Lambeth | >Re-PHOTO

The Alexandra, Sanitary Ware & Ace

The Alexandra, Sanitary Ware & Ace continues the account of my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=15138 Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks… and the walk began with http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=15080 Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989

*Shops, The Alexandra, pub, Clapham Common Southside, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-25*

The Alex is one of the best known pubs in the area and upstairs is the Clapham Darts Club, open to non-members where you can book an oche, though at £20 an hour you might think it a bit steep. I’ve never played darts in a pub where you had to pay, but then its probably 50 years since I’ve played pub darts. Then you paid by buying beer.

Its a pub too that is best avoided on match nights and at weekends unless you want to watch sport. The pub dates from 1866, though has sadly lost a much of its Victorian interior features.

*6 Haselrigge Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-15*

I can’t remember what route I took from Clapham Park Road to Bedford Rd, probably cutting through some of the estates but not stopping to take photographs. But this house is visible from Bedford Road and drew me down to make this pictures. It was certainly the slender spire which attracted my attention. Built in 1871 it also has an observatory and apparently a matching coach house behind. Long converted into flats, this locally listed house I feel must have more of a story to tell than I’ve been able to unearth.

Haselrigge Road gets its name from one of the oldest well-connected families in England, which dates back before the Norman invasion and are said to have been the lords of the manor on the now lost West Yorkshire village of Hesselgreave. Bartholomew Clerke lord of the manor of Clapham who died in 1589 and his wife, Eleanor Haselrigge, and their son are commemorated in figures on a monument in St Paul’s Church Clapham.

*63, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-16*

53-63 Bedford Road were Grade II listed in 1981, the listing reads in part “Circa 1870, in stock brick with creamy terra-cotta dressings, built by J G Jennings as part of a larger scheme of houses of varying size and quality, to the designs of T Collcutt.” Josiah George Jennings was a noted sanitary engineer.”

Thomas Edward Collcutt (1840-1924) was an important English architect, better known for designing the Wigmore Hall, Savoy Hotel, Palace Theatre and more. This house at 63 is on the corner with Ferndale Road which now has its very own Conservation Area which provided me with much of the information below.

*Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-63*

Rathcoole house, Grade II listed in 1981, was the main and final house of a scheme designed by T E Colcutt and built by Josiah George Jennings. Remarkably this house was derelict and had been scheduled for demolition in 1966 but was rented from the GLC as a hostel for vagrant alcoholics and decorated and fully furnished mainly by the efforts of voluntary organisations. A decorated sign on the side has the initials JG, the street name and date 1882.

*Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-64*

The house is on the corner with Ferndale Road which has its on Conservation Area. Lambeth Council’s document on this gives more detail of George Jenning (1810-1882) who set up a company in Paris Street Lambeth making sanitary ware, “patenting revolutionary improvements to
toilets.”

His ‘Monkey Closets’ installed at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in 1851 were the world’s first public toilets – and for a penny clients “received a clean seat, a towel, a comb and shoe shine“. Ever since we have been going to spend a penny even if that now costs 50p and comes without most of the original accompaniments.

Jennings set up the South Western Pottery in Parkstone, near Poole in Dorset to produce sanitary products from the local clays, later expanding to “bricks, chimney post and architectural terracotta” all in a pale creamy colour. He developed other areas of south London including around Nightingale Lane in Clapham.

Jennings began building Ferndale Road in 1870 and only completed the scheme the year he died in a traffic accident. The completion is commemorated on the side of Rathcoole House which had been one of the earlier houses to be built.

*House, Bedford Rd area, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-51*

Not all houses in the area were built to the same standards as those by Jennings. I think this small building was probably at the front of some works behind whose corrugated iron roof is visible at left. I’m no longer sure exactly where on Bedford Road it was, but somewhere on the west side quite close to the railway bridge.

*Ace, Shop, Bedford Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-52*

Another rather basic building a little to the north of the railway bridge at 16 Bedford Road and surprisingly still there, now a minicab office. Ace had a rather wider scope, offering driving lessons and also selling and exchanging books – some of which you can see on the shelves through the window.

I took a second picture without the woman walking past who is reflected in the window, but I think this is better.

I turned around and walked back down Bedford Road to Acre Lane where my account of this walk will continue in a later post.

Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks…

Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks… continues my walk around Clapham on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was Voltaire, Billiards & Methodists and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

*Shops, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-42*

The rather charming three stroy building occupied on the ground flow at least by Julia Two has gone and together with the low utilitarian shops to the right has been replaced by one of the ugliest buildings on Clapham High Street. But the buildings to the left remain, although with altered shop fronts, as do those on the other side of Venn St.

The Barclays Bank on the corner of Venn St dates from 1895 and closed a few years ago.

*Flats, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-45*

I walked on further along Clapham High Street and on along Clapham Common Southside before turning down Crescent Lane to wander around some of the streets to the south. Worsopp Drive is one of the roads in Lambeth’s Notre Dame Estate off Cresecnt Lane in an enviable location just a short walk south of Clapham Common. The estate was built in 1947-1952 when this was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth on the site of the former Notre Dame Convent. It is a mixture of different low and medium rise brick properties and these 8 storey blocks are the tallest.

