This trail explores the oldest parts of Stockwell and includes Stockwell's "villa land".

Please click on the map for a higher resolution version

At Stockwell Underground Station, cross over to the traffic island with the clock tower.

STOCKWELL CLOCK

When you step onto the island path you are standing on all that is left of the ancient commons of Stockwell and South Lambeth. The clock tower is "to the Stockwell men who served in the Great War" 539 names of men killed are on the sides in memory of those killed in the first world war.

The brick and concrete drum beside the clock tower formed the entrance to one of the deep underground shelters built along the Northern Line in 1944. The shelters, consisting of parallel tunnels just above the level of the tube railway, are nowadays used for storage of tapes, films and documents.

Although Stockwell Station building is modern the underground railway itself arrived here in 1890, the Southern terminus of the first deep tube line, being extended south to Clapham ten years later.

On the other side of this island is Stockwell Terrace, of the 1840s. In the middle of the terrace is an oval plaque "Stockwell Crescent", its old name.

THE SWAN STOCKWELL

There has been a Swan at Stockwell since at least the mid 1400s. Earlier Swans on the site were important coaching inns on the London Bridge to Portsmouth road. The present grand building dates from the 1930s.

Leaving the island, go back and this time cross to the left side of Stockwell Road, opposite the Swan. Walk down Stockwell Road. The black railings of the flats on your left were made out of old stretchers originally for wartime air raid casualties.

STOCKWELL'S "VILLA LAND"

This trail now becomes a stroll through residential roads. The streets, or sections of streets, were laid out in the mid-19th century by various developers. There is harmony without uniformity. It may be more helpful just to suggest a route than to set out detailed comments.

BLUE PLAQUES

Take the second road on the left (Burnley Road). No. 18 has a blue plaque commemorating Violette Szabo who gave her life for the French Resistance in the second world war. Before joining the Special Operations Executive she worked in Bon Marché. Go left into St. Martin's Road, right into St. Michael's Road and left into Stockwell Park Crescent.

At the crossroads go left a little way up Stockwell Park Road. The fourth house on the right (no. 27) has a plaque to Lilian Baylis. She worked with Emma Cons as manager of the Old Vic and later took over Sadler's Wells for opera and ballet. Note the group of similar villas on both sides of the road.

Go back and turn left down Groveway, right into Brixton Road and right again, back up Lorn Road. Most of the old houses in these roads have restrained touches of classical ornament, but on the left side of Lorn Road is a remarkable group of four houses with Gothic details and steeply pitched roofs.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH

As you come back up Lorn Road you will see St. Michael's Church strikingly framed by Lorn Road's buildings. Built in 1841 but since altered, it was the centre piece of the Stockwell villa development.

Turn left into Stockwell Park Road but first notice the houses to your right, especially the imaginatively restored house on the Lorn Road corner.

SLADE GARDENS

The park, Slade Gardens, is named after the family who owned the land in the 19th century. The land was grassed over after the clearance of some small streets. It is Stockwell's only real public open space. The people featured in the mural on the wall of the end house in Lorn Road were involved in organising the Adventure Playground.

Look up the southern half of Stockwell Park Crescent on the right; you have already walked along the northern half.

A STOCKWELL MIXTURE

At the crossroads turn left into Robsart Street. The brick building on the left was St. Helen's Roman Catholic Church until it acquired the large church - now The Rosary - nearby in Brixton Road. The building is now used by St. Helen's School.

STOCKWELL PARK ESTATE

Go back to the crossroads and continue down Stockwell Park Road. When it reaches Stockwell Park Estate the road turns left, and then right between Lambert and Fitzgerald Houses. This is a realigned part of Stockwell Park Road through the Estate. This is where the huge Stockwell Park Estate begins - it has nearly 900 flats and maisonettes. The Estate itself was built with the aims of achieving high density of population without using tower blocks, and of separating pedestrians from traffic. Note the improved (1996) doorways at ground level of Fitzgerald House and the attempts to make the original garage spaces less threatening. When you come nearly to the large church (the Rosary) follow the road round to the right, then first left up a slope. On your right is a new (1997) block which replaced the original group of shops and community buildings.

FRIENDLY ALMSHOUSES

On your left are almshouses beginning with 157 Stockwell Park Road Nos. 157 to 163, "Victoria Cottages", built for elderly women in 1863 by the Female Friendly Society. The newer block nos. 165-167 replaced older cottages damaged in air raids. This is recorded on a stone in the front wall of no. 167; beneath is a "Female Friendly Society" stone of 1802, presumably transferred from another site.

