Posts Tagged ‘Acre Lane’

Bon Marche, Police, Acre Lane and Tate

Wednesday, September 6th, 2023

Bon Marche, Police, Acre Lane and Tate: My walk which began in Clapham on Sunday 4th June 1989 continues in Stockwell. It began with Light & Life, Pinter and Stockwell Breweries and the previous post was More Stockwell Green & Mary Seacole.

240-250 Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-61
240-250 Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-61

Possibly before going to Stockwell Green, perhaps even at some point on my previous walk I made some more pictures around the centre of Brixton. Unfortunately film doesn’t come with meta-data and my memory is not as reliable as EXIF data, but these pictures were certainly made around the end of May or beginning of June 1989 and so I’ll share them here.

240-250 Ferndale Rd on the corner with Stockwell Ave, just a few yards back from Brixton Road was built in 1905-6 as an annexe of Bon Marche department store, later becoming Post Office with council offices on the upper floor. You can see a post office sign at the left of my picture. A photograph in the Lambeth Archives taken around 1975 show it as offices for Christian Aid and it was later home to the Refugee Council. The ground floor more recently became Canova Hall, a restaurant and the building was revived as The Department Store, “to create a series of collaborative workspaces supported by an evolving hub of creative, retail and community uses“.

Edmundsbury Estate, Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-64
Edmundsbury Estate, Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-64

This estate was complete in 1929 for the London County Council as Ferndale Court to house police officers in the City of London Police, but converted into council flats managed by Lambeth Council in 1979 when one of the blocks was demolished to leave a public open space. They were designed by Sidney Perks, who was surveyor to the City of London from 1908 before being appointed as its architect in 1928.

Adjoining the site to the east was the City of London Police Sports Club ground, now the Ferndale Community Sports Centre.

Acre Lane Mouldings Ltd, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-52
Acre Lane Mouldings Ltd, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-52

A board illustrates the range of skirting architraves and cornices the company could supply, ‘Quality Mouldings for That Finishing Touch!‘.

Acrelane Timber Ltd is still at this site in Brixton and can perhaps still supply some similar items. A previous frame, not yet digitised shows a little of the frontage offering heating and plumbing supplies.

In my father’s workshop, a very large shed with store rooms and work benches at the back of his family house in Hounslow, long sold off and demolished, I was intrigued as a child by many of the old tools used around the start of the 20th century which included a range of moulding planes used to produce shaped mouldings such as this, used in his father’s cart building business. Back when my elderly aunts moved out around 1970 there was little interest in things like this and I imagine they ended up in landfill, though I’ve since viewed far less impressive ranges in museums.

Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton Hill, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-54
Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton Hill, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-54

I turned back along Acre Lane to the junction with Brixton Road where I photographed the grandiose Lambeth Town Hall, complete with a banner advertising an event about child benefit taking place on June 2nd, as well as a sign about going to Lambeth Debtline for debt advice.

Grade II listed Lambeth Town Hall was built in 1905-8, designed by Septimus Warwick and H Austen Hall in what is described as a modified Baroque style, and was further raised and extended 1935-8. I think the clock tower looks like some strange parody, an ornament which doesn’t really belong but has somehow thrust itself up through the ceiling of the main building and flowered extravagantly, reminding me of an amaryllis.

Tate Bust, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-55
Tate Bust, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-55

This area was a pleasant garden before being destroyed by Lambeth Council to produce a windswept waste to discourage local people gathering here. It hasn’t really worked, just become less comfortable with oddly placed fixed chairs and the wind certainly rushes through the renamed Windrush Square. I think I might have come here in 1989 to sit and eat my sandwich lunch.

Henry Tate was born in 1819 in Lancashire, the son of a Unitarian minister, and set up a successful grocery business with six shops in the Liverpool area before going into partnership with sugar refiner John Wright there in 1859. When this partnership came to an end he founded Henry Tate & Sons with his sons Alfred and Edwin.

Tate introduced new more efficient refining techniques for the production of white sugar, and his business expanded and in 1878 he opened a large refinery at Silvertown still producing sugar now.

Fountain, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-56
Fountain, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-56

Tate was an employer who took care of his workers and supported many educational projects including free libraries in Streatham, Balham, South Lambeth and Brixton as well as hospitals. After he had built and opened a gallery on Millbank and presented his art collection to the nation he was told Queen Victoria would be offended if yet again he refused a title, and he became a baronet in 1898, a year before his death.

