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Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks – 1990

Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was More Kentish Town – 1990.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-61*

When the London Borough of Camden was formed in 1965 its architects department was set up headed by Sydney Cook and included many of the leading architects of the day, working for a council that was determined to build better homes for those living in the borough. Over the next 15 or so years they produced a huge number of well-designed and architecturally significant buildings until government cuts brought an end to what has been described as “their golden age of social housing.”

As well as large estates such as Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road, there were also a number of smaller sites such as Elsfield, designed by Bill Forest and built in 1966-70. Most of Camden’s schemes were built “in-house” which had the advantage of better quality work than many private contractors but sometimes led to lengthy delays and cost overruns.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-36*

Later in the day I walked back past these flats and made another picture which shows the whole frontage on Highgate Road with its stepped back profile and prominent painted railings. The wall in front gives ground-floor residents privacy.

*Linton House, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-62*

Once Carkers Lane was just “a footpath across fields and watercress beds and a farm belonging to Mr Corker“. Much of those fields became tracks and engine sheds for the Midland Railway, leaving just a short section of the path to become Carkers Lane.

In 1881 Thomas William Read and John Walter Read bought land here and began bottling spirits and beer; by 1906 they were “the largest buyer and bottler of Bass Ale in the world.” The ‘Dog’s Head Bottling’ adopted its famous Bull Dog trademark as its Company Logo. All this bottled beer was for export, mainly to “Australia, New Zealand, France, the West Indies and South Africa.” The company amalgamated with Kings Cross brewers Robert Porter in 1938 as Export Bottlers Ltd.

The building at the left of my picture on the corner of Highgate Road, then called Linton House (with parking for Norman Linton Only) was built around 1900 as a factory for furniture makers Maple & Co, suppliers of furniture to the royal family, palaces and expensive hotels worldwide as well as selling to the wealthy public through their Tottenham Court Road shop and in Paris and elsewhere. After they moved it it became home to a number of smaller companies, mainly as offices. Developers The Linton Group acquired it and converted it into 50 luxury flats and seven penthouses they lanched on the market in 2016 as Maple House.

Wallpaper manufacturer Shand Kydd moved to the site in 1906 to mass produce their wallpapers and around 1920 Sanderson’s wallpaper joined them. Both had moved out by around 1960.

The estate also became home in 1973 to the International Oriental Carpet Centre, formed by Oriental rug dealers who had previously been in the Cutler Street warehouse complex owned by Port of London Authority but were given notice to quit when the PLA decided to sell this for redevelopment. The IOCC lease expired in 1994 and most of the dealers left.

Carkers Lane is now home to Highgate Studios, a huge largely office development and the Highgate Business Centre.

*Factory, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-33*

Again as I walked back past Carkers Lane later in the day I made another picture

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-66*

Little Green Street is a short street between Highgate Road and College Lane which takes you back to the 1780s. The ten Georgian houses here were seen even in the 1890s as “old-fashioned cottages” by Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London. The street provided the background for The Kinks dressed as old-fashioned undertakers carrying a coffin in the 1966 official music video for Dead End Street, one of the earliest music videos.

The wooden post at left has gone and the cobbled area at its left is now a walled garden for the house on the corner of the street.

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-53*

These Grade II listed cottages were in something of a dead end street, leading only to College Lane, on the other side of which was the Staff Hotel for the London Midland and Scottish Railway until this was replaced by Camden Council’s Ingestre Road Estate, designed by John Green for Camden Architects’ Department and built in 1967–71, a small part of which you can see at the left edge of this picture.

*Tyre swing, Highgate Rd, Dartmouth Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-55*

At the end of Little Green Street I think I turned left and walked along under the railway bridge which also features in The Kinks video to Denyer House, a large 1930s London County Council block set back from Highgate Road. The tree is still there but the swing is long gone.

*Wesleyan Place, Gospel Oak, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-45*

Crossing Highgate Road I went down Wesleyan Place. This street was laid out in 1810 and was the site of a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in a converted farm building from Richard Mortimer’s farm here. The Methodists moved out in 1864 to a new chapel in Bassett Street.

This early/mid nineteenth century terrace of four houses was Grade II listed in 1974. The street leads to Mortimer Terrace.

I’ll write and post the final part of this walk shortly.

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Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

Tufnell Park and Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990.

*Flats, Pemberton Gardens, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-64*

This long run of flats – numbered 1-64 is St John’s Park Mansions.

Sir James Pemberton was a goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London in 1611, and was one of the eight freeholders of the Manor of Highbury. The street was developed around 1870 on land owned by the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, a charity set up in 1655 by merchants of the City of London and priests of the Church of England to support clergy who had lost their livings thanks to Oliver Cromwell – and which still (now as the Clergy Support Trust) supports Anglican clergy and they named it after him. The street was renamed Pemberton Gardens in 1895.

These flats were built in 1899-1900 and have nine blocks extending out to the rear to accommodate 32 flats as well as the 32 in those in the buildings on the street.

