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Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990

Toys, Taverns, Timber & More: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990.

*Works, Nugent Road, Spears Rd, Crouch Hill, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-34*

A factory here was established here next to the house in Lambton Road of William Britain (1828-1906). The company grew greatly and the factory expanded after in 1893 his son William Britain Jnr found a way of casting three-dimensional hollow-cast soldiers in 1893 using an alloy of lead, tin and antinomy. Previously toy soldiers had been flat, two-dimensional.

Sales slumped during and after the Great War for Britains Ltd and at Christmas 1921 they introduced Britains Model Home Farm, which became a big seller; later they also made zoo and circus figures.

In 1931 they expaned with a new factory, the North Light Building in Walthamstow. They finally left this Crouch Hill factory and moved completely to Walthamstow in 1968. That closed in 1991 with production being moved to Nottingham.

*Shops, 471, Hornsey Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-35*

This building on the corner of Hornsey Road and Fairbridge Road offering timber, building materials and electrical supplies to the trade and for DIY use clearly had had a rather different past with this rather grand entrance. I had photographed the building the previous year and commented on it but had not found out much about its history.

According to Edith’s Streets it was orginally a coffee tavern, the Jubilee Hall, and from 1905 until 1937 was the premises of Newton and Wright, electrical and scientific instrument makers. They were the makers of The British Snook Machine, a “1920s gas filled or cold cathode medical X-ray tube with a collimator extension of the anticathodeode“. If like me you are totally mystified you can find out more and see pictures on The Hornsey Road blog.

*E D Elson, Timber, Fairbridge Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-22*

E D Elson had a yard at 169 Fairbridge Road for 43 years from when they were founded by Eddie Elson in 1968, along with branches in north London and Hertfordshire – presumably including Barnet. They relocated to St Albans in 2011 and were quickly replaced by a new block of ground floor shops with flats above.

Geo F Trumper, Perfurmer, Sussex Way, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-23 — *Geo F Trumper, Perfurmer, Fairbridge Road, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-23*

Although the street sign is Sussex Way, the doorway at right is 166 Fairbridge Road and Geo F Trumper‘s perfumery is on Fairbridge Road. This is the head office of the company which was established in 1875 by George Francis William Trumper as a gentlemen’s barber shop in Curzon Street, Mayfair. It sells a range of men’s fragrances and personal grooming products, none of which I have ever tried.

*Works, Boothby Rd, Ethorne Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-11*

This building was the Holloway Mills dating from around the 1870s as a steam saw mills for W Betts, the son of J.T. Betts who had founded the company in Bordeaux in 1804. They made boxes and packaging and later became specialists in metal packaging. The company was taken over in 1960 and other businesses moved in. More recently the building has been in use by a a number of artists organisations.

*Byam Shaw School of Art, Ethorne Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-12*

The Byam Shaw School of Art was opened as an independent school of fine art in Kensington in May 1910 by John Liston Byam Shaw and Rex Vicat Cole, and was at first called the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art.

It moved to these larger premises in 1970 and in 2003 was absorbed into the art establishment as a part of Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.

According to a Facebook post by Matt Crandall, this 1920s building was the factory for G Leonardi Ltd, Leonardene Co, and Leonardene Art Models, all founded by Giuseppe Leonardi, an ex-pat Italian, in the 1920s. They were “primarily makers of Art Deco pieces in the 1920s and 1930s including figures, lamps, and wall masks. Their quality far surpassed the usual plasterware items produced at the time, highly detailed and beautifully painted. Many Leonardi designs were reproduced by other companies into the 1970s.” They apparently had a Disney licence from “sometime in the 1940s, which ran at least through 1953“

*Archway Tavern, Archway Rd, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-13*

Where I was standing to make this picture is now called Navigator Square , part of a new gyratory road system. The Archway Tavern is still standing and opened again as a pub after being closed in 2014 over licencing issues. There has been a pub on this site since the 1700s. It was rebuilt in 1860, and then this larger building replaced it in 1888.

Behind at right is the Holborn Union Building, another historic landmark, designed by Henry Saxon Snell which opened on Archway Road as the The Holborn and Finsbury Union Workhouse Infirmary with 625 beds on 1879. More recently it was a campus for University College London and Middlesex University. Vacant since 2013, controversion plans for redevelopment including a 23 storey student housing tower were turned down by Islington council but the called in by London Mayor Sadiq Khan whose decision is still awaited.

*The Royal London Friendly Society, Insurance, Junction Rd, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-14*

The Royal London Friendly Society was launched by Henry Ridge and Joseph Degge in 1861 and in 1908 became a mutual, owned by its customers. Now just Royal London, it “is among the top 30 mutuals globally, and is the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK.”

