Eccles Place, SE1

I live on the corner of Hatfields and The Cut, SE1. Previously Southwark Council had our block registered as being Eccles Place, not Hatfields.

After some effort, we managed to get them to change it, so we tend to get our post more now. However the origin of Eccles Place is a bit of a mystery.

This area was extensively bombed, so I had always presumed that this was why the street no longer existed. However, I've looked on old street maps, and can see no reference to it, going quite far back.

Can anyone shed any light?

Hey Zoe, Tim from Styles here - I too have wondered about this for years but finally found an answer recently on a wartime map. It shows a tiny lane called Eccles Place running from The Cut to Isabella St, parallel with Hatfields and Joan Street. Somewhere along the line of the sheds/back of the Northstar property. Perhaps it even ran partially under our flats - so maybe we do literally live on Eccles Place!

Indeed, almost all of Styles House was built on land where properties were damaged beyond repair after the Blitz. But most properties on the east side of Eccles Place survived with little or no damage, so its perhaps likely they were in use after the war.

Hi Tim, I've seen this map as well, it appears to have also run through the BT building, and you can actually see the lane at the side of the BT building from Meymott Street.

Do you think we should campaign to get Eccles Place back? It could be the address for our tenant's hall!

Let's not get it back with Royal Mail! Maybe some Eccles cakes though...

As you doubtless know it was called Norfolk Street originally. I wonder if there was a connection with Eccles in Norfolk when they changed it.

It was still called Norfolk St on 1930s maps I've seen, so Eccles must have been a short-lived name. Aside from all those decades of appearing on our mail!

I didn't know it was called Norfolk Street, that's much nicer than Eccles Place. I also didn't know that Eccles was in Norfolk, it's all new stuff for me today.

Hi Zoe
I finally found a map showing exactly where Eccles Place/Norfolk St was. It was a narrow street running along that strip of ground which is rubble and weeds, from behind the pram sheds to the edge of the concrete slab of the North Star building.

Hi Tim, I'd love to see it, shall we get together at some point?

I didn't get a copy, saw it at the LMA and hadn't invested in a photography licence that day :) Hoping to find a better one including all our land (as this one didn't quite extend to the corner of Hatfields and the Cut). Will let you know!

See if you can find some photos as well!! I'd love to see some of the houses that were here. Do you remember when we saw the cellars when Thames Water dug up the front garden?

Yes I'm looking for pics. Plenty of good Hatfields / Broadwall pics but all north of the rail line so far. Some great ones of the vast empty block where Colombo House is now.

Found one taken outside No 1 Roupell St before those houses were added in the '70s - you could see Styles House from there!

No I totally missed the cellars - grrr! Did you take any pics?