Thames Tributary Effra - Dulwich

Thames Tributary Effra
Springs and tributaries which feed the Effra are said to flow west through this area.

Suburban area dominated by Dulwich College who have controlled it since the 17th

Post to the west West Dulwich
Post to the east Forest Hill
Post to the south Dulwich College

Allison Grove
Named after a house, Allison Towers 1868. In 1795 it belonged to Caleb Marshall whose daughter was Allison. She died in 1859, and her heir T. W. Parker, named the development after her. 'Allison Towers' was on the corner of Dulwich Common until the early 1960s
7 Home of Lord Haw Haw 1923-1930. He was William Joyce who broadcast to Britain in the Second World War on behalf of Hitler. Hanged in 1946. The house had been the first to be bombed locally in the blitz

Aysgarth Road
The parish where Alleyn's Yorkshire estate was. Named in 1896

College Gardens
Development on the site of 8 Victorian mansions. It is the site is of the old fellows’ garden. There are remaining brick piers and Victorian post boxes.

College Road
11 Stella House. Listed
13 listed
15 Sun Fire Office token. Listed
23 Bell Cottage, 18th weatherboard, with Doric door case; listed
27 Bell House. Built by Alderman Thomas Wright, a stationer and a Lord Mayor 1767. Altered by Lutyens. A long, brown-brick, two-storey house with taller centre with Venetian window and a bell tower. The bell was rung to get help to pump water into the fire engine. This Bell Tower no longer functions. It became the Junior Boarding House for Dulwich College and a private house in 1993. There is a Bald Cypress, a Tulip tree and a Holm Oak in the garden. The 19th extension and lodge house are now separate dwellings. Grade II listed, garden wall also listed. Stable block and attached walling also listed–
31 Dulwich Mansion cottage where Dickens made Mr. Pickwick live. Used to be called Grove Cottage.
41 Oakfield House 18th house listed, used to have the village fire alarm
41, Outbuilding to north west listed
48 Howlettes Mead.
Hambledon House was a nurses’ home. Plane trees in the garden
Old College Gate to Dulwich Park. The stream which now comes from the lake in the park was once joined here by a stream from Sydenham Hill coming via the Mill Pond.
Pond Cottages listed.
Grass verge is a covering for a stream coming from the Mill Pond – occasionally flooding particularly outside Bell House.

Court Lane
Site of Dulwich Court Farm. The Court was there held for the manor. This is one of the few ancient east west roads in the area.
Court Lane Gates to Dulwich Park and attached railings. listed
142 home of Anne Shelton

Dulwich College
Christ's Chapel of Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich; Chapel of the Old College in Dulwich Village. The public school was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn as a charity school for 12 poor scholars and the original name was Alleyn's College of God's Gift. It had a master, four fellows and also provision for 12 alms people. These school buildings and almshouses still stand here but the boys moved to the new school in 1857. Alleyn bought the estate it for £5,000 in 1605. It provides three Foundation Schools -Dulwich College, Alleyn s School and James Allen's Girls' School -, but also for the residents of the Almshouses, now Edward Alleyn House. A detachment of soldiers from Fairfax's army had been quartered at the chapel and had 'committed great havoc'. The Revd James Hume was the author of the Latin inscription over the porch at the chapel entrance which, in translation, concludes: 'Blessed is he who takes pity on the poor, go thou and do likewise'. Although the oldest part of the College dates from 1619 little of it remains and repeated restorations and modifications have left a confusing design. The Chapel was remodelled in 1823. The stuccoed wings pink washed, date from 1840 and the mock windows. Central tower and cloister of ancient looking stone were built in 1866 by Charles Barry Jnr. Internal woodwork is even later.

