East Dulwich

Post to the west Denmark Hill
Post to the east Peckham Rye



Abbotswood Road
New housing on the site of St.Francis Hospital

Adys Road
Only the northern end of the road is in this square. It is said to be named after John Ady, who was a legal advisor to Edward Alleyn and who lived on Goose Green.

Albrighton Road
The road is named after a famous fox hunt.  The flats were built by the London County Council in the 1930s on the site of big houses sited in what was then called Glebe Road
Albrighton Road Community Centre. The current building dates from 2011 and is managed by East Dulwich Estate Tenant and Resident Association.

Avondale Rise
This was previously Avondale Road.
15-17 Unitarian church. The church dated from 1867 when the Revd George Carter held services in a hall in Walworth. An iron chapel was built here in 1875. A new church was built in 1882 plus a school room added a year previously. It had a pipe organ with hand-pumped bellows and an ornate wooden pulpit. The building was completely destroyed in 1941 bombing 

Bellenden Road
Was originally called Victoria Road.   The square only covers the southern part f the road. The parade of shops, yuppified beyond belief, now calls itself ‘Bellenden Village’.
Bollards, on the shopping parades are by Anthony Gormley. The Turner Prize winner has a workshop on Bellenden Road.
Church.  United Methodist Free Church was opened here.  Initially this was an iron church replaced with the brick building in 1885. A school room and lecture room were added a year later. In 1920 it was sold and re-opened as the Hanover Chapel. Hanover Chapel dared back to 1657 with the Meeting House in Meeting House Lane. In 1717 the congregation moved to Rye Lane and to other sites subsequently, becoming a Congregational Church with links to the Royal house of Hanover. In 1979 they moved again and the Bellenden Road building became a Pentecostal Faith Chapel.
210 Flat Time House. John Latham installed a major artwork here The House is now a publicly accessible art and education space and houses the John Latham archive.
212 Scout Hut.  As well as use by the 14th Camberwell Scouts the building is in use for a number of dance, martial arts and like activities.
165 Belham Road School. Originally Bellenden Road School, this was later Bellenden Road, Primary School. Built by the London School Board the main façade is by Robson from 1876 and there is a plaque to this effect on the Maxted Road frontage. It has contrasting red and yellow brick and an unusual ventilation tower at roof level2. The rear is an addition of 1895 by Bailey with a three storey hall block end-on to the main block with a plaque to thus effect on the Oglander Road frontage. It became a higher grade school in 1914. It has recently been done up and its name changed. It is operated by an “Educational Trust”

Bromar Road
Garage Block – this is at the top of Bromar Road adjacent to No.1.  On the road side is a small garden with a seat and sculpted stone.

Coplestone Road
Named after Edward Copleston Bishop of Llandaff in the early 19th.
St. Saviour. This was built in 1880-1 by Weeks & Hughes paid for by the tea merchant Francis Peek.  It suffered in Second World War bombing. IN THR 1970S he church amalgamated with Hanover United Reformed church, and the building was converted into the Coplestone Centre in 1978 by T. F. Ford & Partners.   It is now an ecumenical centre joint Anglican and United Reform, with a small church, large hall, and offices and functions as a community centre.
50 Latter-Rain Outpouring Revival. This evangelical church is in Church House. This was built in 1902 as part of St.Saviour’s church opposite. It was sold to help pay the cost of the community centre.

Crawthew Road
82 Edenberg Pub. This has been closed for a very long time and has since been a Jewish deli, then a pub again and a private drinking club. It is now a private house. The sign on the building reads 'Fdenberg'. It retains some fine green tiling from its time as a pub.

