THE BRIXTON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Spring, March/ April 2017 No.225, Quarterly issue, Distributed free to members. Registered with the London Forum of Amenity Societies, Registered Charity No.1058103, Website: www.brixtonsociety.org.uk Our next open meeting Thursday 8th June: Annual General Meeting Brixton’s new post office and the restored old 7 pm at the Vida Walsh Centre, fire station in Ferndale Road (C940-F17-17.jpg) 2b Saltoun Road, SW2 Time again to report on what we have been Spot the post-box! doing over the past year, collect ideas for the In our last issue we referred to the square year ahead, and elect committee members to post-box in Electric Avenue without realising carry them out. More details from the that it had been removed during the re-paving Secretary, Alan Piper on (020) 7207 0347 or works. The consensus from a flurry of e-mails by e-mail to [email protected] among members was that a more practical place to put it back would be outside or near We plan to get out more! the relocated Ferndale Road post office, as With the first signs of Spring, our thoughts turn above, where there is none at present. to how we can get out around our area, to Curiously a pillar box still remains in Acre Lane meet new people and touch base with existing outside where Brixton’s main post office stood members. We have already applied for our until a flying bomb destroyed it in June 1944! spot at the Lambeth Country Show, which has (This incident was reported a year ago in crept forward to the 15/16 July weekend. Newsletter No.221.) Should we also turn out for the Myatt’s Fields Park Fair on 17 June or for one of the events at Brixton Windmill? Or if you would like our Our first Summer Walk: presence at another local festival or street Sunday 21 May - Ferndale party, we need early notice to line up our Meet at 2-30 pm outside Clapham North volunteers. Station (Northern Line) to explore the area Remember also that on the second Saturday between Clapham Road and Acre Lane. of each month, we run a stall as part of the Based on Brixton Heritage Trails 2 & 3 Makers’ Market in Station Road for a couple of On bus routes 88, 155, 322, 345, P5, also hours prior to our Market Walks – next dates close to Clapham High St. (Overground). are 11 March & 8 April - see page 2. 1 Diary of Events, Spring & Summer 2017 Society Meetings The Executive Committee Friday 24 March – usually meets on the second Utopia London Thursday of the month to Screening of a feature- plan activities and agree our length documentary from responses to current issues. Editorial Notice: 2010 on the post-war Meetings are at 7 pm at the Space permitting, we try to rebuilding of London, doors Vida Walsh Centre, 2b feature local events and open 6pm for 7-30 start, Saltoun Road, SW2 (at the publish reminiscences or tickets £3, at the Cinema Effra Road end, facing enquiries in our newsletter. Museum, 2 Dugard Way, Windrush Square). We welcome news and (off Renfrew Road) SE11. comments from all who are The Cinema Museum 13 April interested in the Brixton 11 May area, so opinions expressed Monday 27 March – 8 June (AGM) in these pages are not Up in Smoke 13 July necessarily those of the Failed dreams of 10 August Brixton Society. Battersea Power Station: 12 October Peter Watts relates the All material should be sent history of successive plans to the Secretary, Alan Piper, for the power station site Market Walks 82 Mayall Road, SE24 0PJ, between its closure and the Our guided walks round the or by e-mail to present development. Starts market area continue on the [email protected] at 8 pm (doors open 7 pm) second Saturday of every Our next issue will appear in at Omnibus, the former month, at £3 including the mid-June, so please send in Clapham Library, 1 North illustrated booklet of the before the end of May. Side, SW4. route. Tickets are best booked in advance via Clapham Society marketwalks@brixtonsociet Links with Other y.org.uk Groups Sunday 9 April – Walks start from Brixton Please check directly with God and Mammon in Station Road at 2-30 pm the organisers if any queries the City and take about 80 minutes. over times or admission. A circular walk around the heart of the City of London, Sunday Walks Secret Underground passing St. Paul’s Cathedral We join with other amenity London and the Bank of England. societies to offer a wider Talk by Nick Catford Meet at the north entrance range of guided walks on including catacombs, to Blackfriars Station, on most Sundays through the bunkers and former Tube Queen Victoria Street, EC4. summer – the full list should stations, on two dates: (Thameslink or Circle