General Brixton history - photos, stories etc
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teuchter
je suis teuchter
Are these the ones I have to sign up to a paid genealogy site to see... or is there some other way to get hold of them?
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
That sort of map, I'm more inclined to take it as 'here be detached / semi detached houses' rather than 'here be a terrace' (which in this case is more closely packed semis) like further up.
there's a brief reference in the history of the London Chatham and Dover railway (the tangle of lines round Brixton is a result of the competiton - and occasional co-operation between the Chatham and the Brighton companies) to additional lines being built between 1863 - 1867 but no detail more than that.
old maps has an 1850 map which shows streets and nothing else and the next map has the three sets of railway lines.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
I've not seen tithe maps online but then I've never really searched for them. There should be one in Lambeth archives and what I would do would be email them and ask them to look for you, which would probably be free, and if poss to send you a copy - for which you would likely pay
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I happen to know the (rather complicated) history here in some detail... I recommend the LCDR history by Adrian Gray (maybe you already have it).
The first line (which ran between what's now Loughborough Junction and Brixton) was completed by the LCDR in May 1863. That's the northernmost of the three viaducts that cross Barrington Rd.
Then the middle of the three viaducts came into use in August 1865.
Services started running on the other viaduct - the southernmost one - in August 1866. These services were stopping/starting from East Brixton (then called Loughborough Park) at this point though - the viaduct was only complete going eastwards from Barrington Rd.
That southernmost viaduct was built by the LBSCR, from Barrington road eastwards, and a little bit further east it turns into a 4-track viaduct. 2 of those tracks (the northernmost ones) were for the LBSCR to use themselves, and the other two were handed over to the LCDR. There was a deal between the two companies that meant that in return for this, the LCDR actually built the viaduct running west from Barrington Rd towards Brixton, which was then handed over to the LBSCR in May 1867. It was then used by LBSCR services which could now run through East Brixton from either direction.
This is also covered in my post with my theory about the reason for the mystery bridge abutment here.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I don't think the layout of houses between the railway line and Coldharbour Lane is credible on this map.
Also my recollection of the - now restored - three buildings on the opposite side of Coldharbour Lane starting with the Domino Club was they were called Barrington Cottages in the Minet Archives documentation. I know this is odd - we would think of cottages as small. On the map they are called Barrington Villas - and a row of at least five semi detached buildings is there. Five minutes in the library might ascertain how many villas/cottages there were and where Sutherland Terrace started.
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
That's great. The Warrior was probably the single pub I spent most time in during the 80s. Am I imagining that it had a silhouette of Boadacea on that corner panel in the 80s? And it's full name was the Warrior Queen?
editor
hiraethified
If only it had hung on for a few more years it could have cashed in on the craft beer craze. I had some good nights when it was the Junction too.
From The Warrior to Foxtons and a supermarket: a depressing Brixton vision
How’s this for a truly depressing sight: a supermarket operating in the premises of a former pub with the upstairs covered in Foxtons estate agent signs? This scene was taken on Coldharbour L…
www.brixtonbuzz.com
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
If only it had hung on for a few more years it could have cashed in on the craft beer craze. I had some good nights when it was the Junction too.
From The Warrior to Foxtons and a supermarket: a depressing Brixton vision
How’s this for a truly depressing sight: a supermarket operating in the premises of a former pub with the upstairs covered in Foxtons estate agent signs? This scene was taken on Coldharbour L…
LOL the Junction was allegedly a sign that LJ was getting trendy if I remember rightly.
editor
hiraethified
It was still rough as fuck around that area.
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
Sure was. Drunk wankers like me reeling abaht.
Johnlj1234
Member
Calling largish houses Cottages does sound odd, but that is what happened. The OS 1893-96 shows just three houses between the railway line and Coldharbour lane. Though the Station Masters house looks larger than the existing house. The first station master at 59 Barrington Road I have listed is Walter Guilford from 1878 through to 1908 when he retired. George Crittenden I have as Station Master from 1912 to 1914, haven't checked 1909 to 1911 yet. I have nothing for 1915 & 1916 then from 1917 & 1918 Richard Holdaway is listed as Station Master.
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
picture must be from before 1892 when the tram route was extended up Brixton Hill and converted to cable operation south of Kennington.
The 'Wellington' on the front is the 'Lord Wellington' on Old Kent Road - it was a ^ shaped route via St George's Church, Borough. The London Tramways Company had a depot just off the Old Kent Road there.
I make it about here - Google Maps
1896 London Suburbs directory shows Holland Arms and J Newark, Carpenter
(Chapel Street is now Mowll Street - the LCC and post office had spates of tidying up street names where there were too many of a particular street name)
Can't find references to the Holland Arms after the 1896 directory, suggesting the current building went up somewhere around the turn of the century.
