Lower Addiscombe Road

The Lower Addiscombe Road can be considered as Addiscombe's 'high road'. It is part of the A222 and runs very roughly in a west to east direction through the town. I do mean very roughly as it starts at the top of Windmill Bridge, where it is a continuation of St James's Road (on an old map it can be seen to be named St James's Road East), and heads roughly east-south-east. However by the time it becomes Long Lane, past Ashburton Park, it is heading more to the north-east.

I shall be looking at the road starting from the west end as that is the direction it is numbered and I'll consider the north side first and then the south side.

I may disappear down side roads if there is something down there that seems unlikely to have a home on the site otherwise but I'll highlight this in a different typeface (like this paragraph).

Windmill Bridge

As far as I am aware, the road starts at the top of Windmill Bridge. As the road drops down towards Freemason's Road and Cross Road it passes Little Playground and Windmill Bridge House on the left, and on the right there can be seen the signs advertising Coldstream loft conversions which is largely hidden from view at the end of Cross Road. I'd always assumed that Windmill Bridge House was likely to be 'council flats' but in fact it is sheltered accommodation for the over-60s.

At the far end of Freemason's Road is the former Asylum constructed by 'The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and their Widows' in 1850. It is an impressive looking building with the frontage facing the railway line. It is now known as Davidson Lodge. It is owned by the council and apparently mostly used for old peoples' accommodation, although the Central Hall houses the Croydon Neighbourhood Care Association. I can't imagine finding myself in a position to take a photo of the building and even if I were I can't see it coming out too well but 'Homemade' has made a good effort on Flickr.

North side

Freemason's Road to Morland Road

The north side of the road from Freemason's Road, past Davidson Road and Alexandra Road, to the Morland Avenue and Morland Road junction is a local shopping area that hopefully has seen better days as it is a bit shabby now. There is a small Co-Op food store to give the area some limited appeal but otherwise the take-aways, estate agents and hairdressers are probably the main reason to frequent the shops. The rest of the shops are very much an assortment of odds and ends, though there is an excellent Indian restaurant in the Banana Leaf and also the Church of the Nazarene is shoe-horned in.

A tyre shop at number 3 and 3A closed down in 2007 and it seems this is due to be converted to residential use, something that has already been happening to several shops on the other side of the road (see later). I think it looks stupid and I wouldn't like the idea of living in them myself, but then again if not residential then what? It has to be better than lying empty for years on end.

The building to the rear of the Co-Op is quite interesting. It is a house formerly named Glenalough that had quite substantial grounds. A ground floor side extension was used as a GP surgery until in 1931 the GP who owned the property split it in three. The house and surgery was sold to the Co-Op who adapted the surgery and ground floor for use as their shop with the upstairs being used for flats. Most of the grounds were sold off to builders who erected a number of houses. The remaining plot fronting Morland Road was kept by the seller who had Morland Road Surgery purpose built.

Morland Road to Warren Road

The stretch of road from Morland Road to Warren Road is purely residential. Squire Court, Houston Court, St James's Lodge, Kensal House and Kensal Court, and Warren Court are all very different and only St James's Lodge appears to have any age to it.

Looking at a 1911 map of the same stretch of road suggests Squire Court is on the location of a girls' home (which was only active there from 1903 to 1911) and Houston Court probably replaces a couple of large houses. The 1872 map may well show the same buildings. St James's Lodge looks like it is there but there is no sign of the large rear building. In the older map it may well be there but without the side extensions. Kensal House and Kensal Court only date from c. 2005 and seem to have replaced two adjoining buildings (only one is suggested on the older map). For some reason I have it in mind that there was actually some business to do with cars here before demolition and that might explain concerns over contaminated land in the planning process. Warren Court replaces a terrace of housing which can be seen on the 1911 map but dates from after the older map (as does Warren Road itself).

Warren Road to Grant Road

There are two parades of local shops running from Warren Road to Hastings Road and then Hastings Road to East India Way and these start with the rather impressive looking end building of terrace that is presently Papa Johns. This part of Addiscombe was the first to be built up so these shops would have had more importance in times past. Now you'd have to say there is a lot of nothing there.