This fine building for the society at 32 Junction Road dates from 1903, architects Holman & Goodham and was still in used by Royal London Insurance in 1990. Later it became solicitors offices, but since around 2015 has housed a series of cafés, and is currently Dune Brasserie and offices above.

Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990

More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 continuing from Around Finsbury Park – 1990.

*Houses, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-22*

A long terrace of three-storey houses on Prah Rd built in 1876-1878 – and there are others in a similar style on nearby Romilly Rd. There is a long and detailed section on Prah Road and its early occupants cited in an essay by John Bold and Charlotte Bradbeer; Booth’s investigators described these and neighbouring streets as having a higher class of occupant: ‘clerks, city men, some mechanics and a great many railwaymen of the better sort, head ticket collectors etc‘.

*Doorway, 1, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-24*

The Finsbury Park Conservative Club opened at 1 Prah Road in 1886 but there was little to show its presence when I photographed its decorative entrance. Later it had a Carlsburg sign added above the doorway, still there though faded although the club closed in 2015. The building was sold in 2016 for over 1.65 million, but completion was delayed as the building was squatted. It is now residential.

*Shops, Berriman Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-25*

I walked north towards Finsbury Park Station and then turned left down Seven Sisters Road towards Holloway, taking few photographs as I had walked this way before. FINSBURY PARK was then fairly clear at the top of the ‘ghost sign’ on the Berriman Road side of 158 Seven Sisters Road, but I cannot make out the rest of the wording, though the next line could be GENERAL.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-26*

Fosby Of London Ltd were at 3-5 Thane Villas, a few yards down the next turning south off Seven Sisters Road after Berriman Road. The company, established in 1977, made luxury high quality ladies blouses and shirts with “a feminine, elegant feel” which still sell on vintage clothing sites, but the building is now student accomodation.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-13*

A closer view shows some of the fine detailing on the Grade II listed building built in a Queen Anne style in 1909 as factory, offices and wholesale showroom for manufacturing pharmaceutical chemists Fletcher, Fletcher and Company Ltd. Grace’s Guide lists their specialities: ‘”Vibrona” the Ideal Tonic Wine, of which they are the proprietors; is largely prescribed by the medical profession as a Tonic Restorative. ” Bronamalt,” an Ideal Tonic Food for delicate Children and Invalids. Also proprietors of Fletchers’ Syrups of the Hydrobro mates and Fletchers’ Concentrated Liquors, all of proved value. Are the patentees of Fletchers’ Thermo-Hydrometer and Fletchers’ Autometric Stopper, also of Endolytic Tubes for Clinical Diagnosis.

Other products included Effico tonic, Flexaphyll deodorant tablets, Aperigran laxative granules and Rubelix cough syrup. They called the buildings Vibrona House and remaines there until the 1960s when it was bought by Vortex Jersey Ltd.

The building was only listed in 2007, and the listing text comments: “The building has been little altered and retains several features of note including panelling, a glazed partition, a fireplace and rare historic automatic door, an unusual feature in commercial buildings of the era. The difference between the manufacturing and commercial spaces is clearly marked by two staircases which are both of special interest: the utilitarian stone staircase with metal balusters providing access to the factory and the grand timber Jacobean staircase serving the offices and commercial areas.“

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-14*

At the next crossroads I turned north up Hornsey Road and photographed the Hornsey Road Baths – Grade II listed in 1994. Another Queen Anne style building, this was built in 1891-2, designed by architect Alfred Hessell Tiltman (1854-1910).

When opened it had two pools for men and one for women, but such was demand that the baths were enlarged in 1894 and a second women’s bath was added in 1900. The listing text concludes by mentioning the “remarkable neon Diving Lady on the South flank elevation, one of 12 such illuminated features placed on swimming pools and lidos in London in the 1930’s and now believed to be the only survivor.”

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-16*

The frontage of the baths has the text ‘PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH HOUSES’ incised across it. The wash houses or laundry were added in 1894 and had a large drying room; they became self-service in 1965. The baths were refurbished at a cost of £1.5 million in 1985 and as the board shows were still in use for swimming, warm baths and a sauna when I took these pictures. But lack of funds led to the closing of the baths and laundry the following year.

From 2002-9 the baths were redeveloped, retaining the listed entrance block on Hornsey Road and the chimney but providing 200 apartments, some at affordable rent and others for private sale, an office building for Islington Council and a Sure Start Centre for parents and children.

Rainham, Purfleet, Thurrock & Ponders End – 1993

Rainham, Purfleet, Thurrock & Ponders End: On Saturday 11th December 1993 I took a train from Fenchurch Street to Rainham and then walked along by the river to Coldharbour Point. There the path stopped and I returned to Rainham and took the train to Purfleet where I could pick up the riverside path again and walk on to Grays. Probably I walked about 9 miles in all and by the time I finished it I think the light would have been fading, with sunset at around 4pm.

