# Brixton footbridge



## Paulie (Jul 14, 2008)

Has anyone got a picture of the old footbridge in Brixton - the one between Morleys and the tube station.  I remember it being a bit rickety and a little scary as a kid...


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## editor (Jul 15, 2008)

You mean it connected Morleys to the tube station? When did this  bridge exist because I've never seen any pictures of it.


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## Pip (Jul 15, 2008)

I'm intrigued


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## Etymologist (Jul 15, 2008)

What!? Sounds amazing. Someone unearth a picture! I'd love to see it. I've never heard of this. I'll ask my dad. He's lived in brixton since before the tube station so he should remember it.


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## clandestino (Jul 15, 2008)

I'll ask my parents - we lived in Brixton in the late sixties, so they should remember it.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

Never heard of it, but I've discovered a pavement picture and we used to have a much wider pavement outside of Iceland  

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=landmark&id=2589


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## Pip (Jul 15, 2008)

Looking at that picture I suspect Iceland has extended outwards onto the pavement if you see what I mean.


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## Crispy (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> Looking at that picture I suspect Iceland has extended outwards onto the pavement if you see what I mean.


Yep, the houses/flats above iceland used to be the back of the pavement line.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> Looking at that picture I suspect Iceland has extended outwards onto the pavement if you see what I mean.


 

No, I suspect it was extended outwards long before Iceland, although thinking about it, I'm sure Murrays Meat Market was further back off the street, but I could be wrong.

What was there before Murray's Meat Market?  I seem to remember a furniture shop somewhere along that stretch


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## quimcunx (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> Looking at that picture I suspect Iceland has extended outwards onto the pavement if you see what I mean.




A that makes sense. I was confused there.


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## editor (Jul 15, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Never heard of it, but I've discovered a pavement picture and we used to have a much wider pavement outside of Iceland


Um, you could have discovered that by checking through the Brixton section on this site!








"c. 1900 The building line along Brixton Road was pegged back, originally providing large gardens in front of the houses. By 1900, much of this space has been turned into a pavement and was used by market traders."















http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/central.html


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## editor (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> Looking at that picture I suspect Iceland has extended outwards onto the pavement if you see what I mean.


Indeed it has.














http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/electric.html


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## Pip (Jul 15, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> No, I suspect it was extended outwards long before Iceland, although thinking about it, I'm sure Murrays Meat Market was further back off the street, but I could be wrong.
> 
> What was there before Murray's Meat Market?  I seem to remember a furniture shop somewhere along that stretch



Erm, I vaguely remember Mc Donalds being a furniture shop.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

editor said:


> Um, you could have discovered that by checking through the Brixton section on this site!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 

oh, my humblest


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> Erm, I vaguely remember Mc Donalds being a furniture shop.


 


No, the other side of the road.  Maybe it was Robills that was a furniture shop before it was Robills?  But what was before Murray's Meat Market?  


Having had my knuckles wrapped, I came across this from our lovely adorable, local historian - the Editor *cough cough*



> War damage destroyed several buildings and an ugly Iceland supermarket has now been bolted on to the end of the street.


 which would make me think I may have been correct about Murray's being further back off the pavement


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## mccliche (Jul 15, 2008)

^^ all good...but what about this footbridge....most intriguing, really keen to see a pic, or sketch or summat

google is not helping with this one


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## Pip (Jul 15, 2008)

There's no point asking the staff (the head of the saucepans couldn't tell me _anything_ about his wares ffs), but someone at Morleys HQ might know?


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## quimcunx (Jul 15, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> There's no point asking the staff (the head of the saucepans couldn't tell me _anything_ about his wares ffs), but someone at Morleys HQ might know?




Mabye whoever was in charge of sourcing pictures for Morley's stairwell... ?


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## Paulie (Jul 15, 2008)

The bridge was pretty much on top of the pedestrian crossing which was always there (and which most people opted for).  I think it survived until the mid 70s.  It was a girder monstrosity with big planks laid across for the steps and bridge span - they flexed a fair bit when a bus went underneath.

To give a more accurate placing - it ran between Tunstall Road and the tube with the stairs at right angles on the south side.

I've also looked in vain for a pic so thought I would try the good folk here...


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

Asked someone tonight.  Apparently the footbridge was there but past Morleys.  Person couldn't remember why it was there but thought it may have been put there to ease congestion when the tube station was going to come into operation.  It was not successful however and apparently only had room for single files of people going each way and ended up being pulled down.

