Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Hill, Southwark

Ansdell Road

2-storey houses, bow windows, eight rooms, houses let on lease. Something like Lugard Road, perhaps a little better. (Booth)

Arbuthnot Street

The houses at the west corner are 2-storey double-fronted mostly. The rest is made up of smaller houses, no servants. The road is now continued a long way east to Jerningham Road but no new houses have been built on the part lying in the police division.  East of Pepys Road. 2-storey houses, built deep. New. Fine view from north side. Rents £40 a year or so. (Booth)

Astbury Road

Queen's Road arches. Private bus company there in the 1920s, the City Motor Bus Co., big and successful. HO, leased from LB&SC railway co 1922. 1871-1904 it had been stables for the London Tramways Co. The trams entered from the arches from the service road on the other side of the railway leaving the Queen's Road on a spur under the up platform of Queen's Road station. Still there in 1977 but the tram lines were covered with tarmac. There were also tram tracks inside the arches 110-111 where horse buses were repaired. In the yard opposite Astbury Road, stables for City Buses co was seen as one of the best of the private cos.

59 Chimes pub

Replica of Colls Road.  These last two roads are said by Dolby to have been originally part of the Liberator Estate. (Booth)

Besson Street

58 Fox and Hounds

2-storey houses, garden fronts. Many railway men living here. (Booth)

Bousefield Street.

2-storey houses, bow windows. Badly built, many owned by occupiers and bought through Building Societies, said to cost about £100. "Very few servants" of whom however, I saw one! (Booth)

Briant Street (not on AZ)

2-storey houses. Clearance at corner of Martha Place and omission for factory on east side. (Booth)

Caulfield Road.

Of much the same type as Lugard Road. (Booth)

Dennett's Grove

 Much like Rutt's Terrace. (Booth)

Dennetts Road

69 Rising Sun. traditional Trueman’s interior, ornate mirrors.

87 Earl of Derby

Houses of various styles, 2-storey and 5-storey. A row of 5-storey houses that used to be in very bad repair and occupied by a very low class has been altered and improved, one house alone reminding of the old condition of things. (Booth)

Dolling Place (not on AZ)

East of Rose Cottages. Eight cottages (Booth)

Dundas Road.

Described by Dolby as "just the same". (Booth)

Edith Road.

Mainly 5-storey, large, "a family comfortable class" but "not many servants".  Lodgers. Shops on the west side, south of the Chapel. (Booth)

Erlanger Road

Hatcham Manor Estate, also known as the New Cross Estate, was built by the Haberdashers Company to a layout by their surveyor William Snooke between 1887, and 1900. The other north-south roads Erlanger Road and Waller Road were developed from the 1880s in predominantly Edwardian style. Because of the length of the principal roads and the lack of variety in house design, the overall effect can seem rather monotonous

Pond in the lower part of the road which is not now used.

With houses very much like those of Waller Road, is a better-off Street, differing very little, if at all, from Pepys Rd itself. Two thirds of Erlanger Rd is new and the south end faces the Park. (Booth)

Faulkner Place

No thoroughfare, bricked with tiny squares. 2-storey houses flush with the sides. "Rough, and low class." A few houses, most doors shut. (Booth)

Firbank Road.

Still the same, houses said to let at from 10/- to 12^/-. (Booth)

Franklin's Grove (not on AZ)

Houses on south side only, 2-storey, open in front. One family to a house the rule. (Booth)

Gellatly Road.

2-storey houses. Very occasional servants, but "mostly girls", by which Dolby meant youth and inefficiency, and of such he thought that there were perhaps ten in the whole road. It is of very much the same type as Ansdell Rd. It is on the large Haberdashers' Estate of this neighbourhood and contains the only licensed house the Company allows. (Booth)

Gibbon Road

Nunhead Station. Opened 1^stSeptember 1871 by the London Chatham and Dover Railway. It lies Between Peckham Rye and Lewisham and also Crofton Park on South East Trains. The entrance is on the east side of Gibbon Road.  It was also called Nunhead Junction. It originally had two island platforms, with the centre road, being used by up trains and those terminating here – primarily the trains fron Greenwich Park trains. Routes to Crystal Palace, and the Catford Loop were added in 1892and ran south.  In 1925 the old station was closed and resited slightly west and rebuilt in red brick with a single island platform.  The original entrance was closed but could still be seen bricked up on the north side of the embankment,

Goods Yard on the up side, closed April 1962.

Rail line Nunhead Junction Signal Box.