*House, Cathcart Hill, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-66*

I continued my walk down Junction Road, turning briefly into Cathcart Hill to photograph this house where considerable building work was taking place. The house probably dates from the 1860s and I think is 1 Cathcart Hill. Although the web page for the Cathcart Hill Historical Society is dedicated to the history of numbers 1-16 Cathcart Hill, it has as yet no information about No.1.

Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54 — *Boston Arms, pub, 178 Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54*

This pub designed by Thorpe and Furniss was built in 1899 for Bass & Co Ltd replacing an earlier earlier building, there in 1860, the Boston Arms Tavern on the corner with Dartmouth Park Hill. A few years later it changed its name to simply ‘The Boston’ and this was the name when it was rebuilt, though it is now ‘Boston Arms. It was Grade II listed in 1994 and remains in use.

*Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-56*

Attached to the pub – but not in my pictures – is the Boston Music Room, also Grade II listed. It was built in 1884 with a ground floor 60ft swimming bath and above this an assembly hall. In 1909 the swimming bath was converted into a second assembly hall and used as a cinema, called the Electric Theatre, later the Stanley Theatre. After this closed in 1916 it became the Tufnell Park Palais, used for wrestling and concerts.

It reopened in 1981 as an independent music venue, with the upstairs called The Dome and downstairs The Boston Music Room. Among those appearing there have been Coldplay, Bring Me the Horizon, Blur, Primal Scream, Noel Gallagher,Madness, The White Stripes, U2, Florence & The Machine, and Cradle of Filth.

*Surroundings Ltd, Burghley Rd, Tufnell Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-55*

Opposite the west side of the pub on Dartmouth Hill Road (and so in the London Borough of Camden) is Burghley Road where a few yards down at No 118 I photographed Surroundings Ltd, a company which appears to have disappeared without trace. The building is now residential.

*Montrose Products, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-44*

Turning back to Dartmouth Hill Road I walked the few yards down to the junction and then continued down Fortess Road to photograph Montrose Products at Nokeener House, No. 28-34. This private limited company, L.& M.(MONTROSE PRODUCTS)LIMITED was incorporated in 1954, moved its registered office from here in July 1990 and was finally dissolved in 2024. A mail order company it occupied the first floor while at street level was Everbond Limited, who I can find nothing about. More recently the ground floor was occupied by Major Travel.

This was built as a factory for piano makers T & G Payne who began here in 1891 and it has has some interesting decorative detail. In 2012 permission was granted for its conversion into luxury flats as The Piano Works, retaining most of its external features.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-45*

Fortess Grove is at the north side of the old piano factory and twists here around the side of the Fortess Works, then occupied by L C Bennett (Mechanical Handling) Ltd. Later it became home to vehicle repair shop M. & A. Coachworks but since the end of 2015 has been transformed into “a modern, flexible, and contemporary work environment” called Fortess Grove and some housing.

The street still continues past it more or less as in my photograph, a charming little curved cul-de-sac of early Victorian (or possibly late Georgian?) small houses.

This walk continues in later posts.

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The Great West Road and a Missing Lion – Brentford 1990

The Great West Road and a Missing Lion – Brentford: Continuing my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 – the previous post was Chiswick Cottage and Lionel Road Brentford – 1990.

*Vantage London, Great West Rd, M4, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-45*

Built around 1970 as the 12 storey headquarters of Beecham Pharmaceuticals it was no longer needed after they became part of Glaxo Smith Kline and was refurbished as as Vantage London with offices let to a number of companies. The building was again refurbished in 2016 and in 2019 was sold to a Luxembourg based company for £30 million.

In 2024 a planning application was made by Resolution Property for its conversion into 178 flats. It was approved following some modifications in April 2025.

The elevated section of the M4 runs on top of the Great West Road in front of the building. The strucvture in the foreground is I think a gritting bin.

*Great West Rd, M4, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-35*

Taken under the elevated M4 where slip roads link the A4 Great West Road with the motorway. One project I was working on at the time was inspired by J G Ballard’s 1973 novel ‘Crash’, key scenes of which were set in this area – although the 1996 film of the book by Cronenberg was made in Canada. Ballard who lived not far away in Shepperton obviously knew the area well.

Crash centres around a car crash victim who finds himself aroused by car accidents but my project was more simply about the domination of our culture by the car and I felt threatened by the powerfully enclosed architecture here which is perhaps a modern equivalent of the Roman coliseums, and was rather choked by the fumes.

*Beechams, Clayponds Lane, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-21*

On previous occasions I had photographed the iconic moderne 1930s buildings along the Great West Road, and this at right shows Beechams, which had this side entrance a few yards down Clayponds Lane. The factory building continues in a more utilitarian fashion but with a tall window, probably lighting a staircase which reflects the style.

