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Brixton history - why did it decline after its '20s heyday?

editor said:
Job offers on London's public transport was definitely one of the incentives, but I've not heard of anything specifically related to Clapham Junction.
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Here's an answer:

"The new arrivals were given temporary accommodation in the deep tube shelter on Clapham Common, which had previously been used as a bomb shelter and to house prisoners of war. Brixton was the nearest place for work and socialising, and the Mayor of Brixton extended a particularly warm welcome to the new arrivals."

It's from this explanation of the link between the Empire Windrush and Windrush Square: www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conInformationRecord.42

I think I probably got the bit of Clapham Junction misinformation from the notorious fantasist and self-appointed tour guide who runs the Juice Bar.
 
During the 1981 riots - the posh gentlemen outfitters called Dune and Co was burnt down. The fact it was there, meant people were shopping in it. C& As also went after the riots and it wasn't long before BHS disappeared. Bon Marche tried to re-open and failed.
 
nick h. said:
Here's an answer:

"The new arrivals were given temporary accommodation in the deep tube shelter on Clapham Common, which had previously been used as a bomb shelter and to house prisoners of war. Brixton was the nearest place for work and socialising, and the Mayor of Brixton extended a particularly warm welcome to the new arrivals."

It's from this explanation of the link between the Empire Windrush and Windrush Square: www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conInformationRecord.42

I think I probably got the bit of Clapham Junction misinformation from the notorious fantasist and self-appointed tour guide who runs the Juice Bar.
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I said this back at the beginning of the thread!!! godamit!! POST 13!!! (unlucky for me cos no-one read it...:()
 
zenie said:
Did I say that? Where are you getting all this from?

No, the rich people move out bacsue they don't want to live there anymore. :confused: Whether that's totally down to not wanting to be around blacks I don't know....

Racial harmony back then isn't what it is now though ey?
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Lots of the black people I grew up with moved to the suburbs -its just that if people have a choice the don't always want to stay in the city...
 
bluestreak said:
So why did Brixton decline then? Planning blight?
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In a nutshell:

The area was bombed substantially during WW2, leading to a severe housing crisis with privately rented accommodation already in decline.

Knackered privately rented houses were often sold to cash-strapped occupiers, while some houses on the end of their leases were left to quietly fall about as landlords tried to squeeze the last few bob out of the property. Slum clearances followed with Council housing filling the gaps.

Oiky council tenants + tatty buildings = middle class flight.
 
zenie said:
Did I say that? Where are you getting all this from?

No, the rich people move out bacsue they don't want to live there anymore. :confused: Whether that's totally down to not wanting to be around blacks I don't know....

Racial harmony back then isn't what it is now though ey?
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I'm getting confused, this thread hasn't really answered the OP. e2a Maybe it has now.

--------------

It's also shown me that some of the stuff i thought I knew about Brixton's history was wrong. i thought the decline was before the immigrants moved in.
 
I think Brixton's decline in population in the twentieth century was due to general trends across London (and probably the whole country) of people moving out of inner cities to what were perceived to be more pleasant suburban areas where they could afford to rent or buy larger houses. This trend was aided by the growth of public transport which made commuting into central London from locations in Surrey, Kent and Sussex easier.

Also it was due to changing employment patterns - the availability of transport meant that factories and other large scale employers no longer had to be near the populations they served so factories shut down in Brixton and moved out to places like Croydon and beyond where the cost of land was cheaper.

And of course wartime bombing meant that many people were forced to leave the area in search of new housing.

All this resulted in a decline in the population in inner city areas of London both in terms of population and in terms of prosperity.

When immigrants started arriving from the British empire in teh late 1940s onwards it was therefore logical for them to go to areas which were cheap and had available housing - areas like Brixton, Peckham, Notting Hill etc etc.
 
editor said:
In a nutshell:

The area was bombed substantially during WW2, leading to a severe housing crisis. Privately rented accommodation was already in decline.

Knackered privately rented houses were often sold to cash-strapped occupiers, while some houses on the end of their leases were left to quietly fall about as landlords tried to squeeze the last few bob out of the property. Slum clearances followed with Council housing filling the gaps.

Oiky council tenants + tatty buildings = middle class flight.
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Looking at the photos taken in the 60s of area about to be listed for conservatio, it's amazing what a bad state so many of these places where in. Even if you were middle class, with a bit of money, do you re-build your bomb damamged place or find a new home in the suburbs.