66 Railway Tavern

From south west end to the railway is mainly 2-storey houses. Shops east of Kimberley Road. Beyond the railway to Hollydale Road is 5-storey houses and shops. (Booth)

Hatcham

Developed by Haberdashers' Company in nineteenth century. In 1614 the Company acquired the manor of Hatcham. In c1867-68 they built some large houses on the north side of New Cross Road. Developed the grounds. The Hatcham Manor Estate leading up to Telegraph Hill was their largest housing development. The Haberdashers’ property mark can be seen on many corner buildings throughout the area.                      ,

Hatcham Park Road

Preserves the name of the old manor of Hatcham, marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1816 and recorded earlier as ‘Hacheham’ in 1086 in the Domesday Book, ‘Hachesham’ 1234, ‘Hechesham’ 1247, that is 'homestead or enclosure of a man called Hascci', from Old English ‘ham’ or’ hamm ‘and an Old English personal name. The district once occupied by this manor is now New Cross Gate.

Was western part of Five Bells Lane. It ran immediately north of the first small station, likewise of the 4th lock.  The humped bridge crossed the canal.  The railway dealt with the lane by taking it underneath, giving it merely a width of 6' and height of 7’.  Developments at the station, possibly those at the time of the mid 1840s atmospheric era, saw the end of the lane as a through route.  Continues to the east as Batavia lane.

Look south along the railway line opposite the station, below the bridge parapet is site of lock 5 on the canal. The canal then diverged from the railway to the east side

Loco works established at New Cross because of the hill out of New Cross - also reason for use of atmospheric traction. The Entrance to the works had granite sett surface and a gatehouse. Curve fits fence on 1839 plan. The Octagonal engine house was demolished in 1950s. Rest went in the 1990s now under Sainsburys.

The Manor House of Hatcham was bought by the Haberdashers Company. It had Extensive grounds both sides of the canal and road. Moated. Rebuilt 1775.  In 1869, after the Hardcastle family had ceased to live there, they demolished, Hatcham House. It lay north of the railway works.

Haberdashers Estate on the site of the Manor House

Cage

Hatcham Park House. Hardcastle

1/27 c1850, and are partly stuccoed and rusticated.

Terraces Along the south side are long Italianate ones of 1864

2-storey houses, a few with bay windows. Well-kept front gardens on south side. Railwaymen and clerks. (Booth)

Hatcham Terrace?

Hathway Street

A cul de sac between Senate Street and Kitto Road. Not shown on map. 2- Storey, 5 roomed houses, generally single occupants. (Booth)

Hollydale Road

115 Hollydales Pub

South side is 2-storey houses, forecourts, bow windows. Gone down, poor. With a little unnecessary severity Dolby remarked that "you generally find houses run down near a school', which would be true of middle class houses but hardly of anything below. At the north east corner, two or three dwellings. 2-storey houses, small garden fronts. High waged and low salaried class, servants few and far between. (Booth)

Kender Estate:

GLCC

Kender Grove (Booth)

2-storey houses. (Booth)

Kender Place (not on AZ)

South east of Rose Cottages. Gardens (Booth).

Kender Street

56 Hatcham Lodge. A substantial house, the doorway is flanked by fluted columns, and there are fine round-headed windows with masks at the rear. It was originally of 1827, but was altered and enlarged in 1858 for George England. George England was one of the country's pioneer locomotive builders. He founded Hatcham Iron Works in 1840 in Pomeroy Street behind the house; the works expanded into locomotive production in the 1850s and 1860s, and over 250 locomotives were made here. It became Fairlie Engine & Steam Carriage Co from 1869, but closed in 1872. Nothing now remains of the works; part of the site became General Engine & Boiler Co from 1872 and later Reliance Foundry, and part was Enos Fruit Salt Works from 1878 to 1940.

24/54 Georgina Terrace built for workers at England’s works. The Cabbage patch was north of this but not facing on the street. In 1862 it was a test track bed.  It is a fine group, probably built c1827, with steps leading up to the first floor.

Varied style of houses 2-storey. Not unlike Pomeroy Street. Mainly "mechanic class". Several courts lie off the street. Two cottages to the north of Frederick Street quite poor. Also Esther Cottages south of Faulkner Street. "Cook's Folly, 1845." (Booth)

Kitto Road

1 Holleran's Tavern

The new Park lies on either side. On the north side, between Erlanger Road and the new Waller Road, are new 2-storey houses with basements. Below the Chapel, which has been built lately, the old Chapel becoming schools, the houses are smaller. "Not many servants here. On the south side are 5-storey houses. (Booth)

Lausanne Road

44 Swiss Tavern

Built as a grand access road to the cemetery at Nunhead

Houses of all sorts, 2-storey, 2-storey, 5-storey.   Some servants... On the south side is the very small South East London   Synagogue', only a sprinkling of Jews said to be in the district, and these mostly Germans. (Booth)

Lindo Street

2-storey houses, south side only. (Booth)

Lubbock Street

Was Frederick Street. 2-storey houses flush with sidewalk.  Done up on north side. (Booth)

Lugard Road

Running south west, is just the same as Hollydale (Booth

Dairy of London's last cow keeper who was here until 1967,.John Jorden. The cows were two weeks here and then two weeks in the country.

