Clapham Old Town

Post to the west Clapham Common

Post to the north Battersea Wandsworth Road

Post to the north Clapham Park

Aristotle Road
9 School House – old caretakers house
Aristotle Road School. London School Board School dating from around 1900 and seems originally to have been a secondary girls school. Later known as Clapham Secondary Central and in the 1970s as Parkside Secondary School.
Cardboard box factory.  This lay between the school and the railway and fronted onto Bedford Road

Belmont Close
This is part of what was once Wirtemberg Street
17 Oddfellows Hall - Shambala Centre. The hall was built in 1852 as a Chapel for the Ebenezer Strict Baptists and was known as Garner Chapel. In 1863 it was sold to the Bible Christians.  In 1908 it was purchased by the Pride of Clapham Lodge of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, which still owns it and holds its meetings there. Part of the building is used by the Shambala Meditation Centre. This is a peace and meditation organisation.
Ebenezer Cottage. Manse Attached to the chapel.

Belmont Road
Clapham Manor Primary School.  The school was preceded on the site by a British School. The present school was built in 1881, with extensions in 1928, 1945 and 2008 by the London School Bard and is on two sites. There are three small playgrounds one of which has a nature garden. The site also includes a Children’s Centre
Sunday School. The entrance area to Clapham Manor School from Belmont Road was once the site of a Sunday School attached to the Ebenezer Chapel.
Clapham British School. This was built in 1838 by J. Harrison and stood in what was then called Wirtemberg Place.

Bobbin Close
Site of a small works. Originally, the 19th, a carriage works. In the mid-20th it was the works of British Pix, which made ‘invisible’ radio aerials. Later it was Dunedin Engineering, precision engineers.

Bowland Road
This was earlier known as Crescent Road
Playground and ball court

Britannia Close
Housing built on the site of a timber yard which once lay behind the church

Bromells Road
4-24 Clapham Village Nursery. Private nursery which has a new facade on the earlier buildings
4-6 Dent’s Printing works. This complex included a 19th building associated with booksellers Batten and Davies who had the shop on the corner with The Pavement. The founder A. E. Dent had learnt engraving on white metal, in St. Bride-street. This business covered photo etching, stereo- typing, electrotyping, photographic printing, engraving, collotype and gravure work.
16 Elasta House. Pope's Electric Lamp Co. Ltd. Originally based in Willesden the company was in business until at least 1960.  They made electric light fittings, primarily bulbs with a special filament.
16 Academy of Contemporary Music. Part of the University of Falmouth and opened in 2016.
18-30 Polygon House. Includes a branch of Pitman’s College, teaching office skills
20-24 This was H.Davis original ironmonger’s wholesale shop and warehouse dating from 1890's. Now converted to housing
40-48 Clapham Art Gallery 
31-33 St Anne’s Hall. This was built in 1895, part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the area. The architect was locally born E.B. I’Anson. A soup kitchen and dispensary were run here with a working men’s club in the basement. It now houses a variety of projects and charities and is managed by the Trustees of Holy Trinity Church.

Carfax Square
This was demolished to be replaced with local authority house. Carfax Place remains near the site
Plymouth Brethren meeting house. This later became an upholstery works.

Carpenters Place
In the 19th this was ‘Carpenters’ Cottages’ to be replaced by industrial units in the 20th.
Sandberg Engineers. They are a Swedish engineering consultancy and these are their laboratories.

Clapham Crescent
Elim Church. In 1922, Welsh brothers George & Stephen Jeffreys held a service in a Clapham Methodist church building and later pioneered other 'Elim' churches elsewhere throughout the UK helped by members of the Clapham church.  The Clapham church became known as 'Elim's Central Church' and was the second church opened by the movement. The church was bombed in the Second World War and services were held elsewhere. In 1956 the new Elim church was opened.
Bible College. Started in what is called the 'high flats' by the Elim Church
Printing press. This was opened next to the church, to print the movement's weekly magazine

Clapham Common
This square covers a small section of the common in its north east corner.
Uncultivated land split between Battersea and Clapham which was not farmed. Early in the 19th it was improved by a subscription from local inhabitants.
Woman of Samaria. Drinking fountain. This statue shows a woman giving water to a beggar and was cast by F Miller of Munich, from a sculpture by August Von Kreling. It was commissioned in 1884 by the UK Temperance and General Provident Institution to stand near by their offices in front of Adelaide Place, London Bridge. However its weight began to cause cracks in the arches of the bridge and structures below it so it was presented to the London County Council who erected it here in 1895.
Cock Pond. Apparently named after a pub called the Cock. It is a children's paddling pool, on the North side of Clapham Common and is a relatively recent , 20th construction.
Long Pond. This is used by model boat enthusiasts including The Clapham Model Yacht Club. Model boat sailing on the Long Pond was established by at least the mid 1800s and a Club was formed to sail on the pond in 1870. There have been several Clubs based at the Long Pond and the current “Clapham Model Yacht Club” was formed in 1934 and has continued to the present day. Up to the late 1930s there were no facilities for the club members to store boats and then a wooden hut after the Second World War period which was replaced by the purpose built Clubhouse in Rookery Road.

Clapham High Street
The road is a section of the A3 – the London to Portsmouth road and of great importance during the Napoleonic Wars. It was once also Roman Stane Street the London to Chichester Road.
Clapham North Station. This opened in 1900 and now lies between Stockwell and Clapham Common Stations on the Northern Line.  It was built by the City and South London Railway as part of their extension south from Stockwell and opened as ‘Clapham Road’. In 1926, as an LT station, the name was changed to ‘Clapham North’ when the line was extended to Morden. It was designed by T. P. Figgis and is one of two remaining stations with island platform serving both the north and southbound lines. The station building was replaced in 1924, and remodelled by Charles Holden. Escalators were installed and the facade replaced with biscuit-cream faience slabs and black coping tiles to the parapet walls. In turn, the station has recently had its façade reclad. It is one of eight London Underground stations which has a deep-level air-raid shelter beneath it.
Railway bridge. Built by the London Chatham and Dover railway for the line to Clapham Station.
10 Royal Oak. Pub dating to at least the 1890s
18 The Railway Pub. This dates from the 1850s, once belonged to the Lion Brewery and then Charringtons.
29 Up to the 1980s this was the Music Roll Exchange with a painted sign above the shop to advertise its status.
33 Sainsburys. Site of Clapham Pavilion Cinema. This opened as The Electric Pavilion in 1910 as one of a chain belonging to Israel Davis. The name soon changed to Pavilion Cinema and then in 1923 it was re-named Clapham Pavilion Cinema. It cinema closed in 1940, and re-opened in 1942. It was equipped for Cinemascope in 1954, but closed in 1958 and soon demolished in 1958 and replaced with a Petrol Station. It was later a burger bar and in 2009, a new building contained a burger bar, supermarket and a Radha Krishna Temple
35 Royal Shakespeare Company. This is in use as rehearsal studios. It was the Clapham Winter Gardens and public hall built in 1911. From 1960 this was occupied by Cannon's Motor Spares; one of several premises of this family firm which started as a bicycle shop in Hitchen in 1907.  It had previously been the Ferodo depot and before that a music hall.
47 Temperance Billiard Hall. Built 1910 by Norman Evans.  It has been the offices of Moxley Architects since 1988.
49 This was St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic College from 1856 and taken over by the Carter Home in 1890. In 1902 it was taken over by  Barnardos.   Many of the boys were sent to Canada. In 1933 the home moved to Kingston and the building became a spice store, and then a printing works
54 Socialist Party of Great Britain. Headquarters building.
65 Carter Home for Destitute Boys. This opened in 1870. It moved to 49 in the 1890s
81 F.H. Pride. Electric light fittings manufacturers present in the 1950s
87 Alfred Hunter organ builder. In 1881 Hunter built a four storey house here with a showroom at the front and workshops at the rear. The firm became well-known for its quality of workmanship and many of its organs were exported abroad. The company continued under Robert Hunter until 1932 and was bought out by Henry Willis & Sons.  One of the last organs to be built by the firm was for Magdalen College, Cambridge in 1927.
91 Mary Seacole Centre. New development with flats on 12 floors above community facilities, including a new library and a modern GP surgery. The building is based around a spiral theme that allows a building of multiple uses to feel like one space
95-97 Grammar School. This was set up in 1834 by educational reformer and astronomer, Charles Pritchard. It had the active support of Charles Darwin.
97 Revolution bar and night club
111-115 Deep shelter. A deep-level air raid shelter was built beneath Clapham Common underground station in the early part of the Second World War. It was two parallel tubes with bunks, medical posts, kitchens and toilets. This is the north entrance which is a circular, concrete structure with a square, brick ventilation shaft on the roof. Two brick extensions on either side contained the original doors. There is also a separate square, brick ventilation shaft. The apparent most recent use is to grow salad.
114 Two Brewers Pub. This dates from 1852. In the late 1970s it was a heavy metal pub and then became until a gay venue in 1981 and remains with regular cabaret, etc. In the 19th this was a typical small town pub with a horse trough and external inn sign.
121 Methodist Church. There has been a Methodist Church here since 1874, when a large church opened with a steeple. It has been rebuilt twice since.
133 Sainsbury Super Store. This opened in 1996.
136 Pawnbrokers shop behind old house. In the early 19th this was the home of Elizabeth Cook, the widow of Captain Cook.  Also Admiral Isaac Cook, her nephew, said to be the first European to set foot in Australia.
Tram Depot. This was used as a horse tram depot  in 1888 by the London Tramways Co. and was later converted for electric trams in 1903 by the London County Council. It included the staff training Motor School. The main shed was bombed in the Second World War and re-building meant that more land had to be acquired in order to make a suitable entrance. This led to many problems and reconstruction was delayed. A second entrance from Clapham Park Road was installed. Buses and trams used it until 1951 but this was a very large and elaborate new structure which was used for only a few years and then very under capacity.  After the Museum closed, from 1973 until 1987, it was again used for buses. It was then sold for re-development.  Initially as an indoor go kart track. It is now the site of the Sainsbury Super Store.
Museum of British Transport. This was on the tram depot site 1961-73. The collection had started in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company preserved two 19th horse buses and an early motorbus. Then called the Museum of British Transport it moved to Clapham. In 1973 the London Transport elements of the collection moved to Syon Park. In 1980 it moved to the Flower Market building in Covent Garden as the London Transport Museum with a store in Acton.  Railway elements of the collection went to the National Railway Museum in York.
137 Globe Electric Theatre. This was a shop conversion opened in 1910. It was also called Empress Electric Theatre and closed by 1915. In 2009, a new Sainsbury’s supermarket was built here.
146 Majestic Cinema. The original facade of' Majestic cinema remains. This opened in 1914 built by a local company Majestic (Clapham) Ltd. John Stanley Beard designed it with a narrow entrance between shops and ‘Majestic’ above the doors in terra cotta tiles. A dome in the ceiling could be opened between shows to clear cigarette smoke. There was a small organ and an orchestra. It was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres in 1928 and they were taken over by the Gaumont British Cinemas in 1929. In 1930 a Compton 3Manual/8Ranks organ was installed. In 1940 it closed because of bombing and re-opened in 1941. It was re-named Gaumont Theatre on the 1950 but closed in 1960. The balcony was converted into a recording studio and in 1969 the auditorium became a bingo club. In 1985 it was converted into a nightclub which remains.
192 Londis. The Electric Palace new cinema was demolished and was to be rebuilt as the Coliseum. Work began on the façade and entrance foyer first, faced in white faience tiles but was never completed. This is now the Londis shop.
196 The Plough. Later called The Goose & Granite, then Bar SW4, then O'Neill's and then Stane Street Syndicate. The pub dates from at least the 1729 and is probably older. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1816.
Tram depot. Maps of the 1890s show a tram depot belonging to Tillings behind the Plough Inn with tracks running in from the road on either side of the pub to access the rear. The entrance these used has since been filled in and used as a room.
The road ends at an area once known as Clapham Cross

Clapham Manor Street
This was laid out in the 1820s to link the site of the old village with new developments to the south. It was developed itself 1837 -1855 by local builders for Thomas Cubitt with villas and terraces
St Peters Church. In 1877 land for the church was given by Rev Fitzwilliam Bowyer, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Clapham. The church was at first a small brick building, with a corrugated iron roof. By 1902 there were many additions designed by J.E.Cutts. And by 1904 it was complete. There is a 3-manual Hunter organ.  The reredos is a 1914-18 war memorial by Kempe. The church is also used by the South London Orthodox Community
St Peters Hall. The choir vestry is part of a large hall built in 1907. Following bomb damage in 1944 the refurbished halls were reopened in 1953.
165 West Indian Ex-servicemen and Women’s Association. This has links to the Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion. It offers help and advice, a lunch club for elderly and disabled members of the community. It was established here by Jamaican ex-servicemen in the 1970s.
150 Burdette & Co.
128 Clapham Tap. This was the Craft Beer Co. 2013-17 and previously The Manor Arms since at least the 1880s.
Bicycle Mews. This turning off Clapham Manor Street is named for the Claude Butler Cycle Works. In the late 19th a similar turning on this site was called ‘Balzac Street’. There was also in this area in the early 20th-late 19th a plant nursery, a stone works and an iodate works
Claude Butler Cycle Works. Claude Butler joined Balham cycling club, worked for the Halford Cycle Company as a mechanic and in 1928 opened a bicycle shop at Clapham Junction and then began building bicycle frames. He moved his office to Clapham Manor Street in 1932, He sponsored international racers and his bikes were ridden in world championships. Bands and entertainment were held at the Manor Street works for publicity as he was ‘King of the Lightweights’. His rise was curtailed by the Second World War and by the late 1950s Britain's lightweight trade was in serious decline. Eventually the business was bankrupt although it was possible to sell the trade marks. The works closed in 1956 but cycles are still sold under the Claude Butler name.
Corporation Yard
Electrical Works. This was on the site of the cycle works after its closure in the 1950s
Acetylene Illuminating Works. This very large works had an address in Balzac Street in the 1890s. They made ‘DA cylinders’ for illumination and industrial applications.
Clapham Public Baths. These opened in 1932 with the latest filtration system, several club rooms for meetings and a swimming pool which could be covered with a sprung maple floor for use as a dance hall during the winter. The 1930s 'slipper baths’ were converted in the 1990s into a gym. The building was replaced in 2012 by Clapham Leisure Centre.
Clapham Better Leisure Centre. New facility on the site of the old baths opened in 2012 with pool, gym, etc etc. Run by Better.
86 Manor Health Centre
Bread and Roses. This was the Bowyer Arms built in 1846 and the centre of a group designed by Cubitt. Originally the Bowyer family arms were erected over the doorway. There is said to be an old bread oven in the basement. As Bread and Roses it operates a theatre here and runs the pub selling ethical beers. Bread & Roses is owned by The Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council run by the Workers Beer Company, part of BWTUC Trading.
42 Old Dispensary. Dispensaries provided free medical care for the poor. The Clapham General and Provident Dispensary was founded in 1849 and this building paid for by public subscription opened in 1854. It was designed free of charge by James Thomas Knowles Snr.   It closed in the early 1950s and by 1959 was a London County Council occupational training centre. In 1989 the building suffered a major fire. Since 2005 it has been in use as a ballet school.
London Russian Ballet School. This was founded in 2010 by Evgeny Goremykin, a leading soloist in Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet for almost 20 years.

Clapham Park Road
This road was originally called Acre Lane
St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church. In 1847 some French Nuns opened a school in North Street and were joined by members of the Redemptorist Congregation in order to establish a parish. They bought a house and land.  A church was opened despite demonstrations against Popery. In 1895 a monastery was built, and added to the church designed by parishioner John Bentley.  Between the two world wars the church was extended and renovated. In the Second World War a barrage balloon hit the church steeple. After the war waves of immigrants brought new members to the congregation.  The church itself is really Our Lady of the Victories built in  1849 by William Wardell in the Pugin. There is a War Memorial Cross of 1920 by Giles Gilbert Scott.
Clapham Park Road Substation, part of UK Power Networks.
65 La Petite Bretagne. This was previously the Oxford Arms, dating to the 1850s.
90-92 Battley Brothers, print works. John Battley was to become MP for Clapham in 1945 having been a consciensous objector in the war.
90-92 in the 1920s this was the South London Manufacturing Company who made soap powder and imported other soaps
100 The Kings Head Pub. Now said to be closed. Also once called The Grey Goose. Dating from the 1880s
112 Parson’s Corner. This refers to a newsagents shop once run here by a Mr. Parsons
115 Windmill Pub. Also called Farmers after the landlord in the early 20th.  Long since demolished.
154 Oriental Leather and Leatherette Company, Ltd. This works was present in the late 19th. They made fancy papers and mock leather bindings, etc.
154 Welmar Mews.  Includes works of Welmar pianos, trading name of Whelpdale, Maxwell & Codd Ltd, alias Bluther Pianos, since 1935. Whelpdale and Maxwell had begun business in 1876 importing Bluthner pianos from Germany but after the Great War needed to find a non-German piano. They therefore commissioned Cremona Ltd. of Camberwell, London, to make pianos using the trade name Welmar. In 1929 the Cremona factory burnt down and Whelpdale Maxwell & Codd began making Cremona-designed pianos using the Welmar name in Clapham Park Road. Production continued at Clapham until 2001 and the site is now converted to housing
156 Clockhouse Pub. Closed and converted to offices. It is said to have had a painted clock face in the pediment and bunches of grapes on the keystones – the grapes are there but there is no sign of the clockface.
173-175 Coach and Horses. Pub dating from the 1880s when it was a Mann, Crossmann and Paulin House.

Crescent Lane
1 Former stable building occupied by Ribbans Engineering Company
The Stables. This has a sign on it for Ribbans Engineering but now seems to be housing. This may have been the Raleigh Works of Overton & Co., who made plate powder and other polishes in the late 19th.
St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School. The school serves the parish of St. Mary’s as well as the parishes of St Vincent de Paul, Battersea and the parish of St Francis de Sales, Stockwell. St Mary’s Junior Boys’ School was originally in St Alphonsus Road, founded by the Redemptorists in 1907 and St Mary’s Mixed Infant and Girls’ School in Crescent Lane was founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1861. The two schools were amalgamated in 1993 and the school is now based in the 19th building in Crescent Lane.

Cubit Terrace
This was once the northern end of Stonhouse Street and before that Wirtemberg Street.
16 Stonhouse Street was the site of the Bluebird Laundry. This large backland site now appears to be covered by the Clapham Manor Estate., the laundry entrance passage from the street now being an entry into the estate.

Edgeley Lane
82 this property is said, by the estate agent, to be an early 20th church hall built into the remains of an early 19th house. It appears to have been originally part of a building in Clapham High Street.  It has been in commercial use and more recently sold as a film location.

Edgeley Road
In the 19th this was Vernon Road and led to a large plant nursery
The Art School was set up in 1884 by a group of local residents with a building designed by E.B.l’Anson. It was originally under the direction of Leonard Charles Nightingale, an artist who had taught at the Lambeth School of Art. Fine Art was the main subject taught but there were also classes in wood carving, sculpture, gilding, embroidery, pottery and textiles. It was transferred to the London County Council in 1907.   After the Second World War it is noted as part of the Clapham and Balham Adult Education Institute.
11-13 P.C.Millard, printers. This firm was set up in 1931 and appears to have closed in 1966.

Fitzwilliam Road,
Ebenezer Chapel built in 1861 to replace Garner Chapel, which had been sold. It is still in use.
Floris Place – gated housing on the site of the Normand Motors Factory, and named after a local 19th artist.

Gauden Road
Railway arches – the arches alongside the road are home to many small businesses.
113 Balance. Hot power yoga studio
2-4 Dentons Catering Equipment. This firm dates from the 1940s and is a family run business, supplying catering equipment to the food service industry.
118 Fern Lodge Working Men’s Club. Closed and now flats.
Gauden Hotel. Demolished in 1944 following a hit with a V1. This was on the corner with what is now Timber Mill Way.
103 Assembly Rooms built in the 1880s. Films were screened here from June 1907. It opened as a full time cinema in 1912, called the Electric Theatre. It was closed soon after the start of the Great War. It was later demolished and the site has been the location of commercial premises.

