The North Pole, Manilla Street, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-22
Continuing my walk around the West India Docks I walked down from Marsh Wall to Manilla St, where I think you can still find The North Pole, a beer house built in the 1860s, on the corner at No 74. It closed as a pub in 2014, and I suspect the building’s days are numbered.
Cuba St, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-23
Nothing, or almost nothing in this picture of Cuba St has survived the redevelopment of this street on the fringe of the West India Docks. In the far distance you can just make out the distinctive frontage of the building on the corner of Cuba St and Westferry Road, the first few feet of which have been incorporated into a modern red-brick block and is now an Indian Restaurant. It seems to be much more than the usual facade, with the older building integrated into the development, Regatta Point, which is on a rather smaller scale than much of the new building, only 5 storeys of shops with flats above.
Docklands Enterprise, Wendy Ann Taylor, Sculpture, South Dock, Marsh Wall, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-24
Wendy Ann Taylor, born 1945 claims to have been as one of the first artists of her generation to “take art out of the galleries and onto the streets”’ and has made a number of sculptures around London and in several of the new towns. This sculpture was commissioned by the LDDC and the Docklands Business Club and dates from 1987. It is still in place, although everything in the background of this picture has been replaced by newer and much taller developments. I took the shape emaphasised in my picture and repeated at right angles in her work as representing the river around the Isle of Dogs and the vertical as enterprise reaching for the sky.
Heron Quay, DLR, South Dock, West India Docks, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-14
You can still just about see the DLR as it goes across South Dock here but Heron Quay station is now completely engulfed in tall office blocks, the water now looking enclosed rather than open as it was. The distant gasholder at right at Greenwich has also now gone, though long invisible from here.
Heron Quay, South Dock, West India Docks, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6c-63
I think it is a long time since any boats were moored here.
Heron Quay, West India Docks, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6c-65
This picture is looking along Middle Dock, with the north side of the buildings, long demolished, of Heron Quay at right.
I continued my walk to the North Dock – and a few pictures in a later post.
Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse the album. The pictures there are largely ordered by my negative reference numbers, which do not in detail reflect the order in which the pictures were taken used in the posts here.
SS Robin, South Dock, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-44
SS Robin is a 350 gross ton steam coaster built by Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Co at their Orchard House Yard in Bow Creek in 1890 and the only complete Victorian steam ship in existence. She still has the original steam engine fitted in Dundee by Gourlay Brothers & Co.
In 1900 she was renamed Maria and spent the next 74 years working around Spain for several Spanish owners, and in 1966 some extensive alterations were made. When about to be scrapped in 1974 she was bought by the Maritime Trust, her original name restored and treated to an extensive restoration in Rochester before coming to St Katharine’s Docks in London and opened to the public as a part of their Historic Ships Collection. After this closed in 1986, along with several other vessels from the collection Robin was laid up here in the West India Docks. You can see the stern of the Yarmouth Steam Drifter Lydia Eva at the right.
In 2000 Robin was sold for £1 and later the SS Robin Trust was set up to restore the vessel, an expensive and lengthy process and eventually it was decided necessary to put the vessel on a pontoon. The SS Robin museum, theatre and educational centre is now in the Royal Victoria Dock.
Quay House, a three storey office block built in 1986-7 was occupied by BT. Empty for some years, planning permission was obtained in 2020 for the 40-storey Quay House waterfront development including a 400-bedroom hotel and 279 serviced apartments alongside dockside leisure facilities.
South Dock, Heron Quays, Marsh Wall, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-46
The Survey of London describes these low rise buildings as “high-tech ‘cabins’ or ‘Swiss chalets’, with light steel structures, covered with red, purple and blue-grey vitreous enamel panels, while the monopitch roofs are clad in aluminium” and says they were part of a large scheme for the area begun in 1981 and built in 1984-9.
I think this is now the site of 1 Bank Street, a 28 floor office block completed in 2019.
BT, South Dock, Admirals Way, South Quay, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-31
The front of the BT Business Centre on South Dock.
