Tag: Bingo Hall

Mecca, Statues, Bakers, Ladders, Timber… 1989

Mecca, Statues, Bakers Ladders, Timber… Continuing my walk on Sunday September 3rd 1989 which had begun in Stratford, from which some images appeared in my web site and self-published book ‘1989’, ISBN: 978-1-909363-01-4, still available. The pictures here are in the order I took them. For those images which were in the book I’ll show the book pages here.

Mecca, Bingo Hall, 468, Hoe St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9a-11
Mecca, Bingo Hall, 468, Hoe St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9a-11

Back at the Bakers Arms after a little stroll on Leyton Flats I found this closed Mecca Leisure Bingo Hall on Hoe Street, its ground floor frontage covered with flyposting. Cinema Treasures says it opened as The Scala Cinema in 1913, was renamed the Plaza Cinema in 1931 and then closed, reopening in 1933. After its next name change in 1961 to The Cameo Cinema in 1961 it kept going for two years before becoming a Mecca Bingo Club. Left derelict for 18 years after this closed in 1986, it was taken over by a church in 2004, Grade II listed in 2006 and now looks much better. The listing text calls it the Former Empress Cinema and notes its still existing elaborate interior plasterwork.

Mecca, Statues, Bakers Ladders, Timber
Child mannequins, shop window, Hoe St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9a-12

London Master Bakers, Benevolent Institution, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, 1989 89-9a-13 1989 89-9a-13
London Master Bakers, Benevolent Institution, 551, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, 1989 89-9a-13 1989 89-9a-13

The London Master Bakers’ Pension Society (now the Bakers’ Benevolent Society) was founded in 1832 and in 1854 decided to build almshouses. The foundation stone for the first was laid in 1857 and the first block of 18 were finished by 1861 and the rest by 1866, providing homes for elderly poor bakers and their widows.

In the late 1960s the site was purchased, probably as a part of a GLC road-widening scheme and the Bakers moved out to new villas in Epping. The almshouses were saved from further threats to demolish them by Grade II listing in 1971 and were purchased by Waltham Forest Council for use as 1-bed flats.

Mecca, Statues, Bakers Ladders, Timber
Drew, Clark & Co, Ladders, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-61

This is now Clow Group Ltd, Diamond Ladder Factory, still in this shop on the corner of Shortlands Rd.

Bakers Arms Tyre & Brake Co, 545, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-62
Bakers Arms Tyre & Brake Co, 545, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-62

Rather to my surprise this corner of Russel Road and Lea Bridge Road still looks remarkably similar although the names have changed and the central buildings have been rebuilt, I think with a slightly wider pavement. But it still sells tyres and cars and there is still a shed on the corner, though no longer named the DUCK INN, and the buildings down Russell Road still look much the same.

Mecca, Statues, Bakers Ladders, Timber
Statues, Capworth St, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-64

House, 27, Capworth St, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-66
House, 27, Capworth St, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9b-66

This house was demolished to build a modern office for the Capworth Panel & Timber Co Ltd, which was dissolved in 2012. As well as the main house all of the sheds and buidings at right also went.

The house had obviously seen grander days, and I wonder it it had originally had a carriage entrance at left where the brickwork does not quite match and the window and door are clearly much more modern, perhaps having been added at the same time as the first floor windows were given a makeover probably in the 1930s or 50s.

I still had time to continue my wandering around the area and take a few more pictures and will post a final set from this walk shortly.

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Railton Road, Herne Hill

The next episode in in the series of posts on my walk in south London on Sunday 7th May 1989. The walk began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was Herne Hill, Dorchester and Carnegie.

Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-62
Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-62

I wandered up Railton Road from the junction with Dulwich Road towards Herne Hill station. Herne Hill only appears to have got its name relatively recently, with the Herne Hill Society stating that the first documented reference dates from 1801. Earlier maps show it as King’s Hill or Dulwich Hill.

Neither of the two derivations they give seems particularly likely, with an Old English root hyrne (corner, angle) hyll seeming unlikely from the late appearance of the name and a roost of large numbers of heron on the nearby River Effra seems fanciful. Other possibilities put forward have been that it was named after a family called Herne who apparently lived here in the 17th century.

Perhaps the name really does come from Herne the Hunter, the mythical resident of Herne’s Oak in the Windsor Forest some twenty five miles or more to the west, transferred here by an early developer of the area who perhaps saw oak trees which reminded him of that place, perhaps also hearing the rattling of chains and ghostly moans in this area. Who knows?

Railton Road was apparently one of the roads developed in 1868, a few years after the coming of the railway, the station on this road opening in 1862. Until then the area had been one of large villas with leafy gardens for the wealthy, but soon became full of “smaller houses for clerks, artisans, craftsmen and their families, the workers taking advantage of cheap fares for commuting into London.“

Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-63
Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-63

The building at 222 Railton Road, here the Herne Hill Bingo and Social Club, was the Herne Hill Cinema, said to have opened in 1914, although there appears according to a postcard on Brixton Buzz to have been a cinema around here earlier than that. It’s narrow facade opened to a much wider auditorium behind which could seat 750.

Brixton Buzz quotes Cinema Treasures giving more information about its 1932 design by George Coles and closure as a cinema in 1959, but says it continued in use as a bingo club until 1986, then becoming shuttered and empty. Clearly it was locked and barred when I photographed it in 1989, and has a notice too small to read on its door, but doesn’t look in too poor condition. It is now a private bar, but apparently the auditorium area behind was demolished and housing built on the site.

Herne Hill Station, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-66
Herne Hill Station, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-66

Herne Hill Station was opened at the bottom of Herne Hill on Railton Road by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1862. At first it was a terminus, with services only towards Victoria, but a year later the line was extended to Beckenham and by the end of the decade there were also services to “the City of London, King’s Cross, Kingston via Wimbledon, and Kent, including express trains to Dover Harbour for continental Europe.“

The building with its polychrome brick Gothic tower seems excessive for what was a small suburban station, and was certainly intended to impress. The tower held the water tank needed by steam locomotives. The Wikipedia article quotes The Building News description of the station from 1863 as “spacious and convenient … and of the very best quality” and states “an unusual amount of decorative taste has been displayed“. It became an exempler of Victorian railway architecture.

Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-65
Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-65

This view looks toward the corner with Rymer St, which now takes traffic from Railton Road to Dulwich Road as Railton Road a little further north is now a no-entry street for motorised traffic other than buses.

At left is 200 Railton Road and at right, next to an alley is an accomodation bureau and letting service at 289, now the home of Herne Hill Books. Apparently this stretch of road was until 1888 known as Lett Street. The alley was once a public footpath, and looks as if it was still in 1989.

This view still looks much the same now, with the two 19-storey blocks of Park View House and Herne Hill House in Hurst Street, each built in 1966 with 72 flats, towering over the neighbourhood. Park View House many be blessed with a view of Brockwell Park, but unfortunately you can see it and its neighbouring tower from the park.

Railton Rd, Rymer St, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-51
Railton Rd, Rymer St, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-51

A closer view of 200 Railton Road. I have been unable to find out more about this building. Two of the three ground-floor shops appear to have been converted to to residential use by the time I made this picture.

Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-55
Shops, Railton Rd, Herne Hill, Lambeth, 1989 89-5f-55

I walked back down south down Railton Road to the junction with Dulwich Rd, stopping to photograph this terrace of shops at 315-323 Railton Road. This is now a pedestrian area and the shops are rather different in nature.

I liked the sign at left on 315, ‘Only the best is good enough for me‘ though with the metal shutters up on a Sunday I could not be sure what it sold, though I think it was probably a greengrocers.

To be concluded in another post.