Meadows, Tate Library & Albert Sq. continues my stroll on Wednesday nineteenth July 1989 in Stockwell and South Lambeth which started with Stockwell Park, Bus Storage, Tower and Mason.
Sadly the subsequent few frames of my movie had been ruined in processing, although I can nonetheless see just a few particulars on a few photos, together with the massive home instantly north of Stockwell Baptist Church a home with the legend ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS at roof stage which I can now not discover, however was most likely additional north on the identical street.
This image, taken on a second digital camera, is the subsequent I nonetheless have. Meadow Place is a brief avenue off the Previous South Lambeth Highway on the southern of its two junctions with South Lambeth Highway. It ends at a clean brick wall, on the opposite aspect of which is the Bolney Meadow Group Centre on the 1930’s LCC Bolney Meadow Property, on the north-west nook of the Sixties South Lambeth Property.
In 1870 there was nonetheless some meadow land within the space; Meadow Place seems on the 25″ OS Maps with the 1871 survey as a row of a dozen homes subsequent to St Stephens Faculty with some small fields to the south and east, however the homes to the south of the road which stay weren’t then current, although they’re proven on the subsequent survey in 1893-4.
This small block, now with a roof terrace above the one storey finish farther from my digital camera continues to be there and searching a lot the identical besides the hanging baskets have gone. Simply down the road instantly past this home is a slim passage which I couldn’t resist.
The passage took me to an alley, Stamford Buildings, which led again to South Lambeth Highway, and from which I made this view of the Library throughout the street. These late Victorian flats and probably Meadow Place had been constructed on the location of John Tradescant’s backyard.
Sir Henry Tate the sugar big who lived in Streatham gave three libraries to the world, the Tate South Lambeth Library right here and different bigger libraries in Brixton and Streatham.
The phrases of his reward seem like unknown, nevertheless it appears possible that he could have exacted a promise from the then native authority that the library be stored open and freed from cost to server the local people in perpetuity. It stays open regardless of repeated makes an attempt by Lambeth Council to demolish or shut it – and the documentation surrounding the bequest stay hidden.
The library opened in 1888 and nonetheless serves the group within the space a lot of whom are actually Portuguese. Lambeth first tried to demolish it once they constructed their Mawbey Brough property within the Nineteen Seventies, nevertheless it survived. Then in 1999 they tried to shut over half of the boroughs twelve libraries together with this one however needed to drop the plans after huge public objections, led by the newly fashioned Associates of Tate South Lambeth Library. In 2015 the council had one other go at library closures – and once more a forceful marketing campaign by the Associates saved South Lambeth.
South Lambeth Library is just not a listed constructing (although it’s domestically listed), most likely as a result of it has suffered some critical losses since 1888. As designed by native architect Sidney R J Smith (who additionally designed the Tate Gallery) it had copper cupolas on prime of the 2 towers in addition to a big porch, its roof supported by six caryatids. The copper maybe went to assist the conflict effort (together with the railings) and the porch was apparently eliminated within the Nineteen Fifties, most likely to permit street widening.
I used to be standing in Aldebert Terrace and searching throughout to the luxurious terrace wich runs across the nook of St Stephen’s Terrace and Aldebert Terrace. It dates from the 1860s and is now a part of the Albert Sq. Conservation Space. The home on the left of the image is just a little later. These unlisted homes on St Stephen’s Terrace are distinguished by their ornate ornament.
Homes round Albert Sq. are numbered consecutively and the entire homes on the 4 sides of the sq. are Grade II listed in 5 teams. The sq. was developed on farmland which had been part of the traditional Manor of Vauxhall following a Non-public Act of Parliament in 1843 on a website referred to as the ’14 acres’, and was accomplished following an settlement with him in 1846 by Islington builder John Glenn along with an ‘Decorative Floor for the usage of the Lessees of the Sq. within the late 1840s. All besides one of many authentic homes stay, No 37 on the sting of the sq. which had been broken by bombing being demolished and changed by a block of flats within the early Sixties
This image has No 11 on the excessive proper and is trying in the direction of the south-east nook of the sq. and consists of the homes from 3-11.
On the nook of Albert Sq. between No 5 and No 6 I may see the relatively extra trendy and far plainer flats on Hampson Approach on the Mursell Property, a big LCC property designed from 1961 by the LCC Architect’s Division and in-built 1963-66. A tall fence separates it from Albert Sq., with no method by. The property has a protracted frontage on Clapham Highway and is generally comparatively low rise as within the image.
This view is trying on the identical nook because the earlier image however taken from outdoors No 1. Towering above the Albert Sq. homes is the one giant tower block on the Mursell Property, Rundell Tower, with 82 flats. The property appears well-planned and is usually thought to be one of many higher council estates within the space, although many properties are in fact now privately owned.
My ultimate image of Albert Sq. is a view throughout Albert Sq. Backyard, taken over the fence trying throughout to the north-west aspect of the sq.. Like many London sq. gardens this can be a personal backyard, open to residents of the sq. and different native residents who need to pay a licence charge. Albert Sq. Lambeth – A report on the Central Backyard by David M Robinson for English Heritage is a really detailed account in regards to the sq. and London sq. gardens generally and particularly these gardens which are actually run by the Albert Sq. Backyard Belief.
Extra from this stroll in later posts.
Tags: 1989, Albert Sq., Albert Sq. Backyard, Aldebert Terrace, Clapham Highway, home, Lambeth, London, London Pictures, Meadow Place, Mursell Property, peter Marshall, personal backyard, Rundell Tower, Sir Henry Tate, South Lambeth, South Lambeth Library, South Lambeth Rd, St Stephen’s Terrace, Tate, Tate Library
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