Still, lot of areas of posh houses with fairly comfortably off people living in and around Brixton during 70s/80s...
 
ok: so if i remove the poor public transport thing and make amedns, can it be said that the decline took this form:

early 40s: ww2 bombings affect brixton badly leading to poor quality and low cost housing and many richer brixton types moving out to the futher suburbs.
late 40s: immigrant community moves in taking advantage of this housing.
50s: planning blight as major estates may result in much of brixton being bulldozed? also probably racism is a thing to that prevents wealthier middle classes from moving in en masse? espcially seeing as race riots in other "black areas"
60s / 70s estates built? were these seen as improving the area to outsiders and investors?
80s: more race riots, thatcherism not giving a shit about the poor.
 
boohoo said:
Still, lot of areas of posh houses with fairly comfortably off people living in and around Brixton during 70s/80s...
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Some absolutely beautiful housing was lost around Brixton in the 60s. Victorian architecture was seen as old fashioned, stuffy and not worth the expense of repair, and some stunning buildings were demolished to be replaced by cheap and cheerful housing stock to fill the demand.
 
editor said:
Some absolutely beautiful housing was lost around Brixton in the 60s. Victorian architecture was seen as old fashioned, stuffy and not worth the expense of repair, and some stunning buildings were demolished to be replaced by cheap and cheerful housing stock to fill the demand.
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and that still goes on today! :(
 
nick h. said:
Everyone knows about Brixton's glorious past - the huge town hall, beautiful houses, department stores etc...the place was once awash with money. But why did it decline? Does it have something to do with WWII bomb sites being filled with badly planned council estates? Or what?
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Back in the days before the clean air act, most of London's middle classes lived in the sort of large Victorian properties in Brixton and other genteel suburbs that needed a maid to keep them clean because of the levels of grime from coal smoke.

Electrification of the outer suburban rail services combined with cheap money for house-building meant that throughout the 1930s a lot of families could afford to move to newly built properties with "all mod cons" and fresh air. Some Brixtonians moved no further than Streatham and Norwood - which were filled with new semis in this period - but many others migrated to the larger properties in the leafy outer suburbs of the Surrey/Kent borders.

The larger properties in Brixton got carved up into lodging house and bedsits.
 
editor said:
Some absolutely beautiful housing was lost around Brixton in the 60s. Victorian architecture was seen as old fashioned, stuffy and not worth the expense of repair, and some stunning buildings were demolished to be replaced by cheap and cheerful housing stock to fill the demand.
Click to expand...

i think London in general lost a hell of alot of beautiful buildings to ugly housing stock designed by town planners who would never have to live in them ( and probably didn't live in the are either)

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=landmark_fullsize&id=5020

The link shows the area that is now Stockwell Park Estate. There are none of those houses remaining.
 
Nope! My parents live on the corner of Stockwell Park Road and Robsart Street/Sidney Road and it's none of the houses in the picture.

And from that point going all the way through the estate to Brixton, there are only a few houses left (some old almshouses nearer the Brixton end). The archives have it wrong!!!!!:mad:
 
boohoo said:
Nope! My parents live on the corner of Stockwell Park Road and Robsart Street/Sidney Road and it's none of the houses in the picture.

And from that point going all the way through the estate to Brixton, there are only a few houses left (some old almshouses nearer the Brixton end). The archives have it wrong!!!!!:mad:
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Didn't Violette Szabo live there as well?
 
boohoo said:
She lived off St Martin's Road which is off St Micheals road nr Sidney road... but as you can see I can't remember the street name....:(
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ah right. I always thought she lived on Stockwell Road/Stockwell Park Road.

Can't remember what road they showed on Carve Her Name with Pride but it probably wasn't in London. It was probably in Liverpool :D
 
Burnley Road... ..The shot at the end of the film is from Stockwell road, looking down Burnley street and onto St Martin's Road. I recognised it once when catching the end of the film and then had to find out what the film was called and what it was about...
 
boohoo said:
Burnley Road... ..The shot at the end of the film is from Stockwell road, looking down Burnley street and onto St Martin's Road. I recognised it once when catching the end of the film and then had to find out what the film was called and what it was about...
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You mean you didn't know already? :eek: Shame on you :D
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
Have you ever gone past the little monument in Stockwell in the middle of the green and wondered what that was about (besides Jean Charles Menenzes)?
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The clock is a first world war monument. And then the Deep Level Shelter has a mural By Brain Barnes which features Violet Szabo.
The little bit of green is the last piece of Stockwell Common... so I presume I can bring some sheep down their to graze!
 
boohoo said:
The clock is a first world war monument. And then the Deep Level Shelter has a mural By Brain Barnes which features Violet Szabo.
The little bit of green is the last piece of Stockwell Common... so I presume I can bring some sheep down their to graze!
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Well at least you know that is her picture there then. :D

Surprising how many don't.

She's a Brixton Stockwell hero and yet if people list famous people from Brixton, they'll come up with David Bowie, John Major etc.

Violette deserves more recognition I think. There should be a street named after her at least
 
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