Dulwich Common
Follows the route of a medieval lane, said to be the Pilgrims’ Way. This remained until the rebuilding of Dulwich College and it has become a difficult road for traffic despite upgrades, cutting Dulwich in two. Possible brick and tile works here. Fine collection of 18th suburban dwellings a favourite spot for Georgian houses. This road used to run across the common road of Dulwich Manor until in the 19th century the common was enclosed and in 1870 40 acres of the common were used for the new playing fields of Dulwich College.
3 two-storey brick.
The Orchard. Junior boarding house for Dulwich College.
Southwark Sports Ground
Brightlands. Once an independent preparatory school but now part of Dulwich College Preparatory School. Maiden Hair tree in the garden.
Bungalow at the back of Glenlea. Built by Joseph Hansom who invented the Hansom Cab using materials of the dismantled Earls’ Court Exhibition.
Chestnuts Horse chestnuts in the grounds. Siberian cherry on the east side. Used at one time as Master’s House by the college.
Cypress House. Bald Cypress Tree
Dulwich Green Mill stood opposite the college and was pulled down in 1814. It is called Bree Kill Mill on Roque
Elm Lawn 18th - but altered. Used by Dulwich College.
Glenlea. Villa of 1803 by George Tappen with a battlemented parapet. This is one of the oldest surviving houses of Dulwich. It was used by Lt Col Oreste Pinto as a training school for World War II Dutch agents.
Home of C.A.Gordon who owned Deptford Shipyard in 1820s. Rotative sculling wheels & propeller tested there
Mill Pond – trees include Zelcova Crenata tree and Alder
Mill Pond cottages. They face the landscaped millpond. Built for farm workers and mill-hands they have traditionally housed artists. David Cox an 18th landscape artist lived there. The central pair are in black weatherboard, which was once a common style of building in Dulwich. In the past they have included a butcher's shop and a builder's yard. Three have been converted into a single home.
Northcroft one of a pair. Built in 1810 by George Tappen, the college surveyor
The Willows one of a pair with Northcroft.
Alleynian Rugby Football Ground and Old Alleynian Club. Site of Potash Farm, a dairy farm in the 19th. Sports and Social club for old boys of the school. Founded in 1873.
Old Blew House early 18th. Supposed to be the oldest house in Dulwich but though refaced in the 18th. Used by Dulwich College as a boarding house.
Pond Cottage was the miller’s cottage.
The pond is the remains of a stream system which drained the ridge - lots of fish and ducks
Rosebery Gate to Dulwich Park.
The Orchard. Bald Cypress Tree in the garden. Used by Dulwich College.
Honor Oak Sports Ground

Dulwich Park.
A traditional Victorian family park. The area was part of the gardens of Dulwich College and was previously Dulwich Court Farm and Ruston's Farm or Fields. It had an area for hunting and duels. The seventy-two acres were presented to the former Metropolitan Board of Works by the Governors of Dulwich College, on condition that the Board would lay it out as a public park. This was confirmed by Parliament in May 1885 and it was also agreed that there would be no music or public meetings in the park and it was thought a statue to Alleyn would be too expensive. Lieutenant Colonel J.J. Sexby, Chief Officer of Parks for both the Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council, was responsible for its design. It cost £33,000 to lay out and was opened by Lord Rosebery on 26 June 1890. It has a lake, tennis courts, a bandstand, a carriage drive, a horse ride, 5 aviaries and an open-air theatre. A watercourse used to go from the lake to the Effra and a canal like extension to the lake is what remains of a stream system draining the ridge. Another tributary, the Ambrook river, is said to supply Dulwich Park Lake, flowing down from the woods of Sydenham Hill, alongside Cox’s Walk and under Dulwich Common – its line can be seen in a line of trees. The Bridge over the stream has the arms of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The stream drains from the lake over a waterfall and turns towards the old College in a visible channel. There is an American rock garden; a shrubbery, pollarded oaks, a black poplar near the gate, two hoary poplars and a Turkey oak in the northern part of the park which was probably planted in 1735. There is a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, 1970 called Two Forms (Divided Circle). There are two ecological sites and a nature trail for children. A drought tolerant garden is planted with Mediterranean-style plants that need no watering -. Gates with stone piers in College Road and Dulwich Common - one is named after Lord Rosebery and another after Queen Mary who visited the park every year to see the rhododendrons.

Dulwich
Part of Saxon Royal Estate. In 967 the area was given to the Abbey at Bermondsey and the monks built a house here. Eventually it was acquired by Edward Alleyn who bought the manor in 1605 with the proceeds of his acting, his business ventures, and with the fees from his post as Master of the Royal Game of Bears, Bulls and Mastiff Dogs. It has never changed ownership since. in Old English the name means ‘dill' 'white flower', 'daisy meadow'..

Eynella Road
Eynella back slang for Alleyn. Built on the line of an old footpath from The Plough.

Frank Dixon Way
He was a governor of Dulwich College 1959
A local resident reports that in wet weather water rises above the drains and flows along the road around Dulwich Park by Frank Dixon Way.
14 garden surrounded by mature trees, shrub borders and annual plantings. Lawns and a spectacular rowan. A railway runs around the garden.

