The next episode in in the series of posts on my walk in south London on Sunday 7th May 1989. The walk began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis. The previous post was Herne Hill, Dorchester and Carnegie.
I wandered up Railton Road from the junction with Dulwich Road towards Herne Hill station. Herne Hill only appears to have got its name relatively recently, with the Herne Hill Society stating that the first documented reference dates from 1801. Earlier maps show it as King’s Hill or Dulwich Hill.
Neither of the two derivations they give seems particularly likely, with an Old English root hyrne (corner, angle) hyll seeming unlikely from the late appearance of the name and a roost of large numbers of heron on the nearby River Effra seems fanciful. Other possibilities put forward have been that it was named after a family called Herne who apparently lived here in the 17th century.
Perhaps the name really does come from Herne the Hunter, the mythical resident of Herne’s Oak in the Windsor Forest some twenty five miles or more to the west, transferred here by an early developer of the area who perhaps saw oak trees which reminded him of that place, perhaps also hearing the rattling of chains and ghostly moans in this area. Who knows?
Railton Road was apparently one of the roads developed in 1868, a few years after the coming of the railway, the station on this road opening in 1862. Until then the area had been one of large villas with leafy gardens for the wealthy, but soon became full of “smaller houses for clerks, artisans, craftsmen and their families, the workers taking advantage of cheap fares for commuting into London.“
The building at 222 Railton Road, here the Herne Hill Bingo and Social Club, was the Herne Hill Cinema, said to have opened in 1914, although there appears according to a postcard on Brixton Buzz to have been a cinema around here earlier than that. It’s narrow facade opened to a much wider auditorium behind which could seat 750.
Brixton Buzz quotes Cinema Treasures giving more information about its 1932 design by George Coles and closure as a cinema in 1959, but says it continued in use as a bingo club until 1986, then becoming shuttered and empty. Clearly it was locked and barred when I photographed it in 1989, and has a notice too small to read on its door, but doesn’t look in too poor condition. It is now a private bar, but apparently the auditorium area behind was demolished and housing built on the site.
Herne Hill Station was opened at the bottom of Herne Hill on Railton Road by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1862. At first it was a terminus, with services only towards Victoria, but a year later the line was extended to Beckenham and by the end of the decade there were also services to “the City of London, King’s Cross, Kingston via Wimbledon, and Kent, including express trains to Dover Harbour for continental Europe.“
The building with its polychrome brick Gothic tower seems excessive for what was a small suburban station, and was certainly intended to impress. The tower held the water tank needed by steam locomotives. The Wikipedia article quotes The Building News description of the station from 1863 as “spacious and convenient … and of the very best quality” and states “an unusual amount of decorative taste has been displayed“. It became an exempler of Victorian railway architecture.
This view looks toward the corner with Rymer St, which now takes traffic from Railton Road to Dulwich Road as Railton Road a little further north is now a no-entry street for motorised traffic other than buses.
At left is 200 Railton Road and at right, next to an alley is an accomodation bureau and letting service at 289, now the home of Herne Hill Books. Apparently this stretch of road was until 1888 known as Lett Street. The alley was once a public footpath, and looks as if it was still in 1989.
This view still looks much the same now, with the two 19-storey blocks of Park View House and Herne Hill House in Hurst Street, each built in 1966 with 72 flats, towering over the neighbourhood. Park View House many be blessed with a view of Brockwell Park, but unfortunately you can see it and its neighbouring tower from the park.
A closer view of 200 Railton Road. I have been unable to find out more about this building. Two of the three ground-floor shops appear to have been converted to to residential use by the time I made this picture.
I walked back down south down Railton Road to the junction with Dulwich Rd, stopping to photograph this terrace of shops at 315-323 Railton Road. This is now a pedestrian area and the shops are rather different in nature.
I liked the sign at left on 315, ‘Only the best is good enough for me‘ though with the metal shutters up on a Sunday I could not be sure what it sold, though I think it was probably a greengrocers.
To be concluded in another post.
