South Norwood Hill
South Norwood Hill was shown on Roque's map of 1745 as Beggars Hill and on the 1800 inclosure map but an 1818 map names it as Beaulieu Hill. Crutchley's map of 1826 names it Beggars Hill and so does Robert's map of 1847.
Beggars Hill was officially named South Norwood Hill in 1864 when at a meeting of the Croydon Board of Health on 7th June 1864, one of the precursors to Croydon Council, the Roads Committee recommended that "the hill at Norwood called Beggars Hill be in future named Norwood Hill". The report and its several recommendations were received and adopted (Croydon Board of Health, 1864), (Report of Roads Committee, 1864).
On the Ordnance Survey six-inch map surveyed 1867-68 and published in 1872 it is clearly named "South Norwood Hill". The section between Southern Avenue and the High Street is named on the same map as Pawson's Place.
Maps and Land Ownership
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Roque's 1745 map
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1800 Croydon Inclosure Map
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Cruchley's 1826 map
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Robert's 1847 map
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OS 1864 map
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OS 1868 map
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Kelley's 1923 map
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OS 1938 map
Timeline
Building of the street
- Pascall’s Brickworks
- Norhyrst
- The White Lion
- Grangehyrst
Pascall’s Brickworks
Pascall’s brick works may date back to 1789 but probably not at the South Norwood site. The opening of the Croydon Canal in 1809 is thought to have lead to the development of Pascall’s brickfields in South Norwood. They manufactured tiles, drain pipes, garden pots, chimney pots and other fired clay goods.When the clay on that site had been worked out they sold it to William Stanley who built his house Cumberlow, the Stanley Halls and the Stanley Trade School there.After this the Pascalls continued production on the other side of the railway in Harrington Road. The brick works included two pairs of worker’s cottages.
Pascall’s Workers Cottages, 1820
South Norwood Hill, northern section, 1887 & 1952.
Architecture
Significant Street Buildings
The White Lion (1821)
The White Lion was a public house or ‘Coaching Inn’ on the road south from London through west (Lower) Norwood, Knight’s Hill, Beulah Hill, ‘Beggar’s Hill (South Norwood Hill) South Norwood and on towards Brighton. It stood opposite the top of Grange …
The Firs 248/250 South Norwood Hill
The Firs has also been known as Court Royal and Whitehall. It was originally two; large, semi-detached houses built over five floors on land sloping steeply down to the east from South Norwood Hill. In 1867 it was advertised as available to lease at £ …
Stanley Halls, South Norwood (1903 to 1907)
With the £120,000 raised from floating his business, The Stanley Works, on the stock market William F. R. Stanley announced that he would “provide the district with a well needed Public Hall” (Norwood News, 1901). The buildings were completed in stages …
Pascall’s Brick Works
During the 1800s there were numerous brick fields in South Norwood making use of the London clay to manufacture ‘London Yellow Stock’ bricks. A large field existed at the foot of south Norwood Hill from just after 1800. This was established by the Pascall family and after exhausting the local clay moved to nearby Blind Corner.
Falkland Park (1890)
Falkland Park was built in 1890 of white Suffolk bricks with Portland Stone dressings. It was described by English Heritage in 1988 as of ‘Mongrel Classical Style’! Like The Grange its portico’d entrance is to the side allowing as many rooms as possi …
Bishop’s Folly 228 South Norwood Hill
Bishop’s Folly, 228, formerly called St Helen’s was in 1960 the home of Mr Amphlett Micklewright, the first Chairman of the NORWOOD SOCIETY and Mrs Helen Hamilton Flint. Mrs Hamilton Flint was the first Honorary Secretary of the Norwood Society, or as …
Balmoral Court
Balmoral Court is an Art Deco style block of nine flats on the eastern side of South Norwood Hill between Holmesdale Road and Hambledon Gardens. It is one of the very few Art Deco style buildings in Norwood. It does not appear on the 1932 OS maps of …
ALBION TOWER
Albion Tower, currently number 21 South Norwood Hill was probably built in 1860, as it appears in the 1861/2 street directory. It is a building in Italianate style, much favoured by Victorians in the 1850s and 60s. The style was made popular by Cubit …Social History
Residents
COSTELLO, MICHAEL (1861 – 1884)
Michael Costello, born in 1861, was living at the Firs, then the Court Royal Hotel, in 1884 shortly after his return from Egypt where he had served as a corporal in the 35th Royal Sussex Regiment. He had been invalided home suffering from fits. On Thu …
DRESSER, HENRY EELES (1838 – 1881)
was born in Thirsk in 1838 after the family moved south, before 1848, where his father, Henry Dresser senior, intended to set up as a merchant in the Baltic timber trade. He had three brothers and five sisters. The family lived for some time in the F …
HAMONG, COUNT LEIGH De (1866 – 1936)
Count Leigh De Hamong AKA William John Warner or Count Louis Hamon, popularly known as “Cheiro”, was born 1 November 1866 in a village outside of Dublin, Ireland. He was an astrologer and colourful occult figure, who had set up reading palms at the ag …
JELLICORSE, EDWARD JOHN BROWN (1828 – 1852)
Edward Jellicorse was born in Manchester in 1828 where he became a solicitor. He married Rebecca Dresser, Henry Dresser’s sister, in Bromley in 1852. Edward was a volunteer in the 1st Manchester Rifle Volunteer Corps and was appointed as a Lieutenant …
KLABER, AUGUSTUS DAVID (1861 – 1914)
Augustus David Klaber was born in London in 1861, his parents Herman and Frances having emigrated from Prague, prior to 1848, the capital of what was then Bohemia. They were married in 1857 in Synagogue No 50 Cavendish Square. Augustus, a German, live …
MIALL, EDWARD (1809 – 1891)
He was one of the first residents of the Firs, 248/250 South Norwood Hill. He was an English journalist, apostle of disestablishment, founder of the Liberation Society, and a Liberal Party politician. He was resident at the Firs in 1862. Miall was bor …
MICKLEWRIGHT, FREDERICK HENRY AMPLETT (1908 – 1992)
Frederick Henry Amphlett Micklewright was the founder and first Chairman of the Upper Norwood and District Preservation Society, UNDPS, later renamed the Norwood Society. During the early 1960s Norwood was going through a period of great change. Livin …
STANLEY, WILLIAM FORD ROBINSON (1829 – 1909)
The son of a mechanical engineer, inventor and builder William Stanley was born in Buntingford, Hertfordshire, and although receiving rather a limited formal education did attend classes in technical drawing at what we would now call Birkbeck College. …
THEOBALD, MORELL (1829 – 1908)
Morell Theobald lived in the Firs in 1861 (Census, 1861). He was born in Birmingham in 1829 and married Miall’s youngest daughter Ellen in June 1856. Their second son, Edward, was born in 1858 by which time they were living in Aller-cottage, Highgate …
WALMISLEY, SHAFTSBURY EDWARD HENRY (1828 – 1894)
In 1888 Shaftesbury Edward Henry Walmisley and his wife Mary Edith Beatrice nee Jobling, who was eight years his junior, lived at Hazel Bank. Hazelbank was a large detached house, probably dating from the 1860s, on the eastern side of South Norwood Hi …Memories
War
Houses destroyed by a V1 on the night of June 28, 1944
Houses on the eastern side of South Norwood Hill destroyed by a high explosive bomb during the Blitz.