The
starting point for this trail is the
underground station at Brixton. Turning left
out of the station and walk to the traffic
lights.
BRIXTON
MARKETS
At
the lights, and by Kentucky Fried Chicken,
turn left and go along Coldharbour Lane. Take
the first left into the narrow Electric Lane,
walking on the left side. Electric Lane was
originally a mews running behind substantial
terraced houses fronting Brixton Road ("Brixton
Place") of which very little survives.
The clock tower you see ahead above a railway
viaduct belongs to the former Railway Hotel
in Atlantic Road. The clock has six faces;
this was supposedly so that railway
passengers could see the time - and the hotel
- from whatever line they were travelling on.
MARKETS
AND BRIDGES
50
yards from Coldharbour Lane, turn right into
the glass-roofed Market Row, and keep going
forward until you come out into Atlantic Road.
Turn left and walk nearly to the first
turning on the left. Stop and look along the
market street (Popes Road) on the right. From
here you see three brightly coloured railway
bridges, one of them carrying the high-level
South London Line over the top of Brixton
Station. The nearest one at the lower level
carries the Eurostar expresses into and out
of Waterloo. Turn left into Electric Avenue.
ELECTRIC
AVENUE
This
famous shopping street of 1888, with its
quadrant, was one of the first streets to be
lit by electricity. It had narrow pavements
covered by continuous glass canopies. The
Avenue has now been pedestrianised, with wide
pavements, bollards and a centre drain. It is
noted for its fruit and vegetable stalls.
Look into the 1996 Electric Market Hall on
your left, then go on to Electric Lane and
turn left up it. On the right notice the
narrow Reliance Arcade which connects with
Brixton Road, but go on to Coldharbour Lane
where you left it.
COLDHARBOUR
LANE
Turn
left down Coldharbour Lane. Cross Atlantic
Road and keep on the left side of the Lane.
Ignore the Granville Arcade market on your
left - you will visit this at the end of the
walk. Just past Granville Arcade stop where
the pavement widens and look back at an
arresting, if perhaps dated, mural entitled
"Nuclear Dawn" across the road.
The
large and unfriendly looking building further
along on the right is officially "Southwyck
House" but usually known as the "barrier
block". It was designed in 1970 to
shield the rest of the Moorlands Estate from
the noise of a proposed ring road. The ring
road plan was abandoned, but the block was
built to the original design some years later.
Go
150 yards left up Gresham Road to admire the
1906 fire station, reputed to be the busiest
in London. Retrace your steps and look at the
Gresham Baptist Chapel, built in 1880 and
extended in 1897. Raphael House next door
replaces a building burnt to the ground in
1985; happily the Chapel survived with only
damage to the organ from water penetration.
On
the opposite side of Coldharbour Lane are
three pairs of "Gothic" style
villas. The two outer pairs were built in
1844 and are listed; the centre one is a copy
built in 1996 to replace a pair lost to bomb
damage. The other villas on that side of the
street form one side of a triangle of houses
which were developed between 1844 and 1857
and were known as Loughborough Park.
MOORLANDS
ESTATE
Cross
Coldharbour Lane and go up Moorland Road. On
the right side past the barrier block is the
two/three storey Moorlands Estate (Lambeth)
with its variety of accommodation. On the
left side, after the first pair of houses, is
a line of ten large detached houses. This is
the second side of the triangle. At the last
house turn left along a path, with the grass
mound on your right.
LOUGHBOROUGH
PARK GARDENS
A
few yards ahead go through a gate on your
left into "Loughborough Park",
opened as public gardens in 1972. Keeping
left, follow the perimeter path right round.
It winds its way between trees and
shrubberies to make a delightful place to
stroll or sit in. After walking around the
Park, come out again and turn left into the
road called Loughborough Park. This rather
stately looking road is the third side of the
triangle, and is of the same period.
Brixton
is lucky in that much of the old Loughborough
Park estate has survived in recognisable form
and with most of the facades intact. New
building where there has been demolition has
been fairly sympathetic. The houses of the
triangle were built for well-to-do people
with servants but today they are homes of
people from any walks of life. These homes,
their gardens and the new public park deserve
careful preservation.
