Local history: Shops, pubs and people of Loughborough Road, SW9

LEAF Tenants and Residents Association have been finding out about the history of shops and pubs of the north end of Loughborough Road through archive research and talking to neighbours.

They’ve contacted Brixton Buzz with their findings and sent us the update below. If you want to find out more or get involved, they have a meeting planned for Sat 22nd June 2019:

We’d love to hear more memories of Loughborough Road. Drop by and see us at Azawal, 55 Loughborough Road (formerly White’s Dairy) Saturday 22nd June 2019 anytime between 11am and 4pm.

We’ll have some of the photos we’ve found of the old shops and pubs. If you can’t make it on the 22nd do get in touch leaftra@gmail.com. You can find us on twitter @RoadSW9 or join our facebook group facebook.com/groups/LoughboroughRDSW9history/.

A bit of what we’ve found out so far. This builds on a previous Brixton Buzz feature here.

Built between the 1850 and 1860s, the shops on Loughborough Road are the only remaining shops from what was a small shopping area around what is now known as Fiveways.

There were also shops round the corner on what is now Akerman Road (previously Loughborough Road north) on the corner of Lilford Road, (previously Holland Road) and on Loughborough Road where old Iveagh Doctors survey is and the Hertford estate opposite. The shops were built to serve this rapidly expanding residential area of the late 19th century.

In the early years the shops changed hands a few times but by the 1870’s the businesses were becoming established. While the people running the shops changed, the nature of the businesses remained fairly constants, with some staying the same for over 100 years.

There are several postcards of the north side of the Loughborough Road shops from around 1905 that some of the shopkeepers used to promote their businesses. Emma Jenkins had postcard printed to promote her stationery and toy shop at 59 Loughborough Road. The same image appears in a colour-tinted postcard too.

You can just see the sign saying ‘stationery’ under the roofline of Emma Jenkins’ shop, six shops along from the corner.

Jenkins stationery and toys was one of several shops, on this small parade, for over 60 years. William Jenkins opened his stationers in the 1880s. He is listed as the proprietor in the business directories from the time.

But by 1891 his wife Emma had taken on the running of the shop as William had died. Emma Jenkins Stationers and Toys was at 59 until the 1940’s. The shop itself remained a newsagent, also selling toys, for another 40 years.

In the 1980s. number 59 was a fruit shop and florist. It’s now one half of KT and Pizza Bocca takeaway.

Other shops on the postcard include:

• Shaw and Strachan chemist, on the corner at number 69. James Strachan was the chemist in this shop for over 40 years. A chemist stood on this corner of Loughborough and Akerman Roads from the 1870’s to 1980’s – Pembro Chemist in the 1950s and 60s and Baychess Pharmacy before the shop was finally closed and boarded up by Lambeth Council in the early 1980s as part of the street ‘rehabilitation’. People we have spoken to remember a Doctor’s surgery upstairs in the 1960s. The building was finally turned into flats in the late 1990s.

• Leach’s oliman and hardware shop, number 67. The urns on the outside of the building and up on the roof show this shop is that of an ‘oilman’. The roof top urns had disappeared by the 1910s and the urns on the front of the shop are also long gone. Urns like this can still be seen outside a few shops in London (see example here).

Leach’s was selling oil and hardware to local residents for over 90 years. Henry Leach originally lived above the shop with his wife, Annie, and young family but by 1901 he had moved out and brought in a manager who lived above the shop, William Evans. George Leach, one of Henry and Annie’s five sons, took over Leach’s on Loughborough Road in the 1920’s. In the 1930s George took over the next door ironmongers, at 65.

Leach’s continued as a double front hardware and oil shop until the mid 1970’s. George was living above the shop at number 67 in the 1939 census. Leach’s can still be seen in the photo in the 1976 Loughborough Road Improvement Plan at Lambeth Archives. George’s brothers ran other Leach’s hardware stores in East Dulwich Road and Half Moon Lane.

(Lambeth Archives Loughborough Road Development Plan 1976 LBL/BDD/1/)

By 1984 the chemist and Leach’s were gone and boarded up. Blue Line Cleaners, on the left of the boarded up shops was new to the street in early 1980’s. It remains a dry cleaners today A to Z cleaners. Before the arrival of Blue Line the shop had been a tobacconist/confectionery shop since 1888.

(Lambeth Archives photo 1984 – not on Lambeth Landmark LBL/DTP/UD/8/24 Loughborough Road A bundle of photos – 1950-1998 – Lambeth Conservation and Urban Design Team)

The shops remained board up for over 15 years until they became flats in 1999. The chemist moved to the opposite corner in the 1980s, replacing a wine merchants shop which had been there since the 1920s and before that Nunns tea merchants, which can be seen in the 1905 postcard which was also selling beers and spirits as can be seen from the adverts outside the shop.

Nunns was another long standing Loughborough Road business opening in the 1870s and trading for over 50 years until the mid 1920s when it was taken over by Ernest Page who ran his ‘wine shop’ on the corner until late 1960s.

Other long running Loughborough Road shops include:

There was a baker’s shop at 76 Loughborough Road (now 98/100) for over 100 years.
Next door at 74 (now 94/96) was a boot-makers from the 1890s till the 1970s. The Chambers family ran the boot-maker for over 50 years from
1920s to 1975.
Pye’s fish shop was at 66 which became 86 Loughborough Road when the street was renumbered in 1961. Pye’s was there from the early 1920’s until the 1970s. It is remembered by people as Percy Pyes.
Number 49, now Amigos, has been a wine merchant/off license since the 1930s when is run by Horace Dunning. The shop went on to become Unwins, and Arby’s. Lambeth
Michael, whose daughter still runs a hairdressers on Denmark Road, retired from the barbers shop he had run since the 1980s in 2017. The shop at 66 Loughborough Road is now NCI hairdressers and barbers.

As part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival in September the Loughborough History projects events will include:

An exhibition along the street with posters outside some of the shops and pubs telling histories and stories of individual shops and pubs and the people that ran them.
An exhibition at San Mei Gallery, 39 Loughborough Road, about Nellie Roberts, the first and longest serving Royal Horticultural Society orchid artist. Nellie lived and painted at what is now 92 Loughborough Road her whole life.
An exhibition at Lambeth Archives about the history of Loughborough Road shops and pubs.
Talks at San Mei Gallery at the Loughborough Hotel about the people that lived on the street and ran the shops and pubs.

The LEAF TRA project is supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund and lots of other people and organisations including Lambeth Archives, Brixton Society, the Jamm, San Mei Gallery, Azawla, Royal Horticultural Society and Lambeth Palace Archives.