Reckons it was the late 60s or early 70s


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## lang rabbie (Jul 15, 2008)

I've definitely seen a photograph of the footbridge.   I may be hallucinating but I think the picture (from the former GLC Highways department photo library?) may once have been on the grandly named European Visual Archive (EVA)  website.   

However, this photo archive site - a joint project between London Metropolitan Archives and Antwerp city archives funded by Euro-cash - now appears to have vanished from the web.


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## zenazena (Jul 15, 2008)

i remember the bridge distinctly - me and my siblings used to love using it and my mum would walk over the crossing underneath and meet us on the other side.  i remember it as being really big, not ricketty or single file.. but i was little and everything looks massive then.  it went from near the corner exit of morleys to the tube.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 15, 2008)

zenazena said:


> i remember the bridge distinctly - me and my siblings used to love using it and my mum would walk over the crossing underneath and meet us on the other side.  i remember it as being really big, not ricketty or single file.. but i was little and everything looks massive then.  it went from near the corner exit of morleys to the tube.




So what was the point of having it and why didn't your mum use it?  Did they pull it down because nobody used it (except children)


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## zenazena (Jul 15, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> So what was the point of having it and why didn't your mum use it?  Did they pull it down because nobody used it (except children)



no idea what the 'point' of it was but i guess there was one at some stage.  my mum didn't use it cos she was an adult, probably had loads of shopping and couldn't be fucked.


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## poster342002 (Jul 16, 2008)

editor said:


> You mean it connected Morleys to the tube station? When did this  bridge exist because I've never seen any pictures of it.



I remember it being there until the early 1980s - after which it just disappeared at some point. Definately remember it, though.


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## poster342002 (Jul 16, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> which would make me think I may have been correct about Murray's being further back off the pavement



Nope - Murrays Meat Market was exactly where Iceland is now. Not sure when it changed over, though. Some point during the early-mid 1990s, I think.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 16, 2008)

poster342002 said:


> Nope - Murrays Meat Market was exactly where Iceland is now. Not sure when it changed over, though. Some point during the early-mid 1990s, I think.





Maybe it just seemed there was more space as it was open


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 16, 2008)

poster342002 said:


> I remember it being there until the early 1980s - after which it just disappeared at some point. Defiantely remember it, though.




Well it wasn't there in 1981 during the riots


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## poster342002 (Jul 16, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Maybe it just seemed there was more space as it was open



Yes, I think the counter was set some way back into the structure itself. The actual perimiter of the building (I:E; the point where the shutters would be pulled down of an evening) is unchanged, I think.


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## poster342002 (Jul 16, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Well it wasn't there in 1981 during the riots



Must admit I can't really remember when I last saw it or used it.


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## zenazena (Jul 16, 2008)

paulie, i wish you hadn't brought this up now ... i've become obsessed trying to find a picture of it - it wasn't there in 1960 judging by pictures and wasn't there again in 1981 so it didn't last long ... waste of money but i liked it   maybe there are no pictures of it cos it looked really shit and ugly.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 17, 2008)

Have just spoken to another person and he reckons it was there later than the early 70s and maybe even the early 80s and that it was taken away and a zebra crossing (the current crossing) replaced it

So now I'm totally confused


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## poster342002 (Jul 17, 2008)

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I once saw an old picture of _another_ footbridge over Brixton Road further up by the junction where KFC is now. Afraid I can't recall where I saw this picture as it was so long ago (we're talking over 10 years that I saw this).


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## Paulie (Jul 17, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Have just spoken to another person and he reckons it was there later than the early 70s and maybe even the early 80s and that it was taken away and a zebra crossing (the current crossing) replaced it
> 
> So now I'm totally confused



The crossing was there concurrently with the bridge - most people opted to cross at street level.  It was mainly the nippers like myself - wanting the thrill of seeing buses appear to skim 2 inches below you - who went up and over...

I also reckon Minnie is right about it being built with the tube station - I remember it from that period and it certainly wasn't any older judging by the lack of civic pride in its design.

I couldn't find a pic nor can anyone here - is it London's most enigmatic lost thingy?


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## editor (Jul 17, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Have just spoken to another person and he reckons it was there later than the early 70s and maybe even the early 80s and that it was taken away and a zebra crossing (the current crossing) replaced it
> 
> So now I'm totally confused


It doesn't look like it was there in this 1963 view:







http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/dorrell.html


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## lang rabbie (Jul 17, 2008)

Paulie said:


> I couldn't find a pic nor can anyone here - is it London's most enigmatic lost thingy?



