The subtitle of this article is “An odyssey in SW8“. An odyssey is a ‘long wandering series of travels’, named for a long poem from ancient Greece telling the story of the wanderings of Odysseus, a Greek hero and king.
This journey won’t take the ten years of the original but often, we take the place where we live or work simply for granted. We come. We go. We walk or drive down the same set of roads each day.
I found while I was researching this walk, that a seemingly dull yet busy road in south London had such a variety of stories to tell that, given a street’s antiquity, it’s probably true of all thoroughfares. The slightest curiosity reveals a hidden tapestry of history.
Before Covid, I worked in Vauxhall and sometimes spiced up my daily commute by finding a different way twixt home and work.
One of these different ways, was dull old South Lambeth Road, which I could walk to connect with London Underground’s Northern line rather than the Victoria line of Vauxhall.
At one end of South Lambeth Road is Stockwell station. This station was part of the first deep tube line in the world and it has its own tale to tell. I’ll walk from here up South Lambeth Road to its other end at Vauxhall station.
Stockwell station is rather famous as being the southern terminus of the City and South London Railway, opened on 4 November 1890 by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). Just over a month later – on 18 December 1890 – passenger services commenced. The City and South London became the Northern Line in time. The original domed station design was replaced first in the 1920s and again with the introduction of the Victoria line in 1971. According to Ed Glinnert, American troops used the Stockwell station as a hostel during the Second World War.
A few weeks after the 7/7 bombings of 2005, London was on edge. A day after the failed 21 July London bombings of trains and a bus, a Brazilian electrician living locally, Jean Charles de Menezes, was travelling. In a tragic case of mistaken identity, Menezes was shot dead by plainclothes police officers at Stockwell station. A small shrine to de Menezes was created by mourners outside the station and this evolved into a permanent memorial mosaic made by local artists, Mary Edwards and Chrysoula Vardaxi, with the help of the victim’s cousin.
Menezes was part of the large Portuguese-speaking community which is centred on South Lambeth Road, and known as “Little Portugal”. The majority of the Portuguese residents in the area come from Madeira and Lisbon, contributing to the establishment of numerous cafes, restaurants, bakeries, neighbourhood associations and delicatessens.
Another work of art dealing with tragedy is the Stockwell War Memorial Mural, located just north of the entrance to Stockwell station. It is a community art project led by Brian Barnes. Created in stages between 1999 and 2001, the mural features scenes and images with connections to the local area. The artwork decorates the main external entrance to the former Stockwell deep-level Second World War air-raid shelter. This was completed in September 1942, and was used by the Government until 1944 when it was opened to the public. It was used for one year as a shelter.
The mural includes fields of painted poppies with faded images of soldiers in the trenches along the base. Various sections of the mural tell different stories, with a particular emphasis on honouring the wartime SOE hero Violet Szabo, who grew up in Stockwell.
We’ll now set off up South Lambeth Road. The immediate row of eight three-storey mid-nineteenth-century terraced houses of Stockwell Terrace, facing you, are Grade II listed. In 1802, the Manor of Stockwell had been sold and these first houses were constructed in the 1840s with the idea to form an elegant middle-class suburb.
The next road we encounter is Lansdowne Way which crosses South Lambeth Road. Along its west section, the 1952-built Stockwell Bus Garage has a reinforced shell concrete roof on nine arches. Covering 73 000 square feet, at the time it was built it was the largest single-span roof in Europe.
On the left next is the Stockwell Baptist Church. The church was founded and built in 1866 by James Stiff, a pottery manufacturer, who commissioned William Higgs for the construction. The site included not only the chapel but also school rooms and a house for the chapel keeper.
The church has witnessed significant sermons by notable figures such as Charles Spurgeon. It was damaged during the Second World War, but restored to its glory afterwards.
Next right, Adalbert Terrace, took shape between 1865 and 1875. It was originally called Canton Street – hence the name of the pub, the Canton Arms which opened in 1848 on Adalbert Terrace’s future junction with South Lambeth Road.
We are merging imperceptibly with the ancient area of South Lambeth. Lambeth was geographically split into two: North Lambeth (which is the Lambeth of today) and South Lambeth is recorded as Sutlamehethe in 1241. The area now called Vauxhall lies in between, which confusingly has separated North and South Lambeth.
