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General Brixton history - photos, stories etc

CH1 said:
Him - I only knew him from from the thrust of his legal threats.

If you ever become a councillor please remember never to make an unguarded comment in a meeting when a thrusting young entrepreneur is there in the audience with his lawyer.

Councillors do not enjoy the same legal immunity as MPs.
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That doesn't surprise me. He was very touchy.

In some ways he came to Brixton to early. He saw himself as "regenerating" Brixton. A new breed of entrepreneur. Regarded me as the past.

I joined Urban due to him. One of the ongoing battles with his growing entertainment empire. Brixton Forum was a lot different then. No one liked Larry.

This reminded of the battle to stop Larry turning the bike shop into a three floor entertainment complex. One of the battles at the frontline of gentrification we won. ( if in hindsight just a setback). Done with support of Urban75. I doubt there would be that kind of unanimous opposition now.

By that time we had managed to persuade One local Labour Cllr to oppose this. Which she stuck to despite knowing the leadership liked what Larry was doing.
 
Brixton Ten Years ago:

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Brixton Ten Years Ago: Street and park scenes, the Camberwell Submarine and Pope’s Road car park, April 2007
 
on flickr today -



coldharbour lane, looking towards the junction with Denmark Hill, March 1951. think all the buildings visible are still there - street view here

This was a 'change pit' where trams changed from overhead wire to 'conduit' (taking power from live rails in a slot under the road surface) - the man in the middle of the road is about to place a conduit 'plough' under the tram so it can continue towards central London
 
Puddy_Tat said:
on flickr today -



coldharbour lane, looking towards the junction with Denmark Hill, March 1951. think all the buildings visible are still there - street view here

This was a 'change pit' where trams changed from overhead wire to 'conduit' (taking power from live rails in a slot under the road surface) - the man in the middle of the road is about to place a conduit 'plough' under the tram so it can continue towards central London
Click to expand...

Curious about this - and thinking it might have been predecessor of bus 45 I googled a bit.
From this 'ere sigte it seems more analogous to bus 68 - West Norwood to somehwere in central London London 1940
 
CH1 said:
Curious about this - and thinking it might have been predecessor of bus 45 I googled a bit.
Click to expand...

Tram 48 ran from the 'Thurlow Arms' terminus at West Norwood, followed the current 68 bus route as far as Tulse Hill, then via Milkwood Road (which does not have a bus service now) to Coldharbour Lane, then via Walworth Road, Borough High Street and Southwark Bridge to the 'City and Southwark' tram terminus.

Replacement bus 48 was extended to Cannon Street Station, but was withdrawn in a round of service cuts in 1958.

Trams on the 48 ran from Norwood Tram depot - the building is still there - now Access Storage, next to the old fire station, it was never used as a bus garage (most of Norwood's routes moved to the then-new Stockwell bus garage)

Current bus 45 was also a tram replacement route (although it's been altered several times since) - it replaced tram 34, Blackfriars - Camberwell - Brixton - Clapham - Battersea Bridge.

Bus route 68 has been around (at least as far south as Camberwell Green) since before the 1914 war (1911 picture here)
 
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Brixton Fairies: Made Possible By Squatting

Apologies if this is a repost (could have been in a more specialised thread) - though I don't remember seeing precisely this compilation. The film was put together by Taha F Hassan and funded by Unite. There is an associated blog (no title)

The 33 minute film is a series of reminiscences by Gay men involved in the Brixton Gay Centre (78 Railton Road, in front of St Georges Residences and now demolished).
They also discuss life squatting on Railton Road, Mayall Road and activities within the gay politics community of the time.

It is noticeable by modern standards it's all about men, with a bit of drag thrown in. No Lesbians apparently.
 
CH1 said:
It is noticeable by modern standards it's all about men, with a bit of drag thrown in. No Lesbians apparently.
Click to expand...

the amount of integration between the different bits of the 'LGB etc community' is variable even now (I use the 'etc' intentionally, as there's not a unanimous decision who else should be - or wants to be - included. From what I gather, there wasn't that much common ground between lesbians and gay men until the thatcher era (section 28 and so on) led to a bit more intersectionality. and for that matter, it's debatable whether there is even a single 'gay community'

As an aside (it has been mentioned on last month's brixton thread, but seems worth a mention here) there was an article in tame out a few weeks ago about the 1980s Brixton 'rebel dykes' community - they are apparently working on a film.
 
One oddity about the tram route between Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill is that while it ran all along Milkwood Road southbound, going northbound it diverted through the backstreets, up Lowden Road and then (I think) Poplar Road, before rejoining Milkwood Road.
 
happyshopper said:
One oddity about the tram route between Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill is that while it ran all along Milkwood Road southbound, going northbound it diverted through the backstreets, up Lowden Road and then (I think) Poplar Road, before rejoining Milkwood Road.
Click to expand...