*Flats, Carville Hall, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990,90-1f-22*

The Carville Hall Estate was bought by Middlesex County Council in 1919 for the construction of the Great West Rd, and they sold the parts on both sides of the new road to Brentford UDC as a park, which opened in 1923. The house, orginally known as Clayponds, is now called Simmonds House. Originally built in the late 18th century, the front was re-modelled in the 19th century. It is locally listed.

The park is off Clayponds Lane and parts of it were once dug for clay, leaving ponds, marked as ‘Fishponds’ on the 1871 OS Map.

*Lion, flats, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-23*

Beyond the lion and the park are the tall blocks of the Brentford Towers Estate built for Hounslow Council in 1968-72.

The house here had extensive grounds and there is now a park on both sides of the A4/M4. The park to the north of the roads is larger than this but of little interest.

The house is thought to have been built for the “wealthy distiller and brewer David Roberts (c1733-97)” and was later home to “coal and horse racing magnate William Lancalot Redhead (c1853-1909) and his daughter“. It was later converted into flats.

*Lion, Carville Hall, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-24*

The fate of the lion appears to be a mystery. I was surprised on a later visit to find it no longer there and I’ve not been able to find what happened to it. The most I’ve come across is a suggestion that it was stolen.

I thought that it was probably a Victorian garden ornament made from artificial stone – Coade or Portland Stone etc – and would have been fairly heavy, so the thief would have needed a lorry with appropriate lifting gear.

Chiswick Cottage and Lionel Road Brentford – 1990

Chiswick Cottage and Lionel Road Brentford: The previous post from my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 was BHS, Rolls-Royce, Pubs & Funerals, Hammersmith – 1990

St Alban's Cottage, 164, Duke Rd, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-43 — *St Alban’s Cottage, 164, Duke Rd, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-43*

I can’t now remember how I got to Duke Road from Hammersmith – either by walking through some of the back streets or by taking a bus to Hogarth Lane where a footpath, Devonshire Passage, leads to Duke Road by the side of St Alban’s Cottage, a detached house dating from 1871.

This is on the Glebe Estate, formerly an open filed providing an income to the vicar of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick and owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and St Paul’s Cathedral who let it for building in 1869. As Gillian Clegg remarks, “That charming little enclave of Victorian cottages between Duke Road and Devonshire Road, Glebe Street and Fraser Street has become one of the most desirable, not to say expensive, places in which to live, which is somewhat ironic since the houses were built as homes for Chiswick’s less affluent.” And this is probably the most charming of the cottages in the area.

*RSR Fasteners, Station House, Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-45*

I went up Duke Road to the Chiswick High Road in Turnham Green and I think probably jumped on another bus to Kew Bridge.

Lionel Road South runs from beside Kew Bridge Station to the Great West Road and is now dominated by Brentford Football Club’s Gtech Community Stadium. RSR Fasterners in Station House was close to the corner with Kew Bridge Road. All of the land in this area had been railway land and was important for bringing passengers and coal from the north of England in the 1850s. In 1990 this building was still on the edge of the station’s freight yard as the sign directing deliveries indicates. The company RSR Fasteners was founded in 1948 and moved here the following year. The business is now based in Hayes.

*Signage, Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-31*

At the back of the signs here for Tunnel Cement, Brentford Commercials and others is a sign for the British Rail Freight Yard, although some sources say the goods yard closed in 1967. In the background you can see Kearney’s large shed and beyond it the Agfa building on the Great West Road.

*Rydal Engineering, Agfa, Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-35*

The Agfa building was extensively refurbished and became 27 West but the rest was swept away with the development of the new Brentford stadium. There are now further plans for the development of the area.

I’m not sure that the rather rusted vehicle here was a good advert for the servicing provided by the Tony Western Garage.

*Rydal Engineering, Agfa, Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-36*

Another view of Rydal Engineering and to the right of the Volvo lorry is Kearneys, with the Agfa building again in the background.

Agfa were one of the pioneers of colour negative film, introducing Agfacolor in 1932 and I’d occasionally used Agfa film, but they had failed to keep up with others and almost all of the colour I have put online was taken on Fujicolor – and when I made prints in the darkroom they were all on Fuji paper – except for the project ‘German Indications’ which I printed from transparencies on outdated Agfa reversal paper.

*Flats, Green Dragon Lane from Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-55*

Looking across Lionel Road was a parking yard protected by a tall fence, The railway line is lower down and out of sight beyond this, and the four tall blocks of flats are on Green Dragon Lane. Here is what I wrote about when they appeared in a picture from an earlier walk:

Six 23 storey blocks were built here as the Brentford Towers Estate in 1968 to 1972 by the London Borough of Hounslow.

Green Dragon Lane apparently got its name from a 17th century pub but there appears to be no record of where this was, though there are or were around 40 other pubs of that name elsewhere in the country. The name is usually thought either to have come from the Livery Badge worn by servants of the Herbert family, the Earl of Pembroke, which showed a bloody arm being eaten by a dragon or a reference to King Charles II’s Portuguese Catholic queen, Catherine of Braganza whose family badge was the Green Wyvern.