Tilda Rice, Purfleet, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-64 — *Tilda Rice, Rainham, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-64*

On this walk I made a little over 200 black and white images, a selection of which you can find on Flickr in my 1993 London album beginning here.

*Waste Paper, Purfleet, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-51*

There are more colour images from this walk, including a number of panoramas, mixed with pictures from other occasions starting here on the final two pages of my Flickr album of colour pictures from 1993.

*Notices on Fence, Purfleet, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-53*

But today I found some more pictures from that walk at the start of my album 1994 London Colour and I’ll share these in this post. They will have come from a cassette of film which I took in 1993 but only developed a month or so later in 1994.

*Waste Paper, Purfleet, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-56*

Works, Purfleet, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-46

*QEII Bridge, Dartford Bridge, Pipeline, River Thames, West Thurrock, Thurrock, 1993, 94-01-1-11*

The final image in today’s post is something completely different on the same film, a shop window in Ponders End which I found it strangely weird. As it is on the same film as the others I think it was probably also taken in December 1993 although my caption stated 1994.

*Shop Window, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-01-1-14*

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Garford Street Limehouse – 1990

Garford Street Limehouse: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is Around Emmett Street, Limehouse 1990. As usual you can click on the images here to view larger versions on my Flickr pages.

*Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-65*

Garford Street is variously described as in Limehouse, Westferry and Poplar, although estate agents seem to prefer Canary Wharf, which is certainly isn’t, though fairly close by. Back in 1990 I think most of us thought it was Limehouse.

The 1994 LCC Survey of London deals with it in a chapter Limehouse Hole: The inland area. This tells us that a John Garford in the early 19th century had a wharf on the Thames at its western end on Emmett Street. Since the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel and the new route of Westferry Road for the Canary Wharf redevelopment it now starts around 200 yards to the east on Westferry Road. Its other end is still at the West India Dock Road.

I think the junction here is a part of the lost area on the north side of Garford Street. The chimney in the background is a remnant of the Lion Works, established here in “1896-7 by James Walker & Company, steam packing makers,” later Lion Packings Ltd who made “Patent metallic packing” here until around 1926. “The site was cleared for public housing in 1938–9” but as you can see the chimney survived until 1990.

*Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-51*

Another view just a few yards from the previous image shows some large cable drums from AEI Gravesend. A notice tells those waiting for MOT tests at the Austin Rover garage where to queue.

*Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-53*

This derelict warehouse building still has the remains of a hoist to the first floor entrance above its main door. There is now new housing on this site just to the west of the DLR railway bridge on the north side of the street.

*Constables Cottages, Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-54*

These early 19th century houses on the south side of Garford St are Grade II listed.

Greig House, Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-56

Greig House, Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990,
Built 1902-3 as accommodation for officers from Scandinavian ships docked in London it was taken over in 1930 as a Salvation Army hostel, and later used to house male alcoholics and more recently as a residential detoxification centre for men and women with drug or alcohol problems. Grade II listed along with the cottages on Garford St.

Greig House, Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-41

A second view of Greig House which shows some of the buildings of the West India Dock on Hertsmere Road in the background as well as the cranes building parts of Canary Wharf around Cabot Square. You can read much more about this and the associated buildings on the Lost Hospitals of London site.

From here I walked across the West India Dock Road in Poplar where my next post on this walk will begin.

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Ratcliff Highway and Limehouse Basin – 1990

Ratcliff Highway and Limehouse Basin: My first photographic walk in 1990 came at the end of the Christmas and New Year season on 6th January 1990 when I returned to Limehouse for another walk. I’d taken quite a few pictures there back in 1984 and I thought it was time for another extensive visit. Getting there was easier now that the DLR ran to Limehouse. I left the station and walked down Branch Road.

*Scout HQ, Branch Rd, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 89-12d-46*

Obviously not built as a Scout HQ, but something rather more official, and this was built in 1898 as the Stepney Borough Coroner’s Court.

Branch Road was apparently earlier called Horseferry Branch Road and led to a ferry across the Thames here – and Branch Road still leads to a road called Horseferry Rd. An ancient ferry ran from Ratcliff Cross Stairs and would have taken horses and carts as well as people across to Rotherhithe. You can still go down to the foreshore here from Narrow Street down the Grade II listed stairs but of course there is no ferry. The listing is probably more for the historic interest of the site – the stairs themselves are are relatively modern concrete replacement and the ancient causeway here apparently disappeared around 2000.

