A particularly tough question about Loughborough Junction railway station history

[editor]

One of the guys behind the excellent Disused Stations website has asked me if I know the answer to this question about Loughborough Junction station. I don't, so I thought I'd throw it out to you lot.

Any ideas?

Can you tell me what the large Victorian building is squeezed in between the Herne Hill line and the Denmark Hill line at Loughborough Junction station. Photo attached. I had always assume it to be the station building but an 1898 OS map (attached) says that it is Loughborough Hall.

Lambeth Councils Loughborough Junction development plan (2013) lists is as a ‘station building/Snopake factory’. That suggests it was the station building, then it became a factory. A number of architectural features of the building look similar to the Denmark Hill station building.

Do you know the answer?

 

[Pickman's model]

tbh a trip to the lambeth archives should supply the answer, doesn't appear readily available online. the 1893 survey should not be seen in isolation, as the 1912 and subsequent surveys may give more information, as may any local directories or drainage plans held at the archives.

 

[ringo]

I've wondered this over the years. I eventually decided it couldn't be part of the station because it looks like it has never been attached in any way, and doesn't correspond with providing access to the steps from street level to the platforms.

It is similar to Denmark Hill Stn in form and style, but then so is the Salvation Army building by Denmark Hill and that other building you can see near LJ Station. I don't know what that is either, had assumed it was water or power. I think they were all built at about the same time, but not convinced of any greater link.

Hadn't realised the other building in LJ it was triangular either.

 

[ringo]

There's an alley leading to the mystery building, could be how it was/is accessed? Haven't walked up it in a decade, but I bet a closer look would reveal something.

 

[ringo]

I've changed my mind. Once you see the extra two down and up platforms on the old plans, which are not there now, it looks much more like this was the original station building, with access from that alley and/or what is currently Loughborough Farm.

 

[ringo]

Except - you'd expect Station Avenue, now just an alley, to go to the station. Dunno without visiting with this in mind.

 

[editor]

I've always thought it must be linked to the station.

 

[Nick Catford]

tbh a trip to the lambeth archives should supply the answer, doesn't appear readily available online. the 1893 survey should not be seen in isolation, as the 1912 and subsequent surveys may give more information, as may any local directories or drainage plans held at the archives.

The later surveys do not help further. 1910 also says Loughborough Hall, 1916 is no identification, 1952 says the building is a club. Although there are some architectural similarities with Denmark Hill that is an LBSC station not LCD. In the 1871 survey neither the Cambria curve or the building are shown so it seems likely the curve, the platforms and the building all appeared at the same time. This adds weight to it being a station building. It is also ideally placed for the five stairways leading up to the platform. If you look at the 1898 map you will see that there is an open walkway to the front of the building and the stairs are in the viaduct arches at the rear of the building.

Most of the other LCD stations in the area had substantial buildings. Elephant & Castle. Herne Hill (if you include the tower) and Camberwell all had substantial three storey buildings. This is a substantial 3 storey building. Only Walworth Road had an entrance in the viaduct arch as Loughborough Junction does now.

I asked Jim Connor and expert on London railways and former editor of London Railway Record and he has no information about it although he too has wondered about it. The present editor of London Railway Record, Peter Kay can't help either.



Where did Lambeth Council get their information about it being a 'station building' as described in their 2013 regeneration plan for the area? Perhaps they were just assuming.

Nick

 

[Pickman's model]

The later surveys do not help further. 1910 also says Loughborough Hall, 1916 is no identification, 1952 says the building is a club. Although there are some architectural similarities with Denmark Hill that is an LBSC station not LCD. In the 1871 survey neither the Cambria curve or the building are shown so it seems likely the curve, the platforms and the building all appeared at the same time. This adds weight to it being a station building. It is also ideally placed for the five stairways leading up to the platform. If you look at the 1898 map you will see that there is an open walkway to the front of the building and the stairs are in the viaduct arches at the rear of the building.