Latymer, Cromwell, Britannia, Chapels, Shops & Bevan – 1990

Latymer, Cromwell, Britannia, Chapels, Shops & Bevan: The first post from my walk on Sunday 7th January was Stamford Brook, Ravenscourt Park and a Bull – 1990 and it ended on King Street Hammersmith where this post begins. As usual you can click on any of the pictures in these walk posts to go to a larger version in one of my Flickr albums.

*Latymer Upper School, King St, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1d-36*

Like many other well-known schools Latymer School began with a bequest for the education of poor boys. Edward Latymer in 1624 left money to provide 8 poor boys with clothing and education to the age of 13. Later bequests added to the foundation and in 1811, Ann Wyatt left £500 to build a new school together with £100 for its maintenance. Schools were set up in both Edmonton and Fulham.

The Fulham school moved to Hammersmith in 1648 and since then has had various buildings in the area. This building, Latymer Upper School was opened in 1895 and taught boys up to the age of 16. Following the 1945 Education Act it became a Direct Grant Grammar School, taking both state and fee-paying pupils.

When I took my 11-plus I could have applied to go here, but my parents were worried both by the cost of uniforms etc they couldn’t afford and also the long journey times I would have had to make and sent me to a more local Grammar.

The Direct Grant scheme was abolished in 1976, with Latymer becoming a fee-paying “Public School“, though still retaining some means-tested grant assisted places. When I made this picture it was still a boy’s school, but girls were admitted into the sixth form in 1996 and beginning in 2004 the whole school slowly became co-educational.

*Trees, Flats, Cromwell Ave, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1d-24*

Cromwell Avenue is a street off King Street to the south, and these flats cover its whole east side. I think the street runs along what was the west side of Hammersmith Brewery, set up in 1780 by Joseph Cromwell on Hammersmith Creek, then navigable as far as King Street. The brewery was later run by his brother James Cromwell but seems to have stopped brewing in the 1840s.

Hammersmith Creek was the mouth of Stamford Brook, a small stream running from Gunnersbury. As well as the brewery on its west bank it also had wharves on its east side and in the early 19th century still had a flourishing industry. It was filled in in the early 20th century and Stamford Brook now reaches the Thames in a culvert under Furnivall Gardens.

*Salvation Army, Dalling Rd, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1d-12*

Formerly known as the Ebenezer Chapel and Albion Congregational Church, was said to have built in the 1780s when recently offered for sale, although Pevsner dates it to 1891-2 by F W Stocking.

The congregation of the Ebenezer Chapel moved to a church on this site from King St in 1855. The church closed in 1938 and became a Salvation Army chapel which has now recently closed.

*Britannia Builders, Studland St, Glenthorne Rd, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1d-15*

The buildings are still here at 108-116 Glenthorne Rd but there is no trace of Britannia. During the corona virus pandemic they were used by the volunteer community aid network launched by Hammersmith & Fulham Council, H&F CAN to give support to residents. Before that the windows were full of fireplaces, wood-burning stoves and mirrors

*Gospel Hall, King St, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1e-03*

The Gospel Hall of the Kelly Mission was at 170 King Street and the site has now been redeveloped. Until 1919 this was the site of the Cock and Magpie pub and the Gospel Hall was built soon after

Shelly's Shoes, Holcome St, King St, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1e-61 — *Shelly’s Shoes, Holcome St, King St, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1e-61*

These buildings are still there at 157-163 King Street though Maplin, Shelly’s Shores and Pizza Inn have all been replaced by different businesses. Even the more modern building beyond has survived.

I couldn’t make out much of the remains of an advertisement on the Holcome Street wall though it seems to have a very large ‘UNN’ in it. No traces of it remain but there are now some wall bracing plates on the wall.

*Aspen Gardens, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990, 90-1e-63*

These blocks of flats in Aspen Gardens have a 1930s look to them but were built shortly after the end of the war clearing a large slum area and were opened in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan.

Best known for the NHS, Bevan was also responsible for housing and advocated for a national housing scheme to ensure everyone had decent and affordable homes. He wanted social housing for all, creating “create new homes and communities with a place for all sections of society” like that in English and Welsh villages “where the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer all lived in the same street.”

Despite incredible post-was shortages of materials and skilled labour, in 1948 there were 227,600 new homes built.

More from my walk here on >Re:PHOTO later.

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Woolwich to New Charlton Panoramas – 1995

Woolwich to New Charlton Panoramas: Continuing my occasional series of colour images from 1995 – I think this is the eleventh post – with some colour panoramas made in May 1995 on a walk from Woolwich to New Charlton.

*River Thames, Church Hill, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-342*

My walk had begun when I got off the train at Woolwich Arsenal on my way back from Dartford on May 7th and I think these pictures were made that afternoon as I walked from there to another station keeping close to the River Thames. But I did but return to Woolwich the following Sunday, May 14th and some of these pictures could have been made then.

