Clapham Common

This is the 8th station I have visited on the Northern line. It opened in June 1900 as the new terminus of the City and South London Railway. It remained the terminus until the Morden extension was opened in 1926.

As I got off the train I was surprised to see an island platform. This station and the next one at Clapham North are the only two deep level stations that have a narrow island platform. It is quite narrow and I wouldn't want to be here during peak times when there will be numerous passengers waiting for a train.

 

Stairs from the ticket hall are full of light from the domed window above.

The signs were restored in 1997

 

The station entrance was redesigned by Charles Holden in 1923-24. It was listed as a Grade II building in March 1981.

Across the road is the other exit/entrance to the station behind this very unattractive wall.

Next to the main entrance is a row of shops with a Waitrose food store.  I wonder if house prices and rental costs have increased as often happens when this supermarket is nearby. It is known as the 'waitrose effect' .

Above the store is this plaque. I'm not sure why it is so high up as it is impossible to read from street level. As stated this is where the Macaulay family lived. Zachary Macaulay was a member of the Clapham Sect who were believers in the abolition of slavery. Macauley went to the Caribbean in 1784, as a teenager, and took a job as an under manager of a sugar plantation in Jamaica.   On his return he became a member of the Clapham Sect, a group of Tories who opposed slavery and backed other causes such as penal reform and the abolition of capital punishment. William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament was also a member of the Clapham sect and an abolitionist. Macaulay used his first hand knowledge to inform Wilberforce who made speeches in Parliament. The slave trade was finally abolished in 1807.

I continued following the road, which is called the Pavement, round to the old town.

On the left was The Lodge built in 1868 as a fire station. It was built on land owned by the parish which had previously been used for the Parish lock up. A lock up was often just one dark cell used for locking up prisoners over night. In time the fire station was too small for the expanding village and in 1902 was replaced with a larger fire station. From 1912 it was renamed the Lodge and it became the Common Keeper's residence for Clapham Common. In 2004 it was sold and is now a private residence.

 Old Town has Clapham's most historic buildings. These three houses were built in 1706 as part of a large country estate. Clapham's earliest arrivals came from London to escape the Great plague of 1665/6 and then the Great fire of London in  1666. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, visited Clapham many times and moved there permanently in 1701. He praised the area for its good air and distance from the stench and noise of London. When he died in 1703 he left a legacy of £5 to the poor of Clapham and a series of mourning rings to Clapham residents.

With easy stagecoach connections, 19th century Clapham became one of the London's earliest city suburbs. By the 1820s horse-drawn buses ran regularly into central London. The population greatly increased with the arrival of the Underground followed by electric trams three years later. In 2014 regeneration of the Old Town took place creating a new square.

Next to the early 18th century houses is Maritime House. It was built as the headquarters of the National Union of Seamen in 1939 and is now owned by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). The building is divided up into offices and flats.

At the top of the building  are some large fish and a ship's prow.

Looking out over the new square is The Sun pub which was built in the 1820s. It was lucky to have escaped destruction during the bombing of WW2 as adjacent buildings were lost.

 

This area of Clapham had numerous eating places which I'm sure would be very busy in the evenings and at weekends.

On leaving  the Old Town I passed the Omnibus theatre. The theatre opened in 2013 following a seven year campaign by the local community to prevent developers buying this victorian building which was the old Clapham Library.

Next to the theatre is this residential building known as George West House. It was originally constructed in 1915-16 for the Ross Optical Company. The firm was founded in Clerkenwell in 1829 but moved to Clapham in 1891.In 1916 the Ross Optical company was permitted to build a large new factory building because the firm was considered vital to the war effort. Prior to the war many optical instruments were imported from Germany. The company produced a number of products that included microscopes, telescopes, binoculars, photographic lenses etc. The company ceased trading in 1975 when it was unable to compete with foreign competition. 

I crossed the road and walked onto the common. The first thing I noticed was this cattle trough. The metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was founded cattle troughs in 1859 to promote the provision of free drinking water for people and animals. It was started in London as a response to the filthy polluted water of the River Thames which was full of untreated sewage, rubbish and effluent from factories. Eleven years after the first fountain had been erected there were 140 fountains in place in addition to 153. The words cattle trough were added to the Association's official title in 1867 when the association decided it needed to help the plight of animals that were being brought to London markets without access to drinking water. By 1885 over 50,000 horses were drinking daily from the troughs in London. Today there is still a need for drinking water from fountains. In 2018 the mayor of London began installing the first of 110 new drinking fountains in an attempt to stop the use of plastic water bottles. By 2022 the busiest of the new fountains in Camden High Street was dispensing 227 litres a day.

