Old Kent Road

Coordinates: 51°29′02″N 0°03′59″W / 51.48390°N 0.06635°W / 51.48390; -0.06635
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For the closed railway station, see Old Kent Road railway station. For the proposed tube stations, see Bakerloo line extension.
Old Kent Road
South East London
Postal codeSE1; SE15
Nearest Transport for London station
Coordinates51°29′02″N 0°03′59″W / 51.48390°N 0.06635°W / 51.48390; -0.06635
Other
Known for

Old Kent Road

Canterbury Tales, when Old Kent Road was known as Kent Street. The route was used by soldiers returning from the Battle of Agincourt
.

In the 16th century, St Thomas-a-Watering on Old Kent Road was a place where religious dissenters and those found guilty of treason were publicly hanged. The road was rural in nature and several coaching inns were built alongside it. In the 19th century, it acquired the name Old Kent Road and several industrial premises were set up to close to the Surrey Canal and a major business, the Metropolitan Gas Works was developed. In the 20th century, older property was demolished for redevelopment and Burgess Park was created. The Camberwell Public Baths in Old Kent Road opened in 1905 with Russian and Victorian-style Turkish baths.[2] In the 21st century, several retail parks and premises typical of out-of-town development have been built beside it while public houses have been redeveloped for other purposes.

The road is celebrated in the

Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road", describing working-class London life. It is the first property, and one of the two cheapest, on the London Monopoly
board and the only one south of the River Thames.

Geography

The road begins at the

South Bermondsey.[3]

Just east of the railway bridge, the road crosses the boundary between the

Walworth, and Peckham to the south and Bermondsey to the north, although the Bermondsey boundary runs along Rolls Road.[3]

History

Old Kent Road, one of the oldest roads in England, was part of a

Tabard Street in 1877.[9]

St Thomas-a-Watering

The Thomas A'Becket pub was an important landmark on Old Kent Road. The building became the Nolias Gallery in 2005-2009 and now (2022) houses a Vietnamese restaurant.

The bridge at St Thomas-a-Watering over the River Neckinger was at the junction with what is now Old Kent Road and Shorncliffe Road (previously Thomas Street),[10] and marked the boundary of the Archbishop of Canterbury's authority over the manors of Southwark and Walworth.[1] It was the limit of the City of London's authority in 1550, having been ratified in several charters and marked by a boundary stone set into the wall of the old fire station[11] that marked the first resting place for pilgrims while travelling to Canterbury. A nearby public house, the Thomas a Becket, at the corner of Albany Road was named after this.[1] Henry V met soldiers returning from Agincourt at this location in 1415.[12] Charles II's journey along the road on his way to reclaim the throne in May 1660 was described by contemporary writer and diarist John Evelyn as "a triumph of about 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with inexpressible joy".[1]

St Thomas-a-Watering became a place of execution for criminals whose bodies were left hanging from the

Henry VIII.[13] The Welsh Protestant martyr John Penry was also executed here on 6 April 1593;[14] a small side street nearby is named after him. The Catholic martyrs John Jones and John Rigby were executed in 1598 and 1600 respectively.[15][16]

Rolls family

A Southwark street commemorating Michael Searles in its name

In the early-18th century, the

Charles Stewart Rolls who was the pioneer motorist and aviator who formed the Rolls-Royce partnership with Henry Royce.[19]

Industrial development

The opening of the

Ammonite capitals, ornamental features resembling fossils, a feature also used in contemporary architecture in Brighton.[25]

The Licensed

Prince Edward.[1]

The Metropolitan Gas Works, identifiable by its large

gasometers, was founded in 1833. It serviced an area of more than 13 square miles (34 km2), including parts of Southwark, Croydon, Newington, Lambeth and Streatham. Expansion of the gas works in 1868 required the demolition of Christ Church, Camberwell, which was built in 1838 and rebuilt on the opposite side of the road by Livesey.[1] The gas works was managed by Livesey from 1840 until his death in 1908. A statue of him was sited in the rear courtyard of Livesey Museum, opposite the works.[26]

During the 19th and 20th century, the industrial and working class makeup of Old Kent Road made it a haven for

Frank Maloney grew up in the area and recalled, "If you weren't into crime, people thought you were a pansy". Henry Cooper trained in the boxing club above the Thomas a Becket pub from 1954 to 1968; he unveiled a local blue plaque there in 2007. Draining the Surrey Canal in 1971 uncovered a number of cracked and blown safes that had been thrown in the water.[27]

Public services

Old Kent Road railway station at the southern end of the road opened in 1866 and closed in 1917.[25] The London City Fire Brigade opened a fire station on the road around 1868.[28] It was subsumed into the London Fire Brigade from its formation and in 1904 was replaced by a new station[29] which was in turn replaced by another on the corner of Coopers Road. The station was demolished for redevelopment in 2014 and reopened the following year.[30]


When the Old Kent Road baths were opened in 1905, the then independent Borough of Camberwell became the first London borough to provide municipal Victorian-style Turkish baths in addition to the more usual Russian vapour baths.[31] The building was designed to include two swimming pools, each measuring 75 feet (23 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m).[32] In 1913–4, they were used by 188,336 private bathers, 14,687 of whom used its Russian, Turkish,[33] or special electric baths.[34] The 1923 Municipal Year Book noted the "great success" of the Turkish and Russian baths.[35] The baths were destroyed in the Blitz just before the end of World War II.

