Arts & Crafts | >Re-PHOTO

Blackstock and Brownswood

Blackstock and Brownswood: Continuing my walk from Sunday 1st October 1989 which began at Finsbury Park and continued to the Nags Head before returning to Finsbury Park. The previous post to this ended on Blackstock Road.

*Gillespie Neighbourhood Office, Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-63*

The buildings at the right of this picture are those on the left of the final picture in my previous post. Here I wanted to contrast the deco style of the Gillespie Neighbourhood Office at 102 with that of the solid Victorian house next door and its more utilitarian infill at 98.

The border between Hackney and Islington runs here along the centre of Blackstock Road and this is on the Islington side, though I was standing in Hackney to take the picture. I was in Hackney’s Brownswood Conservation Area, but the more interesting side of the road here is not in a conservation area and this Art Deco office does not even appear on the local list.

*House, Brownswood Rd, Wilberforce Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-52*

The development of this area was delayed by the setting up of the park in the area as in the early years of its planning the actual boundaries were not fixed. So much of the area was built up in the 1870s, giving it a unusually homogeneous architecture.

Brownswood Road runs though the area with two peculiar staggered junctions and this picture was made at one of these.

*Frinton Metal Ltd, 145a, Brownswood Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-53*

I think the house number is from Blackstock Road – the scrap metal and Gold and Silver buyer was in the back yard of the house at the left, 145 Blackstock Road. Although there were no ‘TO-DAYS PRICES’ listed for Gold & Silver and the shop was closed on a Sunday, there is a light on inside and I think it was still in business.

Google Maps labels this section of Brownswood Road as Lydon Row and there is no sign that there ever was a business here.

*Mountgrove Garage, 115, Finsbury Park Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-56*

I walked a little further on down Blackstock Road and then turned down Mountgrove Road. The house at right is on Mountgove Road and that on the left – along with the garage – in on Finsbury Park Road. Rather to my surprise Mountgrove Garage is still there, now offering ‘MOT Tyres Servicing Bodywork’ and claiming ‘ALL VEHICLES REPAIRED HERE’, though all of the notices in my picture have been replaced. I think it looks rather less impressive now.

*Shops, 162-176, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-41*

Back on Blackstock Road I photographed this nicely detailed row with ground floor shops and facing more of the same on the opposite side of the street. I chose this one for the sign which I think at the top read OFFICIAL BOOKING OFFICE with MOTOR COACHES between the first and second floors and lower down ALL ROAD ROUTES and RAIL SEA AIR.

That sign has I think been restored since 1989 and is clearer now, but the uppermost word, already difficult to read in my picture has disappeared. Rather than a booking office the shop is now a book shop.

*Head, 198-200, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-42*

A little further down Blackstock road was this head above BESTOCK FURNISHING, a secondhand furnishing shop, the kind of place we bought chairs and tables when we were poor, and on the shop front of RITEMARKS LTD FOOTWEAR MANUFACTURERS a variety of symbols – a sunflower and two leaping fish. I think the window between these is a reflection of the building in my next picture.

*217, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-43*

Built as Highbury Fire Station by the LCC in 1906 it was one of many closed in 1920 after the replacement of horse-drawn engines by motorised fire engines meant that stations could serve a wider area.

As a young man around 1920 my father worked for a short time at Dennis Brothers Limited in Guildford. He was (among other trades) a carpenter, having grown up working with his father making horse-drawn carts, and they were then still making wooden fire engines, as well as ‘charabancs’ – open motor buses. Cutting the curved doors for these was a tricky three-dimensional job and he did it freehand.

Since I photographed it this Edwardian Arts & Crafts locally listed building has been converted into the Little Angel Day Nursery with flats above.

A Damp Sunday in Hull – 2018

A Damp Sunday in Hull: My poston My London Diary for Sunday 29th July 2018 begins with the question “What do you do on a wet Sunday morning in Hull?” and goes on to answer it, and a second post shows how we spent a slightly less damp afternoon in the city. The pictures here with one exception are from that day.

