| New Cross | |
|---|---|
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  New Cross Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 15,756 (2011 Census.Ward)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ365765 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SE14,SE15 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°28′15″N0°02′01″W / 51.4709°N 0.0337°W /51.4709; -0.0337 | |
New Cross is an area in south-east London, England, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south-east ofCharing Cross in theLondon Borough of Lewisham and theSE14 postcode district. New Cross is nearSt Johns,Telegraph Hill,Nunhead,Peckham,Brockley,Deptford andGreenwich, and home toGoldsmiths, University of London,Haberdashers' Hatcham College andAddey and Stanhope School.
New Cross Gate, on the west of New Cross, is named after the New Cross tollgate, established in 1718 by the New Cross Turnpike Trust. It is the location ofNew Cross station andNew Cross Gate station. New Cross Gate corresponds to the manor and district formerly known asHatcham.[2]
The area was originally known asHatcham (the name persists in the title of theAnglican parishes of St. James, Hatcham along with its school, and All Saints, Hatcham Park). The earliest reference to Hatcham is theDomesday Book of 1086 asHacheham. It was held by theBishop of Lisieux from theBishop of Bayeux. According to the entry in the Domesday Book Hatcham's assets were: 3hides; 3ploughs, 6 acres (24,000 m2) ofmeadow,woodland worth 3hog and rendered£2.[3]
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Hatcham tithes were paid toBermondsey Abbey from 1173 until thedissolution of the monasteries. A series of individuals then held land locally before the manor was bought in the 17th century by theHaberdashers' Company, a wealthylivery company that was instrumental in the area's development in the 19th century. Telegraph Hill was for many years covered by market gardens also owned by theWorshipful Company of Haberdashers. Until the creation of theLondon County Council in 1889, the area was a part of thecounties ofKent andSurrey.
New Cross is believed to have taken its name from acoaching house originally known as the Golden Cross, which stood close to the currentNew Cross House pub. The diaristJohn Evelyn, who lived inDeptford, wrote in 1675 that he met a friend at 'New Crosse' in his coach before travelling down through Kent and on to France.[4]
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In the later 19th century, the area became known as theNew 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).[5][6]
Hatcham Iron Works in Pomeroy Street was an importantsteam locomotive 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.[7]
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 7 May, police baton charges were launched to clear a crowd of 2–3,000 pickets blockading the entrance (reported as "Rowdyism in New Cross" by theKentish Mercury).
The lastLondon tram, in July 1952, ran fromWoolwich to New Cross. It was driven through enormous crowds, finally arriving at its destination in the early hours of 6 July.[8]
On 25 November 1944 aV-2 rocket exploded at theWoolworths store in New Cross Road (on the site later occupied by anIceland supermarket), 168 people were killed, and 121 were seriously injured. It was London's most devastating V-bombing of the entire war. On 25 November 2009 a new commemorative plaque was unveiled on the site by the Mayor of Lewisham, marking the 65th anniversary of theexplosion.[9]
On 13 August 1977, the area saw the so-calledBattle of Lewisham, during which thefar-rightBritish National Front were beaten back bymilitant anti-fascists and local people.[10]
On 18 January 1981, 13 young black people were killed in ahouse fire at a party.[11] Suspicions that the fire was caused by aracist attack, and accusations of police indifference to the deaths, led to the largest ever political mobilisation of black people seen in the UK.[12]
29 June 2008, twouniversity students from France werestabbed to death in a house.[13]
During the 1980s, theGoldsmiths Tavern hosted alternative cabaret nights, includingthe Parrot Cafe organised by Emma Cafferty and Nikky Smedley.[14] It was the original venue ofVic Reeves Big Night Out, a live comedy night he started there in 1986 before moving it to theAlbany Empire in 1988, and also where Reeves met future comedy partnerBob Mortimer.[15][16]Paul O'Grady would also perform there.[17]
A long-running comedy night named Happy Mondays runs at theAmersham Arms fortnightly. Comedians to have performed at the night includeStewart Lee,Cardinal Burns,Russell Howard,Shaparak Khorsandi,Andy Parsons,Andi Osho,Arthur Smith,Sarah Millican,Greg Davies,Milton Jones,Dane Baptiste,Robin Ince, andAl Murray.[18]
Goldsmiths' Students' Union had a reputation for putting on established and up and coming bands of the late 1970s and 1980s includingJapan,[19]Lloyd Cole and the Commotions,Wet Wet Wet andLevellers.[20]Blur, some of the members of which met whilst studying at the university, played their second ever gig there while still called Seymour.[19]
In the 1990s nightclubThe Venue on Clifton Rise was central to theIndie rock andBrit Pop scenes and played host to gigs byOasis,Blur,Pulp,Suede,The Verve, andOcean Colour Scene.[21]
Urban music magazine,Touch, andThe Platform Magazine, an Islamic Hip-Hop journal are based in New Cross.[citation needed]
During the mid to late 2000s, around the time ofnew rave's popularity in the music press and theAngular Recording Corporation bringing attention to the area, the press briefly referred toThe New Cross Scene.[22][23][24] With bands such asBloc Party,Art Brut, andThe xx playing at pubs in the area early in their careers.[25][26][27]Klaxons also formed whilst living in the area, and their original drummer's later bandHatcham Social were named after an old name for the area via aLiberal club on the New Cross end of the part of theA202 named Queen's Road.[22][28]
In the 2010s and early 2020s the area was known for being a focal point of the London jazz revival scene, with club nightSteam Down, and musicians likeNubya Garcia having gigged there and in nearbyDeptford.[29][30][31]
The area supports a fledgling student opera company,Opera Gold, run by Goldsmiths, University of London.