DLR, South Dock, Admirals Way, South Quay, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-32
Taken from more or less the same place as the previous picture and that below, this is where the DLR crosses the South Dock of the West India Docks, looking towards Heron Quays station. It shows how little development there was here in 1988.
DLR, BT, South Dock, Admirals Way, South Quay, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-33
Looking back at the curve of the DLR around Quay house towards Marsh Wall.
London River Man, John W Mills, sculpture, Ensign House, Marsh Wall, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-35
“London River Man‘ John W Mills ARCA FRBS 1987. This sculpture salutes all London river workers – toshers – bargees – dockers – ale tasters – coalheavers – ferrymen” and is rather hidden now on Marsh Wall. It is rather less than lifesize. John Mills (b1933) is better known for his Whitehall memorial to the women of World War II.
Admirals Way, South Dock, South Quay, Tower Hamlets 88-6b-36
This is Waterside, where these buildings, described as small-business apartments were built in 1985-6. They are still there, looking much the same, though probably for not much longer.
BT, Admirals Way, South Quay, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-21
A final picture of the British Telecom Business Centre – and what was presumably its main entrance.
More from around the West India Docks in a later post. Click on any of the pictures to see larger versions of any of them in the album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse other images.
When the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1997 there were just two lines, one from the City at Tower Gateway east to Canary Wharf and then south to Island Gardens, and the second coming down south from Stratford to Canary Wharf and then using the same track south. For cost reasons it had been decided not to make a connection with the existing Underground network, except at Stratford where the DLR shared a station with both the Central Line and National Rail. The tunnel link to Bank Station was only opened four years later.
So I and my two young assistants had walked as in my earlier post from London Bridge across Tower Bridge to Tower Gateway station, and then took the DLR to Crossharbour. It was something of a fairground-like attraction, particularly around where the line turned south to go into West India station, and in the first years the line was little used and it was usually possible at the terminus to get a seat right at the front of the driverless train and imagine you were in the driving seat.
There was considerable building work taking place around Millwall Inner Dock, as well as cranes and the lifting bridge and it made a good day out for small boys as well as older photographers.
My assistants, Millwall Inner Dock, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-52
And here they are on an empty plinth surveying the scene, sandwiches and drinks in their back packs.
Millwall Inner Dock, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-6b-55
Millwall Dock was only opened in 1868 and was then quite separate from the West India Docks to the north. It had an entrance from the Thames on the west side of the Isle of Dogs to a large dock running halfway across the ‘island’, with another large dock, later called the Millwall Inner Dock branching off to the north. Most of the cargo was timber and grain, and McDougall’s built a large flour mill on its south bank the year after it opened. In 1928 it was connected to the West India Docks by the Millwall Passage, and became a part of the same impounding system for water levels.
The Guardian print works in Wimpey’s Enterprise Business Park was built in 1985-7 and apparently its silver-blue reflective panels and tinted glass were meant to make its ugly box look smaller, merging the building with the sky. It doesn’t work in black and white and it didn’t work in reality. The Guardian now has its print works in Stratford.
Looking roughly south down Millwall Inner Dock from Marsh Wall. The chimney in the distance is that of Deptford Power Station, demolished in a spectacular explosion in 1992.
The Daily Telegraph moved in to this building to the east of South Quay DLR station when it was completed in 1987, naming it Peterborough Court. In 1992 they moved to Canary Wharf tower.
Our walk around the area continues in West India Docks 1988 (2) shortly.
My last walk in May 1988 ended around the City Road which I walked down to catch the ‘drain’ back to Waterloo. In 1988 Bank Station on the Waterloo and City line still was a part of British Rail, and was one of the ‘London Termini’ for which my ticket from the suburbs was valid. Until it was transferred to London Underground in 1994 it provided a cheap route for me into to centre of the City.
Wesley statue, Wesley’s Chapel, City Rd, Islington, 1988 88-6a-64
Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission at 49 City Road calls itself the Mother Church of World Methodism. Wesley employed the surveyor of the City of London, George Dance the Younger as his architect and the builder was a member of his congregation; the church is Grade I listed despite considerable alterations in the Victorian era and later. When built it was Church of England Church, as Methodism only became a separate church after his death.
