SE6 The Corbett Estate, Catford

Hello people,

In the early part of the last century, a wealthy man – let’s call him Steve – purchased a small section of South East London from the Abbey of Ghent. The land had two distinguishing features:

1)      a shallow river ran through it, and

2)      it had a large population of wild cats.

Because of this the area became known as ‘Shallow River with lots of cats town.’ Steve loved the location, hated the name. So he paid a consultancy firm to come up with a new one that would be:

1)      shorter,

2)      edgy, and

3)      more likely to attract young professionals to the area.

The name they came up with was Catford, deriving from the Viking word 'ford' meaning shallow-river, and the English word 'cat' meaning cat. Steve loved it, and the name has stuck ever since.

Catford is a wonderful place. The people of South East London are so proud of it, that they erected a large fiberglass statue of a cat in the shopping arcade to honour the district. It is no exaggeration to say that the Catford Cat is probably London’s best known monument, after Monument at Monument, and perhaps Nelsons Column.

Like most children, when I was a small child I believed the Catford Cat would come alive at night and have exciting adventures, but these days I’m not so sure. I’ve been sitting on top of the Catford Cat for almost 7 hours now, and the most exciting thing that’s happened so far is when a drunk man staggered out of the Weatherspoons across the road, and fell into a bush.

However, being this high up does give me a good view of the Corbett Estate; which stretches back to Hither Green. The Corbett Estate was developed by Archibald Corbett between 1885-1911. It’s a fine collection of Victorian houses, churches and parks. Archibald Corbett was a Liberal MP for Glasgow who inherited his father’s successful property development business. He bought the land after the completion of Hither Green Train Station, which meant his tenants could easily get into central London. He was able to get the train company to lower their ticket prices by loaning them £3,400 to build a more convenient entrance.

Torringdon Road SE6 in 1910

The original entrance was a thin beam you had to run across while TFL staff fired a water cannon at you. This led to a travellator you had to run up, followed by a zip wire you slid down over a lake filled with piranhas, and then finally onto your platform.

Archie was a committed temperance reformer, and so he banned the sale of alcohol on the estate.  That’s why there are so few pubs in the estate today. However, Catford has never gone in for all that prohibition nonsense. The Goose on the Green – formerly known as the Black Horse and Harrow – has been getting its punters plastered since the 1700’s. Karl Marx is said to have enjoyed a vodka and coke in their when he was living in London, and just across the road is the Catford Constitutional Club which is a great place to  get a pint of real ale, cider of craft beer.

Now I come to think of it I could really do with a pint, so I’m off.

Now how am I supposed to get down from this giant Cat?


http://catfordconstitutionalclub.com/
http://thecorbettsociety.org.uk/