Pictures of The Telegraph on Brixton Hill in its bizarre 1970s polystyrene cladding looking like a Dr Who set appear to be equally elusive.  (One sign on the back in mock OCR lettering survived into the 1990s IIRC)


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## ThorHawkDru (Jul 17, 2008)

editor said:


> You mean it connected Morleys to the tube station? When did this  bridge exist because I've never seen any pictures of it.



It existed until the early 80s. It didn't connect Morleys, it was outside of Morleys. It had this kind of wooden feel to it and it was heavily used as the traffic lights outside of Brixton tube you see today, was only put there to replace the bridge. 

I can remember the bridge well, but I'm banging my head against my desk in annoyance because I can't remember much about the stairs!

I can understand how the opening poster would have been shitting themselves as a child on the thing. Because not only was it wooden, it was fucking busy. Imagine all those people that use the traffic lights between the tube and Morleys, using a wooden bridge instead! Very intimidating for a small child being dragged along by their mother on a busy Saturday. It was easy to get split up from the person you was crossing with!

Edit to add - it would have been a muggers paradise at night...


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 18, 2008)

ThorHawkDru said:


> Because not only was it wooden,* it was fucking busy.*



That's what my friend said, and thinks (from what he can remember) that the idea was scrapped and a crossing was installed


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## ThorHawkDru (Jul 18, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Well it wasn't there in 1981 during the riots



If it wasn't it must have been taken down earlier that year, but I think it was there a bit later. I reckon it was taken down in about 1982 / 1983.


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## Mrs Magpie (Jul 18, 2008)

Enid is right. There was a furniture shop where McDs is now. I bought a bunk bed there for my eldest daughter so she could have friends stay over...she was probably about 9 or 10 then iirc and she's 34 now, so it was a while ago.


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## editor (Jul 18, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Enid is right. There was a furniture shop where McDs is now. I bought a bunk bed there for my eldest daughter so she could have friends stay over...she was probably about 9 or 10 then iirc and she's 34 now, so it was a while ago.


It was "Isaac Walton & Co, a 'hosier, hatter and boys' outfitters"  back in the 30s!


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 18, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Enid is right. There was a furniture shop where McDs is now. I bought a bunk bed there for my eldest daughter so she could have friends stay over...she was probably about 9 or 10 then iirc and she's 34 now, so it was a while ago.




but there was another furniture shop the other side, where was that?  Where Robills was? 

I bought my wardrobe from there in 1982


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## poster342002 (Jul 18, 2008)

ThorHawkDru said:


> I can remember the bridge well, but I'm banging my head against my desk in annoyance because I can't remember much about the stairs!



I think they were sort of black-creosoted wooden steps. You could see the road between each step. I _think _...


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 18, 2008)

ThorHawkDru said:


> If it wasn't it must have been taken down earlier that year, but I think it was there a bit later. I reckon it was taken down in about 1982 / 1983.


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## sleepyjohn (Jul 19, 2008)

I started secondary school in 1979 and I'm sure the bridge was gone then.


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## ats (Jul 19, 2008)

editor said:


> It was "Isaac Walton & Co, a 'hosier, hatter and boys' outfitters"  back in the 30s!



I never knew that before.

Isaac Walton used to be a big shop in Newcastle on Tyne.  I used to go there with my Mum to buy my school uniforms.  They had one of those compressed air systems for dealing with the cash.

They're still going, just, as a bespoke tailors providing gamekeepers clothing, regimental ties and barristers' collars (see http://www.isaacwaltontailoring.co.uk/gamekeeper/index.php) , but in in the early sixties they were a big, rather stuffy, department store.  But I never knew they had a branch in London.

(Unless, of course, there was another Isaac Walton in the same business.  But it seems unlikely.)


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## jayeola (Jul 19, 2008)

I don't remember any f/b


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## lang rabbie (Jul 20, 2008)

ats said:


> ...in in the early sixties they were a big, rather stuffy, department store.  But I never knew they had a branch in London.
> 
> (Unless, of course, there was another Isaac Walton in the same business.  But it seems unlikely.)



They had their headquarters at the Elephant & Castle, occupying the former Tarn's Department store from sometime after 1910 until it was bombed out in 1940.



