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Coldharbour Lane, Brixton - news and updates

"Southwyck House, a largely windowless brick monster, is the face of Moorlands to those walking down the lane. Though Kwame's murder was the last high-profile case to hit the area over a decade ago, the block was still awarded money from City Hall's Violence Reduction Unit in 2021 as part of a drive to tackle the causes of crime."

This is news to me, Anyone know what they spent it on?
 
"Southwyck House, a largely windowless brick monster, is the face of Moorlands to those walking down the lane. Though Kwame's murder was the last high-profile case to hit the area over a decade ago, the block was still awarded money from City Hall's Violence Reduction Unit in 2021 as part of a drive to tackle the causes of crime."

This is news to me, Anyone know what they spent it on?
Don't know, but Director of the Violence Reduction Unit is Lib Peck (Salary £117,000).

The Mayor used his power to give one of his political friends a top job.

It's about politics, not violence reduction.
 
"Southwyck House, a largely windowless brick monster, is the face of Moorlands to those walking down the lane. Though Kwame's murder was the last high-profile case to hit the area over a decade ago, the block was still awarded money from City Hall's Violence Reduction Unit in 2021 as part of a drive to tackle the causes of crime."

This is news to me, Anyone know what they spent it on?


This is from 2019.

Scrolling down to Lambeth and some groups got grants. But does not say how much.
 
Latest on the tortuous history of 316 Coldharbour Lane
Locals noticed with relief before Christmas that the roof seemed to have been replaced - and also top floor windows - with the velux syle.
All other window frames appear to have been removed and since Christmas total stasis.
Meanwhile the owners have been negotiating the Lambeth Planning process. Planning applications made in 2020 and 2021 were rejected by Lambeth, then appealed and the appeals rejected.
A much simpler application has now been made on 6th February 2023 - and is awaiting decision by Lambeth Council.
Presumably the owners cannot proceed with further work until the council gets off it's butt.

Maybe they better had because leaving the building exposed like this is a vulnerabiulity to weather, crime and vandalism. The new application has the merit of incredible simplicity. As a member of the plain English Society I would commend it to the House. Why spend thousands of pounds on architects in Bury St Edmunds (twice) just to have the council fuck you up?

This application says what it means - and illustrates very clearly how the council's Dance of Death over derelict properties has served no-one better than architects and lawyers over the last 50 years!

PS there is an interesting point in the cover photo below (the full documents are attached). 316 Coldharbour Lane looks a little thinner than its neighbours. I hadn't noticed that before.
PPS one of the objections raised to the original design in 2020/21 was that the new top floor windows should not be veluxes. Look at 320 and 314 Coldharbour Lane! Where is Lambeth Enforcement when you need them??
PPPS Lambeth Council refused the original application because no cycle parking had been provided.
316 CHL Heritage statement.jpg
 

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Was contemplating making some comments on the planning application re the Domino Club knocked down boundary wall (see notice on lamp post on the corner).
Meanwhile this 2010 Land Registry Map shows that the Council also owns 289/291 Coldharbour Lane - whose boundary wall was flatted by a bus about 20 years ago.
Urban 75 favourite "Johnnie" - or Alberich, the gnome of 316 Coldharbour Lane was obsessed by this. Instead of sorting out his own dilapidation he seems to have got himself barred from council meetings by door-stepping councillors Wheelan and Gentry demanding that they sue London Transport to get the wall of 289/291 reinstated.

Naturally the council did nothing at all about it.
CHL south.jpg
I can't find the press article about the bus crash (which was I think a 345 whose driver lost consciousness - not to be confused with the 35 bus which drove into Gresham Spares/Brixton Cakeshop - much covered by editor in Buzz etc in 2007).

