Posts Tagged ‘fence’

Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie

Saturday, February 17th, 2024

My walk on Friday 4th August 1989 began at a bus stop on Battersea Bridge Road more or less opposite where I had caught a bus at the end of my previous walk

Shuttleworth Rd,  Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-14
Shuttleworth Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-14

McCarthy Court is set just a few yards back from the road and I think this picture of it was possibly taken in Bridge Lane. Its two long blocks, one 4-storey and the other 2-storey were built for Wandsworth Council in 1978 with an inner garden between them and they contain 42 one bedroom flats and 36 two bedroom flats. The estate, now with a mix of council tenants, leaseholders and private tenants since 2005 has been managed by the McCarthy Court Co-operative whose board consists of estate residents with one council nominee. I assume McCarthy was the name of some local councillor or officer but perhaps someone in the area can tell me.

It had been planned, as the Survey of London recounted in 2013 as a part of a much larger development by the then Conservative government, but permission for much of this was denied by the Ministry of Housing and Wandsworth was told the houses over much of the site were sound and could be renovated. Writing about these pictures now I often wish that this survey had been available when I was photographing the area, as there were few published sources then.

Bridge Lane,  Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-15
Bridge Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-15

The first Battersea Bridge was a toll bridge which replaced a ferry across the River Thames to Chelsea and was opened to pedestrians in 1771 and to horses and carts the following year. Designer Henry Holland had been forced to cut costs and the bridge was narrow and dangerous both to users and river traffic, but with some reinforcement it lasted until 1885, the last wooden bridge over the Thames. This bridge was painted by almost every significant British painter of the age including Turner and Whistler.

Presumably Bridge Lane used to lead to the bridge, though it now stops short, and may in earlier times have led the the ferry. These houses on Bridge Lane are presumably Victorian and may have been among those saved from demolition by the Minstry of Housing in 1968, though I think these are what is now number 1 and 2 on the north side of the road, despite the number 9 in my picture and 15 on one of the doors.

Bridge Lane,  Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-16
Bridge Lane, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-16

An interesting use of piles of bricks on top of both rectangular and cylindrical columns on the gate and steps to this house. I don’t think these have survived.

Back in the 1960s the Tate Gallery had paid Carl Andre a little over £2,000 for a pile of bricks, causing huge controversy over what many considered a waste of money. These seemed to me rather more interesting.

Fence, Orbel St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-64
Fence, Orbel St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-64

Bridge Lane ends at Surrey Lane and I turned west down it and then down Orbel Street. The estate here was built in the 1870s and 80s, and the northern side of Orbel Street is lined by semi-detached two storey houses with only vestigial front gardens.

You can stil see the short section of fencing between the two doorways of 70 and 72 on the street, unusually ornate for these houses, but the gate and the section fronting the pavement has gone. With the leaves from the shrub behind I felt I could almost be in the Palm House at Kew.

The House Hospital, 64 Battersea High St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-52
The House Hospital, 64, Battersea High St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-52

Not a medical establishment, The House Hospital at 64 Battersea High Street was for me symbol of the rapid and considerable gentrification of the area taking place as the industries were moving out. It offered replacement doors, at a price unspecified, fire places, baths, basins, taps etc. The site at 64-66 had built in 1975 for the factory of Allen and Ernest Lambert, who called themselves the Allen Brothers and made cigars. It later became a pipe factory for Imperial Tobacco until around 1930. According to the Survey of Londonin the late 1950s they were occupied by the Ductube Company Ltd, makers of inflatable tubing for laying ducts in concrete.”

The building at right and the factory site behind has since been redeveloped as ‘Restoration Square‘. Number 64 and therather dull block at left, Powrie House, remain.

Bennett's Brasserie, London House, Battersea Square, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-55
Bennett’s Brasserie, London House, Battersea Square, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-55

James Bennett was a linen draper, who named his business premises very visibly ‘London House’. Originally in a Georgian building on the right of this picture he added to this in a matching fashion across the middle and left of my picture in 1866. I think the ground-floor addition of Bennett’s Brasserie is rather later. The builidng is locally listed. I think ‘London’ was perhaps a suggestion that he sold fine fabrics, not the coarser ‘Manchester’ cloth, as Battersea was clearly back then not in London.

