IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hainthorpe Road, LONDON, SE27 0PH

The site was being cleared for this: Image Far right is the tower of St Luke: Image

A rear view of this former Jewish orphanage, built in 1910 according to the inscription on the front. It was recently offices of a housing trust, but the remaining grounds look rather unkempt and their signs have been taken down, so they may have moved out.

This former Jewish orphanage was built in 1910 according to the inscription. When photographed, it recently had been offices of a housing trust, but the remaining grounds looked rather unkempt and their signs had been taken down, so they may have moved out.

This former Jewish orphanage was built in 1910 according to the inscription. When photographed, it recently had been offices of a housing trust, but the remaining grounds looked rather unkempt and their signs had been taken down, so they may have moved out.

Now that it's finished - the centre opened in August 2014 - it looks a lot less Stasi-like (Image]), which is a relief. It's actually not a bad building, low and layered, partially built into a sloping site. Built at a cost of £14 million by Lambeth Council and Lambeth Primary Care Trust to house a 25 metre swimming pool, gym, dance studios, meeting rooms, GP and dental practice. Designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

Educational planners around the country have been caught on the hop by an unexpected increase in the birth rate leading to a lack of school places. West Norwood has been one such affected area, something which Lambeth Council is now attempting to address. The primary school had just opened a week or two before, even though the rear is still a building site and at the front workmen can be seen finishing off the landscaping. The outdoor space - on the right - is rather cramped. This pleasant Arts and Crafts style building began life as a Jewish orphanage - a panel above the entrance bears the inscription, "Arnold and Jane Gabriel Home 1910". Prior to the school, it was used as offices by a local housing association.

On a grey day it resembles offices of the Stasi, but this ugly duckling will transform itself into West Norwood's (swan-like?) leisure centre, housing a swimming pool, gym, dance studio, meeting rooms and GP surgery. It is being built on what was open space next to Norwood Hall, a nondescript, derelict post-war building (and itself a community hall) which has now been demolished. Between Bloom Grove, from where this photo was taken, and the leisure centre runs the railway. Swan phase: Image

The road descends towards Norwood Road, although it is interrupted by the railway which is crossed only by a footbridge. The distant woods might be near Dulwich golf course.

Looking east down St Julian's Farm Road from near the junction with Thurlestone Road. St Julian's Farm Road has several distinct stylistic groups of houses, all probably dating from the second half of the C19th (except for a few at the top end built in the 1920s/1930s). The development of West Norwood began with the breaking up of Lord Thurlow's estate after his death in 1806, but it accelerated greatly with the arrival of the Crystal Palace railway in 1856; between 1851 and 1901 the population of the district of St. Luke's, Norwood increased from around 4,000 to around 36,000.

This little pair are the last surviving reminders of the Jewish orphanage which lay further up the drive. Neo-Jacobean with shaped gables and brick diaperwork, the architects were Tillott & Chamberlain. The orphanage opened in 1861 and was demolished a hundred years later. Some of its grounds survive, the remainder of the site now being occupied by Norwood Hall (currently disused) and the Hainthorpe Estate.