Grafton Square
Developed by Captain Thomas Ross, an Irish Militia Captain, in 1846 with grand terraces on two sides. Work was interrupted by a big fire and the square was left only completed on three sides.
Grafton Square – formal open central green space at first railed and planted but in 1927 it was let to A Botting as a tennis club.  It was taken over in 1953 by Wandsworth Council; it is now in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is laid out with seats, a shelter and a playground.
Congregational Church.  This was built in 1851-2 by John Tarring with a badly damaged in Second World War bombing and demolished in 1954
United Reform Church. This was rebuilt on the site of the demolished original church as a Congregational Church.
55 Marantha Ministries World Wide Centre.  Dr Frederick Mmieh started this in 1990 as a Prayer Fellowship House Group, with eleven members. They started meetings at the Knights Youth Centre in Streatham and later at the Clapham Youth Centre. They are now based in what was the United Reform Church.
Willow Nurseries. Children’s nursery held in part of the United Reform Church
38 Grafton Square Surgery. Based in what was the People’s Church
The People’s Church. This was built as a Baptist Church opened in 1889 for t Baptists who moved here from South Side.   In 1959 it was renovated and opened as the People’s Church. Eventually the roof of the church collapsed and the congregation could not afford to repair it so the church was sold.
Clapham Hall. This was built in 1761 as a successor to an earlier congregational church in the Old Town. In 1861 it was bought by Amon Winterbottom and used as a gym. In 1904 it became a factory and was demolished in 1939. Maritime House was built on the site

Haselrigge Road
Haselrigge Road Board School. This was designed by Thomas Jerram Bailey, for the School Board for London.  It is now in use as housing.

Lillishall Road
The Bobbin. 19th pub, originally called ‘The Tim Bobbin”

Long Road
This is a section of the A3 crossing Clapham Common.
Lined with prefabs in the Second World War

Macaulay Road
Parochial School building. The original parochial school was in Old Town but had outgrown its site. A new site on North Side was bought by Benjamin Brown. It opened in 183 with one large schoolroom which was also used for public events. In the Second World War the children being evacuated and the building became a staff canteen for workers at Ross Optical factory. It closed as a school in 1974. It then became the offices of the Muscular Dystrophy Group, who renamed it Nattrass House and in 1999 it became a private house.
29-33 Macaulay Walk. This goes into what was the area of the Ross Optical Co.  factory. The factory fronted onto North Side with a major building but behind were warehouses and workshops. These have now been turned into flats, including the block in Macaulay Road. Ross opened the works here in 1891, providing lenses and cameras for their Bond Street shop. The Great War led to a great expansion in supported by the War Office in order to replace German manufacturers. The works closed in 1975.

Nelsons Row
Buildings. Various out buildings of the Methodist church continue at the top of the road.
Studio Voltaire. This was founded in 1994 by a collective of twelve artists and in 1999 moved to this 19th former chapel.  It gives exposure to underrepresented artists, allowing an alternative and agenda-setting view of contemporary art. It is based in what was a mission church.
44 this was The Perseverance pub. It is now flats but had cream faience tiles, now painted over and a Bass sign over the double front doors.

North Side
Holy Trinity Church.  This opened in 1776 - the same year as the American Declaration of Independence. It is a plain, simple building.  The parish church of St Mary had existed since the 12th in Rectory Grove but by the mid-18th was in a poor state of repair and too small for a growing population. It was decided to build a new church on the Common.  The Trustees chose architect Kenton Couse, who provided a simple design for a rectangular brick building with a stubby tower plus a clock from Thwaites of Clerkenwell, and four bells. The church was soon expanded with a new organ and more seats and more changes were made in the 19th.  In 1903 alterations were made by Beresford Pite. During the Second World War, the Church was damaged but was restored by 1952. More recently changes have been made to encompass more community use. The church is associated with The Clapham Sect who fought for religious and humanitarian causes, notably the abolition of the slave trade. This revolved round influential men who had moved to this area. In 1799 they were also involved in what became the Church Mission Society and in 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society. The church contains monuments to many of these activists.
1 Omnibus Theatre. This building was the public library by E. B. L'Anson, built in 1889. Following a public meeting and a local referendum. It was opened by Sir John Lubbock, Vice-chairman of the London County Council, There was a large reading room, a reference library, closed stacks and upstairs a meeting room, and a flat for the Librarian. It closed in the early 21st and following a campaign opened as the theatre in 2013
3 Worcester House. This had been a school.  In 1891 Ross & Co. Manufacturing Opticians moved here and by 1893 had already built various outbuildings in the garden but thus move appears to have taken place in stages. The firm had been founded in Clerkenwell in 1829 by Mr Andrew Ross and formally moved to Clapham in 1891. The works moved into specialised premises here in time and vacated the main house. It was demolished in 1915.  The site is now part of what was the Ross factory
George West House. Ross Factory. This was built as a steel framed factory in 1916 by Searle & Searle for Ross Ltd, manufacturers of spectacle, telescope, photographic, etc., lenses;. They had been founded in 1830 and there was an earlier building here. There were more buildings to the rear and in Macaulay Road and this whole site has now been turned into a new housing area accessed from Macaulay Road.