Dog Kennel Hill
Possibly named for the kennels of the Surrey Fox Hounds which were there before the hunt moved to Shirley. The kennels are thought to have been at the bottom of the hill.
Tram tracks. These were laid in 1906 and the number of tracks was later increased to four so that no trams could follow each other on the same line. When the tracks were removed when the trams stopped running in 1951 the granite setts were used to build the central reservation.
Playing Fields, Sainsbury’s etc. On the east side of Dog Kennel Hill is a complex of playing fields, a super store and much else. They are described below under ‘Playing Fields area’,

East Dulwich Grove
Dulwich Grove United Reform Church. In 1875 a meeting discussed a new Congregational Church.  Land in East Dulwich Grove was bought and the foundation stone laid in 1878. The church was designed by James Cubit and opened in 1890 but not finished until 1904. In 1940 it was bombed and unusable. Amateur builders worked to repair the damage after the war.  It was not until 1966 that the church hall once again became available to the church. From the 1960s the church has been rich in multi-ethnic members. I
Dulwich Grove URC Church Hall. This opened as a lecture hall in 1879.  It was requisitioned by the Council in the Second World War and was not released back to the church until 1966.
Dulwich Constitutional Club. The club opened in Lordship Lane in 1886. In 1888 through the generosity of Sir John Blundell Maple, the present premises, Clumber House, East Dulwich Grove were acquired and soon the Small Hall and Concert Hall were erected. The club was originally purely political nature but was soon fitted out with Billiards, Smoking, Reading and Games rooms. The bowling green was opened in 1889. 
Dulwich Hospital. In 1871 St Saviour's Union planned to build a new infirmary to relieve overcrowding. They bought a field called Kellods in East Dulwich. St Saviour's Union Infirmary opened in 1887.  Its frontage lay along East Dulwich Grove and it was built with a pavilion-plan layout as a central administrative block with two wings.  The basement was used for storage of foods, beer and coal with an underground tramway to transport the coal. There were 24 Nightingale ward blocks each having isolation ward, day and staff rooms.  Heating was by open fireplaces and hot water pipes and each block was fitted with a telephone. Accommodation for staff was connected to the blocks by iron bridges at second floor level. In 1902 It was renamed the Southwark Union Infirmary. In the Great War the Infirmary was evacuated and patients transferred elsewhere while the Royal Army Medical Corps took over the building and it was renamed the Southwark Military Hospital. The existing staff were kept and. tents were erected in the grounds as sleeping accommodation. Australians, South Africans, Canadians and Americans were admitted. Less than 1% of soldiers admitted died.  The Hospital was returned to the Guardians in 1919. The London County council took over in 1931 ad it became a general hospital and renamed the Dulwich Hospital.  An Out-Patient Department was opened along with a new operating theatre, pharmacy, and boiler house. In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS ad. In 1964 joined the King's College Hospital Group when it became a District Hospital with a centre for renal treatment. In 2005 it closed.  The wards and ancillary buildings were demolished, but the French-style chateau main entrance block and the original wrought iron railings have been kept. A new community hospital opened in part of the South Wing site in 2007 while The North Wing has been redeveloped as new housing. A War Memorial erected in front of the Hospital to commemorate the 119 troops who died there has been rededicated although the cross and shaft are lost

East Dulwich Road
Dulwich Baths. The baths opened in 1892, and is London's oldest public baths in continuous operation however there has been redevelopment inside. There are two original entrances on the front separating men and women and a basement once housed a laundry. The main pool is now a gym area but the second pool remains in operation. The baths was designed by Spalding & Cross. The baths were closed in 1914 for Red Cross work in the Great War and Belgian refugees were housed here. I was also used by the 33rd Divisional Artillery and later two brigades of the Territorial Artillery. In 1937 indoor bowling was introduced.  In 1938–39 again there was use as a First Aid posts and water in the pool was used by the Fire Brigade. From 1946, mixed bathing was allowed and popular bands playing for dances. In the 1990s the women's slipper baths were removed and later a full renovation plan was agreed and completed in 2011.
St James's Scottish Church. In the 19th century many Scots settled in East Dulwich. In 1881 as devout Presbyterians they worshiped at Norland House opposite Goose Green. In 1883 a temporary corrugated iron church was built nearby. In 1891 St. James's Church with a church hall behind was built. It was damaged by an oil bomb in the Second World War and it was also used by Dulwich Grove Congregational Church when their building was bombed. But the numbers of Scottish people in the area declined and it was sold to the Presbyterian Housing Association in 1972, and St James' Cloister flats were built there in 1976. The car park is on the site of the church hall. There are three commemorative stones in the garden including the original carved version of the Burning Bush, emblem of the Church of Scotland, with Latin inscription, which had been a feature above the memorial window in the church.
Goose Green. Only the western end of the Green is in this square. The old centre of East Dulwich, it is in effect a widening of East Dulwich Road. Once this really was a green on which geese lived although there is no evidence to prove the origin of the name.  It was common land once connected to Peckham Rye Common and part of the manor of Camberwell Friern. There was a pound for stray animals and a pond.  . It was purchased as an open space in 1868 by Camberwell Vestry in order to stop it being sold for development.
Roundabout. This is at the junction with Grove Vale and Lordship Lane. This was built after the trams had stopped running using the granite setts from the tram tracks. There had been a shelter here and a horse trough. Currently there is a palm tree from Chile planted in the centre of the roundabout and artist designed bollards

