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Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford – 2015

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford: Housing activists marched through Stratford on Saturday 19th September 2015, with a short occupation of estate agents Foxtons by Class War ending with a rally by Focus E15 outside the flats on the Carpenters Estate they had occupied a year earlier.

Focus E15: Rally before March – Stratford Park

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford - 2015

Two years earlier Newham Council had tried to close the Focus E15 hostel housing young mothers in Stratford, but they had fought the eviction which would have seen them dispersed across the country into private rented flats with no security of tenure and in some cases hundreds of miles from family and friends.

The Focus E15 campaign had attracted wide support and gained national headlines when they had occupied a small block of flats on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford. They succeeded in getting rehoused in London but continued with a much wider ‘Housing For All’ campaign for proper housing for the people of London who are facing being replaced by a new and wealthy population.

The campaign has continued, with a weekly stall on Stratford Broadway and protests to stop evictions in the borough. Their actions enraged the then Mayor of Newham Robin Wales and led to various attacks by him and council officials including the issuing of penalty notices and the farcical “arrest” of the table they used as their stall. These almost certainly played a part in his downfall in 2018 when local party members in this Labour stronghold turned against him.

The march brought together housing activists from around 50 different groups around London including many from council estates under threat of development under the guise of regeneration, private tenants facing eviction or huge rent hikes, and some political groups. Fortunately not all spoke before the march. You can read a long list in my account on My London Diary at Focus E15: Rally before March.

Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’ Stratford

It was a large and high-spirited march from Stratford Park and around the busy centre of Stratford with banners, placards and much loud chanting, demanding Newham Council end its policy of gentrification and use local resources to house local people and an end its policy of social cleansing, moving them out of London.

Housing has always been a problem in London, at least since the industrial revolution led to a great increase in the population and enlargement of the city. From the late Victorian period various charities and philanthropically minded commercial enterprises began to construct housing – mainly blocks and estates of flats – for the working poor, and from around 1900 they were joined by local municipalities and importantly the London County Council.

After the First World War, the Addison Act in 1919 to build “homes for heroes” and later housing acts led to 1.1 million council homes being built in the years before the Second World War.

From the 1950s, London Councils led by all parties built large amounts of council housing, with many finely designed estates, providing much higher quality homes than those in the lower end of the private sector, where much of the population was housed in poorly built and maintained overcrowded slums. At least rents were relatively low – until rent control was abolished in 1988.

That was only one of the changes made under Margaret Thatcher that hugely worsened housing for the majority. Council housing, earlier seen as a way of providing decent housing at reasonable cost for that majority became seen as simply a provision for the failures in our society who were unable to get onto the “housing ladder” and buy their own homes.

Her introduction of ‘right to buy’ was a disaster for public housing and new council building was almost entirely ended – 5 million council houses were built between 1946 and 1981, but only 250,000 have been built since. And her abolition of the GLC largely ended any overall planning for housing in London.

The march stopped in front of Newham’s Housing Offices where they put up the banner ‘Newham Stop Social Cleansing – Keep us in London’ banner on Bridge House and held a short rally before continuing to the Carpenters Estate.

More pictures at Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’.

Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons

Housing policy under New Labour and since has been largely determined by estate agents including Savills and Foxtons who have been leaders in the gentrification of many areas of London.

Class War seized the opportunity to rush into Foxtons as the march went past and I followed them before the police managed to stop others joining them.

‘*Fuck Food Banks – Eat the Rich’ and the Class War banner ‘We have found new homes for the rich’*

They caused no damage and left shortly after police came inside and talked to them, rejoining the march.

More pictures at Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons.

Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation

It was two years after the Focus E15 campaign had begun and a year since they occupied 4 flats on the Carpenters Estate.

For the event the pictures of people from Focus E15 put on these flats with the message ‘This home needs a family‘ in June 2014 were up again

*Jasmin Stone of Focus E15 speaks at the rally*

I had gone into the flats with them that afternoon and seen perfectly good properties in fine condition which had been simply closed up and left after the tenants were moved out. On one wall was a calendar from 2004 they had left behind.

Despite a huge housing shortage in the borough they had remained unoccupied for ten years. Since the occupation by Focus E15 these four flats now have residents, but only 28 empty properties on the had been re-let a year after Newham had been shamed by their action.

There were a few speeches and then a party began. Some people had climbed up to the roof of the shops with the ‘These people need homes’ banner, but it was time for me to go home, stopping briefly at the pub with Class War on the way.

