Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

New Brixton 'Then and Now' pics

hatboy said:
Lang's right you know Mike. You know this is my passion. Candys is "mediocre post-modernism" and I remember seeing it go up and, yes, a steel frame with cladding is right too.
Click to expand...
Yes, of course it's steel framed. I saw it go up too.

But its bland expanse of featureless walls gives it the impression of being made of slabs of concrete - hence my comment.

And I wouldn't call it post-modernism - I don't see enough architectural detail in there to qualify such a description. It just looks like a bland modern functional shopping unit of very little architectural worth.

Oh and seeing as everyone's in 'picky-picky' mode, the name of the shop is 'Candy of Brixton', not 'Candys' or even 'Candy's'.

So there! :p
 
Given the relative unpopularity of the New York forum, maybe its place should be taken by an "Architecture, Townscape and Urbanism" forum?

The rows between the modernists, Po-Mos and "All architects are oppressors of working people" activists would make P&P look like a vicar's tea party. :)
 
lang rabbie said:
Given the relative unpopularity of the New York forum
Click to expand...
Oy! You leave that forum alone! One day that'll grow and the next time I go to NYC I'll have the same kind of instant full-on party scene that awaits American u75-ers arriving in Brixton!

(naturally, I was rather hoping to be contributing to that particular forum right now from somewhere a little more exotic than the Barrier Block)
 
Great photos! You manage to get them spot on - and not get hit by cars!

"Established in 1856, the shop offers 'French Corsets' made to individual measurement" - Hehe, good to see Brixton has always had people with interesting tastes! ;)
 
editor said:
Someone was nagging me a while ago that I hadn't done enough photos of Brixton Hill - so I trust they'll be pleased with today's work!
Click to expand...
I don't think I was the original nagger - but thanks anyway for some more great photos.

[starts reading small print of captions to revert to nitpicking type...] :)
 
I love the way the old stores seemed to love to fill every single possible space with their own personalised advertising - including the bits below the windows next to the pavement. I also like the way they seemed to enjoy the whole "style" of their shopfronts, with lots of little flourishes and architectural details, even if they sometimes go a bit OTT. :D
 
TeeJay said:
I also like the way they seemed to enjoy the whole "style" of their shopfronts, with lots of little flourishes and architectural details, even if they sometimes go a bit OTT. :D
Click to expand...
I think it's fair to say that the average Edwardian shopkeeper had a lot more pride in the appearance of their shop that their modern counterpart.

The demise of 'proper' sign writers and the rubbish, tacky plastic signs that have replaced their work doesn't help either.
 
They also seemed to really like to personalise their shops, and almost "talk" to the public. Now it just seems to be a case of "one word" signs and not trying to be unique at all - actually trying to look like all other standardised high-street "brands".

After you have finished this series, maybe you could do a gallery of Brixton shop- cafe- and stall- fronts that actually still do make an effort? Just in case a casual observer thinks that all the creativity and individuality has gone out of Brixton? Kind of a photographic "footnote" as it were - finding the modern parallels and equivalents, even if they don't happen to be on the exact same location...
 
editor said:
Nah. Bits were flapping off it when I was taking the photo!


'conversation area'
Click to expand...

I like the idea of this. Is it a special place where people gather to discuss the architectural merits of their area? ;)
 
editor said:
Before I was struck down with the dreaded lurgy last week, I was working through a new mini-series about shopfronts on Brixton Road.

I've finally felt well enough today to finish off the 'Then and Nows' photographed to date - so take a look!
395 Brixton Road
411 Brixton Road
417 Brixton Road
506 Brixton Road
Click to expand...

Oooh, I do feel lucky - there's now, a then & now of my front door
:p

Thanks Mike, they're all fasinating as usual.
 
This is all great stuff - and as a thanks to you Mike for doing this - I am prepared to loan you my personal copy of the "Wheels Used to Talk to us" - a social histroy of the LCC (Brixton) Tramways.Subject to an indemnity of about a million quid ! - lots of good photos there for even more comparisons such as the Pullman Court block outside the old Telford Avenue Tram Depot.(incidentallly you can see this destiantion on the front of some buses today as a hangover to the old tram blinds - being a saddo it gives me a great personal pleasure.

Now - as a lad when I lived in Wimbledon I used to get the old 89 headcode loop train (4EPB) pre Thameslink to Blackfriars and in the Herne Hull area there were some old adverts still visible from the train advertising "The Tyne Main Coal Company" - and (I think) - "Burtons the 50 Shilling Tailor" - painted onto brick walls facing the railway - now this was more than 15 years ago and with the weathering over time - not to mention graffiti spraying assholes this may now be gone - as there is a guy in NYC recording this dissapearing element of social history - dont you think this trivia (err vital historical data ought to be recorded before it goes.?

