The buildings can be seen from the train from south London via Tooting to Elephant and Castle or the City. They were built speculatively by a Mr Pullen at the turn of the century; as a place for blue collar workers to both live and work. Four-storey tenement flat blocks sandwich a working yard between them, where hansom cab drivers, candlemakers and the like had their workshops. The ground-floor flats originally had a door from their small area yard which led straight into a workshop, and it was said to me (though not confirmed) that the large rear (and rather un-Victorian) flat windows were designed thus so that women who made lace or sewed for a living had plenty of light.

The young Charlie Chaplin lived here for nine months as a child, and a steam engine was still in 7 Peacock Yard (the first unit on the right as you face the yard) until the late 1970s which was used to provide power to the workshops. No 7 still has a large wooden flywheel and drive shaft attached to the ceiling that would have carried the drive belts to run machinery. Supposedly these belts ran through into neighbouring units the whole length of the yard.

By the 1970s, the Council took over from the building owners, and let the buildings slide further into disrepair. By the end of the decade the Council had decided to pull down these fine buildings, along with their art and craft workshops

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