This trail covers the area between Acre Lane and the railway line to Victoria - an urban scene with several points of interest.

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From Brixton Underground station, cross Brixton Road at the pedestrian crossing and go into Tunstall Road with Morleys, Brixton's department store, on your left. The corner building on your right is a good sign of town centre renewal from the 1980s.

BERNAY'S GROVE

Turn left into Bernay's Grove. The yellow brick house with portico is Brixton Lodge, used as a training centre. Built in the 1820s this villa once stood in large grounds extending to Brixton Road. Up to about 1880 it was part of Brixton Lodge Academy, a boys' boarding school. The yellow brick hall adjoining the house was once "Carlton Hall", used for meetings. If you look hard at the grey brick building next to "Carlton" you can just make out the words "Tunstall Hall" painted on the brick wall above the large doors. This too was a meeting place but is now used by Morleys. The new residential development at the corner of Bernay's Grove and Brighton Terrace is on the site of the former Empress Theatre (music hall), built at the turn of the century; it was given a face-lift in the 1930s and became the Granada Cinema about 1957.

TRINITY GARDENS

Turn right into Brighton Terrace, pass Brighton House at No. 9 on your left. A former warehouse, this now houses a variety of small businesses, health facilities and a night club. Further up on the right is D.Bess bakery at No. 12-14 and, after a row of taller flats, a garage at No. 20-22. Notice the similarities in these two buildings in the green tile-work and plaster-work.

Turn right into Trinity Gardens. This was originally built as Trinity Square in the 1850s but the side on your left was replaced by flats as a result of wartime bombing. Walk round to the Trinity Arms, noticing at the first corner a secluded little group of houses off on your right. At the Trinity Arms turn left along the rest of Trinity Gardens into Acre Lane and then go left towards the Town Hall.

Opened in 1908, the Town Hall replaced the old Vestry Hall in Kennington Road which was no longer adequate for the new Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth. The new Town Hall was a two storey building. A third floor, seen behind the parapet on Brixton Hill, was added in 1938 as was the adjoining Assembly Hall on the Acre Lane side.

ACRE LANE

Acre Lane goes west to the borders of Clapham. Acre Lane was an old country lane, maintained by the parish since medieval times. It ran through fields belonging to the Manor of Stockwell, and building along this road only began after the Manor's lands were sold off in 1802. Several of the original buildings still remain and these tend to be the more interesting ones.

TRINITY HOMES

Just along from Trinity Gardens on the left are the graceful Trinity Homes built in 1822, given by Thomas Bailey and recently renovated. He was a china and glass manufacturer in the City of London and a Brixton resident. In accordance with his wishes Trinity still provides separate homes for elderly women. Behind the main building are homes on two sides of a small green square. Next door is a pair of houses (nos. 24 and 26) of the same date - note the period details around the door and the iron work railings.

Opposite notice the blue and grey building, a former Co-op and now Lambeth Directions. It was built in the 1930s.

 

GEORGIANA

Turn back and go back up Acre Lane past Trinity Gardens. Another good group of buildings is just past Trinity Gardens on the right (Bucknell Close). If you look closely at the yellow brick building on Acre Lane you will realise that the right hand part of it, with three windows on each floor and columned entrance door at the side, is an old house. Known in this century as Bucknell House, it is now the oldest surviving house in Acre Lane, built in 1808. Today it has a matching extension to the left and smaller extensions running back from the rear, providing sheltered housing. Nos. 48 and 50, built in 1819, were originally a pair of houses called "The Cedars" - the name is just readable above the brick piers of the street wall. Since 1899 they have been used first for a school, then for education offices, and the interiors are now being adapted for residential use. But the outside looks much as when built. No 52 is the original house rebuilt, but the one next to it is a recent replica.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR

You cannot miss the Tesco supermarket across the road; this replaced their old store in the market area. Beyond Baytree Road on the left-hand side of Acre Lane a few villas survive from the period 1830-60, much altered. Before road widening they had long front gardens. As you pass, look down each of the side streets to left and right and note the mainly smallish terraced houses. There has recently been much redevelopment along Acre Lane including a Lidl supermarket.

Many of the present buildings and shops of Acre Lane are of the late Victorian or Edwardian periods. A good looking late Victorian terrace is the one on the right between Concanon and Ballater Roads; you will see it has two distinct styles of fronts. The pair of houses nos. 86 and 88 on the right, of the 1830s, have unusual fanlights over the doors. A similar pair next door are hidden behind shops.

MURAL ART

On reaching Solon Road (on right) cross to the other side of Acre Lane and continue walking. Whether or not you have been looking up the side streets, at least do not ignore Strathleven Road (on left). Walk about 50 yards or so up this road to enjoy the detail of a really stunning mural.

THIRTIES ARCHITECTURE

Beyond Strathleven Road all the buildings on the left side of Acre Lane date from the 20th century. Sandhurst Court was built in 1938 to the designs of H.V.Kerr for the Whidborne & Elverson Estate; not surprisingly, it took two years to obtain consent for what were then regarded as tall flats.

Next along Acre Lane the Hope and Anchor, on the left, is a successor to the Hope Tavern and Tea Gardens shown on a map of 1829. The present building in a Dutch style dates from 1935 and has an extensive garden to the rear. The Duke of Wellington across the road dates from 1907 and is a fairly typical Edwardian public house.

