St John's Road | >Re-PHOTO

St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea: My next London walk was on Sunday 4th March 1990 and began at Clapham Junction station, which is not in Clapham but in Battersea. The London and South Western Railway, London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the West London Extension Railway deliberately chose the misleading name for their interchange station as Clapham was so much more respectable than the rather working-class industrial Battersea and so would be more acceptable to the upper and middle class customers they wanted to use their trains.

Shop window, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-51 — *Shop window, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-51*

I walked south through the tunnel under the lines inside the station and made my way out to the exit onto St John’s Hill, Battersea, where I found this shop window with an intriguing range of content. at top left are directions ‘IF YOU NEED AN AMBULANCE’ and in the centre’ AND IN THE CENTRE ‘PLENTY OF MEN’S OVERCOATS ALL SIZES FORM £2.50 to £4=’ followed by the opening hours, the days listed in the rather odd order ‘MONDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY’.

On the bottom at left is a purse with a chain and then an incomprehensible rectangle, perhaps written in some alien language from outer space. Next is what I think could be a collapsed Japanese-style lampshade and then a 12 inch vinyl record cover for Star Wars and other space themes by Geoff Love and His Orchestra, a 1978 LP. Inside the shop – perhaps a ‘charity shop’ – there appears to be another basket full of what look to me like 78’s, but most of what we can see is reflections of the opposite side of the stree – and my body as I made the photo.

*Entrance, Plough Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-53*

A short distance up the Hill I turned right into Plough Road and photographed this rather strange brick wall with an door-less doorway leading into what looks like a rubbish yard. I carefully lined up a block of flats in the aperture for the picture, but can tell you nothing more about it.

Shops, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-55 — *Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-55*

Back on St John’s Hill at No 80 was KEARNS ANTIQUE COPIES, since replaced by a larger block, Langford Mews. The two properties with the roof balustrade are still there but the unnamed 76 now has an extra storey. But to my delight, HAPPY VALLEY is still there, looking much the same and still a Fish and Chicken bar. I think this building probably dates from around the 1850s. To its right is another new block with ground-floor retail which has replaced H J Golding & Co Ltd and the building to its right.

Shops, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-41 — *Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-41*

Shops and houses on the north side of St John’s Hill on each side of Louvaine Rd. These terraces probably date from around 1870 by which time most of the street was built up. The church in the distance, St. Peter and St Paul’s Church (now the LARA community centre and nursery) was built around 1868. These buildings are since 2009 part of the St John’s Hill Grove conservation area.

Brian J Reed, Silverline Press, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-42 — *Brian J Reed, Silverline Press, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-42*

Two businesses both doomed by changes in technology, with electronic components being replaced by integrated circuts and much of the printing business being transformed by computerisation. The works through the gateway is now part of a Sainsbury’s Local with a shop front a little further up the street.

*Gateway, LCC, East Hill Estate, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-44*

Further along the street St John’s Hill becomes East Hill and it was here that the London Country Council built their East Hill estate in 1928, having bought the site five years earlier. These Grade II listed gates date from 1851 and were preserved from St Peter’s Hospital (Fishmongers’ Almhouses) formerly on the site and re-used as the main pedestrian gateway to the new estate. The almshouses had been built to house 42 residents along with a chapel, hall and library and rooms for the medical officer, clergyman and paymaster. They replaced those in Newington, South London dating from 1618.

The 1928 LCC estate was demolished in 1981 and replaced by the more modern flats on the site in my photograph.

*Garden, Birdhurst Rd, Trinity Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-45*

The Trinity Road dual carriageway had started to be planned when Wandsworth Bridge was build in the 1930s as a part of extensive road and motorway schemes which included a real South Circular, but only materialised in the 1960s as a rather forgotten part of London’s Ringway schemes, intended at some date to link up north of the river with the West Cross Route at Shepherds Bush.

