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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.

The Groves of Camberwell

My previous post about this walk on 5th February 1989 was Denmark Hill, Ruskin and on to Dulwich.

*Shops, Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-61*

Nothing much caught my attention on the walk from the hospital and then up Melbourne Grove until I came to this hosrt row of shops just before reaching Grove Vale. I think all of these buildings are still there but the bus stop has gone and all of the buildings have changed use and there is no longer a Grove Vale Library opposite the top of the road, it having moved into a new building around the corner on Railway Rise, behind M&S.

*House, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-63*

I walked up Grove Vale under the railway bridge where it becomes Dog Kennel Hill and up there to turn into Grove Hill Road which led me to the southern end of Camberwell Grove – this picture was taken at their junction. When Hermitage at 220 Camberwell Grove was built the road was known as 220 Camberwell Grove. Its Grade II listing describes it as an early 19th century cottage. It was built as a rustic cottage with these timber posts supporting the deeply overhanging roof to form this verandah.

The cottage was one of the properties built for John Coakley Lettsom (1744 – 1815) a doctor who founded the Medical Society of London and had a considerably grander villa a little to the south at Grove Hill, demolished in the early 1800s. is now rather more covered by greenery, making photography more difficult.

House, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-64 — *Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-64*

Immediately north of the cottage is this impressive row of houses. Nos 200-218 are Grade II listed and were built as a block from around 1845.

*House, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-66*

This unusual verandah and window was at the side of one of the houses on Camberwell Grove, at No 195.

Many if not most properties in Camberwell Grove and nearby are Grade II listed, and 195 seems to be the only one unlisted on this section of the road, all fine Regency properties, though this part of the house appears to be a later addition. Perhaps 195 is unlisted because unlike the other properties it it built up to the pavement edge and some may feel it spoils the long vista of houses well back from the pavement.

House, Grove park, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-52 — *House, Grove Park, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-52*

On the corner with Grove Park is this rather odd conglomerate with what appears to have been a classical entrance lodge welded unhappily into a later mansarded house.

*Houses, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-54*

Perhaps the gem of Camberwell Grove, this is Grove Crescent, a Grade II listed terrace of 4 linked pairs of houses dating from around 1830 at 169-183 Camberwell Grove.

*House, Grove Park, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-55*

Grove Park has a few large villas from the 1830s and 40s, but is mainly a late Victorian speculative development of large houses probably from the 1890s, with a few variations on three versions of large semi-detached houses. It is made up of several roads, all confusingly called Grove Park. This detail shows the entrance at the west of 125 Grove Park, just a few yards from Camberwell Grove.

*House, Grove Park, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-56*

This is White Lodge at 55 Grove Park, which stands out in this short leg of the road in a row of late-Victorian red-brick houses, which it presumably pre-dates.

*House, Grove Park, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-41*

This grandly Italianate mansion, Pelham House, 14 Grove Park, is on the corner with Pelham Grove, and is now flats with a considerably more recent block of flats at The Birches on the opposite corner.

*House, Grove Park, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2b-43*

This house, one of three similar houses at 17-19 Grove Park was in a derelict state back in 1989 but looks very smart now.

There were many other buildings in Grove Park which I might have photographed and a couple I did but haven’t digitised, but I felt it was time to move on, and walked to the east along Grove Park to where my next post will begin in Chadwick Road in Peckham.

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

A Pub, Ghost Sign, Shops And The Sally Ann

My next opportunity for a walk in South London was on Sunday 5th February 1989 a week after my previous walk. I returned to Camberwell, getting off the bus from Vauxhall on Peckham Road at Camberwell Green and walked down Grove Lane.

*The Grove House Tavern, Mary Boast Walk, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-12*

At the end of an alley leading to Camberwell Grove I found the Grove House Tavern, then a Taylor Walker pub. I liked the way its chimney seemed to complement the spire of St Giles’s Church on the other side of my frame and the rather elegant pair of houses facing the end of Mary Boast walk at 53 and 55 Camberwell Grove, both Grade II listed along with many other houses on that street.

Mary Joyce Boast (1921-2010) was a local history librarian, and became a great expert on the history of Southwark. She was the borough’s first Local Studies Librarian, but had retired a few years before I first visited the John Harvard Library on Borough High St. I think this passage was unnamed when I took this picture and only got a name after her death in 2010.