More at Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation.

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Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed – 2015

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed: The Independent Living fund which enabled many disabled people to live useful and fulfilling lives ended on Tuesday 30th June 2015. After photographing the delivery of petitions ouside Downing St against its ending I went to Poplar for another visit to Robin Hood Gardens where a second attempt to get these important buildings listed had recently been rejected.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony – Downing St to Old Palace Yard

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed - 2015 — *John Kelly as Schimmel, the equine star and proud battle horse of the Threepenny Opera*

On the day the Independent Living Fund closed, campaigners for independent living for disabled people led by DPAC, Disabled People Against Cuts, presented petitions to the Prime Minister before marching behind the Threepenny Opera horse to Parliament to continue their fight for dignity and equality.

At the gates of Downing Street protesters wrote slogans on incontinence pads which losing the support means some will be forced to use. Paula Peters had this message for Iain Duncan Smith: ‘I want dignity – I want to be treated as a human – You wear one of these I. D. S. They are awful‘.’

As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions IDS was responsible for the decision to end this support, which had been introduced in 1988 to enable disabled people to live in their own homes and to pay for care, and in particular to employ personal assistants.

They had brought a petition with over 25,000 signatures to hand in and after this they marched to a rally at Old Palace Yard at the end of which a wreath with the message’s ‘RIP ILF’ was laid.

The government lost a legal challenge over ending the ILF but still closed it for new claimants on 1st July 2015. The responsibility for existing claimants in England was passed from the Independent Living Fund to local authorities who became responsible for care provision and all assessments. Support which had been well-administered became a post-code lottery.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony.

Robin Hood Gardens – Poplar

*The end of the street in the sky – and it looks like the end for Robin Hood Gardens*

Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972 was a nationally important and internationally recognised work of Brutalist architecture. Built for the London County Council with 213 flats, it was designed as two slab blocks, the east 10 storeys and the west 7 storeys on a difficult site next to one of London’s busiest roads – the Blackwall Tunnel Approach – but with a large and peaceful green inside.

*There appears to be a forest between the two slabs of Robin Hood Gardens*

It was very solidly built and the flats were generous, with wide ‘streets in the sky’ outside. Inside the flats next to the roadway you could hardly hear the traffic.

*The East block seen from the decorated wall above the Blackwall Tunnel entrance*

In 1965 ownership passed to Tower Hamlets Council who neglected the site, allowed the green to become overgrown and later actively demonised the estate and housed many problem families there.

*Two tall walls of flats protecting a large open garden area*

Following a visit there in 2009 on an Open House Day tour led by Bridget Cherry I commented it was “in many respects a fine solution to a difficult site with some superb landscaping in the large interior space. Deliberately encouraged to ruin by overcrowding and use as a sink estate by Tower Hamlets, it is now in a sorry state, but the decision not to list it is unfathomable (or perhaps simply political.) I hope the campaign to save it from demolition succeeds. “

Most of the flats in the East block were then still occupied. They are large and desirable properties, but often have been used to house difficult residents.

During the New Labour government the listing advisory committee of English Heritage wanted to list it, but were overruled by the politicians, with then Minister of Culture Andy Burnham issuing a certificate of immunity in 2009 and allowing the local Labour Tower Hamlets council to proceed with plans for demolition and redevelopment of the area. But for the moment it was saved by the financial difficulties.

*A tall concrete wall protected the flats from the traffic on Cotton St*

The immunity expired in 2014 and a further attempt, backed by almost every well-known British architect, was then made to get it listed, but was rejected by Historic England, the body that now control listings.

Parking areas on the outside of each of the two blocks

An open letter signed by Richard Rogers and others stated:

"The buildings, which offer generously sized flats that could be refurbished, are of outstanding architectural quality and significant historic interest, and public appreciation and understanding of the value of Modernist architecture has grown over the past five years, making the case for listing stronger than ever."

Historic England went along with the local council’s views and judged that it “fails as a place for human beings to live“. This wasn’t the impression I got from talking to residents on my visits.

*The top street on the east block* – *the curve is from my fisheye lens*

The defects of this and other soundly built modern estates that have been demolished – such as the Heygate at Elephant & Castle in Southwark can generally be easily and relatively cheaply overcome by refurbishment – improved door security, lift maintenance, window replacement, non-combustible cladding etc. The true reasons for demolition are financial, driven by the profits of the developers and also the financial problems of local authorities.