The best bit about the Grade II listed statue of Wesley, created in 1891 by Adams Acton is probably the plinth and the wording below the statue ‘THE WORLD IS MY PARISH’. I particularly liked the shadow of the lantern above the entrance on the door below.
Finsbury Barracks, Honourable Artillery Company, City Rd, Islington, 1988 88-6a-65
This Grade II listed ‘castle’ on City Road was designed by Joseph A Jennings in 1857 as a barracks for the Royal London Militia. It later became the home for City of London Territorial Army and Volunteer Reserve, and since 1961 has been part of the Honourable Artillery Company estate.
When I was very young I had a very secondhand and battered toy fort for my toy soldiers, and either it was based on this building or this building had been based on it.
Lakeside Terrace, Barbican, City, 1988 88-6a-56
I think there had just been a shower of rain – and perhaps I had walked into the Barbican to shelter from it and perhaps view the exhibitions in its free spaces. Though I did go also to the major photographic shows that were held there, often taking students to see them. But this walk was in the Whitsun half-term.
But the terrace is clearly wet and there are no people sitting on the many chairs, although a few perch on the low brick walls. At right is the City of London School for Girls.
London Bridge, Southwark, 1988 88-6a-36
My rail ticket could also take me to London Bridge, and my first walk in June on Saturday 8th began there. I went to London Bridge but didn’t cross it, instead staying on the south bank, and taking this slightly curious picture in which the River Thames appears only as a thin rectangle underneath the white rectangle of Adelaide House. When completed in 1925 this now Grade II listed building was the City’s tallest office block, 43 metres – 141 ft – high.
London Bridge, Southwark, 1988 88-6a-33
Looking up into the office block at 1 London Bridge Street it’s hard to distinguish reflection from reality as I’m sure architects John S. Bonnington Partnership intended. Completed two years earlier in 1986 it was still a rather startling building.
London Bridge, Southwark, 1988 88-6a-24
The steps to the riverside walkway go through the corner of 1 London Bridge and over them are some buildings from the Victorian era on the opposite side of Borough High St and the pinnacles of Southwark Cathedral. I seem to have chosen another rainy day for a walk.
Tooley St, Abbots Lane, Southwark, 1988 88-6b-61
I walked east not on the riverside walk, but along Tooley St and photographed this building on the corner of Abbots Lane, a street that has now more or less disappeared and is simply a vehicle entrance to PricewaterhouseCoopers buildin in More London. This former Fire Brigade Headquarters built in 1879, architect George Vulliamy, was for many years the model for other fire stations and the headquarters of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and its training centre for firefighters. It now houses the Brigade Bar and Kitchen, opened in September 2011 by Chef Founder Simon Boyle, a social enterprise which together with the Beyond Food Foundation gives apprenticeships to people who have been at risk of or have experienced homelessness.
It had been the great fire of Tooley Street in 1861 that led to the formation of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1862, the greatest fire in London since 1666. Many of the riverside warehouses went up in flames over two days and the man in charge of the firefighters, Mr James Braidwood, was killed when a building collapsed. There have been many fires in Tooley St since, and in 1971 Wilson’s Wharf was the site of the ‘Second Great Fire of Tooley St’, with 50 pumps fighting the fire that started in an unoccupied refrigerated warehouse. The area destroyed is now the site of Southwark Crown Court.
These were fairly typical of the tall warehouse buildings that line much of Tooley Street. I’m unable to identify the exact locations of these buildings which don’t quite seem to match any of those left standing. The negative has been badly damaged at bottom right and since it only affects the roadway and a car I’ve not bothered to try to repair it.
The picture shows the large amount of building work that was taking place along this section of the bank by Higgs and Hill and McAlpine. It seems too that barges were being used to take away some of the rubble.
Tower Bridge, Control Room, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, 1988 88-6b-64
I have never understood why quite so many levers were needed to raise two sections of roadway to open the bridge for river traffic. There seem to be two handles to turn around at the end furtherst from my camera and a superfluity of dials at top left.