The business was merged with that of Abram Lyle & Sons in 1921, probably causing Tate to turn in his grave, as he had despised Lyle, not least for the way he treated his workers.

Reliance Arcade, Electric Avenue, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-41
Reliance Arcade, Electric Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-41

The Art Deco Reliance arcade was built into an exiting Georgian house and other buildings between Brixton Road and Electric Lane in 1923-5, its Egyptian style terracotta inspired by the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Home to around 30 businesses it was since 2014 this Grade II listed arcade was on English Heritage’s at risk list but was renovated in 2019-20. There are some good pictures from this time by Mike Urban on Brixton Buzz from before and close to the end of the renovation.

My account of this walk will continue in a later post.


Sunlight, Trinity, Town Hall & Granada

Thursday, August 17th, 2023

Sunlight, Trinity, Town Hall & Granada continues the account of my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was The Alexandra, Sanitary Ware & Ace and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

Sunlight Laundry, 125 Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-43
Sunlight Laundry, 125, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-43

Built 1937, architect F E Simpkins Sunlight Laundry is a fine example of Art Deco ‘moderne’ style which unfortunately some architectural historians have turned up their noses at – perhaps why this building and some others are unlisted. Clearly this should be.

The Sunlight company was founded in 1900 and expanded with branches across London and after a merger in 1928 became a national business. Until the 1960s much of its work was for middle class domestic homes, but the wider ownership of washing machines shrunk the market and it concentrated on hotels, factories and other commercial clients. Later it also became a major contractor to hospitals.

Sunlight Laundry, 125 Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-46
Sunlight Laundry, 125 Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-46

There are another three pictures of this building online (click on one of these images to go to the album to see them), and I’ve also photographed it on other occasions when passing, though usually I’ve gone past on a 37 bus and not stopped.

Sunlight became part of the Danish Berendsen group and in 2013 changed its name to reflect this. It continues in business internationally and in the UK is the leading company in textile and laundry services to the hospitality and healthcare sectors. The company was acquired in 2017 by the French laundry services group Elis, whose name and logo now label its frontage.

Trinity Homes, Almshouses,  28, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-33
Trinity Homes, Almshouses, 28, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-33

Trinity Homes is a Christian Charity which provides accommodation to both single and married couples over the age of 57 who are members of a Christian denomination. As it states on its frontage it was erected in 1822-4 and was built and Endowed by Thomas Bailey. Additional homes were added in 1860. Initially it was The Trinity Asylum for Aged Persons. The building is Grade II listed.

Bailey was a cut-glass manufacture in the City of London and lived in Bethal House on Trent Road in Brixton Hill behind Corpus Christi Catholic church, built on land given by Bailey. His house, built in 1768, became part of the RC primary school built on the site in 1902 but has since been demolished.

Lambeth Assembly Hall, Buckner Rd, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-34
Lambeth Assembly Hall, Buckner Rd, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-34

The Assembly Hall is at the west end of the Town Hall complex and this striking sculpture relieves a huge plain brick wall area. This rather plain building is covered by the Grade II listing of Lambeth Town Hall and I think dates from 1935-8 when the Town Hall was raised and extended. The striking sculpture on what the listing text calls a particularly handsome rear elevation is ‘Youth rising from the Past‘, by Denis Dunlop (1892–1959).

Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton 89-5l-35-Edit
Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton 89-5l-35-Edit

Lambeth Town Hall seen from Acre Lane, though my more usual views of it have been either from Windrush Square or in close-up from the bus stop on the opposite side of the road during those long waits for a No 37 bus.

I’m not a great fan of the rather pompous clock tower of this Grade II listed town hall designed by Septimus Warwick and H Austen Hall and built in 1905-8. Edwardian Baroque always seems to me a period where architecture lost its way and was given excessive funding thanks to our plundering the wealth of the Empire.

Granada Brixton, Brighton Terrace, Bernay's Grove, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-36
Granada Brixton, Brighton Terrace, Bernay’s Grove, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989

Opened in 1898 as the Empress Theatre, designed by Wylson & Long, it was reconstructed in Art Deco style by Andrew Mather, reopening in 1931 as the New Empress Theatre. It showed films on Sundays when live performances were not allowed. It closed as a theatre in 1957 and after alterations opened a month later as a cinema. Granada Brixton became a Bingo Club in 1967 and when this closed was used as a furniture store. It was demolished in 1992 and the rather ugly Pavilion Mansions built on the site.

This walk continues along Brighton Terrace in a later post.