Frogley Road
Kingfisher mural on the south side wall at the west end

Grove Hill Road
Dog Kennel Hill Primary School
Lettsom Gardens. These are on part of a large, abandoned 19th Victorian garden. They were set up in 1980 after a campaign to stop development here. They are managed by the Lettsom Gardens Association. There are two small areas of secondary woodland, as well as grassland and a children’s play area. The woodland has a wide variety of trees plus a mulberry which is thought to be a relic of the 18th garden of Dr. John Coakley Lettsom. He was a Quaker doctor and financier of botanical expeditions, who cultivated the first seed of several American plants here,

Grove Vale
18-22 site for new Grove Vale Library This will include 22 flats and have twice the floor space of the old library.
22-27 Grove Vale Library was opened on 28 October 1950 and has since been refurbished.   Originally it was opened by Camberwell Borough Council in a converted shop premises. In 1956 a new junior section opened in a second adjacent shop. It is now about to be replaced.
31 The Cherry Tree Pub. Earlier this was called Ye Olde Cherrie Tree & Railway Hotel. It was another Truman’s pub run as a beer house until 1872. The current building dates from the 1930s. Recently it has also been called The Vale and also the Hamlet Inn.
72 Odeon Cinema. This was originally built to replace the Pavilion Cinema, which had been opened in the Imperial Hall of 1902. The new Pavilion Cinema was opened in 1936 featuring Flanagan & Allen in person. On the front were three wedge shaped fins in black vitolite with ‘Pavilion Cinema’ in red neon. It had a cafe and a car park. It was taken over by Odeon Theatres Ltd. chain in 1937, re-named Odeon and later taken over by the Rank Organisation which closed it in 1972 and sold it to the Divine Light Mission. It became a Palace of Peace Temple to the followers of 15 year old Guju Maharaj-Ji. In 1978, it was bought by the London Clock Company, converted into offices and named London House. They left and it was demolished in April 2001. The site is now housing for key workers run by the Broomleigh Housing Association.
East Dulwich Depot - Grove Vale Depot. This was the Camberwell Council depot opened in 1900 on the site of part of Plaquett Hall Farm, at the back of shops in Grove Vale.  There was a small entrance near the bridge but it opened up to a space of the length of Coplestone Road. It was originally a depot for horses and vehicles as well as a base for carpenters, farriers, smith, painters and others.  All the corn and fodder for the council's horses was kept there and there were farriers, and a vet. There were also stores for road signs, curb stones, paving slabs, sand, cement, Dust bins, railings, tar and chipping.  Later repairs to council vehicles were carried out there. In the early mornings a procession of road sweepers left pushing their double dust bin mounted pushcarts. Road repair gangs left in vehicles loaded with sand plus a steam roller towing a tar boiler with a tall metal chimney smoking from the fire below the boiler and a Caravan that served as a shelter and toilet. When it closed there were plans to build a superstore on the site, but, following protests, the site is now housing.
East Dulwich Station. Built in 1868 this lies between North Dulwich and Nunhead and also Crystal Palace stations on Southern Rail. It was built as part of the expansion of the London Brighton & South Coast Railway. It was originally called Champion Hill station and later renamed East Dulwich. The original station stood about 56m to the south-west of the present building, accessed from Grove Vale by an approach road. His was changed in the 1960s by the 1950s the station had been extended at the rear. The station now fronts onto Grove Vale and by 1916 two shops had been built alongside the station.  The station itself is a small single-storey brick building with what appear to be bricked u windows

Hayes Grove
Built on the site of the Camberwell Council Depot.

