CHAPTER VI - Tulse Hill and Brockwell Park
The areas now known as Tulse Hill and
Brockwell Park correspond roughly with
the Manor or Manors of Bodley, Upgrove,
and Scarlettes, (ref. 1) the boundaries of which
cannot be established with any precision. (ref. 2) A
family called de Bodyleys held lands in Lambeth
in the 13th century, and in the first half
of the 14th century lands at “Bodele” in Lambeth were held by a family called Hardel. (ref. 3)
In 1352 the Crown granted a licence to the
hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr in Southwark
to receive 130 acres of land and the reversion of
another 67 acres, (ref. 4) all of which had belonged to
the Hardel family, for the health of the souls of
the grantors and the “sustentation of the poor
sick”. (ref. 3) In 1379 the hospital also acquired 20
acres of land in Lambeth from Nicholas de
Carreu. (ref. 5) Five years later the latter was granted
lands in Lambeth which had previously belonged
to Stephen Skarlet. (ref. 3) In 1456 a lease of the Manor
of Bodley was granted to Ralph Leigh and in
1537 a lease of the Manors of Bodley and Up
grove with all the lands called Scarlettes was
granted to William Peter of London. (ref. 6) The
property was surrendered to the Crown in the
following year and passed with the hospital's
other lands rapidly through various private hands,
until in 1545 it again entered the possession of
the Leigh family. (ref. 7) In 1634 the property was
described as “All those the mannors called or
knowne by the names of Bodyleyes Upgroves and
Scarlettes”, containing about 250 acres. (ref. 8)
During the Commonwealth, Bodley, Upgrove
and Scarlettes were held by the Tulse family, (ref. 1)
from whom Tulse Hill gets its name. Sir Henry
Tulse's daughter, Elizabeth, married Richard (the
first Lord) Onslow, Speaker of the House of
Commons from 1708 to 1710. (ref. 9) After his death
in 1717 the lands in Lambeth passed to his son
Thomas Onslow, (ref. 10) who died in 1740, and then to
his grandson, Richard Onslow, (ref. 11) who died in 1766
without issue. (ref. 9) The property was then shared
between the descendants of two of the first Lord
Onslow's daughters, (ref. 12) and in 1789 the greater part
of it was sold to William Cole; (ref. 13) the rest, comprising
the northern and western parts of what is
now Brockwell Park, was apparently sold at about
the same time to William Winter. (ref. 14) In 1766 and
1769 William Cole had been admitted to two
moieties of 16 acres of adjoining copyhold land,
part of Lambeth Manor, which were known as
Page's Fields. (ref. 15) By his will dated June 5, 1807,
Cole divided his property; the western portion,
comprising Tulse Hill and his copyhold in Page's
Fields were left to Mercy Cressingham, spinster,
while the eastern half comprising his capital
messuage known as Brockwell Hall, with its
lands and appurtenances were left to Richard
Ogbourne of Bishopsgate Street, stationer. (ref. 16) In
1809 Richard Ogbourne sold Brockwell Hall and
60 acres of land to John Blades, (ref. 17) a glass manufacturer
who later also bought part of Winter's
land. (ref. 18) The western or Tulse Hill part of
the estate was developed for residential purposes by Mercy Cressingham's husband, Dr.
Thomas Edwards, while most of the eastern
half remained the private grounds of the Blades-Blackburn family until it was eventually bought
for a public park.
But before the two estates assumed their very
different characters there seems to have been a
short-lived attempt by Blades and Edwards to
co-operate in developing the whole area as a less
grandiose version of John Nash's schemes in
Regent's Park. Amongst the Papworth Collection
of drawings in the library of the Royal
Institute of British Architects is a plan (Plate 64)
drawn in 1823 and marked with the name of
Chandler and Buckingham, a firm of nurserymen
in Vauxhall, (ref. 19) in which a few well-sited roads
covering both estates were to provide access to
large detached houses with ample gardens. The
roads now known as Tulse Hill and Upper Tulse
Hill (marked on the plan as Lower Tulse Hill
Road and Upper Tulse Hill Road) had already
been built by Dr. Edwards before 1821. (ref. 20) and the
subsequent development on his estates followed
the lines shown in the plan. But Blades was
evidently not attracted by the scheme, and the
history of the two estates diverged.
