diamond geezer

 Wednesday, January 10, 2024

 
 

OLD KENT
ROAD



£60
 
London's Monopoly Streets

OLD KENT ROAD

Colour group: brown
Purchase price: £60
Rent: £2
Length: 1¾ miles
Boroughs: Southwark and Lewisham
Postcodes: SE1, SE15

The Monopoly board kicks off with the longest, cheapest and easternmost street, the Old Kent Road, which is also the only location south of the river. Originally this was Watling Street, the Romans' long march to the coast, then a route of medieval pilgrimage and today it's a useful feeder to B&Q. Along its length are minor shops, long blocks of flats, community cafes, vast retail sheds, newly-rising towers, umpteen barber shops, a few historical leftovers and a character that continually changes all the way down. Rents are a lot higher than £2 these days, but even now it's still in the right place on the board.



The Old Kent Road starts at the Bricklayers Arms roundabout where preferential traffic gets to glide in across a divisive concrete flyover. On one side are Supreme Care Services Ltd and Stephanie's Multicentre, on the other a well-fortified primary school, and ducking underneath is a chunky-looking subway. There are only two Lidl supermarkets on the Monopoly board, both of them on the Old Kent Road, and here's the first. As for the first blocks of flats - Waleran, Kingsley and Dover - these are late Victorian greybrick monsters with chilly-looking open stairwells all the way up to the sixth storey. And just beyond Kingsley, set back apologetically from the road, is the oldest house on the street.



House: The White House (155 Old Kent Road)
It's astonishing to find a detached villa built in 1795 squished inbetween all this later development. It has a steeply pitched roof, a sloping front lawn (designed to hide the basement underneath) and is painted in stucco, hence the nickname The White House. It was the home of Michael Searles, surveyor to the Rolls Estate which owned much of Bermondsey back when all this was fields. The Rolls were originally a Monmouthshire family and their most famous descendant, a century later, would be Charles Rolls the daredevil aviator and joint founder of Rolls-Royce. But he never lived here, and these days the White House is occupied by The Church Of The Living God, Pillar And Foundation Of The Truth, The Light Of The World. They only use the last five words on the sign outside, thankfully, which sits just behind the listed railings.



Hotel: Eurotraveller Hotel-Premier (194-202 Old Kent Road)
This understated 53 bed hotel runs at height above a row of restaurants, and is part new-build and part conversion behind what looks like a Victorian shopfront. If a foreign tourist were to read its website they might think the so-called Eurotraveller Hotel-Premier (Tower Bridge) was at the heart of things and close to many major tourist attractions. Instead its namesake Tower Bridge is a mile away and "The Houses of Parliaments", the Southbank and the London Eye further still. Reception contains a row of leatherette armchairs and a suspiciously pyramidal conifer. I see they have considerable availability for tonight at sub-£100 prices so maybe the London Dungeon is worth the walk.



This first stretch of the Old Kent Road is mostly shops - generally nothing recognisably chain. Some are really narrow, crammed into a subdivision of a normal unit because that's all you need for phone repairs or old school tailoring. Available cuisine includes Ethiopian, Lebanese, Somali and French, but if you prefer trad English then rest assured Ozzie's cafe serves up a variety of set breakfasts all priced at £7.90. The Milk Bar isn't a similar throwback but a coffee shop specialising in milkshakes and Algerian pastries, plus grilled chicken and merguez for the lunchtime crowd. Fading adverts at height occasionally reveal what buildings used to be, so The Redeemed Church Of God Mount Zion (The Dwelling Place Of God) was formerly Wells the Quality Furnishers.



The first pub on the Old Kent Road is the Dun Cow, except no that's now a doctor's surgery. The second, now a Vietnamese restaurant, used to be called the Thomas à Becket and was where pilgrims heading to Canterbury paused for refreshment. This location was special because it was once the site of a ford on the River Neckinger and marked the edge of the City of London's legal jurisdiction, as a plaque on the front of the old fire station attests. That in turn is now an antiques centre and fireplace showroom, because a modern fire station has been built just down the road opposite The Lord Nelson, which is now the first pub on the Old Kent Road. I hope you're following this.



