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More From Brockley – 1990

More From Brockley: Pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990 in Brockley. The previous post on this walk was Nunhead and Brockley. The pictures in this post are all from a small area of Brockley.

*Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-31*

Two men walk around a street corner into the sun, their shadows clean on the pavement behind them. Like many who lived# in the area the two men are black.

This Brockley Cross at the north end of Mantle Road and it slopes down under a railway bridge to Brockley Station. Two railway lines cross here and I think the 4 aspect signal was on the line from London Bridge to Brockley. The other line, according to Edith’s Streets, was a goods line and the area behind the hoardings was Martin’s sidings with room for 36 coal waggons. This was on land belonging to Martins Dairy at 4 Endwell Road, leased to leased to the London North West Railway and sub let to coal merchant Charrington Warren Ltd.

The steps at right lead to the side entrance to Endwell Court, a block features in my previous post.

*Josies CAFE, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-34*

Josies Cafe was next to the railway bridge on Mantle Road which is at the right of the picture. There was still a café here (no longer Josie’s) until around 2010, but since then this has been a small empty plot.

*Josies CAFE, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-23*

Josies Cafe seen from the opposite side of Mantle Road with the grassy bank leading up to the goods line which crosses Mantle Road here.

*Brockley Paper Co, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-35*

I think this building housing the Brockley Paper Co was next to Josies Cafe, and has been demolished and replaced by a block of flats with shops on the ground floor. One of these at 1a Mantle Road is now the London Print Shop.

O'Shea, Low Cost Flats, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-36 — *O’Shea, Low Cost Flats, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-36*

This small row was just south of Foxwell Road and you can see the railway bridge in the distance at right and the sign for Josies Cafe.

This block which included The Maypole Inn whose sign can be seen was demolished before 2008 – the pub closed in 2006. A block of flats was built on the northern part of the site around 2012, but I don’t know where the ‘low cost flats’ advertised here were located.

*Free Winston Silcott, Harefield Rd, Brockley Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-24*

I walked to the other side of Brockley Station over the station footbridge and along Coulgate Street to Brockley Road and into Harefield Road. The building in the centre background is the back of a house on the corner of Foxberry Street and Coulgate Street,.

This post began with two men, so I’ll end it with two women who walked in front of me to cross the road as I was looking at the graffiti on the wall at the read of the corner shop.

This had the message ‘FREE WINSTON SILCOTT’ above a lot of less legible scrawls. Silcott was one of the ‘Tottenham 3‘ convicted in 1987 for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham in October 1985, but had been nowhere near the scened. All three convictions were quashed in 1991 after it was found the police had fabricated their confessions. He remained in jail as he was convicted for an unrelated murder of a boxer and nightclub bouncer and was only released in 2003.

Vaisakhi in Gravesend – 2012

Vaisakhi in Gravesend – Saturday14 April 2012: Gravesend is in Kent around 20 miles east of London on the River Thames and home to around 15,000 Sikhs in a population of just over 100,000. The first Gurdwara opened here in 1956 but in November 2010 a splendid new Gurdwara was opened, the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara. This is said to be the largest Gurdwara in Europe and one of the largest outside India and cost £12 million, financed by donations.

The temple is on a large site around half a mile east of the railway station and I arrived too late to make a tour of the place as the Nagar Kirtan procession was getting ready to start.

I took a short look inside then went back outside to photograph the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh Scriptures) being carried out ceremonially to be put inside a model of the Golden Temple of Amritsar on one of the floats at the head of the procession.

There were lengthy prayers outside the Gurdwara before five Khalsa, baptised Sikh men in saffron robes carrying Sikh standards and five more with raised swords representing the Panj Pyare baptised at Ananpundur in 1699 by the last living human Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, the founding of the ‘Khalsa’ took their place in the procession behind an open lorry carrying a large Nagara drum and its beaters.

Behind them was the Guru Granth Sahib and then the walking congregation (Sangat) led by Punjabi School children, then the women and after them men, along with several vehicles carrying the elderly.

