One of my work locations was in St John's Smith Square and I used to walk to it from Tothill Street regularly. I loved doing this on winter afternoons as the streets around the area are still gas lit and the gentle light provides a wonderful almost Dickensian atmosphere.
I lived in part of Kennington Rd near Lambeth North tube from 1966 to 1979. Used to play in Bedlam Park (Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park - never knew it as that). The police station in Kennington Rd used to have an air raid siren test every six months or a year until a few years before I moved from the area in the late 70's. The lovely building in Lambeth Walk which is now an NHS building used to be a baths house where people without proper washing facilities could go to have a proper bath. 109 Lambeth Rd used to have the police forensics lab in it, not sure if it still does. My old infant school (Holy Trinity) on the edge of Archbishops Park next door to Lambeth Palace, it's now a plant museum.
John - another lovely video and a great reminder of when I worked near St John's Smith Square some 25 years ago. At the end of the street where I worked (Little College St) was an underground car park, the entrance of which Patrick McGoohan would emerge from at the start of each episode of The Prisoner. Happy days....
gosh, many, many years ago, my parents took my siblings and myself to the Uk, and we stayed at a place in Ebury Street in London - I have good memories of that trip! Passport to Pimlico - terrific movie!
Since subscribing to your channel, my walks have increased a lot, like the other day I walked it from Edmonton green, to green lanes, haringey, then after walked to ally pally, back to Edmonton green.
Adore that serendipitous drifting through the city of London, never stop being surprised. You’ve inspired me so much to amble. Mi6 seems to be shrinking under the weight and cluster of new builds. St Johns square has lovely concerts at Christmas. Aren’t those new street maps a great help. A great idea and for regaining your position and direction. Those white stucco homes in Pimlico are adorable. Great walk.
Liberty of Norton Folgate is a great album, I listened to it because of last week's walk. 'On the Town' especially... and 'Forever Young'... and 'That Close'...
Thanks John, another interesting stroll. I used to work in Pimlico so I was familiar with some of the roads. The Prison the gentleman you met mentioned must have been Millbank Penitentiary 1819 - 1890.
Big shout out to I'Klectik, the art space in the misleadingly entitled 'Paradise Yard' (slap bang in the middle of William Blake territory) in south Lambeth. Have seen and heard some lovely free improvised music there, a really hidden gem. Shame that the proposed Phillip Jeck gig there tomorrow night has been postponed. Thanks again John.
Nice, unexpected route but I really enjoyed it. Brings back fond memories for me as Pimlico was the first place I ever lived in London years ago in a studio flat the size of a shoebox. I worked at a shop on the Kings Road and would walk to work and back. I loved it. Nice little pub around the corner from Sloane Square for next time called The Antelope. Cheers!
The first place I landed in London was on the Royal Court steps. Went off to a video shoot and ate prawns in their shells for the first time. Lovely walk this.
I always wondered about those chequered flats on my daily lunchtime walks when I worked in the area. I invariably found Pimlico interesting, especially St John's Square. Thank you for the information and trip down memory lane. 😊
Loved this thanks John. Captures the spirit and tone of this part of London. I love that time between rush hour home and the later evening delights. A sense of calm and anticipation. Keep them coming!
This was a bit strange one for me as you walked around where I used to live when I first moved to London at the end of the 90’s. I lived on The Cut back then and worked for NHSE in E&C. I haven’t had cause to go back that way in about 15 years as I live in Peckham and work in Chelsea these days. Doesn’t look like it’s changed that much! Thanks for the nostalgia, John.
Love this area, I was lucky enough to work here for the last 10 years of my career. So many interesting and beautiful places. Next time you should try the Antelope pub on Eaton Terrace, a wonderful old Fullers pub. Hope you carry on up Kings Road soon!
You mentioned the film Passport To Pimlico. Did you know you wandered past where much of the film was shot on location? Filmed where China Walk now stands on Lambeth Road.
I loved this less planned walk, and a fab array of different types of architecture today, the chequer-board housing was delightful! Thanks again John, and that looked like a very refreshing and well-deserved pint at the end :-)
@Michael Myke yes it was - no you’ve mentioned it I came back to me - only watched that once however watched Layer Cake quite a few times so stuck in the mind.
I discovered your channel recently and have been watching a lot of your work, particularly the city centre and Lea Navigation. But I must protest ! It is not not not Thomas à Becket, but Thomas Becket. Even though there are churches actually named Thomas à Becket, they are incorrectly named.
Another great walk . Always makes me smile when you use them street maps of which I installed many all around the the city and surrounding boroughs. I think to my self that I have helped you on your route sometimes Thanks John
John, your were in my old manor of Lambeth Walk. You missed so many things, the " Passport to Pimlico" film, which was filmed down by the 1960's flats at the start of the Lambeth Walk. As this area was well bombed, and you can see the railway bridge, in the back ground of the film. You missed the Jolly Cockney pub, now called the Jolly Gardener, where Charlie Chaplin's dad played the piano. Further down Black Prince Rd, the Royal Dalton pottery building. You did a river walk along the Tachbrook, with out saying so. Lupus St, Lupus is Latin for wolf. Named after the Earl of Chester, as the wolf is on his heraldic shield.
Note the wider windows and arches at street level, these seem less rare in london, having some northish of chelsea royal hospital, and close to the design on 1930s post offices, but not often seen outside london, a handful in manchester maybe, are they a civil service board of works kind of design, have the look of tax inspectors and dole offices of the past.