TULSE HILL ESTATE
The development of Tulse Hill was largely the
work of Dr. Thomas Edwards (1775?–1845), a
legal writer who married Mercy Cressingham,
probably in 1811. Edwards studied at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, and took the degrees of LL.B.
and LL.D. in 1800 and 1805 respectively. He
later became a Fellow of his College and was
admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons. He
was a member of the Lambeth Church Building
Committee which supervised the erection of the
four “Waterloo” churches in the parish, and as
a Justice of the Peace for Surrey he interested
himself in social questions. He died at The
Grove, Carshalton, on October 29, 1845. (ref. 21)
In 1810 there was only one house on the
Edwards' land, Tulse Hill Farm, and there were
only very short frontages to the existing roads.
At first sight, therefore, it might have seemed
likely that no successful development would take
place so far south in the parish for some decades.
But in fact its pleasant situation on high ground,
combined with the enterprise of Dr. Edwards,
soon made Tulse Hill a flourishing residential
suburb.
Who designed the layout of the estate for Dr.
Edwards is not known. Chandler and Buckingham, the nurserymen whose plan of the Brockwell and Tulse Hill estates has been mentioned
above, may have been responsible, but Daniel
Gould was employed by Dr. Edwards as a surveyor from 1813 until at least 1842; Tulse Hill
was “parcelled out… for building ground” (ref. 22)
by Gould, and it is therefore more likely that he
suggested how the roads should run.
Dr. Edwards' first step was taken in 1814 when
he paid £500 for a thin strip of ground connecting
Brixton Hill with his land on Tulse Hill. (ref. 23)
Before 1821 he laid out two private roads, now
Tulse Hill and Upper Tulse Hill, which provided
access to a large part of his estate. They evidently
fulfilled a need, for they were both taken over by
the parish as early as 1822, and the tolls were
abolished. (ref. 20) At the north-west end of Upper
Tulse Hill the land alongside the road did not
belong to Dr. Edwards, and here a number of
small terrace-houses were erected on the western
side, mostly between 1843 and 1850. The
Edwards' estate was, however, exclusively for the
well-to-do. The land fronting the roads was
divided up into plots of varying sizes, and was let
on long leases of up to 99 years. Some of the
lessees took several adjacent plots and assigned
their interest immediately after the houses were
completed; but the plots were more often leased
singly, most of the houses on the estate being
detached. All the leases contained safeguards for
the preservation of the exclusive character which
the estate was intended to provide. No house
costing less than a certain figure (usually £700)
was to be built, a minimum distance from the
road was prescribed for each house, and no school,
shop, trade or manufactory was to be established
without permission; in some cases the lessee had
to undertake to pay a reasonable share of the cost
of making such drains and sewers as might be
needed in the future. (ref. 24)
In Upper Tulse Hill most of the early houses
were on the west side of the road and building
progressed southwards. In Tulse Hill building
began at the Brixton end of the road and progressed southwards, chiefly on the west side,
where by 1843 there was a continuous line of
houses, nearly all detached and many with coachhouses at the side, stretching up to the top of the
hill; all of these have now been demolished. By
1843, or just over 20 years after the development
of the estate began, there were some 125 houses
on the Edwards' property. (ref. 25) The success in the
19th century of this type of suburban development, catering for large families with ample
domestic service, was as striking as the rapidity of
its disappearance in favour of flats in the 20th
century.
After the death of Dr. Edwards in 1845 and
of his wife in 1851, most of the estate passed to
Mercy Edwards' brother, Jonah Cressingham.
The most important part of the estate still to be
developed was Page's Fields, comprising some
16 acres between Tulse Hill and Norwood Road.
This land was former copyhold land, part of
Lambeth Manor, which had been enfranchised
in 1844. (ref. 26) A road (now called Trinity Rise) was
built shortly afterwards connecting Tulse Hill
with Norwood Road.