line) be enclosed with this issue. Lambethans Society Monday 20 March: Brixton Windmill starts 8 pm at the Thursday 18 May - Guided tours and other Woodlawns Centre, 16 Lambeth’s lost events are about to start up Leigham Court Road SW16. buildings again, on at least one Streatham Society Illustrated talk by Edmund weekend a month from 25 & Bird, Heritage Adviser to the Wednesday 12 April: 26 March – see the Mayor of London, 7-30 pm 7-30 pm for 7-45 start, Friends’ website for further at Upper Norwood Library, Herne Hill United Church details: Westow Hill SE19. Hall, corner of Herne Hill www.brixtonwindmill.org/ Norwood Society and Redpost Hill, SE24. visit Herne Hill Society AdvN\BSN\ Apr 17 Diary.doc 2 Planning and Development Whatever happened to In contrast, proposals for a Herne Hill Plan have been proceeding in secrecy, and details Neighbourhood Plans? of their proposed boundary have only recently leaked out. We had already heard of concerns At the end of 2015 there was controversy from Loughborough Junction Action Group and over proposed boundaries for the Tulse the Norwood Forum about the area being Hill Neighbourhood Plan, proposed by the claimed by the Herne Hill Forum. Now to our Tulse Hill Neighbourhood Forum surprise we find them laying claim to Trinity (Newsletter 220). Rise (created as part of the original Tulse Hill Estate) and to the seat of the April 1981 More than a year later, there is still no clear Brixton Riots in Railton Road, but excluding map of the Plan boundaries, but some ideas the Peabody Estate in Rosendale Road, are now emerging from local discussions despite its Conservation Area status. In the during 2016. Left to market forces, new next few months, turf wars seem more likely development would only be housing, but than constructive plan-making! residents have already identified the need to find space for small businesses, particularly start-up enterprises, and to include recreation facilities, particularly for young people. The early stages of making the Tulse Hill Plan were assisted by Locality and Aecom, but nobody at Lambeth appears to be looking after Neighbourhood Plans at present – leaving several loose ends to tie up, such as the map. There is a great deal of work still to do, such as tweaking existing Council policies for issues 309-313 Brixton Road, by Peckford Place, in such as use of shops or Rush Common land the Brixton Road Conservation Area along the east side of Brixton Hill. There is a C876P-12.jpg growing risk that the Territorial Army Centre in Upper Tulse Hill may be sold for new housing, and local policies need to ensure that other Conservation Areas facilities are also included. Cressingham 50 years on Gardens Estate remains under threat, and Conservation Areas (CAs) have now been part older estates in turn may face redevelopment. of the Town Planning tool-kit for 50 years, so Further consultations will resume as the the London Forum of Amenity Societies weather warms up and people are more willing reviewed them at a recent meeting, including to come out for events. Local support for the speakers from Heritage England and amenity final plan is critical – last year there was a big societies covering some of the pioneer areas. upset in the small world of Neighbourhood The first London examples were in Highgate, Planning because for the first time, residents St. John’s Wood and Bedford Park, while the of a provincial area decisively rejected “their” earliest locally were on our northern fringe plan at the Referendum stage. (Stockwell Park, Vassall Road and northern In the meantime, the Forum’s new website parts of Brixton Road) designated in 1968, includes a section dedicated to the followed by Brixton Water Lane in 1969. Neighbourhood Plan, with the opportunity to The emphasis from the outset has been on the feed in ideas or ask questions – go to group value of buildings which may not www.tulsehill.london and follow the links, or individually qualify for heritage listing, but as a e-mail to [email protected] whole have distinctive character worth saving. AdvN\ BSN\ Apr 17 Planning.doc 3 Planning and Development Planning permission is required for any Conservation officers have long been reluctant demolition, and for tree surgery. New buildings to allow any involvement by local societies or within or around a CA should respect the residents, perhaps to make themselves more existing character. It has long seemed to me indispensible in the prevailing climate of cuts! that CAs tend to fall into 3 types: Alan Piper. Firstly, estate developments with a consistent style, or constructed within the same time- Redesigning Atlantic Road frame.