Gordon Ramsey took over the Brasserie in 2014 as a restaurant, but this closed in 2022.

Battersea Square had more or less disappeared off the maps by the 1970s, but the name was restored and considerable work carried out on the area after it was designated as a Conservation Area – the work was more or less complete when I made these pictures in 1989.

More from Battersea in a later post about this walk.


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Loughborough Estate, Angell Town & a Garage – 1989

Sunday, June 25th, 2023

The fourth post on my walk in Kennington and Brixton on Sunday 6th May 1989. The posts began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was Brixton Road and Angell Town -1989

Loughborough Estate, Flats, Loughborough Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-44
Loughborough Estate, Flats, Loughborough Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-44

I’m not sure which of the nine eleven-story slab blocks on the estate is shown in my picture; the estate was and remains a rather confusing area. Possibly this is Leicester House on Loughborough Road, or more likely Harpur House on Angell Road where I think I walked to next, but the lower buildings in front of the block appear to have gone.

The sign ‘NO HATS’ is not a reference to any headgear but to Housing Action Trusts, an important part of Margaret Thatcher’s marginalisation of local authorities. Having ochestrated the run-down of council estates by earlier restrictions on council spending and the right to buy schemes, the Housing Act 1988 aimed to transfer these estates to non-departmental public bodies which were to redevelop or renovate them so they could be transferred into private ownership.

Opposition to HATs was intense, with the Labour Part, local authorities and estate residents all fighting their imposition, and the first six areas intended to becom HATs managed to avoid implementation, though later six were formed, but none in south London.

Lunch Club, Loughborough Estate, Angell Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-45
Lunch Club, Loughborough Estate, Angell Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-45

I think this rather temporary-looking building as on Angell Road close to Harpur House, but no sign of it remains. I photographed it largely for the posters showing opposition to Housing Action Trusts in Broxton.

As well as a Luncheon Club for pensioners it also has a sign for the Loughborough Sports & Social Club.

Fence, St John the Evangelist, Angell Park Gardens Angell Town, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-32
Fence, St John the Evangelist, Angell Park Gardens, Angell Town, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-32

Further along Angell Road – named like the area after the Angell family who had owned large parts of the Lambeth and developed this area in the 1850s. In 1852 Benedict John Angell gave a site here for the building of St John the Evangelist Church which was consecrated in 1853. Unfortunately trees along the edge of the site along Angell Road and Angell Park Gardens had too many leaves in May to clearly see the church.

These paintings on the fence around the church are still visible but rather faded. I took a few pictures of them both in black and white and in colour before walking on past the church and across Wiltshire Road into Villa Road and back onto Brixton Road, where I photographed the rather austere Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church (not yet digitised.)

Abeng Youth Community Centre, Gresham Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-22
Abeng Youth Community Centre, Gresham Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-22

I walked on down Brixton Road to the Police Station where I turned back east along Gresham Road, stopping to photograph what looked to me to be a former chapel. In 1877 this was the Angell Town Institution and later became Brixtons first telephone exchange.

In the 1970s the Rev Tony Ottey founded the Abeng Centre here to provide supplementary education and youth services to the local children. In 2003 it was relaunched with new management as the Karibu Centre, its Swahili name Karibu meaning welcome, with similar aims. It is also hired for weddings, funerals, birthdays and business meetings.

Wyck Gardens, Loughborough Estate, Millbrook Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-24
Wyck Gardens, Loughborough Estate, Millbrook Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-24

Soon I was walking through the Loughborough Estate again, going along Millbrook Road and through Wyck Gardens, a public open space which is thought to be the remnant of a larger wood knwon as Wickwood in the Manor of Lambeth Wick which had been cleared by the end of the 17th century.

The land had belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury and was bought by the London County Council from the Church Commissioners for a new public open space, opened in 1959 and since extended and improved. You can see more pictures from the park on Brixton Buzz.