*Tubular Barriers, The Queens Head, The Highway, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 89-12d-34*

At 491 The Highway – formerly known as Ratcliffe Highway – close to the corner with Butcher Row – the Queens Head pub to the right of this view – was demolished soon after I made this picture in 1990, along with the rest of these buildings. At the left is a sign for the Limehouse Link tunnel, built between 1989 and 1993 and I think this was a storage yard for the work. The western end of the tunnel is a short distance to the east.

*Electrocute Murdoch, Tubular Barriers, 493, The Highway, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 89-12d-35*

Another part of the Tubular Barriers site on The Highway which I think I photographed mainly for the graffiti ‘ELECTROCUTE MURDOCH’ on its wall. I think this was at the corner with Butcher Row. Though the company name also made me think of the Mike Oldfield album Tubular Bells.

There had been a particularly bitter and hard fought (sometimes literally) fight over the opening of Murdoch’s News International print works at Wapping in 1986, following the dismissal of all 6000 of the print workers at the previous Fleet Street hot metal print plant.

*Works, 503-9, The Highway, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 89-12d-25*

Control of the development of the Docklands areas was in 1981 taken away from the local authorities and given to the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) a quango agency set up by Margaret Thatcher’s Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine. Although this resulted in a faster regeneration of the area this was largely driven by the interests of global capital and often went against the interests and needs of the local communities. This whole area was demolished around 1990. I did wonder if the three-storey building might be a former pub.

*Works, 503-9, The Highway, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 89-12d-12*

Notices on the shop-front at right read

‘DOCKLANDS LOCAL
PLUMBERS & ELECTRICIANS

CAN THE LDDC LEGALLY
STEAL OUR LAND?
57 MEN
TO LOSE THEIR JOBS’

The LDDC had wide ranging powers and legalised thefts such as this. It was an area in need of redevelopment and the LDDC got this moving at pace, but it would have been far better to have found ways to retain former businesses and provide more social housing and other community assets.

Limehouse Dock, Redevelopment, 1990, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 90-12d-14 — *Limehouse Basin, Redevelopment, 1990 Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 89-12d-14*

Much of the area around Limehouse Basin was derelict in 1990 as this view from the south shows. At the right is St Anne’s Limehouse.

*Entrance Lock, River Thames, Limehouse Basin, Narrow St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1a-63*

Considerable building work was taking place around the lock linking Limehouse Basin to the River Thames.

This is the ship lock and there had once been two narrower barge locks a short distance west. The ship lock was built slantwise to make for and easier entry by larger ships (up to 2000 tons) from the river and was a part of its enlargement in 1869. The lock had two compartments with three gates. In 1990 the outer gates to the Thames were still in place (in pictures not yet digitised) but no longer in use and the other two replaced by this much narrower single lock, suitable for the smaller vessels now using the Basin as a Marina.

*Entrance, Limehouse Basin, Narrow St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1a-53*

A building for Limehouse Waterside and Marina on the corner of the 1869 Ship Lock and Limehouse Basin. Running across on the opposite side of the water is London’s third oldest railway viaduct, built in 1840 for the London and Blackwall Railway and now in use for the DLR.

Yet More from Stoke Newington

Yet More from Stoke Newington: This is the final post about my walk on 8th October 1989 going down Stoke Newington High St towards Dalston with some minor detours. The previous post on this walk was Cemetery, Synagogue & Snooker.

*Shops, 77, Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-52*

I wondered about the history of these three shops at 75-79 Stoke Newington History with the three-story Golden House Chinese takeaway at its centre. The first-floor brickwork on either side didn’t quite seem to match suggesting to me that the central building may have been a post-war addition to an existing building, or that these first floors may have been a later addition.

This central shop is still a Chinese takeaway but under a different name.

Hovis Bread, Batley Rd, Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989, 89-10f-55 — *Hovis Bread, Victorian Grove, Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-55*

The Cinema Treasures site states that The Vogue Cinema at 38 Stoke Newington High St opened as The Majestic Electric Palace on 15th December 1910 and was closed on 21st June 1958 as a protest by Classic Cinemas against the landlord’s rent rise.

It remained shuttered and closed for 42 years until in November 2000 the foyer was converted into a Turkish restuarant with housing behind, described to me on Flickr as the “best Turkish restaurant ever.” The restaurant owners restored the Vogue sign.

My picture with the Hovis Bread ghost sign was taken from a few yards down Victorian Grove looking towards the cinema across the High Street. The block at right of the picture has now been replaced by a large building with a Tesco Extra on its ground floor.

*House, Victorian Grove, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-56*

This street was originally called Victoria Grove, but its name was changed some time in the middle of the last century. Much of the area was redeveloped in the 1970s but these houses dating from the early years of Victoria’s reign in the 1840s or 1850s remain.