The most important 20th century landmarks hereabouts are the entrance to Burgess Park and a ginormous Tesco, whose footprint was pencilled in as the site of the first stop on the Bakerloo line extension. Don't bet on the brown line reaching the brown road in your lifetime, or indeed ever. Beyond here, or rather beyond King Rooster takeaway, the road gets much more residential. On the left are chunky interwar LCC blocks and a single anachronistic Georgian terrace; on the right newbuild flats and an Asda even larger than the previous Tesco. This green shed acts as an overture to a concentrated burst of retail estates - anchor tenants Currys, B&Q and B&M - at the spot where the Old Kent Road was once crossed by the Grand Surrey Canal. This former waterway attracted large amounts of industry to its banks, all long since erased and replaced by ample car parking.



The derelict-looking cuboid on the corner of Peckham Park Road is the former North Peckham Civic Centre, a social hotbed built by Camberwell council in the mid-1960s. Its finest features are three gorgeous ceramic tile friezes by Adam Kossowski illustrating Canterbury pilgrims, monarchs on horseback, Pearly Kings and other characters from the OKR's long history. Alas 'The Civic' closed in 2003 and was subsequently hired by The Everlasting Arms Ministries, who have themselves pulled down the shutters because this site is now destined to host a 38-storey tower. The murals are Grade II listed so will be taken into storage before being 'incorporated' into the new structure, so best see them in situ soon.



Christ Church is unique down this road in that it actually looks like a church rather than a community centre, office block or other conversion. It sits beside the Livesey Museum, an ornate redbrick institution opened in 1870 and reopened by Sir John Betjeman following heavy wartime damage. In its later years the museum was targeted mainly at children, until budget cuts pulled the plug in 2008 and the building is now occupied by a special needs school with 15 pupils. The gasholder visible across the tyre depot is the last remnant of Southwark Gasworks, most of whose site is now occupied by a council waste management facility. I hope the tenants of multiple towers planned along this stretch enjoy its persistent whiff.



A few Victorian buildings survive around the top of Commercial Way, then it's back to retail sheds including that second Lidl I promised, whose car park would have been the site of the second Bakerloo extension station. The Tustin estate looks terribly 1970s with its concrete-arched shopping parade, and this too is due for higher-rise redevelopment, a fate that's already befallen the estate across the road (which is just topping out at 21 storeys). It seems Southwark council are hellbent on rebuilding properties at this end of the Old Kent Road at a rate more prolific than the most entrepreneurial of Monopoly players.



Immediately before the Overground bridge come a pair of splendid Georgian semi-detached houses, stucco-fronted, that'd sit happily in any conservation area. Immediately after the bridge is a final row of shops and a smart turrety pub, The Windsor, which it turns out is only the second option for Monopoly boardcrawlers. And it's here that Old Kent Road morphs silently into New Cross Road. There are no streetsigns, the only clue being that the Cheers Cash & Carry at number 915 is followed by Deptford Ambulance Station at number 1. It's astonishing that the Monopoly board nudges marginally into Lewisham, but the Old Kent Road always was an astonishing street in the first place.