I don’t know why I didn’t photograph the Clapham Orangery which was retained at the centre of the estate, but I imagine there was some good reason.

*UCW House, Union of Communication Workers, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-32*

From the estate I returned to Crescent Lane where I photographed UCW House, then the home of the Union of Communication Workers. According to the Clapham Society, around 1920 a house on this site was sold to the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers for use as their headquarters, and renamed ‘The Builders. In the 1930s, the Union of Post Office Workers bought the building and the site was divided between the two unions, with both commissioning new buildings with architect L AS Culliford. This building was opened in spetember 1937, with a extra storey being added in 1976.

The union, by then the Union of Communication Workers , sold the building as offices to he Metropolitan Huusing Trust in 1998. They moved out in 2012 and it was converted to residential use as Metropolitan Crescent.

At the south end of Crescent Lane I turned into Abbeville Road, walking along it to the junction with Park Hill where I made my next picture.

*Govette, Park Hill, Abbeville Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-33*

I first photographed this sign in 1980 and posted this about that picture when I put it on Flickr:

Govette is originally a French name, and a couple of them came over with William the Conqueror back in 1066 and were given land in Somerset. The name was often spelt without the final ‘e’.

Govette Metal & Glass Works, a family firm and was established in 1956 in Clapham, and in the 1970s split up into several divisions, with Govette’s remaining in Clapham. They closed the factory there in the mid-nineties and specialised in the supply, installation and glazing of steel windows and doors, establishing Govette Windows Ltd in 1996, and are now based in Whyteleafe. They also now have a factory in South Godstone.
Peter Marshall on Flickr

I walked back along Abbeville Road and then up St Alphonsus Rd to where it bends at a right angle to the east.

St Mary's Redemptorist Monastery, St Alphonsus Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-35 — *St Mary’s Redemptorist Monastery, St Alphonsus Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-35*

St Mary’s Roman Catholic church in Clapham Park Road whose spire appears in the background of this picture was built in 1849-51. The Redemptorists are a Catholic missionary congregation and came from Belium to set set up houses in the UK, including this Grade II* listed monastery in Clapham designed by J F Bentley in Art and Craft Gothic style and built in 1892-3.

I continued to the end of the road and turned left into Clapham Park Road going back to Clapham High Street as I wanted to take another picture of the Post Office on Venn St – which I posted in a previous post. I came back down Venn St to Bromell’s Road.

*Alley, 18-20 Bromells Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-22*

You can still see this alley on Bromwells Road but the view down in is much less interesting, with none of the bridges linking 20 with 22 across the street remaining. The buildings on Bromwells Road have been refurbished and those visible down the alley rebuilt or replaced, althhough I think that at the end of the alley is still there. But what looked like a street with various small workshops is now much tidier.

The account of my walk will continue in a later post.

Voltaire, Billiards & Methodists

Voltaire, Billiards & Methodists continues the account of my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was Postmen, The Majestic and More and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

Voltaire Motors, 4 Voltaire Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-62 — *Voltaire Motors, Voltaire Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-62*

This street apparently only got the name Voltaire Road in the early 20th century, before which this part of it was called Station Road. The French writer Voltaire came to stay with his friend Everard Fawkener in Wandsworth when he was exiled from France in 1726, and is thought to have moved around the area, but there seems to be no record of him having lived anywhere around this road in Clapham.

The most likely suggestions as to where he lived in Wandsworth is that it was close to the River Wandle in Wandsworth Town or Earlsfield. There is a development on Garratt Lane called Voltaire Buildings, but that only got its name from Barratts in 2004 when they redeveloped the site of the former Wandle School.

Voltaire Motors was in a railway arch at Voltaire Rd, just before the entrance to Clapham High St Station. I think this is now ARCH Clapham or The Bridge, gay bars.

*Temperance Billiard Hall, Cato Rd, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-66*

The Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd, founded in 1906 built halls like this, built in 1910 by their in-house architect Norman Evans, in many towns and cities across England. It had just become architects offices when I made this and the next picture.

*Temperance Billiard Hall, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-51*

According to Wikipedia there were about 20 Temperance Billiard Halls spread around London in July 1958, though it doesn’t state how many of these now remain. At least two of them, including the Grade II listed Temperance Billiard Hall in Fulham later became pubs. The Clapham building is unlisted but is inside the Clapham High Street Conservation Area.

*National Provincial Bank Ltd, Tremadoc Rd, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-53*

The National Provincial Bank merged with the National Westminster Bank in 1970, possibly when this late 19th century bank building became solicitors offices. It is still home to solicitors but a different firm. The buildings behind the bank are probably a little older.

*Clapham Methodist Church Hall, Nelsons Row, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-54*

Clapham Methodist Church Hall and School on Nelson Row was built in 1873, and used for worship until the main church was completed in 1874. The impressive church was badly damaged and made unsafe by wartime bombing and was eventually replaced by a large glass fronted building on Clapham High St which opened in 1961 – and has since been refurbished.

This building remains on Nelsons Row, though the doorway is now bricked up and Studio Voltaire now occupy the site further down the street. I think this may now be a part of their complex.