I have however found a cutting from the SLP in 1986 where residents in the 245-265 Coldharbour Lane area were protesting about having their gardens taken away by Lambeth Council - originally for a scheme to house homeless families in Portacabins.
Once this was pushed through the land was transferred to Metropolitan Housing Trust (see on plan above - TGL104183).
This eventually became "Heritage Close" at the Loughborough Park end. Meanwhile next the Domino Club on Coldharbour was an entrance to Loughborough Park (ie the park). This was presumably an old bomb site (? Puddy_Tat ?). Rather amazingly Metropolitan Housing Trust built a replica villa to match the Domino Club and the council owned street property at 289/291 Coldharbour Lane to fit in the gap.
Don't prune out gardens.jpg
I took some photos yesterday of the boundary walls. Strange how MHT's metal railings are intacts yest the council's two "stucco" walls have collapsed.
And they want to rebuild them (or at least the Domino Club one). More public money down the drain!
Here is 289-291 - nice council semidetached villas with wrecked garden wall
289-291 chl.jpg
Here is the MHT clonette - built in 1993 to Lambeth's then planning standards for the Loughborough Park Conservation Area
293-295 MHT.jpg
Here is El Domino - AKA The Lloyd Leon Community Centre. Clearly hasn't worn well with a combination of public use and delivery vehicle movements!
Domino damage.jpg
 
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Meanwhile next the Domino Club on Coldharbour was an entrance to Loughborough Park (ie the park). This was presumably an old bomb site (? @Puddy_Tat ?).

I may have got it wrong about where you mean, but if I've understood right, then don't think so.

285 Coldharbour lane is coloured pink (seriously damaged / repairable at cost) in the LCC bomb damage map but looks like it was rebuilt to close to original style, and nothing else on that bit of Coldharbour Lane marked as anything other than yellow (minor blast damage).

The only other bomb damage on the Coldharbour Lane / Loughborough Park / Moorland Road (then also Loughborough Park) triangle was 30 - 36 Loughborough Park, two or three houses marked black (completely destroyed) and one pink, hence what was three temporary buildings (probably prefabs but possibly nissen huts or some such) one behind the other in 1951.

The land in the middle of the triangle (part of what's now Loughborough Park) is marked as 'tennis club' in the pre-war map (not online) that the bomb damage map was based on - seems to have been allotments (maybe part of the wartime 'dig for victory' effort) and a crop of prefabs (Park Gardens) in 1951. The land was marked as 'nursery' (as in plants not toddlers) on the pre-1914 map

extract from 1951 OS map -

1681770112718.png
 
I may have got it wrong about where you mean, but if I've understood right, then don't think so.

285 Coldharbour lane is coloured pink (seriously damaged / repairable at cost) in the LCC bomb damage map but looks like it was rebuilt to close to original style, and nothing else on that bit of Coldharbour Lane marked as anything other than yellow (minor blast damage).

The only other bomb damage on the Coldharbour Lane / Loughborough Park / Moorland Road (then also Loughborough Park) triangle was 30 - 36 Loughborough Park, two or three houses marked black (completely destroyed) and one pink, hence what was three temporary buildings (probably prefabs but possibly nissen huts or some such) one behind the other in 1951.

The land in the middle of the triangle (part of what's now Loughborough Park) is marked as 'tennis club' in the pre-war map (not online) that the bomb damage map was based on - seems to have been allotments (maybe part of the wartime 'dig for victory' effort) and a crop of prefabs (Park Gardens) in 1951. The land was marked as 'nursery' (as in plants not toddlers) on the pre-1914 map

extract from 1951 OS map -

View attachment 371090
This map looks like as though it is pre-WW2 not post war (apart from what I assume are the prefabs in the park/allotments).

You are right about 285 CHL - this was a missing half of a pair when I moved to Coldharbour Lane in 1986.
Metropolitan built a matching replacement - but the roof pitch is very slightly wrong.
I think 1-3 Loughborough Park was also rebuilt from scratch. I must do photos of these.
Loads of settled squatters were evicted from Loughborough Park in the stock transfer to MHT - mainly on the even side.

289/291 Coldhabrour Lane was an empty space - used as a gated entrance to the Loughborough Park.

No sign of prefabs at all in 1986 - though there was a sports centre in the middle of the park (building still there). This has always had a troubled history. Supposed to provide weight training, table tennis etc in 1986 - but not normally open.

The only prefabs I saw were installed by the Linda Bellos regime on derelict sites corner of Loughborough Park and Coldharbour Lane (both sides).
These quickly degenerated to empties with loads of syringes etc.

I have a newspaper article about the 345 bus crash into the boundary wall of 289 Coldharbour Lane in 2007 (coming up).
Very little photo coverage of this area - and looks as though the "layers" maps are also incomplete.
 
