Brixton history: Bookmongers, Coldharbour Lane

[editor]

And another one! Can anyone remember what the store was before Bookmongers?

1912 A cyclist and his pals lurk by the doorway to the 'motor and cycle works' of T.W.Brown & Sons at 439 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton.

The old fella in the centre is Thomas William Brown, and his son Walter stands on the left, holding their belt-driven motorised cycle. As was the custom of the time, everyone is wearing a hat.

Their well stocked window display advertises Minerva Motors, Hyde Free Wheel, Brooks Saddles (which are still being made today) and Moselely Tyres.

A selection of tyres and inner tubes are hanging in the window, while the company's plating, repairs and enamelling services are promoted underneath.

(pic: Lambeth Archives)

July 2009 Although T.W.Brown & Sons have long gone, the premises remain in independent hands, with the excellent Bookmongers secondhand bookshop trading from here since 1993.

We're not sure if the original bike shop moved here first but the larger premises next door were taken up by the Brixton Cycles co-operative from 1983 to 2001, before they moved to Stockwell Road.


Page: http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/439-coldharbour-lane.html

 

[teuchter]

Time they updated their phone number.

 

[teuchter]

I wonder how much longer Bookmongers will survive. I can think of two people I know who work in/run independent bookshops and both are in the process of shutting down at the moment.

 

[editor]

I hope it stays. I think it's important for Brixton to retain a variety of long-serving independent stores, especially as it's the last bookstore left in Brixton (religious outlets excluded).

 

[Sunspots]

Looks like my kind of bookshop.

Slightly off-topic, but can anyone ID that book in the bottom of the right-hand window, with the pink hand/smile cover? -I recognise it, but can't quite place what it is...

 

[teuchter]

I hope it stays. I think it's important for Brixton to retain a variety of long-serving independent stores, especially as it's the last bookstore left in Brixton (religious outlets excluded).

I hope so too. But the combination of internet + recession is giving independent bookshops a pretty hard time right now.

 

[newbie]

I can't remember what the bookshop used to be but the shop next door was an ironmongers before BC took it on.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Looks like it was a gramophone shop prior to selling bikes

Brown's Gramaphone Repairs in 1905

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=landmark&id=8241

 

[editor]

Looks like it was a gramophone shop prior to selling bikes

Brown's Gramaphone Repairs in 1905

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=landmark&id=8241

How strange. I covered this in my original piece - and explained why a bike shop might have serviced gramophones, but it seems to have vanished. It's the same name store.

I'll post it back up again shortly.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

How strange. I covered this in my original piece - and explained why a bike shop might have serviced gramophones, but it seems to have vanished. It's the same name store.

I'll post it back up again shortly.

I noticed that it was Brown's and wondered why you hadn't mentioned it

Have you asked the owner of the bookmongers who was there before him?

 

[editor]

I've updated the page. No, I haven't had chance to talk to Bookmongers - this is already taking up way too much of my time!

http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/439-coldharbour-lane.html

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I've updated the page. No, I haven't had chance to talk to Bookmongers - this is already taking up way too much of my time!

http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/439-coldharbour-lane.html

er, I could be wrong now as I don't get down that way much, but I'm sure the bookmongers is within spitting distance of a certain well-known pub

 

[tufty79]

patrick (who i think owns the bookshop) is lovely. apparently he used to own where i live, and is responsible for my bizarre box balcony...

gave myself a 'get out the house' mission and had an ask (and got accosted by a very licky dog )

apparently it was previously a plumber's merchants for a couple of years before the bookmongers took it over - prior to that, he's not sure.
they've a photo of the bike shop incarnation framed in one of the corners

sunspots - is this the book you mean?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

patrick (who i think owns the bookshop) is lovely. apparently he used to own where i live, and is responsible for my bizarre box balcony...

gave myself a 'get out the house' mission and had an ask (and got accosted by a very licky dog )

apparently it was previously a plumber's merchants for a couple of years before the bookmongers took it over - prior to that, he's not sure.
they've a photo of the bike shop incarnation framed in one of the corners

sunspots - is this the book you mean?

ah, you should charge Editor for your services

Anyway, whilst you were there, didn't you bother going into all the other shops and asking what they usd to be?

