THE ANGELL ESTATE
The Angell family has owned land in Lambeth
since the latter part of the 17th century. An
estate at Crowhurst in Surrey, which had been
purchased earlier in the century by William
Angell, formed the nucleus of the family's property. (ref. 146) One of William Angell's grandsons,
Justinian Angell, Married Elizabeth Scaldwell, (ref. 147)
daughter of John Scaldwell, junior, who owned
extensive lands in Lambeth, including Heathrow
Manor, freehold and copyhold in Lambeth Manor
and leasehold land in Stockwell Manor. By his
will, (ref. 148) which was proved in 1679, John Scald
well left almost all his wife for life,
and upon her death they were to be divided between his two grandsons. Thomas Fox and John
Angell. It seems likely that some family arrangement was made after Scaldwell's death in 1679,
for part of the property which he left to Thomas
Fox came into the hands of John Angell. (ref. 149)
Thomas Fox inherited a copyhold estate in
Lambeth Manor called Masticks and half of
fourteen acres (see above) and the farm of Heath-row, in which his grandfather lived (see page 136).
A piece of freehold land on the south side of Coldharbour Lane marked on the Inclosure map of
1810 as being held by William Brown Angell,
and which was still part of the Angell estate in
1916, (ref. 150) may originally have been part of Heathrow Farm.
In Lambeth Manor John Scaldwell's other
grandson, John Angell, inherited three acres of
freehold land called Water Leys or Burdin
Bushes (ref. 151) and a copyhold estate consisting of a
farm called Mallams, (ref. 152) later called Stiles Farm, (ref. 153)
containing about fifty acres, the other half of the
fourteen acres, (ref. 154) and three acres called Pound
Close; (ref. 155) all this property lay on the east side of
Brixton Road. On the west side of Brixton Road
he inherited ten acres. (ref. 154) He also held two leasehold estates in Stockwell Manor. (ref. 156)
John Angell died in 1750. (ref. 157) Eight years later
his copyhold estate in Lambeth was seized by the
Lord of the Manor because his heir had failed
to claim it. (ref. 158) In fact it had been settled by John
Angell on his son William in 1733, (ref. 159) but William had pre-deceased his father. (ref. 157) In 1764
William's brother, John Angell, junior, was admitted to the estate by special grace and favour of
the Lord of the Manor, (ref. 160) though no doubt he
had enjoyed possession of the lands in the meantime. The eccentricities of this John Angell
achieved considerable notoriety. Samuel Denne
published his will in full and commented that he
was “marked by the legislature for a person
inflexibly obstinate” and had“by a self-drawn
will, perpetuated the name of Angell in Westminister-Hall and in the records of assise for the
counties in which he had possessed estates”. (ref. 161)
Moreover, “The propensity of Mr. Angell to
litigations at law, and his disposition to perpetuate
them after his decease, appear from the clauses of
his will that enjoin large sums of money to be
reserved out of his estates, and appropriated to
that use”, and from “his random devise of his estates to the heirs male (if any there be) of his
remote ancestors”. (ref. 162)
As was to be expected several law suits began
after the death of John Angell, junior, in 1784, (ref. 162)
and again the copyhold estate was seized by the
Lord. (ref. 163) In 1786 Benedict John Angell Brown
was admitted to the estate, (ref. 153) but in 1790 an
entry in the court rolls proclaimed that this admittance was a mistake and that by the custom of the
Manor, William Brown, Benedict's brother, was
the rightful heir, being the youngest son of
Benedict Brown, who had been John Angell's
heir. (ref. 164) Both William and Benedict adopted the
name of Angell (which had been stipulated by
John Angell in his will) (ref. 165) and were subsequently known as William Brown Angell and
Benedict John Angell Angell.
Figure 38.:
Abridged pedigree of the Angell, Scaldwell and Brown families.
