Ruskin & Half Moon, Herne Hill is another in the series of posts on my walk in Kennington and Brixton on Sunday 6th May 1989. The walk began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was A Couple, Shops, Shakespeare and a Green Man.
I walked back towards Loughborough Junction station and then turned right down Herne Hill Road, but nothing caught my attention until I came to St Saviour’s Parish Hall on the corner of Finsen Rd. This was erected next door to the church in 1914 and is Grade II listed, its architect Beresford Pite. The hall is now in use as St Saviour’s Church.
St Saviour’s Church was an impressive Victorian building designed by A.D. Gough and consecrated in 1867. It was a short distance to the north on Herne Hill Road in what are now the grounds of St Saviours Church of England Primary School. It was made redundant in 1980 and demolished in 1982 as it was in danger of falling down.
Ruskin Park, named after the named after the noted Victorian writer and naturalist John Ruskin who grew up in the area is just on the other side of Finsen Road, and although I took no photographs here I think I may have found a seat in it to eat my sandwiches before continuing.
I walked back up Herne Hill Road, taking a picture of one of the houses with distinctive porches in the terrace on the west side at 17-35 (not online) and then walking down Wingmore Road to the junction with Hinton Road and Milkwood Road and turning south to go along Milkwood Road towards the centre of Herne Hill.
Milkwood Manor covered a large area including Denmark Hill. The development around Herne Hill began in earnest after the railway station was opened in 1862, and more importantly later in the decade when services began to the City and Kings Cross. In 1868 the Suburban Village and General Dwellings Company took out a 99-year lease to develop twenty-four acres with houses that working men could afford, and cheap worken’s tickets made living in the suburbs possible. Most of those houses are now beyond the means of most working men.
Gubyon Avenue, Fawnbrake Avenue, Kestrel Avenue were all first developed at around the same time, I think largely from the 1880s with development continuing until a little after the end of the century. Much of the land was owned by a family called Gubbins, who perhaps thought Gubyon a more distinctive version of their name. 13 Gubyon Avenue is thought by the Sherlock Holmes Society to have been the location of Major Sholto’s residence, visited by Holmes and Watson accompanying Miss Mary Morstan in The Sign of Four, written in 1889.
The houses in my picture are probably older, in a similar but slightly less grand style and are closer to the centre of Herne Hill at 352 to 373 Milkwood Road. It’s perhaps surprising they lie just outside the Herne Hill Conservation Area.
Just a few yards from the end of Milkwood Road, these flats which have a frontage on Herne Hill are now hard to see from Milkwood Road, hidden by a two-storey block of Sainsbury’s Local and other buildings where the car sales once were.
What I have called flats its actually the rear of the 1906 LCC Fire Station at 130 Herne Hill, its rear with this rather odd gabled tower considerably more interesting than its rather plain Queen Anne frontage.
Herne Hill is split in two by the boundary between the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth which runs along the centre of Herne Hill and Norwood Road – all the buildings in this picture are in Southwark borough.
There had been a pub here since 1760, although the current grade II* listed building dates from 1896. It was once one of London’s more famous music venues in London for around 50 years hosting among others U2, Van Morrison, Van Morrison, Dr. Feelgood and David Bowie. Even Frank Sinatra gave an impromptu performance here when he came to visit his former chauffeur on his first night as landlord in 1970.
Closed for around 4 years in 2013 after flooding from a burst water main it has been restored and reopened but no longer features live music. The Dulwich Estate which owns it had wanted to convert the pub to flats, but was prevented when it was listed as an Asset of Community Value by the council and the pub was bought by Fullers.
Another view of the Half Moon pub, this time from a few yards up Herne Hill, with shops along the east side of that road. The Half Moon is one of a number of pubs which Dylan Thomas frequented on his visits to London, coming to watch London Welsh play Rugby at the nearby Velodrome. No alcohol was available there and after games the members retired to the Half Moon.
He is said to have found the name for his radio drama Under Milk Wood standing in in the doorway of the Half Moon looking across to Milkwood Road. I can find no evidence for the claims on web sites that he once lived in the road, but I don’t have a detailed biography.
I continued walking up Herne Hill (confusingly the name of a road as well as the area) and immediately past the Mobil garage – now replaced by Tesco Express – came to this large block of flats.
Continuing uphill up Herne Hill were an number of large late Victorian or Edwardian detached houses. This one on the corner of Gubyon Avenue was perhaps just a little larger and certainly had two sides clearly visible. As you can see there are other large houses further up the hill.
My walk will continue in later posts.