*A large enclosed playground at the south end of the site*

Demolition of sound buildings like this with the expectation of many years of useful service should be criminal. It represents a huge wastage of resources and an incredible carbon footprint both in the actual demolition and also for the rebuilding. The west block was demolished in 2017-8. The east block took around nine months to demolish and this was only completed in March 2025.

More at Robin Hood Gardens.

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Blackstock and Brownswood

Blackstock and Brownswood: Continuing my walk from Sunday 1st October 1989 which began at Finsbury Park and continued to the Nags Head before returning to Finsbury Park. The previous post to this ended on Blackstock Road.

*Gillespie Neighbourhood Office, Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-63*

The buildings at the right of this picture are those on the left of the final picture in my previous post. Here I wanted to contrast the deco style of the Gillespie Neighbourhood Office at 102 with that of the solid Victorian house next door and its more utilitarian infill at 98.

The border between Hackney and Islington runs here along the centre of Blackstock Road and this is on the Islington side, though I was standing in Hackney to take the picture. I was in Hackney’s Brownswood Conservation Area, but the more interesting side of the road here is not in a conservation area and this Art Deco office does not even appear on the local list.

*House, Brownswood Rd, Wilberforce Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-52*

The development of this area was delayed by the setting up of the park in the area as in the early years of its planning the actual boundaries were not fixed. So much of the area was built up in the 1870s, giving it a unusually homogeneous architecture.

Brownswood Road runs though the area with two peculiar staggered junctions and this picture was made at one of these.

*Frinton Metal Ltd, 145a, Brownswood Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-53*

I think the house number is from Blackstock Road – the scrap metal and Gold and Silver buyer was in the back yard of the house at the left, 145 Blackstock Road. Although there were no ‘TO-DAYS PRICES’ listed for Gold & Silver and the shop was closed on a Sunday, there is a light on inside and I think it was still in business.

Google Maps labels this section of Brownswood Road as Lydon Row and there is no sign that there ever was a business here.

*Mountgrove Garage, 115, Finsbury Park Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-56*

I walked a little further on down Blackstock Road and then turned down Mountgrove Road. The house at right is on Mountgove Road and that on the left – along with the garage – in on Finsbury Park Road. Rather to my surprise Mountgrove Garage is still there, now offering ‘MOT Tyres Servicing Bodywork’ and claiming ‘ALL VEHICLES REPAIRED HERE’, though all of the notices in my picture have been replaced. I think it looks rather less impressive now.

*Shops, 162-176, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-41*

Back on Blackstock Road I photographed this nicely detailed row with ground floor shops and facing more of the same on the opposite side of the street. I chose this one for the sign which I think at the top read OFFICIAL BOOKING OFFICE with MOTOR COACHES between the first and second floors and lower down ALL ROAD ROUTES and RAIL SEA AIR.

That sign has I think been restored since 1989 and is clearer now, but the uppermost word, already difficult to read in my picture has disappeared. Rather than a booking office the shop is now a book shop.

*Head, 198-200, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-42*

A little further down Blackstock road was this head above BESTOCK FURNISHING, a secondhand furnishing shop, the kind of place we bought chairs and tables when we were poor, and on the shop front of RITEMARKS LTD FOOTWEAR MANUFACTURERS a variety of symbols – a sunflower and two leaping fish. I think the window between these is a reflection of the building in my next picture.

*217, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-43*

Built as Highbury Fire Station by the LCC in 1906 it was one of many closed in 1920 after the replacement of horse-drawn engines by motorised fire engines meant that stations could serve a wider area.

As a young man around 1920 my father worked for a short time at Dennis Brothers Limited in Guildford. He was (among other trades) a carpenter, having grown up working with his father making horse-drawn carts, and they were then still making wooden fire engines, as well as ‘charabancs’ – open motor buses. Cutting the curved doors for these was a tricky three-dimensional job and he did it freehand.

Since I photographed it this Edwardian Arts & Crafts locally listed building has been converted into the Little Angel Day Nursery with flats above.

The Raven, Villas, Mansion Flats & A Bridge

The Raven, Villas, Mansion Flats & A Bridge continues my walk on Friday 4th August 1989 in Battersea which began with the previous post, Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie.

