Thames Tributary Effra - Knight's Hill
Thames Tributary Effra
Tributaries to the Effra flow northwards through the area.
Post to the west Leigham Court
Post to the north Tulse Hill
Post to the south Knights Hill
Post to the east West Dulwich
Canterbury Grove
Development area laid out from 1810
Chestnut Road
5 The Clock House. Detached Victorian house and home. Copper roof over a large glassed area including a clock museum. seems not to be there now
Chatsworth Way
Named this because Paxton worked at Chatsworth before building the Crystal Palace
V2 on the evening of 26 September 1944 scoring a direct hit on the church and causing two deaths and 51 injuries.
Christchurch Road
138 Methodist Church. Modern church which replaces Roupell Park Methodist Church which was a Gothic church built .1879-80 by Charles Bell in Kentish rag.
Knights Hill
Mrs Fawcett's Fountain. She was a local temperance campaigner
Tunnel for the London, Brighton and South Coast railway. Built in 1866 and part of scheme for Dulwich College
West Norwood Station. Between Gypsy Hill and Tulse Hill and also with a line to Streatham Hill on Southern Rail. Opened as part of West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway and LBSCR in 1856 for the opening of the Crystal Palace. The line comes from Crystal Palace Low Level Station. The station was originally called Lower Norwood.
3 The Norwood was The Norwood Hotel.
13 Knowles pub. This is the old John Knowles premises. The name was on the frontage - ironmonger and maker of manhole covers, Also Bielomatic factory was here.
14-16 West Norwood Free Public Library opened in 1881 and later a youth centre. Listed Grade II. The site was given by Frederick Nettlefold, 1887 and Lambeth benefited from the patronage of Sir Henry Tate, who lived at Streatham. The architect was Tate's protégé Sidney R. J. Smith, and it cost £4,050. Three-storey building built of red brick with terracotta and Ham Hill stone dressings. An example of minor late Victorian municipal showmanship it has an entrance loggia with a balcony is crammed into its tiny facade.
Nettlefold Hall. Hall and theatre and a smaller hall
40 Horns Tavern. This is shown on the Roque map, and is where it is said that wagoners rested before going up the hill. One landlord was father of actress, Ann Cateley. Sign with folk dancers holding horns has gone.
Lodge. This remains from the Jewish Orphanage. And is in an alleyway opposite Cotswold Road. The Jew's Hospital in Mile End Road, Stepney, was founded in 1795 and was later given 9acres of land here. This was for the maintenance of aged poor and the education and employment of children. The foundation stone of the new hospital was laid in 1861 by Sir Anthony de Rothschild. Demolished except for the lodge of 1861 by Tillott and Chamberlain. Housing on most of the site – Hainthorpe Estate.
Norwood Hall. Was originally the synagogue for the orphanage? Surrounding parkland. Built 1962-it is now a secular ex-community centre which still displays its Star of David,
Cabman's shelter on the corner of Cotswold Street gone.
Lanercost Road
27 home of Arthur Mee 1875-1943 Plaque which says "author and topographer lived here." He lived here for many years until just after the start of the Second World War. Plaque erected 1991.
Lansdowne Hill
8-20 - at the rear were the depot and stables for London Southern Tramways 1894
Leigham Vale
Tributary going down here to join the Effra
Norwood's hills were open country until the early 19th and development began with the sale of Lord Thurlow's estate in 1810. Norwood Common was also enclosed around the same time.
Norwood High Street
Development followed the enclosure of Norwood Common in 1810.
Effra - In 1935 the sewer was enlarged to help avoid floodings, and deep shafts were sunk here. The landscape in this area suggests a rough course for the river.
St.Luke. A 'Waterloo' church built 1820s. The site is on rising ground at the junction of Knights Hill and Norwood High Street giving the six-column portico an uplift. In 1872-3 G. E. Street made some internal alterations. And the altar decoration is from 1936 by Sir Charles Nicholson. There are Paintings in a blind window by W. Christian Symons after designs by F. Bentley, 1885. A 19th screen came from St Sepulchre Holborn.
West Norwood Library. Buikl 1969 by Lambeth Architect's Department. Sloping roof and dark purple-red brick walls arranged around an internal courtyard with all-glass walls. Sculpture by David McFall, 1972: Oedipus and Jocasta.
2 South London Theatre. In the old fire station with a prominent watchtower. Owen Luder 1881.
20 Gypsy Queen Pub
South Metropolitan Cemetery frontage
Norwood Road,
Formerly Norwood Lane
304 B and Q on the site of the Regal Cinema designed by F Edward Jones and opened in 1930. It seated 2,010 and had a Christie Manual organ. It closed 1964 and became a Top Rank Bingo Club until 1978. It was demolished.
367 White Hart Tavern
445 Fire Station. Opened 1916
551 Tesco in what was the Thurlow Arms.
Serbia House, demolished was the home of Hiram Maxim, Built a captive flying machine there, like a merry go round one sent to Earl's Court, one to Crystal Palace and one to Blackpool
St Matthew R.C 1905, probably by Tasker end 1937 rebuilt 1949-50 with two-storey brick front by Plaskett and Marshall.
Railway Spur lines between Chatham Railway and LCD built 1869
Palace Road
Palace Road Extension GLC Estate 1977
50 Streatham Wells Primary School. GLC 1975
Station Rise
7 Railway Pub
Tulse Hill Station. 1st January 1869. Between Herne Hill and Streatham on Thameslink. Between North Dulwich and Streatham and also Streatham on Southern Trains. Built by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and opened as 'Knights Hill'. The station originally had a bowstring-arched iron and glass roof covering all four platforms. The brick retaining walls of this structure survive. However, it appears that this was demolished as a precautionary measure following the collapse of the similar roof in 1905, and individual platform canopies were then introduced. In 1869 London Chatham and Dover Railway was also using the station.
Effra said…
When I lived in Leigham Vale in the 1950s, our house and the neighbours' used to flood regularly in wet autumns or winters. The water would rise through the drains in the scullery floors (which were in the middle of the floor, to catch water squeezed out of the mangle, on washing day.)
The man next door dug a pond, intending to line it, and it just filled up with water without any lining, and didn't dry out.
My father dug the foundations for an extension one summer; he got as far as casting concrete in the footings and then they filled with water. They were full of water for the best part of 6 months every year; needless to say the extension plan was abandoned. I'm now fairly certain that this was the Effra tributary making its presence felt!
Two questions... did the Leigham vale tributary have a name?
...And does anyone know if some of the houses in Leigham Vale were designed by a man called Dyce?
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Thames Tributary Effra - Brixton
Thames Tributary Effra - South Brixton
Thames Tributary Effra - Brockwell Park
Thames Tributary Effra - Tulse Hill
Thames Tributary Effra - Streatham