History of Peabody Buildings in SE1, especially my estate in Southwark Street.
Lori Holland Friday 22 February 2002 11.31pm
Wayn.. I lived in Peabody Buildings until I was 16, I'm nearly 60 now! Mine were the ones in Roupell Street/Duchy Street at Blackfriars.. not the Peabody actually situated in Blackfriars Road.
I had a friend who lived on the ground floor of our buildings, her dad took up the floorboards of their storage shed because he saw what he thought looked like the filled in top of a doorway just at floorboard level. She said he eventually got down there and found that the buildings had originally been designed to have a sort of communal bath room down there.. on a level with what were the old rubbish shoot store.. I suppose its all totally different now... but anyway.. it seems that something went askew with the design of these bathing areas and they were subsequently bricked up.
There was a rumour I heard that the architect was so distressed about something to do with the design that he jumped from the roof to his death.
I'm in Australia and always interested in old Peabody.. I've looked on the net several times and never found a reference to them before now. On my behalf my mother went to County Hall library years ago (dunno where these doco's are kept now) and read up on the history.. I started to see the old places in a different light.. as one historian pointed out they were never damp and very well built.. we called them the barracks as kids since there were no provision for us other than the drab squares to play in and bomb sites all around us. My biggest disappointment with living there was that I couldnt have a dog or cat .. no garden. Well, I spent the rest of my life working towards having my own green haven and now live on 10 acres.. as you can guess.. I spend 90% of my time looking after my property and tending our numerous animals. Neighbours are some way off and sometimes when I'm alone with nothing but the sounds of the bush, I think back to the buildings teeming with kids and the smells of cabbage cooking and the loo with its torn up newspaper and have a chuckle. I've got three loos now!! hehe! I'd love to here more about living in the buildings long ago. Thanks for bringing up the subject Wayn..
Best wishes from Victoria.
I had a friend who lived on the ground floor of our buildings, her dad took up the floorboards of their storage shed because he saw what he thought looked like the filled in top of a doorway just at floorboard level. She said he eventually got down there and found that the buildings had originally been designed to have a sort of communal bath room down there.. on a level with what were the old rubbish shoot store.. I suppose its all totally different now... but anyway.. it seems that something went askew with the design of these bathing areas and they were subsequently bricked up.
There was a rumour I heard that the architect was so distressed about something to do with the design that he jumped from the roof to his death.
I'm in Australia and always interested in old Peabody.. I've looked on the net several times and never found a reference to them before now. On my behalf my mother went to County Hall library years ago (dunno where these doco's are kept now) and read up on the history.. I started to see the old places in a different light.. as one historian pointed out they were never damp and very well built.. we called them the barracks as kids since there were no provision for us other than the drab squares to play in and bomb sites all around us. My biggest disappointment with living there was that I couldnt have a dog or cat .. no garden. Well, I spent the rest of my life working towards having my own green haven and now live on 10 acres.. as you can guess.. I spend 90% of my time looking after my property and tending our numerous animals. Neighbours are some way off and sometimes when I'm alone with nothing but the sounds of the bush, I think back to the buildings teeming with kids and the smells of cabbage cooking and the loo with its torn up newspaper and have a chuckle. I've got three loos now!! hehe! I'd love to here more about living in the buildings long ago. Thanks for bringing up the subject Wayn..
Best wishes from Victoria.
Jan Saturday 23 February 2002 7.37am
Lori,
did you ever go to the Sally Army just off Blackfriars Road? I think it was Webb or Webber Street..
Every sunday my mum dispatched us kids there, we had an biscuit and orange juice. That was the probable incentive for us going so cheerfully, come to think of it that was the nearest thing any of us had for a religous education.
when attendances dropped they told us that next week they had a Magic Lantern, we sat enthralled watching slides of different countries, especially Jerusalem! at the end of the 'show' we asked when the magic lantern was coming...