From the gate of no. 167 walk back a few yards, go left between posts and follow a path out into the one way system. Opposite is a spirited mural on the rear wall of the Academy Theatre. Turn left, then right at the lights onto Brixton Road and walk to the police station.

STOCKWELL ROAD (SOUTH SECTION)

Cross Brixton Road to the rounded brick corner building and walk along the right hand side of Stockwell Road. Notice the bright mural in Bellefields Road on your left.

MEDITERRANEAN EXPERIENCE

The green-domed Academy Theatre on the right was built as the Astoria cinema in 1929 but is now used for rock concerts. It is listed Grade II*. Its auditorium was designed as an "atmospheric" based on an Italian Renaissance garden, with harmonising walls and stage. It is now acknowledged by the authorities as one of the two best surviving examples of an "atmospheric" in Britain.

 

Cross the one-way roads with care. The concreted area on your right was designed as a skateboarding area but is now as popular with youngsters on bikes. This is on the site of Stockwell Park House which dates from the early 18th century. This was then succeeded by Brixton Tabernacle which has now been replaced by the modern hexagonal church across the road.

On your left are the Stockwell Junior and Infants Schools. The block nearer the road, engraved "Lambeth Division" with the London School Board logo, is prettily ornamented with pinnacles.

QUEEN'S ROW

Next to the school is a terrace of 13 houses, nowadays with shop fronts. The eight at the Brixton end are the premises of CAFOD. See high up on the front of the centre house "Queen's Row 1786". On your right is the former Old Queen's Head built in 1882. Note the many Portuguese names of bars, shops and cafés in this area. Notice the remains of old tram tracks leading into its yard, formerly a sub depot. But adjoining Queen's Row is the "New Queen's Head" (now the “Z-bud”) - of about the same age as the Row; outside it looks much as it did when built. Both the Queen's Heads replaced earlier inns with similar names.

A BREWERY

Stop at the corner of Moat Place. Drayman’s Place has been built on the site of Waltham's Brewery which closed about 1910. Waltham Bros. brewed Half Guinea Ale which was once advertised as "a delicate, sparkling tonic Ale, adapted for universal use in private families."

COMBERMERE ROAD

Cross over by the zebra and walk up Combermere Road. The different styles of houses in this neighbourhood are worth a good look. Look (or go) up the short Burgoyne Road on the left, which has a back entrance into Stockwell Schools as well as an off street entrance with "Cookery and Laundry" in stone on the lintel. In Lansdowne School grounds, on the right hand side of Combermere Road, is the welcome sight of green grass, a rare commodity in Stockwell.

MEET THE MARQUIS

Further up on the left is the pub called the Marquis of Lorne, which is the courtesy title of heirs to the dukedom of Argyll. It has a fine tiled exterior and the interior seems to go with it. You may be intrigued by the "T.T.CASTLE" in mosaic tiles over what used to be the corner door. This was Theodore Townsend Castle; he was not the first licensee but he certainly ran the Marquis during the 1880s. Cross the end of Neilden Street where a terrace of sheltered housing on the North East side complements the older terrace on the South West side. Continue up to the end of the road and turn right into Hargwyne Street and then left into Landor Road.

LANDOR ROAD

After a few yards you reach Lambeth Health Care NHS Trust. The extensive new premises occupy the site of the former South West Hospital demolished in the early nineties. They are mainly used for psychiatric and community health care.

AVONDALE HALL

On the left past Tasman Road, at No 92 is the Avondale Hall. Built about 1892, it and the Landor next door were at first jointly managed, with the Hall used for dances and concerts. The Landor, built about 1880, is named after the writer Walter Savage Landor who is portrayed on the signboard. The Landor puts on professional drama in its upstairs room, and has an old street lamp in its yard, designed for gas but now lit by electricity. Walk up Willington Road for a side view of the Avondale Hall and its public entrance. If you care to go to the end of Willington Road there is a riding stables, as well as an excellent vantage point for watching the Eurostar expresses for railway buffs.

Go back along Landor Road towards Stockwell Green, using the right hand side of the road. Past Prideaux Road, on the left, is an example of new uses for vacant shop premises. What were once four shops were converted to a single showroom (nos. 105-111). The showroom is now used by the Light and Life Church, a pentecostal church which also hosts activities like playgroups and youth clubs. It has space to seat 250 people.

MAINLY HOUSES

Opposite the NHS Trust gates look down Edithna Street. Except for one short break all the houses in this cul-de-sac of about 1872 have front walls heightened to hide the pitched roofs behind. The ridges of these "London roofs" are at right angles to the street and the water from their gutters drains into back yards.