I think I crossed Tower Bridge and made my way to Tower Gateway for the DLR. The station had opened the previous August and my walk continued from Crossharbour on the Isle of Dogs – in another post. Before the opening of the Jubilee Line this was probably the quickest route there.
These pictures continue the walk around Finsbury and going back east along Old St to South Shoreditch. They are all in my album 1988 London Photos, but here I’ve put them in the order in which I took them. I also made some other exposures not on line, and the album only contains those images I now find more interesting and worth preserving.
H J Brooks & Co were at a number 136 on the south side of Old St, close to Tilney Court and the building is still there, now offering IT services and support. Henry Brooks was one of many companies in this area in the furniture trade, supplying the various fittings which can be seen in the window.
Kapital Kwickprint, Old St area, Islington, 1988 88-5n-24
I think Kapital Kwickprint was quite close to the Old Street roundabout at the junction with City Road which I’ve since photographed on various occasions. The premises appear to be shared with Sheet Metal and Wire Workers Malbot Ltd, and it was their notices including a hanging sign that attracted my attention as well as a rather curious doorway, firmly shuttered and with the message ‘LETTERS FOR MALBOT LTD’ and an arrow pointing to a postbox beside it.
It is hard to identify this location now, but I think it was in Mallow St, where the next frame on the film was clearly taken. At top left is the address 3TO4.
Warehouses, Leonard St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1988 88-5n-12
This very sturdy-looking building is still present on the corner with Paul St and is now offices with the name ‘Victoria House’ and address 1 Leonard Circus. Like the warehouses further along the street it probably dates from the 1870s.
Warehouses, Leonard St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1988 88-5n-13
Part of an impressive row of warehouses on Leonard St dating from 1874-7 which have now been converted to office and residential use. C W Burrows at 69 describe themselves as House Furnishers – and this area was a great centre for furniture manufacture.
The business of J.Davis & Company (Machines) limited, now dissolved, was described at Companies House as “Wholesale of machinery for the textile industry and of sewing and knitting machines – Importing and distribution sewing machines.”
Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 198888-5n-14
Great Eastern St was constructed in 1876 and these buildings date from shortly afterwards. You can see a small part of No 42 at right of picture, which is Grade II listed and built with No 40 in 1877.
Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1988 88-5n-15
And this picture shows the Grade II listed building at 40-42 built in 1877 by J. W. Brooker for the cabinet ironmongers Edward Wells & Co. As the listing states it is “in an eclectic style with Gothic, Italianate and Venetian influences.” This building was only listed in 2006, and is currently occupied by a cafe and an estate agent. I’ve photographed the entrance on the corner at right on other occasions.
Christina St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1988 88-5n-16
Christina Street looking east from close to Phipp St. The site at right now has a building on it, and the street looks considerably tidier.
City Road area, Shoreditch, Islington, Hackney, 1988 88-6a-02
Today’s mystery picture. A quite distinctive building but I can’t remember what it was or exactly where it was, though probably somewhere quite close to Wesley’s Chapel on the City Road where I was photographing on the same walk a couple of frames later. It has a vaguely religious feel and may well have been sold and demolished since 1988. I hope someone will recognise it and tell me in a comment.
Click on any of the pictures to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse the album.
From Whitecross St I wandered across Old St into Helmet Row to make this picture, before going back across the road.
Old St, St Lukes, Islington, 1988 88-5n-42
Helmet Row is the street beside this building, at at right is the tall spire of St Luke Old St, a Grade I listed chruch designed by John James and Nicholas Hawksmoor, the latter thought to be responisble for the unusual obelisk spire. In 1988 the church was derelict and roofless. Opened in 1733 it became redundant and closed in 1959, remaining empty until taken over as a music centre operated by the London Symphony Orchestra in 2003.
Golden Lane, Baltic St, Finsbury, Islington, 1988 88-5n-43
I don’t think I went out of my way to photograph buildings with street signs on them, but it was very useful when they did have one – or even two like this on the corner of Golden Lane and Baltic St. Both buildings are still there, although only that at the right of my picture is still Mencap. That at left has gained the name LONDON HOUSE written rather large on both sides.
