happyshopper
Well-Known Member
The "real" Cool Tan, not the substitute in Coldharbour Lane.
General Brixton history - photos, stories etc
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The "real" Cool Tan, not the substitute in Coldharbour Lane.
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
Des Res king of squatters, I did go a couple of time to the coach house.
Pretty sure there were a few parties in there by sound conspiracy in early 1992 as well as Soapy Joe's next door which I think is the one the levellers played at, but it's all a bit hazy now.
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
I went to have a look with some mates who wanted to squat an industrial building one night and as we got there there were people being showed around so we didn't hang around, could well have been Des as well.
He certainly was there with a bunch of friends when they tried to evict my mates who had squatted the dole office on coldharbour lane (aka cool tan (the latter)) as "they'd had their eyes on this for ages"
Casaubon
Well-Known Member
To be honest, I can’t remember the location of the Coach House – it was a long time ago and I was never sober when I went there. All I remember is walking past the police station, past lots of corrugated iron fencing around the derelict land and housing.
Do you know exactly where it is?
Des was granted adverse possession in the early/mid-90s, IIRC. Even in its poor condition, it was obviously a lovely building, potentially worth a fortune. It included a fairly large plot of land, 50m x 50m maybe, which I guess has been sold for development.
I assumed that Des would sell it or maybe continue running some sort of shebeen – he had a long track record of, er, entrepreneurial activities
However, he rented it out to Phil (mentioned in the post linked above) who planned to run an unlicensed club/arts/whatever venue there.
Phil paid Des a lot of money up front for a year’s lease, IIRC. Des planned to use the money to renovate a VW camper in which to ride off into a happy and wealthy future.
But…..
The legal case which granted possession was years long, and the participants naturally gained some familiarity with each other. And Des was a cheeky fucker.
As all parties left the court on the final day, Des couldn’t resist taunting the losing side. (To be honest, I’ve been in a similar position and I couldn’t resist it either.) Among other things, he said to the opposing barrister something like ‘oh, and give my regards to Judge Smith*’.
This didn’t mean anything to the barrister, but a while later he bumped into Judge Smith at a social event, and told him that Des sent his regards. Judge Smith remembered Des from a case in his court a few years previously, in which Des had been resisting eviction as a squatter from a flat in Brixton which he claimed as his sole residence.
Judge Smith’s case had been during the period in which Des had claimed to be living in the coach house. Des’s claim for adverse possession depended on it being his sole, continuous address during the relevant period.
It was clear that Des hadn’t been scrupulously honest with the courts.
The case went back to court and Des lost the Coach House.
My favourite memory of the Coach House is from ’89 or ’90, I think. I was in a lock-in at the Railway which got raided by the police – a senior officer and half-a-dozen coppers burst in and, after shouting a lot, threw us all out.
About half of the Railway crowd headed to the Coach House and continued drinking. About an hour later it was very lively in there, with a strong Hogarthian vibe.
Then the same bunch of coppers burst in, and shouted a lot. The senior officer looked around and saw all the faces he’d thrown out of the Railway an hour earlier, who gave him a rousing cheer.
He muttered something, shook his head, gathered his men and fucked off, to rousing cheers.
*I can’t remember his actual name.
Edit: As always, I'll say that my memory is definitely incomplete, and possibly inaccurate. I'm happy to hear additions or corrections.
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
A certain Mike Urban did a Buzz on Angell Town with some good pictures Brixton history: one hundred years of Wiltshire Road and St John’s Church, Angell Town, Brixton
then:
now - with rennovated Coach House clearly visible opposite the Sisulu Estate
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Can I set a poser for the map and transport buffs on here?
Claudia Jones just had a blue plaque unveiled yesterday in Vauxhall.
Here is an article from the Vauxhall Society about Claudia Jones: Claudia Jones’s Vauxhall years and the genesis of the West Indian Gazette
What intrigues me is this "During this period of Jones’s life, she focused on campaigning against racism in housing, education and employment, issues that had come to the fore with the growth of the West Indian post-war immigration. This led to her founding, in March 1958, the West Indian Gazette, which initially had an office at 250 Brixton Road, later moving to Station Road, Loughborough Junction. "
According to the detailed and excellent site LJ4D there is a Station Road next to the railway track there:
the legend on LJ4D reads: A view along the alleyway labelled as “Station Road” on the 1903 insurance map. This no longer provides a through route and is gated at the Coldharbour Lane end.
Then again there is Station Avenue:
LJ4D: "Station Avenue in 2020. Originally there would have been small shop units along both sides. Evidence of these is still visible in the frontages to the houses on the right. On the left, similar buildings have been replaced by an industrial unit."
Then again (my putative suggestion) we might be talking about "Station Road" as in "Brixton Station Road" running from Brixton Road to Barrington Road - though this is not really Loughborough Junction.
According to the Vauxhall Society profile the West Indian Gazette closed in 1965, 8 months after Claudia's death. I guess if it actually rented an office in LJ it might show up on Kelly's?
1898 map of Loughborough Junction here from "Disused Stations" Station Avenue is marked - Station Road must be next to the line I guess.