*The Raven, pub, Battersea Church St, Westbridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-56*

Also at the edge of Battersea Square, on the corner of Battersea Church Street and Westbridge Road is The Raven pub, probably the most significant building in the area, built here in the mid seventeenth century and open as the Black Raven in 1701. Grade II listed it has had various alterations since then but is the only remaining pre-Victorian building in the area. Its value was recognised by a very early listing made in 1954, although it had been extenisvely rebuilt in 1891

Unfortunately this is no longer a pub, but Melanzana, a independent ‘bar-trattoria-deli‘ which according to Camra no longer serving any real beer. You can drink Peroni or wine with your pizza or pasta. I don’t think its interior retains anything of historic interest.

*Skips, House, 26, Westbridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-41*

Another image about gentrification. I’d walked back east along Westbridge Road towards Battersea Bridge Road. I think this house was being converted into four flats. This was a significant area of early middle class development in the area in the 1840s with villas with long rear gardens in contrast to the much more downmarket development of what was rapidly becoming an industrial area.

*House, 4, Westbridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-44*

This and its neighbour at 2 Westbridge Road are a pair of Grade II listed Gothic villas dating from 1845, just a few yards from the junction with Battersea Bridge Road. They are included in the Westbridge Road Conservation Area, much of which was developed by 1865. The appraisal describes them as “napped flint faced Gothic villas, quite unique in the district” and gives a further description of them along with a photograph from across the street taken in winter.

In August when I made my picture the houses were largely hidden by the leaves on the trees in their garden. But my view through the open gate does show the statue in the niche at the top of the building more clearly. The pair of houses also have an unusual front wall and gates.

*Cranbourne Court, 113-115, Albert Bridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-45*

A number of blocks of mansion flats were built in the 1890s on the edges of Battersea Park along Prince of Wales Drive and Albert Bridge Road, their position with views across of the park making them attractive to wealthier middle-class tenants who needed to live close to the West End. Chelsea was too expensive but this area was only just south of the river and not really in those dangerous areas where posher Londoners (and taxi drivers) feared to go. Apparently adverts for some of the new blocks gave their address as Chelsea Reach, Battersea – estate agents today are still often rather inventive in their descriptions of locations.

According to the Survey of London, almost 1,000 apartments were built here between 1892 and 1902.

The development here was suggested by architect and property speculator John Halley, who had moved south to London from Glasgow in the 1880s and had already put up blocks in Kensington. His plans were too dour for London, resembling Glasgow’s tenements, and he teamed up with another architect William Isaac Chambers who pimped them up for London tastes, though other architects made changes too as The Survey of London article recounts.

Cranbourne Court was one of the last blocks to be built, with Halley again involved along with one of his earlier co-developers, Captain Juba Page Kennerley, “a colourful character who had dabbled in a variety of dubious money-making schemes” and who was “indicted for theft and declared bankrupt” in the early 1890s. An undischarged bankrupt, he had set up a building company under an alias ‘Cranbourne & Cranbourne’ who built this block in 1895.

*Albert Bridge, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-31*

Albert Bridge is a curious mixture, built as a modified cable-stayed bridge using the system patented by Rowland Mason Ordish and William Henry Le Feuvre in 1858. This made use of a normal parabolic cable to support the central span of the bridge but used inclined stays attached to the bridge deck and connected to the octagonal support columns by wire ropes to support the two ends of the load. Ordish’s designs, made in 1864, were only built in 1870-3.

*River Thames, Albert Bridge, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-35*

When the Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works Sir Joseph Bazalgette inspected in the bridge in 1884 he found corrosion of the staying rods had made the bridge unsafe and he added steel chains and a new timber deck.

In 1972 the bridge was again found to be unsafe, and the LCC added two concrete piers to support it in mid-river, turning the central section into a beam bridge, though the earlier cables and stays remain in place.

This was one of London’s earlier wobbly bridges (along with Battersea Bridge) and because of its closeness to Chelsea barracks a notice was attached to this “Albert Bridge Notice. All troops must break step when marching over this bridge.” It was feared that troops marching in unison could set up a resonance such as that which had been blamed for the collapse of the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Salford in 1831. The notices now on the tollboths date from 1965 but are said to be replacements of earlier notices on the bridge.

*River Thames, Albert Bridge, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-34*

The view upstream from the bridge across the River Thames past Battersea Bridge to tower blocks on the 1970s World’s End Estate and the Lots Road Power Station.

I walked on into Battersea Park where the next post about my walk will continue.

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Bon Marche, Police, Acre Lane and Tate

Bon Marche, Police, Acre Lane and Tate: 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 More Stockwell Green & Mary Seacole.