 

[tufty79]

heh
i can only cope with harrassing one shop owner a day

on a related note - i know someone whose brother used to own the building honest foods is in - i'll try remember to ask him what he knows about its history. i'm fairly sure i've seen some pics of it on the lambeth archive site..... i've also been told that some of the buildings on that bit of coldharbour lane used to be theatres/actor's residential space

 

[gaijingirl]

I've just come out of Honest Foods (after a disappointing experience)... I could've asked - although they were a bit stretched today...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

i've also been told that some of the buildings on that bit of coldharbour lane used to be theatres/actor's residential space

That goes for many places in Brixton. There was a huge theatre/music hall industry in the area. I reckon if you look at the 1901 census for Brixton you'll find a very large proportion of people working in the industry. btw, Gyozo used to be 'The Theatre Bar'

 

[tufty79]

cheers mrs m might explain why i found old theatre seat arms out the back when i moved here...
(either that, or the fact that the last tenant was a worse hoarder of junk than me....)

 

[Sunspots]

sunspots - is this the book you mean?

Yes, cheers!

Knew I'd seen it before, but just couldn't remember what it is.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Brunos, then Pushkar?

or vice versa

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Editor tried Honest Foods on 25 April 2006. He wasn't hugely impressed.

 

[teuchter]

That goes for many places in Brixton. There was a huge theatre/music hall industry in the area. I reckon if you look at the 1901 census for Brixton you'll find a very large proportion of people working in the industry. btw, Gyozo used to be 'The Theatre Bar'

Supposedly partly because it was so well-connected with trams so people could get home at night and stuff.

Or something like that.

John Major's family were theatre people or something like that weren't they?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Supposedly partly because it was so well-connected with trams so people could get home at night and stuff.

Or something like that.

John Major's family were theatre people or something like that weren't they?

The No. 159 probably helps as well (later on anyway)

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I think John Major's dad made garden gnomes or something.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I think John Major's dad made garden gnomes or something.

and...

The Prime Minister's brother also clarifies the career of their father. As well as being a trapeze artist and garden gnome manufacturer - professions which have fed satirists and cartoonists - Abraham (Thomas Major) Ball turns out briefly to have led a faction of the Uruguayan army after losing his passport on a tour there.

 

[charcol]

I think John Major's dad made garden gnomes or something.

You're both correct. His father's career included circus acrobatics, vaudevillian, mercenary, and manufacturer of garden ornaments. Not sure which of those took place while living in Brixton.

 

[teuchter]

I think John Major's dad made garden gnomes or something.

The son of a former circus performer and vaudeville manager, Major left school at age 16 to help support his family.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358992/John-Major

Major was born at the St. Helier Hospital in Carshalton, the son of Tom Major-Ball (né Abraham Thomas Ball). He was christened as John Roy Major, but only "John" is shown on his birth certificate. He used his middle name Roy until the early 1980s.[1] He attended primary school at Cheam Common. From 1954, he attended Rutlish Grammar School in Merton. In 1955, with his father's garden ornaments business

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major




Circus performer turned gnome seller?

 

[Pip]

No! No! He attended my old primary school! Loughborough school on Loughborough Road. Don't burst my bubble

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

You're both correct. His father's career included circus acrobatics, vaudevillian, mercenary, and manufacturer of garden ornaments. Not sure which of those took place while living in Brixton.

Probably not the mercenary

Ball turns out briefly to have led a faction of the Uruguayan army after losing his passport on a tour there.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

He did go to Loughborough Primary when he lived in Coldharbour Lane and then Burton Road (it might have been the other way around though).