Posts Tagged ‘Clapham’

A Chateau, Wix’s Lane & Shaftesbury

Friday, January 26th, 2024

Continuing my walk in Clapham on Saturday July 29th 1989 which began with Some Madness and Houses in Clapham.

Clapham Common Northside, Cedars Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-24
Clapham Common Northside, Cedars Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-24

This truly grand scale building facing Clapham Common is at the western edge of the London Borough of Lambeth and the road in the foreground is Cedars Road. A terrace of five mansions at 48-52 Clapham Common North side, it was built by J T Knowles in 1860 with the two ends as pavilions with roofs like those of French Renaissance chateaux. It was Grade II listed in 1969 as Knowles Terrace.

Earlier the road had been lined with villas built for rich City merchants in the mid-eighteenth century.

Clapham Common Northside, Wix's Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-25
Clapham Common North Side, Wix’s Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-25

Wix’s Lane is the boundary between Lambeth and Wandsworth, although the street sign is from the Borough of Battersea which was became a part of Wandsworth in 1965 and my map shows the boundary as running along this wall.

Charles Wix was a builder and he built a villa for himself on Clapham Common North Side on the west corner of Wix’s Lane around 1780, living there until his death in 1820. Not long after this was rebuilt as Cedars Cottage but it and its neighbours were later replaced by a rather bland red-brick terrace.

The view here gives a better view of the rather heavy ornamental work on the 1860s Knowles Terrace.

School, Wix's Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7n-26
School, Wix’s Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7n-26

The London School Board built Wix’s Lane School, which opened on 27th April 1903. It later became Wix County Primary School. It is now still in use as Belleville Wix Academy and also houses a Lycée Francais.

Wix’s Lane had been a field path from Clapham Common to Lavender Hill but when villas were built along this section of Clapham Common North Side they were given back entrances from it for stabling their horses and carriages. The school was the first building on its west side, taking a large section of the gardens of one of these houses, Byram House.

School, Wix's Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989  89-7n-11
School, Wix’s Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7n-1

The Belleville Wix Academy history page includes a quote from a 1937 school inspector ‘”in the early years it was not uncommon to see twenty or thirty children being led to and from Wix’s Lane School by maidservants“. However, it goes on to say: “now the larger houses are divided into flats, and these, as well as the smaller houses in the neighbourhood, are occupied mainly by clerical workers in the City, by local tradesman and shop keepers, and by artisans and labourers of the better type“. “Poverty exists“, it states, “although it is mainly courageously hidden“‘ .

Flats, Cedars Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-12
Flats, Cedars Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-12

I walked back to Cedars Road and walked up it past some rather more modern flats on my way to Wandsworth Road. Much of both sides of this tree-lined road are now covered by similar modern flats, and few of the trees are cedars. A few older houses remain but although I photographed a couple of them I’ve not put these pictures on-line.

House, Glycena Rd, Grayshott Rd,  Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-65
House, Glycena Rd, Grayshott Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-65

I turned west on Wandsworth Road and then went up Acanthus Road, on my way to Brassey Square.. Acanthus Road becomes Grayshott Road, and this house is on the corner of that and Glycena Road.

This and a similar house opposite act as a gateway to the Shaftesbury Park Estate built between 1872 and 1877 by the Artizans’, Labourers’, & General Dwellings Company, about which I’ve written in previous posts. These houses and their short terraces are one of only two listed parts of the estate. It was just a little further up the road at what are now Nos 65-7 that Lord Shaftesbury formally began the estate with a memorial stone in 1872. It is still in place but I didn’t photograph it.

Sabine Rd, Brassey Square, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-51
Sabine Rd, Brassey Square, Shaftesbury Park Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-51

I turned east down Sabine Road, another of the first streets to be built after that stone was laid with its message ‘Healthy homes, first condition of social progress’ in 1872. Supposedly the main figure in the 1951 Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob lived in a seedy boarding house here, though none of the film was shot in the area. In just a few yards I was in Brassey Square, intended to be the centre of the estate which is now the Shaftesbury Park Estate Conservation Area.

Brassey Square which took its name from contractor Thomas Brassey and his three sons who all became MPs and had shares and it was meant to have a garden at its centre, but this was built over in 1879. This building with its frontage on Sabine Road has doors numbered 78 and 1 presumably for that road and Brassey Square respectively. The building is locally listed and is presumed to have been a part of the never-completed plan to build a library, central hall and co-operative shops fronting Brassey Square.

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


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Some Madness and Houses in Clapham

Tuesday, January 16th, 2024

Some Madness and Houses in Clapham: On the 29th July 1989 my walk began in Clapham and I found this sign on The Pavement. I could make very little of it then and still can’t now.

Notice, The Pavement, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-43
Notice, The Pavement, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-43

At the top of the painting on the wall is a geometric device surround by a circle with a square inside divided into four quarters and various triangles inside and on its two vertical edges. Four arrows from the circle have a 90 degree left turn and point anticlockwise and to the letters ‘PH.’, ‘MAY’, ‘MARY’ and ‘C.R.’. Underneath I can just make out the scrawled word ‘MADONNA’, though I think think this has been overwritten at the start to read ‘CRAP’ and there are some other letters and numbers including a ‘6’.