> Winter fashions by Isaac Walton & Co. for gentlemen's, boys' and juvenile tailoring and outfitting. Isaac Walton & Co. manufacturers of. superior clothing. London 97, 99, 101 Newington Causeway, 442 & 444 Holloway Road London, N. North of England Branch : - 27, 29 & 31, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.


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## zenazena (Jul 22, 2008)

editor said:


> It doesn't look like it was there in this 1963 view:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



this picture is further up brixton road though (looking at superdrug / m&s) - the bridge was outside morley's / tube.


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## Xeno (Jul 22, 2008)

.


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## haushoch (Oct 10, 2008)

I think I might have found a picture of the footbridge (well, at least a section of it).







It was first published in 1980 in this book:







It does say 'In Brixton' above the photo.  Could it be the footbridge?


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## editor (Oct 10, 2008)

haushoch said:


> I think I might have found a picture of the footbridge (well, at least a section of it).
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's Brixton all right and it does look like there's steps up to the footbridge (although there's a woman and a kid crossing the road).

Nice work! And love the comb over!

If it's OK with you, I'll post the pic on the Brixton section and link back to this thread to try and get more info.


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## quimcunx (Oct 10, 2008)

Oooh,  interesting.


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## zenazena (Oct 10, 2008)

haushoch said:


> I think I might have found a picture of the footbridge (well, at least a section of it).
> 
> 
> 
> ...



well done you!!!  that is definitely it.   i looked for hours on the internet trying to find a picture with any glimpse of it in.  
you can make out on the bus stop the no. 172 bus which stopped running some time in the 80s i think.


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## haushoch (Oct 10, 2008)

editor said:


> It's Brixton all right and it does look like there's steps up to the footbridge (although there's a woman and a kid crossing the road).
> 
> Nice work! And love the comb over!
> 
> If it's OK with you, I'll post the pic on the Brixton section and link back to this thread to try and get more info.



Sure, no worries.  I scanned the picture in from the book.  If you want to I can scan it in in better quality still and email it to you or something?  The photo is credited to a photographer called Michael Kadereit.  There are two other nice pics on the same page from the same period, though sadly one is spread across the fold.  And there's one from the Brixton riots taken in Railton Road in front of the Railton Free Off Licence.  I could scan all of them in if anyone's interested?


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## editor (Oct 10, 2008)

haushoch said:


> Sure, no worries.  I scanned the picture in from the book.  If you want to I can scan it in in better quality still and email it to you or something?  The photo is credited to a photographer called Michael Kadereit.  There are two other nice pics on the same page from the same period, though sadly one is spread across the fold.  And there's one from the Brixton riots taken in Railton Road in front of the Railton Free Off Licence.  I could scan all of them in if anyone's interested?


That would be grand. 

Please mail the pics to: mike ---- at --- urban75.com.

Cheers!


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## haushoch (Oct 10, 2008)

editor said:


> That would be grand.
> 
> Please mail the pics to: mike ---- at --- urban75.com.
> 
> Cheers!



They're on the way.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Oct 10, 2008)

Excellent work.  I knew (but thought I'd imagined it) that it existed, so because I only thought I imagined it, I thought that's exactly what it was IFSWIM


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Oct 10, 2008)

zenazena said:


> well done you!!!  that is definitely it.   i looked for hours on the internet trying to find a picture with any glimpse of it in.
> you can make out on the bus stop the no. 172 bus which stopped running some time in the 80s i think.




same as.  I was infuriated that I couldn't find anything.

how did OP come across this book?


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## haushoch (Oct 11, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> same as.  I was infuriated that I couldn't find anything.
> 
> how did OP come across this book?



I bought the book in 1987 before I came over to London for my very first holiday on my own (i.e. without my parents).  It's great.  Anders Reisen means alternative travelling.  Lots of suggestions in there that take you off the beaten track and away from the typical tourist spots, which is exactly what I wanted to do.

The Brixton photos appear in a chapter where the authors suggest you take a journey on the 159 bus.

The book's been sitting on my book shelf for ages, but I had friends over from Germany at the weekend, so we dug it out, even though it's wildly out of date now, and as I was flicking through it I saw that pic with the bridge in it and remembered this thread...


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## newbie (Oct 11, 2008)

That's the footbridge alright.  Grey metal and I'm pretty sure the steps on the other side went up from the Morleys side of Tunstall Rd. 