I did the same "rambling" around London as a young teenager on a bus season ticket. I just took a bus to wherever it was going, just to see what the areas were like.
Another superb video. I used to stay at a small B&B in Pimlico which was excellent. A thought struck me that the Houses of Parliament ans Lambeth Palace are on opposite sides of the river-so does the river stand as an allegory of the division of church and state?
When working in a little Co op Bank sub office in Smith Square Labour Party HQ in 1979 I heard the explosion that killed Airey Neave at Westminster. Loved the video, as always, very interesting.
109 Lambeth Road has several functions within the Metropolitan Police. It's their 24 hour emergency communication centre as well as being home to one of their larger Forensic Labs. In the late 1980's I was based at Chelsea Barracks for a short period of time which is just around the corner from Sloane Square. Needless to say that a soldiers pay didn't lend itself too well to being able to socialise locally.
I see the millbank properties have finally been cleaned and washed, with the london soot until the 2000s they were always forboding, and a contrast to Smith Square behind and Westminster , etc.
When I was a wee spud, I used to know a lady who was in the 1928 flood and said it was pretty horrific. Looking it up now, after many years, it reads pretty shocking - lots of this walk was part of it. Great stuff as ever :-)
I love London and this walk especially, takes me back to my apprenticeship days where I worked for a contractor to Grosvenor Estates. Worked on some amazing properties around Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Sloane Square areas. That was in 1963 London was buzzing with great characters without inhibitions.
Alfred The greater. Yes I believe so it was a wonderful time, the music was the best and everyone had a job and you could walk from one job to another if you were not happy. People respected each other and their opinions, most of us had great work ethics and employers appropriated hard workers and rewarded them. It was a land of opportunity for those that worked for it, so sad for the youth of today who struggle with high rents and for most out of reach sky high mortgage deposits.
David Bryant Very jealous fella, to live through the 60s in London, it was probably at that time the music and fashion capital of the world and like you say Britain was also booming.
In 1973 I worked in Marsham Towers in Marsham street. They were pulled down in 1992. That was with the Department of the Environment.Further down the river in Mansion house there was Hudson's Bay Fur Company in Little trinity Lane.THat is now owned by the Royal Bank of Canada. Finnish Fur Sales built another warehouse in Queen's Quay off Lower Thames Street spent millions of pounds extending it out to the river then pulled it down in 1992.(Approximately.)
Passport to Pimlico was filmed on the site of the China Walk Estate that you passed on the way to Lambeth Palace. At one point in the film you can see the railway bridge over Lambeth Palace Road at the junction with Hercules Road. My mum lived in Lollard Street just off the Walk and she remembers it being filmed.
Holbein Mews and Holbein Place - after Hans Holbein the Younger, who painted local families for a period in the 1520s; its former name was The Ditch, as it lay next to the river Westbourne
Another fabulous video John. Well spoken and so informative! I really appreciate all of your knowledge and information. Looking forward to the next one! x
I used to live in a room at the top of a building in Queens Gate near to Kensington Road back in the 70s. The Albert Hall was just around the corner and Hyde Park is opposite. I used to go to the Albert Hall to see artists like Diana Ross, Labi Siffre and The Carpenters. Happy days.
You must have been posh to have lived in South Kensington. In my first year as a student at Imperial College I lived in Evelyn Gardens. The rent was £9 per week. The Paris Pullman cinema was just around the corner. In 1983/84 I lived in Princes Gardens. The room was free as I was Hon Sec of Imperial College Students Union. I used to walk across Princes Gardens each morning to my office that looked onto the Royal Albert Hall. Many mornings I would stop to say hello to an old lady, with her cat, named Eva. She was lovely and it was only years later I found out she was a movie star. She lived in a small mews house behind the halls of residence.
If you were Jago Hazzard I would suggest you were going on a Lambeth Walk, but Instead I can be a bit serious with trying to recall where the industry of Lambeth Was, particulary the Ceramic Potteries - was Doulton in Lambeth. Also on the 1966 redraw of boroughs didnt Lambeth loose gain some bits that were historically Wandsworth ?
I was just thinking that Passport to Pimlico might've been based on the docker's cutting off of the Isle of Dogs & you run across a statue of Mr. Cubitt! Spooky 😎
I learnt to navigate my way around London almost by necessity ! I came back from working nr Aylesbury and was strapped for cash . I got to ? Paddington ( it was 40 years ago) and didn't have money to get to Victoria Station so I just walked . After that I would go to other main line stations and then walk back to Victoria or walk between main line stations . Bit by bit I got a sense of how the land lies . Of course the Knowledge is endless and changing and you always know that just around the corner may be a wonderful surprise 🚶♂️✌️.
My great grandfather once served the King (around 1907-1914) as he passed by the pharmacy he worked at in Sloane Square. Not sure exactly where it was located, but there used to be one on one of the corners - it got converted into a clothes shop about 15 years ago.
The "police station " mentioned near Lambeth Walk was the Forensic Science Service for the Metropolitan Police where all exhibits were sent for examination. There were other departments based here also. I vaguely remember that it was sold for development some years ago
Off your line of route I supposedly have an ancestor born in West Square, near St Georges Cathedral, but I can find very little about them, supposed the son of a police inspector, I can find little on line or printed about the building and its use, but will do one day