This Grade II listed pair with the unusual curved bays and balconies have the name ‘BRIGHTON VILLAS’ on a plaque between the first floor windows, hidden by the curvature of the nearer bay in my photograph. The nearer balcony roof has been replaced since I took this, matching the one on its neighbour.

*Works entrance, Victorian Grove, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-41*

The wall beside 3 Victorian Grove is still there, but now has only graffiti on it. There are still some industrial units behind the villas of Victorian Grove, though surely they will soon be replaced by expensive flats, but access to these is now thourgh a gated vehicle entrance further down the street.

*Posters, Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-42*

Should you Google – as I did – ‘Trevor Moneville‘ – you will find he was a 33-year-old from Hackney, was found dead at HMP Lewes on April 18, 2021 from Sudden Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) because of insufficient and unacceptable management of his care.

But this was a case of history repeating itself. A copy of the poster at top right is also in the collection of Hackney Museum, where the web site notes:

“Trevor Monerville went missing from Stoke Newington police station after being taken into custody on New Year’s Eve, reappearing after several days on the other side of London in Brixton prison. He had multiple injuries and later underwent emergency surgery in Maudsley Hospital. The case highlighted existing concerns about alleged institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police and led to the formation of the Hackney Community Defence Association in 1988.”

And in the centre of the picture is a poster for another, better known case of police brutality. Blair Peach was a young teacher murdered by the police Special Patrol Group who went beserk when policing an anti-racist protest in Southall on 23 April 1979.

Andy's Fashions, 141, Stoke Newington Rd, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-43 — *Andy’s Fashions, 141, Stoke Newington Rd, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-43*

Further south Stoke Newington High Street becomes Stoke Newington Road, and back in 1989 I found myself confusing the two. Andy’s Fashions was at 141 Stoke Newington Road. No longer Andy’s, the shop is now Stitch “N” Time offering tailoring, alterations, repairs. and no longer has its wares on the pavement outside or partly blocking the entry to the Stoke Newington Estate of the Industrial Dwellings Society (1885) Ltd.

The IDS was established as the Four Per Cent Dwellings Company in 1885 by “Jewish philanthropists to relieve the overcrowding in homes in the East End of London” and changed its name in 1952. They opened the Stoke Newington Estate in 1903.

*Curtains, Stoke Newington Rd, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-32*

Another shop somewhere on Stoke Newington Road, with a fine formation of net curtains for sale, though in my book ‘1989’ I imagined them rather differently, perhaps as the front of a vast army of angels, “Or a phalanx of klansmen or some strange voodoo creatures about to burst out onto the streets of London.“

The book is still available on Blurb, though at a silly price for the print version, but you can see over half of it on the preview there or the full set of pages on the web site where this image and its text is on page 19.

The texts in that book were intended to explore the question of why some scenes grabbed my attention enough to make me fix them as photographs, and why they continue to excite my imagination and I hope that of other viewers.

*Street Market, Shoreditch High St, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, 1989 89-10f-33*

My walk had ended and I got on the bus to take me to Waterloo for the train home. I almost always sit on the upper deck on double-decker buses and enjoy the views from the windows. As the bus went slowly along Shoreditch High Street close to the junction with Commercial Street it passed the informal market on the pavement where I had time to take three frames through the window. The area looks a little different now, but the last time I went past on a Sunday there was still a rather similar market there.

This is the final post about my walk on 8th October 1989. You can find more pictures from London and elsewhere on Flickr, with both black and white and colour images in albums mainly arranged by the year I took them, such as 1989 London Photos and 1989 London Colour.

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Schools, Warner Estate, Baptists & Art Deco – 1989

Schools, Warner Estate, Baptists & Art Deco: My motivation for this return to Walthamstow was I think to photograph the building whose pictures end this post. On a previous visit I had – for the only time I can remember – lost a cassette of exposed film. I’d realised this later in the same morning and had gone back on my tracks to search for it to where I changed films, but without success. And there had been one building I had photographed that I was keen to have pictures of as Art Deco was one of my particular themes at the time, working for a never published book, London Moderne. But I’d decided to walk around some other areas again before going to take those pictures.

*Markhouse Road Schools, Markhouse Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-63*

Markhouse Road Schools it tells us on the building were ‘REBUILT 1907’. Walthamstow was forced by the government Education ministry to set up a school board 1880, before which there were “5 Anglican schools, 5 run by Protestant nonconformists, and 3, including an orphanage and an industrial school, by Roman Catholics.” The school boards provided elementary education for 5-13 year olds. Mark House Road board school opened in 1891 with infants, boys and girls departments.

Unfortunately the schools burnt down a few days before Christmas in 1906 and were almost completely destroyed. Walthamstow Urban Distric Council who had been running elementary schools in the area since 1903 rebuilt them and they reopened in 1908.