Fortunately sanity prevailed and after a few disastrous short sections of road were built most of these schemes were abandoned. I’m unsure when this section of Trinity Road was converted to dual carriageway, going under the A3 and East Hill and the famous square roundabout were built, but I think some time around 1970.

This small garden is immediately north of East Hill on the corner of Birdhurst Road and has now lost all of its railings and is surrounded by a ring of rather delicate-looking metal bollards. A board about environmental improvements has a graphic including Battersea’s most famous building.

More from this walk later.

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Welsh Chapel, Beauchamp Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-56-positive_2400 — *Welsh Chapel, Beauchamp Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

The only one of my four grandparents I ever knew was a small lady dressed always in black, who seldom moved far from the fire and range in the back room of their house. I don’t remember her ever saying much, though I think she was still very much in charge in the house where she lived with my three maiden aunts, where our Sunday afternoons were strictly observed with only quiet activities and good books allowed, though I think we children sometimes escaped to the wilder parts of the large garden where we were out of sight. She was a Baptist, though the church she and the aunts were members of was a few miles further out of London, though having been born in Llansaintfred, Radnor she would have been home at the Welsh Chapel. Eliza Ann Davies came up to London to work in a Welsh Diary on the Kings Cross Road owned by an uncle, and it was there that she met my grandfather, Frederick Marshall, a young wheelwright and blacksmith, came into the shop some time in the late 1880s and they were married in 1890. I never met him as he was killed in a road accident 12 years before I was born.

Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-54-positive_2400 — *Lavender Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

This impressive range of shops can still be seen on Lavender Hill, just to the east of Clapham Junction station – the pub glimpsed in the distance is The Falcon on the corner of Falcon Rd. But while the Falcon is still in business, every single shop has I think changed hands since I took this in 1988. I took a few other pictures on the main shopping streets, including St John’s Hill and St John’s Road some of which I’ve posted in the Flickr album these pictures come from.

St John's Rd, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-35-positive_2400 — *St John’s Rd, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

The corner of St John’s Rd and Battersea Rise still looks much the same, and the Northcote Arms is still there, though with some new signage. Rhino sports has gone and in its place you can now get acupuncture and other health and beauty treatments. The place of Angel shoes has been taken by a hairdressers, its hanging sign gone, though the iron bracket from which it hung is still in place. And pedestrians are no longer fenced in at the junction.

Aliwal Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-33-positive_2400 — *Aliwal Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

Many quite ordinary houses such as these were finished with interesting detail as on these houses in Aliwal Road. It was I suppose then a relatively inexpensive way to add a touch of class, or perhaps a builder’s edpression of pride in his work.

Broomwood Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-15-positive_2400 — *Broomwood Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

65 Broomwood Road is no longer a dentists, and has lost all those signs, as well as the details of its glazing, but the door and the side panels remain as well as the decoration above. It is at the end of a short row of similar houses on the street,

Webbs Rd, Shelgate Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-13-positive_2400 — *Webbs Rd, Shelgate Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

Like many corner shops in London, Sacha Wines on the corner of Webbs Rd and Shelgate Rd has now been converted for residential use and customers have to go elsehwere for ‘Food, Wines, Beers, Spirits’ etc. Most of these photos were probably taken as I wandered towards Webbs Rd, not for Sacha Wines, but for the Wandsworth Photo-Co-op.

Bellson & Co, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-2d-26-positive_2400 — *Bellson & Co, Battersea Rise, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988*

You can still fine the ball on top of a pillar on Battersea Rise, a few yards up on the south side from Northcote Road, but it takes a little imagination to recognise the scene in my 1988 photograph. The shopfront has gone and 73a is now a house, while Bellson & Co has added an extra floor, though still retaining the bay windows and porch. The changes have been made in a way that integrates pretty seamlessly and without that ball (the pillar is now exposed brick) I would have found it hard to convince myself that this was indeed the same place.

Clicking on any of the pictures in this post will take you to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos.

Tag: St John's Road

St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990

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