North Street
This was once called Nags Head Lane – the pub at the end of the road in the Wandsworth Road.
Macaulay School. This was at the junction with Rectory Grove and had been the site since 1648 of the Village School. The buildings date from 1852 and 1877. In 1965 the school transferred to Victoria Rise, It is now the London Connected Learning Centre.
4-20 Commercial leisure centre. On the site of the Normand Electrical Factory.
Normand Electrical. This company was here from 1938 until the 1980s. They were on a large site between here and Rectory Gardens. They made custom built electric motors under the trade name of ‘Neco’ and led in the field of geared motor units which they had pioneered in the 1920s., In the 1980s they were taken over by the Henderson Group and then passed to FKI, now Melrose, based in Birmingham.
11a Spiritualist Church. This is an active organisation with regular meetings
24 North Street potters. This is a collective of professional potters set up here in 1978,
29 North Pole pub. This was a pub dating from the 1880s which is now a restaurant.
65 From the 1930s until at least the 1950s this was the printing works of Albert Stallan.
97 North Street Mews. Originally a garden area this has been in various industrial uses since the 1890s. This has included in the 1950s Adams & Sons Ltd. (Engineers) who made Adastra cooking apparatus. This was a quantity deep frying range which has been designed for high efficiency and low gas consumption. Earlier, during the Great War it was Pellant & Co. engineers, automobile and cycle agents. It is still used by a number of small businesses but also seen, as ever, as a ‘development opportunity’.
St. Anne’s House. In 1847 a group of French Nuns moved here and opened a small school.

Old Station Way.
New build flats and flats in previous railway premises of what is now Clapham High Street Station
Clapham North Arts centre  Voltaire Road Studios and other offices

Old Town
5 Maritime House, built as a head quarters building for the  National Union of Seamen in 1939 and now owned by RMT Union. This is offices and flats and a Job Centre. High up on the top pediment are some large fish and a small ship's prow.
12  on the front is a relief reading   ‘Contentment passe richesse’.   This is the motto of the Atkins Bowyer Family, once Lords of the Manor of Clapham,  and is thought to have come from the old manor house.
28 archway with a clock. This is a 1990’s development.
29 Fire station built 1964 by the London County Council in purple brick and concrete.
37 Battley Brothers Print Works.  In 2002 this family firm moved to Battersea as partners in Cantate.
38 Prince of Wales pub, said to be very eccentric
43 this has an L.C.C plaque put up in 1950 to John Bentley, architect
47 The Sun. Pub dating from the 1820s and once a Bass house
55 this corner site is now a modern restaurant. It appears to have been a chemists shop in the 1920s and 1930s but by the 1950s it was Downers Lane Engineering Works.
65a Polygon Engineering Works. From 1904-1914 this was used by the makers of the Trojan Car. The company was founded by Leslie Hayward Hounsfield who went into business as a general engineer here. He had the idea of making a simple, economical car that would be easy to drive and started design work in 1910. In 1913 the prototype was done with a two stroke engine. The claim was that each engine had only seven moving parts, four pistons, two connecting rods and a crankshaft. There was a two speed epicyclic gearbox and a chain to the rear wheels. Solid tyres were used to prevent punctures and very long springs used to give some comfort. Before production could start war broke out and from 1914 to 1918, Trojan Ltd, as the company had become in 1914, made production tools and gauges. By 1920 the cars were in production at a works in Croydon. Considered for a police building the site was not developed for many years but is now the site of new flats and shops.

Orlando Road
Sycamore Laundry. This was on the site which is now housing as Sycamore Mews. The laundry had begun in the 1860s and was at The Sycamores in Rectory Grove. It later moved to 4 Old Town and passed on through the family.   In 1994 it merged with Blossom and Browne Laundry and the Sycamore Laundry closed. The laundry buildings were demolished and the mews housing built.
Sycamore House. This was built in 1787 on the site of a former house.   In the 1840s it became a private school and by 1868 it was a Working Men's Club. In 1880 it was the Surrey Reformatory for Girls and in 1898 it became a laundry. When the laundry closed the house became was turned into flats and studio space.

Prescott Place
This was once Little Manor Street. It dates from the 1820s and may have been named for a local Col.Prescott.  Along with a number of industrial premises there are alternative frontages to St.Peter’s Church, and Church Hall to those in Clapham Manor Street.
7-  11 this modern office block was previously Miller Motors in the 1960s
15 factory
28 The Pipeworks. This old joinery works has a furniture showroom on the ground floor and flats above.