The junction with East India Way is a bit out of the ordinary as a building spans the road. However that is no more than should be demanded as East India Way was built on the site of the former Addiscombe railway terminus which was shamefully demolished. From the former railway station another parade of local shops set back from the road a little more leads up to the Alma on the junction with Grant Road which marks the end of the local shopping area. This parade is mostly occupied by second hand car dealers now.

Grant Road to Inglis Road

Grant Road marks the start of an exclusively residential stretch of the road. The first stretch, passing Academy Gardens, is of relatively modern build.

The road then reverts to older housing interrupted only by Havelock House. The corner with Nicholson Road has a welcome small green space.

As the road passes Nicholson Road its direction has switched to running more to the north-east. There are six houses along here. The corner plot is number 173 and I believe carries the name 'Charlton' on the gate posts. Numbers 175 and 177 are semi-detached and were once called Grasmere and Edenvale. Number 179 was Cheltonville and numbers 181 and 183 were Kent Lodge and Glenlora. The latter two houses are now combined into the Freshford Hotel.

Number 173 is Victorian and is on the Council's Local List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest. It was the home of Mary Sibthorp. Over the last few years there have been a number of requests for planning permission to demolish this house and replace it with a three or four storey block of flats which have been turned down. Reading a 2006 planning document it sounds rather worryingly like the grounds for refusal are based mostly on the lack of quality of the proposed replacements and that if someone come up with something worthwhile it might still be demolished. It seems the Local List is just a list without any real weight behind it.

Inglis Road to the tram line

Inglis Road marks the start of the main shopping area in Addiscombe. The parade of shops here seems a little cut off because of the tram line but the railway line it replaced crossed the road on an underbridge so it wouldn't have seemed so isolated. The parades from Inglis Road to Sundridge Road, from Sundridge Road to Everton Road, and the short section to the tram line, are all of the same style. This is a relief to see as there are few places in the road where you get more than one parade, terrace or indeed house of the same design. Variety is nice, but uniformity can look good too.

On the 1911 O.S. map and in a 1912 directory only the first parade (from Inglis Road) exists and it is called The Exchange (it was numbered from 1 to 11 with an unoccupied 1A). On the corner of Sundridge Road there is a dairy. So this tends to suggest construction the first building was c. 1910 with the others following in a year or two and certainly all the shops were in place in a photo dated 1920.

The tram line to Teevan Road

The 1911 O.S. map shows that following on from the railway bridge there was a house in large grounds that a directory reveals as Woodside Grange. There were then a pair of semi-detached houses called Shirley and Manora and a building plot. It rather looks like those two houses have survived with single storey extensions to the front and converted to retail. The three storey building alongside them on the junction with Teevan Road houses the Addiscombe telephone exchange.

The first parade now standing can be seen in an old photo that I suspect probably dates from c. 1920 at latest and that certainly looks consistent with the style of building, with the possible exception of the middle bit. That middle bit now houses a 'cheap shop' named Harris & Danyal but prior to this was Alldays which was a general store that also housed the local Post Office (Alldays was part of the Co-Op in recent years and in 2007 it was closed with the Post Office moving to the rear of the Co-Op further up the road).

The same photo shows a couple of small shops alongside the railway bridge. I don't know if these survived to be demolished along with the railway underbridge but they'd be where the green strip lies alongside the tram line. Between this strip and the first shops is the access road to the Pavement Square development (I'm not sure of the details but it might just be for egress with the entrance on Teevan Road).

The photo mentioned is actually captioned as Bingham Halt. Bingham Road Halt, as it was actually called, opened in 1906 and closed in 1915, being rebuilt and reopening in 1935 as Bingham Road station. I am dubious of the caption as the station was actually on the south side of Bingham Road.