It was not that unusual a feature of trams - it tended to happen where there wasn't quite room for two tracks (one for each direction) - the alternative (which did happen in a few places in London) was a single track in the middle of the road (these sections were usually short enough to work on the basis that an approaching tram driver could see if another tram was already coming towards him and stop and wait if there was)

Another explanation for this sort of thing was to avoid a sharp corner

there were similar 'one way systems' on London tramways in Brockley (Shardloes Road / Malpas Road) and Woolwich (Grand Depot Road / Woolwich New Road, which is still followed by buses) and I think there were one or two in north London.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
It was not that unusual a feature of trams - it tended to happen where there wasn't quite room for two tracks (one for each direction) - the alternative (which did happen in a few places in London) was a single track in the middle of the road (these sections were usually short enough to work on the basis that an approaching tram driver could see if another tram was already coming towards him and stop and wait if there was)

Another explanation for this sort of thing was to avoid a sharp corner

there were similar 'one way systems' on London tramways in Brockley (Shardloes Road / Malpas Road) and Woolwich (Grand Depot Road / Woolwich New Road, which is still followed by buses) and I think there were one or two in north London.
Click to expand...
Croydon tram works like that in central croydon nowadays too.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
on flickr today -



coldharbour lane, looking towards the junction with Denmark Hill, March 1951. think all the buildings visible are still there - street view here

This was a 'change pit' where trams changed from overhead wire to 'conduit' (taking power from live rails in a slot under the road surface) - the man in the middle of the road is about to place a conduit 'plough' under the tram so it can continue towards central London
Click to expand...

I see Howard bros (isn't that the hardware shop?) was there back then and is still there.
 
CH1 said:
Brixton Fairies: Made Possible By Squatting

Apologies if this is a repost (could have been in a more specialised thread) - though I don't remember seeing precisely this compilation. The film was put together by Taha F Hassan and funded by Unite. There is an associated blog (no title)

The 33 minute film is a series of reminiscences by Gay men involved in the Brixton Gay Centre (78 Railton Road, in front of St Georges Residences and now demolished).
They also discuss life squatting on Railton Road, Mayall Road and activities within the gay politics community of the time.

It is noticeable by modern standards it's all about men, with a bit of drag thrown in. No Lesbians apparently.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting that. It looks as if that gay centre is where the disused gps clinic is (that has been empty and boarded up again for years) When did the gay centre close, does anyone know?

Although it was talking about a time before I was in London - a lot of what was said was really familiar to me from when I moved here in 84. The thing about 'having our own sacred spaces' and about the disapproval for couples as that was following hetro norms especially. I recognised a couple of faces too. Interesting to hear about the other groups in the area at the time too. Lesbians and gay men were creating their own very separate cultures back then - create your own identity and knit your own fun sort of thing, but it could be very separatist and exclusive, I think Pride was the main place I ever socialised with anyone other than lesbians.

Puddy_Tat is right that it was Thatchers clause 28 in 88 that really brought us together, with a lot more talk of how to be inclusive and how to unify as a community. I dont think the 'L' had been included in L&G pride for many years when I joined in late 1988, and the BGTQs only came later.
 
Gramsci said:
The tram was such a good idea. I wonder why it was abandoned?
Click to expand...

Wasn't there some tories in Westminster that opposed it because they believed it would be used as a way of moving drugs from South London to North London and back again. I'm sure that's how the Evening Standard tried to brainwash it gullible readers at the time. Meaning what should of and still is a great transport solution being sidelined by the paranoid car community.
 
madolesance said:
Wasn't there some tories in Westminster that opposed it because they believed it would be used as a way of moving drugs from South London to North London and back again. I'm sure that's how the Evening Standard tried to brainwash it gullible readers at the time. Meaning what should of and still is a great transport solution being sidelined by the paranoid car community.
Click to expand...

Sadly the car community is mainstream in Loughborough Junction. At a meeting I attended a few days ago a residents were complaining that the new developments like the Edge flats did not include parking spaces. I did point out this is normal practice on new developments. Whether they were social housing or expensive private flats. This lack of car parking space was more important to them than the fact the flats are way to expensive for locals. In Loughborough Junction as the car community won the battle on the road closures they are now criticising anything that may reduce car use. Or get in the way of cars having access to roads.
 
on flickr today



At the 'change pit' at the north end of Effra Road (tower of Lambeth Town Hall behind the tram)

the tram will be inching forward as the change pit attendant (beside the tram) puts the 'plough' under the tram so it can collect power from the underground conduit on its way to central London (and via the Kingsway subway to Manor House). The conductor (behind the tram) is ready to take the trolley pole off the wire when this is done.
 
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