This map looks like as though it is pre-WW2 not post war (apart from what I assume are the prefabs in the park/allotments).

it's from this map sheet, dated 1951

the presence of three temporary buildings (32, 34, 34a Loughborough Park) in place of what had been a row of detached / semi detached houses in the pre-1939 map) seems to fit post-war temporary buildings of some sort, and the general style of the map matches other sheets from the same era.

think the policy was to show war damaged buildings as intact if they were not quite bad enough to mark as 'ruin' or blank space - maybe 285 hadn't been demolished by the time the post war survey was done?

you know the patch better than i do - what are you seeing that you'd not expect (or vice versa)?

I think 1-3 Loughborough Park was also rebuilt from scratch. I must do photos of these.

Yes - missed these first time with the bomb damage maps, as they are right on the edge of the sheet, but 1 - 3 Loughborough Park shown as destroyed, 5 badly damaged.

Two houses on the corner with Shakespeare Road (and looking at the house numbering, they seem to have been part of Shakespeare Road) not marked as bomb damaged, but also not there on the 1951 map)
 
Here's what it looked like in 1949 (note steam train passing through Brixton East station!)
Screenshot 2023-04-18 at 09.05.11.jpg

and 1966

Screenshot 2023-04-18 at 09.07.34.jpg

So it seems the pair of houses (nos 293 & 295) next to the Domino Club were demolished some time between those dates. And the rebuilt pair that is there now, matches the Domino Club houses, but doesn't match what was originally there, as can clearly be seen in the 1949 image - it had a completely different roof form.
 
Here's what it looked like in 1949 (note steam train passing through Brixton East station!)
View attachment 371111

and 1966

View attachment 371112

So it seems the pair of houses (nos 293 & 295) next to the Domino Club were demolished some time between those dates. And the rebuilt pair that is there now, matches the Domino Club houses, but doesn't match what was originally there, as can clearly be seen in the 1949 image - it had a completely different roof form.
Thanks. Yes the roof of the original 293-295 was different - in fact it looks as though the house was a whole attic room storey higher than its neighbours on either side.
The prefabs are there in 1949 - plus maybe a toilet block?
Then in 1966 that is all grubbed out and laid waste. Then again they probably didn't give a F as this was near the proposed inner ring road and could have ended up as Barrier Block 2 or even a "clover leaf" intersection in the manner of "Spaghetti Junction".
 
Still limbering up to scanning the crashed 345 article.
Meanwhile I tried my private collection of photos from 1986.
The only image I can find of the section of Coldharbour Lane with bombed or demolished houses was this contact print
285 chl-vp.jpg
This is actually the vacant site between 289 and 285 taken in December 1986.
You might ask - why was he taking photos like this 37 years ago?
The answer is I was being troubled by demented punks squatting in 279 Coldharbour Lane.
They had an air gun and shot a hole in my bathroom window.
holed wimdow -vp.jpg
I got a friend who was a professional photographer down to take photos - he also took some of the barrier block and some of myside of the road eg:
284-6.jpgsf.jpg

TRIGGER WARNING
The punks were squatting this charming villa opposite (279 Coldharbour Lane)
279.jpg

These people were wild - but of course even people in Brixton in 1986 considered this bit of Coldharbour Lane was the "Wild west"
Apart from landing an air gun pellet in my bath the punks took pot-shots at my 18 year old female student lodger
they tied up one of their number to their gatepost, poured paint all over him and left him outside all night
they also had a massive black dog, which they took with them everywhere - including the public bar of the Prince of Wales (they didn't go into the gay bit)
they presented their neighbour a woman artist and dress designer with a large black dildo called "Bully Boy" as a birthday present
she seemed to find this amusing or charming - but admitted she cut it up into small pieces before binning it.

What did Lambeth's 10 Somerleyton Road housing office make of this? "Nothing we can do - have you reported it to the police?"
The police likewise considered it was the council's responsibility - the air gun was fired from council property.

So what happened? - someone suggested I take the council to court for being in breach of the Environment Protection Act.
I did - and the magistrates court at Camberwell assisted me greatly. Lambeth removed the punks rather than defend the case.

Post script - the next squatters were an American ballet dancer and his girl friend, who wanted to exercise "right to buy"
The council weren't having that - they gave the property to "Black Roof"
Sadly if seems Black Roof was shut down in 2007 (from Inside Housing)
"A housing association that compared Housing Corporation officials to 'colonial governors' has been ordered by the regulator to transfer its assets to another landlord.
The regulator this week instructed once troubled Black Roof Community Housing Association to hand over its land to ASRA Greater London Housing Association, a much larger landlord."
So it's now Paragon apparently - but the same tenants have been there for about 20 years now so they must be happy.
And they don't have an air gun.
 