<< click for Newer posts

click for Older Posts >>


click to return to the main page


...or read more in my monthly archives
Jan24  Feb24  Mar24  Apr24  May24  Jun24  Jul24  Aug24  Sep24  Oct24  Nov24  Dec24
Jan23  Feb23  Mar23  Apr23  May23  Jun23  Jul23  Aug23  Sep23  Oct23  Nov23  Dec23
Jan22  Feb22  Mar22  Apr22  May22  Jun22  Jul22  Aug22  Sep22  Oct22  Nov22  Dec22
Jan21  Feb21  Mar21  Apr21  May21  Jun21  Jul21  Aug21  Sep21  Oct21  Nov21  Dec21
Jan20  Feb20  Mar20  Apr20  May20  Jun20  Jul20  Aug20  Sep20  Oct20  Nov20  Dec20
Jan19  Feb19  Mar19  Apr19  May19  Jun19  Jul19  Aug19  Sep19  Oct19  Nov19  Dec19
Jan18  Feb18  Mar18  Apr18  May18  Jun18  Jul18  Aug18  Sep18  Oct18  Nov18  Dec18
Jan17  Feb17  Mar17  Apr17  May17  Jun17  Jul17  Aug17  Sep17  Oct17  Nov17  Dec17
Jan16  Feb16  Mar16  Apr16  May16  Jun16  Jul16  Aug16  Sep16  Oct16  Nov16  Dec16
Jan15  Feb15  Mar15  Apr15  May15  Jun15  Jul15  Aug15  Sep15  Oct15  Nov15  Dec15
Jan14  Feb14  Mar14  Apr14  May14  Jun14  Jul14  Aug14  Sep14  Oct14  Nov14  Dec14
Jan13  Feb13  Mar13  Apr13  May13  Jun13  Jul13  Aug13  Sep13  Oct13  Nov13  Dec13
Jan12  Feb12  Mar12  Apr12  May12  Jun12  Jul12  Aug12  Sep12  Oct12  Nov12  Dec12
Jan11  Feb11  Mar11  Apr11  May11  Jun11  Jul11  Aug11  Sep11  Oct11  Nov11  Dec11
Jan10  Feb10  Mar10  Apr10  May10  Jun10  Jul10  Aug10  Sep10  Oct10  Nov10  Dec10 
Jan09  Feb09  Mar09  Apr09  May09  Jun09  Jul09  Aug09  Sep09  Oct09  Nov09  Dec09
Jan08  Feb08  Mar08  Apr08  May08  Jun08  Jul08  Aug08  Sep08  Oct08  Nov08  Dec08
Jan07  Feb07  Mar07  Apr07  May07  Jun07  Jul07  Aug07  Sep07  Oct07  Nov07  Dec07
Jan06  Feb06  Mar06  Apr06  May06  Jun06  Jul06  Aug06  Sep06  Oct06  Nov06  Dec06
Jan05  Feb05  Mar05  Apr05  May05  Jun05  Jul05  Aug05  Sep05  Oct05  Nov05  Dec05
Jan04  Feb04  Mar04  Apr04  May04  Jun04  Jul04  Aug04  Sep04  Oct04  Nov04  Dec04
Jan03  Feb03  Mar03  Apr03  May03  Jun03  Jul03  Aug03  Sep03  Oct03  Nov03  Dec03
 Jan02  Feb02  Mar02  Apr02  May02  Jun02  Jul02 Aug02  Sep02  Oct02  Nov02  Dec02 

jack of diamonds
Life viewed from London E3

» email me
» follow me on twitter
» follow the blog on Twitter
» follow the blog on RSS

» my flickr photostream

twenty blogs
our bow
arseblog
ian visits
londonist
broken tv
blue witch
on london
the great wen
edith's streets
spitalfields life
linkmachinego
round the island
wanstead meteo
christopher fowler
the greenwich wire
bus and train user
ruth's coastal walk
round the rails we go
london reconnections
from the murky depths

quick reference features
Things to do in Outer London
Things to do outside London
London's waymarked walks
Inner London toilet map
20 years of blog series
The DG Tour of Britain
London's most...