Millwall Football Club, founded by mainly Scottish workers at J.T. Morton, acannery and food processing plant inMillwall on theIsle of Dogs in 1885, was based atThe Den in Cold Blow Lane from 1910 to 1993. The ground attracted crowds of more than 45,000 at its peak, but by the 1980s was notorious for the club's repeated incidents offootball hooliganism. Millwall moved a short distance to a new stadium,The New Den, situated off Ilderton Road and just withinBermondsey, at the start of the 1993–94 season. The club remains within the New Cross electoral ward.[32]
Speedway racing was staged at theNew Cross Speedway and Greyhound Stadium, situated at the end of Hornshay Street, off Ilderton Road. The venue became home to the New Cross Rangers in 1934 when the Crystal Palace promotion moved en bloc. The track, reputed to be one of the shortest and known as "The Frying Pan Bowl", 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 firststock car race at Easter 1954, with 26,000 in the crowd and thousands more locked outside. The stadium site is now an open space, Bridge House Meadows. The 1949 speedway filmOnce a Jolly Swagman, starringDirk Bogarde, was filmed at New Cross.
For many years New Cross was home to the Laban Centre, nowTrinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance which was based at Laurie Grove producing choreographers such asMatthew Bourne andLea Anderson. In 2002 Laban moved to new studios in Deptford. However, it still uses its New Cross campus, where studios have since been refurbished.
Its library, New Cross Learning, which was formerly known as the New Cross People's Library, was saved from permanent closure after government cuts. A series of protests in 2011, namely from the ‘Save New Cross Library Campaign’ and the subsequent media coverage, garnered enough support to see it re-open in 2013 as a community led library. It now offers learning activities and workshops, and has a lending catalogue of over 5,000 books.
The New Cross ward of Lewisham has the lowest female life expectancy of all the wards of Greater London: 77.6 years. For males the rate was 74.3 years, tied with Camberwell Green in Southwark and only higher than Selhurst ward in Croydon.[33]
The proximity of New Cross toDeptford andGreenwich, both of which have strong maritime connections, led to the establishment of theRoyal Naval School in New Cross in 1843 (designed by architectJohn Shaw Jr, 1803–1870) to house "the sons of impecunious naval officers". The school relocated further south-east toMottingham 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 the University of London in 1904 and is nowGoldsmiths, University of London.
The formerDeptford Town Hall building in New Cross Road, now also used by Goldsmiths, was built in theEdwardian Baroque style byLanchester and Rickards, 1903–5. Nautical references include carvings of Tritons, statues of admirals and a sailing ship weathervane on the clock turret.[34]
New Cross Fire Station is aGrade II listed building at 266 Queens Road, built in 1893–94 to a design by the architectRobert Pearsall.[35]
The Kingdom Hall ofJehovah's Witnesses was once the South East London Synagogue. It was established in 1888 byAshkenazi Jews who had emigrated toBritain fromEastern Europe. It was refused membership of theUnited Synagogue,[36] but was admitted to theFederation of Synagogues.[37]Immanuel Jakobovits was the rabbi just after theSecond World War. The synagogue's first premises was a house at 452 New Cross Road.[38] The first purpose-built synagogue was consecrated in March 1905 and was destroyed by a German air raid on 27 December 1940. After this the congregation moved temporarily to 117 Lewisham Way, returning to its original site at New Cross Road in 1946 – first to a temporary hut and then to a new purpose-built synagogue in 1956. During the period from 1945 to 1947Immanuel Jakobovits, who later became the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, was the rabbi.[39][40] However, the congregation went into decline and the synagogue closed in 1985, by which time it only had 56 male members compared with 294 in 1939.[38]
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 demolished before the old dancehall became The Harp Club and then The Venue in the late 1980s. The Venue nightclub briefly renamed itself 'One For The Road' and following the outbreak of theCovid-19 pandemic, and for a little while functioned less as a nightclub and more as a bar, before ultimately closing.
Also, the Duke of Albanypublic house (converted to flats in 2008) was the facade for The Winchester pub in the filmShaun of the Dead.
The area is served by two railway stations,New Cross andNew Cross Gate.
Both stations are served byLondon Overground. From New Cross Gate passengers can travel toCrystal Palace andWest Croydon to the south andHighbury & Islington to the north. New Cross acts as the terminus for the service fromDalston Junction. Trains sometimes continue to Highbury & Islington but this is more common during engineering works. Passengers can easily make a brief interchange at Dalston Junction for trains to Highbury and Islington
New Cross also has mainline suburban services operated bySoutheastern. Trains generally run north toCannon Street orCharing Cross to the north and south-east toLewisham,Bexleyheath,Hayes andDartford in Kent.
New Cross Gate has mainline suburban services operated bySouthern. Trains here generally run north toLondon Bridge and south toLondon Victoria,East Croydon,Gatwick Airport Surrey and Sussex.
Three major roads meet in New Cross: theA202 (Queen's Road) which runs from New Cross to Victoria, theA2 (New Cross Road) which runs from London toCanterbury andDover, and theA20 (Lewisham Way) which runs from New Cross toFolkestone and Dover.
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