Upper Tulse Hill
The houses on the Edwards' property on the
west side of this road and north of Roupell Road
were formerly in the parish of Lambeth but are
now in the borough of Wandsworth; they are
included in this volume because they have no
historical connection with Wandsworth. In 1829
Thomas and Mercy Edwards leased a plot of land
on the west side of the road to Sophia Pearce,
widow, together with a house lately erected
thereon. This house has since been demolished,
but in 1840 and 1841 Mrs. Pearce mortgaged
her property and Nos. 54 and 56, formerly Elm
Cottage and Scotia Cottage, were probably erected
shortly afterwards; (ref. 27) they were certainly standing
in 1843. (ref. 28) They are an undistinguished pair of
two-storey brick houses finished with a cornice
and blocking course. In 1820 the site of Nos. 58
and 60 was leased by Michael Gamon of Somerset
Street, St. Marylebone (who already had a head
lease of a larger area from Dr. and Mrs. Edwards)
to John Hebbes of Brixton Hill, builder, together
with the two cottages then in course of erection;
Hebbes was subsequently ejected and in 1824 the
two houses were leased to John Tame, yeoman. (ref. 27)
They are a stucco fronted two-storey pair sharing
a pediment. In 1823 Thomas and Mercy
Edwards granted a 99 year lease dating from
March 25, 1822, to Michael Gamon of land
and three houses “now erected and built or partly
erected and built thereon”. (ref. 29) Of these three
houses the sole survivor is No. 66, a two-storey
villa with wings which project forward at each
side of the central entrance; the stucco-faced
front is finished with a cornice and blocking
course. In 1822 Simon Dodd Guthrie was
granted a 96 year lease of land together with two
houses, Nos. 92 and 94 (Plate 59b, fig. 50) “then
erecting and building thereon”. (ref. 30) These are
semi-detached houses of three storeys above semibasements, with stucco-faced fronts unified by a
first-floor balcony and finished with a cornice and
blocking course. No. 92 was formerly known as
Eldon House; No. 94 is derelict. In the 1820s
houses of this type were being put up in large
numbers along Clapham and Brixton Roads, but
in the more prosperous neighbourhood of Tulse
Hill they were quickly superseded by detached
villas, mostly of two storeys. No. 100 Upper
Tulse Hill, formerly Laurel Bank (Plate 61b),
was erected under a 99 year lease granted to
William Andrews in 1824; (ref. 31) it is a two-storey
villa with a stucco front and a central porch with
Roman Doric columns; at the side is a coach
house with an arched entrance. Nos. 102 and 104,
formerly Leckhampton Villa and Percy Cottage,
were built under a lease granted to John Gamon
in 1820, when they were described as “lately
erected”. (ref. 32) No. 102, which has been altered,
retains an Ionic columned porch; engaged columns
of the same order flank the service entrance. No.
104 has wreaths on the frieze beneath its eaves
and a porch with coarse Greek Doric columns.
The land on which No. 106 stands was leased in
1826 to George Simson, upholsterer, together
with the house “erected and built or now erecting
and building thereon”. (ref. 32) It has a stock brick
front with canted bays at each side of a simply
pilastered entrance. The cast-iron gate standards
have anthemion and acanthus ornament. No. 108,
formerly Mountfield and now Kingsdown Cottage (Plate 60b), was built under a lease of 1830
granted to Daniel Wilson Davidson, (ref. 32) a solicitor
of Clement's Inn who also occupied the house. (ref. 33)
It has a neat stock brick front with round-headed
openings on the ground floor; the entrance is in
the centre and is flanked by Greek Doric columns.
Nos. 110, 112, and 114 (No. 112 formerly
Fitzroy Villa, No. 114 formerly Leiston House)
were built under one lease granted in 1843 to
Daniel Chambers of Brighton Terrace, Brixton; (ref. 34)
they were then described as lately erected. Nos.
112 and 114 have recently been demolished, but
they were very similar to No. 110, which is a
three-storey house having a central porch with
coarsely detailed Tuscan columns. No. 116,
formerly Parel Lodge, was built under a lease of
1826 granted to John Gubbs, an insurance broker
of Lloyds; (ref. 35) it is a two-storey house with a semibasement, stucco-fronted and having a central
porch with Greek Doric columns. No. 118,
formerly St. James Villa, is Identical in appearance
and was built under a lease of 1826 granted to
William Macfarland, who may perhaps be identified with “Wm. M'Farland”, an umbrella manu
facturer in the Strand. (ref. 36) Nos. 120 and 122
(Plate 61a, fig. 51), formerly Ormesby Cottage
and Nottingham Cottage (now Hollyhurst) respectively, were both built under leases granted to
William White, who is variously described as of
“Tulse Hill, gentleman”, and of Cheapside, hat
manufacturer. The lease of No. 122 was granted
in 1841. (ref. 37) It is a double-fronted house of two
storeys and a semi-basement, exceptionally well
maintained and very free from alteration. The
brick front is a simple and elegant composition,
the designer's care for detail being evident in
such things as the marginal panes of the groundfloor windows, which flank the Greek Doric
porch. A continued sill underlines the three firstfloor windows, and the low-pitched slated roof has
wide overhanging eaves. All the remaining houses
on this side of Upper Tulse Hill were built
shortly before 1843 and are not of much interest;
Nos. 134 and 136 are a pair of detached two-storey villas raised above semi-basements; both
have Greek Doric porches placed centrally, and
the ground-floor windows have marginal panes.