The school became a secondary modern school in 1946 and closed in 1966, though the building remained in use for various educational purposes for some years until it was finally demolished a few years after I made this picture.

Nat West, Bank, 10, St James's St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-66 — *Nat West, Bank, 10, St James St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-66*

The rather fine entrance to the NatWest bank in St James St; the building on the north of the corner with Leucha Road, is still there, one of the two blocks built by the Warner Estate featured in the previous post on this walk, but the doorway, now for a food store, is sadly bereft of dragons and decoration.

*Houses, Leucha Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-51*

Leucha Road, one many streets built as part of the Warner Estate in Walthamstow got its name from one of the family, Leucha Diana Maude who was the daughter of Clementina and Cornwallis Viscount Hawarden Earl de Montalt, a Conservative politician with an Irish peerage. Clementina was a noted amateur photographer and had ten children, eight of whom survived infancy, so there was no shortage of names for streets around here.

This was one of the earliest to be developed on the Warner Estate in 1895 and the buildings on it are two storey maisonettes, called “half houses” by the Warners.

Leucha Road was acquired by Waltham Forest Council in the late 1960’s and they repainted the doors which had been green like all other Warner properties in what the Conservation Area statement describes as “a pale and inappropriate “Council-house” blue“. The Warner Estate sold off 2400 of their properties to Circle 33 Housing Trust (now part of Circle Housing Group) in 2000 and of these 600 still had outside toilets.

*Shops, High St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-52*

Another picture of some of the Warner estate shops in the High Street with at the left a rather strange ‘streamline’ feature which I think must have belonged to a building to the left demolished in some road-widening scheme.

*Pretoria Ave, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-55*

A house at 2-4 Pretoria Avenue with a rather nice gable, I think also a Warner building.

Baptist Church, Blackhorse Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-41 — *Baptist Church, 65, Blackhorse Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-41*

A curiously barn-like structure dated 1932, Walthamstow (Blackhorse Rd) Baptist Church. This building replaced a ‘tin tabernacle’ in which the congregation had been meeting since 1898. The church is still a “friendly multi-cultural church in Walthamstow.”

Hammond & Champnesss Ltd, Works, Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-45 — *Hammond & Champnesss Ltd, Works, 52, Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-33*

Not dated but also obviously from the 1930s was this building for Hammond & Champnesss Ltd on Blackhorse Lane.

Hammond & Champnesss Ltd was established as in 1905 by cousins Ernest Hammond and Harold Champness to make hydraulic water-powered lifts. They were joined by Ernest’s brother Leonard and for some time the company was Hammond Brothers and Champness Ltd.

Hydraulic lifts are raised and lowered by a piston inside a long cylinder with fluid pumped in to move the piston which is connected either directly or by ropes and pulleys to the lift cabin. They can be used in buildings up to five of six stories high.

Hammond & Champnesss Ltd, Works, Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-32 — *Hammond & Champnesss Ltd, Works, 52, Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-9e-32*

Hammond Brothers and Champness Ltd went bust in 1932 and the company was taken over by E Pollard & Co. Ltd who renamed it to Hammond & Champnesss Ltd but kept it operating as a separate company. This was taken over by US company Dover Corporation in 1971 but they continued to make lift components in Walthamstow until that company was taken over by Thyssen in 1999.

The building became Kings Family Network. It was refurbished in 2014 and is now Creative Works Co-Working office space.

This wasn’t the end of my walk that day, but after taking three pictures of this building I made my way to Blackhorse Road station and took the train to Crouch Hill.

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More from Hedon Rd, Hull – 1989

More from Hedon Rd, Hull – More of my photographs on Hedon Road made in August 1989. The previous post on Hull was More Around Popple Street, Hull – 1989

This section of Hedon Road was bypassed by the building of Roger Millward Way and most of the buildings on it have been demolished, with just a few short sections of brick walls remaining. Back in 1989 much of it was lined with buildings which appeared to be disused. This section attracted me for its large entrances, probably built for horse-drawn wagons carrying timber to the saw mills and the smaller building on the road frontage with four boared up windows that seemed to have been rather crudely inserted into the tall wall at left. Little traffic used the road in 1989 and the no parking and no loading signs were by then superfluous. Old maps show this area as occupied by an Iron Works and Saw Mill.

*Abram Transport, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-42*

Although the company names S P S and Abram Transport were still on these buildings I think none were still in use. These buildings probably dated from around the beginning of the 20th century for previous occupiers of the sites.

Another view of the row of buildings in the previous image with an empty road but a lorry in the foreground packed high with sawn timber, so apparently there were still some saw mills operating in the area. In the distance you can see the dust extractor for C B North’s saw mill.

