Printers, Chadwick Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-46 — *Cutts & Co, Printers, Chadwick Rd, Bellenden Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-46*

Grove Park changes to Chadwick Road on a bridge across the railway which separates Camberwell from Peckham and continues on, with a considerably less wealthy vibe, one side with long terraces of two-storey two bed working-class houses which now sell for around £900,000.

The north side was more varied, with an industrial estate but nothing attracted my photographic interest until this printers and its multiple signs on the corner with Bellenden Road. The sign on the wall is still there but the rest have gone and the ground floor frontage on Bellenden Road looks very different.

The building is now home to MOCA London, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Londonfounded in 1994 as a project based museum which opened a project space here in the Bellenden Renewal Area in 2004.

Front Garden, Ady's Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-33 — *Front Garden, Ady’s Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-33*

I turned south down Bellenden Road, made a couple of pictures on Maxtead Road and then went down Oglander Road and into Adys Road where I found this front garden. I couldn’t resist the two donkeys and the gnome in a small car in front of those net curtains. You can see the decorations by the windows of these late Victorian houses which also have fairly impressive rusticated doorways paired together down the street.

Padwick's Crash Repairs, 50 Oglander Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-34 — *Padwick’s Crash Repairs, 50 Oglander Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-34*

Back on Oglander Road a little south of Adys Road was Padwick’s Crash Repairs at the end of a terrace of small houses. Those beyond the garage further down the street are larger and semi-detached. I particularly liked the faces on the two archways and the truncation of both archways, the decorage element at each end of the shopfront suggesting it might have been originally built like this rather than a later addition.

Coach entrances like this were common to many businesses in the days of horse-drawn vehicles – and this certainly predates the era of motor transport. This was once a diary and had large associated buildings in a yard behind. The ‘Old Diary’ was demolished in 2020 and I think is being rebuilt as a new gateway to a mews development behind.

*Oglander Rd, Maxted Rd, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-35*

The junction of Oglander Road with Maxtted Road, with Wingfield Street more or less opposite, and shops on the street corners. There is still a shop on the other corner of Oglander Road but this Auto Electrics and the ‘Bottle & Cork’ are now residential.

Faith Chapel, Danby St, Bellenden Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-22

I went up Maxted Rd to Bellenden Rd where I photographed this chapel on the corner of Danby St. Previously this was Hanover Chapel, but was bought by the Pentecostal Faith Chapel in 1978 in a “grossly dilapidated condition, which took nearly a year to renovate.”

The church was built as a United Methodist Free Church and opened in 1885, eight years after its memorial stones had been laid. It had been planned with a spire which was never built. It was sold in 1920 to Hanover Chapel, the oldest non-conformist worshipping community in Peckham, Congregationalists with a history going back to 1657 when the dispossessed Vicar of St Giles, Camberwell the Rev. John Maynard founded a chapel or meeting House in Meeting House Lane.

*Blenheim Grove, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-23*

I continue up Bellenden Road to Blenheim Grove, walking down this almost to Rye Lane where I photographed the rather fine building at 133 housing Murrays Meat Market and Ralph Haeems & Co Solicitors. Considerable renovation of this building, the entrance to Copeland Park, took place around 2018-9 and it is now ‘MARKET PECKHAM’, whose developer responded to public pressure to drop plans to turn it into luxury flats.

In earlier years from 1908 to 1915 this was the Electric Theatre – and after I took this picture the first floor became home to The Redeemed Christian Church of God-House of Praise.

*Ralph Haeems, Blenheim Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-24*

I walked back down Blrenheim Grove, and made this picture of another building of Ralph Haeems & Co Solicitors at No 9. This early 19th century villa was Grade II listed in 1998 and was acquired by Southwark Council for use as offices in 2002. They ceased to use it in 2010 after the council acquired its new offices in Tooley St in 2007 and the council decided to sell it in 2011.

The building is now two residential properties, 9 and 91/2 Blenheim Grove.

My account of the walk in Peckham in 1989 will continue in a later post.

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

2008 – Markets, Graffiti and Police Harassment

Sunday Morning: Markets, Graffitti and Parkours

Sunday December 14th 2008 was a cold and cloudy but bright winter day as I made my way from Waterloo Station to Columbia Market, stopping to take a few pictures of the young men jumping around the street structures by the Waterloo roundabout before catching a bus to Bethnal Green to photograph in Columbia Market.

The market was busy with people buying Christmas trees, decorations and flowers, but I hadn’t really come with the right camera to work unobtrusively, but was using the DSLR-size Nikon D300 with the rather bulky original DX Nikkor 18-200mm zoom, a versatile combination but not the best for this kind of work. I wandered around taking a few pictures before leaving to walk to Brick Lane.

I was early for the protest which was to take place there, and took some pictures, mainly of graffiti while I was waiting. As I noted, “Somehow the people seem less interesting than in the old days, less eccentric and dodgy characters, and,except on the very fringes, the market seems rather more commercial in character.”