Figure 50.:
No. 92 Upper Tulse Hill, groundfloor plan
Figure 51.:
No. 122 Upper Tulse Hill, 1841. Lessee, W. White, hat manufacturer
On the east side of Upper Tulse Hill there was
no building until the 1840s, when Nos. 55, 57,
61, 67–75 (odd), formerly Nos. 41–55 (odd),
were erected. The standard of building was much
lower than on the west side, and the houses
erected are uninteresting; most of them have two
storeys with semi-basements and central entrance
porches carried on debased Tuscan columns.
Tulse Hill
On the east side of the road the only surviving
example of early building is No. 47, formerly
No. 13 and known as Adelaide Lodge, now
occupied by Sir Henry Tate's Nurses' Home,
which was probably erected about 1824. It is a
two-storey stock brick building with a semibasement, and has been much altered and enlarged.
Its central porch has key-ornamented pilasters,
and the windows have moulded architraves; the
ground-floor windows also have bracketed hoods
with paterae in their friezes. For the next quarter
of a mile there are no 19th century houses left
on this side; higher up the hill where the original
houses survive, the development was later, most
of Nos. 107–147 (odd), formerly Nos. 73–113
(odd), being built between 1850 and 1870. No.
107 (Plate 63a), formerly No. 73 and called St.
David's, was designed by Charles Hambridge of
Guilford Street, Russell Square, for Thomas
Cree, a solicitor in the firm of Cree and Last, of
Gray's Inn Square. The house was erected in
1865, and the lowest tender, which was submitted
by Messrs. Brown and Robinson, was for £4,223; (ref. 38)
it is now used by the London County Council as
a Day Nursery. The house has three storeys and
a semi-basement and is built of stock brick and
stone. Its full-blooded Victorian Gothic appearance is further enlivened by red and yellow bricks
used in the first-floor window arches, and by
vigorous foliated carving. Nos. 109–129 are
large three-storey houses of unostentatious design with central porches carried on columns.
Nos. 131–141, The Lawn, three identical pairs
of houses, have grey brick fronts of austere design
with narrow windows; there are Greek Doric
porches at the end of each pair. Nos. 143–147
are similar to Nos. 109–129 though No. 145
has been much mutilated.
On the southern side of the hill sloping down
towards Norwood, most of the houses are of late
date and larger than the earlier ones. No. 153,
formerly No. 119 and called Egremont House,
was designed by Charles Gray for Mr. R.
Griffiths, publican of the Duke of Sussex, Gibson
Street, Waterloo Road, (ref. 39) and was built in 1853.
The lowest tender, submitted by Rowland and
Evans, was for £2,101. (ref. 40) It formerly exhibited
the mixture of styles characteristic of mid 19th
century architecture, but after being severely
damaged by enemy action in the war of 1939–45
it was refronted and now has a Neo-Georgian
porch; the architect was Alister G. MacDonald. (ref. 41)
No. 155 (Plate 62b), formerly No. 121, originally
called Berry House and later known as
Silwood Hall, is now occupied by the St. Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls. It was
built in 1856–7 and its first occupier was
Edward Groves. Although much altered and
enlarged, it is still the most imposing house in
the road. It has a white stucco front of Italianate
Classical design, with three-storey pavilions at
each side of the two-storey entrance; the return
elevations are plain and faced with stock brick.
No. 157, called Kenilworth (Plate 63b), was
built in 1888 and was the last large house to be
erected in this once favoured area; the builder
was W. Rowe of Lansdowne Road, S.W., (ref. 42) and
its occupier in 1892 was Miles Simpson. Its
red brick exterior illustrates the rising influence of Norman Shaw's “Queen Anne” revival.
Lower down the hill stand two pleasant two-storey
detached houses with semi-basements. Nos. 181
and 183, formerly Nos. 145 and 147 and known
as Osborne Lodge and Woodlands respectively,
were built shortly before 1843. Both have central
porches, with Tuscan columns at No. 181.
Of the surviving houses on the west side of
Tulse Hill, No. 122, formerly No. 128 and known
as Fairfield or Fairfield House, is the earliest.
In 1825 Thomas and Mercy Edwards granted a
99-year lease to William Macfarland (see page
159) of land at Tulse Hill on which already stood
three houses. (ref. 43) The much-mutilated survivor is of
two storeys with semi-basement and an attic.
The stucco-faced front has shallow projecting
bays flanking a central porch supported by Greek
Doric columns.
Lower down the hill there formerly stood a
house built in 1847 by John Deane, a member of
the firm of G. and J. Deane, wholesale and retail
hardwaremen, cutlers and jewellers, of King
William Street; John Deane had ten shares in the
Independent Benefit Building Association, and
the cost of the house was partly met by an
advance of £750 from the Association. (ref. 44) Nos.
