Now lost beneath the Moorlands Estate development of the 1970s, Geneva Road once ran south from Coldharbour Lane, and consisted of an unbroken terrace of solid three-storey Victorian buildings with basements.
The former junction with Coldharbour Lane is now buried under Southwyck House (aka the Barrier Block), and while no trace of the original road remains, the name lives on in the nearby Geneva Drive.
Built around the 1870s, Geneva Road fell into a slow decline after the war, and by the fifties were housing a large West Indian community.
A contemporary report observed life in the area:
About 3,000 West Indians are living in the Borough of Lambeth, in South London. Most have taken homes in Brixton, packing themselves into Geneva Road and Somerleyton Road, where the houses are large and high and dowdy.
To judge from the number of windows which at night are lit up, with the shadow of a dressing-table mirror thrown onto faded, pinned curtains, a lot of the houses have been divided into flats and bed-sitting rooms. ‘For Sale–8 Lots Without Reserve’ reads a notice outside one dusty looking residence. Is this, one wonders, the work of some rogue landlord
On a wall in one these roads someone has whitewashed the slogan ‘Keep Brixton White’ The whitewash has been partly covered by brown paint and the weather has taken off some of the remainder.
But the cool, menacing words are still just discernible and it is faintly sickening to read them in the lamplight. Yet from the evidence of a number of visits to Brixton, one would say that on the whole the Jamaicans are quite unobjectionable; as sober and as responsible in their behaviour and as modest in their bearing as anyone could wish.
Here’s an 1870 Ordnance Survey map of the area, showing large parts of Brixton still undeveloped.
Read more about Geneva Road and see more photos and maps here.
Related posts:
- Lost Brixton: Brixton Station Road market and John’s Cafe
- Atlantic Road, Brixton – archive photos from 2001
- Brixton Station Road/Pope’s Road car park – flattened!
- A walk around the snowy streets of Brixton, south London, Feb 2012
- Works starts on Brixton’s new ice rink on Pope’s Road/Brixton Station Road
There’s some interesting unconscious prejudice in that quote about West Indians ‘packing themselves’ into houses – as if they had the option of nice uncrowded housing but voluntarily chose to live in overcrowded houses.
It reminds me quite a lot of the anti Asian prejudice that was very prominent when I was growing up in London in the late 1970s / 1980s.
Great article by the way.
Where can we find pictures of the former Lambeth location: Renfrew rd, which is the site of the post 1871 ‘Lambeth New Workhouse’?
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Lambeth/Lambeth.shtml
The former 18C workhouse of the Lambeth Board of Guardians appears to have existed on Princes (later Black Prince) Road. I lived in Lambeth in a Housing Coop near the underground for 5 years at the turn of the 80′s. However, I didn’t have an active interest in history of any kind at the time.
Charlie Chaplin spent some time in a Lambeth Workhouse, probably ‘The New …’ according to the Wikipedia after his mother was taken seriously ill. They certainly lived in Lambeth.
I’d like to see pictures of Princes road and this location if available in the same way as Geneva rd is presented here.
i was born in geneva rd 1949 it was a fantastic rd i was 1 of 8 born there the kelly family no 81 we had a big basement and large garden we grew our own food and had 30 aprox chickens that rd could have been saved from demolition just look at the eyesore they replaced it with it was a crime that john major did to the great brixton that was
amonkelly new member to this site looking at the pic of geneva rd the house i lived in is on the left 3/4 of the way up oppisite us live the waglands a very wealthy family they had there own night club on the second floor at the front 2 windows it was so exciting growing up there it was never a run down erea it was lambeths policy to let it go down just so that they could call in the bulldozers when i returned to brixton to see my old rd i had tears in my eyes when i saw what they had done
dear graeme have you tried urban 75 jon at lambeth archives found 4 pictures of geneva rd for me that had never been seen before there is a pic of the house that chaplin lived in in kennington ? you could try emailing jon he may have what your looking for check out his web site good luck