Peter Isaac

Peter got in touch with us to tell us about his mother Maud, who used to live near Brixton Windmill.

Peter says: “In the early 1900s my mother, Maud Walpole, lived close to the windmill at 8 Stewarts Place, now long since been demolished. Stewarts Place was a row of Victorian terrace houses that ran from Cornwall Road (Blenheim Gardens) up to the Metropolitan Water Works. Possibly the ground that was once Stewarts Place is now part of Windmill Gardens.

“Stewarts Place was directly opposite the Post Office sorting office,and a few paces along in Cornwall Road was the Salvation Army hall,which I understand is no longer there – possibly again it has been incorporated into Windmill Gardens.

“My mother spoke fondly of her childhood days playing with her friends in the shadow of the mill and the area around it. Her schooldays were spent at Lyham Road School, which she left when she was 13 years old. When old enough she joined the Life Saving Guards, which was the Salvation Army’s girl youth movement, attending at the SA hall in Cornwall Road.

“The Life Saving Guards were inaugurated in 1915 by Mrs General Booth, with the aim of providing enrichment for the body, mind and spirit of its members. In 1959 the Life Saving Guards were affiliated to the Girl Guides Association and in doing so lost their link to the Salvation Army.

“The SA hall in Cornwall Road had a large and active membership of the Life Saving Guards, and for the boys there was the Life Saving Scouts.

“My mother married a postman from the sorting office across the road when she was 20 years old, and her name became Maud Isaac.She then moved to 70 Lambert Road.”