Southwark | >Re-PHOTO

Clubland, Electrical Supplies & Addington Square

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cleaners, Bow Creek and Stirling Prize

Thursday 6th October 2016 was another of those varied days I love. I began with a lunchtime protest against victimisation and nepotism by cleaners, then went for a walk by Bow Creek before finally photographing a protest outside RIBA where the annual Stirling Prize presentation was taking place.

Cleaners demand ‘End Nepotism’ – 155 Moorgate

The Independent Workers Union CAIWU occupied the lobby of Mace’s headquarters building in Moorgate at lunchtime protesting noisily against cleaning contractor Dall Cleaning Services. I met the cleaners and supporters outside Moorgate station where they got out posters and a banner before marching quietly to pay an unannounced visit to Mace’s headquarters building where they walked into the lobby and started making a lot of noise.

They called for the reinstatement of two cleaners who they say were dismissed illegally without proper notice or other procedures being followed. They say that the cleaners have been dismissed simply to give jobs to members of the family of a Dall Cleaning Services supervisor.

After around 15 minutes a police officer arrived, but it was too noisy to hear what he was saying and the protest continued. He stood a little to the side and called for reinforcements, and as these arrived the protesters walked out to join those who had stayed outside and the protest continued on the pavement for another 20 minutes.

Police came to tell the protesters they were making a lot of noise, and were told that was the idea – they came here to do so and shame Mace and Dall Cleaning Services.

Eventually another officer who had been present at several previous CAIWU protests arrived and was told they would soon be stopping.

And after a couple more minutes, Alberto ended the protest with the usual warning “We’ll be back – and that’s a fact”.

More at Cleaners demand ‘End Nepotism’.

Limehouse, Bow Creek & Silvertown, London

I had the afternoon to fill before the next protest and it was a fine day so I decided it was time to take another trip to Bow Creek. I took the DLR from Bank to West India Dock to start my walk, and took the opportunity and a fairly clean train window to take a few pictures on my way there.

I walked over the Lower Lea Crossing, which provided a view of work which was now rapidly going ahead on ‘City Island’, where a loop in Bow Creek goes around what was previously the site of Pura Foods. This development had stalled with the financial crash in 2008 but was now in full swing.

From there I walked on along the elevated Silvertown Way, giving views of the surrounding area, before taking the DLR back to Canning Town, again taking advantage of a fairly clean train window on the ride.

Rather to my surprise, at Canning Town I found that the exist to the riverside walk was finally open. I think the walk here beside Bow Creek was constructed in the 1990s and I’d been waiting for around 20 years for this exit from the station to open and give access to it. I didn’t have as much time left as I would have liked but did make a few pictures.

For years there have been plans to create a walk from the path beside the Lea Navigation at Bromley-by-Bow to the Thames at Trinity Buoy Wharf, and the section as far as Cody Dock had opened a few years earlier – with the ridiculous name of ‘The Fatwalk’. It hasn’t really got any further yet, though at least it has been renamed as the ‘Leaway’.

More pictures – both panoramic and otherwise at Limehouse, Bow Creek & Silvertown.

ASH protest Stirling Prize – RIBA, Portland Place

*Many of the protesters wore masks showing RIBA President Elect Ben Derbyshire*

Architects for Social Housing (ASH) led a protest outside the Stirling Prize awards ceremony pointing out that one of the short-listed projects, Trafalgar Place, was built on the demolished Heygate Estate, which was ‘stolen from the people’ with hundreds of social housing tenants and leaseholders being evicted and the site sold at one tenth of its value to the developers.

*‘Architecture is Always Political!’, a quote from Richard Rogers*

Together with other housing protesters than held their own awards ceremony on the pavement in front of the RIBA building, awarding the ‘O J Simpson Award for getting away with murder’ to drMM Architects for this project, the first phase of Lendlease’s £1.5 billion Elephant & Castle redevelopment. This will replace 1214 social housing homes with few or no affordable homes.

There were no other contestants for the Ben Derbyshire Foot In Mouth Award than RIBA President Elect Ben Derbyshire but there was a vote to select which of five of his totally ridiculous statements by him about social housing should be the winner.

Among those at the protest were residents opposing the demolition of the Aylesbury estate, close to the Heygate, where Southwark Council are also demolishing social housing properties rather than carry out relatively low cost Aylesbury estate,that was voted for by the residents and could continue the useful life of these properties for many years.

