Walls across streets

Not so long back I posted about the wall across the road in Chorlton.
Well I’ve just got to page 189 of Restoration Home and it’s about walls across roads. One particular one in Bromley Kent was put up to prevent the tenants of the London County Council estate taking the shortcut to town through the private houses. It was built in 1926 and despite protests by the council and attempts to knock it down by residents, the wall remained until 1939 when it was removed to allow fire engines easy access.

There is a photo of the wall in Restoration Home: The Essential Guide to Tracing the History of Your House and it looks very grim. It wasn’t the first time walls had been used and in some areas gated communities had been created to keep out certain types of people.

The book is really interesting and very much a social history view of housing.

There is a photo of the wall in Bromley on this page – it says the wall was placed across Valeswood Road, at its junction with Alexandra Crescent. On google maps the wall would be here