Martha Place (not on AZ)

2-storey houses, garden fronts. Better on north side, all "rough". Two miserable houses in the south west corner. (Booth)

Martin's Place (not on AZ)

2-storey houses. "Better class" here. On the east side are only two detached pairs of houses.  (Booth)

Mason's Court (not on AZ)

Cottages. Clean. One family in each, rents 6/- (Booth)

Mason's Grove (not on AZ)

2-storey houses with basements. Garden fronts. Six rooms, rent 8/6. (Booth)

Mona Road

2-storey houses with forecourts. In  this road is a boundary line between the parishes of Deptford and Camberwell and Dolby mentioned the practice of the police, if they have anyone to arrest who can be shunted along, getting the offender into the west end of the road prior to the arrest. If this can be managed the case is tried at the Camberwell Court, if not the constable has to go all the way to Greenwich.  Doubtless this economy of time and trouble works out in other ways, not perhaps always so harmlessly. For instance, Dolby had previously mentioned that some parts of the Peckham Section are a mile or more from the police station and the Trouble it was to get a prisoner from   the more distant ground safely into the lock-up. There must be strong temptation in these circumstances to let a man go, if possible, as it so often is in the case of brawlers and of "drunks".  (Booth)

Nettleton Road

5-storey, front gardens. Several have cards: "apartments furnished". Keep a girl. Two advertised for sale. (Booth)

New Cross

Kestner Evaporators since 1914 making machinery for syrup glue and gelatin, fruit juice coffer powder and chemical industries.

Roman urns in a garden 1735

Greyhound Stadium ,

New Cross Gate.

New Cross Gate. Road island at the junction, which was the site of a tollgate from 1813 to 1865,

Toilet entrances have fine ironwork railings

Ventilating pipe of 1897 which doubled as a lamppost - it is a fluted column b Macfarlane’s Castings of Glasgow, with a most unusual vaguely Egyptian pattern based on a design by the famous Glasgow architect Alexander Thomson. This is not in as good condition as the one outside the New Cross Inn:

New Cross Road

119/141 as 109

120/128, a monumental unified composition of 1833 above modern shop fronts, the end houses both having four giant pilasters.

136/148, c1830, stuccoed above modern shop fronts. Minerva Terrace

143/147 as 109

153 Five Bells, a fine classical pub of 1841 with quoins and deep eaves. Five bells between the eaves brackets. Later extension. Ornate mirrors and heavy drapes.

Horse trough outside the pub. 19th

170/178 1838, with modern shop fronts.

182Clutch Clinic was from 1909 to 1917 the Electric Empire Cinema previously was a horse dealer.  Car body works centre

182 Electric Empire Theatre.  Opened 1909

184 The White Hart, an 1898 rebuild of a mid 19th century pub.

197 a building c1910 with flora classical dressings, originally London & South Western Bank, now Barclays Bank

207/219, formerly known as Hatcham Terrace. It is a very fine tall terrace of 1841 with long rows of windows on the ground floor, and balcony railings to the first floor.

208 New Cross Bus Depot, occupies the site of a London County Council depot, the largest in London, opened 1906, and closed 1952.

210 Kingdom Hall, of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Classical building of 1957, Reconverted from the old South East London District Synagogue in the late 1980s. The first synagogue was established here in 1904. Bombed, perpetual fire did not go out.  Not rebuilt until 1956.

221 a large house c1842 with a fine porch linked to 223.  Listed Grade II,

223/229, c1842, a terrace with recessed pairs of entrances, linked to no 221.

231/241, a terrace of tall houses, probably c1867

233 G.L.C. blue plaque: 'John Tallis, 1816-1876, publisher of London Street Views, lived here'; published 1838-40,

235 rebuilt after the war.

241 a Lewisham Council plaque: 'Sir Barnes Wallis, 1887-1979, pioneer of aircraft design, lived here 1892-1909'; he designed the Wellington bomber, and the bouncing bombs which destroyed the Mohne dam in 1943.

All Saints, 1869-71 by Newman & Billing. Kentish rag, with a large rose window. No tower.

