New Brixton 'Then and Now' pics
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
editor said:
Ah, cool. So, where was Bon Marche?
I'm asking because I was speaking to my Mum's next door neighbour (in Bristol) last week, who was evacuated from Brixton (where she was born) in WWII to the Isle of Wight. She remembers (aged 5) dancing to an accordian player in Bon Marche's basement, during the blitz. The kept the horses down there too.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
huxley71 said:Superb! That's exactly what I was after! Thanks Crispy
The first department store in London I think.
Violet Szabo worked there as well, or was it Woolworths?
editor
hiraethified
editor
hiraethified
I couldn't find many suitable photos of Morleys, but I did another Then and Now today:
http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/bernays-grove.html
I'll do one of the frontage tomorrow of I get time.
http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/bernays-grove.html
I'll do one of the frontage tomorrow of I get time.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
editor said:
I can never remember whether it's the first in London or the country.
I do apologise
waverunner
Be nice or I'll bite
Sorry for my naivete/stupidity but you know all these gas lamps in the pictures... did they work as street lights or did they give off warmth too?
And I love looking at these pictures although it makes me a little sad and even a little guilty for how man has changed everything so drastically in such a short space in time..
And I love looking at these pictures although it makes me a little sad and even a little guilty for how man has changed everything so drastically in such a short space in time..
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
hatboy said:Mrs M says go to an OAP's lunch group and you'll find the name (was it Gresham Arms?) of that pub and some memories, even pictures maybe.
<bump>
Ended up looking at all these fantastic photos yesterday and just noticed this possible answer to the Editor's pub question (the one under the barrier block) - I can't tell you owt about that because it had gone when I moved to Brixton in the 80s - but it wasn't the Gresham Arms because that was still going - it was in Fyfield Road - just at the top end of Villa Rd on the cut through to Barrington Rd. I think the building's still there, I didn't notice when it shut as a boozer since I only went in there about 3 times.
Ps - just remembered - there was the remains of a big pub-signpost standing on the corner of Coldharbour Rd and Moorland Rd in the 80s - just the post and the metal rectangle at the top inside which the actual sign would have hung. It's gone now because I went looking for it a couple of years ago....so I guess the bub was on that corner.
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
editor said:The pub was indeed on the corner and as fas as I know it was known as the Loughborough Park Tavern.
Here's a glimpse of the sign:
Wow! - I'm actually quite glad to see that pic; like I said the signpost lingered on well into the 80s and I was yarning about the old days to a friend and somehow got onto this and we strolled down to the corner and it had gone and I had a genuine attack of I-don't-know-if-I-just-invented-this-entire-memory...all that was obvious was that the sign had gone. But that is exactly waht I remember.
*mops brow*
not totally gaga yet then.
FREDERICK1066
New Member
When I was 15 I was kept off the streets and out of trouble by going to the Brixton Roller Rink. I often went six nights a week and made many friends there. This was in 1960/61. Names I can remember are Fred and Sheila who married. Mick The Rocker and Dave who rode a Norton 650. Will and Chris who's party I got drunk at for the first time. Pat/Beryl, whom I went out with for a while when she lived near Prices Candles in Battersea and, her friend Kim. There was also a fair haired young man who wore a dinner suit. His nickname was The Manager. I loved the speed skating but, one evening I broke my ankle when I crashed into the barrier. I stopped going after that. I would love to see some photos of the rink in the 60's if anybody has any to post.
HI
I used to skate at the rink in the 50s. I was a member of the club, Remember the fast sessions.
Racer
madolesance
Well-Known Member
Meet an old fella the other day who used to skate at The Brixton Roller rink. He reckons the original wooden floor still exists in Carpet Right.
editor
hiraethified
I've still yet to source a photo of the actual pub though. It seems pretty elusive.