MAINLY
RAILWAYS
At
the end of Loughborough Park cross (with care)
the end of Shakespeare Road and walk along
Coldharbour Lane passing under the high-level
railway. On the underside of the bridge you
can see steel reinforcements enabling the
track to take Channel Link freight trains. At
the first traffic lights cross the end of
Hinton Road and stop at the corner.
During
the decade 1862-72 the network of railways
you can see was laid down. This includes low
level lines carrying trains into Victoria and
the City, and the high level system (seen
earlier at Brixton Station) connecting
Victoria with London Bridge - the South
London Line. The coming of the railways and
the consequential building boom was of
tremendous importance to Brixton.
UNDERNEATH
THE ARCHES
From
where you are standing you can tell from the
fronts of the buildings in Coldharbour Lane
and Hinton Road that this was once a busy
shopping centre of small shops. The terraces
further along Coldharbour Lane date from the
same time. Loughborough Junction is on the
left between the two railway bridges ahead of
you. In Hinton Road you can see two more
bridges, and yet another crosses Loughborough
Road. The railway arches are important in
providing valuable workshop space and, in
Brixton town centre, some are used as retail
shops.
THE
LOUGHBOROUGHS
Why
so many "Loughboroughs" in these
parts? It started with a large old mansion,
demolished in the 1850s, which stood roughly
where the present Loughborough Hotel stands
at the other end of what is now Loughborough
Road. The mansion was known as Loughborough
House and is believed to have been owned or
occupied by a Lord Loughborough in the 17th
century. Loughborough was never, strictly,
the name of a district; this neighbourhood
was known in olden times as "Cold
Harbour".
LOUGHBOROUGH
JUNCTION
Walk
along Coldharbour Lane under the low level
railway bridge and cross at the lights to the
left side of the Lane. Behind the
greengrocer's shop, wedged between two
railway viaducts you can just see a dark
building with rounded windows. This was known
as Loughborough Hall, a popular venue for
dances a century ago. It could seat 700
people and had covered access from five
station platforms. The building is used today
by a Nigerian church.
In
spite of its name Loughborough Junction is
not now a station where passengers change
trains; however it was refurbished in 1996
and is on the Thameslink route.
FLAXMAN
ROAD
Turn
left under a second bridge into Flaxman Road.
This bridge carries a line linking the main
line from the City with the South London Line.
This short link was not built until 1872; the
main line was built in 1862. Later in the
1860s Flaxman Road and streets off to the
right were laid out. But the first three
houses on the left side of Flaxman Road, new
as they were, had to be demolished to make
room for the 1872 spur. The untidiness of
this still shows and the house numbers start
at No.7.
Most
of the houses in this group of streets have
been renovated. Many now consist of
separately owned flats. Notice doors under
flights of steps. In family houses of this
period in terraces without back lanes,
entrances at semi-basement level were used by
servants and tradespeople and especially for
coal deliveries.
Across
the road from the corner of Gordon Grove is a
former period pub, The Wickwood Tavern:1868.
Wickwood was the name of a small wood
belonging to the Manor of Lambeth Wick, and
extending from here to the corner of
Loughborough Road and Coldharbour Lane.
GARDEN
SCENE
Turn
left into Gordon Grove, passing under the
main line. On the right look at, or go into,
the attractive little park. This open space
has replaced Foreign Street. Cleverly
landscaped, it includes a lake crossed by a
broad planked walk with benches. Notice how
the broad old granite kerbstones of Foreign
Street have found a new career as part of a
lakeside embankment.
MINET
ROAD
Continue
along Gordon Grove and turn left into Minet
Road. On the left is the yellow brick Marcus
Lipton Youth Centre. Marcus Lipton (Labour, d.1978)
was the last MP for Brixton when it was a
separate parliamentary constituency. Just
past the Centre is a detached mid-19th
century house with pillared porch, lonely
among its much newer neighbours.
