The Pullens Buildings, also known as the Pullens Estate, are some of the last
Victorian tenement buildings surviving in London, England. In the
Walworth
Walworth () is a district of south London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross.
Major streets in Walworth include the Old ...
,
Newington area, they are near
Elephant and Castle
The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground stati ...
and
Kennington Underground stations. Located in Amelia Street, Crampton Street, Iliffe Street, Penton Place and Peacock Street, they are protected by
Conservation Area status granted by
Southwark Council
Southwark London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London.
History
There have previously been a numbe ...
.
History
Construction
The Pullens Estate was built by
James Pullen
James Daniel Pullen (born 18 March 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Career
Born in Chelmsford, Pullen started his career at Heybridge Swifts. On 29 September 1999 he joined Ipswich Town on a free ...
, a local builder,
who acquired the land and developed it over a 15-year period from 1886.
[Conservation_Appraisal_before_20C.pdf](_blank)
/ref>
[McNary, Dave (9 November 2009)]
''Variety'' (Reed Business Information).
The residential buildings are four storeys in height, and each unit is three bays wide with an ornate central entrance to a common stairwell. The ranges vary from three to twelve units in length. They are faced with yellow stock brick, the front being enriched with the use of decorative terracotta arches to the door and window openings. The roofs are flat, providing amenity space for the residents.
The workshops attached to the rear of the residential blocks (buildings) are simpler and more "functional" in appearance. They are two storeys high, and also built of stock brick and flat-roofed. The two-storey loading bays are edged with blue brick quoins. The shops, flanking the entrances to the workshop yards, have traditional painted timber shopfronts, with pilasters supporting a fascia and cornice, and stallrisers. Flats in the buildings were originally connected to the workshops by internal doors which have since been bricked up.
The first block of 16 flats was built on Penton Place without the required consent of the Metropolitan Board of Works but Pullen managed to persuade local officials that his work was good and continued building until 1901 – ten years more than he'd been granted permission for.
When the philanthropist Charles Booth was surveying London for his poverty map in 1899 he encountered Mr Pullen at work describing him thus: 'Old Mr Pullen in a top hat and fustian suit was on a scaffolding superintending'.[/Booth notebook recording James Pullen and his buildings – page 61]
/ref>
Booth stated that demand for the 'well built' flats was high and they were 'Occupied before the paper is dry on the walls' often by police officers from Whitehall and Lambeth districts.
The rent was 'eight shillings for three rooms, kitchen and scullery, plus 6 pence a week charged for cleaning the stairs and gas'. Each had to make a deposit of 24 shillings which was an effectual bar to any poor tenants.
The full estate, which originally extended southwards as far as Manor Place, comprised 684 dwellings in 12 blocks. Attached to the rear of the dwellings, arranged round four yards, were 106 workshops. The estate's shops were located at the entrances to the workshop yards.
World War II
Some of the buildings were damaged during German bombing in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Others were demolished when they fell into disrepair.
According to records at www.flyingbombsandrockets.com, a V1 rocket made impact at Manor Place by the Railway on 27 June 1944 at 22:45. The V1 demolished six houses in Crampton Street and four in Manor Place as well as damaging a public wash house and stores in Manor Place, a railway bridge, two arches, and 300 houses and buildings in Manor Place and surrounding streets.
Late 20th-century threat of demolition and squatting campaign
In the 1970s, the council planned to demolish the buildings but were stopped in the 1980s by an alliance of tenants and squatters under the umbrella of the Pullens Squatter Organisation who with the full support of the Residents' Association campaigned and fought successfully to save them with a campaign of direct action and solidarity which eventually ended up constructing barricades to stop police and bailiffs entering the buildings.
Contemporary
Many of the remaining 351 flats in the buildings are local authority-owned but just under 50 per cent are now in private leasehold ownership and prices have risen sharply, boosted by the re-development plan for the Elephant and Castle area and an interest in the period style of the construction. In 2007 a Pullens flat on Iliffe Street sold for £305,000 another on Crampton Street for £295,000.[Registry record of prices paid for property on Iliffe Street, SE17](_blank)
/ref> In 2014 in Iliffe Street a property sold for £365,000. In 2009, the local authority freeholder, Southwark, complete a major refurbishment of the buildings. In 2014 another major refurbishment is on the cards. In 2015 a Pullens flat on Peacock Street sold for £427,500, another on Iliffe Street for £435,000.
Of the original four Pullens Yards, the Clements Yard, Iliffe Yard and Peacock Yard still remain. They are still in use and house a variety of workers including potters, a lute maker, architects, dressmakers and jewellery designers. The yards are open to the public twice yearly to promote the independent traders.
The Estate also is home to a number of small shops including 56a Infoshop – an anarchist bookshop and social centre formed out of the squatted ex-grocery turned wholefoods shop next door in the 1990s and Fareshares – the wholefoods shop.
Popular culture
A young Charlie Chaplin lived in one of the Pullens Buildings for nine months in 1907. Supermodel Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
lived in Iliffe Street.
The historic and architectural importance of the buildings has been recognised by their use in several high-profile films including The King's Speech
''The King's Speech'' is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language ...
, Spider
Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...
and Hereafter
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
and Allied.Images and words detailing the filming of The Kings Speech on The Pullens Estate By Michael Greenwood/Flickr
/ref>
References
External links
The Pullens Tenants & Residents Association
The Pullens Story 1879–2011 by Roger Batchelor
Pullens Yards Pullens Arts Business Association
Iliffe Yard website
The King's Speech">Photo set of making of ''The King's Speech (film), The King's Speech
'' at the Pullens buildings on ">Flickr
Southwark Council public consultation on development at Crampton Street
''Evening Standard'' article about the mews workshops at the Pullen buildings
Charles Booth's original notes on The Pullens Buildings – Notebook B365, page 61
56a Infoshop
Fareshares Food Co-op
The Electric Elephant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pullens Buildings
Residential buildings in London
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark
Squatting in the United Kingdom