*Nelson Works, Nelsons Row, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-55*

These were also part of the Methodist Hall and Sunday School buildings.

Back in 1989 the plates beside the door of Nelson Works were for Universal Metal Fabrications, though there was another name on the Nelson Works sign above the doorway, not quite legible, though some letters can be made out.

*Nelson Works, Nelsons Row, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-56*

Studio Voltaire, founded in 1994 by a collective of artists and creatives in a disused tram shed on Voltaire Road in 1984 moved to this site in 1999, and in 2019-2021 completed a transformation, refurbishing much of the building.

Postmen, The Majestic and More

Postmen, The Majestic continues my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was Citroen & More Clapham and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

Postmen's Office, Venn St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-23 — *Postmens Office, Venn St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-23*

Postmen and Postwomen are still using the Postmen’s Office, a rather grand building from AD1902 where Venn Street takes a 90 degree turn to the east with Sedley Place going west. It seems now to be officially known as the Royal Mail Clapham Delivery Office.

I liked this picture partly because it gave some indication of the work which goes on inside the office, but came back for another picture when the rented truck had moved.

Postmen's Office, Venn St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-36 — *Postmens Office, Venn St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-36*

When Lambeth Council set up their ‘Local List’ of historic buildings and artifacts which are not included in the statutory listing in 2010 it was one of the first to be listed, along with four others in the Clapham area, recognised by the council itself as being of architectural interest.

The Clapham Society two years later submitted there ow n list of over 70 properties in the area to recommend to the council of which only around ten were added, some excluded because they were inside already designated conservation areas. Clapham really does have a lot of interesting properties

Local listing provides little actual protection to properties but does mean the council will be aware of them in coming to planning decisions and take them into consideration in setting up local development plans. But unlike buildings in conservation areas or listed buildings they can be demolished without consent – which is seldom granted for listed buildings.

Former The Majestic, cinema, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-41 — *Former Majestic, cinema, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-41*

The Majestic Cinema at 146 Clapham High St was designed by John Stanley Beard and opened in 1914.
The narrow front entrance – another shopfront between shops – leads to a large auditorium behind behind the shops. It seems that one of the names on the title deeds was Charles Chaplin. The cinema was taken over in 1928 and became part of Gaumont British Cinemas in 1929. Bomb damage closed it for a few months in 1940-1 and in 1950 it was re-named Gaumont Theatre, closing ten years later in 1960.

*Majestic Cinema, Stonhouse St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-24*

The side of the cinema gives a better idea of its scale. After it closed as a cinema, the balcony was converted into a recording studio, Majestic Studios, continuing in use even after the main space became a bingo club in 1969, though probably not operating during the same hours. Among those who recorded there were Brian Eno. Adam Faith, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols.

In 1985 it became Cinatra’s nightclub and is now Infernos night club and disco. There are now new blocks on each side of the cinema building.

Langley Electrical, 156-8, Stonhouse St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-25 — *Langley Electrical, 158, Stonhouse St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-25*

Langley Electrical, the first of this row of buildings on the opposite side of the street just past the cinema has been removed but the rest from 156 survives and has been tidied up and the ground floor shops mainly converted to residential use.

*Houses, 34-40, Voltaire Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-13*

I walked along Clapham High Street, wandering a little down the side streets off the north side, and turning down Clapham Manor Road to Voltaire Road, where I amused myself a little with this image, hiding the foreground with the van and the ball on the top of a gate post. I think that gate has since been demolished but the houses are still there.

*Shops, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-61*

This picture was taken across the road from the corner with Voltaire Road. There are still shops though looking rather less run down and housing different businesses and the houses behind are still there but no longer advertise the CASH SUPPLY STORES selling VEGETABLES CAULIFLOWERS and something illegible or THE MUSIC ROLL EXCHANGE offering Gramophone Records and claiming to have the LARGEST STOCK OF SECONDHAND MUSIC ROLLS IN ALL LONDON.

The railings have also gone, replaces around 2012 with some stands for locking bikes.

My walk on Sunday 28th May 1989 will continue in another post.

Citroen & More Clapham

Citroen & More Clapham continues my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was North St, Rectory Gardens & Rectory Grove and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

*Car, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-52*

Although cars in my pictures now often attract attention when I post the on Flickr, I seldom deliberately photographed them, but this is one exception. I think even I might have identified this as a Citroen, but it was only after I posted it that one of my regular commenters identified it as dating from 1938. So it was 51 years old when I took its picture, and apparently is still around and still taxed for road use.

The house it is parked in front of is 12 Rectory Grove, at the end of a short Grade II listed terrace at 12-18, which dates it only as “Early-mid C19”.

*Rectory Grove, Rectory Gardens, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-56*

I walked back south down Rectory Grove, again passing the entrance to Rectory Gardens which I wrote about in my previous post on this walk. As you can see there are shops on Rectory Grove, one still open in 1989 and I think selling pottery. These buildings were rather grander than those in Rectory Gardens, with three storeys. Between the two shops was I think the entrance to flats above. There was another shop beyond this corner building and may once have been a couple more, although these were I think residential in 1989.

