Nunhead Green | >Re-PHOTO

Nunhead and Brockley: Pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990 in Nunhead and Brockley.

*Beer and Wine Trade Homes, Nunhead Green, Nunhead, Southwark, 1990, 90-3e-25*

The Beer and Wine Trade Society decided in 1851 to provide an asylum for its elderly poor members and purchased land on the north side of Nunhead Green, launching an appeal to its members to build these almshouses. They were built at at a cost of around £3,000 as a terrace of seven dwellings to house 13 people. The Metropolitan Beer and Wine Trade Society almshouses, architect William Webbe, opened in 1853.

The accommodation was on a generous scale, with each having four rooms and a kitchen and a part of the garden behind to grow vegetables. As well as the accommodation the residents also received a weekly allowance.

The almshouses are Grade II listed and are now private homes.

*Nunhead Library, Gordon Rd, Nunhead, Southwark, 1990, 90-3e-26*

Nunhead Library was designed by Robert Whellock of Camberwell in an Arts and Crafts style and built in 1896. Since 1965 in the London Borough of Southwark where it is one of four libraries which were founded by philanthropist John Passmore Edwards and is still in use as a library. Edwards founded another 11 libraries in London, most no longer in use.

Nunhead had been a part of the ancient parish of Camberwell but became a separate parish in 1878 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in 1900, which became part of the London Borough of Southwark in 1965.

Shops, Gibbon Rd, Nunhead, Soutwwark, 1990, 90-3e-16 — *Shops, Gibbon Rd, Nunhead, Southwwark, 1990, 90-3e-16*

Nunhead Railway station is in Gibbon Road and this Gents Hairdresser at 52 and Launderette at 54 (and the Fish & Chip shop at 50 whose frying times are in the corner of their window) are just past the bridge north of the station entrance. Rather to my surprise there is still Gents Hairdresser and a Fish and Chip shop here, though the Launderette closed around 2010 and is now two homes at 54 and 54a.

The two people sitting reading outside – before the age of mobile phones – are doubtless waiting for their washing to finish inside the launderette.

*Prefabs, Temporary Housing, Drakefell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-51*

I went down Gibbon Road and turned left into Hathway Terrace, which turns into Kitto Road and leads on to Drakefell Rd. Somewhere here was this path with a broken-down fence leading to an area of prefabs.

In 201 Elisabeth Blanchet and Jame Hearn from the Prefab Museum photographed the interior of a prefab in Drakefell Road and posted a video of the resident, John De’Ath, who had moved in when these prefabs were new in 1948 and stayed there until his death in 2017, a very satisfied resident. You can read more about London’s prefabs and see a photograph of one of them in a GLIAS Journal, when in 2024 the two last prefabs there were awaiting demolition.

*Telegraph Hill Park, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-55*

The 10 acres site the hill top on Kitto Road was created in 1894 thanks to George Livesey, chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company and a local philanthropist. It has good views to central London and south and east towards Croydon and Shooters Hill, which made it a great side for a semaphore station which was built around 1795 – as one of a series which formed an optical communication system from London to Dover and Southampton with large arms which could be moved to different positions to convey letters or codes.

The French had invented the system for their military and we copied it – and it was able to speedily deliver the new of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo (among many other messages over the years) back to London. The signal station was out of use by 1823, but the name it gave to what had previously been ‘Plowed Garlic Hill’ stuck.

Rather than take the views, I decided to make a picture that showed a hill. I don’t think it shows the part of the park which once had the telegraph station.

*Endwell Court, Mantle Rd, Endwell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-45*

Mantle Road and Endwell Road meet at Brockley Cross, just to the north of Brockley Station, which is just down the hill which goes under the railway bridge at the left of Endwell Court. This rather isolated block appears to have been built as a mansion block with perhaps four flats and looks very similar now.

*Houses, 169, 171, Drakefell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-46*

A small group of three semi-detached houses on the north side of Drakefell Road close to Brockley Cross have some rather unusually detailed ornamentation. This end of Drakefell Road was Penmartin Road until 1902, and I think these houses probably date from a few years before then. The houses are now flats.