Not far from the trough is the Temperance fountain. The purpose of these fountains was to  encourage people not to drink beer by giving them a free supply of safe water to drink. As coffee and tea were so expensive these drinking fountains were an obvious choice for the Temperance societies to provide. This one on the common depicts a woman giving water to a beggar and was cast by F. Millar of Munich. It was commissioned in 1884 but was not erected in Clapham until 1895. The statue had first been placed by London Bridge but the weight of the granite and bronze statue was causing cracks to appear in the arches of the bridge so it was gifted to Clapham.

In the north of the common is the Holy Trinity church. Built in the 1774-76 it was known as the base for the members of the Clapham Sect. They lived around the Common and were worshippers at the church. Just after it was built a fence was erected encircling the church which was very handy for the inhabitants of the local cottages to hang their washing on. As a consequence an order was made in Sept 1777  'That the Beadle be directed if he finds any cloaths hanging on the church fence to throw them off.'

Clapham Common is mentioned as far back as the Domesday book of 1086. It was originally common land for the use of commoners to graze their animals and  collect firewood. In 1877 the land was designated as 'a Metropolitan Common' which protects it from development and preserves its open character of not being enclosed land. The Common offers a wide range of sports including football, tennis, basketball, roller skating amongst others. There are three ponds/lakes. One of which is used for fishing. On a sunny, Sunday morning like today the Common is a magnet for dog walkers, runners and families.

In the middle section of the Common is the Windmill Inn. Named after a windmill which was recorded on this site in 1631. This building was built in 1790 and was used as a coaching inn where the horses would be changed and the passengers receive refreshments or even an overnight stay if needed. Once the railways arrived from the 1840s onwards the need for coaches decreased rapidly. In 1848 Young's brewery bought the Inn and it became one of the last to which their beer was delivered in a horse drawn dray. 

In the 1890s this row of houses was built to replace a grove of chestnut trees but other than this no other developments have encroached the Common.

 

I left the Common to go and explore some of the backstreets of Clapham and came across this unlikely building in the middle of a council housing estate. 

 There was no information nearby and so I had to wait until I was home before researching this incongruous feature. It turns out that this is a Georgian orangery, a place where exotic plants would have been grown as well as a place of entertainment. It was built in 1792 -3 by the grandson of William Thornton, a merchant who became a director of the Bank of England. His grandsoin, Robert, director of the East India Company was also a keen gardener and he was responsible for extending his grandfather's mansion and gardens here. In 1851 Thornton House was sold off and converted into the Notre Dame convent school which closed in 1939 and became derelict. After the war the council built a housing estate on the land.  One part of the mansion did remain however and that was the Orangery. It was given Grade II listed status in 1955 but unfortunately does not seem to have been used for anything since. I'm not quite sure what you could do with it but it does add a surprising element if, like myself, you wander around the back of Clapham to see what you can find.

I walked back to the High Street and came across the entrance to the deep level shelters constructed during  WW2. Four were built south of the River Thames and could accommodate 8000 people in each one. 

The underground farm, mentioned on the plaque,  was the brainchild of Steven Dring and his business partner Richard Ballard who began their urban farm of growing microgreens here in the deep shelter. LED lighting was the breakthrough that made it possible by giving enough warmth and light to grow a wide  range of leaves. The shelter was stripped, cleaned and painted. Bunk beds were replaced with stacks of giant draws of salad leaves. The crops consist of pea shoots, radish, mustard, coriander, parsley and rocket grown on capillary matting made from recycled carpet. There is a sophisticated irrigation and ventilation system in place. The underground farm uses 70%-90% less water and 95% less fertiliser than conventional farming. The farm focuses on supplying local supplies local people and businesses. It is also certified carbon neutral. 

This mock tudor building which used to be The Plough public house was rebuilt in 1920s. It is now a privately run pub known as The Stane Street Syndicate'. the name Stane Street comes from the old Roman Road that Clapham High Street follows which was called Stane Street by the Saxons.

This mural painted by Loretto is also on the High Street. The Dream Band is made up of Hendrix, Moon, Dylan, Presley and Lennon

The building with its semi circular window was built in 1914 as the majestic cinema. In 1960 it closed as a cinema and became a recording studio and bingo hall. The bingo hall only used the ground floor so this was sealed off and the upper gallery and balcony were converted into the recording studio. In 1985 it became a nightclub and although it has changed owners it is still a nightclub today.

I left the High Street and wandered down a couple of side streets. This building is the Postal Office which opened in 1902.

I am now on Venn Street which was developed in the 1890s. In 1910 the Electric palace cinema opened but by 1918 it had closed and the building was sold. The opening of a new cinema here in the 1990s led to the arrival of cafes, restaurants and an art gallery.

I can see why Clapham is popular with singles and families. It is an attractive and buzzy place on the doorstep of Central London just 10 mins on a tube to London Bridge. It is a lovely place to visit especially on a hot, sunny day like today. I sat outside the Picturehouse for a cool refreshing drink before going home. I had put my camera and phone away otherwise I would have taken a photo of a man (about 30ish) wandering past in his 'y' fronts and socks! Only in London!