*Shops, Rose & Crown, Old Town, The Polygon, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-46*

Continuing south I came to Old Town and The Polygon with this Grade II listed corner shop with its row of seven large oilmen’s jars above its mid-19th century shop fronts. The building itself is perhaps a little over a hundred years earlier.

Oilmen sold oil to the public, mainly for use in lighting before the introduction of gas and electric lighting, and often used ancient pots and their pictures in advertising. Large jars of this shape were used for the transport of oil by ship, often containing around 20 gallons, and when full these thick earthenware vessels must have weighed 70 kilograms or more. They were protected in transit with rope cases, but moving them must have been heavy work.

But I think these may well have been ‘single-use’ rather than being returned to source for refilling. Jars were often sawn in half as in Clapham as shop signs in the 19th century and were always then painted red, and often fixed like these above the shop windows. Many came from the Mediterranean filled with olive oil, though whale oil was more commonly used for lighting until the supply fell off and it was replaced by mineral oils.

The People's Church, Grafton Square, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-35 — *The People’s Church, Grafton Square, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-35*

Designed by William Nevin as a Baptist Church in 1889, the building was renovated and opened as the People’s Church in 1959. Sold after the roof collapsed, it is now the Grafton Square Surgery and The Grafton apartment building, where a loft flat sold recently for around £2m.

*Pyramid, Old Town, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-36*

I’d photographed this decoration above the shop Pyramid only a few weeks earlier, but the lighting was right and I couldn’t resist making another picture – and I was also keen to get a better image of the crest. Here’s what I wrote about it earlier:

Walking down the street took me the Old Town, where the light was showing the device on the house at No 12 here with its proverb ‘CONTENTEMENT PASSE RICHESSE‘, the motto of the Atkins-Bowyer family. Richard Bowyer (d1820) had taken on the name when he inherited the Manor of Clapham from Sir Richard Atkins of Clapham. I’ve never quite worked out what the relief which is thought to have come from the old Manor House is meant to depict.

*Pyramid, Old Town, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-21*

Back in 1989 I didn’t own a decent long telephoto lens – the longest I owned were a 90mm for the Leica and a 105mm for the Olympus. I think this was probably taken with the 105mm and the device on the wall is certainly clearer, but no easier for me to interpret. At the top there appear to be three animals with a bird, perhaps an ostrich standing on top of what could be a crocodile or dragon or hound with perhaps a snake on the bird’s back, its head going down to the croc.

Below that with the motto spread over it is what could be cloth hanging from spars or perhaps flames or who knows what, and at the bottom a shield with stripes and what looks like two chickens with their wings up above and one below a row of stars. Perhaps others will know more and comment.

The old manor house was only finally demolished in 1837, though its octagonal tower had been taken down around 1810, perhaps because it was unsafe. It was probably this tower that led to the street laid out on the site, near St Paul’s Clapham being named Turret Grove.

*Trinity Close, Flats, The Pavement, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-22*

Continuing south along The Pavement took me to this large 1936 development of flats on five storeys with some little interesting At Deco features of which this gate post and porch are perhaps the best. I think that the post (and its partner on the other side of the entrance) may have been built to support an entrance light, but there was no sign of it. The building, which extends back some distance in a roughly H-shape replaced three existing buildings on The Pavement.

It was designed by J J de Segrais and three of its top floor flats on this side have balconies with views over Clapham Common. At the centre just below roof level is a small sculptural decoration which I didn’t try to photograph. Trinity Close is is joined at its north side to another large 1930s block of flats, Windsor Court (which for some reason I didn’t photograph.) It has the date A. D, 1935 on its ‘moderne’ frontage and shops along its ground floor. A tunnel through a wide entrance at the right of this block leads to the rear of both blocks.

North St, Rectory Gardens & Rectory Grove

North St, Rectory Gardens & Rectory Grove: Continuing with my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The first and previous post about this was Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989 which ended with a picture of the Hibbert Almshouses still on Wandsworth Road in Clapham.

*M S Automobiles, 97-9 North St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-24*

From Wandsworth Road I turned down North Street and took this picture just a few yards down the street. This rather elegant group of three of houses at 97-1010 have been altered somewhat since my picture and the entrance to the rear yard of M S Automobiles Ltd now leads to North Street Mews workshops and studios, the the two properties on the street now residential.

The doorway for West One Carriers is now a bay window (and was probably originally built as one) and the flower pots and ventilators have disappeared. 99 now has a small plain painted brick wall joining to the post at the right of my picture.

Unfortunately I can’t make out the sign at the left of the door to 99, though it looks rather like a pigeon. Scooter geeks would doubtless be able to tell me more about that parked underneath.

*Doorway, 28 North St, Rozel Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-11*

A small terrace two storey houses with shopfronts on North Street has its north end on Rozel Road, and just behind the shop front – here with a metal shutter at right – is this doorway which is now to 28a North Street which has been considerably extended to the rear.

There were some similar decorations above the doors of most of the houses on Rozel Road, and some with similar brickwork which I imagine were all built around the same time in the late nineteenth century, probably in the 1880s. I’m not sure what the mirrored objects in the relief are meant to represent, possibly a coornucopia or horn of plenty. But for many the bubblegum machine at right of the door will have been of more interest.