Your right about all the old social housing properties being well built, Guinness's, Peabody's, Sutton dwellings, the four per cent building at camberwell still exist. It makes me smile when you here about large new 60s extates being demolished due to 'design' faults.
I lived in Pages Walk when I got married, and as you say, no pets....no bathroom....shared toilet....shared washroom....no lifts, 113 stairs carrying baby and shopping up! you could leave pram and babe safely downstairs while carrying heavy shopping...no rent arrears were permitted either, rent was paid by mid-day Monday morning or else a note was pinned to your door. If that failed a man was supposed to shout out from downstairs , I never knew if that was true as we were too frightened to not pay!
A thriving neighbourhood watch existed, everyone knew all your business, and there was no breakins as I recall.
Mind you someone did boil up beetroots once in our wash house boiler, turned our towels pink. I suspected the culprit was an old lady who had a vegatable stall nearby......as she was built like a tank, I did not think it was wise to mention!
did you ever go to the Sally Army just off Blackfriars Road? I think it was Webb or Webber Street..
Every sunday my mum dispatched us kids there, we had an biscuit and orange juice. That was the probable incentive for us going so cheerfully, come to think of it that was the nearest thing any of us had for a religous education.
when attendances dropped they told us that next week they had a Magic Lantern, we sat enthralled watching slides of different countries, especially Jerusalem! at the end of the 'show' we asked when the magic lantern was coming...
Your right about all the old social housing properties being well built, Guinness's, Peabody's, Sutton dwellings, the four per cent building at camberwell still exist. It makes me smile when you here about large new 60s extates being demolished due to 'design' faults.
I lived in Pages Walk when I got married, and as you say, no pets....no bathroom....shared toilet....shared washroom....no lifts, 113 stairs carrying baby and shopping up! you could leave pram and babe safely downstairs while carrying heavy shopping...no rent arrears were permitted either, rent was paid by mid-day Monday morning or else a note was pinned to your door. If that failed a man was supposed to shout out from downstairs , I never knew if that was true as we were too frightened to not pay!
A thriving neighbourhood watch existed, everyone knew all your business, and there was no breakins as I recall.
Mind you someone did boil up beetroots once in our wash house boiler, turned our towels pink. I suspected the culprit was an old lady who had a vegatable stall nearby......as she was built like a tank, I did not think it was wise to mention!
Lori Holland Thursday 28 February 2002 9.08am
Jan,
No, I never went to any Sunday School that gave us anything edible.. more's the pity. I remember the Salvation Army Band coming marching down Blackfriars Road tho'. The used to make a beeline for our little slum street and make a shocking racket.. :) Actually, we quite enjoyed it, especially if there was a good tamborine manipulator .. I remember one woman who used to get so excited we watched tranfixed expecting her to start thumping it on her bonnet as well as her hands and elbows.
I remember the Magic Lantern shows in the Church hall next to St. Andrews School and also expected something in the way of conjouring with a lantern. The slides were all religious, actually quite beautiful but often slid in upside down or out of sequence. We didn't care.. anything to break the boredom of damp winter nights. We were also dedicated to getting the rent to the Superintendant on time and they way my relatives used to revere the insurance man was unbelievable.. he was considered gentry to them, but I thought he was a despicable creep and when I started work I wouldn't have a bar of his damnable endowment schemes, much to my parents humiliation. Yep, we used to leave our key hanging in the coal hole cupboard outside and I never heard of a breakin ever.
I also remember the palavar over getting the boiler going and the hours spent washing in the sinks up there. I often used to peer out of the barred windows of the drying room as you could actually see the tip of a genuine tree in one of the gardens in Roupell Street. I've since seen that there are a few trees in the road now! Wow! how times change.