Rectory Gardens
Triangular site of low quality 19th houses and shops. This has been an area of standoffs with squatters groups since then

Rectory Grove
Winds away towards the parish church which was in the north end of the road (in the square to the north and on the site of St.Paul’s church). The church was however the centre of the medieval village.
87 The Calf.  Pub dating from the early 19th until the 2000s called ‘The Bull’s Head’. It was then a Taylor Walker house.
47a shown as an ‘engineering works’ in the 1950s. This had been, pre-war, Protected Metals Ltd. electro metallurgists, electro chemical engineers. Earlier it had been A.J.Smith disposers of Government surplus stock. And an auction sale in 1931 promised “Thermometers, Funnels, Urinals, Eyebaths, Pestles and mortars. However in the 1970s it was the Stockwell Press Tool Company, toolmakers.  It is now a private house.
49a described as a printing works in the 1950s this was Thermo Acoustic Products Ltd. in the early 1960s. In the 1930s it had been the French Cigarette Paper Co.  It is now a private house.

Rookery Road
This road which runs diagonally across the common is named for The Rookery which stood adjacent to it in South Side.
Clapham Common Sports Zone

Sedley Place
Sedley Place. Design agency. This was founded in 1977, as  an independent creative agency.
Windsor Works built in 1903 for Mr. Bonekemper for manufacture of boot and shoe laces. In the 1930s it had been used to make 'HoldItFast' Super Adhesive, Windex Razor Blades and Winso fly paper and fly gum in the 1930s.  In the 1970s this was the London office of Foster Bros. of Wednesbury who made plastic piping. It is now part of a complex owned by a design agency, Windsor Works, and is partly flats.
Windsor Workshop is a design agency founded by sculptor Steve Furlonger. This began in 1966 and developed a relationship with design agency Sedley Place and thus moved to ‘Windsor Works in 1987. In 2008 they moved to larger premises in Streatham.

South Side
1 Belle Vue. 19th pub
14 Alexandra Hotel. Pub dating from 1866.
16a Balans Soho Society, café and bar. This was originally a Baptist Chapel built in 1777 and a plaque in the side passage commemorates this. It was reordered in 1837 and in 1889 became a post office when the congregation moved elsewhere. It has since been altered again to become a restaurant
Notre Dame Convent.  This building, now the site of local authority housing, was the home of Thornton family members  - John Thornton was an evangelical philanthropist and member of the Clapham Sect who lived here until the late 18th. His son, Robert, lived in the adjacent house. The house and its neighbour were converted into the Notre Dame Convent school in 1851 by a group of Belgian nuns – the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. They left in 1939 and the site was later cleared for the Notre Dame housing estate in 1945.
The Rookery. A group of weatherboarded buildings stood here which were once part of the Thornton House stables. They were demolished in 1904.

St Alphonsus Road
St Marys Hall. Church hall hosting a range of community events
School. A new parish school for boys was opened in St Alphonsus Road in 1904
St Mary’s Monastery. Redemptorist Monastery, by Bentley, 1892-3.  In 1848 members of the Redemptorist Congregation were invited by Bishop Wiseman to open a house in Clapham with a view to establishing a parish.  They eventually bought a large house at the top of what is now Clapham Park Road and a church was built fronting on to that road. The founder of the Redemptorists was Alphonsus de Liguori, later sainted – and hence the road name.  In 1895 the monastery was built. In The Second World War St Mary’s was an important centre for Redemptorist chaplains on the way to and from military action. . The spacious cellars underneath the monastery became sleeping quarters for the community at night and classrooms for the Boys School during daylight raids.

St Luke’s Avenue
1 Cactus Kitchen. This was originally a chapel built for the Grammar School which stood on Clapham High Street

Stonhouse Street
Made up of Wirtemberg Street and Backfields Lane in 1919. It has since been cut back and some of the line is now Belmont Close and Cubitt Place.
Stonhouse Electrical Works. Burdette Company. This was the factory for the electrical equipment firm with a head office in Clapham Manor Street. They worked on A.C. and D.C. motors, alternators, rotary converters and controllers. They were established here before the Great War.
165 The Stonhouse Pub. This appears to have been the Wirtemberg Arms and opened in the 1850s.  In the 1920s it was the Windsor Arms and a Hoare Brewery House
Wellington Tube Works. This was a warehouse for a firm based in Tipton

The Pavement
Clapham Common Station. Opened in 1900, this lies between Clapham Common and Clapham South Stations on the Northern Line. It was built by the City and South London Railway as the terminus of their extension from Stockwell.  There is a single island platform serving both north and south bound trains. From the start the station has electric lights and lifts. In 1926 the line was extended to Morden and it was then refurbished by S. A. Heaps and a domed entrance building was sited on the island formed by The Pavement and Clapham Common South Side To the east is a modern steel and glass pavilion entrance. The line here was part of a deep shelter in the Second World War.
4 Joe Public. Pizza cafe opened 2016 in the discussed public toilets
5 Waitrose. This is the site of home of Zachary Macaulay in the early 19th. He was a member of the Clapham Sect and editor of their organ, the Christian Observer. He had been Governor of Sierra Leone, the British colony for freed slaves, and had travelled on board a slave ship.  His son was to become Lord Macaulay. There is a plaque high up on the building above the Waitrose frontage.
Horse Trough. Metropolitan Drinking Fountains Association.
Clock tower. This dates from 1906 and was inaugurated by the Lord Mayor of London opened it. It was given to the Parish by Alexander Glegg, Mayor of Wandsworth. It was dismantled and rebuilt when the new station booking hall was built below it.
17 gift shop in what was Deane's chemists. This is a house built in 1824, and a chemist's shop since 1839. There is a ghost sign for Deane’s high on the side gable.
22 patisserie with a large plaster ice-cream cone attached to the doorway.
33 The Lodge. This was built in 1868 as a Fire Station on land belonging to the Parish of Clapham and where the parish lock up was sited, later used to house the local fire engine. It was leased to the Metropolitan Board of Works from 1867 and a new station was built designed by Edward Cresy.  It became in time too small and in 1902 was replaced by a larger station on a site to the north. From 1912 renamed The Lodge, it was the Common Keeper's residence for the Common. In 2004 it was sold and it now a private house. A Clapham Society green plaque was put on the building in 2013.
32 Pub called ‘The Old Town’ since 1014. It was previously The Frog & Forget Me Not, then The Frog and originally the Cock.  It dates from the 16th century when, in a previous building, it was behind cottages

