Derelict buildings in the 1980s

[poster342002]

I remember there being loads of derelict houses all over Brixton and the Loughborough Road areas back in the early 1980s - and they looked like they'd been that way for decades. Does anyone know why there was so many derelict hosues then? Were they war-damaged buildings that had simply never been repaired? :confused:

I can remember one on Loughborough Road near Fiveways Corner that looked like it had literally crumbled in half, exposing the remains of the interior - you could see where the staircase had been (a blue diagonally-rising skirting board going up the remains, if that makes sense).

[lang rabbie]

I remember there being loads of derelict houses all over Brixton and the Loughborough Road areas back in the early 1980s - and they looked like they'd been that way for decades. Does anyone know why there was so many derelict hosues then? Were they war-damaged buildings that had simply never been repaired? :confused:

I can remember one on Loughborough Road near Fiveways Corner that looked liek it had literally crumbled in half, exposing the remains of the interior - you could see where the staircase had been (a blue diagonally-rising skirting board going up the remains, if that makes sense).

I have a vague recollection of a story that some of them were down to an elderly local landlord. He'd spent no money on maintenance for years. In his final years he stopped re-letting places as tenants moved out/died off. AFAIK he died intestate and with no known family.

There was one property (on Coldharbour Lane?) that Lambeth Council had to prop up with scaffolding, and no-one ever made a claim for it because the bill for fifteen years scaffolding hire exceeded the value of the ruined property.
I think they eventually managed to CPO that one.

[poster342002]

A curious and fascinating story...

[oryx]

Would it be because they had been CPO'd to make way for the proposed motorway that was meant to be built through Brixton but never was?

Loads of interesting stuff on the history/Brixton sections of the main U75 site.

[poster342002]

Would it be because they had been CPO'd to make way for the proposed motorway that was meant to be built through Brixton but never was?
Not sure, as they were all over the place pretty much randomly. lang rabbie's theory is possibly the one nearest to the mark.

[boohoo]

I can remember one on Loughborough Road near Fiveways Corner that looked liek it had literally crumbled in half, exposing the remains of the interior - you could see where the staircase had been (a blue diagonally-rising skirting board going up the remains, if that makes sense).

There is one near there that has been boarded up since I was a kid. Although most of the building was missing, two back rooms and a cupboard on the wall were still in place. They only recently cleared the site, the skip included a mangle!!! I have lots of photos at home of the site.

I grew up in Stockwell and there were alot of derelicted house around there when I was a kid. The house I grew up in had also been derelict in the 70s. There was a fair amount of war damaged buildings in that area.

[RushcroftRoader]

Didn't a bomb hit the Ritzy during the war?

[lang rabbie]

Would it be because they had been CPO'd to make way for the proposed motorway that was meant to be built through Brixton but never was?.

I think it is more likely that the landlord bought up a lot of property when the area was blighted by the plans for the Ringway motorway in the 60s.

[Bob]

The other thing to remember is that until the mid 80s inner London had had falling population for about 40 years so there was no real incentive to build on bomb sites or redo old buildings because there was no money in it. I was brought up in Pimlico in the late 70s / early 80s and it was similarly full of mouldering old buildings and a fair number of bomb sites.

[marty21]

wouldn't surprise if there was still war damaged buildings in the 70s, when i grew up in bath in the early 70s we used to play on in an old bomb damaged building

[newbie]

A few of the houses in LR were squatted in the 70s. Beautiful houses, great gardens. No idea who owned them though- I'd always assumed one or other council (Lambeth/GLC) until Rabbies post.

[Funki mamma]

Ah yes, there were some loverly squats in and around Brixton in the early to mid 80s too.

Wasn't difficult at all to get somewhere to live.

Oh shit, maybe tings were better then :confused: