A pleasure garden – Cherry Garden – was founded hereabouts in Bermondsey during the 17th century. Samuel Pepys visited what he called Jamaica House at Cherry Gardens in 1664. A Jacobean building, Jamaica House stood in Cherry Garden Street until the 1860s, named after the newly-acquired Jamaica. It was possibly a place where limes, oranges and rum were available to serve guests of Cherry Garden.
Part of the line of Jamaica Road was already present albeit in a very short stretch, surrounded by market gardens, on Rocque’s 1756 map. Jamaica Road was named after the house, and named variously as Bermondsey New Road and then Jamaica Row as it was extended later in the eighteenth century.
In 1829. St James’ Church was built near Jamaica Road by James Savage.
By the late Victorian era, Jamaica Road had taken a turn seriously downmarket – housing of appalling condition filled the area and many residents were very poor. Little of the housing remains from that time.
Wartime damage allowed much redevelopment to take place in the 1950s and 1960s, notably the Dickens estate with its high rise buildings. On Jamaica Road’s south side and dating from 1964, Casby House is 22-storeys.
In the 1960s a large section of Jamaica Road was completely realigned and at the same time, widened into a dual-carriageway. The former course became Old Jamaica Road.
Bermondsey station on the Jubilee line opened in September 1999 on Jamaica Road.