144–154 (even), two-storey houses with semibasements and attics (Plate 62a), were built in
1843, and were originally known as Prince of
Wales Crescent; No. 144 has lately been demolished, and No. 150 was totally destroyed in
the war of 1939–45. This group of houses
was probably an unsuccessful speculation; the
Tithe map marks them all as empty, and they
were still being disposed of in 1847, when James
Bailey, silk mercer, and Charles Hodgson, printer,
were granted a joint lease for 92½ years of No.
152 (formerly Guildford Lodge) and No. 158
(formerly Selwood Lodge); the latter is now
demolished. (ref. 45) In 1827 No. 166 (formerly
Silverdale Lodge) was leased by Dr. and Mrs.
Edwards to Robert Wiss of Fleet Street, engineer;
the house was enlarged in 1866. (ref. 46) It is a detached house of two storeys and a semi-basement,
with a stucco front. No. 168, formerly Woodbine
Cottage, is similar, and was probably erected
shortly before 1824; it has later enlargements.
Owing to the depleted state of the Rate Books
it has not been possible to plot the position of a
few houses whose origins have been discovered
from other sources. Two prosperous publicans
speculated on the Tulse Hill estate. In 1841
William Crow of the Prince of Wales, Brixton,
was granted a lease of a plot, (ref. 47) and in 1865 Ezekiel
James Bailey of the George Canning, Grove
Lane, Camberwell, and the Lord Palmerston,
Lordship Lane, Dulwich, erected an unspecified
number of houses. The latter commissioned an
architect, Frederick Chadwick of 71 High Street,
Croydon, and Westminster Chambers, Victoria
Street, to design the houses, which were built by
Walker and Co. at an estimated cost of £10,500. (ref. 48)
In 1867 Mr. O. Mullett, who lived at No. 108
Upper Tulse Hill, commissioned J. D. Hayton,
architect, to design a house whose estimated cost
was £1,115. John Daniel Hayton of 5 Whitehall,
was probably a relation of Daniel Hayton, builder,
of Effra Road. (ref. 49)
Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Rise
A church was needed to complete the development of the estate, and in 1855 Jonah Cressingham freely gave to the Church Building Commissioners the sites of what are now Holy Trinity
and the adjoining parsonage house. The church
accommodated 1,000 people and cost about
£6,000, Cressingham contributing over two-thirds of the money. It was consecrated on
February 5, 1856, (ref. 50) and the architect was T. D.
Barry (ref. 51) (Plate 14c, fig. 52).
The proposal to build this church and to assign
a Particular District to it evoked the vigorous
opposition of the incumbents of St. Matthew's
Brixton, and St. Luke's, Norwood. The former
protested that he had already lost the eastern
part of his District to St. Matthew's, Denmark
Hill, and Angell Town to St. John's, leaving his
large church with the poor area of Brixton and
the well-to-do area of Tulse Hill, now to be
removed. He alleged that Cressingham desired
a church merely as an adjunct of the development of his estate. The incumbent of St.
Luke's, Norwood, petitioned the Church Building Commissioners three times, protesting that
there was no need for the church (the population
of the proposed district being only 1,500 in 1853),
that there were no poor people in the proposed
district, and that the pew-lettings of his church
would be greatly diminished. But the Church
Building Commissioners overruled all these objections, and a Particular District was assigned in
1856. The unfortunate incumbent of St. Luke's
could only protest again at what he termed “so
unjustified a concession to private individual
interest”. (ref. 50)
Figure 52.:
Holy Trinity, Trinity Rise, plan
The church is in the Early Geometric Decorated style, with nave, transepts and a shallow
chancel with an apsidal east end. The nave is
spanned without intermediate supports. At the
west end there is a small organ gallery. The tower,
surmounted by a stone broach spire, stands at the
north-west angle of the north transept, with the
entrance lobby to the church at its base. The
church has a brick carcase faced with Kentish
ragstone; the dressings are of Corsham Down
Bath stone, and the steeply-pitched roofs are
slated. In 1951 three stained glass windows
representing the Creation, Redemption and Sanctification were put in the three-light windows of
the apse, to replace those destroyed in the war of
1939–45. The artist was Miss Clare Dawson.
The adjoining parsonage was built at the same
time and in the same style as the church.
BROCKWELL ESTATE
John Blades (c. 1751–1829), who in 1809 purchased 60 acres of land in Brixton from Richard
ogbourne (see page 155), was a wealthy glassmanufacturer with premises at Ludgate Hill. (ref. 52) His
business was founded in 1780–2 and, after his
death, was carried on under the name of Crook
and Jones, and later of Jones and Sons. (ref. 53) Blades
was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1812–13.