Whitbread’s huge stables, built in 1897 are a reminder of a past age, one that was soon to come to an end, when traffic in London was all horse-drawn, and large numbers of horses were needed to convey barrels of beer to thirsty Londoners. This stables was built to replace a smaller stables on Chiswell street and ramps at the rear enabled horses to be kept on its three floors. The top floor originally had windows like those below, but these were bricked up when it was later used by a gun club as a firing range. Some have now been unbricked.
These stables could house around a hundred horses to pull the brewery drays, a small fraction of the many thousands of horses on London’s streets every day – with a transport system of hansom cabs and horse buses needing around 50,000 to keep running and many more in harness behind various carts and wagons, along with a few saddle horses. And with Shire horses weighing around a ton a piece the stables had to be very sturdy and the pollution problem with each producing between 15 and 35 pounds of manure per day was huge, leading to the Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894. No solution could then be found to the problem, and it was only the internal combustion engine that eventually came to the rescue – its pollution, though toxic was largely gaseous.
School Caretakers, house, Baltic St, Finsbury, Islington, 1988 88-5n-46
The School Caretakers House and entrance to the Cookery School are still there in Baltic Street, though the school, built for boys, girls and infants by the London School Board in th 1880s, is now the Golden Lane Annexe of the London College of Fashion, part of UAL, the University of the Arts London.
Crescent Row, Finsbury, Islington, 1988 88-5n-31
The corner of Crescent Row and Sycamore St still looks much the same. Plans to demolish the building on the left edge of the picture were approved in 2017, but it appeared to have been renovated a year or so later.
Dress forms, Old St, Finsbury, Islington, 88-5n-34
The view through a window in Old Street. I think this later became a café bar.
More from around Old St in a later post. Click on any of the images to view a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse the album.
At the end of May 1988 I went to Finsbury on the northern edge of the City of London – not to be confused with Finsbury Park a couple of miles further north. I think I might have been visiting an exhibition at the Barbican Gallery which has its main street entrance in Silk Street, just a few yards from the border with Finsbury, part of the London Borough of Islington.
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5n-61
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5n-62
Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-64
Or it could be that I was simply visiting some of my favourite new buildings in London, in Ropemaker St, some now demolished and replaced. Those balconies – perhaps from the 1950s – are still there but the more recent building on the other side of Chiswell Street has been replaced by something bigger and blander.
I simply had to turn around to find my next subject, the gates of the Honourable Artillery Company, established by Royal Charter on 25th August 1537 and said to be the second-oldest military corps in the world. It actually traces its history back rather further to 21 years after the Norman invasion. The ‘Artillery’ for much of its history was the long bow and it originally had a field in Spitalfields where it could practice shooting arrows, and it only moved permanently here to the Artillery Garden in in 1658. As well as military practice the ground has also often been used for sporting and other events; cricket is said to have been played here as early as 1725 and the first balloon flight in England began was here by Vincenzo Lunardi in September 1784. THe HAC is still a part of the Army Reserve, the oldest regiment in the British Army.
In front of one of the buildings on Chiswell St was a narrow garden with a few bushes and a sculpture of Diana the Huntress with two dogs. I don’t know what has happened to this.
Whitecross St, Finsbury, Islington,198888-5n-55
A tall warehouse on the corner of Errol St and Whitecross St has a sign for A J Brown Brough & Co Ltd, Paper and Packaging. The building is still there, now I think converted largely to residential use, with its main entrances in Dufferin St. But of more interest to many – and perhaps to me when I made the image – is the vintage Citroen in the foreground.
I’ll continue my walk around Finsbury in later posts. You can click on any of the pictures here to go to larger versions in my album 1988 London Photos.
The Kilburn State Theatre was built on grounds formerly occupied by houses and since the 1890s by a furniture factory, The Palmerston Works. From 1916 to 1926 it was the home of the Central Aircraft Company which built cheap wooden aircraft and also gave flying courses and joy rides from Northolt Airport. The flights were a great success but although the planes only cost £250 sales were poor and the factory returned to making furniture.