*NECO, Electric Motors, North St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-13*

Normand Electrical Company were manufacturers and suppliers of ‘NECO’ electric motors and gearboxes here in Clapham from around 1938. The company was bought by P C Henderson in 1982, and later they sold it to FKI Electricals. The NECO brand is still used. The factory was demolished and replaced by gated housing, Floris Place, its entrance in Fitzwilliam Road.

*Rectory Gardens, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-14*

Rectory Gardens was built around 1870-80 as philanthropic housing for low paid workers. Many of the 28 houses were in very poor repair after war damage and had been squatted in the late 60s and 70s to form a unique community. In 1969 Lambeth Council planned to redevelop this area and acquired Rectory Gardens in 1970.

*Rectory Gardens, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-16*

The redevelopment was opposed by the Rectory Gardens Squatters’ Association (RAGS) and Clapham Action Rectory Grove (CARG) and at a public inquiry the council lost an appeal over the compulsory purchase of adjoining properties needed for the redevelopment. The council refused to formalise the occupation by residents who had formed a housing cooperative, but continued to try to evict the squatters who had turned the area into a flourishing artistic community.

*Rectory Gardens, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-63*

Eventually Lambeth Labour Council under Cabinet Member for Housing Matthew Bennett began evictions and put in ‘security guardians’ and in 2016-7 sold off the properties. The very active Clapham Society lobbied for the retention of these houses as a group run by a housing association but developer Lexadon is rebuilding them and marketing them as luxury properties, “a triangular mews-style development” as a private close in an expensive area.

You can read more about Rectory Gardens in posts on The Spectacle Blog.

*49, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-65*

49 Rectory Grove is Grade II listed as an early 19th century two storey house with attic and basement. When I made this picture there were new houses being built on both sides of it behind the tall corrugated iron fences topped with barbed wire.

The area behind the house had been the printing works of Clark & Fenn Ltd and was redevelped as the Charles Barry Estate, taking its name from Sir Charles Barry, the designer of the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square who lived not far away at 29-32 Clapham Common North Side.

20-28,Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-66 — *20-28, Rectory Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5j-66*

This fine terrace on Rectory Grove, ending at Turret Grove has the name above it Cromwell Cottages is unlisted, unlike many other properties along the street. Rectory Grove leads to the churchyard of St Paul’s Church which was the original parish church of Clapham around which the village from the 12th century, although the current church dates from 1815.

The tiny village began to grow when people fled London during the plague and the Great Fire and it became a fashionable place to live in the l8th century. By then the area further south and around the common was becoming the centre of the village which expanded greatly in the early nineteenth century.

More from Rectory Grove and Clapham in the next instalment of pictures from this walk shortly.

Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989

Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd: On Sunday 28th May 1989 I again took the train to Clapham Junction, with time for a rather longer walk than I had made the previous day.

*Battersea Reference Library, Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, 1989 89-5i-54*

A short walk up Lavender Hill from the station brought me to Altenburg Gardens and this remarkable Grade II listed ‘Arts and Crafts’ Reference Library. Initial designs by Borough Surveyor 1924 T W A Hayward were treated to considerable improvements by his architectural assistant Henry Hyams who was appointed in January 1924 and was responsible for the unusual building we see today.

Hyams was – as the Survey of London at UCL Bartlett suggests “an obscure but intriguing figure, who had spent time in central Europe in the Edwardian decade before settling in Devon. He had advanced views – Esperanto, theosophy – perhaps atypical of a Hackney publican’s son, and had spent time in Wandsworth jail during the First World War for his trenchant pacifism”. His rather eclectic “Arts and Crafts” design came well after the style had gone out of fashion and included some unusual decoration as well as the Council’s motto ‘ NON MIHI, NON TIBI, SED NOBIS’ (Not for Me, Not for You, But for Us) over the main doorway.

Altenberg Gardens had been developed in the late 1880s, and has some substantial late Victorian housing but I didn’t continue along it to photograph these but returned to Lavender Hill.

*Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-56*

The reference library was an extension linked to the main Battersea Central Library on Lavender Hill which had been built in 1889-90, shortly after Battersea had managed to gain its status as a separate vestry from Wandsworth.

Battersea Vestry held a competition for the building of the central Library and the winner was local architect Edward Mountford who had submitted the only design of ten submissions that was within the Vestry’s budget of £6,000.

Edward Mountford went on to win a further competition against designs by another 11 architects to design a new town hall for the Vestry of St Mary Battersea which was erected in 1891-3 and continued to serve the local authority until 1965. Here the budget was considerably larger and it shows in this Grade II* building, which according to the listing text has “Relief sculpture by Paul R Montford. Decorative plasterwork by Gilbert Seale of Camberwell. Mosaic floors by the Vitreous Mosaic Co, Battersea.“

*Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-44*

This is the Grand Hall Entrance on Town Hall Road, of which I made several pictures. The design was described by Mountford as ‘essentially English Renaissance, though perhaps treated somewhat freely’. And it had included this separate entrance on the east side to the large public hall at the rear of the building. There are detailed descriptions of the building in the Survey of London on the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture site.

*Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-46*

When Battersea became again united with Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth in 1965, this building was made redundant. Wandworth’s plans to demolish much of it were defeated by a public campaign by the Victorian Society and Battersea Society and it was Grade II* listed in 1970. It became a community arts centre in 1974 and despite a major fire in 2015 which required extensive rebuilding continues in use as Battersea Arts Centre. I appeared briefly on stage there in 2017 in a after-performance panel discussion ‘Art & Accidental Activism’ after a Lung Theatre performance of ‘E15’.

*Scrap Metal Merchants, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-34*

This whole section of Lavender Hill including the scrap metal merchants Chase Metals at 92 has been demolished. There is a building dating from 2015 at 100 Lavender Hill but nothing on the street between this an No 66 except a hedge in front of the five storey housing blocks on Wandsworth’s Gideon Road Estate.

*Houses, Lambourn Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-35*

I walked to the end of Lavender Hill and continued along Wandsworth Road, walking a short distance down Lambourn Road to photograph these houses before returning to Wandsworth Road. This road was laid out at the start of large scale development of the area in the 1860s by Eken and Williams and the houses this terrace are larger than most with three storeys and a basement.

I liked the steps up in the roofline, partly with an extra storey but also as the houses go up the hill, as well as the repeated decoration abouve the windows and doors.

Hibbert Almshouses, 715-729 Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-22 — *Hibbert Almshouses, 715-729, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5i-22*

The Hibbert Almshouses were built in 1859 to provide accommodation for older women from the Ancient Parish of Clapham, commissioned by Sarah and Mary Ann Hibbert, in memory of their father William Hibbert, a long-term resident of Clapham.

The Hibbert Almshouse Charity was established in 1864 to take over the running from the sisters and still manages the buildings for their orginal purpose, although married couples and single men of the appropriate age are now also accepted as residents – though preference is given to women if there is more than one applicant when a house falls vacant.

The architect of these Grade II listed almshouses was Edward I’Anson and the building is largely unchanged although bathrooms were added in the 1960s. The charity is currently raising funds for a manor renovation and donations are welcome.

The account of my walk will continue in a later post.

Clapham and The Grand

Clapham and The Grand: It was not until near the end of May 1989 that I found time to return and take pictures in south London. On Saturday 27th May I took the train to Clapham Junction and a bus up Lavender Hill to begin my walk in Clapham.

*Shops, Spiritualist Church entrance, North St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5h-21*

I took a couple of pictures at the east end of Lavender Hill and the start of Wandsworth Road, not on-line, and then walked down North Street to make a couple of pictures of the entrance to the Spiritualist Church and the shops on each side.

Shops, Old Town, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5h-22 — *Shops, Old Town, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5h-2*2

Walking down the street took me the Old Town, where the light was showing the device on the house at No 12 here with its proverb ‘CONTENTEMENT PASSE RICHESSE’, the motto of the Atkins-Bowyer family. Richard Bowyer (d1820) had taken on the name when he inherited the Manor of Clapham from Sir Richard Atkins of Clapham. I’ve never quite worked out what the relief which is thought to have come from the old Manor House is meant to depict.

My walk continued along Clapham Common Northside, but it was some distance before I made my next picture.

*60 Clapham Common Northside, Lambeth, 1989 89-5h-23*

Maitland House at 60 Clapham Common Northside dates from 1790-1792 and is Grade II listed. According to the Survey of London it was one of a pair and “was built originally for one John Bleaden, but took its name from its next occupant, Ebenezer Maitland, a Coleman Street merchant, who lived here from 1796 until his death in 1834“. Maitland House’s “distinctive entrance porch of Tuscan columns supporting a bowed first-floor window” in my pictures appears not to have been a part of the original design but to have been added a few years after the pair was built. The other half of the once matching pair, Bell House, was demolished in the 1890s for the building of Taybridge Road and replaced by the current house at No 61, built along with No 59 in 1894-5.

*Forthbridge Rd, Clapham, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5h-25*

I continued along Clapham Common Northside but made no more pictures there. My next stop came after I turned up Forthbridge Road, one of streets built here between 1890 and 1895 by developers John Cathles Hill and Charles J Bentley who bought and demolished some of the earlier large detached houses.

These streets are not without detail of architectural interest but are relatively standard late-Victorian two-storey houses. However this particular house at No 20 stood out for its later added embellishments, perhaps not entirely appropriate or consonant with the Victorian doorways with the leaf motif concrete blocks and rather kitsch sculpture which occupied my next three near-identical frames – only one of which I’ve put on line.

*Sisters Avenue, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5h-16*

I continued walking north, going up Nansen Road and Stormont Road to Lavender Hill and then walking west, looking down the various turnings but not finding much to excite my interest until
I came to Sisters Ave.

I made a picture of this row of three-story houses, but it was the incredibly solid gate posts that held my interest – and which I have put this picture online. I think I saw them as some giant row of pawns on the chessboard of Clapham, or perhaps some Maginot Line of soliders defending against marauders from Battersea, where I was now heading.