Below this, boldly painted in the same script as the words around the device are a series of words or rather letters in which there are some actual words and some plausible inventions. The whole is a mystery though I rather suspect one that many have involved copious amounts of illegal substances. There was some colour in this notice which you can see in the different shades of grey, and a few sections were in red, particularly the only lower case line just above the bottom, ‘dunhillthwaiton’ while the bottom line, ‘HYPOSTASISTA’ was in green.

I think this was a part of the block called The Polygon which was demolished in the early 2000s. But it is difficult to understand street names in this area of Clapham, and this writing on the wall is impossible.

Houses, Rectory Gardens, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-45
Houses, Rectory Gardens, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-45

I wrote about Rectory Gardens at more length in the post about an earlier visit there in May 1989. Built in the 1870s as philanthropic housing for low paid workers after being damaged in the war they were squatted in the late 1960s and 70s and a unique artistic community grew up there. Lambeth Council bought the area and intended to develop it in 1970, but there was strong local opposition both from residents and others in the local area.

Houses, Rectory Gardens, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-46
Houses, Rectory Gardens, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-46

The Clapham Society wanted them to be kept as a group and run by a housing association but eventually Lambeth Council evicted the residents and in 2016 sold them off to a developer to build expensive luxury properties in “a triangular mews-style development“.

Porch, 39, Turret Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-32
Porch, 39, Turret Grove, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-32

I walked up Rectory Grove to Turret Grove, developed on the site of the Elzabethan manor house, Clapham Manor, demolished in 1837. Some of the houses in it date from 1844-5 and are in the Rectory Grove Conservation Area which notes their “attractive trellis style porches“.

Doorways, Clapham Common Northside area, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-35
Doorways, Clapham Common Northside area, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-35

I made my way through the backstreets towards Clapham Common. One of the streets I walked down was Macaulay Road and this has some impressive doorways and I think this pair were probably on this road.

Zachary Macaulay, born in Scotland had emigrated to Jamaica in 1784 when he was 16 and worked as an assistant manager on a sugar plantation, returning to London five years later. In 1790 he visited Sierra Leone, set up as a home for emancipated slaves many of whom had fought for Britain in the American War of Independence, returning in 1792 and becoming its Governor from 1794-9. He became one of the leading members of the Clapham Sect working for the abolition of slavery, able to provide William Wilberforce with first-hand information and statistics.

In 1799 he came back to Clapham with 25 children from Sierra Leone and set up a the School of Africans to train them with skills to support the development of their country when they returned. Unfortunately “one by one they succumbed to the cold“, though in fact what killed most of them was measles and only six survived.

Further down the street was once the site of the Ross Optical Works which made cameras, lenses and projectors which moved here in 1891 and expanded greatly in 1916 when their work was considered essential to the war effort. At its peak the company employed 1200 people. Ross Ensign was said to be the premier optical company in the United Kingdom, but was unable to compete with foreign competition and closed in 1975.

Clapham Common Northside, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-23
Clapham Common Northside, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7n-23

I think I probably photographed this house on the corner of Clapham Common Northside and The Chase mainly because it was so different from the rest of the properties, terraces and blocks along there. A large house, but only two storeys and with an attractive upper floor window, but largely hidden behind its rampant bushes and trees in its front garden.

On its side in The Chase are three plaques commemorating street parties for the Queen’s Birthday, a royal wedding and the Golden Jubilee in recent years.

To be continued.


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Shops, Spurgeon, Byron, Shakespeare & a Café

Saturday, January 13th, 2024

Shops, Spurgeon, Byron, Shakespeare & a Café: More pictures from my walk which began at Vauxhall on Friday 28th July 1989 with Nine Elms Riverside. The previous post was Rail, Housing, Matrimony & A Warning.

Shops, 56-64, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-22
Shops, 56-64, Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-22

The six houses between Woodmere Grove and Shirley Grove at 56-66 on the north side of Lavender Hill were built at a slight angle to the road. Each of them also has a rounded corner at the south-east, making them look from the east side as a series of round towers, some strange castle beside the road. Unlike the other terraces on the road this makes them stand out as individual buildings, though shop extensions on the ground floor present a straight line on the pavement.

These houses were built as a part of Seymour Terrace in around 1870 as private houses with basements on a part of an estate bought by Clapham surgeon and GP Henry Meredith Townsend who lived nearby on Clapham Rise. The ground floor was converted into shops in 1882. The Survey of London which gives more detail describes them as “a minor masterpiece of street architecture.

Queen's Road Stores, Hartington Terrace, Stanley Grove, Queenstown Rd, Clapham, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-24
Queen’s Road Stores, Hartington Terrace, Stanley Grove, Queenstown Rd, Clapham, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-24

Hartington Terrace on Queenstown Road is still there though the shopfronts have changed a little over the years they are still basically the same. No 43 on the corner has lost those ‘decorative’ blinds and looks very much more sober, not welling bathroom fittings rather than wine. This whole area of Battersea, Park Town, was the heart of a single farm, Longhedge Farm, which began to be developed after the opening of Battersea Park in 1858. Its long and complex story is told in great detail in the link cited.

Developments at the southern end included some large villas close to Clapham Common, and the developers of the northern part under Philip William Flower (1810–72) originally hoped to make this a middle-class area with its location between Clapham and Chelsea but later had to lower their expectations largely because of railway expansion in the area and develop it as homes for working-class artisans.