The site was bought by Gaumont and opened in 1937 as the Gaumont State Cinema, designed by George Coles and this now Grade II* listed Art Deco masterpiece has a tower inspired by the Empire State Building in New York and when built had seating for over 4000, making it the largest purpose-built cinema in Europe. You can read much more about it in The Kilburn State Cinema.
Gascony Avenue, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, Brent, 1988 88-5m-64
This wall on the corner of Gascony Avenue and Kilburn High Road was almost totally covered with advertising and branding, including three giant posters for the Invalid Children’s Aid Nationwide, (I CAN), founded in 1888 as the Invalid Children’s Aid Association by Allen Dowdeswell Graham to help poor children in London’s East End who were either seriously ill or handicapped. It is now a national charity for children with speech and language difficulties.
People, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Brent, Camden, 1988 88-5m-51
Walking along the Kilburn High Road with a camera (or possibly two) around my neck attracted the attention of several groups of people on the street, who demanded I take their pictures.
People, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Brent, Camden, 1988 88-5m-66
And I was happy to do so. They were all in a good mood, possibly in some cases helped by a little exposure to Guiness. I think all had good Irish accents.
Posters, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Brent, Camden,1988 88-5m-53
And flyposters on several buildings advertised Irish events in London.
Kilburn Banks Ltd, Springfield Joinery, off Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-5m-54
I think the Springfield Joinery was probably at 1Springfield Lane, but no trace of this building remains. Possibly it was where the beer garden of the Old Bell Inn now is. If so it was in the LB Camden.
The Animals War Memorial Dispensary, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5m-46
Animals, particularly horses, dogs, carrier pigeons and donkeys, but also many other species played an important role in the FIrst World War, and many were killed carrying out their duties. After the war the RSPCA proposed a memorial to them, and plans were drawn up for one at Hyde Park Corner but this was never built – though many years later in 2004 one was unveiled on Park Lane. The RSPCA changed its plans and decided on a more practical project, buying this site in Kilburn for The Animal War Memorial Dispensary in 1931.
There are two memorial inscriptions, one on each side of the door, but too small to read in my photograph. They are given in full on the Imperial War Museum web site.
LEFT: THIS BUILDING IS DEDICATED AS A MEMORIAL TO THE COUNTLESS/ THOUSANDS OF GOD’S HUMBLE CREATURES WHO SUFFERED AND/ PERISHED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918 KNOWING NOTHING OF THE/ CAUSE. LOOKING FORWARD TO NO FINAL VICTORY. FILLED ONLY WITH/ LOVE FAITH AND LOYALTY THEY ENDURED MUCH AND DIED FOR US./ MAY WE ALL REMEMBER THEM WITH GRATITUDE AND IN THE FUTURE/ COMMEMORATE THEIR SUFFERING AND DEATH BY SHOWING MORE/ KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION TO LIVING ANIMALS.
RIGHT: 1914 – 1918 THIS TABLET RECORDS THE DEATH BY ENEMY ACTION/ DISEASE OR ACCIDENT OF 484,143 HORSES MULES CAMELS AND/ BULLOCKS AND OF MANY HUNDREDS OF DOGS CARRIER PIGEONS AND/ OTHER CREATURES ON THE VARIOUS FRONTS DURING THE GREAT WAR/ IT ALSO RECORDS THE FACT THAT IN FRANCE ALONE 725,216 SICK AND/ WOUNDED ANIMALS WERE TREATED IN VETERINARY HOSPITALS/ PROVIDED BY THE RSPCA.
Bas-relief, The Animals War Memorial Dispensary, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5m-55
The Grade II listed dispensary is a converted mid-nineteenth century house memorial plaque above the door on the facade of the building is by Frederick Brook Hitch of Hertford who won the competition for the design. The dispensary continued in use until a RSPCA reorganisation in 2016.
