Lambeth Fantastical - March 2026
Judge Dredd and The Lambeth Connections
Last month Lambeth Fantastical explored the February 1977 launch of 2000 AD.
For March I'm continuing the theme exploring the origins of the comic's most enduring and successful character, who first appeared on 8th March 1977. Like the comic itself Judge Dredd was born on the 16th floor of King's Reach Tower, the headquarters of IPC Media on Waterloo's Southbank. However, the character's Lambeth roots go much deeper that being imagined in an office block next to the Thames.
The first connection is to Streatham born author Dennis Wheatley. At the time 2000 AD was conceived editor, Pat Mills, had been toying with idea of a comic strip based around a notious hanging judge who was spending his retirement hunting down the type of occult and supernatural villains that had appeared in Whealey novels such 'The Devil Rides Out' and 'To The Devil a Daughter'. Both of these novels had been made into movies starring Christopher Lee. Mills wanted the strip to look like a Hammer film and the judge character to be similar in appearance to Lee.
Due to the scifi vibe of 2000 AD, however, it was felt that the idea wasn't a good fit. But the notion of an anti-hero judge who created a feeling of dread amongst his adversaries was one that stuck.
Mills asked writer John Wagner and graphic artist Carlos Ezquerra to come up with a plot featuring a futuristic law enforcer who is judge, jury, and exectioner rolled into one. Wagner set the storyline in a vast post apalyptic city in the year 2099. Ezquerra came up with lead character's armoured costume. The iconic Judge Dredd helmet was based on the costume worn by David Carradine in the cult 1975 move 'Deathrace 2000'.
It is the character name Judge Dredd which has the Lambeth connections.
Alexander Hughes was born in Snodland in Kent. As a teenager with aspirations to become a professional wrestler he moved into a boarding house run by a West Indian family in Brixton. It was here he discovered a love for ska and reggae music. This in turn led him to becoming a bouncer / doorman at the legendary Ram Jam Club which had opened at 230 Brixton Road in 1966. Through this role he met ska legend Prince Buster, acting as his minder on a number of occassions and leading him in turn to become a debt collector for Trojan records, making sure record shops and stalls in the Brixton area paid for the vinyl they stocked. When Hughes was signed to Trojan himself as the label's first white reggae artist he chose the stage name Judge Dread in tribute to the 1967 bluebeat song of the same name by Prince Buster.
His Judge Dread persona became notorious in the early to mid seventies as the artist most banned by the BBC due to the 'adult' nature of many of his lyrics. As a consequence the name Judge Dread was in the public conscience when Pat Mills changed the spelling to create his anti hero, Judge Dredd.
For the first three years of its existence the Judge Dredd strip featured only male lead characters but in the 80s strong female characters such as Judge Anderson, Judge Hershey, and Chief Judge, Hilda McGruder began to be introduced.
Mega City One where stories were set sprawled across New York and the east coast of America. But in the 1990s the imaginary Judge Dredd universe was brought to Waterloo and the Soutbank in the spin off series Detective Judge Armitage. Armitage, with his partner, Judge Treasure Steel, works out of New Scotland yard, located by the Thames near the decaying ruins of the brutalist archetecture of the Southbank Centre. Armitage and Steel's investigations often take place in the labyrinth of tunnels and former sewers beneath Waterloo Station.
Dave Stone and Sean Phillips the creators of the Armitage stories based their futuristic poverty stricken and overcrowded Brit-Cit on the huge homeless community which existed at the time beneath the Waterloo roundabout underpass where the IMAX cinema sits today.
Judge Dredd has matched the 49 year longevity of 2000 AD, spawning its own publication Judge Dredd Megazine and no less than two Hollywood blockbuster movies, but it could have ended before its started. Creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra fell out with Pat Mills over content and direction before the first appearance of Judge Dredd and neither actually worked on the series until several issues later. Luckily, by then, their futustic lawman was well on the way to becoming a permanent fixture.
My next 'History of Horror' guided walk, exploring horror films from silent shockers to Hammer horrors and modern classics such as Last Night in Soho is on Saturday 21st March - full details in the link.
My latest horror novel 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man' (Nightmare Press) is now available on Kindle or print
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