But the market was also useful for me, as I was getting a little cold, and when I put my hand in my coat pocket found my woolly hat was no longer there. ” A couple of stalls along I found a new one for a quid, with a label calling it a fashion hat and a £9.99 price tag. And there were fancy chocolates like the ones I couldn’t bring myself to pay the ridiculous prices in Waitrose going for around a quarter of the cost… ” But there wasn’t room for anything else in my camera bag.

Markets, Graffitti and Parkours

Solidarity with Whitechapel Anarchists! – Brick Lane, 14th December 2008

The previous week members of Whitechapel Anarchist Group were harassed by police while distributing their newsletter at the top of Brick Lane and had called for support this week to carry out their entirely legal activities here.

This week a largish contingent of police had come along to watch, obviously expecting trouble, but at first they mainly stood on the opposite side of the road, observing and photographing the protesters. When one protester stood in front of an officer taking pictures he was hauled off a short distance down the road and questioned before being marched away to a waiting police van. I photographed this, taking care to keep at a distance where I was clearly not obstructing the police. Apparently they decided to arrest him for swearing when he was being questioned, although this Is clearly not an offence.

The police spent rather a lot of time photographing and videoing me during the event, in a way that was obviously meant to harass me, as well as similarly harassing the protesters. This happens regularly at protests, and the police have at times admitted keeping a photographic database in which they can look up people and see which demonstrations they have attended. Though as I noted, all those I go to are recorded in My London Diary.

*Police search a woman – I think just someone passing by the protest*

Some time later I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police to try and find out what photographs and videos they had in their files showing me, giving a list of some of the occasions where I knew they had taken pictures. The response denied they had any pictures of me.

As my account ended, “Clearly their activities around Brick Lane today were a waste of public money, and worse than that. They don’t make us any safer and were not combating any real threat to public order. If they have an agenda it seems purely political.”

Solidarity with Whitechapel Anarchists!

Solidarity with Revolt in Greece – Dalston, 4th December 2008

I arrived outside Dalston Kingsland station at 2.30pm to find a group of around 50 protesters waiting on the pavement outside station for a protest march in solidarity with protests by Greek anarchists following the killing of a 15 year old youth by the Athens police.

The police had come in force to the starting point of a march which would have walked peacefully along the streets to the peace mural on Dalston Lane for a rally with some speeches and some noisy chanting. It would only have caused a few minutes stoppage to traffic as they had marched the short distance along the road.

At the end of the rally the couple of hundred who had turned up would probably have dispersed to their homes and local pubs and the event would have ended with no trouble. But police decided to provoke a confrontation by taking action against people wearing scarves across their faces – part of the anarchist ‘uniform’.

*Another protester is arrested and searched*

But this makes it hard for the police to take photographs for the database that they usually deny they have. Section 60(4A) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Act gives the police powers to require the removal of face coverings that an officer is satisfied is worn wholly or mainly to conceal identity, provided that an officer of or above the rank of inspector has given an authorisation for such action within a given area for a period of up to 24 hours.

So either they were acting illegally or clearly they had decided in advance to obtain this authorisation and were determined to make use of it. Obviously this was going to cause trouble. They began by approaching one of a men beside a banner with the message ’15 YEAR OLD SHOT DEAD BY GREEK COPS PIGS KILLERS’ and told him to remove his mask. An argument ensued and eventually, still wearing his mask he was led away.

Police then grabbed another protester who was alleged to have punched a policeman, ppushing him to the pavement and searching him. Other people protested at the violence being used and I think at least one of these was also arrested. Others held up a banner with what seemed now to be a rather appropriate slogan for London as well as Greece, ‘TERRORISM IS THE POLICE IN OUR STREETS’.

*A police officer who apparently failed to photograph me* :-)

More masked protesters were grabbed by police, though I’m not sure how many were actually arrested. Police began to form a cordon around the protesters in front of the station and photographers were made to go outside this – and there were quite a few protesters now on the opposite side of the street – being photographed and videoed by police.

*Arresting for arguing his legal rights*

Police vans were then moved up between the photographers and the main part of the protect, conveniently hiding most of what was taking place from the press. But we saw a protester who tried to argue his legal rights with police being handcuffed – in a rather panotmime fashion in my series of pictures. Those protesters who were not yet held inside the police cordon then surged out onto the main road – a red route – and blocked traffic entirely until police – at least one officer using his baton – pushed them back.

By this time, many of the black-clad and masked anarchists who were not inside the police kettle had moved away leaving mainly Greek supporters of the protest on the opposite side of the road.

It seemed clear that the police had come to the event determined to turn it into a show of force between police and protesters – and that the police had won. But in doing so they had spent a small fortune in public money and caused an hour and a half of disruption to normal life and to traffic on one of North London’s main arteries. And what may I thought may have been meant as “some kind of political charade organised to increase public support for increasing surveillance and repressive legislation” had in fact rather suggested the truth of the largest banner at the protest’s opening statement ‘THE STATE IS THE ONLY TERRORIST’.

Solidarity with Revolt in Greece