Rioting Breaks Out Across London© Getty

Riots also engulfed the area in 1985 following the shooting of mother Dorothy "Cherry" Groce by the Metropolitan Police.

In April 1997, Devon Dawson, 29, was fatally shot ten times outside the Green Man pub on Coldharbour Lane.

In 2003 it was revealed that approximately £1million of crack cocaine was being sold there on a monthly basis.

More recently, in 2011, the riots that blighted the capital spread to Brixton and Coldharbour Lane. The New York Times that the spark of the unrest in the area came from the infamous street.

 
Brixton Riots, 1981
Brixton Riots, 1981© Getty
Protest Banner On Coldharbour Lane In London
Protest Banner On Coldharbour Lane In London© Getty

Incredibly former Tory Prime Minister Sir John Major lived in the flat on the street as a child in the 1950s.

However, all that has now changed with property prices skyrocketing.

According to online estate agents Rightmove, three properties have been sold on Coldharbour Lane for more than £1 million since 2021.

Local Henry Wood, 28, told the Sun Online: "It's not even an up-and-coming area, it's already very gentrified.

"It's a weird mix of young people, families and old people who have been here forever.

"I've only lived here for two years so I don't remember what the area was like before, but it's now pretty nice."

 
Locals say Coldharbour Lane has been gentrified
Locals say Coldharbour Lane has been gentrified© Google
UK - London - It's a Wonderful World Billboard
UK - London - It's a Wonderful World Billboard© Getty

30-year-old resident Alex Fraser said: "It varies lots as you go up and down the road. Up towards Camberwell it's all gentrified with cafes and flats but down towards Loughborough Junction there are lots of vacant lots.

"It's a good place to move in with a family, it's as well connected as anywhere in South London and not too raucous.

"Sometimes you get police cars racing along the street at night with their sirens blaring, but it's only every so and often that you get crime-scene tape here - it's nothing like the old days."

 
Coldharbour Lane
Coldharbour Lane© Google  By Max Parry, Daily Express