At his death in 1829 he left personal property
valued at about £140,000, as well as Severndroog
Castle near Shooter's Hill, premises in St. Bride's
Avenue, Fleet Street, and the estate at Brixton. (ref. 52)
Brockwell Hall
The Lambeth Manor Inclosure map of 1810
shows that the only building standing on Blades'
estate at Brixton was Brockwell Hall, which stood
near the present Norwood Road. Shortly afterwards Blades demolished this house, (ref. 54) and the
Rate Books show that between 1811 and 1813
he erected the present house (Plates 66, 67, figs.
53, 54) on top of the hill to the north-west. The
design of this house has been attributed to J. B.
Papworth, but there seems no reason to doubt that
D. R. Roper was the architect. In the Dictionary
of Architecture Papworth's son, Wyatt Papworth,
stated that between 1825 and 1832 his father
“designed and superintended Brockwell hall”, (ref. 55)
but as the house was undoubtedly built before
1825 this statement cannot be correct; moreover
in a later memoir Wyatt Papworth stated that
between 1824 and 1829 his father only “directed
repairs at Brockwell Hall, with some furniture”. (ref. 56)
Amongst the extensive collection of J. B. Papworth's drawings in the library of the Royal
Institute of British Architects there is only one
of Brockwell Hall—a copy of an original drainage
plan made in 1813. In Topographical Surveys
through Surrey, Sussex and Kent (1818) by James
Edwards, it is stated that Roper designed the
house; (ref. 54) Blades was a subscriber to this work and
paid for an engraving of Brockwell Hall to appear
in the book. The attribution to Roper must
therefore be regarded as reliable.
Brockwell Hall is prominently sited on the highest
ground in the south part of Brockwell Park.
The main building consists of a residential block, a
deep oblong in plan with its entrance front facing
north-west, and a service wing forming a narrower
oblong extending centrally from the southwest side. The small stable range, lying parallel to
the south-west face, is linked with the wing by
the walls enclosing the service court (fig. 53). The
residential block is compactly planned, the accommodation being contained in two lofty storeys
raised on a basement and having a small top-lit
attic in the roof. The service wing is also of two
storeys and a basement, but here the floor heights
are less.
Figure 53.:
Brockwell Hall, lay-out plan
Within the centrally placed portico on the
north-west front is a doorway opening into a
square vestibule, on the right side of which are
two doors, the first leading to the staircase hall,
and the second to a large room. The corresponding doors on the left side open to the large and
small drawing-rooms, these being linked by sliding
doors. The door facing the entrance opens to the
segmental-ended room that is expressed by the
central bow on the south-east front. The bedand dressing-rooms on the first floor follow an
arrangement similar to that of the ground floor.
The exterior of the house is a slightly meretricious design in the free Grecian manner of the
early 1800s. Generally, the walls are of “white”
brick, stone being used for the deep plinth, the
window-sills, the portico and balustrades, and the
main cornice with its blocking course. The
north-west, or entrance front is a symmetrical
composition of three wide bays, the main wall
of the middle one being slightly recessed. Centrally, on the ground storey, projects the portico,
raised on steps and having two pairs of Ionic plain-shafted columns supporting the entablature and
surmounting balustrade. The inside wall contains the segmental-headed entrance, set in a
rusticated stone face. The ground storey of each
flanking bay has a large rectangular window of
three lights, one wide between two narrow. Below
the delicately detailed wood frame is a stone panel
adorned with a fret, and above is a segmental
lunette of stucco modelled with scroll ornaments,
the whole being enclosed by a segmental-headed
opening in the brick face. Above is centred a
single rectangular window without any adornment. The middle bay has a similar window
above the portico, but this is set in a segmental-headed shallow recess. The simply moulded main
cornice is surmounted by a blocking course.
The north-east elevation contains two tiers of
three equally-spaced rectangular windows, those
to the ground storey having the simple dressing
of a cornice supported on scroll-brackets. The
south-east elevation is similar to the north-west,
described above, except that instead of the portico
there is a segmental bow containing three tall and
narrow rectangular windows. The bow is finished
with a simple cornice and surmounted by a balustrade. At the junction of the residential and
service blocks is a two-storeyed bay surrounded
by a cast-iron verandah of Victorian design. The
service wing elevations are extremely plain, with
two tiers of segmental-headed windows and a
brick cornice. The strange howdah-like turret
on the roof ridge is probably a Victorian addition.