The fence at left stops the balls for a tennis club. There was a pub on this corner in 1826, though the building in my picture dates from around a century later and has a rather unusual Mansard roof. For a while it became the Grand Union, but was renamed Grove House in 2017 and was taken over by new management in 2021.

*Gone Fishing, Shop Door, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Southwark, Lambeth, 1989 89-1i-15*

The curved building reflected in the glass here is the former Odeon Cinema on the corner of Coldharbour Lane. I had walked back up Grove Lane and then along Daneville Road to here. The handwritten sign ‘CLOSED EARLY – Gone Fishing’ seemed to me to reflect a very healthy attitude to life.

*Shop, Ghost Sign, Daneville Rd, Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-16*

Looking back up Daneville Rd from the corner with Denmark Hill I photographed the faded wall sign for DAREN, the Best Brown Bread. Only faint traces of this ‘ghost sign’ now remain. The ‘lower ‘Great Expectations’ section was painted over in white and then around 2010 with a colourful graffiti mural, perhaps related to the GX Gallery to its right down Daneville Road. Later this too was painted over, and became ‘Muhammad Ali’ after his death in 2016, only to be over-painted again more recently.

‘Daren The Best Brown Bread’ was a non-wholemeal brown loaf baked from flour ground at the Daren Mill at Dartford in Kent, at the time it was painted as big a brand as Hovis. The mill went bankrupt in the 1930s and the brand merged with Hovis. Personally I think their loaves are rather like eating sawdust and stick to proper wholemeal, fortunately home-made.

*Former Odeon cinema, Denmark Hill, Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, Lambeth, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-01*

Looking across Denmark Hill with Coldharbour Lane and Valmar Ave visible at right. The Odeon here was the largest Odeon built in London and opened in 1939, seating almost 2,500. It had entrances on both Denmark Hill and Coldharbour Lane, and had shops on the corner here. It closed in 1975 and was empty until taken over briefly in 1981 by Dickie Dirt selling cut-price jeans and other clothing. But they went bust and the former cinema was empty for another ten years until demolished in 1993, when a block of flats for homeless young people was built on the site.

Tony's Corner Shop, 108a Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-2a-61 — *Tony’s Corner Shop, 108a Denmark Hill, Camberwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-2a-61*

Tony’s is still there on the corner of an alley off Denmark Hill, though the former cinema which housed the Camberwell branch of Dickie Dirts which can be glimpsed at top right has been replaced by a block of flats. The alley, Coldharbour Place, leads through to Coldharbour Lane. There are no longer windows on the side of the shop which is covered other and now painted with graffiti.

*House, Grove Lane, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-63*

I think I may have been attracted by the name to walk down Love Lane, though I took no pictures on it. On Grove Lane I photographed Cliftonville at No 83, a Grade II listed early 19th century villa with rather unusual ogge or ogive curves on the door and windows.

*William Booth College, Salvation Army, Champion Park, Denmark Hill, Southwark, 1989 89-2a-66*

I walked down Grove Lane and turned right into Champion Park to admire the Salvation Army’s William Booth College. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the college opened in 1929 and is a memorial to William Booth who died in 1912. It was completed in 1932 and has a similar monumental impressiveness to Scott’s power stations at Battersea and Bankside (now Tate Modern.)

The simplicity of this building was not by design but because of budget cuts which fortunately meant that originally planned Gothic stone detailing could not be afforded. This resulted in the Grade II listed building becoming a spiritual power station. It has recently been renovated and is still in use by the Salvation Army.

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

Mrs Catherine Booth was the wife of William Booth and co-founder with him of the Salvation Army. Known as ‘The Army Mother’ she died – or rather was ‘Promoted to glory October 4th 1890’. This sculpture by George Wade was erected in front of the new college in 1929.

This picture shows more of that Gothic stonework details that were meant to be rather more widely applied.

This walk will continue in further posts.

Houses, Flats, Shops & Peckham Arch

The previous post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was Laundry, Timber and Glengall Road. My walk ended on the site of Peckham Arch at Canal Head, but the arch was only built five years later. Despite local opposition Southwark Council seems now determined to demolish this local landmark.

*Houses, Peckham Hill St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-34*

These houses are at 10-16 Peckham Hill St. 10 and 12 appear to be lived in although 12 seems to be in poor condition, while 14-16 are derelict with broken windows and corrugated iron over the ground floor door and window of 14. Now the all look rather tidier and expensive. I think all these houses probably date from around 1840 or a little later. A terrace of smaller houses at 34-40 a little further south is listed and looks to me roughly of similar date. These are larger and grander houses, with two boasting substantial porches. The one at right I suspect has at sometime been rebuilt – perhaps after war damage and looks as if this was done in a plainer style.