*ONLY THIEVES USE THIS LINE, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-45*

I think this railway bridge will have carried lines into Victoria Dock across Hedon Road. No trace of it remains. There were some rail bridges roughly where the Mount Pleasant North Roundabout now is, with South Bridge Road leading into what is now Victoria Dock Village. But I think this was another rail bridge further east close to Hotham Street which led to both Victoria and Alexandra docks.

The lines had certainly become unused after both these docks closed in 1970, but presumably gave access to some commercial premises still in use after that date – hence the reward offered in this notice.

*Railway Bridge, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-46*

Under a railway bridge and looking east away from the city centre. The parked cars show that some of buildings along the street were still in business use. I think none of the buildings in this picture are sill standing

*Crowle House, Crowle St, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-32*

Crowle Street runs parallel to Hedon Road a short distance to the north and this house is still standing although much altered, visible from Hedon Road down Ferries Street. There is a rather more impressive Crowle House in High Street, Hull, a grade II listed how build in 1664 for wealthy Hull merchant George Crowle and his wife Eleanor.

Newtown Square, just off Hedon Rd and along Southcoates Lane opposite Hull Prison was developed for council housing in 1931-2 with a dozen or so blocks of three-story flats, I think around 150 in all. The 1950 OS map calls them Newtown Square and that was still the name when I photographed them in 1989, though they are now known as Newtown Court.

The flats built in 1931-2 were apparently improved in the 1980s and I think my picture may show some before and some after that improvement. They have been again modified recently.

More from Hull in 1989 in some later posts.

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Rail, Housing, Matrimony & A Warning

Rail, Housing, Matrimony & A Warning: More pictures from my walk which began at Vauxhall on Friday 28th July 1989 with Nine Elms Riverside. The previous post was Marco Polo, Chelsea Bridge, MAN holder & Convent.

*Works, Silverthorne Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7m-43*

These buildings are still there in a side turning from Silverthorne Road now leading to Battersea Studios. Battersea Studios were built in 1970 as a warehouse for BT and in 1994 became the home of the short-lived BBC Arabic Television, closed precipitately on Sunday, April 21, 1996 having angered the Saudi regime (and the UK government) by its accurate and impartial reporting. At extreme left you can see the barrier leading to that site.

The buildings in the picture were part of the Stewarts Lane Goods Depot, a huge area bounded by this and Dickens Street to the south and going east to the railway lines at Portslade Rd. It was first set up by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1860 as Longhedge and used to build and house locomotives for their services from Victoria Station a short distance away north of the river. The original buildings were demolished in 1880/1 and replaced by these as Stewarts Lane which housed steam locomotives until 1963 and then diesels. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 1967.

The depot remains in use as the Stewarts Lane Traction Maintenance Depot and is used by both DB Cargo UK and Govia Thameslink Railway.

*Houses, 133-139, Heath Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-44*

Further down Silverthorne Road to its west is Heath Road, the north side of which retains its attractive Victorian housing, with a block of four houses with basements and steps to their paired entrances followed by five without basements but with the same style and decoration. At the end at left of picture is the recently build Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

*Heath Terrace, Silverthorne Rd, 514 Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-46*

Heath Terrace is on the corner of Silverthorne Road and Wandsworth Road and as well as this corner entrance has two similar but slightly less ornate doorways on Wandsworth Road leading to sixteen Flats A to P as well as another door for a shop on Silverthorne Road part visible in my picture then occupied by taxi and transport company Guy Payne Of London Limited.

The building was built in 1897 and the corner door, in use when I made my picture in 1989 by Dr A J K Ala, still led to a surgery until around 2012. At the front of the traffic queue is a man on a moped with a large clipboard, studying the ‘knowledge’ required of taxi drivers.

*Matrimony Place, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-32*

Matrimony Place is one of my favourite street names, though this place is only an alley with steps leading from Wandsworth Road to St. Paul’s Churchyard. I’d photographed it a few years earlier and made a deliberate detour to see if had changed – it was still much the same.

Possibly it was once the custom for local couples to walk up the 29 steps to the church to be married – or down them after the ceremony, and the name appears to of some antiquity. The railings have since been replaced by a fake antique design (probably thanks to the Clapham Society) which I find rather less attractive. It’s probably still a place to avoid after dark unless you a looking for drugs.

St Paul’s, Clapham was built on the site of the original parish church of Clapham, St Mary’s, renamed Trinity Church at the Protestant Reformation, then demolished in 1774 to be replace by Holy Trinity on Clapham Common. St Paul’s was built simply in 1815, became a rather odd lump after later extension by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1875, was burnt down in World War 2 and restored in 1955 and is Grade II* listed.