*240-250 Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-61*

Possibly before going to Stockwell Green, perhaps even at some point on my previous walk I made some more pictures around the centre of Brixton. Unfortunately film doesn’t come with meta-data and my memory is not as reliable as EXIF data, but these pictures were certainly made around the end of May or beginning of June 1989 and so I’ll share them here.

240-250 Ferndale Rd on the corner with Stockwell Ave, just a few yards back from Brixton Road was built in 1905-6 as an annexe of Bon Marche department store, later becoming Post Office with council offices on the upper floor. You can see a post office sign at the left of my picture. A photograph in the Lambeth Archives taken around 1975 show it as offices for Christian Aid and it was later home to the Refugee Council. The ground floor more recently became Canova Hall, a restaurant and the building was revived as The Department Store, “to create a series of collaborative workspaces supported by an evolving hub of creative, retail and community uses“.

*Edmundsbury Estate, Ferndale Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-64*

This estate was complete in 1929 for the London County Council as Ferndale Court to house police officers in the City of London Police, but converted into council flats managed by Lambeth Council in 1979 when one of the blocks was demolished to leave a public open space. They were designed by Sidney Perks, who was surveyor to the City of London from 1908 before being appointed as its architect in 1928.

Adjoining the site to the east was the City of London Police Sports Club ground, now the Ferndale Community Sports Centre.

*Acre Lane Mouldings Ltd, Acre Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-52*

A board illustrates the range of skirting architraves and cornices the company could supply, ‘Quality Mouldings for That Finishing Touch!‘.

Acrelane Timber Ltd is still at this site in Brixton and can perhaps still supply some similar items. A previous frame, not yet digitised shows a little of the frontage offering heating and plumbing supplies.

In my father’s workshop, a very large shed with store rooms and work benches at the back of his family house in Hounslow, long sold off and demolished, I was intrigued as a child by many of the old tools used around the start of the 20th century which included a range of moulding planes used to produce shaped mouldings such as this, used in his father’s cart building business. Back when my elderly aunts moved out around 1970 there was little interest in things like this and I imagine they ended up in landfill, though I’ve since viewed far less impressive ranges in museums.

*Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton Hill, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-54*

I turned back along Acre Lane to the junction with Brixton Road where I photographed the grandiose Lambeth Town Hall, complete with a banner advertising an event about child benefit taking place on June 2nd, as well as a sign about going to Lambeth Debtline for debt advice.

Grade II listed Lambeth Town Hall was built in 1905-8, designed by Septimus Warwick and H Austen Hall in what is described as a modified Baroque style, and was further raised and extended 1935-8. I think the clock tower looks like some strange parody, an ornament which doesn’t really belong but has somehow thrust itself up through the ceiling of the main building and flowered extravagantly, reminding me of an amaryllis.

*Tate Bust, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-55*

This area was a pleasant garden before being destroyed by Lambeth Council to produce a windswept waste to discourage local people gathering here. It hasn’t really worked, just become less comfortable with oddly placed fixed chairs and the wind certainly rushes through the renamed Windrush Square. I think I might have come here in 1989 to sit and eat my sandwich lunch.

Henry Tate was born in 1819 in Lancashire, the son of a Unitarian minister, and set up a successful grocery business with six shops in the Liverpool area before going into partnership with sugar refiner John Wright there in 1859. When this partnership came to an end he founded Henry Tate & Sons with his sons Alfred and Edwin.

Tate introduced new more efficient refining techniques for the production of white sugar, and his business expanded and in 1878 he opened a large refinery at Silvertown still producing sugar now.

*Fountain, Tate Library, Brixton Oval, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-56*

Tate was an employer who took care of his workers and supported many educational projects including free libraries in Streatham, Balham, South Lambeth and Brixton as well as hospitals. After he had built and opened a gallery on Millbank and presented his art collection to the nation he was told Queen Victoria would be offended if yet again he refused a title, and he became a baronet in 1898, a year before his death.

The business was merged with that of Abram Lyle & Sons in 1921, probably causing Tate to turn in his grave, as he had despised Lyle, not least for the way he treated his workers.

Reliance Arcade, Electric Avenue, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-41 — *Reliance Arcade, Electric Lane, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-6a-41*

The Art Deco Reliance arcade was built into an exiting Georgian house and other buildings between Brixton Road and Electric Lane in 1923-5, its Egyptian style terracotta inspired by the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Home to around 30 businesses it was since 2014 this Grade II listed arcade was on English Heritage’s at risk list but was renovated in 2019-20. There are some good pictures from this time by Mike Urban on Brixton Buzz from before and close to the end of the renovation.