The cipher on the pillar box outside the former Post Office dates it from after 1952. Being a Type C box (the ones with the two posting slots) you would think that it was associated with the Post Office being there. The Post Office was actually named 'Addiscombe Exchange' (and possibly still is). It is tempting to infer that this relates to the telephone exchange as of course Post Offices and BT were once part of the GPO. However the 1912 directory shows number 6 The Exchange as a Post Office and there was a letter box outside it (that is now presumably number 195 which is a dry cleaners). So it seems reasonable to infer the Post Office moved and that is why the letter box is so much newer than the surrounding buildings.

Teevan Road to Woodside Court Road

The 1911 O.S. map shows three pairs of semi-detached houses leading on from Teevan Road, followed by an empty plot and then Woodside Court, a house that stood in large grounds. These houses were called Ashwood, Copthorne, Woodneuk, Mechlin, Tregaron and Nutbourne and it looks like they have had two storey extensions of the front to convert them to retail use and the rooflines seem consistent with pre-war housing to me.

Woodside Court Road to Blackhorse Lane

On the 1911 O.S. map, and in a 1912 directory, there is a parade of ten shops (with a passageway between them) that lead up the The Black Horse Garage and the Black Horse Hotel that are known as 'The Broadway'. Indeed these are the only shops between the railway line and the pub with the few other houses being residential. Woodside Court Road itself is on the site of Woodside Court.

Comparing the photos with the old map it is possible to deduce that the parade of five shops nearest the site of the Black Horse are numbers 1 to 5 The Broadway, then the next four to the Co-Op are numbers 6 to 9. It looks like number 10 has been demolished to form part of the Co-Op.

The directory lists numbers 4 to 1 The Bungalow after Woodside Court and before The Broadway which seem to be residential. Although the map shows various buildings around Woodside Court there doesn't seem to be any obvious match for these. However I do note that although the shops running from Woodside Court Road do look to be all in the same style at first glance, when you look closer the four nearest the Co-Op are the same but the others vary from them a little bit in width and some details. I wonder if perhaps these first four shops are The Bungalow and so date from 1912 with the others following later. It sounds an unlikely name for a terrace of two storyey buildings of course! The first part of the Blackhorse Lane end of Woodside Court Road was laid out in 1911 so perhaps that is an indicator that things were soon to happen at the Lower Addiscombe Road end.

Blackhorse Lane to Spring Lane

There is a parade of shops on the east side of the Blackhorse Lane junction and an old photo reveals these to be part of Royal Parade. These don't appear on the 1911 map but there are some shops in Royal Parade on the opposite side of the road mentioned in a 1912 directory so this suggests that they were likely to be under construction around that year.

These are followed by an access road and then a terrace of seven houses leading up to Wydehurst Road, the first one apparently having been converted to retail use. There are then another thirteen houses leading up to Pagehurst Road. These are shown on the 1911 O.S. map but Wydehurst Road has not been laid out at all and Pagehurst Road is unnamed and is only laid out alongside the back gardens. These twenty houses were known as numbers 1 to 20 Wydehurst Terrace in 1912. Following on from Pagehurst Road is a terrace of another twelve houses which were numbers 12 to 1 Norfolk Gardens. Some of these houses were unoccupied in 1912 which suggests they probably hadn't been long built.

Following on from this stretch of residential property is Ashburton Park which leads up to Spring Lane where the road becomes Long Lane.

South side

Cross Road to Cherry Orchard Road

Like the north side of the road, the south side from Cross Road to Cherry Orchard Road would appear to be a shopping area that has seen better days. Many of the most tired looking shops in the three storey first parade are being converted to flats, which should at least smarten them up even if they look somewhat out of place. Apart from a couple of specialist music related shops and a sex shop, there would only seem to be a newsagent and a chemist that are actually 'shops'. The others are restaurants or estate agents and accountants. There is also a Jewson's stuck slap bang in the middle.

The first parade actually starts some distance down from Cross Road after some large advertising hoardings (these can be seen in the earlier view from Windmill Bridge). A casual observer might assume that they hide some waste ground or demolition site but in fact they shield the back gardens of a terrace of houses in Alpha Road. The rear of the first parade then opens up onto Alpha Road.