As always, comments and corrections are welcome. More from Brockley in a later post.

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Almshouses, Relief Station, Flats and a Viaduct is the next section of my walk in Peckham on Sunday 12th February 1989, The previous post on this walk was Consort Road Peckham.

Beeston's Gift Alms Houses, Consort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-54 — *Beeston’s Gift Alms Houses, 272, Consort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-54*

My walk continued down Consort Road to these almshouses on the west side close to the south end of the road. Although the main block of these almhouses was built in 1834, there are four later blocks, probably from around the 1960s of which this is one. In 1961 the ten charities responsible for these almshouses and those nearby on Montpelior Road, also established by a bequest to the Girdlers Company began to amalgamate and rebuild, and by 1980 this had become their only site, where they still provide independent accommodation for 20 residents in 18 units with a Almshouse Manager employed by the company. There is now a single charity, known since 1997 as Beeston’s, Andrewes’ and Palyn’s Charity.

This picture is one of two blocks named Palyn House on the almshouse site, one of the four more or less identical blocks added to the orginal site.

Beeston's Gift Alms Houses, Consort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-55 — *Beeston’s Gift Alms Houses, Consort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-55*

These are the Beeston’s Gift Almshouses, built by the Girdlers’ Company in 1834 and Grade II listed. Past Master Cuthbert Beeston died in 1582 leaving seven houses near London Bridge run by charitable trusts, These were sold in 1834 to provide the funds to build these almshouses on Consort Road. They (together with the more recent buildings) still provide housing for around 20 poor persons, chosen by the charity from Freemen of the City of London, workers former workers “in trades akin to that of a Girdler (including workers in metals, leather, cloths and fabrics)” and those resident in the former administrative county of London.

The gates, railings and water pump to the almhouses are also Grade II listed.

Relief Station, Consort Rd, Nunhead Green, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-41 — *Relief Station, Consort Rd, Nunhead Green, Southwark, 1989*

The Relief Station was built in 1901 to provide for the poor in the area and later became Consort Road Clinic. Disused for some years it has been converted into eight self-contained dwellings, retaining the facade and complementing it with a new link building.

*Flats, Peckham Rye, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-44*

At the end of Consort Road I turned right into Nunhead Lane and walked down to Peckham Rye. These flats, Creed House and Goodwin House, seen from Peckham Rye are on the north side of Nunhead Crescent and are a part of the Nunhead estate built around 1956. Southwark Council commissioned a structural survey in 2021 on state of these blocks having consulted the previous year on the possibility of building an extra storey on top of these blocks and others in the estate.

*Railway Bridges, Consort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-34*

I turned into Philip Walk, taking a photograph (not online) of the houses on its north side, solid late Victorian semis, the made my way through a recently built estate back to Consort Road where I made this picture of the splendid viaduct and bridge carrying the line to Nunhead over the street at the junction with Copeland Road. In the arches to the right were a number of businesses, with a part of the arch containing the Westminster Guild in my picture. They seem to have been brass founders and the arches further along are now Bronzewood Metalworks.

*Works, Copeland Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-35*

Copeland Road is best known for the Bussey building and Copeland Park, a few yards further west from this works, their entrance just out of picture, home to many years of the sporting goods factory owned by George Gibson Bussey. I can’t make out the name that was once above one of the buildings, though it clearly starts with SOUTH and I suspect the next word was LONDON.

These rather more humble premises, possibly from the inter-war period, are still there, now housing a barbers, a car wash and a catering company. The semi-detached pair of houses are also still presnet, but their higher end wall at extreme left is now simply a wall with the chimneys and nothing beyond.

My walk in Peckham was almost complete and I made my way back to Rye Lane, but there are just a few more pictures from the end and after taking a bus on my way home that will feature in a final post – and the following month I returned for another Peckham walk. The first post on this walk was Aged Pilgrims, Sceaux, Houses & Lettsom.