The history of South Lambeth is bound up with a man called Noel de Caron, Lord of Schoonewale in Flanders, who held most of the freehold land in Vauxhall Manor at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1581, he was elected to the States General of the United Provinces, demonstrating his loyalty to the Prince of Orange. Caron played a crucial role in the negotiations between the States General and Queen Elizabeth I in 1585. Over time, he developed a strong affinity for England and spent much of his time living there.
Caron acquired property in South Lambeth through two transactions. In 1602, he purchased a substantial house with a dairy house and around 70 acres from Thomas Hewytt of St Andrew Undershaft. Later, in 1618, Caron expanded his estate by acquiring additional land from William and Catherine Foster.
Despite his extensive property holdings, Caron continued his diplomatic career as an ambassador until his death in December 1624. He was buried in St Mary’s, Lambeth, in January of the following year.
South Lambeth was a flourishing area of market gardens and on the right, past the Canton Arms, was John Tradescant’s botanical garden.
John Tradescant the Elder, a 17th-century English naturalist and gardener, embarked on several trips during which he collected seeds and bulbs. He accumulated a diverse collection of curiosities in natural history and ethnography from his travels. Tradescant housed this collection in a large house called “The Ark”. The Ark served as a “Cabinet of Curiosity,” and it became the first museum open to the public in England, known as the Musaeum Tradescantianum.
The botanical garden played a significant role in introducing many plants into English gardens. This contribution has left a lasting impact on the modern gardener’s repertoire. John Tradescant the Elder worked alongside his son, John Tradescant the Younger, in managing and expanding the garden.
Over the following centuries, it fell into disrepair and was built over finally in the 1880s. Tradescant Road now follows the precise line of the garden’s wall.
The Ark, by the 1880s, was in the way of a project to straighten a kink on South Lambeth Road which turned sharp left at Beaufoy’s Vinegar Works.
Old South Lambeth Road was the former route of the main road before straightening in 1883. This transformation left a section of the old road to the east, now referred to as Old South Lambeth Road. The two sections – old and new – were confusingly both called South Lambeth Road until 1887.
In the corner of the old and new sections stands Victoria Mansions, here shown on the right of the photo, which also features a tram. Trams plied South Lambeth Road during the twentieth century
Paul O’Grady lived in Victoria Mansions when Lily Savage was a local feature.
Albert and Atholl Mansions on the left were demolished around 1975 to make way for the Mawbey Estate. All the streets on the left of South Lambeth Road between here and Wyvil Road to the north, shown on the early maps above, also disappeared for the estate, replaced by a single road called Walton Close.
The Beaufoy family had been in business since 1741. Rejecting the distillation of gin due to its harmful effects, the Beaufoys became major producers of English malt vinegar. Over the years, their business expanded to include a variety of products such as cordials, non-alcoholic drinks and mineral water.
In 1812, John Henry Beaufoy relocated his vinegar brewery from Cuper’s Gardens to here. The move was prompted by the need for the Cuper’s Gardens site for the construction of the new Waterloo Bridge. John Henry Beaufoy received significant compensation for the relocation, making the transition financially viable.
Amidst the industrialisation of Vauxhall in the mid-19th century, the Beaufoy family played a philanthropic role by providing educational facilities for the underprivileged. Henry Benjamin Beaufoy built and endowed the Ragged School for Boys and Girls in Newport Street, Lambeth. Later, Mark Hanbury Beaufoy erected the Beaufoy Institute in 1907, replacing the Ragged School that had been demolished in 1904 to make way for the railway.
At the industrial site, the Beaufoy vinegar brewery underwent significant changes in ownership and operations over the years. After around 1961, the name Beaufoy ceased to be used, and own-brand bottles were labelled as Sarsons.
In 1985, outline planning permission and listed building consent were granted for the residential development of the Beaufoy site. Some original brewery structures, such as the former brewhouse and mill, were retained, providing a historical character to the redevelopment. The office block underwent a separate conversion and extension process, becoming the Comfort Inn Hotel.
The area no longer smells of vinegar.