*Simon Elmer of ASH holds up the award for the ‘O J Simpson Award for getting away with murder’ awarded to drMM Architects and developers Lend Lease for Trafalgar Place*

Estate demolition has a huge social and environmental cost and schemes like these in the borough of Southwark result in huge losses of social housing. But they provide expensive properties often sold largely to investors who will never live in them and large profits to the developers. Councils hope to share in these profits, but on the Heygate made huge losses, though some individuals involved have gained highly lucrative jobs.

More at ASH protest Stirling Prize.

Walworth Road, Harker’s Studios & John Ruskin

This continues my posts on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The previous post was
Liverpool Grove & Octavia Hill.

*Wooler St, Wendover, Aylesbury Estate, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-44*

The domestic scale of the long terrace built around 1900 contrasts with the huge slab block of Wendover on the Aylesbury Esate, built between 1963 and 1977 to provided good quality social housing. Poor maintenance by the council allowed the estate to deteriorate and it became demonised as a problem estate.

Although a majority of residents wanted to remain and voted for refurbishment, Southwark Council decided to demolish the estate. They were met with considerable local resistance with some blocks being occupied by activists. Although parts of the estate have been demolished the fight to retain the rest continues.

The council’s policy seems driven by the hope of large profits for themselves as well as the developers from replacing much of the estate by properties which can be sold at market prices. Similar hopes led to the demolition of the Heygate estate but this resulted in a massive loss for the council, details of which were accidentally disclosed, although some of those from the council involved in the scheme moved to highly lucrative jobs as a result of it.

Heygate’s demolition also resulted in a huge loss of social housing in the area, and the displacement of former residents to outlying areas of London and beyond. Many of the relatively low quality high price flats on the site were sold overseas as investment properties, their value increasing as London house prices soar.

Wooler Street was on the edge of the Octavia Hill planned estate and contains a number of terraced maisonettes and houses of a more conventional late Victorian/Edwardian design. The Octavia Hill (Liverpool Grove) Conservation Area appraisal suggests they “are most likely part of the same development“. Possibly they come from a development by the Church Commissioners before Hill became involved.

*Merrow St, Walworth Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-35*

Merrow Street is one of the older streets in the area and this picture shows its junction with Walworth Road. The buildings here are still much the same but their uses have changed. Panache Exclusive Footwear is now a pawnbrokers and The Rock pub which was at 374 Walworth Rd since at least the 1860s became an Irish pub, Liam Og’s around 2005. Liam Og’s apparently featured male strippers at Sunday Lunchtimes, though this perhaps put customers off and in 2009 it became Banana’s Bar which closed a few years later.

There were plans to demolish this building approved in 2018 but then further plans to reopen it as a Beer and Burger Bar with Dance Hall’ in 2020 which failed. In 2021 it became Homeland Furniture.

*Fielding St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-36*

Fielding Street is on the west side of Walworth Road and according to the Walworth Road Historic Area Assessment was laid out (then as Olney St) “after the sale of Montpelier Tea Gardens and Walworth Gardens, post 1844“. These terraced houses with basements have rather impressive doorways are shown on the earliest large-scale maps of the area I can find surveyed around 1870. The skip shows that extensive work was being undertaken on at least one of them.

*Cafe, Arnside St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-22*

There is still a café here, though it had become the Continental Cafe rather than remaining Irish until 2012. It then became the ‘University of Suya’ which I think was a Nigerian restaurant, and later the frontage added the words ‘African Bar & Grill’ to make its offerings clearer.

The doorway at left was the entrance to flats above the shops at 403 Walworth Road.

Works, Horsley St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-23 — *Harkers Studios, Horsley St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-23*

Horsley Street is a short street running from Arnside Street south to Westmoreland Road.

Harkers Studios was purpose built for Joseph Harker’s theatrical scenery painting business in 1904 and was grade II listed in 1989. The large doors at left have the number 43 and ‘MOSS EMPIRES LTD’, the owners of many UK theatres named on them.

More recently the works became ‘The Furniture Union’ or TFU, an upmarket supplier of furniture, bathroom ware, kitchens, lighting, furnishings and accessories. It has recently been converted into “stunning apartments, which manage to preserve the special architectural and historic interest of the building.“

Flats, Arnside St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-24 — *Flats, Arnside St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989*

Wellington House is part of a small estate with four blocks including the rather similar Arnside House now managed by the Keniston Housing Association, “providing low cost rented accommodation to people who find it difficult to compete in the private rented sector. We charge rents at below market rates. Most people who live in our properties have been referred to us through choice based lettings schemes run by local councils.”

