West Norwood - Local Landmarks

Local Landmarks

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".

• South London Theatre, formerly West Norwood's first fire station with prominent watch tower. Owen Luder conversion 1881.
• St Luke's Church. One of four Lambeth Waterloo churches, the others were St Matthew, St Mark, and St John. Architect Francis Octavius Bedford designed this church and St John's in a similar neoclassical style. St Luke's was built between 1822 and 1825, and was rebuilt by G E Street in 1870. The war memorial gardens and railings are being restored.
• 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. Opened 1837.
• South London Botantical Institute, 323 Norwood Road, SE24, brick built Victorian villa. Few changes since 1910 when retired colonial administrator Alan Octavian founded the Institute with library, herbarium, botanical garden, public areas.
• Norwood Park. 33½ surviving acres of the Great North Wood were bought by local councils with the aid of public subscription, opening on 14 June 1911. First known as New Park it has great views of the city. It 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 The building opened on 21 July 1888 as the first public library in Lambeth until superseded by a new library and hall on the other side of St Luke's Church.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 (3.6 ha)-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.
• Emmaus South Lambeth, a registered charity is based on Knights Hill and Beadman Street. A community for formerly homeless and vulnerable individuals that runs four shops selling a variety of second-hand furniture and other goods.