*Houses, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-34*

I didn’t go up Matrimony Place but instead turned back westwards down Wandsworth Road, hardly stopping until I came to the top of Victoria Rise which has these rather impressive Victorian Terraces on both sides. Looked at from this end the street should perhaps have been called Victoria Fall as it goes down noticeably to Clapham Common, but you can see why the developers decided against this. In fact they called it Victoria Road, but it was changed later as there were too many of these in London.

The street was laid out around 1853 its lower end on the site of an C18 villa built for the banker Henry Hoare by Henry Flitcroft known as The Wilderness. These houses on the east side were there by the time of the 1869/70 OS survey, though those on the west side are a little later.

*Doorway, 144, Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-35*

A notice in the window at right states:
YOU ARE WARNED
REPENT AND RECEIVE
THE LORD JESUS AS
YOUR SAVIOUR FOR
LIFE ETERNAL, LEST
YOU DIE SUDDENLY
AND GO TO HELL
WITH THE DEVIL
THE MURDERER.

*Victoria Rise, Clapham, Lambeth, 1989 89-7m-36*

At left is a window on the corner with Wandsworth Rd with plaster mouldings in a shop demolished in 1998, and at right is Clapham Baptist Church on the opposite corner.

The houses on this side of Victoria rise were built between the 1869/70 survey and the 1893 to 1894 revision. There was also a chapel here, the Victoria Baptist Church, built in 1873 but this was badly damaged by bombs in 1941. it was rebuilt in the 1950s, incorporating some of the Victorian remains on its west end on Wandsworth Road.

My walk continued – more later.

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Kirtling Street to Battersea Power Station & the Dogs – 1989

Kirtling Street to Battersea Power Station & the Dogs continues my walk which began at Vauxhall on Friday 28th July 1989 with Nine Elms Riverside. The previous post was More from Nine Elms Riverside.

*Works, Kirtling St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-36*

The riverside path still ends at Kirtling Street but Greenham’s aggregate wharf has now been replaced by the central site of the Tideway 25km London super sewer project underneath the River Thames due for completion in 2025, when it should prevent 95% of sewage spills in London entering the river. It was here that the two tunnel boring machines were lowered 50 metres below ground to make their way east and west to produce the central section of the tunnel between Fulham and Bermondsey.

*T & W Farmiloe, paint factory, Cringle St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-21*

This bricked up entry in a tall brick wall on the corner of Cringle Street was for many years all that remained of the 50-year-old glass, lead, paint and sanitary ware manufacturing company which had opened a large 4-storey factory here in 1884 with a frontage on Nine Elms Lane. The Farmiloe brothers had set up in business in Westminster in the 1840s as glass cutters and taken over the Island Lead Mills in Limehouse in 1885, and expanded with a brass foundry on Horseferry Road, a varnish works in Mitcham and this large warehouse in Nine Elms, producing everything a plumber could need. In the twentieth century their main business moved to sanitary ware and paint, including ‘Nine Elms’ white lead paint which was made at this white-lead factory built around 1910. I think the company which had trademarked ‘Nine Elms’ had long vacated the site before it was dissolved in 1988. The trademark passed to Akzo Nobel and expired in 2005.

*Works, Sleaford St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-23*

Sleaford Street was on the eastern side of one of the earliest developments in the area, Battersea New Town, begun in the 1790s and was first developed on its west side the by Southwark butcher William Sleford. Apparently later “One side of Sleaford Street was formerly derided as Ginbottle Row, while the other was called Soapsuds Bay, presumably because it accommodated laundresses.”

I can find no signs of the building in this picture and most of the west side of Sleaford Street is now occupied by a large block of flats extending back from the corner with Nine Elms Lane completed around 2008. John Oswald and Sons had a foundry in the street from 1871 and this may be their building.

At the left of the picture you can see the Battersea gasholder, demolished 2014-7 and at right Battersea Power Station.

*Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-24*

A slightly unusual view of the power station six years after its final closure. Planning permission was obtained for it conversion to a theme park, but the scheme was halted when money ran out in March 1989. By this time the roof had been removed, presumably by McAlpine whose name adorns the building, which led to considerable subsequent deterioration of the steelwork and foundations.

After various failed redevelopment plans the power station was eventually refurbished as an expensive tourist destination surrounded by new homes, a hotel, shops and restaurants and a new London Underground station. McAlpine was the construction manager for the final phase three of the development.

*Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-25*

Another view of the wrecked power station, along with a rather unconvincing double at the right with a view of the abandoned scheme.

*Battersea Dogs Home, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-11*

Then there was no way back to the riverside before reaching Chelsea Bridge at the north end of Queenstown Road. A long detour away from the river around the power station and gas works site took me past Battersea Dogs Home where I took this picture with one dog begging on the top of the wall and another emerging from the Exit to the building. There is now a rather larger building on the site and it has added ‘and Cats’ to its remit.

The description of my walk will continue in a later post.

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