When I saw that photo I immediately also pictured the lowlevel railway bridge with 'Ferodo' emblazoned across it.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 11, 2008)

Ah, and there was me being hugely impressed thinking you'd spent all that time doing serious research until you found the answer, haushoch!


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Oct 11, 2008)

and there's Dunn & Co.  Wasn't that burned down in the 1981 riots?  Or was that Burtons?  Or were they either side of the jacket spud place?  

My memory's getting worse in my old age


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## Paulie (Oct 11, 2008)

Dunn & Co. vanished in the '85 riots.  I mean vanished - no rubble, no smouldering remains, just a nice clean patch of concrete by the Monday...

And the bridge did exist...so many people told me I was dreaming, i doubted myself.


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## happyshopper (Oct 12, 2008)

Paulie said:


> Dunn & Co. vanished in the '85 riots.  I mean vanished - no rubble, no smouldering remains, just a nice clean patch of concrete by the Monday...



Not ...


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Oct 12, 2008)

happyshopper said:


> Not ...




Quite.  Maybe it was knocked down after the fire, but I don't remember it being burnt to nothing.  

Am I right though in thinking Dunns and Burtons were either side of the jacket spud place and that both Dunns and Burtons were on fire - although I'm thinking that was the '85 riots and not the 1981 riots (as I wasn't here for the '81 riots)

I'm confuddled now


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 12, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Quite.  Maybe it was knocked down after the fire, but I don't remember it being burnt to nothing.


Neither do I.


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## editor (Oct 14, 2008)

I've posted the story here: http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/brixton-footbridge-mystery.html

Thanks again to haushoch!


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## happyshopper (Oct 14, 2008)

There's one thing that's slightly wrong. The article says "The bridge was pretty much on top of the pedestrian crossing which was always there". But it is clear from the photograph that there wasn't an official crossing, although you could get across by dodging round the barriers.


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## editor (Oct 14, 2008)

happyshopper said:


> There's one thing that's slightly wrong. The article says "The bridge was pretty much on top of the pedestrian crossing which was always there". But it is clear from the photograph that there wasn't an official crossing, although you could get across by dodging round the barriers.


Surely there could have been a crossing a little further back, out of camera shot?


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## haushoch (Oct 14, 2008)

editor said:


> I've posted the story here: http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/brixton-footbridge-mystery.html
> 
> Thanks again to haushoch!



Cool.  My urban fame.


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## happyshopper (Oct 14, 2008)

editor said:


> Surely there could have been a crossing a little further back, out of camera shot?



There could have been but there wasn't.


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## poster342002 (Oct 14, 2008)

I'm pretty sure I remember there being both a bridge and a crossing at the same time.


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## ad2000 (Nov 18, 2008)

Wow are there really so few people here that actually remember the bridge. It was taken down in the very late Seventies or more likely early Eighties(probably after the riots) though not really sure as I was young at the time. 
As soon as they put the crossing in everybody stopped using the bridge anyway.
Can't believe that picture is the best anybody has found. But it was butt ugly anyway.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 19, 2008)

ad2000 said:


> Can't believe that picture is the best anybody has found. But it was butt ugly anyway.


 


Feel free to find another one then


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## happyshopper (Nov 24, 2008)

ad2000 said:


> As soon as they put the crossing in everybody stopped using the bridge anyway.



ad2000 is right, for most of the time there was just a footbridge - as is clear from the photograph. But then they installed a crossing and everyone stopped using the bridge, so it was taken down.

I think that it must have gone before the riots - it doesn't seem to be in any of the film coverage.


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## lizzieloo (Nov 24, 2008)

This sort of thing really intrigues me 







Photo taken in 1980, looks like the footbridge is no more by then.

Link


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## lang rabbie (Nov 25, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> I've definitely seen a photograph of the footbridge.   I may be hallucinating but I think the picture (from the former GLC Highways department photo library?) may once have been on the grandly named European Visual Archive (EVA)  website.
> 
> However, this photo archive site - a joint project between London Metropolitan Archives and Antwerp city archives funded by Euro-cash - now appears to have vanished from the web.



Don't think the website is being resurrected any time soon.   Anyone fancy visiting London Metropolitan Archives to do an old fashioned photo library search?


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## lizzieloo (Nov 25, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> Don't think the website is being resurrected any time soon.   Anyone fancy visiting London Metropolitan Archives to do an old fashioned photo library search?