Hull, thanks to the remarkable generosity of Thomas Robinson Ferens, (1847 – 1930), a Methodist, “industrialist and philanthropist, for whom ‘Reckitt’s Blue made Ferens’ gold'”. He lived simply and gave this wealth almost entirely “to worthy causes. In 1920 he was earning £50,000 a year and giving away £47,000 of that, and still teaching Sunday School every week.” Thanks to him Hull has a university with the motto “Lampada Ferens” (carrying the light of learning) and more to the point for wet Sunday mornings, one of the finest municipal galleries in the country, though I had plenty of time for breakfast before it opened at 11 am.

I didn’t photograph the fine exhibition then showing in the gallery of the work of Käthe Kollwitz or any of the other work on display, but went on to meet my wife in Hull Minster where there was an exhibition by the Mission to Seamen and the statue shown above of Lil Bilocca made from issues of the Hull Daily Mail by Gail Hurst. Bilocca was the leader of Hull’s Headscarf Revolutionaries, the Hessle Road Women’s Committee who took direct actioin after three Hull trawlers, St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland, sank with the loss of 58 lives in freezing North Atlantic seas around Iceland in January and February 1968.

They fought the trawler owners – and at times the fishermens’ union – to get better safety measures and went to Downing St and persuaded Harold Wilson and his Labour government to review the industry and bring in safety measures which saved thousands of lives. For which she was blacklisted and subjected to a campaign of abuse and hate until her early death in 1988, but is now widely recognised as a hero for her campaign.

The rain had eased off after lunch as we walked along Spring Bank and through Hull General Cemetery on Spring Bank West to Chants on a combined nostalgia trip and on the Larkin trail.

One of the surprises on Spring Bank was the return of Shakespeare, a TV repair shop which I had photographed in the 1980s but more recently had become a Portuguese grocers and, more recently a multicultural food shop. Though it was only the former shop sign and was soon to be covered by a new once for the food store.

And in the cemetery which has been cleared a little – it now has friends, whearas before the council were more its enemies – I was pleased to again find the Monument to Cholera Victims. The 1849 outbreak in Hull killed 1,860 – one in 43 of the city’s inhabitants.

A short detour took us past Linda’s former home and through the Northern Cemetery to visit her family grave and then it was on to Newland Park, a wandering street in which Philip Larking lived in two houses. The entrance to the street has a plaque on the Larkin trail, and the second house he owned there has a plaque and a large toad.

Newland Park is Hull’s most expensive roads, close to the University, and as well as Larkin was also home as another plaque records for 9 years of De Eva Crane in whose house her the International Bee Research Association was formed.

Architecturally of more interest is West Garth, a large ‘Arts & Crafts’ house designed by John Malcolm Dossor (1872-1940) who later became Lord Mayor of Hull. It has a ‘butterfly’ design, with wings at 45 degrees leading off from the central panelled entrance hall. The ground floor room closest to camera was the billiard room, with a full-size table and a bar.

*Taken while staying at West Garth in 2008*

At the rear the wings enclosed a loggia, which was south-facing and acted as a sun trap, where we took afternoon tea when staying there – my wife was for some years a frequent visitor and I sometimes accompanied her. The building also had a fine library, and five large bedrooms. When sold for £620,000 on September 1, 2017 it was Hull’s most expensive house sale for the year, considerably more than the second most expensive (also in Newland Park,) which sold for £450,000.

West Garth had been the childhood home of one of our friends and he moved back to Hull in later life, first buying Larkin’s first home in Newland Park (and where I think his lawnmower killed a hedgehog) and later moving back into West Garth, spending his last years trying to restore it to its original state aiming to get it listed, but sadly he died before the work was completed.

Our day ended at another of the locations on the Larkin trail, with dinner at the Royal Station Hotel. Originally built together with the station in an Italian Renaissance style, it opened as the Station Hotel in 1849, gaining the ‘Royal’ after Queen Victoria visited in 1853. We had stayed there on a previous visit to Hull, but on this occasion were at a more modern and cheaper venue a few minutes walk away.

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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.