Venus Fish Bar, shop John Ruskin St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-25 — *Venus Fish Bar, John Ruskin St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-25*

Until 1937 this street was called Beresford Street and like many other streets was renamed when the LCC finally decided to rid London of duplicated street names. They had begun the job when they were formed in 1889, but only really got down to it seriously in the mid 1930s. The name John Ruskin Street was chosen to remember the prominent Victorian writer, philosopher and art critic who died in 1900.

Ruskin grew up in nearby Herne Hill and was mainly educated at home (as were many children of wealthy families.) But at the age of 15 he spent a year attending the school in Camberwell run by Thomas Dale, who earlier had been the first professor of English at any English university. But Dale left London University after only a couple of years, finding it too “godless” and set up his own school.

Probably what most people now remember about Ruskin was his failure to consummate his marriage with Effie Gray, allegedly because of his discovery on his wedding night that unlike the classical statues with which he was familiar, real women had pubic hair. Their marriage was eventually annulled 6 years later. Perhaps the name of the Venus Fish Bar had some connection with this story.

BRAC is something of a mystery, but I think it may simply be from bric-à-brac as I think this was a business selling secondhand furniture and small objects such as we might now find at car boot sales. But there could be a quite different explanation, and suggestions for what BRAC here could stand for as an acronym are welcome. The BRAC building has been demolished and replaced by a block of flats but the building on the left remains, now residential.

*West End Hair Styling, John Ruskin St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-26*

West End Hair Styling at 13 John Ruskin St where pensioners could get a trim for £1.50 is now I think a travel agent, having been for some years a bar and restaurant.

The first post on this walk on January 8th 1989 was Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road.

Liverpool Grove & Octavia Hill

This continues my posts on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The previous post was People’s Health, Chapel Furniture, Sutherland Square & Groce Bros.

St Peter's Church, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-63 — *St Peter’s Church, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-64*

Liverpool Grove was designated as a conservation area in 1982 as the Octavia Hill (Liverpool Grove) Conservation Area. The street runs east from Walworth Road with this vista of St Peter’s Church, then goes south of the church, continuing to the east as far as Portland Street (named after an earlier Prime Minister, William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland.)

Churchyard, St Peter's Walworth and Trafalgar House, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-65 — Churchyard, St Peter’s Walworth and Trafalgar House, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-65

The area to the east of the Walworth Road was first developed around the end of the wars against Napoleon, and Liverpool Grove gets its name from Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool who was the Tory Prime minister from 1812 to 1827. So far as I’m aware he had no particular connection with the area. His almost 15 years as prime minister makes him the third longest serving after Sir Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger. A rather odder claim to fame is that he was the first of our prime ministers to wear long trousers.

Rear, St Peter's Church, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-66 — *Rear, St Peter’s Church, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-66*

The development of the area created a need for a new church, and Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was appointed as architect with St Peter’s Church being consecrated in 1826. It is now Grade I listed. It was the first church designed by Sir John Soane and badly damaged during WW2, then rebuilt in 1953.

*Octavia Hill Housing, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-53*

There are some remains of the first early Georgian and later Victorian housing in the area but the largest area around St Peter’s Church belonged to the Church of England and by the end of the 19th century had become one of LOndon’s most densely populated slums – or ‘rookeries’ as they were known.

*Octavia Hill Housing, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-54*

In 1904 the Church asked Octavia Hill, (1838-1912) one of the leading housing reformers since the 1860s to oversee the redevelopment of the area. She set new standards for working class housing and the estate includes cottage style terrace houses and three-storey tenement flats, some reflecting a Regency Style and others Arts and Crafts, in Liverpool Grove and side-streets from it including Saltwood Grove, Worth Grove, Portland St, Wooler St,

*Worth Grove, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-55*

Although the estate has a fairly high population density, Hill was also inspired by the Garden City Movement and the Arts and Craft village style development included the planting of many street trees; they or possibly their later replacements are very clear in my photographs.

*Worth Grove, Liverpool Grove, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-43*

Her development from 1904-1914 remains largely intact and at least externally little altered, with only a very small area of Second World War bomb damage being rebuilt to a similar design. There was rather more redevelopment of the surrounding area in the 1950s.