*Love One Another, flats, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-35*

Plain flats with small balconies – large enough to perhaps put out a clothes horse or stand watching the street and enjoying a cigarette or a cup of tea. But the boarded up window at lower left and in one of those above the graffitied ‘LOVE ONE ANOTHER’ suggested to that this block was being emptied out for demolition. I wondered too what message had been painted over on the balcony – probably something short and crude.

Commercial Way is quite a long road, but my contact sheet gives a 100m grid reference which places these flats close to Cator St, and these flats, probably dating from the 1950s, have been replaced by more recent buildings.

*Shops, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1i-24*

I walked down the path following the former canal to Peckham High St, where you can still recognise the building that was Julian Jewellers, now a mobile phone shop, which also spills over into what was in 1989 Candyland. “SWEETER THAN THE REST – SPECIALISTS IN CUT PRICE CIGARETTES – 80 PECKHAM HIGH STREET” with two large cigarette adverts. Stiletto Expresso looks very closed in my picture – did it once sell shoes or coffee?The building in its place bears a slight resemblance but is now around twice the height.

The building at extreme right, mostly out of frame is also there, and until recently recognisable, but recently everything above the ground floor has been covered by an advertisement. The ground floor is now Mumasi Market.

The building on the left edge was demolished when the Peckham Arch was created in 1994., and I was standing where it now is to take this picture. The arch is now again under threat after an earlier proposal in 2016 for its replacement by a block of flats was defeated by determined local opposition. But Southwark Council still appear determined to remove it, despite it having become a landmark feature of Peckham, now much loved by residents and a great space for community activities.

The council make clear why they want to remove the arch, basically so they can build more flats in “a significantly larger development on site” with “more commercial and/or community space on the ground floor“. They do make a few other minor points, such as the current inconvenient cycle route, which could easily be remedied with the arch still in position. They claim that 80% of local residents in 2016 did not want to see the arch retained, which seems at odds with the views expressed by residents to the local press.

Whenever I’ve been in Peckham on a Saturday afternoon there has been something happening under the arch (and it’s particularly useful when it be raining.) Here’s one example:

Peckham Pride – February 2016

Wikipedia states “The Arch was constructed in 1994 and was designed by architects Troughton McAslan as monument to and as instigator of regeneration in a borough which had suffered from years of decline.” It’s article goes on to quote various criticisms of the 2016 plan to demolish the arch. Although it has proved itself an ‘Asset of Community Value’, Southwark Council turned down the application by local residents to have it listed as such as they wanted to demolish it, though it seems impossible to read the reason they gave on the spreadsheet on the council site.

My walk on Sunday 29th January 1989 ended here on Peckham High Street, a convenient place to catch a 36 bus back to Vauxhall for my train home. The first post on this walk I made on Sunday 29th January 1989 was
Windows, A Doorway, Horse Trough and Winnie Mandela

Heygate, Shops, English Martyrs & St John the Evangelist

This continues my posts on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The previous post was Wansey St, Larcom St, Peabody & Heygate

*Junior School, Heygate Estate, walkway, Rodney Rd, Elephant & Castle, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-53*

A bridge from the Heygate Estate took mothers and children across the busy Rodney Road to Victory Place and the entrance here to the Primary School. It was demolished around 2011, and I think the ‘GIRLS & INFANTS’ entrance has gone but a similar ‘BOYS’ entrance remains.

English Martyrs Parish Hall, Rodney St, Wadding St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-55 — *English Martyrs Parish Hall, Rodney Road, Wadding St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-55*

This building was just off Rodney St; its modern replacement is on the corner of Rodney St with Wadding St and Stead St.

Many Irish Roman Catholics had move into the area and in 1890 the Catholic Bishop of Southwark set up the Walworth Mission with a combined school and chapel just off Flint St and a Presbytery in Rodney Road with apermanent church next-door to this completed in 1903.

*Shops, Balfour St, Henshaw St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 898-1b-56*

I walked north up Balfour St to the junction with Henshaw St. These buildings are all still there, but like so many small shops have been converted into residential use. Much of the area behind me when I took this picture has since been redeveloped.