The Grand Theatre, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-51 — *The Grand Theatre, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-5i-51*

I continued walking down Lavender Hill and across the junction at The Falcon to St John’s Hill to photograph this building while the light was right. Designed by Ernest Woodrow and built for a group led by well-known music hall stars including Dan Leno it opened in 1900 as The New Grand Theatre of Varieties with a huge stage and room for an audience of 3,000.

It was a highly successful venue for many years and in 1927 began to show films as well as live variety shows as The Grand Theater. From 1950 to 1963 it was only a cinema, and after it was bought by Essoldo became Essoldo Cinema. Essoldo opened it as a Bingo club after closing it as a cinema and it continued under others as a bingo club until 1979. It was Grade II listed in 1983.

In 1989 when I took this picture it was still closed, but that year it was bought to be converted to a live music venue, opening in 1991 and closing in 1997. Wetherspoons then wanted to open it as a pub but were refused a licence. Eventually it was reopened as “an independently run venue which functions as a nightclub, live music venue, theatre and event space.”

Conveniently the entrance to Clapham Junction was now opposite and it was time for me to take the train home. This was a rather shorter walk than most of my wanderings and I had made relatively few pictures, but I was to return the following day to continue my photography of the area on my next walk.

Ghost Sign, Cooltan and a Cinema

The final episode in in the series of posts on my walk in south London on Sunday 6th May 1989. The walk began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was Railton Road, Herne Hill.

Ghost Sign, S.Errington, Dulwich Road, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-41 — *Ghost Sign, S.Errington, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-41*

I turned into Dulwich Road and walked up it towards Brixton, stopping to make very few pictures, perhaps keen to get to the end of the walk. Just before reaching Water Lane on the side of what was then Ellis Newsagents at 1a Dulwich Road I couldn’t resist the finely painted sign ‘
S Cooltan
ERRINGTON
DEALER IN
ANTIQUE
&
MODERN

FURNITURE

FURNITURE
BOUGHT
SOLD OR

in drop capitals, decorated with some fine curly bits. Clearly something at the bottom following the ‘OR’ had been painted over, but I couldn’t decide what it might have been. Perhaps ‘EXCHANGED’ or ‘HIRED’?

The property now looks to be residential, but on Google Maps it still appears as:
S Errington Dealer In Antique & Modern Furniture
Home Furniture Shop
Temporarily closed

and that sign is still there, rather more faded and with the lettering now looking very much plainer. Unfortunately although I will have had a camera body with colour film in my bag I did’t photograph this in colour. Some days I only thought in black and white.

CoolTan Suntan Lotion factory, Effra Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-44 — *CoolTan, Suntan Lotion factory, Effra Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-44*

I walked along Brixton Water Lane, taking a couple of pictures (not digitised) on my way to Effra Road. The the names suggest I was following the route of the River Effra, underground since the early nineteenth century, but in fact I had been doing so all the way down from Herne Hill and was now walking away from it. Effra Road got its name from Effra Farm which was on the bank of the river.

*CoolTan Suntan Lotion factory, Effra Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-33*

The former Suntan lotion factory was squatted and in June 1991 became the CoolTan Arts Centre. They were evicted in February 1992, and the centre moved first to offices above Brixton Cycles before squatting the former Unemployment Benefit Offices in Coldharbour Lane. There it became a thriving art space, with a cafe, live music and offices for various campaign groups including Reclaim the Streets, Earth First! and the Green Party until 1995, when the building was taken over by The Voice newspaper – who boarded it up and left it empty and rotting. The Effra Road factory was demolished shortly after their eviction and remained as empty unused ground for over ten years.

*CoolTan Suntan Lotion factory, Effra Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-34*

But Cooltan Arts continued. From 1993-2016 Michelle Baharier was, as she writes in her statement on the South London Women Artists site, “Founder, Artistic Director and CEO of CoolTan Arts, London. In twenty-five years, I grew CoolTan Arts from an old suntan lotion factory squatted social centre in Brixton to a user-led disabled people’s arts and mental health charity. CoolTan Arts worked with over three thousand people face-to-face per year with its participatory art programme. The charity improved the lives of individuals with mental distress through creativity, self-advocacy, and volunteer opportunities within the arts. During my tenure at CoolTan I developed psycho-geography walks and other collaborative events with different communities.”

*CoolTan Suntan Lotion factory, Effra Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-35*

Clearly I was intrigued by this empty 1930s moderne factory and by its gates and their shadows. Unfortunately the gates were locked and although the fence was fairly low the location seemed a little public for me to climb over and explore the site further though it was more decorative than a real barrier. Eventually I managed to tear myself away and continue my walk, taking a few pictures not online as I walked past St Matthews Church and on to Brixton Hill.

*Former Cinema, 101-3 Brixton Hill, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-24*

The Tarpaulin & Ten Mfg Co, T&T was for many years in the former cinema, which was converted from shops and opened on 10th March 1911 as Brixton Hill Cinematograph Theatre, and was 13th of Montagu A. Pyke’s chain of Cinematograph Theatres. Pyke went out of business when he was jailed after his projectionist in his cinema died in a fire in 1914, and the cinema was taken over by others. It changed its name then and several other times over the years, operating under names including ‘New Royalty’, ‘New Royalty Kinema’ and finally the Clifton.