Our biggest concern was our downstairs neighbour.. a really evil old witch who condemned my sister and I too never wearing shoes in door and walking as quiet as mice since she would raise merry hell if she heard a sound from her ceiling. My mother was petrified of her and if I wanted to hear childrens hour I had to stand on the chair with my ear to the wall mounted radio and listen that way. If we dropped a book on the floor my mother would nearly faint with fright. We had some very eccentric neighbours, one of whom had no furniture except a stove and kettle and chairs and bed all made out of bundles of newspapers and Dirty Dick who truely lived up to his name but Mrs Warwick was the devil incarnate and made our lives hell. We had three very straggly geranium plants on the scullery window and if one drip of water from them landed on her scullery window sill she would go bananas.
The neighbour above us had periods of insanity and would let out these horrendous, nerve shattering screams when affected.. in fact, she was a really sweet woman but once when she was taken ill with pneumonia my mother discovered she had rampant bed bugs.. its a tribute to the soundness of the separating walls and flooring that we didn't get infected too.
Happy Days.. lol!
No, I never went to any Sunday School that gave us anything edible.. more's the pity. I remember the Salvation Army Band coming marching down Blackfriars Road tho'. The used to make a beeline for our little slum street and make a shocking racket.. :) Actually, we quite enjoyed it, especially if there was a good tamborine manipulator .. I remember one woman who used to get so excited we watched tranfixed expecting her to start thumping it on her bonnet as well as her hands and elbows.
I remember the Magic Lantern shows in the Church hall next to St. Andrews School and also expected something in the way of conjouring with a lantern. The slides were all religious, actually quite beautiful but often slid in upside down or out of sequence. We didn't care.. anything to break the boredom of damp winter nights. We were also dedicated to getting the rent to the Superintendant on time and they way my relatives used to revere the insurance man was unbelievable.. he was considered gentry to them, but I thought he was a despicable creep and when I started work I wouldn't have a bar of his damnable endowment schemes, much to my parents humiliation. Yep, we used to leave our key hanging in the coal hole cupboard outside and I never heard of a breakin ever.
I also remember the palavar over getting the boiler going and the hours spent washing in the sinks up there. I often used to peer out of the barred windows of the drying room as you could actually see the tip of a genuine tree in one of the gardens in Roupell Street. I've since seen that there are a few trees in the road now! Wow! how times change.
Our biggest concern was our downstairs neighbour.. a really evil old witch who condemned my sister and I too never wearing shoes in door and walking as quiet as mice since she would raise merry hell if she heard a sound from her ceiling. My mother was petrified of her and if I wanted to hear childrens hour I had to stand on the chair with my ear to the wall mounted radio and listen that way. If we dropped a book on the floor my mother would nearly faint with fright. We had some very eccentric neighbours, one of whom had no furniture except a stove and kettle and chairs and bed all made out of bundles of newspapers and Dirty Dick who truely lived up to his name but Mrs Warwick was the devil incarnate and made our lives hell. We had three very straggly geranium plants on the scullery window and if one drip of water from them landed on her scullery window sill she would go bananas.
The neighbour above us had periods of insanity and would let out these horrendous, nerve shattering screams when affected.. in fact, she was a really sweet woman but once when she was taken ill with pneumonia my mother discovered she had rampant bed bugs.. its a tribute to the soundness of the separating walls and flooring that we didn't get infected too.
Happy Days.. lol!
kate Thursday 4 April 2002 2.02am
have to mention the local studies library again - 'cos it's such a brilliant resource! it's at the back of John Harvard Library on Borough High Street and the staff are really helpful too.