An Act of Parliament in 1863 allowed the laying out of Queens Road (known since 1939 as Queenstown Road) and building on the estate continued over the next 30 or so years. One of the two major builders was Walter Peacock who began Hartington Terrace (named by Cyril Flower, (1843–1907), Philip’s eldest son and first Lord Battersea) in 1885. No 43 was built as a pub and there was a parade of 7 shops with stabling and workshops behind. A few more shops were added to the north in 1888 by another builder.

Stanley Grove at left was an earlier development with houses built by a number of builders in 1867-8.

Life Tabernacle, United Pentecostal Church, 32, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-26
Life Tabernacle, United Pentecostal Church, 32, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-26

The church is still there, set back from Battersea Park Road, but the temporary looking building occupying most of the picture has been replaced by a rather nondescript block with a large ground floor betting shop.

The land for the church building was, according to the Survey of London, acquired in 1868 “from the Crown’s Battersea Park purchase, to be used ‘as a branch from Mr Spurgeon’s tabernacle’. ” One of the leading Baptist figures of the age, Spurgeon was for 38 years pastor of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) at the Elephant & Castle. He was a powerful preacher and prolific writer and supporter of many practical schemes to improve the lot of the urban poor as well as missions such as this to convert them to his Calvinistic Christianity.

The first building erected was this, built as a lecture hall seating almost 500 by Lambeth builder and architect William Higgs, and it was 25 years later that a chapel was added to Battersea Tabernacle. This occupied the space between the hall and Battersea Park Road and was demolished probably in the 1970s having been damaged by wartime bombing. The hall was purchased for £25,000 by members of Calvary Temple in Camberwell and became Life Tabernacle.

Decoration, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth 1989 89-7m-13
Decoration, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth 1989 89-7m-13

Somewhere on the stretch of Battersea Park Road between Propert’s blacking factory at 142 (photograph not on-line) and the villas at 445-7 I made this picture of terracotta decoration in panels on a building, but I can no longer find it. Unfortunately although my note says Battersea Park Road it does not give a street number. From the picture I think it must had been only a few courses above street level.

The central panel seems more generic, with a vessel with appears to have a fruit tree growing out of it, perhaps with apples, but the two roundels at the sides are perhaps more interesting. I think they probably represent some trade or other, but can’t decide which. Perhaps someone reading this can solve the mystery and make a comment.

Shakespeare Villa, Byron Villa, 445, 447, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth 1989 89-7m-14
Shakespeare Villa, Byron Villa, 445, 447, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth 1989 89-7m-14

This remarkable pair of villas, now apparently a hotel, were built in the 1850s and the architect is thought to have been Charles Lee. The two are Grade II listed. The gable has a distinctive scalloped bargeboard or decoration and this continues for a short length along each side of the house to a low wall bearing an urn.

Cafe Window,  Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-15
Café Window, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-15

This café on Battersea Park Road, I think in the parade between Stanmer St and Balfern Street, seems a suitable place to pause my walk which will continue in later posts. Although it looks as if it was taken from inside I think it was probably closed and I was standing in a recessed doorway.


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Rail, Housing, Matrimony & A Warning

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

Rail, Housing, Matrimony & A Warning: More pictures from my walk which began at Vauxhall on Friday 28th July 1989 with Nine Elms Riverside. The previous post was Marco Polo, Chelsea Bridge, MAN holder & Convent.

Works, Silverthorne Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989  89-7m-43
Works, Silverthorne Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-43

These buildings are still there in a side turning from Silverthorne Road now leading to Battersea Studios. Battersea Studios were built in 1970 as a warehouse for BT and in 1994 became the home of the short-lived BBC Arabic Television, closed precipitately on Sunday, April 21, 1996 having angered the Saudi regime (and the UK government) by its accurate and impartial reporting. At extreme left you can see the barrier leading to that site.

The buildings in the picture were part of the Stewarts Lane Goods Depot, a huge area bounded by this and Dickens Street to the south and going east to the railway lines at Portslade Rd. It was first set up by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1860 as Longhedge and used to build and house locomotives for their services from Victoria Station a short distance away north of the river. The original buildings were demolished in 1880/1 and replaced by these as Stewarts Lane which housed steam locomotives until 1963 and then diesels. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 1967.

The depot remains in use as the Stewarts Lane Traction Maintenance Depot and is used by both DB Cargo UK and Govia Thameslink Railway.

Houses, 133-139, Heath Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-44
Houses, 133-139, Heath Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-44

Further down Silverthorne Road to its west is Heath Road, the north side of which retains its attractive Victorian housing, with a block of four houses with basements and steps to their paired entrances followed by five without basements but with the same style and decoration. At the end at left of picture is the recently build Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Heath Terrace, Silverthorne Rd, 514 Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-46
Heath Terrace, Silverthorne Rd, 514 Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-46

Heath Terrace is on the corner of Silverthorne Road and Wandsworth Road and as well as this corner entrance has two similar but slightly less ornate doorways on Wandsworth Road leading to sixteen Flats A to P as well as another door for a shop on Silverthorne Road part visible in my picture then occupied by taxi and transport company Guy Payne Of London Limited.