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

Houses, British Lion & Elmington Estate

This post continues my walk in Camberwell on 27th January 1989. The previous post on this walk from January 1989 is St Giles, It’s Churchyard and Wilson’s School.

*Houses, Benhill Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-11*

Benhill Road runs north from Camberwell Church St opposite St Gile’s Church and includes the site of the former vicarage and St Gile’s Parish Hall. These houses are I think mid-Victorian and I admired the slender decorative pillars at the doorways.

Opposite the Parish Hall just inside the property is a small building with a blue plaque which I photographed but have not put online as the lighting was rather poor. It now has a London Borough of Southwark blue plaque with the totally misleading message ‘The Parish Church of St Giles Porch and Doorway Relocated to its current site in the vicarage garden where it was used as a summer house after the church was accidentally burnt down on 7th February 1841.’

While the church was burnt down in 1841 this was never its porch and doorway, though it was largely built with material from the burnt out church and was probably not used as a summer house – and more recently has been used for rubbish bin storage. An article in the Camberley Quarterly by Donald Mason, Old St Giles: blue plaques and history, reveals its true nature and has some excellent illustrations.

*British Lion, pub sign, Elmington Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-12*

On the corner of Benhill Road and Elmington Road I photographed a bicycle and the British Lion pub sign. The pub itself at 112 Benhill Road was a rather boring 1960s building rebuilt at around the same time as the flats around it. But there had been a pub on the site since at least 1871, The Prince Of Prussia, a name that probably became rather unpopular in the First World War.

*Edmund St, Elmington Estate, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-14*

I think the’ London County Council’ built the first flats on the Elmington Estate shortly before WW2, but there were four of these large blocks desgned by the LCC Architects department and built around 1956. The winter sun produced a rather elegant repeated pattern of light and shade on the frontage.

I think this large eleven floor slab block and its neighbours on the Elmington Estate, dating from around 1960 were demolished in 1999-2000. The flats passed to Southwark Council, formed in 1965 who lacked the cash to maintain them properly and they were in poor condition by the time I photographed them, and many flats were squatted in the 1990s.

*Edmund St, Elmington Estate, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-01*

In 1999 Southwark Council decided to demolish the whole of the Elmington Estate and these blocks were a part of the first phase of the redevelopment. Southwark Notes gives a great deal of detail about how this progressed.

In the first phase, most of those who lived in the flats were rehoused in council housing built on the site, but not all were too happy with their new homes. The article quotes one: ‘You will never know what privacy is like again. You will hear your neighbours and everything they do. And they will hear you. Your rooms will be smaller. You’ll be paying more for it. One day you’ll wake up and realise that you’d give anything to be back in your old home’.

The council for Phase 2 adopted “a whole new regeneration model premised on partnership with either corporate developers” or housing associations. Their partner here was the large and aggressive Housing Association Notting Hill Housing Trust who would offer zero social rented homes in the scheme (social rent being the equivalent rent of a council home). Some flats were available at so-called “affordable” rents, roughly twice those of council properties in the area, and unaffordable for most previous tenants. It was a process of ‘social cleansing’, forcing most of the poorer residents out of the area.

*Bradbury, Solicitors, 119, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-52*

I walked throught the Elmington Estate and on through Burgess Park to Camberwell Road, turning south where a few doors down on the east side I photographed the railings and doorways of 119 and 121. Numbers 117-129 and attached railings are Grade II listed.

From 1863 to 1887 photographer and portrait painter Henry Death (1820-1900), born in Moulton, Cambridgeshire, had his studio at 119 Camberwell Road, having moved there from nearby Addington Place where he set up a studio in 1856. He sold the house when he had to give up his business through ill health in 1887 and died in Camberwell thirteen years later. In !989 it was the offices of Bradleys Solicitors.

No 121 was the premises of the charity IAS, Independent Adoption Service, first registered in 1982 and voluntarily removed in 2009. I think both properties are now private residences.

*147, Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1f-53*

No 147 Camberwell Road is a part of a terrace of around ten houses directly south of Cambridge House on the corner of Addington Square. These house look in rather better condition now and the tree here was removed a couple of years ago. Most of these houses are now divided into flats.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.