98 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



feet wide, which, rising at Norwood, eventually found 

 its way into the Thames at Vauxhall. Its course ran 

 where the front gardens of the houses on that side 

 of the road are now situated, and at that period every 

 house was fronted by its little bridge ; but the 

 unfortunate Effra has long since been thrust underground 

 in a sewer-pipe, and the sole reminiscence of it to be 

 seen is the name of Effra Road, beside Brixton Church. 



The " White Horse " public-house, where the 

 omnibuses halt, was in those times a lonely inn, 

 neighboured only by a farm ; but with the dawn of 

 the nineteenth century a new suburb began to spring 

 up, where Angell Road now stands, called " Angell 

 Town," and then the houses of Brixton Road began 

 to arise. It is curious to note that the last of the old 

 watchmen's wooden boxes was standing in front of 

 Claremont Lodge, 168, Brixton Road, until about 1875. 



There is little in the Lower Brixton Road that is 

 reminiscent of the Regency, but a very great deal of 

 early suburban comfort evident in the old mansions 

 of the Rise and the Hill, built in days when by a 

 " suburban villa " you did not mean a cheap house in 

 a cheap suburban road, but — to speak in the language 

 of auctioneers — a " commodious residence situate in 

 its own ornamental grounds, replete with every 

 convenience," or something in that eloquent style. 

 For when you ascend gradually, past the Bon Marche, 

 and come to the hill-top, you leave for awhile the shops 

 and the continuous, conjoined houses, and arrive, past 

 the transitional stage of semi-detachedness, at the 

 wholly blest condition of splendid isolation in the rear 

 of fences and carriage entrances, with gentility-balls 

 on the gate-posts, a circular lawn in front of the house, 

 skirted by its gravel drive, and perhaps even a stone 

 dog on either side of the doorway ! Solid comfort 

 resides within those four-square walls, and reclines in 

 saddle-bag armchairs, thinking complacently of big 

 bank balances, all derived from wholesale dealing in 

 the Citv, and now enjoyed, and added to, in the third 

 and fourth generations; for these solid houses were 