The building was built in 1897 and the corner door, in use when I made my picture in 1989 by Dr A J K Ala, still led to a surgery until around 2012. At the front of the traffic queue is a man on a moped with a large clipboard, studying the ‘knowledge’ required of taxi drivers.

Matrimony Place, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-32
Matrimony Place, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-32

Matrimony Place is one of my favourite street names, though this place is only an alley with steps leading from Wandsworth Road to St. Paul’s Churchyard. I’d photographed it a few years earlier and made a deliberate detour to see if had changed – it was still much the same.

Possibly it was once the custom for local couples to walk up the 29 steps to the church to be married – or down them after the ceremony, and the name appears to of some antiquity. The railings have since been replaced by a fake antique design (probably thanks to the Clapham Society) which I find rather less attractive. It’s probably still a place to avoid after dark unless you a looking for drugs.

St Paul’s, Clapham was built on the site of the original parish church of Clapham, St Mary’s, renamed Trinity Church at the Protestant Reformation, then demolished in 1774 to be replace by Holy Trinity on Clapham Common. St Paul’s was built simply in 1815, became a rather odd lump after later extension by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1875, was burnt down in World War 2 and restored in 1955 and is Grade II* listed.

Houses, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-34
Houses, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-34

I didn’t go up Matrimony Place but instead turned back westwards down Wandsworth Road, hardly stopping until I came to the top of Victoria Rise which has these rather impressive Victorian Terraces on both sides. Looked at from this end the street should perhaps have been called Victoria Fall as it goes down noticeably to Clapham Common, but you can see why the developers decided against this. In fact they called it Victoria Road, but it was changed later as there were too many of these in London.

The street was laid out around 1853 its lower end on the site of an C18 villa built for the banker Henry Hoare by Henry Flitcroft known as The Wilderness. These houses on the east side were there by the time of the 1869/70 OS survey, though those on the west side are a little later.

Doorway, 144, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-35
Doorway, 144, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-35

A notice in the window at right states:
YOU ARE WARNED
REPENT AND RECEIVE
THE LORD JESUS AS
YOUR SAVIOUR FOR
LIFE ETERNAL, LEST
YOU DIE SUDDENLY
AND GO TO HELL
WITH THE DEVIL
THE MURDERER.

Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-36
Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-36

At left is a window on the corner with Wandsworth Rd with plaster mouldings in a shop demolished in 1998, and at right is Clapham Baptist Church on the opposite corner.

The houses on this side of Victoria rise were built between the 1869/70 survey and the 1893 to 1894 revision. There was also a chapel here, the Victoria Baptist Church, built in 1873 but this was badly damaged by bombs in 1941. it was rebuilt in the 1950s, incorporating some of the Victorian remains on its west end on Wandsworth Road.

My walk continued – more later.


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Santas, Education, Nativity 2014

Wednesday, December 6th, 2023

Santas, Education, Nativity – London was getting into the Christmas spirit on Saturday 6th December 2014, with boozy hordes of Santas on the streets and a Fossil Free Nativity Play in Westminster. But a national day of education activism against tuition fees had also been called and I photographed a march in south London.


South London March for Free Education – Clapham

Santas, Education, Nativity

There was a disappointing turnout for the march against tuition fees which gathered outside Lambeth College facing Clapham Common.

Santas, Education, Nativity

It perhaps wasn’t a good day to have called for a protest, as many students will already have left London to go home for the Christmas break, and others will have been busy with other things including Christmas shopping. And I’m sure there will have been rather more running around the capital in Santa costumes for Santacon.

Santas, Education, Nativity

The marchers included people from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, Lambeth Left Unity and South London Defend Education. This was one of a number of events taking place that day across the country including others around London.

Santas, Education, Nativity

I walked a short distance with the march taking a few photographs before leaving them to take the tube to Westminster. They were marching to a rally in Brixton where they expected rather more to attend.

A few more pictures at South London March for Free Education.


Fossil Free Nativity – Churches Divest! – Broad Sanctuary

Christian Climate Action and Occupy organised an entertaining performance of a Fossil Free Nativity Play between Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall, part of a continuing campaign to get churches to disinvest from fossil fuel companies.

Among the members of the cast were Wesley Ingram who wrote the play and performed as the Angel Gabriel, and George Barda of Occupy who played Joseph with his child as the baby Jesus.

Few of the actors had seen the script before the performance and the costumes and props were interesting rather than authentic – perhaps the best being the headgear for the Roman soldiers.

Their was some lively music from violin and trumpet and at the end of the performance everyone posed behind the banners calling for the churches to divest from fossil fuels. But there was no sign of the clergy from either Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall,

More at Fossil Free Nativity – Churches Divest!.


Santacon

Around a thousand young people in Santa suits, along with the odd elf, reindeer and other Christmas-themed costumes were milling around the edge of Clapham Common for the start of day-long alcohol-fuelled crawl through London (with a little help from public transport.)

Similar groups were starting from meeting points in East and North London and they hoped to meet up later in the day at Marble Arch or Hyde Park, though I think for many the festivities would end in Trafalgar Square.

Later in the day I met up with rather more of the Santas coming from North London close to Great Portland Street station, by which time they were rather merrier. I also met a couple of photographer friends who had also come to take pictures. Most of the Santas were keen to be photographed and quite a few also got me to take pictures on their phones, though I found that rather beyond me. I hope a few worked.