Here is the article about the 345 crashing into the wall of 291 Coldharbour Lane.
This is from South London Press 5/6/2007. From the text these events occurred on the previous Thursday - 31st May 2007.
345 chl_0001.jpg
345 chl.jpg
 
6 police vehicles and at around 16 cops outside the Barrier Block right now.

1681996093530.png

Closer to the block some are looking around the bushes so I'm guessing it's a drugs/gun/knife thing.
 
Here is the article about the 345 crashing into the wall of 291 Coldharbour Lane.
This is from South London Press 5/6/2007. From the text these events occurred on the previous Thursday - 31st May 2007.
View attachment 371215
View attachment 371216
Thanks for posting this. It rings a bell. The pedestrian killed by the motorcyclist....is he commemorated with the annual bunch of flowers fixed to the lamp post outside Market House?
 
This brings back a powerful memory. On 31st May 2007 I was walking home from work and was crossing the T-junction of Electric Lane with Rushcroft Road when I heard a scream. I ran down to Coldharbour Lane to see an - obviously dead - man lying in the the road and another man - in motorcycle leathers - lying in the road groaning. It was a terrible sight! There was nothing to be done for the man so I stayed at the feet end and then police arrived and put a covering over the head end. By which time a large crowd was gathering, so I decided there was nothing more to be done and to go home. I always wondered what happened afterwards - was the motorcyclist convicted? I often pass the bunch of flowers on the post outside Market House and wonder if they're for the man on the road. God rest his soul.
 
nick h. Leighsw2 I think the flowers at the Market House are for someone killed at that end of Coldharbour Lane. My memory is vague, but editor had a pictorial thread on police appeal for information boards:
shooting-board-14.jpg
Fatal accident 5:41pm, 31st May 2007. A man crossing Coldharbour Lane was struck dead by a speeding motorcyclist who was later reported to have had no driving licence or insurance. He was doing wheelies and stunt tricks. The rider he was racing against didn't stop to report the accident and sped off.

So the answer to your question is yes - but the pedestrian killed by the motorcycle was by the Market House and the 345 bus accident was by the Domino Club.
 
A bit ridiculous that the development/ refurbishment at 316 Coldharbour Lane was refused by the Council? At this stage, any sort of development would be better than the current eyesore that is there! If i'm correct this is the third time the council have turned down the planning application?

 
A bit ridiculous that the development/ refurbishment at 316 Coldharbour Lane was refused by the Council? At this stage, any sort of development would be better than the current eyesore that is there!
Well, no it wouldn't.

The reasons for refusal don't seem to be on the lambeth page, where they should be.

But having a quick look at the drawings, it's probably been refused because it doesn't meet various Lambeth planning policies. Looks like a bit of an attempt at overdevelopment to me, trying to squeeze in a 3 bedroom flat in the lower section when there isn't really enough room. The layouts aren't very nice, various awkward ans internal rooms. And a roof terrace that would overlook the neighbours' garden.
 
Well, no it wouldn't.

The reasons for refusal don't seem to be on the lambeth page, where they should be.

But having a quick look at the drawings, it's probably been refused because it doesn't meet various Lambeth planning policies. Looks like a bit of an attempt at overdevelopment to me, trying to squeeze in a 3 bedroom flat in the lower section when there isn't really enough room. The layouts aren't very nice, various awkward ans internal rooms. And a roof terrace that would overlook the neighbours' garden.
Well yes - but 318 next door is in 4 flats - and the basement one seems to be long-term leased to Lambeth Council.
I suppose the answer might be that the policy changed? Like there are actually too many flats in Coldharbour Lane?
Looks like the owners needed someone like this to guide them through the planning morass - instead of cheapies from Bury St Edmunds and Harrow!

P.S. Do you think Lambeth Planning will EVER carry out their enforcement notice on 294 Coldharbour Lane? (again an illegal multi-occ leased long-term by Lambeth Council).
 
There's been what appears to be a serious incident outside the entrance to the Barrier Block on Moorland Road. Multiple cop cars and paramedics and I've been told an air ambulance had been employed before I got there. As I arrived some yoot was being put in the paddy wagon.
 
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