New Cross
New Cross (Greater London)
OS grid reference	TQ365765
London borough	Lewisham
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	SE14
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
London Assembly	Greenwich and Lewisham
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England UK • London

Coordinates: New Cross is a district on the north tip of the London Borough of Lewisham. New Cross is covered by London postal district SE14.

It is home to Goldsmiths College, Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, Addey and Stanhope School and was once the home of Millwall F.C. for 83 years (they now play in Bermondsey SE16, in the London Borough of Southwark).

New Cross is near St John's, New Cross Gate, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich.

History

New Cross was originally known as Hatcham (the name persists in the title of the Anglican parish of St. James, Hatcham, and its school). The earliest reference to Hatcham is in the 11th century, in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hacheham. It was held by the Bishop of Lisieux from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its domesday assets were: 3 hides; 3 ploughs, 6 acres of meadow, woodland worth 3 hogs. It rendered £2.^[1]

Hatcham tithes were paid to Bermondsey Abbey from 1173 until the dissolution of the monasteries when the Crown took over. A series of individuals then held land locally before the manor was bought in the 17th century by the Haberdashers' Company, a wealthy livery company that was instrumental in the area's development in the 19th century. Telegraph Hill was for many years covered by market gardens owned also by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. Until the creation of the London County Council in 1889, New Cross was a part of the counties of Kent and Surrey. In the later nineteenth century, the area became known as the New Cross Tangle on account of its numerous railway lines, workshops and two stations - both originally called New Cross (one was later renamed New Cross Gate).

Hatcham Iron Works in Pomeroy Street was an important locomotives factory, the scene of a bitter confrontation in 1865 between its manager, George England, and the workers. The Strike Committee met at the Crown and Anchor pub in New Cross Road, now the site of Hong Kong City Chinese restaurant. George England’s house, Hatcham Lodge, is now 56 Kender Street.

New Cross bus garage was formerly the largest tram depot in London, opening in 1906. During the 1926 General Strike in support of the miners, strikebreakers were brought in to drive trams from the depot. On May 7th, police baton charges were launched to clear a crowd of 2-3,000 pickets blockading the entrance (reported as ‘Rowdyism in New Cross’ by the Kentish Mercury).

The last London tram, in July 1952, ran from Woolwich to New Cross. It was driven through enormous crowds, finally arriving at its destination in the early hours of 6 July.^[2]

On 25 November 1944, a V-2 Rocket exploded at the Woolworth's store in New Cross Road (on the site later occupied by an Iceland supermarket). 168 people were killed, ranging in age from Michael Glover, aged 1 month, to William Frank, aged 80. 121 were seriously injured. It was the most devastating V-bombing of the entire war.

In August 1977, the area saw the Battle of Lewisham, during which the far right British National Front were beaten off by militant anti-fascists and local people.[1] In January 1981, 13 young black people were killed in the New Cross Fire at a party at 439 New Cross Road. Suspicions that the fire was caused by a racist attack, and official indifference to the death, led to the largest ever political mobilisation of black people seen in Britain.

Buildings

The proximity of New Cross to Deptford and Greenwich, both of which have strong maritime connections, led to the establishment of the Royal Naval School in New Cross in 1843 (designed by architect John Shaw Jr, 1803-1870) to house "the sons of impecunious naval officers". The school relocated further south-east to Mottingham in 1889, and the former school building was bought by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, who opened the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Technical and Recreative Institute in 1891. This was in turn handed over to London University in 1904 and is now Goldsmiths College.

The former Deptford Town Hall building in New Cross Road, now also used by Goldsmiths College, was built in the Edwardian Baroque style by Lanchester and Rickards, 1903-5. Nautical references include carvings of Tritons, statues of admirals and a sailing ship weathervane on the clock turret. [2]

The Jehovah's Witness Hall was the South East London Synagogue until it closed in 1985. The present building, which dates from the 1950s, replaced another destroyed in a German air raid in 1940.

The Venue nightclub in New Cross Road has a long history as a place of entertainment. It opened as the New Cross Super Kinema in 1925, with a cinema on the ground floor and the New Cross Palais de Danse above, as well as a cafe. The name was shortened to New Cross Kinema from 1927, the plain Kinema in 1948, and finally Gaumont in 1950. It closed in August 1960, and remained derelict for some time. Part of the building was demolised before the old dancehall became The Harp Club and then The Venue in the late 1980s.[3]

Also, the Duke of Albany public house (scheduled for demolition) was the facade for The Winchester pub in the film Shaun of the Dead.

Culture

During the 1980s, the Goldsmiths Tavern hosted what was then known as "alternative cabaret nights". These were organised by Nikky Smedley (later a Teletubby) into the Parrot Cafe. This played host to fledgling acts including Peri Mackintosh, The Cholmondelys, Julian Clary and Vic Reeves Big Night Out. Goldsmiths College student union also had a very active entertainments committee at the time and had a great reputation for putting on established and up and coming bands of the era including the B 52's, the Pogues, The Monochrome Set, Simply Red, Wet Wet Wet and Wild Willy Barrett.

Also in the 80's, The Irish owners of the Harp Club (who also had the Amersham Arms down the road) let early house / hip hop purveyors 'The Flim Flam' run a regular Friday night club there, one of the first in the capital. The Flim Flam boys with their wide music interest recruited 2 Goldsmith's DJ's to put on a punk & indie night on Saturdays called 'A Million Rubber Bands'. This became the biggest 'alternative' club night in London with 500-1000 punters attending. The club also started hosting many of the indie bands of the era. The 'Dew Drop Inn' in Fordham Park next to the club was the gathering place of the clubbers before the night began. It reputedly had the biggest cider/lager for snakebite sales for any pub in the capital...