Heather Sunday 25 April 2004 10.35pm
Hi Lori
I can't remember you but I lived in Peabody Buildings from 1944 when I was born until 1973. I am proud to of lived in such a friendly place and it made me streetwise, I still have an Aunt who lives there. I remember dirty dick he lived inD block no 18 as I recall. I went to St Andrews School, then St John's. You must be about my age to remember ditry Dick. We also had chuck away Charlie who used to come around and throw sweets at the kids and we used to run and grab them. Also we had the milkman with his horse and cart do you remember that, and the coalman also with a horse and cart who we used to call Dan Dan the Dirty old man washede his face in the frying pan, his name was really was Danny. How about the rag and bone man with his goldfish . I love talking about the old days but will sign off now Heather
I can't remember you but I lived in Peabody Buildings from 1944 when I was born until 1973. I am proud to of lived in such a friendly place and it made me streetwise, I still have an Aunt who lives there. I remember dirty dick he lived inD block no 18 as I recall. I went to St Andrews School, then St John's. You must be about my age to remember ditry Dick. We also had chuck away Charlie who used to come around and throw sweets at the kids and we used to run and grab them. Also we had the milkman with his horse and cart do you remember that, and the coalman also with a horse and cart who we used to call Dan Dan the Dirty old man washede his face in the frying pan, his name was really was Danny. How about the rag and bone man with his goldfish . I love talking about the old days but will sign off now Heather
Heather Tuesday 27 April 2004 9.00pm
Hi Lori
It's me again, I remember the Magic Lantern in the Hall , they also used tp have the Brownies there which I attended for a short time.
Do you remember Bessies corner shop, I used to love the round Ice cream you could buy there, also Coopers the Greengrocers Shop and next to that Hodgson's the sweet shop my mum worked in there. There were prefabs in Meymott St opposite the Telephone Exchange, I thought they were so lucky the people that lived in them because they had gardens. Near the prefabs was an old air raid shelter that us kids used to go into and light a fire and cook jacket potatoes on it. Also we used to go to Sainbury's store place in Columbo St amd get a huge pile of tomato boxes drag them back to the buildings and then chop them up and sell then in bundles for fire wood. Do you remember the games we used to play, I will name a few Tin Can Tommy, Run Outs, Knock Down Ginger, Alleygobs, Cannon, and if we were very lucky and had a nice porter on duty he would let us have some sash cord that reached nearly all across the square and all the kids would join in, Then last but not least Two Balls up the wall, untill the person in the flat who's wall we were playing against got fed up with the thumping and would tell us to go away, I was lucky because in our square a couple of the girls lived on the ground floor so there mum's didn't mind, you could often hear someone saying to the kids "Go and Play in your own square"
Did you used to go to the swing gardens behind St John's Church or the Rec in Mitre Row?
Well Will close for now Heather
It's me again, I remember the Magic Lantern in the Hall , they also used tp have the Brownies there which I attended for a short time.
Do you remember Bessies corner shop, I used to love the round Ice cream you could buy there, also Coopers the Greengrocers Shop and next to that Hodgson's the sweet shop my mum worked in there. There were prefabs in Meymott St opposite the Telephone Exchange, I thought they were so lucky the people that lived in them because they had gardens. Near the prefabs was an old air raid shelter that us kids used to go into and light a fire and cook jacket potatoes on it. Also we used to go to Sainbury's store place in Columbo St amd get a huge pile of tomato boxes drag them back to the buildings and then chop them up and sell then in bundles for fire wood. Do you remember the games we used to play, I will name a few Tin Can Tommy, Run Outs, Knock Down Ginger, Alleygobs, Cannon, and if we were very lucky and had a nice porter on duty he would let us have some sash cord that reached nearly all across the square and all the kids would join in, Then last but not least Two Balls up the wall, untill the person in the flat who's wall we were playing against got fed up with the thumping and would tell us to go away, I was lucky because in our square a couple of the girls lived on the ground floor so there mum's didn't mind, you could often hear someone saying to the kids "Go and Play in your own square"
Did you used to go to the swing gardens behind St John's Church or the Rec in Mitre Row?