I did just that 

ETA: only online though


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## quimcunx (Nov 25, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> Don't think the website is being resurrected any time soon.   Anyone fancy visiting London Metropolitan Archives to do an old fashioned photo library search?




Do you mean in person or search the website?


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## lang rabbie (Nov 25, 2008)

quimcunx said:


> Do you mean in person or search the website?



The old fashioned labour-intensive way, I'm afraid.


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## Planty (Nov 25, 2008)

What about a different one, for a change.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/618135


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 26, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> The old fashioned labour-intensive way, I'm afraid.


 


quimmy has far too much time on her hands.  I nominate we send her


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## netbob (Nov 26, 2008)

Or the lazy FOI way: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/plans_and_documents_relating_the


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## lang rabbie (Nov 26, 2008)

memespring said:


> Or the lazy FOI way: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/plans_and_documents_relating_the



Ahem... anticipating the literal-minded workings of Lambeth bureaucracy...




			
				Lambeth jobsworth said:
			
		

> Dear [memespring]
> 
> *Plans and documents relating the the old Brixton High Street footbridge (c. 1975)*
> 
> ...


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## quimcunx (Nov 26, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> The old fashioned labour-intensive way, I'm afraid.



Maybe I will.  I have holiday to take.  

What do I do?  I'm too lazy to explore the website.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 26, 2008)

quimcunx said:


> Maybe I will.  I have holiday to take.
> 
> What do I do?  I'm too lazy to explore the website.




You're not lazy enough to post on here


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## quimcunx (Nov 26, 2008)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> You're not lazy enough to post on here



Posting on her is the epitomy of laze.


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## JWH (Nov 26, 2008)

Is it possible that the footbridge was installed to serve the newly-opened Brixton tube in the early 1970s?


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## netbob (Dec 20, 2008)

I got the following back from a very helpful bloke at the Lambeth FOI department.



> Dear memespring,
> 
> Further to your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find
> below our response.
> ...


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## lang rabbie (Dec 20, 2008)

Lambeth FOI said:
			
		

> We don't have Public Service Committee minutes from that time.



But they are the official repository for the Borough's Archives

It MUST be a conspiracy


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## quimcunx (Dec 20, 2008)

Well done memespring!  Looking forward to more pics appearing here.


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## Mrs Magpie (Dec 20, 2008)

Memespring, your link is buggered.....


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Dec 20, 2008)

> *Are* archive service have found a press cutting



Wonder who typed that?


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## se5 (Dec 20, 2008)

Well in the interests of the wider Urban75 community I today went to the Minet Library in Knatchbull Road SE5 and hunted down the relevant article. 
Here is the text:

South London Press 4 August 1978.
Crossing off the bridge 
_The seven year old “temporary” footbridge across Brixton Road will be pulled down in the next year and replaced by a “staggered” pedestrian crossing with a central island capable of taking 100 people. 
The decision taken at a special meeting of Lambeth Public Services Committee on Tuesday ends years of controversy over the bridge which is used by only 87 people an hour – even in rush hours.
The bridge, by Brixton Underground Station, has never been popular with commuters or shoppers because of the long flights of stairs at either side. Among the solutions proposed earlier was a £500,000 covered bridge with travellators. But the cost of that option led councillors to plump for the crossing which will be controlled by phased traffic signals at Acre Lane, Atlantic Road and Stockwell Road.
Duncan Nicholson, Public Services Directors, pointed out that a crossing would inevitably cause rush hour traffic delays in Brixton Hill and Brixton Road. Councillor Johnny Johnson suggested closing off Tunstall Road to prevent a rat run_


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## se5 (Dec 20, 2008)

And probing further I found the editorial from the Tuesday edition that week:

South London Press 1 August 1978.
_Precisely why the members of Lambeth Council's Public Services. Committee will be trooping across Brixton's notorious wooden footbridge tonight is far from clear.

We are reliably informed by our own reporter (of course) that the ceremony of crossing the bridge will be in celebration of a committee decision to recommend the council to knock down the bridge. 
We doubt if there will he a dissenting voice among Brixtonians and commuters rushing to and from Brixton tube station. The bridge has ungraced the shopping centre  for seven years and in that time managed to unite the population in condemnation like no other feature of the place has managed to do. 

The bridge was, of course, intended as a temporary structure, remaining only so long as it took the council, London Transport, the GLC and the Department of the Environment to reach unanimity on a massive new transport and shopping complex which would give grace and pace to Brixton. 

