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Brixton footbridge

That's the footbridge alright. Grey metal and I'm pretty sure the steps on the other side went up from the Morleys side of Tunstall Rd.


When I saw that photo I immediately also pictured the lowlevel railway bridge with 'Ferodo' emblazoned across it.
 
Ah, and there was me being hugely impressed thinking you'd spent all that time doing serious research until you found the answer, haushoch!
 
and there's Dunn & Co. Wasn't that burned down in the 1981 riots? Or was that Burtons? Or were they either side of the jacket spud place?

My memory's getting worse in my old age :oops:
 
Dunn & Co. vanished in the '85 riots. I mean vanished - no rubble, no smouldering remains, just a nice clean patch of concrete by the Monday...

And the bridge did exist...so many people told me I was dreaming, i doubted myself.
 
happyshopper said:
Not ...
Click to expand...


Quite. Maybe it was knocked down after the fire, but I don't remember it being burnt to nothing.

Am I right though in thinking Dunns and Burtons were either side of the jacket spud place and that both Dunns and Burtons were on fire - although I'm thinking that was the '85 riots and not the 1981 riots (as I wasn't here for the '81 riots)

I'm confuddled now :confused:
 
There's one thing that's slightly wrong. The article says "The bridge was pretty much on top of the pedestrian crossing which was always there". But it is clear from the photograph that there wasn't an official crossing, although you could get across by dodging round the barriers.
 
happyshopper said:
There's one thing that's slightly wrong. The article says "The bridge was pretty much on top of the pedestrian crossing which was always there". But it is clear from the photograph that there wasn't an official crossing, although you could get across by dodging round the barriers.
Click to expand...
Surely there could have been a crossing a little further back, out of camera shot?
 
Wow are there really so few people here that actually remember the bridge. It was taken down in the very late Seventies or more likely early Eighties(probably after the riots) though not really sure as I was young at the time.
As soon as they put the crossing in everybody stopped using the bridge anyway.
Can't believe that picture is the best anybody has found. But it was butt ugly anyway.
 
ad2000 said:
As soon as they put the crossing in everybody stopped using the bridge anyway.
Click to expand...

ad2000 is right, for most of the time there was just a footbridge - as is clear from the photograph. But then they installed a crossing and everyone stopped using the bridge, so it was taken down.

I think that it must have gone before the riots - it doesn't seem to be in any of the film coverage.
 
This sort of thing really intrigues me :oops:

watermark.php


Photo taken in 1980, looks like the footbridge is no more by then.

Link
 
lang rabbie said:
I've definitely seen a photograph of the footbridge. I may be hallucinating but I think the picture (from the former GLC Highways department photo library?) may once have been on the grandly named European Visual Archive (EVA) website.

However, this photo archive site - a joint project between London Metropolitan Archives and Antwerp city archives funded by Euro-cash - now appears to have vanished from the web.:confused:
Click to expand...

Don't think the website is being resurrected any time soon. Anyone fancy visiting London Metropolitan Archives to do an old fashioned photo library search?
 
memespring said:
Or the lazy FOI way: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/plans_and_documents_relating_the
Click to expand...

Ahem... anticipating the literal-minded workings of Lambeth bureaucracy...

Lambeth jobsworth said:
Dear [memespring]

Plans and documents relating the the old Brixton High Street footbridge (c. 1975)

We have no records within the Borough Street index for a street called Brixton High Street.

If you wish to reformulate your Freedom of Information request, please contact...
Click to expand...

:D
 
Is it possible that the footbridge was installed to serve the newly-opened Brixton tube in the early 1970s?
 
I got the following back from a very helpful bloke at the Lambeth FOI department.

Dear memespring,

Further to your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find
below our response.

Having checked with our Archives service I can confirm that we hold the
material identified below on this subject:

The footbridge was on Brixton Road between the tube station and Tunstall
Rd. It was built in 1971 and not heavily used.

Are archive service have found a press cutting which gives reports from
the local press about the lead up to and ultimate demolition of the
footbridge in 1980. The reports conflict. One, of 4 August 1978, in
the South London Press, says the decision to replace it was made by
Lambeth's Public Services Committee on 1 August 1978. A later report of
1979, also by the South London Press, says the decision was the GLC's.
(Although to be fair one of the decisions could have been about the
bridge and the other about the crossing to replace it, assuming the GLC
controlled the road.) The newspaper reports have photos.

We don't have Public Service Committee minutes from that time. We also
have no further images of the footbridge.

If you would like access to these old press cuttings I can arrange for
these to be copied and sent to you (please be advised that I will be on
leave from this evening until 6 January). Alternatively, you can view
the cuttings at Lambeth Archives (please see the following link for more
information
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/Leisu....
htm).
Click to expand...
 
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