There are adverts on the shop windows for Lyons Cakes, Tizer the Appetizer, Brooke Bond Tea, New Zealand Butter, Players No 6, Ty-Phoo Tea and Crown Cup Instant Coffee, but thhe curtains and boarding show the shop had already closed down.

*St John the Evangelist, Walworth, Charleston St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-45*

I walked back, probably along Victory Place, to Rodney Road and then down Larcom Street, making my way to Charleston St, taking a photograph (not on-line) along this from its Brandon Street end looking towards the church before walking down to take more pictures around the church.

The Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist was built here when the estate was being developed in 1859-60. District Surveyor Henry Jarvis was architect for this gothic church in Kentish Ragstone, and its vestry was added in 1912 by Greenaway and Newberry. Both were Grade II listed in 1998, nine years after I made this picture.

There are two alleys on each side of the church, that on the left in this picture leading to Walcorde Ave and on at the right in the picture below to Larcom St.

*St John the Evangelist, Walworth, Charleston St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-46*

This picture is looking down the alley leading to Larcom St and the building at right is St Johns Vicarage at 18 Larcom St.

St John's Walworth, Primary School, Larcom St, Walworth, Southwark 1989 89-1b-33 — *St John’s Walworth, Primary School, Larcom St, Walworth, Southwark 1989 89-1b-33*

The school buildings just to the west of the church date from around 1866. Falling rolls led to the closure of the school in August 2021.

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

Paris, August 1988

Paris, August 1988. Most of August 1988 I spent in Paris with my family, although I rather deserted them at times to go out in long walks through the city on my own. But some of them do appear on quite a few of the roughly 1500 pictures I took.

La France, Paris, 2e, 2nd, 1988 88-8u-21-Edit_2400 — *La France, Paris, 2e, 1988 88-8u-21*

Back in November 2020 I posted here Montreuil, Paris which told a little about our stay in a flat in Montreuil on the east edge of the city, and where “Most days I went out for a walk before breakfast to buy bread and sometimes croissants, often with one of my sons, and always with a camera. Many of the bakers were closed for August and others took it in turns to be open for a week, making some of these walks a little longer, and I often diverted down streets that looked interesting.”

Montmartre, Paris 1988 88-8m-22-Edit_2400

As I also mentioned there, almost the first thing we did after arriving was to get photographs of our two sons at a photobooth so we could get their ‘Carte Orange’ and then buy weekly tickets for the Metro system – as I commented at ” little more than the cost of a day travelcard in London.” We made good use of those tickets, travelling around Paris and its outskirts as you can see from the album Around Paris 1988.

Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, 1988 88-8x-32a-Edit_2400 — *Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, 1988 88-8x-32*

The final sentence of my post in 2020 ended by saying I would feature more of the pictures in some later posts, but I don’t think I’ve ever got around to it. Nor have I put together a book from these images taken in 1988, though I there is one of the colour images I made, Photo Paris 1988. As usual with Blurb, the price of a hardcopy is ridiculous, but there is a much more reasonable PDF version. And you can view a good selection of the images for free on the preview. I haven’t yet put an album of these colour images on Flickr, but perhaps I will.

Here is the description of the book:

An evocative look at a Paris much of which was disappearing as the photographer walked the streets and took these pictures in 1988.
Peter Marshall’s pictures show a city and its fringes beyond the tourist circuit, capturing some of the flavour of the real Paris, but it is also very much a Paris of the imagination.

It’s time took a good look again at the black and white images from 1988 and made a book of them – and perhaps that will happen some time. A few have been published elsewhere, including a few I printed by alternative printing processes which I was dabbling with around this time, such as salt prints, kallitype and cyanotype. But I soon came back to more normal photographic printing.

Fauborg St Antoine, 11e, 11th, Paris, 1988 88-8y-61-Edit_2400 — *Fauborg St Antoine, 11e, 11th, Paris, 1988 88-8y-61*

88-8ab-22-Edit_2400 — *Arcueil, Val-de-Marne, Paris 1988*

Paris, 10e, 10th, 1988 88-8w-34-Edit_2400 — *Self-portrait, Paris, 10e, 1988 88-8w-34*

There are 366 images online in the album Around Paris 1988 and the selection here has just a few of my favourites, all uncropped. It would be difficult to make a selection but I think it could make a good book.

Around Devons Road, Bow 1988

Around Devons Road, Bow 1988. My previous post about my walk on Sunday 31st July 1988 ended on Rounton Road, but I knew I wanted to take more pictures in the area around Devons Road, so I headed back there.