Ivanhoe Road
28 The Ivanhoe. Closed and converted to housing. The inn sign remains on the first floor above the door. It was also called Hooper’s Bar

Jarvis Road
Turning off Melbourne Road which was once an entrance to the Dulwich Hospital site

Lordship Lane
East Dulwich Tavern. This once featured a comedy club
27 The Bishop. This was the Foresters Arms

Marsden Road
28 Centre For Wildlife Gardening - London Wildlife Trust nursery on part of the Old council depot. It comprises a wildlife garden, community park, information centre and plant nursery.

Matham Grove
3 Camberwell Board of Guardians Boys Home 1901.

Melbourne Grove
17 Camberwell Board of Guardians Boys Home 1901
45 House of Dreams. Home and Exhibit of artist Stephen Wright. Outside is the Yves Klein blue fence and tall, turquoise gate
Entrance to railway coal yard. Now in use for office space and parking

Nutfield Road
31 In the 1940s a coal merchant called 'Kings' ran a business from here and horses were stabled on site.

Oglander Road
The southern end of the road was originally Wildash Street
17 Oglander Tavern. This pub dated from the 1890s but was closed in 2008 and converted to flats.  Stables were reached through an arch from the street and there was also an air raid shelter to the rear.  There is a raised plaque on the corner gable above the roof which gave the name of the pub.
Mural of Bathers. On the wall of a workshop at the northern end.
77 St.Saviours Vicarage

Playing Fields Area
Freemans Ground.  In 891 Thomas Freeman, a local builder from Grove Lane, took over some land at the rear of Champion Hill House with access from Champion Hill and later from Constance Road. He wanted to build a new cricket ground and tennis courts in the area although the site was to become better known for football. In 1892 he built three wood and iron cricket pavilions let to The Champion Hill Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club and later Dulwich Hamlet football club
Champion Hill Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club
Champion Hill Stadium. Dulwich Hamlet Football club was established here on what had been Freeman’s Ground. The club dates back to 1893 when a meeting was held at the Dulwich Hamlet Elementary School. At the start of the 1911-12 season they were told that they would need to move further down the field and so they took on a piece of meadowland at the rear of Cleve Hall and remained there for the next twenty years. In the Great War the site was used by the Camberwell Gun Brigade. In 1931 the club opened the Champion Hill Ground, and a pitch for the reserves on the original Freeman’s Ground site. Known as 'The Hill' it was once one of the largest amateur grounds in England and used for football at the 1948 Summer Olympics.  Floodlighting was installed in 1964. The ground has also been used by a number of other football clubs. In the early 1970s it was sold to Office Cleaning Services owned by the Goodliffe family some of whom had played for The Hamlet in the 1930's. By the 1970s the old ground was falling apart and only the centre of the old wooden stand was in use, with a safety certificate for only 300. In the 1980s a supermarket was built on what had been the training pitch and a new stadium was built which opened in 1992. There is currently a tangled saga about rights and ownership of the stadium involving Southwark Council, the club, a development company and many more.  It is listed by London Borough of Southwark as an asset of community value.
Dog Kennel Hill Adventure Playground. This was established in the early 1970's and is a free open access adventure playground for children and young people between the ages of 5-16.
Dog Kennel Hill Wood. This is woodland sandwiched between the flats in Champion Hill and Sainsburys. There is a Friends group
Gaumont Film Company. The company set up an early film ‘studio’ next to Dog Kennel Hill Wood in 1904 – 1912 when it was Freemans Cricket Ground. This was under the management of Alfred Bromhead and here they produced over five hundred short films. The studio was probably little more than a wooden stage and shelter
Sainsburys –superstore on the site of the Kings College Cricket Pitch and the Dulwich Hamlet Training Pitch
Kings College Hospital Medical School sports ground.  This was used for cricket and rugby. Dulwich Hamlet had owned the ground which had been their Athletic Ground. They sold it on to Kings College Hospital Medical School. Kings later sold it because of its poor drainage, in return for taking over the Griffin Sportsground in the Village, which belonged to Sainsburys. The Kings sportsground is now part Sainsbury’s car park and part St Francis Park.
St. Francis Park. This was built as planning gain resulting from the sale of the sports grounds to Sainsburys. Opened in 1993 on the site of St Francis Hospital.  It includes a dog kennel sculpture and a children’s playground.
Green Dale Playing Fields. This is a large open space which features full-size football pitches, tennis courts and netball courts.  It also has an area of unspoilt scrub and grassland. An orchard was once in the northern part of the site and there was a croquet lawn.  Before the Great War Dulwich Hamlet Athletic Ground was on the current Astroturf site. Tennis courts were built on the site of the croquet court to the north of the Green Dale site. At that time the site was called Dulwich Grove and Wren Recreational Ground.  Currently the site includes what was St Olave's recreation ground.