A path leads up from the roundabout at the start of Woolwich Church Street to Church Hill and St Mary Magdalene Church, built on a spur of high ground leading out towards the river. Originally this ground went rather closer to the Thames, but much of it was quarried for sand though the digging had to stop at the church. Although the present church dates only from 1727-39 there had been a church on this site since the 9th century if not earlier and it was probably a much earlier site of settlement.

The road in front of the church, Church Hill, gives a splendid panoramic view of the Thames. In 1995 you could still see the remains of Woolwich’s riverside industry, but by the time I photographed here again in 2000 all had gone and the area was empty and derilect. Now it is filled with four tall blocks of flats and some other housing.

*Former Woolwich Dockyard Dry Docks, Europe Rd, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-343*

Woolwich Dockyard was the Navy’s most important dockyard for many years and ships were built here from 1512 to the Victorian era. By then it had become too small for the new ships and the Royal Dockyard closed in 1869. Parts remained in industrial use and a large area was bought by Greenwich Council in the 1960s where they built the Woolwich Dockyard Estate in the 1970s – part at the left of this picture. I think this is the Grade II listed Graving Dock.

*Ernest Bevin, Ferry Boat, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-332*

Taken on the Woolwich Dockyard Estate this shows one of the old dry docks and at a mooring in the Thames the Woolwich Ferry Ernest Bevin. You can just see part of the south ferry terminal in the centre of the image.

The ferry across the Thames became a free ferry run by the LCC in 1889 – two days after they had replaced the Metropolitan Board of Works who had organised and funded it. A number of public bridges had been built to make crossing the river in West London easy and free and it had been decided that there must also be a free crossing in East London. The Ernest Bevin was one of three ferries in the third generation of ships which came into operation in 1963 and it was replaced in 2019. All have been named after local figues and Bevin was elected as MP for Woolwich East in 1950.

*Flats, Frances St, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-462*

These point blocks, close to Woolwich Dockyard Station were built for Greenwich Council are St Mary’s Towers, one of the more successful housing schemes of the late 50s and early 60s, opened by Princess Margaret in 1961. They remain now still in good condition and popular.

*River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-472*

Back to the River Thames and another cleared area of the former Dockyard with a view across the river to Tate & Lyle’s Silvertown works.

*River Thames, Warspite Rd, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-433*

Another former dockyard area still in industrial use. I think this is Thameside Wharf on Harrington Way. Some of the buildings here were once part of the Siemens Brothers Telegraph Works factory established in 1863 and became Thameside studios for artists around 1990.

Bugsby's Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-521 — *Bugsby’s Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-521*

Bugsby’s Way took its name from this part of the River Thames known from around 1830 as Bugsby’s Hole or Bugsby’s Reach which probably got its name from this once “marshy area to the south of Blackwall Point where executed criminals were formerly hung in chains.” As E.W.Green suggested in 1948, ‘bug‘ was the old British (ancient Welsh) word for ‘spook’ or ghost, and what could be a better place to meet with ghouls. Bugsby’s Way was built across this marshy area by the London Borough of Greenwich in 1984.

Beatle Line Ltd, Bugsby's Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-511 — *Beatle Line Ltd, Bugsby’s Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-511*

Another picture from Bugsby’s Way. The Beatle Line perhaps got its name from the later meaning of ‘bug’, perhaps from a different Anglo-Saxon root, at first simply meaning beatle, though later coming into popular use for a wider range of species – including the famous moth found by Grace Hopper and colleagues in the Mark II computer at Harvard University in 1947.

More pictures from Charlton in a later post.

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More Around the Meridian – 1995 Colour – Part 3

More around the Meridian – It’s seldom possible to actually walk for more than a few yards actually on the Greenwich Meridian in London and while planning my Meridian Walk I often wandered around considerably, having to make detours and also looking for the more interesting routes. So not all these images are exactly on the Meridian, but most were taken within a short distance from it.

*Greenway, Abbey Lane, Abbey Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1151*

When I began this project the Meridian was not marked on the Ordnance Survey or Street maps, and one of may first tasks was to get a ruler and pencil it on to them. In 1999 it was added to the OS maps of the area, but does not seem to be on the latest versions. In 1995 there were no smart phones with online maps and GPS which would have made things so much easier.

*Greenway, Abbey Lane, Abbey Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1152*

The Greenway was the recently rebranded path above the Northern Outfall Sewer which rans across East London from Hackney Wick to the sewage treatment plant at Beckton, going under the road here close the the bridge over Abbey Creek on the Channelsea River, where Abbey Lane becomes Abbey Road. You can see the bridge at the left of the picture.

*Greenway, Channelsea River, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1153*

The Greenway is a great traffic-free cycle route for pedestrians and cyclists, running straight and level and this picture gives some evidence of that.

