Clapham South

This is the 7th station I've visited on the Northern Line. This was the first of the seven stations built as the Morden extension of the City and South London Railway, which I have now visited. They were all designed by Charles Holden. The station was refurbished in the 1990s with new flooring, tiling and CCTV. The Charles Holden features were either restored or reproduced. Unlike the previous two stations there was no classical music being played here.

The black tiling on the passageways reflects the colour of the line on the Underground map. 

The ticket hall was flooded with natural light from the two octagonal windows set in the roof.

The usual Holden feature of the large window with the Underground roundel at its centre

The apartments above the station were a later development, built in the 1930s. Unlike the previous two stations which had two station buildings, Clapham South just has one.

 It is easy to see the familiar Holden features of the white Portland stone and large roundels to make it obvious that this is an underground station.

As soon as I exited the station it immediately looked much more pleasant and green as you face Clapham Common. 

 Clapham South is one of eight London Underground stations with a deep-level air-raid shelter beneath it. Four were built north of the river Thames and four built south of the river. As I looked across the common I could see one of the entrances.

This is one of two entrances to the shelter. It was restored in 2012 with funding from Tesco superstore on Clapham High Street just across the road from here. Along with the other deep level shelters it was constructed in the early 1940s to protect the civilian population from increased bombing during the London Blitz.

Each shelter was designed in the form of two parallel tubes of 16.5 feet diameter and 1600 feet long and placed below existing station tunnels at Clapham South, Clapham Common, Clapham North and Stockwell with another four north of the River Thames. Each tube was originally designed with two decks fully equipped with bunk beds, medical posts, kitchens and sanitary facilities to accommodate 9600 people. This was later reduced to 8000 to improve accommodation standards.

Each set of tunnels had two entrances at the surface, each consisting of a circular concrete 'pillbox'. with a square brick ventilation shaft on the roof fitted with a gas filter.This is the other entrance which has been renovated and a block of flats built next to it. It is known as The Drum, for obvious reasons.

On 21 Oct 1942 Clapham South and Clapham North were made available to the public. From planning to opening it took less than two years with most of the digging done by hand. Access was primarily by stairs rather than lifts as studies showed that 8000 people per hour could negotiate stairs whereas lifts could only carry 1000 per hour. Canteens were provided with cakes and sandwiches that were prepared by London Transport and delivered on trains called 'refreshment specials'.

After the war Clapham South shelter was used for billeting troops and then was used again in 1948 as the temporary home for the very first immigrants from the Caribbean who arrived on the ship MV Empire Windrush. En route from Australia the ship called at Kingston, Jamaica in May 1948. An advertisement had previously been placed in Jamaica's Daily Gleaner offering transport to Britain, for a fare of £28.10s for anyone who wanted to come and work here. Many of the 492 who arrived in June 1948 already had somewhere to live but those who didn't were housed here at Clapham South deep shelters. Many found work in the National Health Service, some worked in local factories and mills but by far the largest employer was London Transport. The actual time the shelters were used by immigrants was relatively short but the impact of their arrival was long lasting, forming the origins of South London's multi racial community today. The shelters were again used as hotel accommodation for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and for visitors to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. 

 

Since 2016 you can visit the shelter through London Transport Museum's Hidden London tours. The 75 min tour costs from £38.

 This building, next to the drum, closed as the Odeon Cinema in 1972, it reopened in 1974 as an Asian cinema and renamed Liberty. This closed in 1979. The auditorium was gutted to make way for an indoor market and then demolished around 1885. The frontage has been kept and it is now a Majestic wine warehouse with flats above and to the side.

I continued walking down Balham Hill. New apartments built here but the facade of the old stables has been kept with the pig weather vane above.

This department store specialises in luxury garden furniture. It wasn't the items on display that caught my eye but the door knockers.

If I continued down this road, I would arrive at the previous station of Balham, so  retraced my steps back towards the Common

Lots of interesting cafes and coffee shops to explore.

Always enjoy a sense of humour.

There are a number of large houses built overlooking the common. The wide pavements and tree lined streets gave a great feeling of space and greenery.

The chimneys caught my eye on this building.

In the late 1700s Clapham was a fashionable place for country residences and city merchants built a number of mansions around the Common. Few of these still remain although the houses that replaced them are large and imposing residencies. 

One such Mansion was Eagle House built in 1773. It had three floors with wings to either side which faced the common. At the back was a substantial garden with ornamental lakes and a carriage drive to the front. After 1889 the estate was sold and most of the buildings were demolished to make way for more houses. However this small part of the estate still remains.

It was a glorious day of sunshine and blue skies. The perfect weather for a picnic on the common. I went off and bought a sandwich and some fruit and found myself a cosy little spot to sit and admire my surroundings. One of the most interesting features of London/ Greater London is just how green it is. Roughly 47% of Greater London is classed as 'green'. 33% of London is natural habitats within open space according with the additional 14% being private gardens etc.

I very much enjoyed my visit to  Clapham South, greatly helped by the weather.