The Former Slums of (Lower Norwood) West Norwood
What was Lower Norwood?The area now known as West Norwood, roughly the same as the SE27 postal district
The railway station was renamed in 1886, apparently because West Norwood sounded more select
West Norwood is not to the west of any other part of Norwood; it is to the north of Upper Norwood and South Norwood
Slums refer to poorer quality housing that was built before 1886 but survived until long after Lower Norwood became West Norwood
Maps and Land Ownership
1746 Rocque’s Map showing Lower Norwood Area
Lower Norwood 1870
The first photograph 1870-1872
West Norwood 1894
Providence Place 1870
Soot Street 1870 (or Soapsuds Square)
Cotswold Street – Gloucester Road in 1870
Cotswold Street – Gloucester Road in 1894
Langmead Street 1894
Dunkirk Street 1870 (formerly Change Alley)
Timeline
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Building of the street
What was a slum? •Debatable – word often used as part of the policy of ‘slum clearance’.
Section 42 (1) of the Housing Act 1957 said that for a local authority to declare a ‘clearance area’, it should be satisfied (among other things) that “the houses in that area are unfit for human habitation, or are by reason of their bad arrangement, or the narrowness or bad arrangement of the streets, dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the area, and that the other buildings, if any, in the area are for a like reason dangerous or injurious to the health of the said inhabitants”
Plot 1908 was a frontage encroachment on Lord Thurlow’s land. The encroachment owned by John Lyne, publican of Norwood Common. There were four named tenants. The encroached land lasted between 20-60 years. The value of improvements & buildings was £500 paid to the encroacher by Thurlow’s trustees & £10.10s to Commissioners for land as Common.
Cotswold Street (Norwood News 15 April 1871)
The End of the Slums
Auckland Place – mainly cleared in 1938. Langmead Street – demolished in 1970s. Cotswold Street – still standing. Dunkirk Street – demolished in 1970s. Knights Hill Square – destroyed by V1 in 1944
Architecture
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Significant Street Buildings
Langmead Square and Street – West Norwood
Mr Langmead, who built Langmead Square, intended them to be high-class dwellings, but as our American friends would say they “failed to make the grade” and were let out as tenements. (J B Wilson) 1870 map shows the area undeveloped 1881 census. The 10 …Knight’s Hill Square – West Norwood
The 1910 Valuation Survey showed a variety of details at Knights Hill Square. Some cottages had garden land. There were 1- or 2-storey stock brick cottages, with pantile or slate roofs. There were no internal WCs. Numbers 14-24 were single storey wi …Dunkirk Street (formerly Change Alley) – West Norwood
Change Alley 1911. There were 61 people living in 18 cottages.. Almost all the cottages were “2 up, 2 down”. Many had only 1, 2 or 3 inhabitants. But at Number 6 lived Alfred Fisher, a labourer, with his wife and six children (aged 5 to 15). The coupl …
Auckland Place – West Norwood
Auckland Place was an alley with no access for vehicles. These houses were in very bad repair and inconveniently arranged. There were either one or two rooms upstairs. Some had no sculleries and no water supply laid on. There were lean-to wcs. Coppers …
8 Gloucester Road 1881 – West Norwood
There were 3 families living at 8 Gloucester Road in West Norwood in 1881. Jones – widow, 6 childen (9 months to 13 years) & lodger. Pittam – young married couple. Wright – couple with 2 year old son 7, 8 & 9 Cotswold Street in 2026Social History
The Norwood Flood, June 1890. On 26 June 1890, Norwood News reported: Eleven residents of Elm Grove & Wood Street had been flooded out. Eight also at Knights Hill Square. Eleven at East Street & Change Alley “in the same pitiable condition”. Providence Place was flooded “from end to end”. The blame was placed on inadequate drainage. It was not as though this had not happened before”
The Norwood Flood, 14 June 1914. A thunderstorm struck for three hours from mid-day with torrential rain and hailstones.The River Effra emerged from its sewer and flooded Ernest Street, East Place, Auckland Place, Wood Street , Dunbar Street, Robson Road & Chestnut Road. “In some cases, Sunday joints were washed out of ovens”. Those made homeless were put up at the Public Hall at Knights Hill, opposite Wolfington Road.
People
William Tow of Change Alley
ALARMING HEADLINES
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“A WEDDING NIGHT IN A POLICE CELL” – 18 October 1879
“THE NORWOOD BIGAMY CASE – ROUGH MUSIC” – 1 November 1879
OUTCOME NOT KNOWN
Peter Joseph Edwards of 8 Gloucester Road
ANOTHER ALARMING HEADLINE
“SHOCKING DEATH FROM STARVATION AT LOWER NORWOOD” -17 February 1883
John Forward of Change Alley
John Forward aged 6 lived with his parents John & Rebecca at 7 Change Alley. On Saturday 12 March 1887, he went downstairs to see if the water was boiling and his clothes and hair caught fire. He was wearing a night shirt made of unbleached cotton. The accident happened on Saturday and a doctor immediately attended. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital on the Monday and died on the next Saturday. John said that he had stood inside the fender to warm himself.
Ada Emma Gibson of Knight’s Hill SquareAda Emma Gibson was a 49 year old widow who lived at Beaconsfield Cottages, Knights Hill Square. In May 1909, she sat up in bed reading by the light of a gas lamp. Her daughter (who shared the room) was woken by screams. Ada’s flannelette night dress was alight. Ada was burnt practically from head to foot. She was taken to the Cottage Hospital and said that a muslin curtain blew across a candle and flared up. She died about 26 hours after arriving at the Hospital.
Anna Caroline Sostman
Miss Anna Caroline Sostmann of Forest Hill died at the end of 1939 aged 88. She left two weeks’ rent to each of the tenants of her cottages at Knights Hill Square as well as the leases (which had between 3 and 4 years to run) to her tenants at Curnicks Lane.
Miss Sostmann came to England from Germany as a young girl. With her widowed sister she had started a school at Forest Hill.
One of her tenants commented “Miss Sostmannwas a wonderfully kind woman, and it was just like her to think of leaving her houses to us”.
“SHOCKING DEATH FROM STARVATION AT LOWER NORWOOD” -17 February 1883
Residents
A Wraight – 12 Knight’s Hill Square – West Norwood
Mr A Wraight, a coachman, lived with his wife and six children (aged 1 to 15) in a four-room cottage. The parents had been married for 18 years and 7 of their 8 children were living.Arthur Henry Wrate – 11 Auckland Place
Arthur Henry Wrate, a gardener, lived in four rooms with his wife, two daughters and three sons (aged 9 to 20). The couple had been married for 31 years and produced 11 children of whom 8 were still living. Arthur Wrate died a few weeks after having to …Charles Robert Preston 2 Knight’s Hill Square – West Norwood
Charles Robert Preston, a draper’s porter, lived with his wife and eight children (aged 9 months to 15 years) in a house described as having five rooms. The couple had been married for 15 years and all 8 of their children were living.Denis Sullivan – 8 Auckland Place
Denis Sullivan, a shoemaker, lived in four rooms with his wife, four daughters and two sons (aged 3 to 28). The couple had been married for 40 years and had lost only one of their nine children.The Hart Family – 11 Auckland Place
The Hart family lived at 11 Auckland Place – a “2 up 2 down” cottage. In 1936, their children were looking further afield to play – first at Norwood Park and then seeking blackberries by the railway The newspaper reported that Jack Hart rescued his sis …Memories
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War
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Census
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Street Directories
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