*Channelsea River, Long Wall, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1111*

I’m not sure what this pipe was for, perhaps for taking gas across the river. Not far away on the other side of this tidal creek was one of the largest gas works in London – and you can still see its listed gasholders, though the view is likely to change soon with the site being redeveloped.

But behind me when I made this picture was the Abbey Mills sewage pumping station and on the edge of the creek below were the storm outfalls where sewage would be released after heavy rains. With the changing tides it would flow downstream a little and then could be taken miles upriver along the Prescott channel and the River Lea.

Gasholders, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1332 — *Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321*

I think the Meridian went through the centre of the taller gas holder at Poplar Gas works.

*Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321*

Another view with the gasholders in the background.

*Clove Crescent, East India, DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1273*

My pencilled line for the Meridian shows it going through both the water in the dock and the brick building at left which was the former Blackwall Power Station in both of these pictures.

*Clove Crescent, East India DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1263*

South of the East India Docks the line crosses the River Thames above and between the two bores of the Blackwall Tunnel, closer to the original western tunnel now used by northbound traffic. I couldn’t take photographs in the tunnel – though it was possible for those on foot to take a bus across, but these would have been rather boring in any case.

*Blackwall Tunnel Entrance, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1672*

This picture shows the southern entrance to the tunnel with its 1897 Grade II listed gatehouse by the London County Council’s Superintending Architect Thomas Blashill. In front of it a less ornate red and white striped arch with heigh and weight restriction signs and hangers to hit any overtall vehicles and hopefully prevent damage to the gatehouse.

*Dorringtons, Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1551*

One picture not I think actually on the Meridian but not far from it, taken from the long footbridge over the Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1762*

My path continued south along the riverside path, with the Meridian going into the River Thames on the extreme left of this picture.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1742*

I kept to the land continuing along a path I’ve walked many times and making a few more pictures.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1743*

Like much of London’s riverside almost all of the industry has now gone, but some relics remain, though most of this part of my route is now lined by rather boring flats.

I rejoined the Meridian where it made landfall in Greenwich – where I made some of the pictures at the end of my earlier post.

More colour work from 1995 including some more panoramas in a later post.

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A Reservoir, Flats, a Cockerel and a Café

A Reservoir, Flats, a Cockerel and a Café: More from my walk in Highgate on Sunday 19th November. You can read the previous part at Churches, Flats, Houses & a Pineapple – Highgate 1989

*New River Company, Reservoir, Engine House, Hornsey Lane, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-43*

Beyond these large red-brick buildings that line the north side of Hornsey Lane is the grass covered reservoir built by the New River Company and just beyond that across Tile Kiln Lane is their Engine House dating from around 1859. Now called the Pump House the site includes the base of a large chimney for a steam-driven pump. This reservoir and pump and others in the area became necessary as higher areas in Hampstead and Highgate were developed. The locally listed building has more recently been converted to residential use.

*Northwood Hall, Flats, Hornsey Lane, 89-11h-35*

A few yards further east I crossed the Archway Bridge, where perhaps surprisingly I didn’t take any pictures of the view down the road. I did take three photographs of one of the ornamental lamposts but haven’t digitised any of these. The two at the east end seem rather similar to some of those on the Thames embankment with entwined fish swimming around them. About 5 years ago the fairly low ornamental fence on each side of the bridge has been augmented with a tall metal fence to prevent people jumping to their death on the road below.

Further east of the bridge is Northwood Hall, an art deco block built as “ultra modern labour-saving” luxury flats in 1935 and designed in a cross shape by George Edward Bright who had earlier worked as an assistant to Herbert Baker, Edwin Lutyens and Guy Dawber. The almost 200 flats were set in extensive gardens with “a restaurant for residents, guest rooms and outdoor amenities including a tennis court. Indoors, there were uniformed porters available 24/7 and an optional maids’ service charged at hourly rates. In kitchens, double door cupboards opening onto the corridors were used to provide additional services including rubbish collection, shoe cleaning and delivery of papers, food and even cooked meals.”

Sat on a hill overlooking London the residents on all but its ground floor have extensive views across London ‘on a clear day as far as Crystal Palace‘ and the building is a landmark visible from much of north London.

*Cockerel, Bronze, John Willaas, Ashmount Primary School, Hornsey Lane, Crouch End, Islington, 1989 89-11h-24*

This sculpture was commission by and paid for by the architect of the LCC’s Ashmount School, H.T. Cadbury-Brown. Built in 1954-6 it was an important early example of an all-glass curtain wall construction.
The cockerel now stands on top of the wall outside the Whitehall Park School, built on part of the Ashmount site with the rest being used for housing.

*Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-13*

Advertising for Nautilus Fitness and Tree Surgery on Crouch End Hill, immediately south of the former Crouch End Station – where the old track is now the Parkland Walk. I wondered what the large letters BSG on the wall stood for but could come up with no sensible solution. I think the picture is looking down Stroud Green Road.