Just past the Hope, no. 125 Acre Lane was built in art deco style in 1937 as the Sunlight Laundry (architect F.E.Simpkins). In its heyday it employed 700 people. The offices are now the headquarters of the Pall Mall Services Group and mark the edge of the Ellerslie Square Industrial Estate which extends up to King's Avenue.

OLD COTTAGES

On the other side of the road is a terrace of small houses known as Springwell Cottages (nos. 206 to 212), built in 1824. No. 206 has been altered but the others present an unspoiled face. Up to about 25 years ago the back garden of no. 212 had a well which supplied excellent water; this was later filled in for safety. The pair of cottages nos. 214 and 216 date from about 1815. The small complex of new dwellings on the corner of Bedford Road harmonises neatly with the old cottages in Acre Lane.

Having reached the western limit of Brixton, cross Acre Lane at the lights, turn back along Acre Lane and take the first left into Hetherington Road.

HETHERINGTON ROAD

The first five houses on the left appear in the 1841 census as "Bedford Cottages". The adjoining pair are slightly younger. Stop at the corner of Linom Road. The rest of the buildings on the left side of Hetherington Road make strange companions; after the modern yellow brick houses comes a roomy corrugated iron "Bible Truth Church of God". Beyond this, the 16-storey five-sided tower is Bedford House (Lambeth 1968), marking the western end of the otherwise low-rise Solon Estate. On the corner of Linom Road the modern building with the heavily textured yellow brickwork was built as a doctor's surgery in 1964, designed by Darbourne & Darke.

BYWAYS

Turn into Linom Road. The terrace of well kept double fronted houses on the right is an unusual sight - the builder laid the decorations on with a generous hand. Most of them retain the original coloured glass in the front doors. Follow Linom Road round and turn right into Kepler Road. Here on the left is a welcome oasis in the shape of a little open space. Passing the period Springfield Tavern on the right, turn left into Solon Road.

BAPTIST CHURCH

On the right is Brixton Baptist Church with a foundation stone laid in 1884 by the famous preacher C.H.Spurgeon who established a large children's orphanage on the site now occupied by Stockwell Park School. Turn right into Sandmere Road, then left along a few yards of Tintern Street and right into Ferndale Road.

The large building on the left has had a variety of educational uses. The history of the building is complicated and merits more space than we can give it in a town trail. However, for many years it was the home of the Brixton School of Building which had a high reputation in the building industry for its training of both craftsmen and professionals. It has now been converted to residential use.

ADVENTISTS' CHURCH

Turn right up Ducie Street, a street of pointed windows and doorways which in the 1880s was often a sign of nearness to a church. Turn right towards the dead end of Santley Street to get an idea of the massive size of this church of 1881 - formerly the Anglican parish church of St. Paul. Some years ago there was an exchange of buildings. This building is now the Brixton Seventh Day Adventist Church; the present parish church is what used to be the Adventist church in Ferndale Road, seen later on the trail.

Walk along Santley Street, with the church on your left, and then past a typical late Victorian "parade" of shops. At one time locals could have done most of their shopping here but at the time of writing only one of nine premises survives as a convenience shop with some of the others being converted into residential use. The road bends round into Allardyce Street which contains the former St. Paul's church hall with commemoration stone (1906) in the wall, this now houses the Church of the First Born Gospel Auditorium.

THE CITY OF LONDON IN BRIXTON

Turn right into Ferndale Road. The buildings round three sides of the green quadrangle are the City of London Almshouses. Looking from Ferndale Road, on the left side past the lodge are two blocks of houses; the first are Rogers' Almshouses (late 1850s) and the second are Gresham's (1882); both these sets replaced ancient almshouses in the City. The houses on the other two sides of the green are called Freemen's Almshouses; the present houses date from 1884 and replaced earlier almshouses built on this site in the 1830s. There are foundation stones in the walls.

This land was bought with money given by the public to commemorate the passing of the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 by providing houses for poor freemen and others of the City of London. Today only a handful of elderly residents are from the City; all the others have been nominated by Lambeth Council. The lodge and the renovated Rogers' houses are listed buildings.

Across the road is the present St. Paul's, mentioned earlier. The houses in this section of Ferndale Road date from about 1870. Walk on down Ferndale Road.

EDMUNDSBURY

Just by the pillar box is a blue tablet on the wall of a block of flats now called Edmundsbury (formerly Ferndale Court). The land bought by the City in the 1830s was much more than was needed for almshouses. A City orphanage/school was built on some of the surplus land. When the school moved to the country, these flats were built on its site for members of the City of London police force. This distinctive looking estate is now a part of Lambeth's housing stock.

 

Walk on down Ferndale Road, behind the wall on your right is the Ferndale Sports Centre. Here was once the Sports Club of the City of London Police, occupying another part of the City's former school site. By and large Brixton has done well out of the Reform Act!

BON MARCHE

Stop for a moment on the corner of Nursery Road, named after the nursery grounds which occupied the site of Bon Marché before 1877. The modest two-storey building immediately opposite was built in the 1870s as Brixton's first fire station. Since its replacement in 1906 by the present station in Gresham Road, the ground floor has been much altered and is now used as offices. The large building on that side of the road, housing the Post Office, with the dome at the end was built as a part of the Bon Marché empire. Cross the road to view the main Bon Marché block. Bon Marché is said to have been the first department store to be opened in this country (1877). It ceased to be one in 1975. The building has since been much altered for new uses. As the Brixton Enterprise Centre it combines shops and a pub with other business and community purposes behind.

Turn right into Brixton Road and walk back to the underground station under the railway bridges.

 

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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