The Gurdwara also has various cultural, social and sports groups, including Bhangra music and dance groups, the Guru Nanak Football Club and children from local primary schools and lorries carrying some of these made up the end of the procession.

I hadn’t arrived early enough to visit the Langer, but as the procession made its way around the centre of Gravesend there were a number of stalls handing out free vegetarian food and drink. I enjoyed some delicious vegetable curry with a strong mint flavour as well as some very sweet chai and a couple of vegetable samosas, but there were also plenty of treats for the children, lollipops, soft drinks and sweets.

Close to the very much smaller Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara in Brandon Street there was a large crowd waiting to see the procession and more people handing out free food. I paid a very brief visit to see the interior of this temple.

The procession was going back towards the Gurdwara when I waited to see the end of it go past before going to catch a train. The celebrations were to continue the following day with a religious service in the Gurdwara.

Many more pictures at Gravesend Vaisakhi.

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New Cross – Shops, Closed Pubs & Baths

The previous post on this walk in New Cross on 18th December 1988 was A Mattress, Pub, Cinema, Listed Pipe & Naval Baroque

New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-35-Edit_2400 — *New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-35*

New Cross – Shops, Closed Pubs & Baths: The four shops at the left of the picture are still there on New Cross Road at 257-263, but the buildings at right have gone, replaced by a grassed area on the road leading up to Sainsbury’s petrol station and three shopping warehouses. The antiques shop still looked much the same until around 2017.

Before the site to the right which stretches to New Cross Gate station was developed for Sainsbury’s most was a railway goods yard and works. Planning permission was granted for the development in 1995. Old maps show this site was a public house back in 1914 and it was The Railway Tavern which was still open in a picture from the 1940s which clearly is this same building.

New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-21-Edit_2400 — *New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-21*

This large detached house at 288 New Cross Road next to Deptford Town Hall is now a part of Goldsmiths University. It was built in 1842 as Hope Cottage and at least from 1914 to 1940 until later was the District Postal Sorting Office.

Unfortunately the long text on the door is impossible to read, but I suspect it told you to ro round to the back instead.

New Cross Baths, Laurie Grove, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-23-Edit_2400 — *New Cross Baths, Laurie Grove, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-23*

A fine Victorian swimming baths, slipper baths and laundries provided by St Paul’s Deptford vestry in 1895-98 using their powers under the 1846 Public Baths and Wash-houses Act, designed by local architect Thomas Dinwiddy and well described in its Grade II listing text.

*New Cross Baths, Laurie Grove, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-26*

The baths seemed to me rather overegged with those little turrets and the wall with its rather ornate and substantial piers was a temptation I could not resist, outlining its rather phallic profile with the darkness of its doorway behind.

The premises were firmly divided into two halves for men and women, and of course I chose a post with the word ‘MEN’ in a rather fancy font for this picture.

Laurie Grove, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12c-51-Edit_2400 — *Laurie Grove, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12c-51*

These rather solid and heavily built houses are opposite the baths in Laurie Grove and I think probably were built around the same date.

New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-12-Edit_2400 — *New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-12*

These shops at 297-309 New Cross Road are apparently still there, though restored or rebuilt in a way that removes both the various signage and the individuality of the units, producing a long coherent terrace extending from to 289 to 321 (287 still seems a little different.)

There was more character when I photographed the row, with what I think is an unlit neon sign ‘GREY FOR HMV’ and ‘EATWELL’S THE REAL BUTCHER’ who had declared war on rising prices and were you could save money. A cooked meat and sausage specialist, they supplied hotels, canteens and shipping.

New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-16-Edit_2400 — *New Cross Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12b-16*

Some way along New Cross Road was the London Tyre Warehouse, its adverts covering the side of The Fox public house at No. 62. In business here since at least 1851 it closed around 1997 and planning permission was granted to change the pub and the warehouse to a place or worship including a free food distribution centre.

It is now the Bethesda Building owned by Christ Faith Tabernacle International.

This walk will continue in a later post.