Railway Rise
Built to access the original station and to access the goods and coal yard. The yard is now occupied by commercial units – building supplies merchants in particular.
1-3 It is suggested that these were built by the railway company for station staff and share some stylistic details with the original station. No 1 is said to be the former stationmaster’s house

Spurling Road
Mural. Fight Club by Conor Harrington inspired by ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ by Charles Le Brun c.1665. This is at the west end on the wall of a house in East Dulwich Road.

St. Francis Road
Previously Constance Road. This was the access road to St.Francis Hospital.
Constance Road Institution became St.Francis Hospital. This was originally the Constance Road Workhouse built for the Camberwell Board of Guardians and opened in in 1895. It specialised in caring for the mentally ill, the elderly and handicapped, as well as unmarried mothers. In 1930 it came under the control of the London County Council and became a hospital for the chronically sick, and was renamed St Francis Hospital. During the Second World War it was a reception centre for bombed-out families but the children's block was destroyed by bombing. In 1948 it became part of the National Health Service and in 1966 was designated as a teaching unit within Kings College hospital. . It was renamed Dulwich North Hospital. It closed in 1991 and the site is now housing.

Tintagel Crescent
Built on the site of Suffolk Nursery, a big market garden
Goose Green Primary School. This school is an ‘academy’ and part of the Communitas ‘Education Trust’.  Grove Vale Junior School originally opened in 1900.This is a School Board for London School by Bailey which was unfinished. Described as ‘imposing on a roadside site’. A great deal of terracotta dressings and a single storey block to the playground with round arches at ground floor as part of a covered playground. Assume the name was changed when it was privatised.

Sources
Albrighton Community Centre. Web site
Beasley. East Dulwich Through Time
Beasley. Peckham and Nunhead Churches
Beasley. Peckham and Nunhead Through Time
Beasley. The Story of Peckham and Nunhead
Below the River. Web site
Cinema Theatres Association Newsletter
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Darby. Dulwich Discovered
Davies. The Book of Dulwich
Dog Kennel Hill. Adventure Playground
Dulwich Constitutional Club Web site
Dulwich Hamlet Football Club. Web site
East Dulwich Forum. Web site
East Dulwich Grove URC. Web site
Exploring Southwark. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Green. Around Dulwich.
Hansard
Heritage Gateway. Web site
Inspiring City. Web site
London Borough of Southwark. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Wildlife Trust. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London Web site
Nature conservation in Southwark
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pub History. Web site
Streets we live in. Web site
The Hamlet Historian. Web site
Victorian Schools in London. Web site
Wikipedia. As appropriate
Workhouses. Web site