Keep up the work.Great stuff.
 
Two new 'uns: a film scene of the ever-elusive East Brixton railway station and a turn of the century scene opposite Brixton tube station

Proving even more elusive is the pub that used to stand in the front garden of Southwyck House. I've finally tracked down its name: the 'Royal Veteran', but I've yet to see a photo of the place, or the shops next to it...
 
Just in case anyone's as obsessive as me about this, I've just found this page on East Brixton with loads of photos, some taken as recently as 1975:
east_brixton4.jpg
 
Congratulations - Hope the search for Royal Veteran images doesn't take as long.

I suppose I should have known that somebody in theSubterranea Britannica mob would have chapter and verse on this. Hurrah for the single-mindedness of people like Nick Catford. :)

BTW - I think more than a trace remains of the booking office - wasn' it in under the arches in the building with polychrome brick windows arches that now forms part of Medusa. That was the house style of the railway at the time the line was built - cf the south side of London Bridge Station
 
lang rabbie said:
BTW - I think more than a trace remains of the booking office - wasn' it in under the arches in the building with polychrome brick windows arches that now forms part of Medusa.
Click to expand...
I wasn't sure about how much is left of the booking office - or even exactly where it was - but I've changed my reference, just to be sure.

It seems weird to think that the station lasted all the way up to 1976...
 
editor said:
It seems weird to think that the station lasted all the way up to 1976...
Click to expand...
But looking at the 'photos of the platforms you can see why practically no-one used it to wait for a half-hourly (?) train to Victoria once the tube to Brixton operating every three minutes opened in 1973. Hence the closure notice in the 1975 photo Did it require a local enquiry or were there no serious objections?
 
lang rabbie said:
Did it require a local enquiry or were there no serious objections?
Click to expand...
I've no idea - but those were the dark days of British Rail where railways were well out of vogue.

But I definitely would have found use for it, and had it survived, it could have been integrated into a useful cross-south London link
 
lang rabbie said:
But looking at the 'photos of the platforms you can see why practically no-one used it to wait for a half-hourly (?) train to Victoria once the tube to Brixton operating every three minutes opened in 1973.
Click to expand...
But surely that line goes to Camberwell and on in that direction as well not up to Victoria like the main line does? Its more like an 'outer circle line' / cross London or 'south circular' railway than one that runs straight into town isn't it? (I've also heard that it is technically possible to run trains out west London in the other direction as well - maybe an A-Z would show the lines?) :confused:
 
TeeJay said:
But surely that line goes to Camberwell and on in that direction as well not up to Victoria like the main line does? Its more like an 'outer circle line' / cross London or 'south circular' railway than one that runs straight into town isn't it? :confused:
Click to expand...

It was on the South London Line - London Bridge-Peckham Rye-Victoria, which was subject to creeping death by a thousand cuts until the South London Line Travellers Association was set up in the 1980s.

My understanding was that Victoria was the destination of some 70% of East Brixton's passengers prior to the Victoria Line opening. You can actually read the text at the bottom of the closure notice in the photo listing public transport alternatives - BR could argue that a route to London Bridge was provided by tube from Brixton to Stockwell and then Northern Line to London Bridge.
 
Can you please do the Barnwell Road one (I've sent the pic several times) and the one looking down Mayall Rd to Bob Marley Way (pic in book I gave you).

They can both go in the Atlantic/Railton section as they are both off there.

Please do this soon Mike. you said you would Thanks. :)
 
hatboy said:
Can you please do the Barnwell Road one (I've sent the pic several times) and the one looking down Mayall Rd to Bob Marley Way (pic in book I gave you).
Click to expand...
I will, when I get chance.

But there's no point sending me the picture more than once!
 
Top pictures of Mayall Rd; (but isn't it the junction of Chaucer Rd?)

It was definitely a bomb which blew down the section that appears to be missing; I'm off to the London Archive soon to try and get pictures of the damage it did.

In the Lambeth archives you can trace the people who lived in those houses, for decades up to the war - then nothing. Eerie, and somehow brings the reality of war all the way home.
 
Great pics. Must get hold of a copy of the Mayall Rd/Chaucer Rd one -- can you get them from the archives?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

editor
Cyclist killed in Brixton
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
T & P
T & P
blameless77
After work pint in Brixton?
Replies
12
Views
800
editor
editor
editor
Homophobia in Brixton
2
Replies
38
Views
5K
Tulster218
T
editor
It's a grim Christmas around Brixton: no lights, no tree and no funfair
Replies
1
Views
744
skyscraper101
skyscraper101
editor
Where to watch England vs Spain Euro 2024 final in Brixton
Replies
6
Views
505
madolesance
M
Back
Top Bottom