I went with them along to Baker Street taking pictures and later in the day wrote:

Thousands in Santa suits and other Xmas deviations, police trying hard to keep smiling, cans of beer, doubtfully soft drinks, just a few Brussel sprouts in the air, crowded bars, sprawling mass of mainly young people having fun on the streets of London. Santacon.

It was getting dark and although I could still work it meant using flash and I didn’t feel the results were as good. I left them there to make my way to join my two friends who by then were sitting in one of the nicest pubs in the area and was delighted to find a pint waiting for me on the table.

Many more pictures at
Santacon Start in Clapham
Santacon North London


Girls, Houses and St John

Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

Girls, Houses and St John: The second and final set of missing pictures from my walk on June 4th June 1989 – continuing from Stockwell- Chapel, Church, Jazz & Housing

Two girls, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-23
Two girls, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-23

These two feisty young girls demanded to know what I was doing taking pictures in their manor, outside Cassell House close to the corner of Stockwell Rd and insisted that I take their picture. I think that probably they were sisters although they are dressed rather differently. The older of the two is wearing earrings. They are now 34 years older and if they see their picture I hope they like it.

Across the road you can make out Joseph Yates Timber Merchants at 17-19 Stockwell Road, whose shop was still there though boarded up in 2008. Together with the house behind it was replace by a new block shortly after, the shop becoming EZ Homeware and around 2018 a vape shop, Ez Cloudz.

House, 349, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-25
House, 349, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-25

I turned left around the corner into Clapham Road, walking down towards Clapham, crossing Mayflower Road to a group of impressive Queen Anne style red-brick houses – I think this was number 349.

As you can see these houses have quite long front gardens which were then rather overgrown. I think the house had long been divided into flats. There is a broken window on the ground floor which looks as if it is boarded up. These buildings are locally listed

House, 357, Clapham Rd, Clapham, 1989 89-6b-11
House, 357, Clapham Rd, Clapham, 1989 89-6b-11

This is a bay extension on 355 Clapham Road, which I found more interesting than the Grade II listed house at the left of the picture, the listing text of which begins “Substantial early C19 house, one of a pair of which the other is so much altered as not to be of special interest.” According to the Survey of London the house was first occupied in 1792.

House, 357, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-12
House, 357, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-12

Another view of 357 makes it clear that the two storey bay above a basement garage in the previous picture is indeed a part of this house.

I think its doorway with the two front doors is probably also a later addition, though again I found it of interest, though its listed neighbour retains its original and perhaps more common if still fine entrance. I think my taste in buildings allows rather more for eccentricity while those who make the listings are more concerned with age and consistency of style.

House, 369, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-13
House, 369, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-13

Listed as The Garden House with location ‘Union Mews, Lambeth, London SW9’ in 1981, this is an unusual house at 369 Clapham Road with no front door, though it does have a fairly plain Doric entrance around the side on the left. It was first occupied in 1815, and was built on land acquired by the Duke of Bedford in the early 18th century and let by him to Robert Robson. There is a fairly lengthy description of the house in the Survey of London volume orginally published by the LCC in 1956 which ends with “The premises are now occupied by Messrs. Ashton Brothers and a garden with seats extends from the pavement edge back to the house.”

My picture shows Ashton Funerals at the site in 1989 with ‘PRIVATE CHAPELS FUNERALS CREMATIONS’ and their name in large signage on rails on the frontage, and a well-kept garden, though I couldn’t resist including the Ad Hoc Wine Warehouse signs as well. The house is now flats and the Ashton signage has gone, and the wine warehouse having become car hire has now been demolished as a part of a new block of flats including and existing property at 363.

St. John the Evangelist, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-14
St John the Evangelist, Clapham Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-14

Built 1840-42, architect Thomas Marsh Nelson the church is Grade II listed. A confined site led to an unusual orientation. It was truncated in 1986 and the Diocese of Southwark website comments “In short, this building has suffered due to a lack of clarity from its earliest day. First of all when the east-west axis was reversed and latterly the internal alterations described above. These changes plus the ravages of dry rot have left the interior merely as a jumble of ill-defined spaces without any overall cohesion.”

However the simple classical exterior is impressive, and rather unusual for the date of construction.

Various events and visits took me out of London for the next few weekends and it was July before I could return for my next walk around part of the city.


Serius, MOT, Two Bees & More

Friday, September 15th, 2023

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 Coldharbour, Atlantic & Brixton Rd – 1989.

Serius Gallery, 44 Bellefields Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-22
Serius Gallery, 44 Bellefields Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-22

All I can tell you about SERIUS GALLERY is written on the door of 44 Bellefields Rd, which continues with ‘QUEEN MARTIN’ and gives its opening hours as Mon-Fri 2-6pm and Sat, Sun 12-3. These houses are still there, looking in rather better condition but no longer as a gallery.

Nor can I tell you anything about Queen Martin, though these was a rather nice looking Victorian pub at 45 Bellefields Road opposite this house named The Queen, which was demolished in 2006 and replaced by an rather ugly block with flats above ground floor commercial spaces also named THE QUEEN.