*Merrow St, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1c-46*

The area is an incredibly well preserved example of early twentieth century social
housing, with a very different scale to much of the large blocks of the era by housing associations such as Peabody.

This walk will continue in a later post.

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

People’s Health, Chapel Furniture, Sutherland Square & Groce Bros

This continues my posts on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The previous post was Heygate, Shops, English Martyrs & St John the Evangelist

Municipal Offices, Borough of Southwark, Larcom St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-34 — *Health Centre, Borough of Southwark, Larcom St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-34*

This building on the corner of Larcom Street and Walworth Road is now Larcom House and has a blue plaque for “Michael Faraday – 1791-1867 – Scientific genius and discoverer of electromagnetism’ put there by the London Borough of Southwark. It isn’t clear why they put it here as he was born in Newington Butts.

Built as a health centre in 1937 this Grade II listed art deco building is now office space and offers are invited for internal development behind the listed facades

*Health Services Department, Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, Walworth Rd, Larcom St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-36*

This is the main frontage of the 1937 Grade II listed health centre, with statues of mother and children on the roof showing its association with family health, and the text ‘THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE IS THE HIGHEST LAW’. It appears to be still in use as the Walworth Clinic.

*Houses Cleared, Browning St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-22*

The building remained in use as a secondhand furniture business, Chapel Furniture, until it was demolished in 2016 and replaced by a new block. At 4 Downing St it was not actually a former chapel, but St Mark’s Church Hall, for St Mark’s Church in East Street, opened around 1874.

There was a much larger and well-known chapel a little further along Browning St, the York Street Chapel, an Independent or Congregational chapel built in 1790. It was renamed Browning Hall in 1895 after Robert Browning, the Victorian playwright and poet who was baptised here in 1812, and York Road was also renamed Browning St in the 1920s.

The church was very active in relief of poverty in the area and had a settlement on Walrworth Rd, opened in 1895 by Herbert Asquith. Charles Booth began a campaign here with a conference in 1898 and in 1899 Browning Hall became the headquarters of the National Committee of Organised Labour on Old Age Pensions, which eventually led to the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. Browning Hall was demolished in 1978 when a council housing estate was built here.

*King & Queen St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-24*

Until the 1920s I think this street was simply one of many King Streets in London. Many London streets were renamed in the 1920s and 30s to try make their names unique in the city. There was at the time a Queen’s Head pub in the street, long gone.

Although my contact sheet suggests this was taken in King & Queen Street, there is nothing in the picture which allows me to confirm that. I’d walked some distance before I took my next pictures on the west of Walworth Road, and it could well have been another nearby street.

But this was certainly somewhere in Walworth and I think demonstrates the run-down nature of the area at that time. The rubbish on the grass here may have been in part because this was close to the busy East St Market which I avoided on this walk, though I did photograph there in later years.

*Sutherland Square, Walworth, Southwark, 1979 89-1b-26*

The oldest houses in Sutherland Square date from the early 19th century and most of the houses and railings are Grade II listed. The square was built on part of the former Royal Surrey pleasure gardens, but not long after it was completed the London, Chatham and Dover Railway line was opened on a viaduct across the east end of the square. The gardens continued as a the Surrey Zoological Gardens and Surrey Music Hall until sold for housing development in 1877, and a small area of them became a public park, Pasley Park, in the 1980s.

Southwark designated the Sutherland Square Conservation Area in 1982.

*Sutherland Square, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-14*

The notice on the wall states ‘COMMUNITY GARDEN. PLEASE DO NOT STEAL PLANTS AND FLOWERS. THEY ARE PROVIDED FOR OUR ENJOYMENT by NO 12 the Sq’ . The notice has gone, but there is now a rather more healthy looking area of planting here on the corner just to the west of the railway viaduct.

*Macleod St, Walworth Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1c-61*

Macleod Street leads from Sutherland Square east to Walworth Rd, and this building on the corner is now a gym, with the ground floor on this corner being an Iceland store.

The building has a long frontage on Walworth Road, which now houses several shops. It was built around 1960 as a Co-operative store. Previously the site had been occupied by Grose Bros department store. This had started as a drapery business in the area by John Wellington Grose who was born in Padstow, Cornwall around 1840. He had two daughters and four sons, some at least of whom continued the business.

To be continued…

The first post on this walk was Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road.
Comments and corrections to these posts are alway welcome.

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.