Next door to the dispensary is Kilburn’s ‘Tin Tabernacle’, Grade II listed as Cambridge Hall and erected as St James’s Episcopalian Church in 1863. Active as a church until the 1920s it became an “Air Raid Precautions store during the Second World War, and was later known as the Lord Lloyd of Dolobran Memorial Hall. The building was taken over by the Sea Cadets in about 1949, and from then on was known as Training Ship Bicester“. In the 1950s they remodelled the interior as a mock-up of a Ton-Class Minesweeper. It had been built with a spire which was apparently stolen in the 1980s before this picture was taken.
74 Maida Vale, St John’s Wood, Westminster, 1988 88-5m-34
The pineapple was a symbol of wealth and found a place on many gateposts, but 74 Maida Vale is unusual in also having three on the parapet wall. I think the house probably dates from some time between 1829-1840 and that the rooms behind those upper pineapples are a later addition, but have found no specific information about this particular house; although several others on the block are listed this is not.
West Kilburn Baptist Church, Carlton Vale, West Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-33
My wanderings around Kilburn Park had taken me back through the South Kilburn Estate to Carlton Vale and this fine example of a Baptist Church, built for the Rev Thomas Hall in 1865. Money was tight, but his brother who was an architect worked on the plans without payment. According to the Commemoration Booklet issued for its centenary the foundation stone was laid on ‘Several coins of the Realm bearing the portrait of her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria – one shilling, one sixpence, one halfpenny‘ and ‘the text, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).’ Six years later, the church still owed £380 of the £1250 it cost to build.
Willesden Lane, Brondesbury, Brent, 1988 88-5l-21
From Carlton Vale I continued northwest up Salusbury Road then turned right along The Avenue in Brondesbury to reach Willesden Lane opposite this house which is numbered as 66 Cavendish Rd, although this frontage is on Willesden Lane. This house struck me as having a intriguing individuality, although certainly not great architecture, incorporating several distinct variations of style and a rather oddly situated small window. Currently divided into around 13 small flats a planning application has been submitted to demolish it and use the site with its long garden along Willesden Lane to build a new 5 to 6 storey building with 21 flats.
Lawrence & Aitken , incorporated in 1927 but founded earlier and now dissolved, filed its last accounts in 1990. It gave the nature of its business as “Manufacture of other articles of paper and paperboard n.e.c. -” and was said to employ five people. The works date from 1904 and were built for cardboard makers Lawrence & Aitken under an agreement with the Simms Manufacturing Company Limited which is reproduced (but very hard to read) on the RAC website. The works is still there, though the building on the right has been replaced by housing called Kimberley Court.
Willesden Lane, Brondesbury, Brent, 1988 88-5l-24
In one of those mysteries that I’ve sometimes come across, the extension at left to J Green’s shop at 136 Willesden Lane has grown to the same height as the rest and the building is now wider, having four windows at first and second floor levels and a new floor on top while retaining the Graeco-Egyptian style of the original.
Both 134 and 136 were built for John Cramb, monumental mason supplying many monuments in the cemetery opposite, 134 in 1896 designed by George Neal and 136 by F C Dare in 1883-1884 . Both are locally listed.
Willesden Lane, Brondesbury, Brent, 1988 88-5l-26
These shops are still there but I think all now different businesses. So many flats and shops were for sale in 1988.
Willesden Lane, Brondesbury, Brent, 1988 88-5l-12
Missing ‘O’, ‘M’, ‘B’ and ‘G’ perhaps made this frontage more interesting.
The National Club, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-5l-13
In 1910 after the death of its owner, The Grange, a large house with extensive grounds on Kilburn High Road was sold to Oswald Stoll, the owner of the London Coliseum, who began building a theatre here. By the time it opened in 1914 his plans had changed and it became the Grange Cinema, with over 2,000 seats.
The cinema closed in 1975 and was opened as Butty’s Club and Dance Hall by Kilburn Irish publican Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue, and later in 1976 also became the Kilburn National Club, owned by three local brothers who were builders, originally from Tipperary. The club was a major music venue, where stars including Johnny Cash and David Bowie played (there is a longer list here, along with more detailed information about the site.)