Most of the other LCD stations in the area had substantial buildings. Elephant & Castle. Herne Hill (if you include the tower) and Camberwell all had substantial three storey buildings. This is a substantial 3 storey building. Only Walworth Road had an entrance in the viaduct arch as Loughborough Junction does now.

I asked Jim Connor and expert on London railways and former editor of London Railway Record and he has no information about it although he too has wondered about it. The present editor of London Railway Record, Peter Kay can't help either.

View attachment 57290

Where did Lambeth Council get their information about it being a 'station building' as described in their 2013 regeneration plan for the area? Perhaps they were just assuming.

Nick

have you tried local/London directories, drainage plans, rate books, valuation books, and any deeds which lambeth archives may have?

 

[happyshopper]

From the sign over the entrance alley it's currently "The Celestial Church of Christ" - see Google Streetview
The building on the right next to the railway bridge has "Loughborough House" on the front of it; which has has always seemed a bit grandiloquent to me for what is a rather ordinary building..

 

[Nick Catford]

From the sign over the entrance alley it's currently "The Celestial Church of Christ" - see Google Streetview
The building on the right next to the railway bridge has "Loughborough House" on the front of it; which has has always seemed a bit grandiloquent to me for what is a rather ordinary building..

I saw the entrance to the church on street view but don't think it likely a small church would have such a large building. I have arrowed the entrance to the church on the attached aerial view. My guess is they are just using a part of the building. It is definitely worth asking them. I am sure the answer will lie in archives. Unfortunately I am not local.




Nick

 

[Nick Catford]

This is my Loughborough Junction page

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/loughborough_junction/index.shtml

 

[Pickman's model]

I saw the entrance to the church on street view but don't think it likely a small church would have such a large building. I have arrowed the entrance to the church on the attached aerial view. My guess is they are just using a part of the building. It is definitely worth asking them. I am sure the answer will lie in archives. Unfortunately I am not local.


View attachment 57294

Nick

archives@lambeth.gov.uk

 

[editor]

I saw the entrance to the church on street view but don't think it likely a small church would have such a large building. I have arrowed the entrance to the church on the attached aerial view. My guess is they are just using a part of the building. It is definitely worth asking them. I am sure the answer will lie in archives. Unfortunately I am not local.


View attachment 57294

Nick

I've got a photo of that alleyway. It's highly unlikely to have ever been an entrance to a station, IMO.

 

[Nick Catford]

archives@lambeth.gov.uk

I have tried e-mailing archive departments before. I am afraid it is always a waste of time. They always say you will have to go in person to search. The LCD company records are in the National Archives at Kew. You can do an online search to find them but you can't actually see the documents.

 

[Pickman's model]

I have tried e-mailing archive departments before. I am afraid it is always a waste of time. They always say you will have to go in person to search. The LCD company records are in the National Archives at Kew. You can do an online search to find them but you can't actually see the documents.

while the lcd co records may be at kew (which isn't that hard to get to if anyone from brixton wishes to make the journey) the lambeth archives (again really rather easy for potential researchers from brixton to access) will have a number of relevant documents including but not limited to local directories, drainage plans, photographs, rate books, valuation books, maps (not necessarily os) and quite possibly other documents. while you may have found emailing archives a waste of time, it isn't up to the archivist to do your research for you, you wouldn't expect a librarian to read a book for you so it's somewhat rich to expect people working in small teams, as borough archivists are, to drop everything and delve through the records for you.

however, if you can't go to the archives in person you can enquire about their research service or engage a researcher from agra (the association of genealogists and researchers in archives).

 

[8115]

I would suggest from the picture, built as an add-on, never really had a purpose. But who knows. Are you getting into local history research?

 

[8115]

Ask a very old man in a pub or the street, they might have an idea.

 

[CH1]

From the 1895 OS map in the first post it looks to me as though the entrance to the station was actually via Station Road/Rathgar Road. The staircases are shown on the map.

What is not clear from the map is where the ticket office etc would have been.
When I moved to CHL in 1986 the ticket office was actually at street level to the rear of the present entrance arch.