Wansey St, Larcom St, Peabody & Heygate

My second post on my walk in Walworth on 8th January 1989. The start of this walk is
Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road

*Wansey St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-14*

Post-war Pritchard House (left) has been demolished but the house at 66 Wansey St in the right half of the picture is still there. Everything to its left has now gone with only the steps of No 68 remaining for a small new block of two social housing flats.

The street now continues through where Pritchard House was to Brandon Street and it is now part of the Larcom Street Conservation Area. No 66 probably dates from around 1860 and it and other houses on the street are probably part of the earliest development of the area.

66 Wansey St comes at the end of a long terrace – longer when built as there is a gap between 46 and 54 with a post-war infill block almost certainly following war damage. The house is the grandest of those surviving and the only one with a carriage entrance. The street then ended here, with Gurney St at right angles.

The area suffered heavily in the Blitz, with houses in the area being damaged or destroyed, including one of the greatest disasters of the bombing. Bombs hit nearby 6 Gurney St, close to the New Kent Road, damaging it and other houses on the last night of the Blitz, 10/11 May 1941, but it was only over a year later than a huge unexploded bomb that had been buried deep under the rubble, totally destroying 6 Gurney St and the two houses on each side and severely damaging many others in the surrounding area. 18 people were killed and 62 severely injures. This house on Wansey St was at the limit of broken glazing, over 200 yards away.

Kingshill, Heygate Estate, Brandon St, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-16 — *Kingshill, Brandon St, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-16*

This block was a part of the Heygate Estate, neglected and demonised by Southwark Council and eventually demolished to allow for development of the area largely as private housing mainly sold to overseas investors.

*St Johns Institute, Larcom St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989*

Built around 1900 thanks to the efforts of the then vicar of nearby St John’s Church, the Rev. A W Jephson, this remains in use as a community centre. There is now a block of flats to its left.

*Surgery, Heygate Estate, Rodney Rd, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-63*

The Heygate Estate, one of the better planned council estates of its era was by designed by Tim Tinker and completed in 1974. Southwark Council saw an opportunity to profit from redeveloping the area and began a process of demonising the estate, which had been allowed to deteriorate. What had been social housing for around 3000 people provided only 82 socially rented homes in the new development, much of which was sold to overseas investors.

They ended up making a loss as having spent around £65 million on emptying it and scheming for its redevelopment against a strong campaign by residents they sold it to Lendlease for £50 million. However some councillors and officers are said to have done rather well out of it personally.

*Chimney, Flats, Heygate Estate, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-64*

Another view of the Heygate from the outside. Like many developments of its time a central boiler provided heating efficiently to all or many of the properties, though often inadequate maintenance meant such systems broke down.

I’m unsure of the purpose of this large open area or of the strange markings on it.

*Peabody Flats, Rodney Rd, Larcom St, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-65*

The overhead walkway from which I took this picture was a part of the Heygate Estate and demolished with it. Morris Court, the Peabody flats it shows are still there on the corner with Larcom St. The Peabody Walworth Estate was built around 1915 replacing slum housing and modernised in the 1980s. There are a number of blocks around a large central courtyard along Rodney Road, Content St and Wadding St.

*Walkway, Heygate Estate, Rodney Rd, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-66*

This is taken from another walkway on the estate. As a non-resident I found these rather easy to get lost on as they were not shown on my mpas, but although the estate had a bad reputation I never experienced any problems, and it was certainly pleasant to be away from cars which were often a hazard when taking pictures. But it would have possibly seemed more threatening late at night rather than on a Sunday morning.

*Walkway, Playground, Heygate Estate, Southwark, 1989 89-1b-51*

Another picture from one of the walkways around this corner of the Heygate Estate, which perhaps shows some of my confusion. It also shows a few of the many trees which had been planted in the area, which had just about come to maturity when the estate was demolished.

More from this walk through Walworth shortly.

Elephant, Faraday, Spurgeon & Walworth Road

On Sunday January 8th 1989 I returned to South London for my first photographic walk of the year beginning at the Elephant & Castle.

Faraday Memorial, Elephant & Castle, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-46-Edit — *Faraday Memorial, Elephant & Castle, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-46*

This building commemorates Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the English chemist and physicist celebrated for his ground-breaking research into electricity and magnetism who was born a short distance away on 22 September 1791. He invented the electric motor, transformer and generator.

The architect was Rodney Gordon (1933 – 2008) and this was his first job in the London County Council Architects department which was completed in 1961. Inside is the sub-station which converts the power for the Northern and Bakerloo lines, both of which have stations nearby.