Continuing along our road, on the left is Wyvil Road. Not to be outdone by its historical neighbours, this short street running to Wandsworth Road has a significant historical connection to the automotive industry, with the first Vauxhall motor cars being manufactured at the Vauxhall Iron Works in 1903.
A small area then, producing not only most of London’s vinegar but also the first Vauxhall-branded motor cars.
Next right is the 1830s-era Fentiman Road.
Noel de Caron – mentioned above – erected a large mansion house. This took several years to build and was surrounded by a large park, well watered by the River Effra and adorned with trees. In the Commonwealth period, the house was owned by Alderman Francis Allen, one of the Commissioners appointed to try Charles I.
In 1666, the house and park were granted to the Lord Chancellor, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, for an annual rent of 10 shillings. After Clarendon, the estate passed to Sir Jeremy Whichcott of Hendon, who had served as Solicitor-General to the Prince Elector Palatine. In 1677, Sir Jeremy’s son, Sir Paul Whichcott, was noted as the owner of Caron House and park. By 1685, Caron House itself was demolished, but its name persisted.
In 1725, the estate was acquired by Edward Lovibond, and it remained in the Lovibond family until 1797 when it was sold to Sir Charles Blicke. Blicke likely had Carroun House built as his residence on the site of the future Fentiman Road.
The area, including buildings known as The Lawn, was later covered by Vauxhall Park. In 1889, eight and a half acres of this land were purchased by the Lambeth Vestry for £43 500 to create a public park. Landscape gardener Fanny R. Wilkinson designed the layout of the park. The opening ceremony took place on 7 July 1890, attended by Octavia Hill and performed by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. “Bertie” was busy in the area that year – later he also opened Stockwell station.
The site where the large house once stood now features an artificial stone statue in the memory of former owner Henry Fawcett. The statue, created by George Tinworth at Doulton’s manufactory, was unveiled on 7 June 1893. The raised terrace running northward through the park from the statue follows the same line as the paved way in front of The Lawn.
The Lawn terrace of houses were buried under the park in a rare piece of reverse urbanisation but lent their name to Lawn Lane, running north of the new park.
Optional detour: Enter Vauxhall Park, exit the far corner onto Fentiman Road and then left into Meadow Road.
There’s a path on the right which leaves Meadow Road, just before this road bends right. The Effra runs under the Ashmole Estate behind Archbishop Tennyson’s school on Harleyford Road. Take the path up to the Oval beside Wisden House.
Follow Harleyford Road to find the back way into Bonnington Square and Vauxhall Grove. Follow Langley Lane back to South Lambeth Road.
At Lawn Lane, the River Effra once joined the “right bank” of South Lambeth Road, shown by this 1829 map. The river flowed west from the Oval. All of the housing on the former “Vauxhall Place” had the river between them and the road.
Replacing Vauxhall Place, one of a series of new buildings became the headquarters of the British Interplanetary Society, on the corner of Langley Lane. This building, bought for the Society by Arthur C Clarke, merged two buildings formerly belonging to Dalton’s Weekly.
We leave South Lambeth Road and follow the old course of the River Effra up South Lambeth Place, under the huge Vauxhall railway bridges. At the intersection of Wandsworth Road and South Lambeth Road, where the railway bridge now stands, once stood Cox’s Bridge, also known as Vauxhall Bridge. The repair of “cokkesbrugge” was the responsibility of the Abbot of Westminster in 1340, and in 1504, one of his successors was making rent payments to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church.
Opposite Vauxhall station, at the top of South Lambeth Place stands a branch of Starbucks. Do coffee drinkers notice the elephants and castles adorning the building? In 1984, Paul O’Grady began working as a barman at the Elephant and Castle pub. As his drag alter ego Lily Savage, he hosted “Ladies Night” there every Tuesday, where amateur drag acts would perform. While hosting as Lily, he trialled comedy routines, becoming known for insulting both the acts and the audience. Six months later, he moved his act to nearby Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
The Elephant and Castle now being a Starbucks, the “Big Issue” offices having gone from next door to the pub, this former industrial and edgy part of Vauxhall is rapidly altering character with the mini-Dubai of Nine Elms starting to dominate.
But like South Lambeth Road, it’s all part of constantly changing London. It was ever thus and will ever be thus.