Thursday 21 June 2012

Norwood: A Matter of Considerations...

Norwood was a carefully considered development…
With the gradual disappearance of the Great North Wood and the hilly terrain that defines the area it was never as simple as clearing the land for residential use.
The sheer mass of woodland meant that, even with the industrial levels of timber removed from the district, it wasn’t until the 19th Century that it became possible to imagine large scale building projects to take place.
At its peak the Great North Wood stretched from Camberwell to Croydon but the growth of London with the advent of the Empire saw the city encroach further and further South.
The birth of the Empire was built firstly on British Naval power and then by a huge development of commercial merchant shipping. Both of these required huge amounts of timber, a great deal of which was sourced from the North Wood.
This meant that the industrial development of London was founded on timber from the Wood, which also led to the growth of London which eroded the wood as it moved further and further South.
Areas such as Camberwell and Dulwich became popular suburban retreats for the emergent Middle Class and the development of the railways saw more and more woodland cleared to make these new residential districts accessible from the heart of the city.  
By 1745 the woodland was surrounded by ‘commons’  and the Enclosure Act of 1797 saw the formal acceptance of the area as being ripe for development.
But it wasn’t as straightforward as that…
The land from Camberwell to the very centre of Norwood is essentially a series of hills.
Moving in a straight line South from Camberwell a traveler will find themselves moving up Herne Hill to Tulse Hill then up Knights Hill to the top of Beulah Hill.
Today the very top of Beulah Hill is home to a transmitter tower and a residential block called ‘Everest House’, both a sign of the elevation of the area.
The difficulties of finding flat land to build on lead to many innovations, the most remarkable being that the first railway overpass was built in Norwood.
The idea of finding two places flat enough for a railway line was unthinkable…
There are some plateaus between these hills and these are where the earliest development of Norwood began. What is now West Norwood was first known as Lower Norwood, the name reflecting its physical position relative to the rest of the area.
With further growth even the hilliest parts of the district were built upon and the land on Beulah Hill became desirable for residential use.
The development of what would become known as ‘Upper Norwood’ saw the residents of Lower Norwood upset that their region should be seen as ‘lesser’ than their neighbours and successfully argued that the area should be renamed ‘West Norwood’.
Eventually even the land on the far side of the hills was cleared and built upon, giving us South Norwood.
The fact that the area covered by the Great North Wood has given us three separate districts that share its name should give an indication as to the scale of the woodland in its prime.
However the slow progress of the development allowed for a more considered approach in the planning of the area.
One unfortunate outcome of this more considered approach was the building of Norwood New Town in 1840.
This was a ‘walled estate’ designed to house the working class residents that had moved into the area with its development.
The walled in streets formed a close community but were kept hidden away from their well-to-do neighbours.
Incredibly the walls remained up until 1930…
Initially the region was seen as a suburban getaway and most of the local businesses were designed around the leisure industries. Tea Rooms and Pleasure Gardens were dotted around the residential areas and Public Houses popped up along the railway lines.
The most famous of these spots was the Beulah Spa which was opened by Decimus Burton in 1831.
However, the relocation of the Crystal Palace to nearby Sydenham Hill, while providing a raft of new working class residents for Norwood New Town, put paid to many of these.
The opening of the Crystal Palace saw Norwood itself become largely a residential area and yet still witnessed its fair share of creations and discoveries.
Robert FitzRoy retired to Norwood in and upon his death in 1865 was buried in the front of All Saints Church.
Despite being one of the founders of what would become the Meteorological Office, pioneer of Weather Forecasting and the inventor of the Shipping Forecast, FitzRoy is probably still best known as the Captain of HMS Beagle, the ship which enabled  Charles Darwin to undertake his research which lead to his discoveries on Evolution.
A devout Christian, FitzRoy was devastated at having been party of the development of such ideas and denounced Darwin’s theories whenever given the chance.
Arthur Conan Doyle moved to South Norwood  in 1891 and wrote a great number of Sherlock Holmes stories while living there including ‘The Final Problem’ the story where Conan Doyle attempted to ‘kill off’ Holmes.
Hiram Maxim spent his time in West Norwood in the early 1890’s developing the world’s first machine gun.
He would work on his idea in the back garden and thoughtfully placed advertisements in local papers warning his neighbours of his planned experiments and advising them to keep their windows open to ‘avoid the danger of broken glass.’
Preparations for the World Cup in 1966 took an unfortunate turn when the trophy was stolen from an exhibition in Westminster a few months before the tournament was due to start.
An initial ransom demand was found to be a hoax and hopes began to fade that the trophy would ever be seen again.
However a mere seven days later Pickles, a black and white Collie dog, found the trophy wrapped in newspaper under a hedge on Beulah Hill.
Suspicion fell at first on his owner David Corbett but eventually he was cleared of any involvement and given a sizeable reward.
Pickles had a brief burst of fame and found himself appearing opposite Eric Sykes and June Whitfield in the 1966 film ‘The Spy With the Cold Nose.’
However this was short-lived as Pickles managed to choke himself on his own lead while chasing a cat in 1967…
Norwood today is a fully realised residential area. Some remnants of its wooded past persist in the many street names that are taken from trees and shrubs but it would be easy to forget how inaccessible the region was for so long.
That is, unless you’re on a bus struggling its way up Knights Hill and you tried to imagine dragging a cart full of bricks up there…

2 comments:

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  2. I like the bit in Jonathan Meades' The Fowler Family Business where a widow instructs the funeral directors to take her hubby's cortege up Beulah Hill: "Cyril loved it. He just loved it. He used to stand there you know and look out across Thornton Heath and Croydon and say thank God I don't live there"

    (reposted with correct quote)

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