Crescent Cafe, Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-15 — *Crescent Café, Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-15*

The Crescent Café was in part of the former Crouch End Station buildings. A Cafe continues here – with a name change to Sercem Cafe for a couple of years before going back to being Crescent Cafe again until around 2021-2 and is now Merro. The station probably dates from when the line opened in 1867; the station closed in 1954 but goods traffic along the line continued until 1970.

The Café was closed on the Sunday I took this picture. At right you can see one of the tall brick pillars on top a a curved wall that go beside and across the bridge across the former railway. I’d photographed the cafe and these twelve years earlier but hadn’t put the wall picture online.

*Monkridge, Crouch End Hill, Crouch End, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-16*

I turned north up Crouch End Hill and photographed another mansion block, Monkridge, just a few yards further on. This was apparently built between 1912 and 1935 with around 40 flats and a lower building. The two blocks are very similar in design with this being slightly large actually on Crouch End Hill and the other behind on Haslemere Road.

The final post on this walk will follow shortly.

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Churches, Flats, Houses & a Pineapple – Highgate 1989

Churches, Flats, Houses & a Pineapple: More from my walk in Highgate on Sunday 19th November. You can read the previous part at Almshouses, Museum, Hospital & Shops – Highgate 1989

*St Augustine of Canterbury, Church, Archway Rd, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-46*

This large Anglican church on Archway Road is immediately to the south of the fine parade of shops which ended the previous post. It always looks to me more like a Catholic Church than an Anglican one, probably because of the sculptural decoration on and above its doorway, and my impression seems to be correct.

The church is a product of three leading members of the Art Workers Guild, a body founded in 1994 promoting the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. It was begun in 1888 by John Dando Sedding (1838 – 1891), one of the Guild’s founders in 1886-7 its second master and the west front shown here was completed in 1916 by his chief assistant Henry Wilson (1864–1934) with the Calvary added then by J Harold Gibbons (1878 – 1957.)

The church describes itself as a “friendly Anglo Catholic parish church” and has recently “due to theological convictions regarding the catholicity and sacramental integrity” of its mission asked to be removed from the care of Dame Sarah Mullally the Bishop of London and has been transferred to the See of Fulham which has a male Bishop.

*Houses, Cholmeley Park area, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-21*

I walked up Archway, and photographed the Winchester Tavern (not on line) at 206 before turning west down Cholmeley Park where I think I took this picture of a 1930s suburban house with a circular window beside the door and a rounded bay with Crittal windows. I think I felt it was a rather typical building rather than anything exceptional, something I tried to include in my project.

*Flats, 55, Cholmeley Park, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11g-23*

But these flats are clearly unusual, and the facade here was the entrance to the building set up here by the Santa Claus Society in 1890 or 1900 (sources differ) to provide 20 long-term convalescent beds for children with hip and spinal diseases.

The hospital became part of the NHS and was closed in 1954. It was converted by the London County Council in 1954 to provide hostel accommodation for 31 men suffering from tuberculosis who had “reached their maximum degree of improvement under hospital treatment but who cannot be discharged because they are homeless.”

*Pineapple, Waterlow Park, Highgate, Camden, 1989 89-11h-65*

Waterlow Park on a hillside below Highgate Village is one of London’s finest parks and when in the area I’ve often had a short rest in it, finding a suitable spot to eat my sandwiches.

This fine example of a pineapple is beside some steps in the park and I think is one of those produced by Eleanor Coade, who ran Coade’s Artificial Stone Manufactory, Coade and Sealy, and Coade in Lambeth, London, from 1769 until her death in 1821.This hard-wearing architectural material is virtually weatherproof. Coade Stone was produced by a secret process involving double firing of stoneware which died with her final business partner in 1833. It has been revived in recent years by Coade, a company “born due a lack of skilled craftsman capable of restoring the original Coade stone sculpture.”

Pineapples were a common architectural decoration in Georgian and Victorian times, symbolising wealth and fine taste.

*Cloisters Court, Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-51*

I came out of Waterlow Park and crossed Highgate Hill to Highgate Presbyterian Church on the corner between Cromwell Avenue and Hornsey Lane. Designed by Potts, Sulman & Hennings, a fairly short-lived partnership from 1885 to 1891 between Arthur William Hennings, Edward Potts and Sir John Sulman (who left for Australia in 1885) in a Gothic Revival style was completed in 1887. In 1967 it became Highgate United Reformed Church and was converted into flats as Cloisters Court in 1982.

*Flats, Hornsey Lane, Haringey, 1989 89-11h-42*

This fine terrace is at 57-71 Hornsey lane and I think dates from around 1900, probably the late 1890s, and is joined at its west end to a slightly grander central block at 39 at extreme left of the picture, (where are 41-55?) with Linden Mansions continuing to the west to the former church on the corner of Hornsey Lane.

My walk continued down Hornsey Lane – more in a later post.

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Elsynge, Services Rendered, Pistons & Faces

Elsynge, Services Rendered, Pistons & Faces completes my walk on Friday 4th August 1989 in Battersea. continuing from the previous post, Charterhouse, A Diary, School, Church & Houses. This walk began with Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie.