Although I have found who worked/lived there:
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
Does anyone know anything about the pub that used to be on Shakespeare Road, about number 110ish. Towards the Railton Road end. Not sure when it was converted, I'd guess early 90s. Bad conversion. Block of modern flats now behind it. Some sort of revivalist church based there now.
editor
hiraethified
According to my 1894 Brixton map there was only one pub on Shakespeare Road on a slight kink in the road before it goes under the railway towards Mayall/Railton.
Interestingly, the road is spelt 'Shakspeare Road.'
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
I've still got credits left from the 1911 census but I'd need to know the correct address because it takes 10 credits per search
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
I've searched for Shakspeare Road and it only seems to go up to No. 37 
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
I've searched for Shakspeare Road and it only seems to go up to No. 37
I think it may have been divided between registration districts
The orphanage was well established by 1881 when my great great grandmother was living opposite working as a domestic servant. In that year it had 91 children, occupying numbers 55 and 57. All the neighbouring houses and those on the rest of the street were headed by clerks, merchants etc so it seems to have been a solidly middle class area.
Likewise in 1891 when it occupied 53, 55 and 57, and housed 302 children.
Even by 1901 the street was still full of middle class occupations with households containing servants.
I would guess your assumption that the properties were picked up cheaply is wrong.
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
Good grief, I am now being called out for inaccuracy on a post made over fourteen years ago(!) in December 2003, as though it is the most recent online research on the Orphanage, rather than just what now comes up high on a Google search.
For anyone who is interested, Brenda Timms has built a website about the Brixton Orphanage, where her mother Annie Cotsford was a pupil from 1909 to 1918.
The Brixton Orphanage for Fatherless Girls 1876-1935/6
The Objects and Regulations of the Orphanage were particularly Dickensian!
There are also several good social history research projects since then focusing on poorhouses and orphanages, including Childrenshomes.org.uk
Brixton Orphanage for Fatherless Girls
There is also a mysterious picture in a German architectural book of c.1900 that includes a drawing of the Brixton Orphanage from The Builder Magazine of 1886. This is of a Queen Anne style building and is attributed to the architect E J Tarver (who built the Telford Park Estate up the hill at Streatham Hill).
This is the block shown in the 1895 Ordnance Survey map behind the three houses facing Barrington Road.
I have to admit I was blissfully unaware that this was still in existence, but Google streetview shows it just visible through some gates next to 81 Millbrook Rd and looking to be in remarkably good condition.
The site was previously "the Barrington Centre" (Is my memory failing or was that a children's social services day centre???) and was converted to housing c.1997 when it was renamed College Green Court. (The Lambeth planning database only has the decision notice online for planning application 96/02158/PLANAP)
Last edited:
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I can't see the illustration in the German book being related to the Barrington Road site.
The Barrington Road houses are clearly part of the Angell Town Estate development dating back to the late 1840s (not to say they were built for the orphanage - just the orphanage acquired them 1876 or later).
Further points of possible in interest:
The florid ornamentation on the Barrington Road frontage of the orphanage apparently dates to when the buildings were occupied by Brixton College of Building (which was headquartered on Ferndale Road). The ornamental joins and entrance seem to be exercises in working with stucco and ornamentation.
One of the original sponsors of Brixton College of Building was Professor Beresford Pyte of the Royal College of Art. Pyte was the designer/architect of Christ Church North Brixton - the church on Brixton Road at the Oval end, which has an outside pulpit. Pyte also designed a very similar building as the Cathedral of Kampala in Uganda.
Tony Banks, the GLC councillor and then MP who was close to Ken Livingstone seems to have spent some time at 55 Barrington Road. Banks was born in Northern Ireland, but his family moved back to London and he was brought up in Brixton, attending St john's School. He joined the Liberal Party (in the era of Jo Grimmond). He stood as a Liberal candidate for Town Hall ward in the 1964 council election. Before moving onto power in the Labour Party and dying at the age of 64. 55 Barrington Road is on the corner of Barrington Road and Milbrook Road a few doors from where the orphanage was.
Similar threads