Without the brilliance of Papworth's original
furnishings, the interior is disappointing. The
rooms generally have plaster cornices and ceiling
borders of stock Grecian pattern, common to
many houses of the period. The doors, of painted
deal, are more interesting in their detail and have
moulded architraves with ornamented stops. By
far the most charming feature is the square vestibule, with its shallow domed ceiling rising from
pendentives. (fn. a)
Figure 54.:
Brockwell Hall, 1811–13, details. The plan on Plate 66 shows the position of the numbered rooms
The stable range, a balanced composition with
a narrow two-storeyed centre flanked by three-bay wings, has segmental-headed windows similar
to those of the service wing. The courtyard front,
now altered, had two-bay loggias flanking the
central feature. At a short distance from the
house, near the lake, is a garden shelter consisting
of a four-bay portico with offices behind, a simple
and attractive design combining Classical and
Gothic motifs.
In the 1820s J. B. Papworth did a great deal
of work for Blades. He designed some elaborate
glassware which the latter was making for the
Shah of Persia, and in 1825 he designed a new
front for Blades' shop at Ludgate Hill. At the
Brockwell estate he directed the formation of
roads, drains and fences in preparation for the
development of the estate for building purposes.
[262] Brockwell (later Clarence) Lodge (Plate 65a) was
erected to his designs in 1825–6 (ref. 57) for the
occupation of Mrs. Emma Murray at a cost of
£5,000; (ref. 56) after Blades' death in 1829 the house
was left to his daughter Caroline Prodgers, wife
of the Rev. Edwin Prodgers, (ref. 58) first vicar of St.
Matthew's, Brixton. In 1828 Papworth designed
and superintended the erection of a pair of semidetached houses (Plate 65b) in an intended row
running parallel with Dulwich Road and called
Brockwell Terrace; the builder of this pair, which
was demolished in 1908, (ref. 59) was Thomas Burton
of Crispin Street, Spitalfields. (ref. 57) The death of
John Blades in 1829 put an end to further
development.
By his will Blades left Brockwell Hall to his
daughter Elizabeth Blackburn, wife of Joshua
Blackburn, of Russia-mat warehouse, Wormwood
Street, Bishopsgate, for their lives, and Clarence
Lodge to his daughter Caroline Prodgers and her
husband for their lives. Subject to these provisions
the whole Brockwell estate was left to Blades'
grandson, Joshua Blackburn. (ref. 58)
Brockwell Park
Towards the close of the 19th century large
numbers of houses were being erected in the
Brixton and Herne Hill area, and the population
was increasing by leaps and bounds. In 1888 the
Lambeth Vestry and the Metropolitan Board of
Works obtained statutory powers to buy land and
form a small park to be known as Raleigh Park
on the east side of Brixton Hill. (ref. 60) This scheme
was abandoned, however, in favour of acquiring
part of the very much larger Blackburn estate.
The property was now being administered by
Trustees on behalf of Joshua Blackburn. After
protracted negotiations the London County Council bought 78 acres of the estate in 1891 for
£117,000. (ref. 61) of this sum, the London County
Council contributed £61,000, Lambeth Vestry
£20,000, Camberwell Vestry £5,000, Newington
Vestry £6,000, the Charity Commissioners
£25,000, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
£500; the rest was provided by private subscription. The land, which was opened to the public
on Whit Monday, 1892, lay between Tulse Hill
and Norwood Road and included the mansion
built by John Blades which had hitherto been
known as Brockwell Hall. (ref. 62)
There was at first no entrance to the park from
the Brixton direction. The problem of improving
the access was complicated by the fact that the
large gardens of Clarence Lodge and Brockwell
House (erected between 1860 and 1870) which
barred the way to Brixton and Herne Hill were
still in private hands. In 1895 the tenant of
Clarence Lodge agreed with the Trustees to
exchange three much-needed acres of his garden
for three acres elsewhere on the estate. The
London County Council then bought this and a
very small piece of land on the Herne Hill side
and made a new entrance from Arlingford Road. (ref. 61)
The formation of the park was completed in 1901
when the London County Council bought the
remaining 43 acres of the Blackburn estate for
£64,500. (ref. 61) Of this sum the Council contributed
£32,250, the Camberwell Borough Council
£8,000, the Lambeth Borough Council £20,000,
Southwark Borough Council £2,500 and the
Brockwell Park Extension Committee £1,750.