When I took this photograph, it was at the centre of a large roundabout, with subways taking pedestrians across to the shopping centre descending at its side. The subways have now been replace by routes at ground level and the road layout changed, making this more easily accessible. But now the whole area is being redeveloped, and England’s first purpose-built shopping centre has been demolished.

Metropolitan Tabernacle, Stairs to Shopping Centre, Newington Butts, Elephant & Castle, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-35-Edit — *Metropolitan Tabernacle, Stairs to Shopping Centre, Newington Butts, Elephant & Castle, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-34*

Baptists began meeting in Kennington in 1650, when Baptist meetings were still illegal, but moved to a chapel near Tower Bridge in 1688 when they were allowed. It thrived over the years moving to larger chapels and becoming the largest Baptist congregation in England. Under the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon which began in 1853 numbers became so large the services had to be moved to hired halls. The church bought a site on Newington Butts, both because of its prominent location and because it was thought to be the site of the burning of the Southwark Martyrs. The church with seating for 6,000, architect William Willmer Pocock was completed in 1861.

The shopping centre where I was standing was built as one of the first US-style indoor shopping malls in Europe with more than a hundred shops on three levels. Still popular with many, particularly for its market stalls, the centre closed in 2020 in the face of considerable opposition from locals and has been demolished.

Immediately to the south of the Elephant at the start of Walworth Rd, just past the railway bridge you can see at extreme right is this fine row of late-Victorian buildings, still there, although I think all have changed hands and there have been some subtle changes to the frontages as well as new shopfronts, and doubtless rather more change behind some of the facades. But it remains an impressive start to the road, while the other side has been depressing for many years.

Beyond Hampton Street at the end of the row, everything is new and perhaps one of London’s dullest new blocks, while viewing from a different angle across the road the scene is dominated by the 43 storey 487ft Strata Tower, completed in 2010 and decorated at its top by three wind turbines which were such a feature of its advertisement as a ‘green building’ but cause too much noise and vibration to actually be used. Appropriately for their location they are a real ‘white elephant’, and a potent example of ‘greenwashing’. The building was awarded the 2010 Carbuncle Cup for bad architecture as one of the “ugliest buildings in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months”.

*R R Boast, Walworth Rd, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-24*

One of the buildings in the row at 86 had formerly been home to R R Boast, Electrical Contractors and Engineers and Heating Specialists, with two other company names in much smaller letters on the left. A liquidator was appointed for the company in 1975 and the premises were I think still boarded up, though posters on the windows advertised keep fit and dance classes I think these were held elsewhere. Fly-posting across the lower frontage seemed very neatly done.

The building now has an extra floor as The Castle Hotel.

*Walworth Rd, Walworth, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-25*

Murrays Solicitors at 94-96 Walworth Rd is now a dentists at ground floor level but I think otherwise looks much the same, though it has lost its street nameplate.

At right of this picture you can just make out the top of the Hampton St side of 96 Walworth Rd, and this yard with its heap of tyres was on Steedman Street, just a few yards from its junction with Walworth Rd.

*Former Southwark Town Hall, Walworth Rd, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-12*

The Italianate Grade II listed Newington Vestry Hall by Henry Jarvis at the left opened in 1865, with a library added to the south east in 1892 and the two buildings joined the following year. In 1900 it became Southwark Town Hall for the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark and was further extended. But in 1965 the larger London Borough of Southwark borough moved its town hall elsewhere and renamed this building Walworth Town Hall.

In 2006 the Cuming Museum moved in, but the building was badly damaged in a fire in 2013. It is currently being restored to provide a space for educational activities, studio spaces and creative workshops.

My walk will continue in a later post. As usual you can see larger versions of any of the pictures by clicking on them which will take you to the picture in one of my Flickr albums.

Apocalypse, Cold Blow Lane, Millwall & Surrey Canal

The previous post on this walk is Evelina, Sassoon, Queens Road, Montpelier and Mazawattee. The pictures here come from the final film on my walk on 18th December 1988. I only finished the film and developed in it January 1989 so they appear in my Flickr album for 1989.

*Mural, Sanford Walk, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-61*

‘Riders of the Apocalypse’ was painted by Brian Barnes on the end property of Sanford Housing Co-operative in 1983. Student Co-operative Dwellings (SCD) was founded in 1968 by John Hands and colleagues and campaigned for five years lobbying parliament and looking for land until the government and Lewisham Council agreed to allow them the build Sanford Co-operative Dwellings. This was the first purpose-designed co-op scheme for the young and mobile, and was completed in October 1974.

