West Norwood
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West Norwood (sometimes referred to as Norwood) is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth. Before 1885 it was known as Lower Norwood, in contrast to Upper Norwood and South Norwood
West Norwood is 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace, West Dulwich, Tulse Hill and Streatham.
Norwood is a contraction of the Great North Wood. Its history began in 1797 when the Croydon enclosure act was passed that started Norwood – the wood north of Croydon, being divided into separate areas to grow more food during the Napoleonic Wars.
Local landmarks include West Norwood Cemetery, South London Theatre, St Luke's Church and the Old Library, originally endowed by Henry Tate and renovated by Lambeth Council in 2004 with the aid of grants from the Single Regeneration Budget. The modern library, which includes the Nettlefold Hall, was host to a popular local cinema club "Film on Thursday".
West Norwood is part of the Norwood town centre area of the London Borough of Lambeth comprising Gipsy Hill, Thurlow Park, and Knights Hill Wards. It is currently represented by nine councillors six of whom are Conservative and three Labour. The town centre office is located at the West Norwood Library.
Education is a major service industry in West Norwood, which has several private sector and local authority primary schools. A number of local parents are promoting the foundation of a new non-faith secondary school (Elmgreen) with funding from the government, which is scheduled to open in 2007.
West Norwood is also home to L'Arche Lambeth, a L'Arche Community founded in 1977 by Therese Vanier. The Community provides 5 residential care homes and 5 day provision workshops for adults with learning disabilties, and is part of the International Federation of L'Arche.
West Norwood is well served for parks and open spaces with Norwood Park and Brockwell Park which is only a few metres outside the town centre area. The Cemetery has 45 acres (18.2 hectares) of green space in the centre of the town. There are tennis courts, a recreation ground and a small wood beside Knights Hill. Peabody Hill Wood is an area of outstanding importance recognised by English Nature.
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[edit] Local landmarks
- South London Theatre, formally West Norwood's first fire station.
- St Luke's Church Architect Francis Bedford designed this and three others churches (St Mark's in Kennington, St Matthew's and St John's at Waterloo) in Lambeth in a similar style. The church, funded by government and the local parish took three years to build and was completed in 1825.
- West Norwood Library & Nettlefold Hall. Princess Margaret officially opened the building in April 1969.
- West Norwood Cemetery, one of London's Magnificent Seven Victorian burial places, with 66 listed structures, many in the Gothic style
- Norwood Park. Originally part of the great North Wood, it became known as New Park in 1908 and has great views of the city. The park includes a children's playground, childcare centre, skateboard ramp and paddling pools. Facing the park is Elder Road, with an attractive terrace of private Georgian and Victorian housing behind high iron railings, former school buildings for the 'Norwood House of Industry'
- Free Public Library (The Old Library). In 2004 this has been a cafe and venue for local meetings, activities, exhibitions and events. The building opened on 21 July 1888 as the first public library in Lambeth until superseded by a new library and hall on the other side of St Luke's Church. The building was designed by Sidney Smith, architect of Tate Britain and several other Lambeth libraries, using red brick, terracotta and Ham Hill stone, with a balcony above the entrance loggia. It was commissioned by Sir Henry Tate on land donated by Frederick Nettlefold: both were local donors who now rest in the nearby cemetery.
- Mrs Woodford Fawcett Fountain - in front of St Luke's Church, where Norwood Road splits into Norwood High Street and Knights Hill. Mrs Fawcett was a local temperance campaigner and is buried in the cemetery just a minute's walk from the fountain.
- Norwood Hall, currently a mothballed community centre, is visible from trains approaching West Norwood railway station. The Hall and the surrounding Hainthorpe Housing Estate, sit on the 9 acre-site of a Jewish orphanage and hospital built in 1861-3. The children's home moved out a century later, but kept the name Norwood, leaving the site under Lambeth's control. Of the original building only the porter's lodge off Knights Hill now remains, its curving Dutch-gables, red brick with black diaperwork and mullioned windows suggesting the design of the former 3-storey institution.
- Curiously, Norwood High Street never developed into a shopping parade as originally planned, instead most local shops have been located between York Hill and St Luke's Church, in Norwood Road built around 1890
[edit] Nearest places
[edit] Nearest stations
Railway
Bus Garage
[edit] Famous former and current residents
- Tom Utley - Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail journalist
- Andrew Turnbull, Baron Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary
- Dr Rosemary Leonard GP, regular doctor BBC Breakfast News
- Sir Martin Reid, former UK High Commissioner to Jamaica
- Sir Philip Holland, former Conservative MP for Gedling
- John Fraser, former Labour MP for Norwood 1966-1992
- His Honour Judge Penry-Davey
- Sir John Scarlett, Head of MI6
- Angharad Walters
- Desiree
- Ruth Kirk Wilson, former secretary to the Meat and Livestock Commission
- Sir Anthony Merifield, Clerk to the Cabinet Honours Committee
- Councillor Mrs Clare Whelan DL, Mayor of Lambeth 2000-2001
- Councillor Mrs Irene Kimm, Mayor of Lambeth 2002-2003
- Betty Laine founder of the performing arts college - Laine Theatre Arts
[edit] Local trivia
- Part of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was filmed in Nettlefold Hall which is part of West Norwood Library centre.
- A stunning Art Deco cinema, named The Regal, was built at 304 Norwood Road in the late 1920s. It was designed by architect F Edward Jones and opened in January 1930. The cinema sat 2,010 and was equipped with a Christie 3Manual organ. The cinema closed on 8th February 1964 with a double screening of Peter Sellers' I'm Alright Jack and Two Way Stretch. Following its closure, the building became a Top Rank Bingo Club a few months later and remained open until 1978. The building was demolished in November 1981 and a B&Q store can be seen today on the same site. [1]
- There are two areas called Knight's Hill in West Norwood; the better known area is the residential area and electoral ward in the south west by the road called Knights Hill. But there is another hill to the north near Thurlow Park Road known as Knight's Hill (this is located in West Dulwich), which once had a nearby railway station named after it. It includes the hilly land between the western end of Thurlow Park Road (South Circular), Peabody Hill and Lovelace Road, where the adjoining Rosendale allotments in Dulwich stand today. The green area is still marked as Knight's Hill on detailed maps, but not normally on modern streetmaps to avoid confusion. Both areas have similar origins, first mentioned as belonging to Thomas Knyght in 1545, and were known as Knight's Hill Common and Knight's Hill Farm, respectively.
[edit] References
- Norwood - From Common to Suburb John Coulter, August 2002
- Knight's Hill Ward, Lambeth, 1918
- Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, The London Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-333-57688-8 West Norwood
- English Heritage Survey of London, 1956
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