read the archive
Dec24  Nov24  Oct24  Sep24
Aug24  Jul24  Jun24  May24
Apr24  Mar24  Feb24  Jan24
Dec23  Nov23  Oct23  Sep23
Aug23  Jul23  Jun23  May23
Apr23  Mar23  Feb23  Jan23
Dec22  Nov22  Oct22  Sep22
Aug22  Jul22  Jun22  May22
Apr22  Mar22  Feb22  Jan22
Dec21  Nov21  Oct21  Sep21
Aug21  Jul21  Jun21  May21
Apr21  Mar21  Feb21  Jan21
Dec20  Nov20  Oct20  Sep20
Aug20  Jul20  Jun20  May20
Apr20  Mar20  Feb20  Jan20
Dec19  Nov19  Oct19  Sep19
Aug19  Jul19  Jun19  May19
Apr19  Mar19  Feb19  Jan19
Dec18  Nov18  Oct18  Sep18
Aug18  Jul18  Jun18  May18
Apr18  Mar18  Feb18  Jan18
Dec17  Nov17  Oct17  Sep17
Aug17  Jul17  Jun17  May17
Apr17  Mar17  Feb17  Jan17
Dec16  Nov16  Oct16  Sep16
Aug16  Jul16  Jun16  May16
Apr16  Mar16  Feb16  Jan16
Dec15  Nov15  Oct15  Sep15
Aug15  Jul15  Jun15  May15
Apr15  Mar15  Feb15  Jan15
Dec14  Nov14  Oct14  Sep14
Aug14  Jul14  Jun14  May14
Apr14  Mar14  Feb14  Jan14
Dec13  Nov13  Oct13  Sep13
Aug13  Jul13  Jun13  May13
Apr13  Mar13  Feb13  Jan13
Dec12  Nov12  Oct12  Sep12
Aug12  Jul12  Jun12  May12
Apr12  Mar12  Feb12  Jan12
Dec11  Nov11  Oct11  Sep11
Aug11  Jul11  Jun11  May11
Apr11  Mar11  Feb11  Jan11
Dec10  Nov10  Oct10  Sep10
Aug10  Jul10  Jun10  May10
Apr10  Mar10  Feb10  Jan10
Dec09  Nov09  Oct09  Sep09
Aug09  Jul09  Jun09  May09
Apr09  Mar09  Feb09  Jan09
Dec08  Nov08  Oct08  Sep08
Aug08  Jul08  Jun08  May08
Apr08  Mar08  Feb08  Jan08
Dec07  Nov07  Oct07  Sep07
Aug07  Jul07  Jun07  May07
Apr07  Mar07  Feb07  Jan07
Dec06  Nov06  Oct06  Sep06
Aug06  Jul06  Jun06  May06
Apr06  Mar06  Feb06  Jan06
Dec05  Nov05  Oct05  Sep05
Aug05  Jul05  Jun05  May05
Apr05  Mar05  Feb05  Jan05
Dec04  Nov04  Oct04  Sep04
Aug04  Jul04  Jun04  May04
Apr04  Mar04  Feb04  Jan04
Dec03  Nov03  Oct03  Sep03
Aug03  Jul03  Jun03  May03
Apr03  Mar03  Feb03  Jan03
Dec02  Nov02  Oct02  Sep02
back to main page

the diamond geezer index
2023 2022
2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

my special London features
a-z of london museums
E3 - local history month
greenwich meridian (N)
greenwich meridian (S)
the real eastenders
london's lost rivers
olympic park 2007
great british roads
oranges & lemons
random boroughs
bow road station
high street 2012
river westbourne
trafalgar square
capital numbers
east london line
lea valley walk
olympics 2005
regent's canal
square routes
silver jubilee
unlost rivers
cube routes
Herbert Dip
metro-land
capital ring
river fleet
piccadilly
bakerloo

ten of my favourite posts
the seven ages of blog
my new Z470xi mobile
five equations of blog
the dome of doom
chemical attraction
quality & risk
london 2102
single life
boredom
april fool

ten sets of lovely photos
my "most interesting" photos
london 2012 olympic zone
harris and the hebrides
betjeman's metro-land
marking the meridian
tracing the river fleet
london's lost rivers
inside the gherkin
seven sisters
iceland

just surfed in?
here's where to find...
diamond geezers
flash mob #1  #2  #3  #4
ben schott's miscellany
london underground
watch with mother
cigarette warnings
digital time delay
wheelie suitcases
war of the worlds
transit of venus
top of the pops
old buckenham
ladybird books
acorn antiques
digital watches
outer hebrides
olympics 2012
school dinners
pet shop boys
west wycombe
bletchley park
george orwell
big breakfast
clapton pond
san francisco
thunderbirds
routemaster
children's tv
east enders
trunk roads
amsterdam
little britain
credit cards
jury service
big brother
jubilee line
number 1s
titan arum
typewriters
doctor who
coronation
comments
blue peter
matchgirls
hurricanes
buzzwords
brookside
monopoly
peter pan
starbucks
feng shui
leap year
manbags
bbc three
vision on
piccadilly
meridian
concorde
wembley
islington
ID cards
bedtime
freeview
beckton
blogads
eclipses
letraset
arsenal
sitcoms
gherkin
calories
everest
muffins
sudoku
camilla
london
ceefax
robbie
becks
dome
BBC2
paris
lotto
118
itv