ANGELL
TOWN
In
front of you now is the Hero of Switzerland
with its William Tell signboard. An older
Hero on this site is shown on a map of 1849.
Cross Loughborough Road to the Hero, go left
past a row of shops, and right into
Barrington Road. You are in the Loughborough
Estate, designed for London County Council in
the 1950s and now maintained by Lambeth. Its
most conspicuous features are its 11-storey
concrete slab blocks of flats but it also has
older lower rise blocks. Notice how the
earlier blocks are more generous in the
height of each storey, four of the older
storeys match five of their newer neighbours.
West
of Loughborough and Barrington Roads, this
modern estate covers much of the area of an
older estate which in its time was as boldly
planned as the present one. It was developed
by Benedict John Angell Angell ("Angell
Angell" is correct) in the mid 19th
century. The district is often called by its
old name of Angell Town. The road pattern of
the old Angell estate still remains but few
of the old houses survive.
ST.
JOHN'S CHURCH
Turn
right into Angell Road. The grand looking
house at the corner of St. James's Crescent
on the left is a survivor of the Angell
development. Another survivor is St. John's
Church ahead. Built in 1853 and designed by
Benjamin Ferrey in Perpendicular Gothic
style, St. John's was one of the better
churches of its time. It was the focal point
for the estate of villas and terraces erected
over the next half dozen or so years.
Turn
left into Angell Park Gardens, passing a good
example of a large Victorian vicarage on the
right. Glance up the next turning on the left
(Fyfield Road) to see, on the corner with
Wiltshire Road, some interesting housing by
Lambeth and a mid 19th century pub behind.
Cross over to the high roofed timber building
and go along the road (St. John's Crescent)
on the left side of the greens.
MAX
ROACH PARK
After
a few yards turn into Max Roach Park. You
should see between the trees, going from left
to right, some variety: a line of restored
"Italianate" villas of the original
Angell development, in St. John's Crescent; a
colourful mural on the rear wall of the
Academy Theatre; the red brick tower of the
Church of the Rosary in Brixton Road; low
rise housing of the Stockwell Park Estate;
behind that, the high rise blocks at Grantham
Road; and on the right side of the park, an
1870s terrace built on Angell land in Villa
Road.
Go
out of the park at the end of St. John's
Crescent (where there is a better view of the
mural) and turn left into Brixton Road. The
imposing Angell Terrace behind the service
road on the left was erected about 1860 to
designs approved by the Benedict mentioned
above. It was restored a few years ago by
Lambeth Council and houses Lambeth's Register
Office.
MORE
MARKETS
Continue
along Brixton Road passing on your left the
police station and shops. At the back of the
police station in Canterbury Crescent is St.
John's Buildings, built in 1844 as a school.
On the opposite side of the Crescent on the
wall of Dover Mansions is a GLC blue plaque
marking where Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
lived. He is described as a "pioneer of
the scientific study of sex".
Return
to Brixton Road and turn left up Brixton
Station Road, usually a lively street market
scene. You can see the commercial usefulness
of the railway arches. Glance down Beehive
Place on the left; this was once a
continuation of the same mews or back lane
that was to become Electric Lane on the other
side of the railway. The big red brick
Brixton Recreation Centre on the left owes
its height partly to the fact that it was
designed in the 1960s when planners were
envisaging a brave new Brixton of skyscrapers.
The Rec has a wide range of leisure
facilities - anything from rock climbing to
bowls.
GRANVILLE
ARCADE
Turn
right into bustling Popes Road, but first
look at the line of second hand clothes
barrows along the remainder of Brixton
Station Road. On the left side of Popes Road
watch for the narrow back entrance into
Granville Arcade. No one should miss visiting
this indoor market. It was built in the late
1930s when Brixton's popularity as a shopping
centre was at its height. Two of its arcades
lead forward into Coldharbour Lane. Once you
have explored the markets you can exit onto
Coldharbour Lane or return along Atlantic
Road towards the underground station.