Devons Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-24-positive_2400 — *Devons Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-24*

There is still a patch of grass and a zebra crossing here, close to the junction with Violet Road (now a mini-roundabout) but the bus shelter and the closer shops, including Hilton Furniture Centre, the Car Service, the Bookmakers and six more, some boarded up, which had been up for auction (by order of the L. R, B – “3 investment and 6 vacant“) six months before I took the picture are long gone. In the distance is the Lighthouse Baptist Chuch, still a local landmark.

The LRB was not of course the London Review of Books (as Google now thinks) but the London Residuary Body, set up in 1985 to dispose of the assets of the Greater London Council after its abolition by Thatcher in 1986, a decision which continues to blight London.

Service Station, Violet Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-25-positive_2400 — *Service Station, Violet Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-25*

I was amused by Violet Road Service Station which appeared to me to be trying to be a caravan and had an impressive pile of wooden pallets on its forecourt. Long demolished and I think replaced by flats.

Works, Yeo St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-26-positive_2400 — *Works, Yeo St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-26*

The building at right with the exterior staircase in what seemed to me a 1950s style has been replaced by a Tesco Express and flats. The large pile of pallets and the caravan both connected in my mind with the the previous image I had made (above).

The low building on Violet Road at left survived into this century when it served as a huge billboard along the street for the Caspian Wharf development whose sales & marketing suite and showhome were in Yeo St, but was replaced by a 7-storey canalside block around 2012.

Spratts Patent Limited buildings are still there – one clearly being converted into flats when I made this image.

Glaucus St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-14-positive_2400 — *Glaucus St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-14*

I think this is the best of four frames (two on Flickr) I made of this heap of crumpled metal on the clearance site on Glaucus St and Yeo St. I couldn’t make up my mind exactly what it had once been.

According to the Greek myths, Glaucus of Corinth was a son of Poseidon who loved the beautiful nymph Scylla and who showed little interest even after had himself turned into a merman to pursue her. He made the mistake of going to her jealous rival Circe for a love potion which whem she swallowed it instead changed her into a sea-monster who went on to lived in the rocks beside the whirlpool of Charybdis.

However I suspect the street name did not come directly from the Greeks, but was possibly the name of one of the ships built in a nearby shipyard. The name is also used for a genus of sea-slugs and was the title given to a book of scientific reports on the voyages of HMS Challenter in 1873-6.

Glaucus St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-15-positive_2400 — *Glaucus St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-15*

Another view of the development site in Glaucus St.

Works, Yeo St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-16-positive_2400 — *Works, Yeo St, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7s-16*

Yeo Street still contains some industrial buildings on the wharves along the Limehouse Cut, but this one is of the same site as a previous image in this post, now a Tesco Express and flats on the corner with Violet Road.

This was formerly Violet Street, and I wonder if the name may have been linked to dyes produced in chemical factories along the cut. Mauveine, the first synthetic dyestuff was discovered not far away by William Perkin working in the attic of his family home in 1856, though he set up his factory in Greenford. But the dye was a Victorian sensation and perhaps increased the popularity of the name Violet, though other flower names also became popular around the 1880s.

Violet Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-61-positive_2400 — *Violet Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-61*

Another view of the building on Violet Road, on the corner of Yeo St, which shows a similar external staircase on the opposite end of the building.

Morris Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-62-positive_2400 — Morris Rd, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-62

Across the bridge over the Limehouse Ct, Violet Road becomes Morris Rd, and a board in front of Spratt’s Patents Limited tells us this is now Tower Studios and that the two luxurious penthouse appartments due for completion in May 1987 have now been sold.

Still more pictures from my walk on 31st July 1988 in a later post here.

South Hampstead & Kilburn

Hilgrove Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-12-positive_2400 — *Hilgrove Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-12*

This semi-detached pair of Gothic revival red brick house date from around 1870 and are locally listed. They have a very ecclesiastical look. Hilgrove Road was laid out as Adelaide Road North in the 1830s or 40s and named in honour of Queen Adelaide, born as Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1792 who in 1818 was married to William, Duke of Clarence and became Queen who in 1830 became queen consort of Great Britain when her husband was crowned as William IV.

The road was renamed Hilgrove road in 1875 by developers who wanted to attract house buyers with a name that suggested it was a semi-rural location – something that is very common in this area. You can read more about Camden street names in a listing by David A. Hayes and Camden History Society.

Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-13-positive_2400 — *Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-13*

Fairhazel Gardens sounds like another of these ‘semi-rural’ estate agents names, but apparently was taken from a truly rural local property on the Sussex estate of the Maryon Wilson family. Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson (1800 – 1869) was the 8th Baronet of Eastbourne and Charlton. He was also lord of the manor of Hampstead and according to Wikipedia tried hard to cover the area with housing despite problems with the terms of his fathers will and the protests of local residents. You can read more in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Fairhazel Gardens (originally called North End Road) began to be developed in 1879 but the flats probably date from between 1886 and 1896. The area was developed by Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson, the tenth baronet (1829–1897).

Greencroft Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-14-positive_2400 — *Greencroft Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-14*

Greencroft was another genuinely rural name, coming from a farm near near Great Canfield on the Essex estate of the Maryon Wilsons (again according to the Camden History Society listing.) The houses here were built by Ernest Estcourt and James Dixon in the late 1880s.

Greencroft Gardens, Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-15-positive_2400 — *Queen’s Court, Greencroft Gardens, Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-15*

Canfield Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-62-positive_2400 — *Canfield Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-62*

Great Canfield on the Maryon Wilson Essex estate gave its name to Canfield Gardens – the estate there also contained a 16th century mansion Fitzjohns whose name also appears in the Hampstead area.

South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-63-positive_2400 — *Cleve Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-63*

Woodcote at 16 Cleve Rd, the road named after a property near Quex Park in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, the home of the Powell Cotton family who developed their estate around Quex Rd from 1868 on, with Cleve Road coming in 1882-6. Woodcote is a village on the Chilterns in South Oxfordshire, not far from Goring. Woodcote House there was the home of the Cotton family from around the 1790s until some time in the following century.

Kingsgate Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-51-positive_2400 — *Kingsgate Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-51*

Walking back towards Kilburn Park station my usual wandering fashion I came across this food stall being prepared in Kingsgate Road, though I can no longer remember what was the occasion for it. It looks like some church group, perhaps from the church close to the Quex Road end of Kingsgate Rd.

Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-52-positive_2400 — *Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-52*

This long parade of shops is still there to the west of the junction with Kilburn Priory at 199-219 Belsize Rd. Belsize Rd was developed from 1851.

221 Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, Camden, 1988 88-6e-53-positive_2400 — *221 Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-53*

Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-54-positive_2400 — *Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-54*

The Red Lion at 34 Kilburn High Rd claims to have been established in 1444 and rebuilt in 1890, then replacing a rather charming two storey building possibly a hundred years old. At some time after my photograph it became called The Westbury, then in 2012 a bar called Love and Liquor, and finally in 2017 Soul Store West, a dinner, cocktail bar and hotel, which closed after four months. You can read more on its history in ‘Professor Morris’ and the Red Lion, Kilburn. The authors of this say the earliest date they can trace for the pub is an alcohol licence for 1721.

Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-6e-55-positive_2400 — *Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-6e-55*

Finally as I walked towards Kilburn Park Station I couldn’t resist taking another picture of TS Leicester, Kiburn’s ‘Tin Tabernacle’.

This was my final picture in London for around a month, though I made more pictures of Hull and also on an industrial architecture visit to Sharpness and the Forest of Dean.

Around the King’s Road 1988

I took a stroll along the King’s Road, looking at some of the shop windows, then explored some of the streets to the north.

Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-52-positive_2400 — *Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-52*

There was something very strange about this view, and looking at when I made a print made me think that somehow it had turned into a negative. The contrast between the two mannequins, one white and one black had attracted me and I think the lighting and my treatment almost makes the right hand figure dissolve.

Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-64-positive_2400 — *Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-64*

Light fittings for sale in a shop window give some interesting shapes.

Boy, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-65-positive_2400 — *Boy, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-65*

Stephane Raynor opened BOY on the King’s Road in 1976, and it became “the epicentre of a new dawn in both fashion and music, defining the spirit of punk and birthing the New Romantic scene that appeared in its wake.”

Elm Park Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-01-positive_2400 — *Elm Park Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-01*

72 Elm Park Road is one of a row of individually designed late Victorian houses that make this an interesting street. Since I took this picture it has been extended with an extra storey at both top and bottom, but still looks much the same from the street. The house is now valued at around £12m and was named in 2015 as the address of one of the many people exposed in the The Panama Papers exposure of the rogue offshore finance industry

The Vale, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-03-positive_2400 — *The Vale, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-03*

I’m unsure why this property at 26 The Vale required such an elaborate security camera, something rather unusual back in 1988. I’m sure my framing, although I was mainly interested in the doorway was deliberately to include this. The building is a part of a corner site including joined properties in Elm Park Road, and plans were made in 2012 which would have involved the removal of this doorway. It was still there in 2020.

Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 198888-5c-34-positive_2400 — *Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-34*

Taken from the corner of Edith Terrace and looking north up Fernshaw Rd (late Maude Grove). The taller block on the right in the distance is Fernshaw Mansions. an Edwardian block in this largely late Victorian street. The houses and garden walls are generally in rather better decorative state now than in 1988.

Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-46-positive_2400 — *Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-46*

This unmodernised freehold house in Fernshaw Road was for sale in 1988 and if I had been able to afford it I should have bought it. It’s one of a terrace from 1-11 and would probably now sell for around £4m. I suspect the price in 1988 was around a hundreth of that.

Click on any of the pictures abouve to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse through all the pictures in the album.

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

Kings Road & Chelsea Common 1988

Anderson St, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-21-positive_2400 — *Anderson St, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-21*

It was the eye on the billboard that particulalry caught my attention on the corner of this long block of rather distressed looking shops and accomodation on the Kings Road, though I now have no idea what it was advertising and rather doubt if I did then. The long terrace has been considerably smartened now, with both advertising hoardings gone and the building has a smooth unblemised finish.

Royal Ave, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-22-positive_2400 — *Royal Ave, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-22*

Royal Avenue was first laid out as a part of a scheme connecting the Royal Hospital Chelsea with Kensington Palace which was apparently approved by Sir Christopher Wren in 1681, but only ever got as far as the King’s Road. At first it was planted with two rows of horse chestnut trees and grass and was known as Chestnut Walk, then it got white ladder stiles over the walls at each ends and became known as White Stiles. The terraces on each side date from around 1840 and are Grade II listed. The chestnuts were replaced by lime and plane trees and the grass by gravel around the same time, and it was renamed Royal Avenue in 1875. In 1970 the road access to King’s Road was replaced by a broad area of pavement. It still looks much the same as when I made this picture in 1988.

Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-23-positive_2400 — *Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-23*

Another view of the King’s Road that is relatively unchanged, although there is now a florists stall which would have obscured this view. Strangely the council have replaces the plain but elegant bollards here with rather more ornate versions which seem rather less in keeping with the elegant white stucco architecture of Wellington Square, behind me as I made this image. The square was developed around the time of the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852 and was named for him.

The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-13-positive_2400 — *The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-13*

The Pheasantry got its name from Samuel Baker who bred new breeds of pheasants and other species there in the nineteenth century, though the present building is thought largely to have been built and embellished after the building was bought in 1880 by Amédée Joubert & Son, upholsterers and sellers of furniture, tapestry and carpets. In the early 20th century it also housed artists and a ballet school, and from 1932 when Felix Joubert retired the basement became a bohemian restaurant and drinking club with a host of famous actors and artists among its patrons. The club closed in 1966, the basement becoming a nightclub and the rest of the building flats. Now it houses a branch of Pizza Express and a cabaret club. Wikipedia has more.

The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-24-positive_2400 — *The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-24*

The listing text describes this as “Central entrance with split segmental pediment supported by 2 male caryatids.”

Shop window, Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-33-positive_2400 — *Shop window, Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-33*

Elystan Street runs from the miniscule remains of Chelsea Common and was originally called College St. Here in 1913 the William Sutton Trust built 14 red-brick blocks of model dwellings, designed by E C P Monson, with 674 dwellings for around 2,000 working-class residents of Chelsea. Another large estate was also begun close to this in 1913 by the Samuel Lewis Housing Trust, with eight blocks of model dwellings completed after the First World War to house 1,390 people. (British History Online.)

Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-35-positive_2400 — Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-35

Elystan St is better known now as the name adopted by a restaurant at No 43 with a Michelin star.

Monkeys, Restaurant, Cale St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-36-positive_2400 — *Monkeys, Restaurant, Cale St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-36*

Monkeys in Cale St, also leading from the residual Chelsea Common, a small triangle of grass in a road junction looks more my kind of restaurant. It faces that triangle and still looks very similar, but now claims to be “London’s best Neapolitan pizzeria”.

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version and to browse other images in my album 1988 London Photos.

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