London Local History - this lists street by street items of historical interest - public, industrial buildings & some environmental features in London and its immediate surroundings. Streets are given in OS grid squares - but numbering is not included (sorry!). Older squares give links to adjacent squares - but many are unfinished. Enter search words above right
CHRISTMAS IS COMNG, I suppose MY BOOKS – CURRENTLY AVAILABLE SHIPBUILDING IN GREENWICH – A shortish run through those who built ships in our Borough and they built on. It covers two Royal Dockyards, to those who built single sailing barges, and those who built into the 1990s. £10 GREENWICH PENINSULA - GREENWICH MARSH. A HISTORY OF AN INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND. This is a rewrite of my all time…
Post to the north Cricklewood The North London Line The north London line from West Hampstead Station turns south westwards Arial Road, Hebrew word for water spirit, built by British Land Company 1879 Barlow Road Built on the site of the Midland Railway’s West End Sidings – a marshalling yard and goods distribution centre. William Barlow was the Midland Railway’s engineer who built much of…
Post to the north Warwick Wold Post to the east - end of posts Post to the south Nutfield Brook Bletchingly Post to the west Nutfield Marsh Glebe Quarry Glebe Quarry. Work on the M23 in 1972 (not surprisingly) exposed fuller's earth when the motorway alignment intersected the A25. This stimulated extraction in the area north of the ridge between Nutfield Church and the line of the motorway. This…
Post to the north Nutfield High Street Post to the east Nutfield - Coopers Hill Roa d Post to the south South Nutfield Post to the west South Nutfield Kings Cross Lane - Kings Mead Estate Housing Estate on old industrial land Brick and tile works . This site operated until about the beginning of the 20th century but eventually became used by the Nutfield Manufacturing Co. Ltd. A brick and tile…
Post to the east Nutfield Post to the south Nutfield High Street Nutfield Marsh Leather Bottle Cottage. Warm texture Peyton’s Cottages 18 th terraces Canal Cottage on Nutfield Marsh has a name which stands as a reminder of various canal schemes but it was built in the late 17th century though modified later. These canal schemes had in common that they would have passed through the marshes in the…
Post to the north Nutfield Marsh Post to the east Nutfield Bletchingly Post to the south Nutfield Station Post to the west Nutfield Cormongers Blacklands Meadow Park Works. Park works was a collection of brick buildings from the 19th constituting a processing plant. It was demol ished in 1988. The cleared site is behind the old village school on the north side of the A25 in Nutfield village. Park…
Post to the east Nutfield High Street Cormongers Lane Cockley Works. Fullers Earth Works. Side trails on the mine. Large pits were worked here for over 100 years into the 1980s but the plant was stripped out in 1981 and finally demolished in 1988. The pits were then used for land fill which was completed in 1993 and the site landscaped. Fullers Wood Lane Green Hut. This stood at east corner of…
Royal Earlswood Hospital . This was a huge building with a central tower. It was originally the Earlswood Institution for Mental Defectives founded in 1847 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1862. It was considerably enlarged in 1870, and in 1903 new buildings meant they could take 600. The site had its own waterworks, gas works and electric generators. Closed in 1996. Staff Recreation Block.…
Gatton Park Road This is on the line of the 1804 turnpike road. Monson Road 99 was Parkes Cycle Works
Batts Hill. Cast iron signpost at junction of Croydon Road Batts Hill House. British General Insurance Co. moved there in the Second World War Gatton Park Road This is the line of the 1804 turnpike road. There was a tollgate here at Wray Common. Only removed in 1964. Wray Common Windmill. Brick tower mill 1824. East Anglian style. Closed 1928. Restored with sails, ogee cap, fantail and gallery, no…
Dovers Green Road Crawley Road. First Surrey Road to be improved 1696, as a saddle horse road but not for carriages until 1755. In 1820 the gradient was lowered Sandcross Lane Junction Milestone Woodhatch The Angel. 1650 Almost like a folly.
Bell Street Reigate Park. Open space Cockshot Hill Crawley Road. First Surrey Road to be improved 1696 as a saddle horse road but not for carriages until 1755. In 1820 the gradient was lowered Lesbourne Bus Station . The front became an office development.