The names in italics are mentioned in the text
At the beginning of the 19th century the copyhold estate was reduced by two sales. In 1803
the ten acres on the west side of Brixton Road
and the three acres called Pound Close on the
corner of Coldharbour Lane and Effra Road were
sold to Thomas Woodroffe Smith, (ref. 166) and in
1805 seven acres, consisting of half the fourteen
acres on the east side of Brixton Road, were sold
to Robert Slade (ref. 137) (see page 125). The rest of the
copyhold estate was surrendered by William
Brown Angell to his brother Benedict in 1823
in exchange for an annuity. (ref. 167)
Stiles Farm had been let by John Angell,
junior, to William Westcombe in 1776 for 61
years; (ref. 168) in 1810 the area was still undeveloped
and included a gravel pit and tenter ground. (ref. 169)
Benedict John Angell Angell's title to Stiles Farm
was challenged in 1827 in Lambeth Manor court
by Thomas Angell as the youngest lineal descendant of Justinian Angell's younger brother
Thomas. (ref. 170) As Justinian had never had a title
to the property except in right of his wife, the
claim was based on a false premise; even so, the
court took a year to decide the issue, but finally
awarded judgement to Benedict. (ref. 171)
Extensive development on this estate did not
take place till the middle of the 19th century, but
a few earlier houses still stand.
Nos. 285, 287 and 299–313 (Odd) Brixton Road
Nos. 285 and 287, formerly Effra Lodge and Westbourne
Cottage; Nos. 309–313, formerly Nos. 1–3 (consec.) Brixton
Ville
In 1631 three acres of land, lying on the east
side of Brixton Road and called Water Leys or
Burdin Bushes, were purchased by Edmond
Dent. (ref. 172) The land passed into the hands of
John Scaldwell in 1675 (ref. 173) and after his death
became part of the Angell estate. (ref. 151) William
Westcombe, who had a lease of Stiles Farm which
adjoined it on the north, east and south, apparently
purchased Water Leys from the Angell family.
Unfortunately no records relating to the building
of the houses on this estate have survived.
Nos. 285 and 287 are shown on the Inclosure
map of 1810, and probably date from about this
time. They form a pair of single-storey stuccofronted cottages which have slate roofs with deep
overhanging eaves. There is a trace of Gothic
influence in the pointed heads of their windows.
No. 299 Brixton Road can be traced back in
the rate books beyond the date when the architectural evidence suggests it was erected. As
the house was occupied from 1815 to 1830 by
Evan Roberts, (ref. 174) a slate-merchant who erected
several houses in Brixton, it may have been rebuilt
by Roberts on the site of an older house. It is a
rather uninteresting stucco-fronted villa of two
storeys, with an attic in a slated mansard roof.
Attached to the north side is a taller three-storey
wing and on the south side is a former coachhouse. The middle part is three windows wide
with a central entrance, and the upper and lower
windows are set in round-headed recesses, the
upper tier being underlined by a continuous sillband. The middle part and the north wing are
finished with a cornice and blocking course.
Nos. 301–307 appear to have been erected between 1816 and 1830. (ref. 174) No. 301, a compact
stock brick villa of two-storeys with a semibasement, is three windows wide with its entrance
at the centre. The entrance has a flat wooden
doorcase, with key-ornamented pilasters supporting a plain frieze and cornice. No. 303, of the
same height and materials, has its entrance in a
later side wing protected by a small valanced tentroofed porch. This is supported on ornamental
cast-iron standards. No. 305, another villa of the
same height and materials, has an uninteresting
central porch borne on square piers. The canted
two-storey bay extension on the south side is a
later addition. No. 307 has been altered almost
beyond recognition.
Nos. 309–313 appear to have been erected in
1801–2, though No. 311 was unoccupied until
1810. (ref. 174) They (Plate 51a, fig. 39) are set
at an oblique angle to Brixton Road and have a
slightly curved front. They may form the southern section of a crescent-shaped layout which was
not completed. They are a stock brick group,
with a semi-basement, two storeys and a mansard
attic. The middle house, No. 311, is set for
ward slightly and elaborated on the ground
storey, so that the other houses have the appearance of being wings. It has an entrance set
in a grooved frame with wing lights at each side.
