South Norwood - History

History

Handley's Brickworks' seven chimneys once dominated the landscape of the area. It has been demolished and the site changed into grassland and a lake, called Brickfields Meadow. Over 20 pubs were to be found in a 1½ mile radius, but many of these have closed. Some of South Norwood's famous pubs, such as the Jolly Sailor and the Albert, are still busy.

Arthur Conan Doyle lived on Tennison Road in South Norwood, from 1891 to 1894, but, contrary to popular belief, did not use the area as the setting for the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Norwood Builder. This story, for the most part, takes place in Lower Norwood (today known as West Norwood). The only connection between this story and South Norwood is that South Norwood's railway station Norwood Junction is used by the villain. The NatWest Bank on South Norwood High Street was, in Victorian times and until the mid 1980s, the local police station and is the most likely candidate for the police station mentioned in the second Sherlock Holmes story The Sign of Four.

D. H. Lawrence taught at Davidson School before the First World War. In 1966, a dog called Pickles discovered the FIFA World Cup Jules Rimet Trophy under a bush in Beulah Hill which was stolen during a public rare stamp exhibition at Westminster Central Hall.

The area was originally covered by the Great North Wood which was a natural oak forest that covered four miles (6 km) of South London. Apart from South Norwood, the wood covered Upper Norwood, West Norwood (known as Lower Norwood until 1885) and the Woodside and Gipsy Hill areas reflect the history of the area. The wood covered more of Lambeth and Southwark than Croydon, but the name Norwood is itself a reminder that it had closer connection with Croydon than with Lambeth or London.

Jolly-sailor station opened in 1839 by the London and Croydon Railway. It was listed as Jolly-sailor near Beulah Spa on fare lists and timetables. The station was renamed Norwood in 1846. The station was immediately adjacent to a level crossing over Portland Road, making it slightly further north than the site currently occupied by Norwood Junction. As part of the construction works for the atmospheric-propulsion system, the worlds first railway flyover (overpass) was constructed south of Tennison Road, to carry the new atmospheric-propulsion line over the conventional steam line below. In 1847, the atmospheric propulsion experiment was abandoned.

The Croydon Canal ran from New Cross to the site of West Croydon station. As it passed through South Norwood, pubs sprang up near its course. The Jolly Sailor still stands at the intersection of South Norwood Hill and High Street. The Ship, a few yards to the east, was beside the loading point for bricks from a nearby brick field across what is now High Street. The passageway through which bricks passed to the canal is still there. The Goat House pub (which has since been demolished) was said to have been named after an island in the canal on which goats were kept.

South Norwood is now unofficially divided into the less deprived area in the north west side of the railway, which was the location of a private estate, and the generally more deprived area in the north east. In the south east of the borough, where workers for a former brick factory lived, the entrance to the estate was between a pair of pillars, though they have long since been demolished. However the capitals were preserved and now sit on the two brick pillars at the Selhurst Road entrance to South Norwood Recreation Ground. In 2006, South Norwood Lakes in the north of the ward was the scene of a fatal stabbing.