Applications to demolish the building were turned down in 1991 as English Heritage had listed it earlier in the year, as was another application in 1993. After the National Club closed in 1999 the building remained empty until it became the Victory Christian Centre in 2001 – but the church was closed in 2002 by the Charity Commission who didn’t approve of Pastor Goodman’s extravagances on expensive holidays and cars and a house in Northants. In 2003 it became a site of the worldwide Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
The Secondhand Furniture Shop, Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-15
An interesting example of a window display.
Loveridge Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-5l-16
A few yards east of Kilburn High Rd the Underground – here decidely overground – goes across Loveridge Rd. I liked the washing hanging over Loveridge Mews, not something often found across a London street.
Confusingly, the boundary between the London Boroughs of Camden and Brent runs down the Kilburn High Road, splitting Kilburn in two. I’m sure there are still some pictures in the album where I’ve indicated the wrong borough.
The Independent Living Fund enabled many disabled people to continue to live with dignity and to work making a positive contribution to society and the government decision to close it led to many protests and to legal actions to try and stop it under the Equality Act.
Although a court ruled that the minister concerned had acted illegally, all it required was that the new minister reconsidered the plans. He did so, and decided to go ahead, though with a three month delay. And a judge ruled in December 2014 that although in axing the ILF he knew that the closure would mean many disabled people would lose their ability to live independently in the community his decision was legal.
The decision to end ILF was clearly wrong, clearly immoral, but so long as the legal niceties were observed the government was able to go ahead with it, and our law gave no protection.
The vigil outside the court while the case was being heard attracted wide support, including from Inclusion London, Norfolk and Suffolk DPAC local DPACs, the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Transport for All, Winvisable, PCS Union, the TUC, and other organisations,and there was even a simultaneous vigil in Toronto, Canada. Three MPs, John McDonnell, Andy Slaughter and Jeremy Corbyn, came to give their support, and there were speeches by campaigners including Paula Peters and Andy Greene, with John Kelly singing.
As expected the vigil ended with a short direct action by DPAC and others, briefly blocking the Strand outside the law courts.
Free Shaker Aamer
This was one of a long series of regular vigils opposite Parliament for Shaker Aamer, an innocent charity worker arrested by bandits and handed over to US forces who have imprisoned and tortured him for over 12 years. He was cleared for release in 2007 but remained in Guantanamo with our government failing to press for his release because his testimony could embarrass MI6 as well as the US.
London Panoramas
I had time before another protest to visit an exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands and on the journey to pause and make some panoramic images.
Probably the most interesting were inside Westminster station, where “the beams and buttresses, designed by Hopkins Architects and completed in 1999 for the opening of the Jubilee Line are also the foundations of the block of parliamentary offices above the station, Portcullis House, and were deliberately Piranesian, though sometimes I get more of the feeling of Escher as you seem to walk endlessly up escalators and around the interior.”
Democracy Camp – Poet Arrested
I returned to Parliament Square where the Democracy Camp was still holding workshops, though police and the GLA ‘heritage wardens’ had fenced off the main grass area.
Danny, one of the protesters had been sitting on the plinth next to the statue of Churchill since the previous afternoon and poet Martin Powell arrived with a pot of food for him, which he tossed up to him, going straight into his hands, despite police warning him he could be arrested.
“How can feeding the hungry be a crime?” he asked and he was arrested and led away in handcuffs around two sides of Parliament Squareperforming his poem ‘The Missing Peace’. I left while Danny was still on the plinth, though later that evening police finally found a ladder and brought him down after over 26 hours.
Musical Poor Doors
It was Class War’s 14th weekly protest at the ‘rich door’ of Redrow’s One Commercial St flats and it was a lively affair, with the banners dancing to the music of Rhythms of Resistance, a poetic performance and some rousing speeches against social apartheid.
There were a lot of police present and some stood in front of the door and ushered a few people in and out but made no attempt to stop the hour long protest, which though noisy remained entirely peaceful. Some of the police clearly enjoyed the music and watching the dancing.