*Cold Blow Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-63*

Cold Blow Lane in the 19th century led to Cold Blow Farm, now long gone. In the 1850s the Croydon Railway built several tracks over it, and one of these went on the bridge whose two piers can be seen in this picture though the bridge has gone. Railway tracks still go over the lane, and I took this picture close to the exit of the long tunnel that goes under them. At the end of the lane is Mercury Way, and Cold Blow Lane turns at 90 degrees to go south.

Straight ahead, under another railway line, was ‘The Den’, then the home of Millwall Football Club, and I think the top of a stand is just visible in the picture. On the wall at left, among other graffiti is the message ‘Home of the Lions’

*Surrey Canal Road, New Cross, South Bermondsey, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-51*

I think I made this and the next picture from a footpath just to the north of the Surrey Canal Road. The contact sheet gives a grid reference 356781 and this may show part of the area which is now Millwall’s ground in Senegal Fields.

Surrey Canal Road, New Cross, South Bermondsey, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-52-Edit — *Surrey Canal Road, New Cross, South Bermondsey, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-52*

You can still see this long range of buildings on Stockholm Road, just south of The Den. and parallel with Surrey Canal Road, occupied by a range of commercial companies. I imagine they date from when the Surrey Canal bed was filled in and the road bulit by Lewisham Council in the early 1980s.

Footpath, Senegal Rd, New Cross, South Bermondsey, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-54-Edit — *Footpath, Senegal Rd, New Cross, South Bermondsey, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-54*

Since 1993, the Millwall football ground has been on Senegal Fields. The footpath now runs next to the new Millwall Stadium and then under the railway lines which have some very impressive Victorian brickwork.

These are most of the lines out of London Bridge Station which begin to diverge in this area. You can see all three bridges in this picture. This was a very run-down area and the abandoned parts of a moped at right seemed an appropriate way to express this.

*Hill, Bridgehouse Meadows, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-56-Edit*

I turned around here and walked back south across the Surrey Canal Road and to Bridgehouse Meadows.

This was the site of the former New Cross Stadium opened as an athletics stadium in the early 1900s but from the 1930s used for greyhound racing and speedway before its closure in 1969. For some years Millwall FC whose old ground was next to it used it for training. The stadium was demolished in 1975 and there were ambitious plans for it be part of the site of a new ground for the club – but these fell through and the new stadium was eventually built further north.

Factory, from Bridgehouse Meadows, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-42-Edit — *Factory, from Bridgehouse Meadows, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-42*

This factory has been demolished and new housing built in its place. I think this site was also part of the over-ambitious plans for expansion by Millwall who wanted to take over a huge area.

Path, Bridgehouse Meadows, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-43-Edit — *Path, Bridgehouse Meadows, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 89-1a-43*

The path through the meadows crosses the Surrey Canal Road on a bridge you can see in the distance, no longer present. Both sides of the park area now have new housing.

Ilderton Rd, New Cross, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-44-Edit — *Ilderton Rd, South Bermondsey, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-44*

This is part of a site for travellers on Ilderton Rd and this house is still there, though there were no Christmas window decorations when I last walked past – but that was on a housing protest march in March 2017, where we stopped briefly at the Bermondsey Travellers Site. Behind is the railway line from South Bermondsey Station next door to the site where my walk ended.

This was the last picture from my walk on December 18th and completed a series of walks around this part of South-East London. My walks in 1989 began around the Elephant.

Evelina, Sassoon, Queens Road, Montpelier and Mazawattee

This is another post on my walk on 18th December 1988; the previous post was Pepys Road and Nunhead Cemetery.

GHM, Evelina Rd, Nunhead, Southwark, 1988 88-12e-56-Edit_2400 — *GHM, Evelina Rd, Nunhead, Southwark, 1988 88-12e-56*

GH Metals is I think still operating in Evelina Rd, although its premises are now covered by graffiti and there are no prices on the list of metals still above the shopfront. Their web site states the family have run successful scrap metal yards all over South London and in Peckham since 1968.

Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World was the title of a novel by Fanny Burney published in 1778 but I suspect the road like the Evelina London Children’s Hospital was named after the English wife of the wealthy Austrian Baron, Ferdinand de Rothschild – she died in 1866, probably around the time the street began to be built up.