Foliated blocks at the head of the frame support
a delicately festooned cornice, with vases over
the heads, and a mutule transom. The doorway, and the similarly detailed window of
three lights to its north, are set in elliptical-headed
recesses which spring from anthemion-ornamented
impost blocks and have keystones with crowned
and bearded male masks. The entrance to No.
309 is on the flanking elevation, which suggests
that there was never any intention that the houses
should have a continuous façade. This entrance
is set tightly against a semi-circular two-storey
projecting bay and has a neat wooden doorcase
with engaged acanthus-headed columns at each
side. There are vases to the frieze blocks above.
The doorway has a simple patterned fanlight and
panelling to the linings and arch soffit. No. 313
lost its original entrance when additions were
made at the south end of the terrace.
Figure 39.:
Nos. 309–313 Brixton Road. Interior measurements of Nos. 309 and
311 not available
No. 26 Villa Road
This house is shown on the Inclosure map of
1810 as one of a pair, but the other house, on the
west, was pulled down to make room for the later
terrace houses in the road. It is a small stuccofronted two-storey house, with a central entrance
protected by a cast-iron trellised tent-roofed porch.
The window above and those at each side on the
first floor are set in shallow elliptical-headed
recesses, while on the ground floor there is a
segmental bay on the east side and a semi-elliptical
one on the west. The entrance has a delicate
rectangular fanlight, patterned with three ellipses,
and a reeded surround with lion-head stops at the
corners.
Angell Town
Stiles Farm was enfranchised in 1847 (ref. 175) and
its present layout took shape in the 1850s. The
Lambeth Wick Estate on its eastern boundary was
already laid out for development, but owing to
lack of collaboration between the landlords the
Lambeth Wick Estate had been planned depending on Loughborough Road for access to the main
highway of Brixton Road (see page 109). Angell
Town, as the area subsequently became known,
was consequently laid out with a long principal
road (Wiltshire Road) connected by short linking
roads to Brixton Road and the roads on the
Lambeth Wick Estate.
This layout shows something of the influence
of Repton's theories of landscaping, avoiding any
suggestion of a geometrical plan and presenting a
careful arrangement of wide curving streets contrived to give effective cross vistas and generally to
centre on the focal point of St. John's Church
tower. The houses are all set in gardens and
mostly built in pairs, but there is occasionally a
short terrace and a number of single houses,
usually placed at road junctions.
The houses are, in essentials, standardized
types. There are the single houses of three storeys
over semi-basements, with central porches and
three widely-spaced windows in each upper storey.
Then there are the smaller pairs, with semibasement, two storeys and a roof attic, the fronts
being two windows wide. But perhaps the commonest type is the paired house of three storeys
over a semi-basement, with linked porches, a
basement and ground-floor bay window, and
either three windows or a three-light and single
window to each upper storey. Some fronts are
completely stucco-faced, while many others are
of grey brick liberally dressed with stucco quoins,
porches, window-surrounds, etc. All the detail
is coarse and presents a veritable ragbag of motifs,
some windows having Jacobean crestings and
others Italianate pediments. There are debased
Louis Quinze guilloche balconies, Doric entablatures to porches and bay-windows, and some
hideous doorway arches with cable mouldings and
vermiculated spandrels. Near the church, however, the houses in Wiltshire Road are respectfully
Gothic, having bays with segmental-headed windows, crudely gabled porches, and twin-arched
windows to the upper storeys, all the arches rising
from coarsely designed foliage capitals. Some, at
least, of the houses were erected by James Barker
of Bath Road, Peckham, (ref. 176) who was responsible
for Angell Terrace (see below).