This extension to the park was opened on
February 28, 1903. (ref. 63)
This handsome addition comprised the northern
part of the present park. Unfortunately nearly
half of the 43 acres was still subject to leases
granted by the Blackburn Trustees. The lease
of Clarence Lodge expired in 1907 and some
13¼ acres were then added to the park. (ref. 64) The
undistinguished buildings 100 yards south-east of
the southern end of Brailsford Road are all that
now remain of Clarence Lodge and its appurtenances. The lease of Brockwell House expired
in 1919 but owing to exceptional circumstances
created by the war it was renewed until 1922.
Upon the expiry of this new lease the house (which
was of no architectural interest) and most of its
outbuildings were demolished; the lodge a few
yards south of the swimming pool is the sole
survivor. (ref. 65)
Nos. 46, 48, and 56–66 (even) Brixton
Water Lane
The Lambeth Manor Inclosure map of 1810
shows William Winter as the owner of the land
on which these houses stand. The Land Tax
Assessment books suggest that about 1787–8
he purchased what is now the north-west section
of Brockwell Park and the site of these houses
from the descendants of the first Lord Onslow's
daughters. John Blades bought the site of Nos.
[264] 56–66 (Plate 60a) in 1819–20. These houses
were erected between 1816 and 1823. (ref. 66) They are
small two-storey terrace houses with stuccoed
fronts. No. 58, formerly Sussex Cottage, has a
porch with Tuscan-type columns; No. 56, formerly Kent Lodge, had a similar porch but it
is now mutilated. No. 60, formerly Olive
Lodge, has a valanced verandah borne on
slender cast-iron columns extending across its
ground storey. No. 62 (fig. 55) has an entrance
porch with Roman Doric columns supporting an
entablature adorned with triglyphs. No 64,
formerly Norwood Cottage, has a ground storey
trelliswork verandah with wreaths in the panels of
its frieze. No. 66 is somewhat coarsely detailed
and has canted bays at each side of its porch.
Figure 55.:
No. 62 Brixton Water Lane, ground-floor plan
Nos. 46 and 48 Brixton Water Lane, formerly [265]
Bayham Cottage and Meadow View respectively,
stand on an adjoining piece of Winter's land
which was not bought by Blades; they were
erected between 1830 and 1839. (ref. 66) This semidetached pair of two-storeyed cottages is chiefly
remarkable in having a front elevation that must
be related to Papworth's design for the larger
pair of houses of Brockwell Terrace (Plate 65b).
The composition is similar although the expression is much simpler. Plain pilasters divide the
central feature into two wide bays, each containing
a ground- and first-floor window. These rectangular openings are set without architraves in a
plain stucco face, horizontally divided by narrow
channellings, a sill-band, and the simple cornice
below the eaves. On each side, slightly recessed
from the central feature, is a lower two-storeyed
wing containing the doorway, with a rusticated
surround, and one ground-storey window.
St. Jude's Church, Dulwich Road
In 1867 Joseph Moore and Herbert Dalton
bought the land on which this church and parsonage house now stand from Joshua Blackburn for
£736, and in the following year they freely conveyed it to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (ref. 67)
On August 3, 1867, the foundation stone of the
church was laid by Joshua Blackburn, (ref. 68) who made
a generous contribution towards its cost. (ref. 69) The
architect was E.C. Robins, whose plans were
chosen after a competition in which twelve
designs were submitted. (ref. 70) The contractor was
John Kirk, (ref. 68) and the cost of the church, which
accommodated over 1,000 people, was £7,300. (ref. 71)
Mr. Plows carved the pulpit, reading-desk, and
font from designs by Robins. (ref. 72) The church was
opened for Divine Service on October 28, 1868, (ref. 71)
and a District Chapelry was assigned in 1869. (ref. 73)
The building was severely damaged by fire in
1923, and was restored by G. H. Fellowes
Prynne. (ref. 74)
Despite the fact that the design was chosen in
preference to eleven others, it is disappointing to
find that St. Jude's is a nondescript Victorian
Gothic church of conventional plan, having its
major axis running south-east to north-west in
alignment with Dulwich Road. The nave of five
bays is flanked by aisles ending in shallow transeptal projections, and the aisleless chancel is at the
north-west end. The exterior is of Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, the roofs of slate
having cast-iron crestings. The walls are buttressed and finished with corbel-tables, while the
windows generally are filled with Geometrical
tracery. In the north angle formed by the chancel
and transept rises a squat two-stage tower, surmounted by an ashlar-faced broach spire. The
arches of the nave arcades have voussoirs alternately of red brick and stone, rising from columns
with foliated capitals. Three bays of the east
aisle were enclosed in 1952 to form a chapel. The
rest of the church is still disused while extensive
war damage repairs are being completed.