*Stanhope House, 13, Elsynge Rd, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-56*

A short distance down Spencer Road I turned right into Elsynge Road, a street full of large mainly semi-detached Victorian houses. It got its current name only in 1937, when Park Road was renamed to distinguish it from other Park Roads in London, including one not far away close to Battersea Park.

Local legend has it that some of the houses in this and Spencer Road were built for the Great Exibition of 1851, but in fact development only began in the area a little later, with the first houses in Spencer Road appearing in 1853-7 and in Park Road in 1856-7. Most were built in the 1860s with a handful of later additions.

The area draft Conservation Appraisal Document notes “Nos.9-11 and 13 are of particular interest, being of three and a half storeys with rustication to the lower storeys, canted bays, and projecting porches supported by Corinthian columns. Dentil cornices and decorative architraves to windows add richness of detail.”

As for the name of the house it could refer to one of the various Earl Stanhopes several of whom were prominent Tory politicians, one of the two English and one Scottish villages of that name, or be simply the family name of the residents.

*House, Elsynge Rd, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-41*

The draft Survey of London tells us that the area was initially called the Clapham Station Estate, named after a short-lived station on the line to the east of the area, not Clapham Junction which was only built in 1863.

Number 33 and 35 are rather plainer houses in the street but still large with a basement and three floors above. 35 is unusual for being one of few detached houses in the street and its current valuation is over £4 million. Both were build by the same builder, Richard Down a joiner from Princes Street, Westminster around 1863.

*Pillars, 19, Elsynge Rd, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-43*

There are six of these large pillars in front of the impressive edifice Elsynge Mansions at 19-23 Elsynge Rd. The Survey of London suggests that this was built as a semi-detached property and converted into flats by the 1890s, a date when the building of mansions was becoming common across London.

Its name will have come from the Tudor Elsynge (or Elsyng) Palace in Enfield which had been used as a hunting lodge by Henry VIII but was part demolished in 1608 and completly not long after; it later became part of the Forty Hall estate. Its exact location had been lost until redicovered from 1960 on by the Enfield Archaeological Society. And clearly it was this name – in some elegant tiling on its front path – which led to the new name for Park Road.

*Services Rendered Club (Battersea) Ltd, 4 North Side, Wandsworth Common, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-31*

At the west end of Elsynge Road I turned into Marcilly Road, photographing a house there (not yet digitised) and walked down to the South Ciercular Road on the north side of Wandsworth Common. These buildings are still there at 4 North Side and are now home to Bright Horizons Day Nursery and Preschool.

There are still a number of Services Rendered Clubs in the UK and I think most of them were formed in or immediately after the Great War particularly for ex-servicemen who had been honourably discharged after becoming permanently unfit to serve. They were awarded the Silver War Medal, also known as the ‘Services Rendered Badge’, a lapel badge designed to be worn on civilian clothing. During the war this would have protected them from being harassed to serve ‘King and Country’. Most also got a printed King’s Certificate of Discharge.

According to the survey of London this was the coachhouse for Devon Villa, “designed by G.H. Page for G. H. Swonnell, maltster, and built in 1861, probably by George Bass“. The former Servicemen’s Club was converted into the nursery and 7 flats in 2005-6..

Pistons, 99 St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-33 — *Pistons, 99, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-33*

I walked up Strathblaine Rd and Sangora Rd but took no more pictures until I turned into St John’s Hill where Pistons, a shop appearing to sell accessories for motorists including numberplates, warning triangles and superglue with a rather phallic sign caught my eye.

The shopfront is still there but for some years this was a furniture shop, ‘inform’ selling Scandinavian designs but the shop here was recently advertised for rent. The advert dated the shop as 1900 but it was built as part of the Strathblaine area development around 1882-6. Never believe what estate agents say.

*Terrace, 6-11, Boutflower Road, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-34*

I took a short detour down Strath Terrace, across the railway bridge and down Boutflower Road. Henry Boutflower Verdon was the first vicar-designate of St Mark’s, Battersea Rise and was much loved in the area by the time he died at the age of 32 in 1879.

A curate under Canon J. Erskine Clarke, Vicar of St. Mary’s Batersea, Verdon was to become Vicar of St Mark’s which was then being transformed from a tin tabernacle a Victorian Gothic church by William White, now Grade II* listed. The new church was dedicated as a memorial to him and Philip Cazenove, a local benefactor who had paid for the building of the church school.

Boutflower’s name was given to the road when Alfred Heaver developed what he called the St John’s Park estate in 1885–9. Heaver must have had a huge production line making these faces in the picture to be spread liberally across the estate. Probably he made a nice profit selling them to the builders.

It was time to end this walk and make my way to Clapham Junction for the train home. It was August and I was shortly off on my travels to Hull, where my next frame was taken and later on to a week in Scotland. So my next walks were rather different.

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