MOT Centre, Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-24
MOT Centre, Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-24

The M.O.T. Centre for Cars & Motor Cycles offering Free Steering & Brake Safety Check would not inspire my confidence with its heap of car scrap at the left of the picture. This site is now a little tidier as Zaks Tyres and the Ferndale Road Car Wash, on the corner of Ferndale Road and Pulross Road.

The fence just visible above its notices is along the railway line.

Tintern St, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-12
Tintern St, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-12

I made another picture of the M.O.T centre (not on line) which continues on the other side of the railway bridge and a couple more and continued along Ferndale Road, wandering down some of the side streets. I’ve also not yet digitised a picture of the Brixton Seventh Day Adventist Church on the corner of Ducie St and Santley St, and my next picture on-line is this one from Tintern Street. The building at right of the picture is on the corner with Ferndale Road, with two shops there not visible in my picture.

The shopfronts have changed but the upper floors and general appearance are still much as they were in 1989, and the whole remains a rather nice reminder of the Victorian era. The main loss is in the shopfronts at the left of my picture. Of course it is no longer the ‘TWO BEES LADIES AND GENTS HAIRDRESSERS’ but still in the same trade as a Unisex Hair Salon.

Subverted Billboard, Bedford Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-14
Subverted Billboard, Bedford Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-14

I’m not sure I entirely understood the amendments made to this billboard which advertised Billy Graham’s 1989 Evangelical Mission when I made this picture. It helps too look up Luke 12:19, which in the King James Version reads “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” And to put the comment into more standard English, “Dollar bill still has to be my bowl of cherries.”

While it’s clear that the L is now a pound sign, and is followed by a dollar symbol. I think the ‘E’ at right is added to make this now read £$ FEE.

I think it was probably a different hand that posted a line of five anti-poll tax posters posters at bottom right.

Chequers Cafe, Bedford Rd, Landor Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-15
Chequers Café, Bedford Rd, Landor Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-15

The Chequers Café, a greengrocers and a pub on the corner of Bedford Road with Landor Road. The pub is still there. In 1989 it was the Bedford Arms, there since around 1874, but I think later was the Hog’s Head and simply the Bedford. In 2003 it became The Clapham North, the first of several pubs in the area opened by the pub group Livelyhood who made it one of Clapham’s most popular pubs. But they were simply tenants and the pub was bought by Young’s in 2013 and ten years later they decided to take over the lease. So now just another Young’s pub.

Houses, Atherfold Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-16
Houses, Atherfold Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-16

This was the last picture on my walk on 4th June 1989. These unusually ornate early Edwardian houses caught my attention. They are terraced houses, but built to look grander than they are with substantial doorways over paired front doors. The houses at left are part of a short terrace of four, and then a longer terrace goes around a corner in the street.


Light & Life, Pinter and Stockwell Breweries

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

Light & Life, Pinter and Stockwell Breweries: A week after my previous walk I returned to South London to take more pictures on Sunday 4th June 1989. I began my walk from Clapham High Street.

Landor Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-61
Landor Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-61

Landor Road, originally named ‘Stockwell Private Road’ but changed at some date before 1912, possibly after the well-known English writer Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) runs from close to Clapham North Station to Stockwell Green. I made my first picture roughly halfway between the two at the corner with Hubert Grove. A group of five men standing around a car on the opposite side of the road had probably attracted my attention but I clearly did not want to attract theirs.

Many of the shops here have since been converted to residential use.

Light & Life Full Gospel Fellowship, 105-11 Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-62
Light & Life Full Gospel Fellowship, 105-11 Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-62

A row of four terrace houses here had been converted into the General HQ of the Light & Life Full Gospel Fellowship, and notices gave a full list of activities including Sunday Schools, Divine Worship, Gospel Meeting, Bible Study and Prayer but also Sewing, Cooking, Baking, Musical Rehearsals, Table Tennis , Darts and Snooker. The centre also housed a play group on Monday to Fridays and a Youth Club on Thursday evenings.

A message says ‘COME AND ENJOY YOURSELF – THIS IS NOT A BLACK CHURCH. WE DO NOT PREACH A BLACK GOSPEL – JESUS IS LORD’.

The Fellowship is still continuing its mission there, though with new noticeboards, blinds replacing curtains and a new coat of paint.

Kimberley Rd, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-63
Kimberley Rd, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-63

I can’t read the notices in the shop window of 127 Landor Road, but I think they might have indicated that the shop had closed. It was perhaps about to be converted to its current residential use.

Looking down Kimberley Road there are two tall blocks of flats, but from my camera position only one is visible, I think Pinter House on Rhodesia Road, one of three blocks in the Grantham Road Estate. 1890s terraced houses there were destroyed by wartime bombing and the site was used for prefabs. Planning for these towers began in the early 1960s under the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth, but by the time they were completed in 1968-9 they were a part of the London Borough of Lambeth Council.

The three blocks were all named after modern play writers – in this case Harold Pinter. The block was designed by the deputy borough architect George Finch and system built; this 62m high block contains around 92 flats and maisonettes. The flats were refurbished in 2000-2001 after they became managed by Hyde Southbank Homes and now look rather different.

St Andrew's, Church, CofE, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-64
St Andrew’s, Church, CofE, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-64

St Andrew’s Stockwell Green in Landor Rd was built as a chapel in 1767 but there were later additions and the exterior was rebuilt by H E Roe in this Romanesque style in 1867. Vestries and the Lady Chapel were then added in the 1890s.

