CHAPTER 10 - No. 59 BELVEDERE ROAD
[See plates 34 and 35.]
In 1799 Clement Peache and his son-in-law and partner, George
Larkin, boat builders, who also occupied a boat building establishment near
St. Mary's Church, obtained (ref. 87) a sub-lease of two messuages on Narrow Wall
south of the shot tower and lead works. A few years later the partnership was
dissolved and Clement Peache and his son, James
Court hope Peache, (fn. a) set up in business there, having
obtained a new lease from Charles Manners Sutton.
Clement Peache died in 1815 and in 1817
James Courthope Peache and the Rev. William Mann,
Chaplain of St. Saviour's, Southwark, obtained a building
lease of ground, with frontages of 157 feet to
the river and 135 feet to Narrow Wall, on which
Mann covenanted to erect a new dwelling house “of
the first rate” and a new wharf and wall on the whole
extent of the premises next the river. (ref. 105) From the
date on a rain-water head the house appears to have been completed in the
following year, and it was occupied by Peache until his death in 1858. (ref. 48)
(fn. b)
Figure 9:
No. 59 Belvedere Road. Lead rainwater head
Peache's surviving son, the Rev. Alfred Peache, of Heckfield, (fn. c) leased
the house and wharf in Belvedere Road to John Aird “of Emerson Street,
Southwark, contractor.” The premises then included brick furnaces, a pitch
melting house and a sawpit.
John Aird & Son remained
the lessees until 1913, (ref. 48) but
parts of the wharf and ground
were sublet to various firms.
Figure 10:
No. 59 Belvedere Road. Entrance gates, 1948. Measured drawing
In the 1930's the
house was run as a shelter
for “down and outs“ later
knowns as the Embankment
Fellowship Centre. (ref. 48) It was
demolished in 1949.
Architectural Description
No. 59 was a house of somewhat severe detail. The front elevation
had three windows to each of the first and second floors, while at the ground
floor there was a central porch with round-headed windows in shallow arched
recesses at each side.
The porch, of Greek Doric order, constructed in wood, had an entablature and
blocking course above; it was approached by a short flight of steps, and protected
the entrance, which had wing lights and a plain semicircular fanlight.
Figure 11:
No. 59 Belvedere Road. Ground plan, 1948. Measured drawing
The house was in yellow stock brick and had a stone cornice to the
parapet above the second floor. At each end of the road frontage there was
a slight set-back in the facade
which was echoed in the break
in the line of the cornice.
Figure 12:
No. 59 Belvedere Road. Fireplace. Measured drawing
The back elevation
was simple with flat bowed
windows to the rooms each
side of the doorway into the
garden. Its area was enclosed
by contemporary cast-iron
railings.
The building had a
low pitch “M” type roof
drained by lead pipes and
rainwater heads, one of which,
on the blank south-west elevation
was inscribed “ J C P
1818.”
The front paved forecourt
was enclosed by contemporary
iron spear-head
railings and gates. The end
and gate piers were of and open type ornamented with honeysuckle and
fret patterns.