I think the large block here is Barrington Court, the first of three I walked past on my way through the park towards Loughborough Junction.

Garage, Railway Arch, Ridgway Rd, Loughborough Jct, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-25
Garage, Railway Arch, Ridgway Rd, Loughborough Jct, Lambeth, 1989 89-5d-25

I left the park and walked along Ridgeway Rd, beside the railway line from Brixton which curves around to a junction just north of Loughborough Junction Station. The next station on this line is at Elephant & Castle.

Some extensive work seems to be in progress on what I am reliably informed (thanks to comments on Flickr) is a Ford Escort, while inside the garage a Renault 4 and a Rover P5 await their turn.

Arch 500 was empty for some years but later became home to the very Brixton Buzwakk Records Recording Studio a few years ago. The arches on both sides are still garages.

More about this walk in May 1989 in a later post.


Flowers to Yarls Wood – 2017

Thursday, November 18th, 2021

Four years ago on Saturday 18th November saw Movement for Justice’s 12th protest outside the immigration detention prison up a hill around 6 miles north of Bedford, calling for this and the other immigration detention centres to be shut down. On this occasion many took flowers to pin to the upper section of the fence where they could be seen by the women inside.

The whole system of immigration detention seems to have been designed as a deterrent to asylum seekers coming to the UK, though unsuccesful in doing so. People who had fled their countries because they were in fear of their lives and had often been subject to violent attacks and rapes were thrown into jail while there cases were being considered. Often their imprisonment made it very much harder for them to provide the evidence demanded by the Home Office of the danger they had been in and their suffering, and official reports and journalistic investigations, some by reporters who had taken jobs at the centres, both revealed the callous and often illegal treatment they received from the staff in these privately run centres, including sexual assaults and violence.

Mabel Gawanas who was held inside for a day under 3 years speaks to her friends still inside

The accomodation provided is poor and the food is of poor quality and often fails to meet the relgious ordietary needs of the detainees, and there have been numerous reported cases where necessary medical treatment has been either refused or excessively delayed. But the major problem is that immigration detention is of indeterminate length, with some detainees serving perhaps a few weeks and others up to three years. Unlike in a normal jail there is no known length to the time people serve and no way that they know when they may be released or deported. And there is no process for them to appeal their detention. The government like to pretend it isn’t a prison, and there are some differences in the routines, but those held inside cannot leave and are often restricted in their movements inside the buildings.

The windows only open a few inches

There are currently in 2021 seven ‘Immigration Removal Centres’ in the UK as well as a number of short-term holding facililites. All but one of the seven are run by private companies, Serco, Mitie, G4S, a Capita subsidiary and Geo, and they are run to make profits. The less they spend on food, staffing and facilities the more the companies make – and the more those detained suffer. In 2015 the Chief Inspector of Prisons labelled it ‘a place of national concern’.

Yarl’s Wood is in an isolated location, hidden away from roads on a former wartime airfield. As I found cycling from Bedford Station it is on the top of a hill and rather windswept. From where the protesters coaches and cars can park it takes aroud a mile walking along public footpaths to get to the field next to the prison where the protests take place. The prison is surrounded by a 20 ft high metal fence, the lower half with metal panels and the upper half with a thick wire grid material that allows the upper storeys of the building to be seen from the top of a rise in the field.

It’s difficult to take pictures through this screen, but not impossible. I’d taken with me a Nikon 70-300mm lens and was working with the D810 in DX mode which converts that into a 105-450mm equivalent and still provides a 16Mp file. Focussing was tricky as the autofocus was very good at focussing on the wire, leaving the building behind well out of focus, and although it would sometimes focus on a window frame, it was far easier to use manual focus.

I also took some pictures on a 28-200mm (equivalent to 42-300mm) which was better when I wanted to include any foreground detail, but the windows became rather small. Even at 450mm any one of the pair of windows only filled around a sixth of the frame, and some of the images have been cropped.

For photographing the protesters as well as that highly versatile 28-200mm used both as a X lens on the D810 body and a full-frame lens on the D750, I also had a 28-35mm lens for use on the D750.