Gallery Road
The original Alleyn school building. The 1689 charter arms on the gate were taken from Alleyne's mother's family, and restored in the original. There was no architect and the builder was John Benson. The east wing is still used, as instructed, as an almshouse but it was rebuilt in 1740 and 1866 and now called Edward Alleyn House. It is home to three men and 13 women. The west wing was the school but it is now offices extended in 1820 - Prospective scholars had to draw lots for places. In the centre is the chapel.
Christ’s Chapel of Alleyn's College of God’s Gift. 'God's gift' is written over the over the door and blessed is he who takes pity on the poor go thou and do likewise'. Alleyn himself is buried in front of the altar but the tomb was built in 1816 – his original stone was found in the yard of the Half Moon Public House and is in the cloisters. The reredos was installed in 1911 and is Elizabethan - schoolboys on it.
Triangular milestone by the fountain in the old college. Dated 1772 it gives distances to the Treasury in Whitehall and to the Standard in Cornhill - five miles in each case,
Dulwich Art Gallery. Edward Alleyn made a bequest of pictures when he founded the 'College and another bequest was made by actor, William Cartwright, in the 17th. The main part of the collection is the bequest of Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois made in 1811. In 1789, Noel Joseph Desenfans, an art dealer, was commissioned by King Stanislaus of Poland to buy pictures for a National Gallery in Warsaw. But in 1795 he had to abdicate and Desenfans was left with the pictures, which had not been paid for. Having tried to get the British Government to buy them he left them to his widow and to Francis Bourgeois. Bourgeois he bequeathed his ones to Dulwich College and a gallery was built for them by Sir John Soane and opened in 1814. Further bequests followed, It was opened to the public in 1817.It also contains the Bourgeois mausoleum. It was bombed in the Second World War. In the garden is an Indian Bean Tree, North American Nettle tree and a Judas Tree.
A cast-iron chimney opposite the Picture Gallery is believed to vent a tributary.
The Old Grammar School at the corner of Burbage Road and Gallery Road was designed in pink-stucco Tudor, by Charles Barry. It is the most important work he undertook in his twenty-eight years as surveyor to the Dulwich College Estate. It is plain in a Tudor Gothic style and opened in 1842. Sixty boys were admitted, divided into two classes, - an upper and a lower school separated by a wooden partition. It is the upper school which later became Dulwich College. The original twelve poor scholars continued to be instructed as before in the old College When the College was reformed in 1857 the twelve poor scholars joined the lower school. In time the upper school moved into the west wing of the College building leaving the Grammar School for the lower school - until it became Alleyn's School and moved out in 1887. By 1952 it was derelict and then became the Village Reading Room and a community centre

Lordship Lane
The Co-op shop was bombed 23 killed
Sir Thomas More, R.C. Built 1929 by J. Goldie. Restored after war damage 1953. Lady Chapel 1970. Stained glass by Patrick Pye.
East Dulwich library. Corner building of 1896 by Charles Barry Jnr with a -dome set at an angle. The Actor Sir Henry Irving laid the foundation stone in 1897. Partly paid for by Passmore Edwards who gave £5,000'. The site was given by the Estates' Governors of Alleyn's College and the architect was R.P. Whellock. In 1940 a bomb landed on the north-west corner of and after the Second World War an extension was built which included a hall for public meetings and it opened in 1954.
Milestone in the island refuge "V miles from the Treasury, V miles from the Standard corner"

Pickwick Road
Called this Mr.Pickwick retired to Dulwich in Dickens’ book

Ryecote Mead
John and Cristina de Reygate sold land here in 1311. And the property was later called Reygates.” In 1609 it was bought by Alleyn. Rycotes was the name given to a house belonging to William Young, a College and Estates Governor in 1858. In 1909 it was home to Sir Hiram Maxim, inventor of the Maxim gun. It was demolished in 1967

The Grove
Footpath also called Lovers Walk. Cork Barked Dutch Elm tree.

Sources
Banbury. Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
Clunn. The Face of London   
Darby. Dulwich. A Place in History
Field. London Place names, 
Green. Around Dulwich
London Borough of Southwark. Web site
London Journal
London Encyclopaedia
Lucas. London
Nairn. Nairn's London
Nature Conservation in Southwark
Parker. North Surrey
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
St. Thomas More, Web site
Summerson, Georgian  London

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