The Polygon
This is a group of buildings in a rough oval shape in the triangle formed by the junction of Old Town with North Side and The Pavement. It dates from 1792.
1 Shop built in 1792 and used as a shop since at least 1860. This has seven half-jars advertising the business of an oil and colourman
2 Rose and Crown.  The pub has a tiled facade for Simonds' Brewery. It dates from the 1880s.

Timber Mill Way
Road built post 1960s on the site of a path going to a builder’s yard. It was previously the site of a railway coal yard
T. Brewer, timber merchant and saw miller dating from the 1880s.  Brewer’s is a traditional timber importer & merchant, which specialises in timber & sheet materials. There are in house milling facilities here with specialist machining such as pattern matching in softwoods and hardwoods, firrings, sheet materials cutting, and a CNC machine for more intricate jobs.
Thames Distillers. This is an independent gin rectifier and bottler which offer a specialist service to develop and produce gin for its customers and has developed over 45 different gins.  Ea for each of its clients
A.E. Chapman & Son. Founded in 1945 and still a family business they have a warehouse and depot here, with a stock of over 500 different bottles. There is a bottle showroom and there is also a Bottle washing service at up to 30000 per day.

Tremadoc Street
Lion Yard Orphanage built in 1870 and part of the Barnardo organisation by the 1890s.  Later used as a warehouse. Now offices

Turret Grove
Site of the Elizabethan Manor House demolished in 1837.

Venn Street
66 postmen's office, built 1902, with a large coat of arms.
76 Clapham Picture House. This opened as the Electric Palace in 1910 designed by architect Gilbert Booth. In 1916 a new entrance was designed on the High Street but in July 1918 it closed and building was sold. A new building was begun and abandoned. It became a snooker club but in 1990 it was converted into the Clapham Picture house by City Screen Cinemas to the designs of Panter Hudspith Architects. It opened in 1992.

Voltaire Street
Street laid out in the 20th – before 1900 the west end of the street was nursery gardens.  The north/south section at the east end was called Station Road.
Clapham High Street Station. This station was opened on 1862 by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway and called Clapham Station. It lies between Denmark Hill and Wandsworth Road Stations on the current London Overground route. It is also between Wandsworth Road and Bromley South on National Rail under Southern. It was renamed Clapham & North Stockwell in 1863, Clapham in 1937 and Clapham High Street in 1989.  From 1867 the original line was paralleled by The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway route and trains went to Ludgate Hill.  The platforms built for the LCDR platforms in 1867 were closed in 1916 and demolished along with other station buildings from that date. The eastbound platform's building was destroyed in 1944 bombing.  The original 1862 building was sold and used as a warehouse and it now flats. Some refurbishment took place in 2012.
5-7 Tsunami restaurant with mural. Mural by Olivier Roubieu,
26 Sykes Interlocking Signal Co. Ltd., Manufacturers of all kinds of electrical and mechanical signalling apparatus in connection with railways.  Railway signals and electrical engineers and manufacturers of locomotive grease lubrication equipment, fuel economisers, power operated fire doors; motor tools and accessories. Specialists in coil winding and impregnating and instrument casework
26-32 Stone's Plating co. LTD, Electro plating works, 1960s

Wingate Square
This is on the site of what was Downers Lane
Downers Cottages. Street of houses destroyed in a wartime rocket attack

Sources
Aldous. London Villages
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Children’s Homes. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Clapham Elim Church. Web site
Clapham Manor Primary School. Web site
Clapham Model Boat Club. Web site
Clapham Society. Web site
Day. London Underground
Glazier. London Transport Garages
GLIAS Newsletter
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Holy Trinity. Web site
Ideal Homes. Web site
Laurie.  Beneath the City Streets 
London Borough of Lambeth. Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Russian Ballet School. Web site
National Archives. Web site
Northampton and District Organists Association. Newsletter
O’Connor. Forgotten Stations
Omnibus Theatre. Web site
Pastscape. Web site
Pub History. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Smith. Clapham
Stell. Nonconformist Meeting Houses and Chapels in Eastern England
St. Mary’s RC Church. Web site
St.Mary’s Primary School. Web site
Trojan Owners Club. Web site
The Tuners Blog. Web site
Wheatley and Meulenkamp. Follies
Wikipedia As appropriate