Wanless Road by Paul Ashurst , Painting

Posted on April 14, 2015 by John

Paul Ashurst, Wanless Road, Watercolour www.paul-ashurst.co.uk

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A Mystery – the decorative scrolling on a Coldharbour Lane terrace

Posted on April 12, 2015 by John

Has anyone ever noticed the interesting decorative scrolling to be found on the terrace between 262-278 Coldharbour Lane.

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Perhaps the developer/builder was connected with the film industry in some way. There was for a few years a fledgling film industry in Loughborough Junction, when Gaumont opened a UK branch run by Col Alfred Bromhead who produced some shorts around 1899 in what was the Cricket Field used by the Loughborough Cricket Club.  They were apparently “fake” Boer War & China films. The studio was then moved in 1904 to Champion Hill where a number of shorts were produced.

Here is a close-up.

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All Photos : Nick Stevens, April 2015

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Milkwood Tavern, Milkwood Road, Public House

Posted on April 12, 2015 by John

The Milkwood Tavern was a public house that stood on the corner of Heron Road and Milkwood Road until 1966. A 99 year lease was purchased for 63 Milkwood Road on 24 June 1867 by three men : William Gilbee Habershon, Alfred Pile and James Hewitt. It was built in 1875 by Habershon & Pike and opened in 1876 and the 1st landlord was James Havil.

The next landlord was a T Barrett listed in the Post Office Directory as landlord from 1878. Mr SW Carter took over as landlord, again from the Post Office Directory and is listed through till 1919.

Reynold's Newspaper, 14 October 1900

Extract of a newspaper report from Reynold’s Newspaper, 14 October 1900. British Newspaper Archive, British Library.

You can clearly see the Carter name on Pub Fascia in the following postcard view.

Milkwood-Road-Milkwood-Tavern

This postcard view was printed on or before 1907. Published by AW Smith, I 919

Interesting to see all the houses running down the western side of Milkwood Road where now there are only light Industrial Estates. Milkwood Road and more generally Milkwood Estate was heavily bombed during WW2, the main target being the railway line.

This is the view from today.

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Photo: Nick Stevens, April 2015

Here is another postcard view from on or before 1911. No Publisher credit on card.

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And the same view from 2015

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Photo: Nick Stevens, April 2015

The Pub was closed in 1966 and demolished to make way for the Willowfield School which in turn was demolished in 2005 to make way for the Michael Tippett school which opened in 2008.

The Willowfield School originally shared the same site as Caldecot Primary School on Bessemer Road just in front of Kings College Hospital. Both schools were closed to allow KCH expansion including large car parks.

If you are interested in reading more about the Milkwood Estate development, there is a fantastic book published by the Herne Hill Society in 2009 titled Milkwood Estate The Story of a Lambeth Community.  It’s difficult to get hold of a physical copy however it can be read online via this link – http://issuu.com/hernehillsociety/docs/milkwood_estate

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