Gandolfi: pilgrimmage to the sites of the Gandolfi workshops

[GPX]

I live quite near the places where Gandolfi cameras were made. So I plan to visit them and photograph them with my Gandolfi.

The earliest Gandolfi site (1885) was at 15a Kensington Place in Notting Hill in London. That is a little street with little old houses (which are now very expensive), mostly unchanged since 1885. I used to live near there and must have walked past the Gandolfi site often. So that one should be easy to find and photograph. I think that is where Louis Gandolfi made my Gandolfi Universal camera.

The next site was 752 Old Kent Road, London. That is a large road in a fairly downmarket part of town. I think the Gandolfi site is now a Toys R Us superstore, so nothing remains of the original workshop. But at least I can photograph the approximate location.

The third site is difficult. It is said to be 84 Hall Road, Peckham Rye, London. But there is no Hall Road in Peckham Rye or anywhere near there. That one is going to take some detective work. Anyone know anything about it?

The fourth site, 2 Borland Road, Peckam, is the main one where Gandolfis were made for many years by the sons of Louis Gandolfi. I pass near it often on the train into central London. Google Maps reveals that the workshop is still there. It looks like it has been converted into someone's garage, but it is clearly still the same building. Below is the well-known old photo of it, and the current Google Map view of it.

Anyway, it may take me a while to do it, but I'll post updates here when I do. Any info on the Gandolfi sites would be much appreciated!

[cowanw]

Maybe 84 Park Hall Road, which isn't too far away from Peckham Rye.

[GPX]

Thanks for that. In fact that turns out to be a road I drive down often, I never noticed it is called Park Hall Road. It seems too far from Peckham, but I'll have a look just in case no 84 looks like a possible old works site.

[Sevo]

The next site was 752 Old Kent Road, London. That is a large road in a fairly downmarket part of town. I think the Gandolfi site is now a Toys R Us superstore, so nothing remains of the original workshop. But at least I can photograph the approximate location.

The upper parts of Old Kent road have been almost completely rebuilt since my London days - but IIRC the way to New Cross went pass an endless stretch of wasteland thereabouts even in the eighties.

The third site is difficult. It is said to be 84 Hall Road, Peckham Rye, London. But there is no Hall Road in Peckham Rye or anywhere near there. That one is going to take some detective work. Anyone know anything about it?

I used to be very familiar with the area, but don't remember it. There must have been many Hall Roads all over London, and Peckham may have lost its to a renaming in some attempt to rid London of ambiguous place names, or it may have vanished under one of the cleared and by now redeveloped areas. My first guess will be that it might have been going past wherever Peckham had its town hall - my second, that that might have been somewhere close to the junction of Rye Lane and High Street, as everybody considered that the centre (but Peckham in itself being not older than 19th century, it might also have been at the centre of one of the towns that merged into Peckham).

[GPX]

I went to 15a Kensington Place yesterday, the location of the first Gandolfi workshop, from 1885. That would have been where my Gandolfi Universal was made. There is not much to see there, to be honest. Number 15 is a terrace house, with 14 and 16 on either side, and no room for there have been a separate 15a. So I guess 15a was the basement of number 15. I believe that was a very common arrangement in those days, most of the basements in the area were artisan's workshops. (Now they are all multi-millionaires' houses, how times change!) Anyway, here are a couple of digi snaps.

[brighamr]

Hi GPX

nice idea

84 hall road was renamed 84 cheltenham rd Nunhead
theres also Gandolfi st in Peckham named after them
I'm pretty sure that i read that 15a kensington place was over a tobacconists which dose not look like the house you have found
but I can't find that link anywhere at the moment

best

robin

[Bill_1856]

Why?

[Jonathan Barlow]

Why not?

[Steven Tribe]

Apart from WW 2's devastation, the London LCC ( under pressure from the Post Office ) reduced the number of duplicate names in the London Postal area. The last effort took place in the 1930's and involved over 3,700 names. Obviously, there were plenty of Hall Roads and perhaps a few Kensington Places as well and perhaps only the "smartest" retained it's name!

[GPX]

Robin, thanks for the excellent information. 84 Hall Road being renamed Cheltenham Road is a part of the puzzle I never solved.

The Kensington Place workshop being possibly over a tobacconists is interesting info. I visited the only Kensington Place currently in London, but it is possible there was another Kensington Place in the 1800s. The one I visited did have a lot of workshops in the 1800s, so it may well be the right place, but it doesn't look like the houses were ever shops like a tobacconist. Never easy is it?!

The one location that is easy is the last (and longest used) one, Borland Road. That building is still clearly there, you can see it on Google street view. I must visit that one soon.