Many of the exposures I made where not quite sharp. It was November and the light dropped off fairly dramatically towards the end of the protest and by 3pm I was having to work at 1/250s at the full aperture of F5.6, not really fast enough a shutter speed for a 450mm lens. So camera shake added to my focus problems. At 3.30pm the protest seemed to be nearing its end, I was getting too cold and decided it was time to get on my bike and return to Bedford Station. Fortunately except for a short steep slope it was more or less downhill all the way.

In August 2020 the Home Office announced it was ‘re-purposing’ Yarl’s Wood, which became a short-term holding facility for men arriving in the UK by boat. But by November 2020 it had also been brought back into its previous use with around ten women then being indefinitely detained there.

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 12


Marylebone Doors

Friday, August 7th, 2020
Duchess St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3j-65-positive_2400
Duchess St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

This gem of a building is just around a corner from the BBC on a few yards down Duchess St, on the opposite side of Portland Place was built to the plans of Robert Adam in 1769-71 as the stable-coach house to Chandos House, Queen Anne Street, and was altered – according to its Grade II listing text “quite sympathetically” around 1924 by Arthur Bolton. The text states it is now part of the British Medical Association.

The lean of the lamp post emphasises the rectangular formality and symmetry of the building as does the man walking past. I’m not sure if I would have preferred not to have a taxi speeding into the picture. The 35mm shift lens enabled me to keep the verticals upright and get the whole building in frame from the opposite side of a fairly narrow street.

Mansfield St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3j-56-positive_2400
Mansfield St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

Just around the corner from the previous picture is this magnificent fence with its baskets of flowers. I felt the out of focus bush made a suitable contrast between natural vegetation and its representation.

I think this is the garden screen mentioned in the listing text and probably like the house behind dates from 1914.

Hinde St,  Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3j-22-positive_2400
Hinde St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

Doorways are one of the most important architectural features of buildings, and this one very clearly gives an impression of the luxury of the flats inside Hinde House.

Hinde St,  Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3j-21-positive_2400
Hinde St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

A similar doorway next door (London streets sometime number in odd ways) is a little plainer, perhaps suggesting that inside are flats for less important people. Though it is certainly not a ‘poor door’ leading to any social housing in the block.

The Royal Society of Medicine, Henrietta Place, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3i-52-positive_2400
The Royal Society of Medicine, Henrietta Place, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

My theme of doors continues with the grand entrance for The Royal Society of Medicine in Henrietta Place.

Marylebone Lane, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987 87-3i-42-positive_2400

And another door is a prominent feature in this building with its series of semi-circles on Marylebone Lane. It’s a building with the window at the centre of the picture set a little lower, so it seems to be winking at us.

Again a taxi has crept in. There are far too many of them, often simply cruising around empty in the centre of London, a significant cause of both pollution and congestion. They are slowly changing from diesel to electric which will help with the pollution, but wont ease the congestion. Ridiculously they are exempted from the congestion charge while minicabs have to pay it. We don’t need ‘ply for hire’ when cabs can be summoned by smartphone and its time for change.

Rimmel, Wigmore St, Marylebone,, Westminster, 1987 87-3i-25-positive_2400
Rimmel, Wigmore St, Marylebone, Westminster, 1987

There are a few more pictures of doors in the area in this section of my 1987 London Photos, but this at Bessborough House on the corner of Cavendish Square is perhaps the most impressive. According to the Grade II listing the house dates from 1770s with c.1800 and early C20 alterations. About this entrance it states “Blind return to Wigmore Street has neo-Adam style pilaster treatment to ground floor with shallow relief modelled “graces” between pairs of pilasters under entablature – all in stucco.”

When I took this picture it had the circular message at left that it was the premises of Rimmel, the cosmetics house founded in 1834 by French-born perfume chemist Eugène Rimmel and often known as Rimmel London. He put on sale a product for darkening eyelashes using the newly invented petroleum jelly and black pigment, marketed under the name mascara which was hugely successful both in the UK and internationally – and mascara is still called ‘Rimmel’ in a number of languages.

More pictures on page 3 of 1987 London Photos.


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