R E Sassoon House, St Mary's Rd, Peckham. Southwark, 1988 88-12e-44-Edit_2400 — *R E Sassoon House, St Mary’s Rd, Peckham. Southwark, 1988 88-12e-44*

From Evelina Road I went up St Mary’s Road, photographing the strangely squat St Mary Magdalene Church (not digitised) , described on the Twentieth Century Society’s web site as “a bold and innovative 1960s landmark” but sadly demolished by the Church of England and replaced by a building “of no architectural merit”. Designed by Potter and Hare it was built in 1961-2 and demolished in 2010.

Sassoon House designed in an International Modernist style by Maxwell Fry is Grade II listed and was built as a part of the Peckham project around the neighbouring Pioneer Health Centre in 1934 to provide high quality social housing. The Sassoon family were one of the wealthiest in the world, known as the “Rothschilds of the East“ amd when R E Sassoon, the amateur jockey son of the philanthropist Mozelle Sassoon, was killed steeplechasing in 1933 his mother commissioned this block in his memory.

Queens Road, Peckham. Southwark, 1988 88-12e-32-Edit_2400 — *Queens Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1988 88-12e-32*

I’ve only digitised one of the six frames I exposed on Queens Road, where there are several listed buildings on the corner and just to the west of St Mary’s Rd. This is Grade II listed as ‘QUEEN’S ROAD (South side) Nos.156 and St Mary’s Court (No.158)’ and the houses date from around 1845.

Montpelier Rd, Peckham. Southwark, 1988 88-12e-21-Edit_2400 — *Montpelier Rd, Peckham. Southwark, 1988 88-12e-21*

Montpelier Road (single L) was apparently named in 1875 after Montpellier in France (2Ls) which was a fashionable resort at the time and is now the seventh or eighth largest city in France. As well as one of the oldest universities in the world with an historic centre and the famous the Promenade du Peyrou from which you can on a clear day see the Meditteranean, Montpellier was also well-known for its wine. Montpelier Road has none of these and previously the road had been called Wellington Villas. It may have taken the name from the nearby Montpelier Tavern in Choumert Road, which although in a more modern building probably dates back earlier.

This unusual terrace of houses is fairly typical of most of the west side of the street which ends at Meeting House Lane.Those further up the street are a little more decorated.

London Customs, Hart Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-25-Edit_2400 — *London Customs, Hart Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-25*

I walked back along Queen’s Road towards New Cross where there is now no trace of the building at No 3, though these is still a garage workshop, now 3a. But the name that had attracted my attention has gone. I imagine it offered the service of customising cars rather than any interest in the customs and traditions of the city. I thought it might make a good title picture.

Cold Blow Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-13-Edit_2400 — Cold Blow Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-13

I made a single exposure while walking north up Brocklehurst Street (not digitised) showing the window detailon this long street of identical houses, probably pressing the shutter out of boredom, and then turned into Cold Blow Lane, where there are the solid brick piers of a dismantled railway bridge leading to a narrow tunnel still takes the road under the railway, followed by a newer brodge under more lines with a slightly wider roadway underneath.

It was a rather scary walk underneath, though not as scary as it might be had it been a match day at the Millwall stadium nearby – still then at the Old Den in Cold Blow Lane.

Elizabeth Industrial Estate, Juno Way, Cold Blow Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-15-Edit_2400 — *Elizabeth Industrial Estate, Juno Way, Cold Blow Lane, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12e-15*

Juno Way was between the railway bridges over Coldblow Lane, but is now closed off at this southern end by a continuous fence between the bridges and can only be entered from Surrey Canal Road.

The building with the tower carrying the estate name was once the Mazawatee Tea factory, purpose built for them in 1901 when they were the largest tea company in the world. As well as tea they also processed coffee, cocoa, cakes, sweets and chocolates here and doubtless some raw materials would have come here on the Surrey canal from the London docks. It employed up to 2000 people but was heavily damaged by wartime bombing. The name is from the Hindi ‘Maza’ – pleasure – and the Sinhalese ‘Wattee’ – garden – and thus reflects two of the areas from which they brought tea. It was the most advertised brand in the UK until the Second World War.

The tower building was renovated from a complete shell in 2011 and ‘Unit 13’ now houses 12 self-contained studios with high ceilings and good natural light, including the 2300 square foot Tea Room Studio and a number of smaller spaces on the top floor.

I still had a little way to go on my walk and a few more pictures – I’ll post the final instalment of this walk later.