Frenches Road 145 Smithy 19th connected with Battlebridge Brick and Tile Works on site of Westway Gardens. Sand and gravel works Redhill sand caves. impressive cave opening, fire fuller’s earth. Folkestone sand and bed of ironstone. stream going through the whole system Kent underground research group 1989, British Industrial sand
Allders Road Juneberry 1955 Alma Road Bell Street Lesbourne watercourse crossed the street but was culverted when the turnpike road was built in the early 19th Reigate Priory . 18 th mansion on site of the Priory of the Austin Canons. Said that under the staircase is the entrance to a secret passage to the castle. In 1771 and again in 1775 Wesley preached in what was known as The Priory, but then…
Colley Lane Pavilion Cottages. Lutyens. Cottage at either end and cricket pavilion in the middle North Albert Road White Stevenson Ltd. 1921 made food flavourings. Tangye twin cylinder steam pump, Howden high-speed engine and a Pearn vacuum pump Nutley Lane 8 Nutley Hall Park Lane 3,4,8 Inglenook. mine remnants in the back gardens. The Inspector of Mines recorded that the mine was being worked…
Pilgrims Way perhaps the best-known footpath in the country. The ancient trackway runs under dark groves of ancient yews as it wanders along the foot of Colley Hill, towering above you on the left.
Buckland Road . Flat Victorian letterbox. Reigate Heath Bronze age burial mounds Flanchford Road Reigate Heath windmill. Round house is a chapel. Internal machinery still there. 18th century. Restored by council for £3,500 in 1964. Last used 1868. Decorative sweeps. Post mill from 1765 converted to a chapel in 1880 after not being used for 12 years. Could not have worked efficiently on its present…
Cliftons Lane Buckland Tileworks. These were situated north of the railway and were served by the siding, which was also connected to the sandpits. The sidings and works were extended during World War II when they were used as a munition store. Later the remaining buildings were used for storing theatrical scenery and now they are used for agricultural purposes. Colley Pit Buckland Sandpits Here…
Buckland Population 530 in the 1950s. A pretty village with a green and pond. St.Mary’s Church , 1860 rebuilt in 14 th style. Woodyer. Picturesque old timber belfry Spiral staircase to it. 1380 glass with Peter and Paul and other stuff silver stained glass with virgin and child. In dark Bargate stone, very pretty. Victorian church building at its best. Stained glass. Ironstone, in the Decorated…
Tapwood Pit Buckland Sandpits Here the Folkestone Beds of the Lower Greensand spread over a wide area and the grain size and chemical composition of the sand make it particularly suitable for glass manufacture. The operation at Buckland, which used to be one of the largest employers in the village, was started in 1925 by the grandfather of the present owner; however since 1978 the operation has…
Broome Park . Plain 19 th Ashlar Front Temple in the grounds. Circular and domed. brick-built ice house 100 yards north of the house near the site of an old pond. It is built into an earth mound under trees with the tunnel entrance facing north. Except for the missing doors the ice house appears to be complete, although the chamber was filled with rubbish when examined
Buckland Pylons. The scheme for the transmission system for South Eastern England was outlined in the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1926. This entailed the provision of bulk supplies at 33kV to Epsom, Dorking, Reigate and Leatherhead from Croydon Power Station. By 1930 an arrangement was in place to supply the JEA from Croydon Corporation to Epsom, and by the end of the year the JEA took supplies at…
Wellhouse lane Manor Cottage. The Front Range has been dated to 1588-9. The main range is timber framed with brick infill, now covered in lime render. In 1634 the house was part of the manor of East Betchworth. An apotropaic offering to ward off evil influence or ill luck found in the southern inglenook was dated to the late 18th. By 1843 the house had been divided into two, but by 1871 it was…
Railway Brockham Sidings. Sidings left the north side of the railway to serve limeworks, brickworks, hearthstone mines, and sand pits. The arch under the line by Pilgrim's Cottages took the siding to the sand pits. There were extensive railways in the area to serve the various industries, with a siding, built in 1867, connecting to the main line between the level crossing and the cattle arch by…
Fort Road Betchworth Fort Situated at the top of the Downs above Brockham Limeworks, access from Fort Road . The fort, cottage and land were sold back to Deepdene Estates by the government around 1909 and the fort buildings were lived in at least from 1921, when Deepdene Estates sold the property, until 1983. The caretaker's cottage has always been inhabited but the fort is now a store. The…