Continue along Landor Road. Except for the traffic this road and its side streets have the look of not having changed much since they were built in the middle and late 19th century. Most of the ground floor premises in Landor Road once consisted of shops, but the demand for small shops is much less today and many have been converted to dwellings. Where this has happened the old shop-front mouldings have often been retained on the walls. An example is the terrace on the left between Kimberley and Kay Roads. An unusual conversion is that of no. 139, where the brick front has been built in line with neighbouring shop windows, and there is an even odder construction at no. 147, where the ground plan of a corner shop is easily seen in newly constructed walls.

On the other side of the road look at 1 Dalyell Road which has been constructed in sympathy with the terrace of which it forms the end.

AN "IMPROVED" CHURCH

Looks deceive, but the church on the left hand side of the road is probably the oldest building in Stockwell or Brixton. The simple Georgian interior is lovely. It was built in 1767 as Stockwell Chapel in the parish of Lambeth. A hundred years later it was extended westwards, given a new facing and tower in Italian Romanesque style, and a new name - St. Andrew's. You can see a St. Andrew's cross in the round east window.

THE HAMMERTON BREWERY

Cross over and stop at the church corner for a view of two sides of the massive Quadrant building where microfilm is manufactured and stored. For a long time there stood on that site a much older brewery than Waltham's. This was "The Stockwell Brewery", a large concern owned by the Hammertons who lived on the spot. The breweries, and indeed the village itself, were here partly because of the ample supply of good water from wells in the neighbourhood. It was from a well that Stockwell got half its name; the other half is from "stoc", which was old English for a tree trunk or post. Hammerton's was demolished about 50 years ago but has left reminders in Stockwell. Charles Hammerton provided the substantial Hammerton Hall round the corner to your left in Lingham Street and the rather quaint little house connected to it. On the side wall of the hall is a foundation stone and two interesting plaques (with a notice) higher up. Another reminder is a small pub, the Brewery Tap, 100 yards down Lingham Street. Cross the end of Lingham Street to the broad pavement in front of the Quadrant.

STOCKWELL GREEN

You can see from the trail map that the two short lengths of street called "Stockwell Green" both join Stockwell Road. The triangle between these roads was Stockwell's village green until it was built over in the 1870s. Objectors tried to get a court order to prohibit building on the green but failed. Today the "Green" where sheep once grazed has not a blade of grass.

STOCKWELL VILLAGE

But one can still see the houses that faced the green. The old Stockwell Green houses across the road are mostly plain but make a good group. They are all listed. The first of the set, no. 21, of the late 1700s, has possibly the most charm. No. 22, built about 1800, treats itself to a Doric porch. The "Victoria Place" trio (nos. 28 to 30) date from about 1839. Note the patterned railings of no. 31 and footscrapers of nos. 31 and 32.

The big building seen through the gates was erected in 1798 as a Congregational "Stockwell New Chapel". The front was added about 70 years later. The Congregational - now United Reformed - Church moved into newly adapted premises at 60-70 Stockwell Road in 1991. The old chapel building is now an Islamic centre.

Past the chapel is a small row which adjoined the old Waltham brewery. No 35 was the cottage for the chapel's caretaker. No. 37 has been in its time a brewery house and a saddler's shop. At the pillar box turn sharp left into Stockwell Road.

STOCKWELL ROAD (NORTH SECTION)

Somewhere on the site of the present Waltham Estate flats on the right side of the road stood the old moated manor house of Stockwell. It was pulled down in the 18th century and there are no traces of it above ground.

Stop at the traffic lights. The building in Stockwell Green next to The Plug (formerly the Plough) has fairly recently been restored. It was built in 1848 by Stockwell Congregational Church as the church's school, and is now used as offices by various charities. It was carefully designed in Jacobean style and repays study.

KING GEORGE'S HOUSE

If you turn up Irving Grove (on the left of Stockwell Road), you can look at the 17 storey Birrell House block of flats and the high yellow and red brick King George's House with 1905 high up on its side. Originally named Ingram House, it is a purpose built hostel for young people and Lambeth’s YMCA. Seen from the air the building has the shape of a St. Andrew's cross; it was designed that way so that every window had a view.

Go back and continue along Stockwell Road. On the left are two pairs of houses (nos. 40-46) built in the 1780s. There were originally nine pairs. Between the two look through the iron gates to see the front of King George's House. No 40 has a recent adaptation on the North side which forms the present entrance to King George's House. The blocks of flats on either side of Stockwell Road are a part of the large Stockwell Gardens Estate, built by London County Council.

Continue walking along Stockwell Road until you reach the Underground station.

NOTES:
Please record comments, additional points of interest you have noted, or changes which have recently taken place. Please forward any comments to the Brixton Society Secretary: Alan Piper

 

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