Well Will close for now Heather
Jan Lane Wednesday 28 April 2004 12.05pm
Heather did charlie ride a bike?+
if anyone had a old stocking we would put a rubber ball ( the hard solid type) at the bottom of an old stocking, tie a knot to hold it at the bottom...
put our backs against the wall, legs akimbo, dress tucked up in our knickers, and swing the ball upper left, upper right, down between the legs at speed, meanwhile chanting some ditty or other...if you got the tempo wrong or missed your aim ...it was very very painful!
the toffee apple man, rag 'n bone man, muffins, winkles...ah well...
if anyone had a old stocking we would put a rubber ball ( the hard solid type) at the bottom of an old stocking, tie a knot to hold it at the bottom...
put our backs against the wall, legs akimbo, dress tucked up in our knickers, and swing the ball upper left, upper right, down between the legs at speed, meanwhile chanting some ditty or other...if you got the tempo wrong or missed your aim ...it was very very painful!
the toffee apple man, rag 'n bone man, muffins, winkles...ah well...
jan
Heather Wednesday 28 April 2004 5.40pm
Jan now you mention it yes I am sure Charlie had a bike, do you remember that then? A personal question tell me to mind my own business if you like But how old are you? I was wondering if you or Lori were at the Coronation Party, and if so have you got a photo of it, if not I have a couple and I am sure that we can add photos to this site, let me know.
I remember the Stocking with the ball in it, also we used to bounce a ball with one hand and cock our leg over it and sing One, Two ,Three O'Leary my balls down the Airy get it back and give it to Mary One, Two, Three O'Leary ring any bells?
Yeh the toffee apple man and so on , Lovely to talk to people who have the same memories as me so keep thinking and tell me more,
Bye for now Heather
I remember the Stocking with the ball in it, also we used to bounce a ball with one hand and cock our leg over it and sing One, Two ,Three O'Leary my balls down the Airy get it back and give it to Mary One, Two, Three O'Leary ring any bells?
Yeh the toffee apple man and so on , Lovely to talk to people who have the same memories as me so keep thinking and tell me more,
Bye for now Heather
Richard Neill Wednesday 15 November 2006 11.46am
Freddie Neill
Former Resident, Peabody Buildings, off Hopton Street
I'm picking up on an old conversation but what's a couple of years, I guess, when you are researching into your past !
I'm in fact trying to trace family descendants of my Uncle Freddie Neill, a former resident of the Peabody Buildings in Hopton Road / Gardens who died in the late 1970s or possibly early '80s. Freddy was already well into his 8Os when I visited him on occasions in Southwark around 1975/6; he was perhaps still Verger of the local church I believe at the time. He lived on the ground floor and I recall on one of the wings of the estate. If anyone remembers Freddie or members of his family, neighbours or friends whom I might still have a chance to trace, his grandchildren for example, I should be very grateful for leads. Group photographs in which I would certainly be able to identify Freddie taken on the estate would also be of great interest as he and my father were physically very alike and I should be able to recognize him at different stages in his life.
Former Resident, Peabody Buildings, off Hopton Street
I'm picking up on an old conversation but what's a couple of years, I guess, when you are researching into your past !
I'm in fact trying to trace family descendants of my Uncle Freddie Neill, a former resident of the Peabody Buildings in Hopton Road / Gardens who died in the late 1970s or possibly early '80s. Freddy was already well into his 8Os when I visited him on occasions in Southwark around 1975/6; he was perhaps still Verger of the local church I believe at the time. He lived on the ground floor and I recall on one of the wings of the estate. If anyone remembers Freddie or members of his family, neighbours or friends whom I might still have a chance to trace, his grandchildren for example, I should be very grateful for leads. Group photographs in which I would certainly be able to identify Freddie taken on the estate would also be of great interest as he and my father were physically very alike and I should be able to recognize him at different stages in his life.
walworther Thursday 1 March 2007 11.02pm
I work at Peabody and have access to extensive drawing archives if anyone is interested. we also have an archivist who can provide all kinds of other interesting info if required. Peabody's main document archives are at the London Metropolitan Archive in Clerkenwell. Send me a PM if you'd like to know more about either our SE1 estates or any of the others all over London.
I would also be very interested to hear about more 'Peabody memories' from current or former residents.
I would also be very interested to hear about more 'Peabody memories' from current or former residents.
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