St. John's Church, Angell Town
The site of St. John's Church was freely given
to the Church Building Commissioners by Benedict John Angell Angell in 1852, (ref. 177) and the cost
of the building was met by William Stone of the
Casino, Herne Hill. (ref. 178) The architect was Benjamin
Ferrey (fn. a) and the contractors were Messrs. H. and
R. Holland whose tender was for £5,302. The
church accommodated about 1,150 people (ref. 178) and
was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on
April 30, 1853; a district was assigned in the
same year. (ref. 179) In 1876 the building was extensively restored and a vestry or parish hall was
added on the north side to the designs of Sextus
Dyball in 1882. (ref. 180) The church was severely
damaged by fire in 1947 but has since been
restored to the designs of Thomas F. Ford with
the altar standing beneath the chancel arch; the
east end of the church is now used for parochial
purposes. (ref. 181)
The church (Plate 16), which stands with the
vicarage on an island site, is designed in Perpendicular Gothic style, and faced with Kentish ragstone and Bath stone dressings. Axially at the
west end there is a substantial three-stage tower
which is battlemented and finished with octagonal
corner pinnacles. The battlements have a chequerwork pattern of red and cream-coloured stone.
There are lean-to aisles flanking the nave and a
gabled porch on the north side. Excepting in the
nave clerestory the windows have arches with
alternating cream and grey ragstone voussoirs.
The interior is simple and dignified with nave
arcades of four plain pointed arches resting on
octagonal piers. There is a small organ gallery
beneath the tower.
St. John's C.E. Primary School, Canterbury Crescent
The site of this school was freely given by
Benedict John Angell Angell. The buildings
(Plate 34c) were designed in Tudor style by
Benjamin Ferrey and built in Rochester brick
with Bath stone dressings by Messrs. Holland in
1853; the cost was £1,600. As originally planned
the school contained three large rooms and provided accommodation for 180 boys, 120 girls and
100 infants. There was also a house for the
master. (ref. 182) Later additions have been unsympathetic. The school was severely damaged in the
war of 1939–45, and was reopened in 1947.
Nos. 341–361 Brixton Road
Formerly Nos. I–II (consec.) Angell Terrace
This terrace was erected by James Barker of
Peckham, builder, who executed an agreement to
build it with Benedict John Angell Angell on
January 1, 1855. (ref. 176) Barker borrowed money
from Angell and Samuel Copping but shortly
afterwards was declared a bankrupt. This led to
a delay in the finishing of the houses and only
Nos. 1, 2, 4, 10 and 11 were occupied in 1860,
the whole terrace being occupied by 1868. (ref. 174)
The terrace (Plate 49b) is boldly conceived and
consists of four-storey stock brick houses of
Classical design with the two end and three centre
houses set forward slightly and contained by
quoins at the corners. A substantial appearance is
given by the ornamental stucco work which is
liberally applied to the window surrounds and
throughout the ground storey where it is channelled. The two end houses have enclosed entrances with side arched openings. The others
have open Roman Doric porches which are
separate except in the case of the two houses at
each side of the centre portion, where they are
linked; all have a full order with mutules, triglyphs and guttae to the cornice, frieze and architrave respectively. This decoration is continued
as an ornamental band between the porches. All
the windows are architrave-lined and are either
eared or consoled at the sills. The first- and secondfloor windows are elaborated variously with plain,
triangular-pedimented, and segmental-pedimented
hoods conforming to a regular pattern throughout
the facade; on the second floor the windows are
further ornamented with pulvinated, ribboned and
rosetted friezes. Above the architraves of some of
the windows on the third floor there is a type of
Jacobean strap ornament which occurs elsewhere
on the Angell estate. The terrace is finished with
a vigorous festooned and bracketed cornice with
a deep blocking course to the parapet above.
