Larkhall, Lambeth

Now I can get to Clapham Junction from Surrey Quays without a change of train. So I got on the train at Surrey Quays and passed straight through Brixton non stop. For this relief much thanks. But I decided to get out at Wandsworth Road. Not much here though although the Larkhall Estate is listed Grade II because of the architects Louis de Soissons and G Grey Wornum. It looks a lot like the LCC blocks around it that form the Springfield Estate but there are some nicer touches such as little pediments to the windows and doors and little cartouches on the blocks - this one shows a boy with a bowl of fruit on his head. So Wandsworth Road is ppretty much like any other inner city thoroughfare which is surrounded by council estates. I thought that there's not much to it, until I came to this. It's now the Lost Theatre but the foundation stone was laid by the President of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers so I suppose it was once their HQ. I'm not sure if I've been there once, back in the 1980s or it may have been somewhere else. Anyway it's certainly a striking streetscape. The Church of St Andrew and St George was tucked away behind some council flate. Quite nice looking.