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General Brixton history - photos, stories etc

To the left of where you've scribbled your yellow pen, you can see the facade of a modernist building, which you can also see in my google link. Plus an anomalous projecting window at first floor level, also visible on google streetview if you move north a bit. This clearly establishes that the location is to the south of the junction with Chaucer road, whereas you claimed it was the stretch north of that junction.
 
Hmm very strange. Maybe it's not Mayall Road then? Can understand it being there originally and then being taken down but very unusual if it were all reinstated.
 
teuchter said:
To the left of where you've scribbled your yellow pen, you can see the facade of a modernist building, which you can also see in my google link. Plus an anomalous projecting window at first floor level, also visible on google streetview if you move north a bit. This clearly establishes that the location is to the south of the junction with Chaucer road, whereas you claimed it was the stretch north of that junction.
Click to expand...
yeh. because as you can see from your picture you can't see the windsor castle from there, which missl suggested was in the background: but i take your point about the bleak brutalist building. incidentally, 245 mayall road has been recently or is for sale: so the question of ownership needs more investigation. someone like you with an eye for detail might like to look into it.
 
teuchter Pickman's model MissL I still think Mayall Rd more likely.
1. there is a bleak modernist façade on the left in actuality, which was there pre the 1981 disturbances - it is actually the back of Railton Road Methodist Church
2. Mayall Road was one of those selected for an envelope scheme under the Housing Action Areas, which could account for restoration of ornamentation.

Also anyone looking at modern photo of Mayall Road has to adjust to the Metropolitan Housing scheme next to the Leeson Road railway tunnel.

If that photo is really Railon Road where is it then? My feeling is that "Railton Road" is a 1980s generic term like Brixton was a generic term - vibrant, radical, black, opressed etc.
 
CH1 said:
2. Mayall Road was one of those selected for an envelope scheme under the Housing Action Areas, which could account for restoration of ornamentation.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, does that mean the work was carried out with council funding?

That terrace has always struck me as a handsome one. Sadly in the last couple of years Lambeth have granted permission for a couple of mansard roof extensions within it. That's going to break up the roof line and put an end to the consistency (until everyone's done one anyway).
 
teuchter said:
That's interesting, does that mean the work was carried out with council funding?

That terrace has always struck me as a handsome one. Sadly in the last couple of years Lambeth have granted permission for a couple of mansard roof extensions within it. That's going to break up the roof line and put an end to the consistency (until everyone's done one anyway).
Click to expand...
I don't know how envelope schemes worked funding wise, but I think it would have been 100% council funded. In the case of individual houses up to £30,000 was available, but I think there were conditions on sale etc.

You should remember that many of the houses in both Railton and Mayall roads were actually council owned (and many squatted). An envelope scheme including council owned and privately owned houses would surely have made sense at that time (Ted Knight/Ken Livingstone etc - even George Tremlett former GLC Tory Housing chief might well have approved )
 
There's a rant somewhere - I think it was by Iain Sinclair - about how housing improvement area grants of that era got spent on the priorities of middle class amenity societies such as reinstating Victorian cornices and finial features rather than on sorting out damp lower ground floors.
 
Having had a look at Mayall Road on street view, the cornices or whatever they is, I am inclined to think they are recent additions, not the originals. I can't believe that the originals of that age would all be as complete and in as good condition as those seem to be.
 
LKJ-U14394.jpg
 
I'm not at all convinced it's Railton Road (unless the houses have been demolished - I've only got currentish street view to go on) - some on Railton Road are a similar style (possibly same developer or builder) but they are three storey.

I'm mainly going on shape of the windows, decorative brickwork on the houses on the opposite side of the road, brickwork / shape of the ground floor windows on the side of the road he's walking along - all of which match the bit of Mayall Road near Shakespeare Street (this sort of bit). Also no sign of any bus stops - the 2 ran along Railton Road in the 70s

(The one with the shop may well be Railton Road - I can't find an exact match)

And as it's just round the corner, if LKJ was doing a photo-shoot, it's quite possible he walked round the block and the photographer may have recorded the whole lot as Railton Road. Whether LKJ or anyone else involved (getting on for 40 years ago) would remember exactly what streets they walked along is doubtful.

Just because an archive says something is X doesn't always mean it's correct - I've encountered a few anomalies in archives more 'official' than this one...
 
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