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General Brixton history - photos, stories etc

couple of pictures of the 1909 electric trains introduced on the Victoria - Denmark Hill - London Bridge route on teh tweeter today courtesy of 'turniprail'

Dy3VJO5W0AAlXnL.jpg


Dy3VJyiXcAAdZfW.jpg


looks a bit cosier (although this was the first class) than southern's 'ironing board' seats...
 
One of the Brixton Facebook groups had a thread devoted to a den of iniquity called Club Leslie
apparently it was close by the Canterbury Arms and was owned by William Hartnell aka Doctor Who No1
In the 1950s it was a top celebrity gaff but lapsed into a sleazy knocking shop as time passed.
Can't find anything online but wondering anyone here has more info.....
 
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cuppa tee said:
One of the Brixton Facebook groups had a thread devoted to a den of iniquity called Club Leslie
apparently it was close by the Canterbury Arms and was owned by William Hartnell aka Doctor Who No1
In the 1950s it was a top celebrity gaff but lapsed into a sleazy knocking shop as time passed.
Can't find anything online but wondering anyone here has more info.....
Click to expand...

not heard of it, but it has a mention at clubs – Black London Histories

couple of mentions in the London Gazette (appears to be a long drawn out insolvency / bankruptcy - proceedings started in 1959, below is from 6.2.62, and there's another one in 1965) for Gustav(i)us Leslie, described as proprietor of the club, giving an address of 10 Canterbury Crescent.

club-leslie.png
The Sunset Club on Carnaby Street has a few mentions on the web, including this on Ben Sherman website, as they are now based at that address.

Can't find any reference to William Hartnell having any involvement.

may be worth a tweet in the direction of HistoryisMadeatNight (@Historyatnight) on Twitter who is S London based.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
not heard of it, but it has a mention at clubs – Black London Histories

couple of mentions in the London Gazette (appears to be a long drawn out insolvency / bankruptcy - proceedings started in 1959, below is from 6.2.62, and there's another one in 1965) for Gustav(i)us Leslie, described as proprietor of the club, giving an address of 10 Canterbury Crescent.

View attachment 161993
The Sunset Club on Carnaby Street has a few mentions on the web, including this on Ben Sherman website, as they are now based at that address.

Can't find any reference to William Hartnell having any involvement.

may be worth a tweet in the direction of HistoryisMadeatNight (@Historyatnight) on Twitter who is S London based.
Click to expand...
Wow, thanks very much for that :thumbs:

Edit....Seems the club was known as Hartnells when Doctor Who ran it and Benny Hill used to frequent it which makes sense reading this....Empress Theatre, Brighton Terrace and Bernay's Grove, Carlton Grove, Brixton. Historical Brixton - old and new photos of Brixton, Lambeth, London, SW9 and SW2
 
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cuppa tee said:
One of the Brixton Facebook groups had a thread devoted to a den of iniquity called Club Leslie
apparently it was close by the Canterbury Arms and was owned by William Hartnell aka Doctor Who No1
In the 1950s it was a top celebrity gaff but lapsed into a sleazy knocking shop as time passed.
Can't find anything online but wondering anyone here has more info.....
Click to expand...
brixtonblade is this one of yours?
 
Simon Hannah quite liked this from the Facebook page, which is the same as your website I guess. How is it sepia? The photo must be recent - since the original cinema entrance was turned into a bar (by the capitalists!)
51286768_2246925402246521_990240448515670016_n.jpg
 
Puddy_Tat said:
on tweeter today from robnitm

D14lIe8X4AAFDKs.jpg


76 Brixton Hill (now sainsburys local)
Click to expand...
The Austin Princess was launched as the 18-22 in 1975 and didn't see the year out with that name, changing to Princess in 1975 also. So, unless they left their signs up longer than they should have, which I doubt a sales showroom would do, the photo is from '75. I thought the gold Allegro has a W reg plate, which would make it later than '75, but I think it's an M.
 
Or I could have just clicked the bloody link, which I did after writing that up and looking up numberplate details, and seen that the tweet says 1975.
 
i found the mostyn house handbill. may be completely unrelated, or they could have started out at the brixton mostyn house and kept the name when they moved.

London Gazette of 14 July 1876 has it as one of the residences of David Mitchell Aird, barrister at law (deceased)

london-gazette-14jul1876.PNG
 
David Mitchell Aird seems to have moonlighted as a writer / translator - combination of law / travel / grammar and possibly a couple of romances.

His son, David Alfred Aird qualified as a barrister in 1874.

He also appears to have been in business as a printer (possibly catering for the legal profession) in partnership with Eliza Aird (described as 'widow' so possibly wife of David Mitchell Aird?) but this went bust in 1887. This suggests they had not kept Mostyn House on.

london-gazette-10jun1887.png



(followed this out of curiosity - one of my great grandmothers was an Aird, although understand it's akin to 'Hill' in England, so probably plenty of them around)
 
by 1914 (London Suburbs Directory), 7 Mostyn Road (or part of same) was 'Mostyn Chambers' - with solicitor Alfred Armstrong in businessmostyn-road-1914.png

(The 1904 equivalent lists Mr Putnam as householder, and Mr Armstrong, solicitor at 7A)

Mr Armstrong was still in business in 1943 - found a couple of public notices in the London Gazette

london-gazette-151043.png

Oval History has reference to an Alfred Armstrong, Solicitor, in St Ann's Road (now Southey Road) in 1881 - this was probably home not business address, as I can find references around that time for Alfred Armstrong, solicitor at 115 Chancery Lane.

since this chap would have been getting on for 100 by 1943, I can't imagine he was still soliciting. Could be that the Mostyn Road solicitor was the son who was 6 years old in 1881 and followed father's footsteps in profession as well as first name.
 
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editor said:
I love Mostyn House on Mosytn Road. Anyone know any more about this grand house?
Click to expand...

visible on 1876 OS map (at Old Maps) - couldn't get anything on Old Maps yesterday

British History Online has a bit more here and a picture of the original Mostyn Road Methodist Church, built 1868 - would seem reasonable to assume that the houses along the north side were built around the same time.

figure0368-027-a.gif
 
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