In the 1990s New Cross club, The Venue was central to the Indie Rock and Brit Pop scenes and played host to gigs by many of their finest purveyors including Oasis, Shed Seven and Sonic Youth. Urban music magazine, Touch, and The Platform Magazine, an Islamic Hip-Hop journal are based in New Cross.

In the 2000s New Cross placed host to three separate but inter-related scenes. The original New Cross scene was kickstarted by the Angular Records compilation, The New Cross: An Angular Sampler in 2003. This compilation included tracks by the Bloc Party, Art Brut, Ladyfuzz, and The Vichy Government, and was championed by the NME. Later New Cross was noted as the birth place of New rave (also known as nu rave, neu rave), and is fast gaining ground with London's fashionistas and music journos. Some even coming to regard it as South London's answer to Shoreditch in the wake of its commercialisation. The New rave scene began with a tightly connected movement of artists, DJ’s, bands and squatters called !WOWOW! who have staged parties since 2003 onwards in New Cross. New rave champions, Klaxons, spent their formative years in New Cross and released their debut single, Gravity's Rainbow in April 2006 on Angular Recording Corporation, a label set up by two ex-Goldsmith's College students.

The area supports an amateur opera company, Opera Gold, which is attached to Goldsmiths.

Transport

The area is served by two stations, New Cross station and New Cross Gate station. Both act as termini of the East London Line of the London Underground network as well as being suburban railway stations.

Sport

Speedway racing was staged at the New Cross Speedway and Greyhound Stadium in the Old Kent Road. The venue became home to the New Cross Rangers in 1934 when the Crystal Palace promotion moved en bloc. The track operated until 1939 and re-opened in 1946 running until the early 1950s. The track re-opened for a short spell 1959 - 1961 and closed its doors to the sport for the last time mid season 1963. The stadium was also the scene of the UK's first stock car race at Easter 1954, with 26,000 in the crowd and thousands more locked outside.

The speedway film Once a Jolly Swagman featuring Dirk Bogarde was filmed at New Cross.

Notable residents

Music connections

• Bands such as Art Brut, Bloc Party, Luxembourg and Athlete have all originated from the 'New Cross scene'.
• British hip hop artist Blade did most of his recording in the area, selling his records personally on the streets there and often name checking it in his songs.
• Musician Danger Mouse of the group Gnarls Barkley lived in New Cross while working at a pub in London Bridge during the early 2000s.
• Actor Luke Goss and his wife, singer Shirley Lewis, reside in New Cross.
• 1970s glam rocker Steve Harley grew up in Fairlawn Mansions, New Cross, going to Edmund Waller and Haberdashers' Aske's schools.
• Music hall star Marie Lloyd lived in Lewisham Way from 1887 to 1893
• Nathan Cooper and Chi-Tudor Hart, out of the electro group Matinée Club grew up in New Cross.
• Indie/Nu Rave bands Klaxons and Pull Tiger Tail shared a house in New Cross during their bands' infancies.
• The band Indigo Moss are known to have resided at some point in New Cross.
• Upcoming indie hopefuls Assembly Now formed while living in New Cross and their frontman Gavin Dwight currently still resides in the area, whilst indie twee popsters Hatcham Social are know to have been influenced by and possibly lived in the area.
• RnB group Damage. Front man Jade Jones who is from the area is the father of Emma Bunton's baby and is due to marry the Spice Girl some time this year. Two members of the group attended St James Hatcham C of E Primary School situated on St James in New Cross Gate

Other local links

• Poet Robert Browning lived in Telegraph Cottage near New Cross Road during the 1840s
• Actor Gary Oldman was born and raised in New Cross. His film Nil By Mouth is loosely based on his life growing up in South East London and was largely filmed in the area.
• Fr. Arthur Tooth SSC, an Anglican priest, was the Vicar of St. James', Hatcham in the 1870s and, whilst he was there, was prosecuted for ritualist practices — an event which became nationally famous at the time.
• Sir Barnes Wallis was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School (blue plaque, on building on corner of New Cross Road and Nettleton Road)
• Playwright and author Terence Frisby of the 60's play and movie "There's a Girl in My Soup" was born in New Cross in 1932 but spent the majority of his childhood in Welling.
• Artist Edward Henry Windred lived at 352 New Cross Road during the 1930s
• Politician Sir Isaac Hayward, leader of the London County Council, represented the Deptford division
• Goldsmiths students included John Cale, Mary Quant, Malcolm Maclaren, Damian Hirst, Graham Coxon, Annie Lennox to name but a few
• Footballer Kieran Richardson who currently plays for Sunderland FC spent some of his childhood in New Cross Gate

Places Nearby

• Brockley
• Deptford
• Lewisham
• New Cross Gate (Part of New Cross)
• Peckham
• Telegraph Hill (Part of New Cross)

In song

• Carter USM wrote a song called The Only Living Boy in New Cross (1992) (the title being a play on that of Simon and Garfunkel's song The only living boy in New York).

References

• Gordon-Orr, Neil (2004). Deptford Fun City: a ramble through the history and music of New Cross and Deptford. London: Past Tense Publications.

Related Links

• New Cross Photographs
• New Cross Online (includes history)
• New Cross Guide (includes history)

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