But like many other makeshift devices the bridge looked like becoming a permanent memorial to yet another dream which got a rude awakening when the alarm bells sounded to warn of the country’s economic plight. 

Even fit youngsters who climbed the steep steps; crossed the bridge and then carefully descended the steps the other side –made hideously slippery by the slightest rain- found the exercise equivalent to a couple of miles of jogging.
As for the elderly, the infirm, those carrying luggage or mothers wheeling prams, the bridge was unusable. So for them it was a hazardous dash across a major trunk road. 
One alteration was made in the lifetime of the bridge. On the tube station side the staircase was detached and repositioned to face the other way. That was not done to make the bridge’s users more comfortable but because the stairs got in the way of people queueing at a bus stop. 

Obviously there would be no point in just dismantling the bridge and leaving its users to the mercy of the traffic – though no alternative was ever available for those who needed the bridge most but could not use it. 

The answer apparently will be a pedestrian crossing, presumably controlled by lights. That should guarantee traffic jams in both directions as far as the eye can see. 
Our reporter has a simpler solution, since he is a con¬firmed pedestrian, more by economic circumstances than wish. It is to adopt the New York system of making it safer to cross by the existing traffic lights by giving pedestrians total precedence over traffic entering the main road and fining pedestrians who ignore traffic light signals. We do not think Brixton’s jaywalkers would take kindly to this._


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## quimcunx (Dec 20, 2008)

A victory for pedestrians over cars then?  

 

Though it sounds like the building of the bridge was a victory of drivers over pedestrians.

And good work SE5.


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## se5 (Dec 20, 2008)

Looking further into the archives (fascinating and thoroughly recommended if you have a few hours to spare!) I came across several copies of Lambeth Local which seems to have been the 1970s version of _Lambeth Life_ council newsletter. 

Several of these made mention of masterplans to redevelop Brixton town centre with a big shopping centre and transport interchange around the tube station. The proposed travellator bridge would I presume have taken people straight into the first floor entrance of the shopping centre (by the looks of things an Elephant and Castle type structure). The newsletters all mention that discussion were ongoing with the GLC about the redevelopment.

There are several photos of the footbridge in these newsletters - unfortunately all the documents are stored on microfilm and the print quality of the machines means that I was not able to get a picture of the bridge.


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## editor (Dec 20, 2008)

Great facts! I'll update my article shortly.


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## se5 (Dec 20, 2008)

quimcunx said:


> A victory for pedestrians over cars then?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes I was struck by the different emphases of those days - the planners seemed only to be thinking about how to get the traffic moving faster along Brixton Road with little concern for the shoppers and residents of Brixton town centre.


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## netbob (Jan 24, 2009)

Here's the press cuttings I got back from the council: http://flickr.com/photos/memespring/3222723408/sizes/l/ If anyone want the photocopy they sent, let me know.

They sent me a photo too, but that's of a bridge on Popes Road instead.


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## boohoo (May 10, 2009)

This photo and others off the London transport Museum website must have been taken from the bridge.


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## brix (May 10, 2009)

boohoo said:


> This photo and others off the London transport Museum website must have been taken from the bridge.




Look how orderly the traffic is!


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## stev0b (Apr 26, 2010)

There's a photo of the bridge on Lambeth's Landmark website: http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=landmark_fullsize&id=10070


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## ash (Apr 26, 2010)

The Lambeth landmark website pic is clealry opposite Morleys but says that it is opposite Ferndale Rd.  This is clearly inaccurate.
(a bit like my spealling)  a few beers in ......


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 14, 2010)

I've just found another one (although it's only a bit of the steps)

http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=places&id=10061


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## se5 (Jul 14, 2010)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> I've just found another one (although it's only a bit of the steps)
> 
> http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk/display_page.asp?section=places&id=10061



Ah Littlewoods too!


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 14, 2010)

se5 said:


> Ah Littlewoods too!




I remember Littlewoods


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## Mrs Redboots (Nov 5, 2010)

I moved to Brixton in 1980 and the footbridge was definitely still there then.  I don't remember when it was finally demolished.


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## se5 (Mar 14, 2011)

Another  photo - thanks to Minnie's efforts on another thread (http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/th...-lovely-gothic-building-on-308-Brixton-Road):

http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...ullScreenImage&sp=Zbrixton&sp=88905&sp=X&sp=2


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## Brixton Hatter (Mar 14, 2011)

good effort!


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