Cherry Orchard Road to Leslie Park Road

The junction of the Lower Addiscombe Road and Cherry Orchard Road is the home of one of the major Addiscombe landmarks, The Leslie Arms. I've lost track of exactly what is meant to be happening with this historic pub but from time to time there is talk of the top floors being used for apartments. In an ideal world it would reopen as a pub but I can't see that happening. It would be nice if the ground floor was used as a restaurant or something though.

Alongside The Leslie Arms are two short parades of local shops, separated by a passage leading to a small office block called Holbrook House. In 1911 there was a hall on that site. Neither parade looks like it started off as retail property and it would probably improve the look of the area if they were still residential as shops just seem so ugly there.

The south side of the road becomes pretty much exclusively residential from this point on.

The first building is the relatively modern Kirby House which is numbered 82 but presumably also occupies the plot of a previous number 84. Numbers 86 and 88 are on the local list. Numbers 90 to 96 have a plaque naming them 'Addiscombe Terrace'.

Leslie Park Road to Canning Road

The stretch between Leslie Park Road and Canning Road is typical of much of the entire road in being a collection of completely different styles. The block of flats on the corner is addressed as number 98 on the Lower Addiscombe Road frontage and Innova Court on the Leslie Park Road frontage. It dates from c. 2006 and the wood panelling is already showing signs of weathering unevenly which reduces the visual appeal of the building, if indeed you consider it had any to start with. I don't know what was there previously. On the 1911 O.S. map there would appear to be a semi-detached building diagonally across the corner and this also seems to appear on the 1872 map.

The Esso petrol station next door incorporates a Tesco Express which is one of the most useful shops anywhere in Addiscombe. It is just a pity it is so small and slightly out of the way. It is numbered as 100–102 with 104 no longer existing and 106 being given over to the Rapeed Group (they do shopfitting) who occupy premises located immediately behind the garage with an access road alongside it. The 1911 map would suggest numbers 100 and 102 were detached houses that appeared to have an alleyway or something between them, and then 104 and 106 were a pair of semi-detached houses likely to be identical to numbers 108 and 110 (see below).

Number 112 is the Croydon Hotel. Number 114 is Christ Church Methodist, Addiscombe which is a relatively anonymous building now but was once a much more impressive looking church. Number 122 was once a bank so if you come across an old photo captioned as 'Addiscombe Bank', that is the building it is referring to. 

There are two buildings marked on the location of the current 118 to 122 on the 1872 map and they were the only two buildings on this stretch of road at the time. Leslie King, who bought 120–122 in 1982, suggests the building dates from 1882 and was built on the site of 1&2 Denbigh Villas which themselves dated from 1865.

Canning Road to Clyde Road

Clyde Road to Elgin Road

Elgin Road to Havelock Road

Havelock Road to Outram Road

Number 168 is locally listed.

Outram Road to Ashburton Road and Bingham Road

The 1911 O.S. map shows five houses between Outram Road and Ashburton Road numbered 162, 164, 168, 170 and 172, with an empty plot where 166 should be. The numbering is now 182 to 192 and there are seven houses. Two houses seem to have been squeezed on the empty plot mentioned and probably part of the grounds of number 184. I believe one would have been 186 and the other probably 186a though they both contain multiple flats now.

Numbers 184, 190 and 192 (Bernhard House) are locally listed.

Bingham Road to the tram line

The parade of shops from Bingham Road to the tram line is named Bingham Corner (and that is part of the postal address). The west end of this parade with its tudor style appearance makes this arguably the most distinctive buildings in the entire road. Addiscombe tram stop lies behind Bingham Corner but the railway line it replaced would have been on an embankment with underbridges across the Lower Addiscombe Road and Bingham Road. Bingham Road station was on the south side of Bingham Road.

The tram line to Fernhurst Road

Fernhurst Road to Sherwood Road

The parade of shops between Fernhurst Road and Sherwood Road, opposite Blackhorse Lane, does not appear on the 1911 O.S. map but a 1912 directory lists two occupied shops and four unoccupied in Royal Parade and then some building land. This suggests a pretty firm date for the building. The parade does appear to be contiguous now though I haven't looked in detail.

Sherwood Road to Long Lane