More from Battersea & Clapham, 1988

I often went to Battersea in the 1980s though more often to look at and discuss photographs at the Photo Co-op which was based in Webbs Road than to take pictures. I wasn’t deeply involved but became a regular attender when they set up a ‘Men’s Group’ to look at issues around gender from a male perspective, though I don’t think I contributed much to it.

Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2e-32-positive_2400 — *Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

I was a little put out when the Photo Co-op changed its name to Photofusion and moved to more extensive premises in Brixton, though I did usually attend openings there and contributed quite a few pictures to its photo library.

With its new name and much improved premises it became a larger and less intimate organisation – and it’s location was also less convenient for me, with a half hour bus journey rather than a ten minute walk from Clapham Junction. And although London buses are generally very frequent (and in most respects now much improved) I spent too much time waiting at a draughty bus stop in Brixton on my way home after openings.

Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2e-33-positive_2400 — *Battersea Library, Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

Battersea Library, Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2e-34-positive_2400 — *Battersea Library, Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

This charming Arts & Crafts style reference library by Henry Hyams was built in 1924 for the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, adjoining the older library building and was Grade II listed in 1983.

Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2e-23-positive_2400 — *Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

Although several properties in this picture were for sale, there is no estate agents on this stretch of street and I think it is hard to find one in my pictures of the area. Walking up Lavender Hill more recently it seemed hard to find a shop that wasn’t an estate agents, which seem to be about the only profitable businesses left in London. Huge rises in property prices and increased mobility due to gentrification have created an enormous expansion in this area.

Wandsworth Rd, Newby St, Lambeth, 1988 88-2e-13-positive_2400 — *Wandsworth Rd, Newby St, Lambeth, 1988*

Unless you ride a bike it’s easy to forget that parts of London are quite hilly as this slope down towards the River Thames from Wandsworth Rd in Clapham demonstrates.

Bingo, Wandsworth Rd Snooker Centre, Clapham, Lambeth, 1988 88-2e-12-positive_2400 — *Bingo, Wandsworth Rd Snooker Centre, Clapham, Lambeth, 1988*

Built in 1909 it was one of at least 24 Temperance Billiard Halls in South London built for the Temperance Billiard Hall Co. Ltd, founded in Pendelton Lancashire. Like most or all of those in the early years it was designed by Norman Evans, and there are other examples nearby in Clapham High St and Battersea. Despite this alcohol-free start, the building later became a bar and even a night club.

Until a few years ago it was Rileys, offering a Bar with Pool and Snooker tables. In 2015 the building was gutted, retaining its facade with a rather ugly plain block replacing the rear of the building, now a hotel. It’s something of a mystery how planning permission was obtained, although unlike several others, this hall was not listed. Probably the panels across its frontage shown in my picture were part of the reason for this, and at least the conversion to a hotel has revealed or provided an unencumbered aspect, even if it is only a brick or two thick.

Thomas Memorial, Church of the Nazarene, Temperance Billiard Hall, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-25-positive_2400 — *Thomas Memorial, Church of the Nazarene, Temperance Billiard Hall, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

Another Temperance Billiard Hall in Battersea, also unlisted. Again it is no longer a Billiard Hall and is now a pub, with a rather large new building behind. It remained in use as a busy snooker hall until the mid 1990s, open – and usually busy – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Converted as the Faraday and Firkin, a brew-pub, which opened in 1997, it later became O’Neills and is now The Goat.

The front of the church at left partly dates from 1823 when the building was owned and lived in by local merchant William Mellersh who enlarged it from a cottage dating from the 1750s. In 1858 it became the home of the Wandsworth District Board of Works who extended and embellished it, naming it Mellish House, there were further additions behind but it still became too small after Battersea gained its independence from Wandsworth in 1888 and they built a new town hall on Lavender Hill.

Still owned by Battersea, it served various purposes including being home to the Boy’s Brigade and the YMCA from 1890 until 1915. It was then bought by the International Holiness Mission founded in 1906 by Battersea drapers and pentecostalists John and David Thomas and was renamed the Thomas Memorial Church after David Thomas died in 1938. The IHM joined the Church of the Nazarenes in 1953. A major internal refurbishment was begun in 2011 with the church closing and reopening, still as a Nazarene church but known as Fresh Ground London.