The building beyond the church was a large post-war bottle store which was replaced in 2010 by the perhaps deliberately rather bland Oak Square development. This had been a brewery site since 1730 and had been taken over as Hammertons Stockwell Brewery in 1868. It was sold to Watneys in 1951 and they used it as bottling stores.

Two Boys, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-65
Two Boys, Landor Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-65

I find it hard to positively identify this street corner though I think it must be than of Dalyell Road, where Landor Road meets Stockwell Green. The building at left is the now-demolished bottle store, and on it you can read the name THE QUADRANT. The corner is occupied by a giant billboard, and shop appears to have fruit in its window, a sack of potting compost on the ground outside and to sell ice cream.

House, 21, Combermere Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-66
House, 21, Combermere Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-66

This is a rather unusual detached house on Combermere Road and I think from my picture that it may have been built or later used as a shop. This is a very mixed street and there was nothing like this anywhere along its length.

It is still there, though the windows have been replaced with something looking rather sturdier and the door has a wrought iron grille.

Stockwell Depot, Combermere Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-56
Stockwell Depot, Combermere Rd, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989 89-6b-56

Rhodes’ Brewery – Stockwell’s other brewery – took water from an artesian well on this site and was bought by Edward Waltham in 1851. His British Brewery or Half Guinea Ale Brewery in Stockwell Green produced Half Guinea Ale and London Brown Stout at 2/6d per dozen bottles; you paid an extra 6d for the mysteriously named ‘S N’ Stout. It many have stood for ‘Nourishing Stout’, something they also sold as Butler Brand Nourishing Stout.

Back in the 1940s or 50s, my mother, then languishing in hospital, was prescribed a daily bottle of Guinness. As a lifelong total abstainer she refused to drink the demon alcohol, but her Irish nurse had no such qualms.

The buildings probably dated from before 1851. The Lion Brewery bought the company in 1906 and for many years this site was a council depot. It has now been replaced by housing.

To be continued…


The Alexandra, Sanitary Ware & Ace

Friday, August 11th, 2023

The Alexandra, Sanitary Ware & Ace continues the account of my walk on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=15138 Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks… and the walk began with http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=15080 Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989

Shops, The Alexandra, pub, Clapham Common Southside, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-25
Shops, The Alexandra, pub, Clapham Common Southside, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-25

The Alex is one of the best known pubs in the area and upstairs is the Clapham Darts Club, open to non-members where you can book an oche, though at £20 an hour you might think it a bit steep. I’ve never played darts in a pub where you had to pay, but then its probably 50 years since I’ve played pub darts. Then you paid by buying beer.

Its a pub too that is best avoided on match nights and at weekends unless you want to watch sport. The pub dates from 1866, though has sadly lost a much of its Victorian interior features.

6 Haselrigge Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-15
6 Haselrigge Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-15

I can’t remember what route I took from Clapham Park Road to Bedford Rd, probably cutting through some of the estates but not stopping to take photographs. But this house is visible from Bedford Road and drew me down to make this pictures. It was certainly the slender spire which attracted my attention. Built in 1871 it also has an observatory and apparently a matching coach house behind. Long converted into flats, this locally listed house I feel must have more of a story to tell than I’ve been able to unearth.

Haselrigge Road gets its name from one of the oldest well-connected families in England, which dates back before the Norman invasion and are said to have been the lords of the manor on the now lost West Yorkshire village of Hesselgreave. Bartholomew Clerke lord of the manor of Clapham who died in 1589 and his wife, Eleanor Haselrigge, and their son are commemorated in figures on a monument in St Paul’s Church Clapham.

63, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-16
63, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-16

53-63 Bedford Road were Grade II listed in 1981, the listing reads in part “Circa 1870, in stock brick with creamy terra-cotta dressings, built by J G Jennings as part of a larger scheme of houses of varying size and quality, to the designs of T Collcutt.” Josiah George Jennings was a noted sanitary engineer.”

Thomas Edward Collcutt (1840-1924) was an important English architect, better known for designing the Wigmore Hall, Savoy Hotel, Palace Theatre and more. This house at 63 is on the corner with Ferndale Road which now has its very own Conservation Area which provided me with much of the information below.

Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-63
Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-63

Rathcoole house, Grade II listed in 1981, was the main and final house of a scheme designed by T E Colcutt and built by Josiah George Jennings. Remarkably this house was derelict and had been scheduled for demolition in 1966 but was rented from the GLC as a hostel for vagrant alcoholics and decorated and fully furnished mainly by the efforts of voluntary organisations. A decorated sign on the side has the initials JG, the street name and date 1882.

Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-64
Rathcoole House, Ferndale Rd, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-64

The house is on the corner with Ferndale Road which has its on Conservation Area. Lambeth Council’s document on this gives more detail of George Jenning (1810-1882) who set up a company in Paris Street Lambeth making sanitary ware, “patenting revolutionary improvements to
toilets
.”

His ‘Monkey Closets’ installed at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in 1851 were the world’s first public toilets – and for a penny clients “received a clean seat, a towel, a comb and shoe shine“. Ever since we have been going to spend a penny even if that now costs 50p and comes without most of the original accompaniments.

