The houses were built in two stages between the 1860s and 1880s as speculative suburban development to designs by a local builder. The houses were originally occupied as private residences but since the second part of the twentieth century they had been used for medical purposes and as living quarters for nurses at the local Mawdsley Hospital. Most recently they were used as interlinked buildings as a methadone maintenance clinic and medical research facility. As they fell into dereliction they were squatted for a while in the early 2000s. New St Paul’s Church opened on Lorrimore Square . Modernist Grade II-listed building of reinforced concrete designed by Woodroffe Buchanan & Coulter

Darren and Mark have brought together a fascinating collection of old and new photographs that have been individually merged to show the surprisingly rapid changes in London SE17 through the decades. Readers can compare the old Walworth with the fast-emerging new, which is a melting pot of cultures and classes living cheek by jowl. Reverend James Butterworth (1897-1977) advocated ‘ a house for friendship for boys and girls outside any church’. He replaced the Walworth Methodist Chapel on Camberwell Road with a new chapel & Clubland. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe (1882-1974), the architect of Guildford Cathedral. Clubland featured a theatre, gymnasium, tennis court & various club rooms. Opened by Queen Mary on 18th May. Robert Kennedy (1925-1968) made his first public speech at Clubland at the age of 13, when his father was the US Ambassador. Newington workhouse built at 182 Westmoreland Road (now Beaconsfield Road) (Newington Lodge in 1930)

Walworth, Southwark A historically crowded and socially disadvantaged district situated east of Newington In 1914 the Wheatley family moved into Clinton House. Their son, Dennis, was 17 at the time. Dennis went on to write more than 70 books (selling over 50 million copies) before his death in 1977. Most of these were thrillers and occult novels. In the 1960s, two of his most popular titles, ‘The Devil Rides Out’ and ‘Uncharted Seas’ (renamed ‘The Lost Continent’) were filmed by Hammer. Edward Yates (1838–1907), a local builder, developed the Georgian residential streets on the western side of the Old Kent Road. Also built on the eastern side, laying out Marcia Road. Yates was leased and built on land owned by the Rolls estate and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in Walworth. Walworth moved from a Georgian suburb to Victorian inner city, with long rows of terraces built speculatively for rental, to house lower middle class and working class residents. By the time of his death, an estate of just over 2,500 houses, a church and school had been built, to match the rise in the population of Walworth.

St Peters Church built for Church Commissioners as a result of Walworth’s expanding population. Architect: by Sir John Soane (1753-1837). More info modern flats and houses built by Church Commissioners to replace slums. Managed by Octavia Hill (1838-1912) who encouraged Church Commissioners to add an open space, Faraday Gardens.Great areas of Walworth were rebuilt after the Second World War, notably in the form of the massive Heygate and Aylesbury estates, which were planned in the 1960s and completed in the1970s. Surrey Zoological Gardens opened by Edward Cross (1774-1854) on Lorrimore common (old Walworth Manor) Shown in the photo­graph above,* St Peter’s church in Liverpool Grove was built to a design by Sir John Soane in 1825 to serve the rapidly growing community; over the course of the 19th century, Walworth’s popu­la­tion increased eightfold, reaching 122,200 in1901. A majority of this street overlooking Denmark Hill railway station remained derelict for many years.