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General Brixton history - photos, stories etc

another one today



fairly sure i've posted other shots of the same location - top end of Effra Road, tram is heading south approaching the 'change pit' (where trams changed between the conduit electric supply and overhead wire)
 
Puddy_Tat said:
another one today



fairly sure i've posted other shots of the same location - top end of Effra Road, tram is heading south approaching the 'change pit' (where trams changed between the conduit electric supply and overhead wire)
Click to expand...

So the Esso sign is for the garage which used to exist on Rushcroft Road, then briefly became an anarchist garden centre around 1995 before being evicted by the Environmental Services under their flamboyant Director Mr Paul Duffield.
 
CH1 said:
So the Esso sign is for the garage which used to exist on Rushcroft Road, then briefly became an anarchist garden centre around 1995 before being evicted by the Environmental Services under their flamboyant Director Mr Paul Duffield.
Click to expand...

yes - presume so - I don't remember either

1950 OS Map shows the site on the corner of Rushcroft Road and this shows the petrol station

EOT-Rushcroftgarage-1024-600x329.jpg


(from this page and click on the image on their page for larger version - although photo seems to have been scanned in two halves and not stuck together quite right)

petrol station shows "no private cars supplied" - not sure quite what that's about, possibly wartime / just post-war restrictions, although the feel of it is pre-1939. can't spot anything obvious to date it, the tram dates from about 1931.
 
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CH1 said:
So the Esso sign is for the garage which used to exist on Rushcroft Road, then briefly became an anarchist garden centre around 1995 before being evicted by the Environmental Services under their flamboyant Director Mr Paul Duffield.
Click to expand...
I remember that garage, but don't remember the anarchist garden centre. What happened there?!
 
editor said:
I remember that garage, but don't remember the anarchist garden centre. What happened there?!
Click to expand...
The petrol station was just standing empty and derelict as it had been for years and some people decided to sell flowers and pot plants there. It got quite popular - a good site for passing trade. People popped in and bought stuff on the way home.

I can't remember whether the old bus station /wicker furniture store was still still there at that point. Anyway the whole site had to be cleared to create what we now have as Windrush Square.

The flower/plant shop in the petrol station site was sufficiently popular that a petition was handed in to full council to save it. As you can imagine the petition was noted but ignored.
 
Brixton Hill, 1950/51 posted on tweeter by Lambeth Archives today

EO9sMJdX0AEppiv


tired looking tram probably doesn't have much longer to run in London (although most of the 'Feltham' class trams, which were London's most modern, dating from 1930/1, got sold on to Leeds for further service) - tram 18 became bus 109 in April 1951
 
Puddy_Tat said:
Brixton Hill, 1950/51 posted on tweeter by Lambeth Archives today

EO9sMJdX0AEppiv


tired looking tram probably doesn't have much longer to run in London (although most of the 'Feltham' class trams, which were London's most modern, dating from 1930/1, got sold on to Leeds for further service) - tram 18 became bus 109 in April 1951
Click to expand...
I saw this picture somewhere else (FB), and it was suggested it was traveling up Brixton Hill past Sudbourne Road but is displaying Embankment as a destination. What's that all about?
 
madolesance said:
I saw this picture somewhere else (FB), and it was suggested it was traveling up Brixton Hill past Sudbourne Road but is displaying Embankment as a destination. What's that all about?
Click to expand...

i think it's just south of brixton town centre, heading north away from the photographer (isn't that the town hall tower in about the middle of the picture?)

Victoria Embankment was a terminus for many south london tram routes - the 18 went over blackfriars bridge and back over westminster bridge, the 16 did the same thing in the opposite direction. bus 109 did this until the late 80s (from memory, it was the last tram replacement route to do that)
 
Puddy_Tat said:
something about them in the 'spectator' 19.1.85, but it's behind a paywall...
Click to expand...
Here you go:
In a fruitless quest for my colleague Colin Welch's stolen briefcase, I paid a visit to Railton Road in Brixton not long ago, I had long been intrigued by a boarded-up shop there with Rastas hanging around the door. Once when a pair of them laughingly carried a crate of beer inside, I had caught a glimpse of an enchanting tropical landscape with palm trees, painted on one of the walls. So on this occasion I decided to knock and announce myself.

splendid sign above the door, in large ,Gothic lettering, declared the place to be the Grand Lodge of the 'Ancient Order of Melchiseder Speculative Mechanics'. I edged through the crowd, but to my disappointment, when the door was opened the place proved to be a pool hall! Not a Bingyman or a Speculative Mechanic was in sight, only a pool table and a bar at the rear of the battered room. The palm tree painting had gone, but another inferior mural remained. Two of the pool players in the crowded room had Rasta hair and bonnets, but none seemed to be serious members of anything more than a snooker club. My entrance was greeted with great alarm, and strong men flew to bar my way. Fear turned to relief when I said I was a writer looking for a Rasta temple.

`It's all changed here since there was a fire,' a young man told me in polite, helpful tones. 'That's when the picture got spoilt. You might find some Rastas at the Temple of the Twelve Tribes just up the road. There's a sign on the door, you can't miss it.'

However, when I found the address, it seemed to be empty, and locked up. Where had the Rastas gone? Would the cry `A right man, I sight you again' be no longer heard in the land? A door opened in a church hall and a dignified West Indian woman in a hat emerged and looked down on me from a railing above some steps.

`Excuse me, do you know of a Rasta temple round here?' I asked her.

`No. Are you a Rasta?'

`Do I look like one?'

`No, but that means nothing. You might be one inside.'

`Well, are you one, then?'

`I am a Christian.'

Silently, I reached up and shook her hand. 'There were some Rastas round the corner, but they've moved away,' she told me. 'I know the true Lord is Jesus Christ, but if them wants to die in their sins believing in Haile Selassie, I cannot stop them. All I can do is tell them what I believe.'

At the top of Coldharbour Lane nearby, I met Carlton, a reggae musician of faintly Rasta-like appearance. His expressive face was a study of humorous woe, and he was not remotely interested in the Rastafarian creed.

`Me and these three guys got a group together, we made a record, but when it was time to be paid royalties the other guys Collected my money from the manager and said they'd give it to me. But instead they spent the lot on buying herb to sell at a Profit and get rich. Only they made a mistake an' fled with the police after them, so I've lost all my pay!' he complained loudly.
Click to expand...
More: Outline - Read & annotate without distractions
 
CH1 said:
Looks like Pope's Road may have formerly been the Midland Depot?
Click to expand...
Documented in detail here

Brixton history - coal staithes at Pope's Road


www.urban75.org

Lost scenes of Brixton – the coal depot at Pope’s Road -

There's been a busy street market in Pope's Road, Brixton for over a hundred years, and although the market is still going strong, one part of the scene has vanished forever: the old coal staithes. 1885 pamphlet for B.M. Tite & Son, Coal & Coke merchants at Brixton station [source]. Coal...
www.urban75.org www.urban75.org
 
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Not sure if this is the right place for this video, but there's a bit of history of the area, including the Effra river, the Ritzy, Electric Avenue, the Dog Star, Bowie and other local familiar faces and places. Brixtonites will probably know all there is to know, but I found it interesting

 
1.1-kc-440x550.jpg


coming along at the crich tramway museum (or whatever it's called these days) - former London County Council tram no. 1 under restoration

no 1 (built 1932) was the prototype for a new generation of London trams, that ended up not being built after London Transport took over.

it started services (in a one-off blue livery) on the Kingsway Subway routes, including Manor House - West Norwood via Brixton, then in the late 30s transferred to the Streatham Hill depot.

ETA - picture from here
 
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