Jennings set up the South Western Pottery in Parkstone, near Poole in Dorset to produce sanitary products from the local clays, later expanding to “bricks, chimney post and architectural terracotta” all in a pale creamy colour. He developed other areas of south London including around Nightingale Lane in Clapham.

Jennings began building Ferndale Road in 1870 and only completed the scheme the year he died in a traffic accident. The completion is commemorated on the side of Rathcoole House which had been one of the earlier houses to be built.

House, Bedford Rd area, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-51
House, Bedford Rd area, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-51

Not all houses in the area were built to the same standards as those by Jennings. I think this small building was probably at the front of some works behind whose corrugated iron roof is visible at left. I’m no longer sure exactly where on Bedford Road it was, but somewhere on the west side quite close to the railway bridge.

Ace, Shop, Bedford Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-52
Ace, Shop, Bedford Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5l-52

Another rather basic building a little to the north of the railway bridge at 16 Bedford Road and surprisingly still there, now a minicab office. Ace had a rather wider scope, offering driving lessons and also selling and exchanging books – some of which you can see on the shelves through the window.

I took a second picture without the woman walking past who is reflected in the window, but I think this is better.

I turned around and walked back down Bedford Road to Acre Lane where my account of this walk will continue in a later post.


Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks…

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

Shops, Flats, Trade Unions, Monks… continues my walk around Clapham on Sunday 28th May 1989. The previous post was Voltaire, Billiards & Methodists and the walk began with Lavender Hill & Wandsworth Rd – 1989.

Shops, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-42
Shops, Clapham High St, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-42

The rather charming three stroy building occupied on the ground flow at least by Julia Two has gone and together with the low utilitarian shops to the right has been replaced by one of the ugliest buildings on Clapham High Street. But the buildings to the left remain, although with altered shop fronts, as do those on the other side of Venn St.

The Barclays Bank on the corner of Venn St dates from 1895 and closed a few years ago.

Flats, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-45
Flats, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-45

I walked on further along Clapham High Street and on along Clapham Common Southside before turning down Crescent Lane to wander around some of the streets to the south. Worsopp Drive is one of the roads in Lambeth’s Notre Dame Estate off Cresecnt Lane in an enviable location just a short walk south of Clapham Common. The estate was built in 1947-1952 when this was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth on the site of the former Notre Dame Convent. It is a mixture of different low and medium rise brick properties and these 8 storey blocks are the tallest.

I don’t know why I didn’t photograph the Clapham Orangery which was retained at the centre of the estate, but I imagine there was some good reason.

UCW House, Union of Communication Workers, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-32
UCW House, Union of Communication Workers, Crescent Lane, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-32

From the estate I returned to Crescent Lane where I photographed UCW House, then the home of the Union of Communication Workers. According to the Clapham Society, around 1920 a house on this site was sold to the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers for use as their headquarters, and renamed ‘The Builders. In the 1930s, the Union of Post Office Workers bought the building and the site was divided between the two unions, with both commissioning new buildings with architect L AS Culliford. This building was opened in spetember 1937, with a extra storey being added in 1976.

The union, by then the Union of Communication Workers , sold the building as offices to he Metropolitan Huusing Trust in 1998. They moved out in 2012 and it was converted to residential use as Metropolitan Crescent.

At the south end of Crescent Lane I turned into Abbeville Road, walking along it to the junction with Park Hill where I made my next picture.

Govette, Park Hill, Abbeville Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-33
Govette, Park Hill, Abbeville Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-33

I first photographed this sign in 1980 and posted this about that picture when I put it on Flickr:

Govette is originally a French name, and a couple of them came over with William the Conqueror back in 1066 and were given land in Somerset. The name was often spelt without the final ‘e’.

Govette Metal & Glass Works, a family firm and was established in 1956 in Clapham, and in the 1970s split up into several divisions, with Govette’s remaining in Clapham. They closed the factory there in the mid-nineties and specialised in the supply, installation and glazing of steel windows and doors, establishing Govette Windows Ltd in 1996, and are now based in Whyteleafe. They also now have a factory in South Godstone.

Peter Marshall on Flickr

I walked back along Abbeville Road and then up St Alphonsus Rd to where it bends at a right angle to the east.

St Mary's Redemptorist Monastery, St Alphonsus Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-35
St Mary’s Redemptorist Monastery, St Alphonsus Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-35

St Mary’s Roman Catholic church in Clapham Park Road whose spire appears in the background of this picture was built in 1849-51. The Redemptorists are a Catholic missionary congregation and came from Belium to set set up houses in the UK, including this Grade II* listed monastery in Clapham designed by J F Bentley in Art and Craft Gothic style and built in 1892-3.

I continued to the end of the road and turned left into Clapham Park Road going back to Clapham High Street as I wanted to take another picture of the Post Office on Venn St – which I posted in a previous post. I came back down Venn St to Bromell’s Road.

Alley, 18-20 Bromells Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-22
Alley, 18-20 Bromells Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-5k-22

You can still see this alley on Bromwells Road but the view down in is much less interesting, with none of the bridges linking 20 with 22 across the street remaining. The buildings on Bromwells Road have been refurbished and those visible down the alley rebuilt or replaced, althhough I think that at the end of the alley is still there. But what looked like a street with various small workshops is now much tidier.

The account of my walk will continue in a later post.