Aske's Haberdashers' School for Girls. 1891 by Stock, Page & Stock. Quite a nice design with buttresses, plain gables. Queen Anne windows, and an asymmetrical turret with cupola, the style derived from Philip Webb

Toilets at Queens Road corner.  Triangle island site underground, vent pipe with gas lamps and fluted Egyptian designs.  Made by Macfarlanes of Glasgow and based on a design of Alexander Thompson of Glasgow.  Railings round the steps.  Closed and gone.

East from Kender Street. Private houses to a little west of Besson Street. Very few servants. The shops when they begin are second rate. (Booth)

Nunhead

 Nunhead said to have been named from an inn. The Nun's Head  - ‘Nunhead’ 1680, ‘None Head’ c. 1745,  ‘Nonehead Hill’ 1789.’ Nun Head’ 1816. 17th-century inn here called The Nuns Head. According to local legend colourful but without factual basis, the inn itself was so named because a Mother Superior was beheaded here for opposing Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.  The name may relate to ownership of land by Shoreditch nunnery of St.John the Baptist in the late 12^th.

Nunhead cutting. Cut in 1860 now an embankment.

Pepys Road

Hatcham Manor Estate, also known as the New Cross Estate, was built by the Haberdashers Company to a layout by their surveyor William Snooke between 1887, and 1900. The first road to be developed was Pepys Road, with a pattern of houses in Gothic style to the north and Edwardian style to the south.

29 Ben Jacob barge building at Deptford and Mayor of Deptford 1908 buried at Nunhead

Church of St.Catherine, built 1893 by Henry Stock surveyor to the Haberdashers Company, is a bulky ragstone church with elongated Gothic windows. The north transept is castellated; the south transept has a separate roof. The chancel was extended in 1913. A nicely designed screen in the Centre gives a good view of the church interior, which is of red brick and imposing. Large, Early English ragstone, with brick interior. Reroofed after war damage, and reordered in the 1960s for combined church and community use. The west end was incorporated into Telegraph Hill Neighbourhood Centre.

Vicarage is contemporary with the church, and is of interest as the a red brick house in a predominantly stock brick area

Aske's Haberdashers' School for Boys, Founded in 1688. From the new building at Shoreditch of 1825-6 the statue of Robert Aske in the forecourt by Croggon of Lambeth, 1836. The present building is of 1875 by W. Snooke, yellow and red brick, Gothic, symmetrical, on a corner site with fine views in all directions.

The boundary of the Peckham Section. Very much the same character as Drakefell Road. Vicarage, built just below the new church, at the corner of Arbuthnot Road. The west side has been built over up to Arbuthnot Road and all the houses are very much of the same class as those in Erlanger Road. A few years back much of this site, which is partly built over and partly Park, was brick-fields. Pepys Road. With new houses east of the Park and on the west side between Musgrove Road and Arbuthnot Road, is a good middle class street throughout. On the east side some of the houses are large red-brick erections.  The road is broad and spacious, with trees, and in a few years time may become a pleasant boulevard.  (Booth)

Queen’s Road

Queens Road Station. 1866. Between Peckham Rye and South Bermondsey on Southern Rail

397/401 a stuccoed house c1850 with fine bow windows extending through three storeys on either side of the doorway, though the ground floor bowl have been cut into by horrible modem shop fronts.

Somerville Estate. An intimate and attractive estate of 1978, with groups of dark red brick houses forming an intricate pattern of irregular clusters, mostly behind a large adventure playground on the main road.

New Cross Fire Station, of 1894, an extraordinary extravaganza with steep conical roofs on rounded towers at either end, and a tall circular tower behind.

369 Hatcham Liberal Club, a fantastic building c1911, with an oriel window above the porch, and decorated stonework. The club was established Pere in 1880, the date on the facade.

142-148two early c19 pairs at an angle to the road stand isolated among redevelopment. Listed Grade II

164 The only English Heritage blue plaque in SE15 where Jamaican born Dr Harold Moody, founder of the influential League of Coloured Peoples in 1931, lived and had a surgery.

371/373 Queens Road, a fine pair c1840 with stuccoed ground floor cement.

387 an odd small building of 1893 with decorations

Passing the entrance to The Retreat, "The Marist Convent for Young Ladies", a Roman Catholic Boarding and Middle Class College. Two or three houses appear to be occupied. Residential at this east end, with a few new houses filling in the gap (Booth)

Pomeroy Street

Development work for Delta Metal 1894

125 Coach and Horses pub??

Power's Place (not on AZ)

2-storey houses, forecourts. (Booth)

Railline

The line to Lewisham Road from Nunhead was abandoned by an Act in 1929 and the line taken up.