Brixton Police Station
Brixton Police Station was erected in 1858 to
the designs of Charles Reeves, Metropolitan
Police Surveyor, at a cost of £2,974; the building
was extended in 1909. (ref. 183) The design has a distinct flavour of Vanbrugh and is very like other
police buildings by the same architect, for example,
No. 10 Gipsy Hill. Built of stock brick, five bays
wide with a two-bayed extension to the south, it
is three storeys high on a semi-basement and
formerly had a mansard roof. The quoins and all
other dressings are of brick except the bracketed
cornice which is rendered in cement. On the
ground floor the windows are rusticated and
round-arched with triple bays. There is a band
course at first-floor level and another beneath the
second-floor windows and all the upper openings
have segmental keyed heads and lugged architraves. The doorway was altered in 1909.
No. 372 Coldharbour Lane (demolished
c. 1933)
Formerly Halnaker Lodge
This charming Regency house stood on the
north side of the road opposite Somerleyton Road.
It was a two-storey stucco-fronted house with
overhanging eaves, and flanked by single-storey
wings. In the centre was a semi-circular projecting porch with unfluted Greek Doric columns,
which supported the delicate ironwork of the
verandah above. The house is illustrated by a
photograph in Small Houses of the Late Georgian
Period 1750–1820 by Stanley C. Ramsey, and by
photographs and measured drawings in a supplement to The Architect and Building News for
July 1, 1932.
Nos. 314–320 (even), 332, 334, 340 and 342 Brixton Road
Formerly Nos. 1–4 (consec.) Park Place, and Nos. 2, 3, 6
and 7 Park Terrace
The ten acres of copyhold land held of Lambeth
Manor which lay on the west side of Brixton
Road were sold in 1803 by William Brown
Angell to Thomas Woodroffe Smith. (ref. 166) A small
portion of the land was let under a licence to
demise granted in 1807 (ref. 184) but Nos. 314–320,
332, 334, 340 and 342 Brixton Road were
erected by Evan Roberts of north Brixton, (ref. 185)
slate-merchant, under a licence granted in 1826
to Smith's trustees. Nos. 314–320 are two plain
pairs of stock brick houses, well elevated above
the road. They are of three storeys with semibasements and are set forward at the ends above
their Greek Doric porches. No. 318 is ruinous.
Nos. 332 and 334 are another plain pair, and have
coupled antae flanking their recessed entrance
porches. Nos. 340 and 342 are a pair of larger
villas of three storeys above semi-basements.
Their fronts were almost identical until the
central Ionic porch of No. 342 was mutilated.
Both have round-arched windows over the
porches, and their ground floor windows, set in
shallow elliptical-arched recesses, have moulded
linking impost bands.
Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Brixton Road
At the southernmost point of the ten acres
stands the present Roman Catholic Church of
Our Lady of the Rosary (Plate 27d). The building
was formerly known as Brixton Independent
Church, and was erected by means of subscriptions raised by the congregation of Claylands
Chapel (ref. 186) (see page 61), and opened in June
1870. (ref. 187) The architect was Arthur J. Phelps and
the contractors were Myers and Son. (ref. 145) During
the war of 1939–45 the building was heavily
damaged, and its use as an Independent place of
worship discontinued. It was restored in 1952–3
for the Roman Catholic congregation of St. Helen's,
Robsart Street, and opened for worship on December 8, 1953. (ref. 188) The architects for the restoration
were Justin Alleyn and John Mansel. (ref. 189) The
church is built of red brick interspersed with
vitrified bricks which give a striped appearance
to the pointed door and window openings. It has
stone dressings and is designed in a style showing
Early English Gothic influence. There is a bold
three-stage tower of rectangular plan at the northeast corner. The present crown of battlements
replaces the original termination, which comprised a solid brick chisel spire rising from the
parapets. The high altar stands at the west end
of the church in an apse which is lit by six long
lancet windows, and there are short transepts
on either side. The nave and aisles are separated
by slender cast-iron arcades which also supported
the side galleries, removed at the time of restoration. The hall on the south side of the church, in
the same style and materials, was demolished in
1955. A new hall and vestry were built and
alterations to the forecourt carried out in the same
year.