Not sure what the heck the thing on the pavement is - presume some sort of fire hydrant?
felonius monk
Well-Known Member
If that's now Mowll St then the carpenter business made way for Glenshaw Mansions. Charlie Chaplin and his brother lived there 1908-10. Max Wall was born in 1908 in the same building. There's blue plaques to both (Max round the corner in Mowll St)
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
didn't know about the connection with CC there (i knew about the east street patch and the lambeth workhouse)
ETA - Glenshaw Mansions seems to have had a few connections with the music hall / theatrical world - Layers of London also lists actress Buena Bent, comedienne Lily Burnand and John Trongi, manager of Gatti's Music Hall on Westminster Bridge Road as residents there in the years before / shortly after the 1914 war.
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felonius monk
Well-Known Member
That's a great resource. In lockdown I made a blue plaque walk for myself around Brixton and Stockwell including Dan Leno, Fred Karno with their music hall roots. Both Sydney and Charlie Chaplin worked for Fred Karno whose workshop is what is now Clockwork Studios in Southwell Road in Camberwell. There's Lilian Baylis and Violette Szabo at Stockwell Park, Van Gogh of course at Kennington, Havelock Ellis, CLR James in Railton Road. And no-plaque sites like Bowie in Stansfield Road and Claude Rains who was born at at Tregothan Road at Clapham North. Not forgetting Cherry Groce in Normandy Road either.
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CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
That makes it where the Vida Walsh Centre & flats above now is (2b Saltoun Road).
I can vaguely remember before Vida Walsh was built - which was around 1985.
But all I recall about that site is it was vacant and screened of from the street by corrugated iron.
Maybe the hotel went into decline in WW2 and was CPO'd on account of the Inner Ring Road scheme?
Certainly when I moved to Brixton in late 1978 Rushcroft Road and Saltoun Road north side had been at risk of demolition due to the ring road and megatower schemes draw up in the 1960s.
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
dunno.
reference here to "Hanne and de la Haye Private Hotel at 5 Effra Road " (no. 5 not shown in 1911 London Suburbs directory.)
not listed as Pendennis in 1926 phone book, so had either changed name or use by then.
not sure quite what point a residential hotel in Brixton would have become less viable.
from London Gazette, 5 June 1928, doesn't prove much either way.
Not marked as suffering any bomb damage in the LCC bomb damage map.
nick
Pleomorphic Adenomas R us
felonius monk
Well-Known Member
The factory made navigation systems during the war for the De Havilland Mosquito and navigation systems for D-Day. Before and after it made radiograms and later TV sets.
www.gracesguide.co.uk
Decca Record Co - Graces Guide
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I worked for them at 247 Burlington Road New Malden.
Decca Navigator in the mid 1970s made radar equipment for yachts and small vessels at Ingate Place Battersea.
The research labs in Burlington Road were by that time designing VOR (VHF OmniRange) air navigation beacons. These were still in use as late as 10 years ago - I was in a light aircraft from Deauville to Shoreham which was using that system around 2008. Like the 1940s Low Frequency system this would no doubt be superseded by GPS now.
Another facet of Decca Navigator was the Electronic Warfare establishment in Hersham. I don't know exactly what they did - I was not given the tour. I had told them I was in CND at university.
The old Decca Navigator system seemed to have a sort of camaraderie. There were transmitting stations all over the world with only one or two employees - rather like light houses. There used to be a Yahoo group run by these people, but it seems to have been shut down. I think Yahoo stopped these groups (which were message boards a bit like Urban).
However clearly a few keenies have kept it up here: Deccaman groups.io Group
Johnlj1234
Member
I used to sell Decca Navigators years ago to yachties when I worked at a London Chandlery based out on The Highway east of Tower Bridge. I vaguely remember they were very expensive, but it was Thatcherite years and plenty of money around. They became obsolete around 2000 when GPS was introduced. There were Decca transmitting stations all over the world.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I thought Decca Navigator equipment was normally rented, as opposed to the American Loran system which was bought outright?
The National Maritime Museum has a Decca unit on their website
Decca Navigator Mk 21 | Royal Museums Greenwich
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
The Deccaman group flags up this video about a restored harbour defence launch - HMS Medusa - which took part in the D Day landing as a lane marker - so the invasion forces were shipped in safely avoiding mines.
All very interesting, but the bit about Decca Navigator equipment starts about 20 minutes in. I found it fascinating - a bit of technical nostalgia more esoteric than trains and trams!