Edited to add: the 250 Brixton Road original address of the West Indian Gazette is a shop on the Brixton side of the "Crown and Anchor" 2 doors down.
Claudia Jones just had a blue plaque unveiled yesterday in Vauxhall.
Here is an article from the Vauxhall Society about Claudia Jones: Claudia Jones’s Vauxhall years and the genesis of the West Indian Gazette
What intrigues me is this "During this period of Jones’s life, she focused on campaigning against racism in housing, education and employment, issues that had come to the fore with the growth of the West Indian post-war immigration. This led to her founding, in March 1958, the West Indian Gazette, which initially had an office at 250 Brixton Road, later moving to Station Road, Loughborough Junction. "
According to the detailed and excellent site LJ4D there is a Station Road next to the railway track there:
the legend on LJ4D reads: A view along the alleyway labelled as “Station Road” on the 1903 insurance map. This no longer provides a through route and is gated at the Coldharbour Lane end.
Then again there is Station Avenue:
LJ4D: "Station Avenue in 2020. Originally there would have been small shop units along both sides. Evidence of these is still visible in the frontages to the houses on the right. On the left, similar buildings have been replaced by an industrial unit."
Then again (my putative suggestion) we might be talking about "Station Road" as in "Brixton Station Road" running from Brixton Road to Barrington Road - though this is not really Loughborough Junction.
According to the Vauxhall Society profile the West Indian Gazette closed in 1965, 8 months after Claudia's death. I guess if it actually rented an office in LJ it might show up on Kelly's?
1898 map of Loughborough Junction here from "Disused Stations" Station Avenue is marked - Station Road must be next to the line I guess.
Edited to add: the 250 Brixton Road original address of the West Indian Gazette is a shop on the Brixton side of the "Crown and Anchor" 2 doors down.
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Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
hmm.
I don't think the west indian gazette can have been at station road (or wherever) for very long.
I can find images of issues up to mid 1963 (one in Lambeth archives here) that show the 250 Brixton Road address (above Theo's record store)
There's an image of the issue announcing Claudia Jones' passing, the December 1964 / January 1965 issue which doesn't have an address on the front page
and by late spring 1965, it seems to have merged with the afro-asian-caribbean news and was being published from an address in hampstead (image here)
Kellys / Post office directories are only online when they are out of copyright, so I've only got ready access to anything up to about 1920-ish. There might be a directory from the right era in the borough archives - some libraries did keep old copies, some slung them out when the new copy arrived.
I can't find any trace of a Station Road, Loughborough Junction - it was Station Avenue on the 1950-ish OS map, I don't have a 1950s / 60s A-Z or equivalent to hand, and in the 1939 one I've got, it's not marked at all.
The 1919 London Suburbs Directory lists 'Station Road, Brixton' which is what's now Brixton Station Road, and no mention of a Station Road, Loughborough Junction.
So a fail on the map front.
However, I've found this quite long piece on the 'past tense' site, which includes
i can't find anything to suggest that station avenue became station road, this is possibly an error, and where the 'station road' thing came from. 13 station avenue (street view here) seems the most likely, unless anyone can find a copy of the gazette from the right era to prove anything either way. There seem to be some archives who have odd copies or cuttings, but doesn't look like there's a full collection that's easily accessible, if at all.
1919 London Suburbs directory lists the shops on Station Avenue - looks like the small buildings on the west side were still there on the 1950s OS map, and still numbered old style, numbers up one side and down the other, rather than the odd / even side of the road that became more common.
1950 OS map -
Extract from 1919 directory -
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
at 1 electric avenue in 1904 london suburbs directory (where the back half of boots is now)
felonius monk
Well-Known Member
Think it became Timothy White's and then Boots in the 1960s.
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
yes - current building possibly dates from 1938
according to wikipedia, boots bought them out in 1968, but some shops continued under the TW name until 1985.
Aquamarine
Well-Known Member
Off Coldharbour lane. There was an all night café in the vicinity at one time.
editor
hiraethified
That'll be my photo
A very, very thin house, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW9 -
I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's the thinnest building in London, but it has to be up there with the slenderest. The photo above is from Google Maps showing the wafer-thin wedge at the end of the terrace buildings that run on the north side of Coldharbour Lane, between Gresham Road and
www.urban75.org
Aquamarine
Well-Known Member
That'll be my photo
A very, very thin house, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW9 -
I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's the thinnest building in London, but it has to be up there with the slenderest. The photo above is from Google Maps showing the wafer-thin wedge at the end of the terrace buildings that run on the north side of Coldharbour Lane, between Gresham Road and
So it is! I hadn't seen it before. Great atmospheric photo.
It's also here: Log in to Facebook
Puddy_Tat
santa paws, do you ever come to the ghetto?
complete with your tame pigeon posing discreetly so as to guard against other people re-posting it?
Casaubon
Well-Known Member
In '82 or thereabouts (my memory's a bit hazy) local artist Don Morgans won the GLC Spirit of London art prize for his painting of domino players in the Atlantic (Dogstar).
Previously discussed on this thread: Brixton Artist Don Morgans
felonius monk
Well-Known Member
That's International House in the distance, built in the 1970s