Maybe there were three ticket offices in arches at street level - one for each of the lines if they belonged to different companies. They would presumably have been located at the far end of Rathgar Road, where there looks to be a little plaza. They would not have had been the multiplicity of routes as now. Northbound services only went as far as Holborn Viaduct.

I also remember in the mid 1980s the Celestials being busted over housing benefit and passport fraud. The South London Press court reported that there were sophisticated photocopying/printing facilities in that building which were used to produce fake passports, birth certificates etc.

I have never been in the building, so cannot say whether the Celestial Church has just the entrance part which looks like a vestibule on the left at the end of the alley - or whether they have the whole building. I guess if they acquired it back in the 1980s or earlier it might have been very cheap - and since they are a tithing church, ready cash would not have been a problem.

 

[editor]

Here's the entrance to the Celestial church. it doesn't look very railway-ish, although there looks to be extensions either side.

 

[editor]

Here's an overall view for reference.

 

[MAD-T-REX]

I'd guess that the original entrance has been covered by the extensions. Anyone fancy joining the church to check the brickwork inside?

 

[editor]

The splendid old gas lamp outside certainly has a railway-esque air about it.

 

[Pickman's model]

The splendid old gas lamp outside certainly has a railway-esque air about it.

more of a carnival-esque air?

 

[ChrisSouth]

Here's the entrance to the Celestial church. it doesn't look very railway-ish, although there looks to be extensions either side.

It doesn't look very celestial either

 

[thatguyhex]

Maps from 1878 and then from 1886 (although that latter is at a worse scale) don't show it, which narrows the construction window a little. Incidentally, massive shout out to MAPCO for their incredible map collection.

Oh, hey, welcome aboard Nick! Good to see you here, love your work.

 

[toggle]

assume someone has run a search on the 19th century newspaper database?

 

[toggle]

I've got a mention of a loughborough hall club ltd, that was incorporated in 1927 and dissolved a few years later at a meeting in loughborough hall, coldharbour lane.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33354/page/899

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7119683


https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27138/page/7737

here's a mention of the land purchases around the station for improvements in 1899. I think.





on my way past, this seems to be an order to create and maintain a market in brixton, which i reckon would interest me if i was focussing in the areas's history

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25649/page/5839



and now, I'm going to go work on what i'm supposed to be working on

 

[CH1]

I've got a mention of a loughborough hall club ltd, that was incorporated in 1927 and dissolved a few years later at a meeting in loughborough hall, coldharbour lane.
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33354/page/899
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7119683
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27138/page/7737
here's a mention of the land purchases around the station for improvements in 1899. I think.
on my way past, this seems to be an order to create and maintain a market in brixton, which i reckon would interest me if i was focussing in the areas's history
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25649/page/5839
and now, I'm going to go work on what i'm supposed to be working on

This is fascinating stuff. The Loughborough Hall company didn't last long did it? But the hall had been built before 1895 - it's on the 1895 map.

I agree with Nick (to coin a phrase). It seems that Loughborough Hall must have been built at the same time as that Cambria railway spur was put up. Maybe it's an early example of a development scheme where angry locals were mollified by providing community space?
Maybe there are some central railway records somewhere?

Then there is the land registry - although I am not sure how you would get historical details off them these days. I think they normally stop short at actual current ownership - unless the enquirer is the owner.

 

[thatguyhex]

Mentioned as a Salvation Army hall in The Religious Life of London (ed. Richard Mudie Smith), 1904.
https://archive.org/stream/religiouslifeofl00mudi#page/228/mode/2up

"The proposal to establish an Agnostic Temple in the South-Western district of London is being favourably received, and a meeting in furtherance of the movement will be held at Loughborough Hall early in January." The Agnostic, January 1885.
https://archive.org/stream/agnosticamonthl00unkngoog#page/n55/mode/2up

Listed under "halls for concerts, public meetings, etc." in Cook's Handbook for London, 1881.
https://archive.org/stream/cookshandbookfo00ltdgoog#page/n76/mode/2up