Rose Cottages (not on AZ)

Entered from Pomeroy Street. Four poor little places. (Booth)

Rutt's Terrace

2-storey houses, flush with sidewalk. Cul de sac, except for entrance to Waller Street Board School. "More of the labouring class than in Dennett's Road. (Booth)

Selden Road

South of Lindo Street is 2-storey and 3-storey houses. Broken windows, untidy children, poor. North of Lindo Street is 2-storey houses, better. (Booth)

Senate Street.

2-storey houses. Poor looking and gloomy, some broken windows. (Booth)

Somerville Road (not on AZ)

A cul de sac of 5-storey and 2-storey houses with small garden fronts. (Booth)

Stanbury Road

Is a replica of Lugard Road. (Booth)

St Mary's Road

Pioneer Health Centre. This health experiment was started at 142 Queen's Road in 1926  and purpose built here as the Pioneer Health Centre in 1934-5, by Sir Owen Williams with funding by Jack Donaldson. The place of a medico-social experiment, initiated by Doctors Scott Williams and Innes Pearse. The area was chosen because its population was a cross-section of income groups. The idea was that instead of medical services being for people who were sick, they should be available to everybody regardless of their state of health to detect disorders early and deal with them partly by altering environmental conditions. So the centre was a combination of club and clinic and designed to Scott Williams's requirements.  The centre provided a kindergarten, gymnasium, swimming pool, theatre, sports, etc. At The centre of the building was the swimming pool surrounded by cafes and other leisure facilities, the pool separated by glass walls. The only space shut off is the consultation block on the top floor. The Centre has a front with six out-curve bays all in concrete and glass. The Centre was converted to residential use having been used as an educational facility for a while as South London Doctors' Centre and Southwark Adult Education Institute.

Sassoon House.  A well designed block of flats Thompson & Fry, or rather Maxwell Fry, 1932

St Mary, 1961-2 by Robert Potter of Potter & Hare. One of the first new churches in London designed for the liturgical movement.  Centrally planned, cruciform, and very light and transparent, with the interior on view to the outside world.  Four big gables are all glazed with clear glass. There are roof lights as well, rising to a small central fleche. The gable cants outwards. The church replaces a bombed building of 1839-41.

Horse trough junction with Evelina Road.  ‘Be kind and merciful to your animals’Gone.

Middle class, larger houses north of the church. South of the church omitting at south east corner for St Mary's Church Hall, built 1890 (Booth)

Telegraph Hill Park

Used to be called Plow Garlic Hill, used to pay double taxes to Kent & Surrey

Park, opened 1895, is in two parts. The southern section provides, from its highest point in the grassed centre, panoramic views over Central and West London. The northern section between Pepys Road and Erlanger Road, is larger but of less interest.

Fountain dedicated to Livesey, 9 1/2 acres. St Catherine’s Park, which was bought for George Livesey so that he could be looked up to. Project achieved with money from Greenwich Board of Works, London County Council, and Haberdashers Company. Ornamental lake & bandstand. Opened by Austin Arnold 6.9.95. Of London County Council.

Telegraph system using frame with large removal shutters working from end of 1796 until 1814 peace with France. 1816 another sort tried of single high mast with two arms set to different positions and better visibility. 1820 French Chappe type used with a mast and rotating pointers

Admiralty telegraph 1795. Wooden huts. Nothing built in area until 1873. Ground opened in 1875.

James Martin and Sons Dairymen

Reservoir Kent Water Co. built 1874. 160' above OD. 1,7500,00 gall. Can be seen as a mound in the top part of the park.

Waller Road

Hatcham Manor Estate, also known as the New Cross Estate, was built by the Haberdashers Company to a layout by their surveyor William Snooke between 1887, and 1900. The other north-south roads Erlanger Road and Waller Road were developed from the 1880s in predominantly Edwardian style. Because of the length of the principal roads and the lack of variety in house design, the overall effect can seem rather monotonous

Edmund Waller School. Has a handsome London School Board building of 1887 in Queen Anne style, and a less appealing second building of 1899 to the south

Quite a new road of 2-storey houses with basements. Narrow and long slips of garden behind, clothes out to dry in many of them. Some servants and a good many "step girls” employed, that is girls who come in a few times a week and do some of the rougher work, including the steps. On the west side a Board School and at the North West corner a Fire Station, a very fine building fronting the Queen's Road. (Booth)

Washam Road

The houses are older and have small forecourts, is again the same. (Booth)

Wellington Road.

5-storey and 5-storey houses. Compared with Lausanne Road. (Booth)

York Road?

Between here and Pomeroy Street, 1976, a three-storeyed gabled fronts with upper-level deck behind, private yards, and a communal garden, around two squares by Peter Moro