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Lost pubs, cinemas, theatres and squats of Brixton

Minnie_the_Minx said:
Think it may be the other side of Brocky towards the Half Moon? (Could be thinking of somewhere else)
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Bon Bonne Night Club - 119-121 Norwood Road, Herne Hill - housed in the strangely genteel surroundings of a stuccoed pair of former villas at the corner with Rosendale Road.

Lambeth Planning website said:
Change or use from Nightclub (Class D2) to residential (Class C3) involving the partial demolition of the interior and exterior of the existing buildings and the erection of extensions to create three storey flank buildings toward rear (including the Rosendale Road elevation) with new rear wall to existing listed building creating a courtyard area to rear of site, excavation in basement to increase floor to ceiling height, excavation of lightwells, conversion of existing coach house to residential use and associated interior and exterior works to create 20 self contained reidential units, together with associated alterations, landscaping and nine on site parking spaces.
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It was there for thirty years. Officially a night club, rather than a pub, but a popular drinking location for some Brixtonians.
 
lang rabbie said:
Bon Bonne Night Club - 119-121 Norwood Road, Herne Hill



It was there for thirty years. Officially a night club, rather than a pub, but a popular drinking location for some Brixtonians.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I went there a few times - but that was in the late 1980s
 
editor said:
Cheers for that - I'd never heard of it but I'll add it to my list now!

I've now added a work-in-progress page on the Green Man, Loughborough Junction:
http://www.urban75.org/brixton/bars/green-man.html

It's kind of depressing to discover that there's so little information online about these once-vital community pubs - most of the background stuff is coming off these boards!

As ever comments and feedback welcomed!
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It's the same developer bought both the Green Man and the Junction / Warrior, isn't it?

I think that the plan is for the Junction to still be a pub eventually, but the ground floor of the Green Man is going to be some other commercial use. Shop maybe, or restaurant?

Giles..
 
Interesting - now I know why the Courts in Brighton Terrace/Trinity Gardens are all named after old music hall stars - they must have played at the Empress.
Thanks for that ed!
 
This info gleaned from darkscreens.co.uk about the old camping shop/cinema now restaurant on Brixton Hill

"101 Brixton Hill, Brixton Borough Lambeth
Date: Opened 1911 (as the Brixton Cinematograph Theatre), then Scala, closed 1957. In 1954, as the Clifton, the proprietors are shown as Clifton cinema (Brixton Hill) Ltd, 6 Corporation Street, Birmingham. 998 seats, continuous shows from 1.30pm, Sunday at 4.30pm. Prices 1s 6d to 2s 8d.
.
Also called New Royalty
Part of the Pyke Circuit"

Can't see how they got nearly 1,000 people in there! There is a photo in a book of old cinemas of people queueing to see one of the last shows in the 1950s here, but I've forgotten the name of the book.
 
supercity said:
Can't see how they got nearly 1,000 people in there! There is a photo in a book of old cinemas of people queueing to see one of the last shows in the 1950s here, but I've forgotten the name of the book.
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It used to open out to a big hall at the back which has since been demolished.

It's much the same for Brixton Theatre, which had a tiny entrance where the Ritzy cafe is now.
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
Editor

Don't know whether you've seen this:
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've been through that document several times! Shame there's not more detail (like when the pub opened, name changes etc)
 
In case anyone was wondering what was for sale at Brixton Theatre's bars before the war, here you go!

Carlsberg Pilsner, Jenner's Golden Ale, Charrington 'Toby' Ale and Whiteways Cyders, along with Clayton's 'pure fruit squashes and mineral waters.
 
Fascinating stuff :cool:

The page about the Black Horse (Brixton Road, now used by the Halifax) is mistakenly titled 'The Green Man' once you open the page ...
 
It's amazing the difference between the appearance of the Palladium Cinema and it's now incarnation, the Fridge - i.e. it's crap now.

I bet if the original facade had been retained it'd be listed by now.
 
editor said:
Just added new pages to the Lost Cinema section:
The Grand/Pullman, Railton Road, Herne Hill and the Regal/ Granada, Kennington Road....

Also, I've added a long-overdue page on the Hamilton Arms
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The Regal/Grenada was a bingo hall when I first lived in Kennington in the mid 1990s, then had a brief incarnation as an evangelical church (causing serious noise pollution to its sheltered housing residents) then closed. The flats are almost finished now - to be fair to the council/planning people they've kept the character of the outside of the building pretty much the same as it always was. And they've done lots of nice photos of the inside - the building manager seems to be a bit of an architecture buff.
 
See this link for pictures of the demolition of the interior of the Granada (aka Regal) at Kennington (which I think were taken by the site manager mentioned by Bob)
 
lang rabbie said:
See this link for pictures of the demolition of the interior of the Granada (aka Regal) at Kennington (which I think were taken by the site manager mentioned by Bob)
Click to expand...

interesting to see the inside of that space again. I had a fairly life changing late night moment in there. Let's just say it involved the infamous 'Underground Sound.' :cool:
 
DJWrongspeed said:
interesting to see the inside of that space again. I had a fairly life changing late night moment in there. Let's just say it involved the infamous 'Underground Sound.' :cool:
Click to expand...
Fancy writing about it for my article?
 
A yuppie writes

BTW I think there's no point being grouchy about them being yuppie flats - Kennington these days simply had no chance of sustaining anything like a big venue - I can't quite work out why though given the vast amounts of clubbing etc. in Vauxhall. I suppose it's simply cheaper and less hassle with neighbours to put your club in a railway arch - and there are shedloads of those at Vauxhall.


Kennington's quite a sad area in a way - one of the lovely old IMHO pubs 'The John Bull' closed there a few years ago and it seems that the poorer bits of the community these days can barely sustain any pubs (about five pubs for the west side of Kennington where around five thousand people live), while the richer people just want restaurants. So all the in between bits have died - virtually all the grocers etc. have gone. :(
 
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