It showed its last film in 1957 and deteriorated badly before becoming the T&T shop. I think this kept going into this century and the building was up for sale in 2004 and became the Dalxiis Somalian restaurant. By 2008 the auditorium had been demolished and the front of the cinema had become the South Beach Bar, which lost its licence in 2012. In 2015-6 it was ‘Believers Home Chapel’ , in 2018 the S.G.H Events Hall and in 2019 the TAMI Gospel Centre of The Anointed Ministry International, though still with the South Beach Bar sign on that metal structure, empty in my picture at roof level that had once carried the The New Royalty Kinema and Camping Centre signs.

*Post Office Building, Blenheim Gardens, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-11*

I went down Blenheim Gardens, photographing this building, dating from 1891 and still in use by the Royal Mail as Brixton Delivery Office, and the windmill, before walking through the back streets between Brixton Hill and Tulse Hill on a roundabout way to Brixton Water Lane to catch a bus on my way home at the end of my long walk.

Railton Road, Herne Hill

The next episode in in the series of posts on my walk in south London on Sunday 7th May 1989. The walk began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was Herne Hill, Dorchester and Carnegie.

*Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-62*

I wandered up Railton Road from the junction with Dulwich Road towards Herne Hill station. Herne Hill only appears to have got its name relatively recently, with the Herne Hill Society stating that the first documented reference dates from 1801. Earlier maps show it as King’s Hill or Dulwich Hill.

Neither of the two derivations they give seems particularly likely, with an Old English root hyrne (corner, angle) hyll seeming unlikely from the late appearance of the name and a roost of large numbers of heron on the nearby River Effra seems fanciful. Other possibilities put forward have been that it was named after a family called Herne who apparently lived here in the 17th century.

Perhaps the name really does come from Herne the Hunter, the mythical resident of Herne’s Oak in the Windsor Forest some twenty five miles or more to the west, transferred here by an early developer of the area who perhaps saw oak trees which reminded him of that place, perhaps also hearing the rattling of chains and ghostly moans in this area. Who knows?

Railton Road was apparently one of the roads developed in 1868, a few years after the coming of the railway, the station on this road opening in 1862. Until then the area had been one of large villas with leafy gardens for the wealthy, but soon became full of “smaller houses for clerks, artisans, craftsmen and their families, the workers taking advantage of cheap fares for commuting into London.“

*Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-63*

The building at 222 Railton Road, here the Herne Hill Bingo and Social Club, was the Herne Hill Cinema, said to have opened in 1914, although there appears according to a postcard on Brixton Buzz to have been a cinema around here earlier than that. It’s narrow facade opened to a much wider auditorium behind which could seat 750.

Brixton Buzz quotes Cinema Treasures giving more information about its 1932 design by George Coles and closure as a cinema in 1959, but says it continued in use as a bingo club until 1986, then becoming shuttered and empty. Clearly it was locked and barred when I photographed it in 1989, and has a notice too small to read on its door, but doesn’t look in too poor condition. It is now a private bar, but apparently the auditorium area behind was demolished and housing built on the site.

*Herne Hill Station, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-66*

Herne Hill Station was opened at the bottom of Herne Hill on Railton Road by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1862. At first it was a terminus, with services only towards Victoria, but a year later the line was extended to Beckenham and by the end of the decade there were also services to “the City of London, King’s Cross, Kingston via Wimbledon, and Kent, including express trains to Dover Harbour for continental Europe.“

The building with its polychrome brick Gothic tower seems excessive for what was a small suburban station, and was certainly intended to impress. The tower held the water tank needed by steam locomotives. The Wikipedia article quotes The Building News description of the station from 1863 as “spacious and convenient … and of the very best quality” and states “an unusual amount of decorative taste has been displayed“. It became an exempler of Victorian railway architecture.

*Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-65*

This view looks toward the corner with Rymer St, which now takes traffic from Railton Road to Dulwich Road as Railton Road a little further north is now a no-entry street for motorised traffic other than buses.

At left is 200 Railton Road and at right, next to an alley is an accomodation bureau and letting service at 289, now the home of Herne Hill Books. Apparently this stretch of road was until 1888 known as Lett Street. The alley was once a public footpath, and looks as if it was still in 1989.

This view still looks much the same now, with the two 19-storey blocks of Park View House and Herne Hill House in Hurst Street, each built in 1966 with 72 flats, towering over the neighbourhood. Park View House many be blessed with a view of Brockwell Park, but unfortunately you can see it and its neighbouring tower from the park.

*Railton Rd, Rymer St, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-51*

A closer view of 200 Railton Road. I have been unable to find out more about this building. Two of the three ground-floor shops appear to have been converted to to residential use by the time I made this picture.

*Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-55*

I walked back down south down Railton Road to the junction with Dulwich Rd, stopping to photograph this terrace of shops at 315-323 Railton Road. This is now a pedestrian area and the shops are rather different in nature.

I liked the sign at left on 315, ‘Only the best is good enough for me‘ though with the metal shutters up on a Sunday I could not be sure what it sold, though I think it was probably a greengrocers.

To be concluded in another post.