Urban Redevelopment

Panoramic view of Old Kent Road at Dunton Road; from far left to far right: the 'Thomas a Becket', the old Fire Station, a range of ribbon properties dating from 1784, the old Green Man and the Old Dun Cow

Unlike many places in London, the Old Kent Road area did not suffer significant bomb damage during World War II.[36] In 1968, a flyover opened at the northern end allowing access to New Kent Road which catered for the main flow of traffic.[37][38] During the 1970s, run-down Victorian properties on and around Old Kent Road were demolished to make way for new housing estates.[39] Burgess Park was created as part of the County of London Plan in 1943, which recommended new parkland in the area. Several tower blocks were built along the road, although some earlier 19th-century buildings, such as Nos. 360–386, survived.[40]

Public houses on Old Kent Road have been closing since the 1980s. At one point, there were 39 pubs. The Dun Cow at No. 279 opened in 1856 and was well known as a

Domino's Pizza.[43] The Duke of Kent was converted into a mosque in 1999; in 2021 the building was demolished for a purpose built mosque. The Livesey Museum for Children closed in 2008 owing to council budget cuts and is now used for short term accommodation.[44]

Southwark Borough Council do not consider Old Kent Road to fit the characteristics of an urban town centre, and consequently large retail parks more in character with out-of-town schemes have been developed including a large

Elephant & Castle,[47] Nine Elms and Canada Water. The consultations centre on a vision to open four new Bakerloo line London Underground stations along the road route, beginning at Bricklayers Arms, as well as 20,000 new homes, a further education college, a health centre and a number of primary and secondary schools.[48] Officials have also suggested the development of a "green spine" of parks and green spaces along the mostly disused Surrey Canal.[49]

Cultural references

Income Tax
Pay £200 		Whitechapel Road
£60 		Community Chest Old Kent Road
£60 		Collect
£200 Salary
As You Pass
GO
A segment of a British Monopoly board, showing Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road

Old Kent Road is the first property square on the British Monopoly board, priced at £60 and forming the brown set along with the similarly working-class Whitechapel Road. It is the only square on the board in South London and south of the Thames.[24][50]

The road makes several appearances in literature. In

Arena included a documentary about the road.[52]

The road is mentioned in the title of the music hall song "

A Little Princess[54] The street is mentioned multiple times in the Madness song "Calling Cards", a song about running an illegitimate business "in a sorting office in the Old Kent Road".[55] It is featured in the chorus of the Levellers' song "Cardboard Box City", which criticises the slow action on helping the homeless in London, specifically Old Kent Road being infrequently visited by the wealthy due to its being south of the Thames.[56] British girl group Girls Aloud refer to running down the road in the lyrics to their 2005 single "Long Hot Summer".[57]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Though official maps refer to "Old Kent Road", some print media uses "the Old Kent Road".[1]
  2. ^ The prologue, which reads "And forth we ridden a litel more than pas; Unto the watering of Seint Thomas; And then our host began his hors arrest" refers to the stop along the road.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Walford, Edward (1878). "The Old Kent Road". Old and New London. Vol. 6. London. pp. 248–255. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Gordon & Inglis 2009, p. 111.
  3. ^ a b "London South" (Map). 1:25 000 Explorer. Ordnance Survey. 2015. 161.
  4. ^ a b Thomas Reynolds (1799). Iter Britanniarum. J. Burges. pp. 66–67.
  5. ^
    ISBN 9781473837256. Archived
    from the original on 15 January 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  6. ^ English Heritage 2009, p. 9.
  7. ^ a b c Moore 2003, p. 309.
  8. ^ English Heritage 2009, p. 108.
  9. ^ a b c Darlington, Ida (1955). "Tabard Street and the Old Kent Road". Survey of London. 25, St George's Fields (The Parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington). London: 121–126. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  10. ISBN 978-0-19-956678-5
    .
  11. ^ Johnson, David (1969). Southwark and the City. Oxford University Press. p. 118.
  12. ^ Wheatley, Henry (1904). The Story of London. M. Dent & Co.
  13. ^ Walford, Edward (1878). "Wandsworth". Old and New London. 6: 479–489. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  14. ^ "Pilgrim Fathers". London Borough of Southwark. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  15. ISBN 978-0-860-12256-2
    .
  16. ^ Butler, Alban (1981). Butler's Lives of the saints. Vol. 3. Christian Classics. p. 87.
  17. ^ Cherry & Pevsner 1983, p. 596.
  18. ^ a b c English Heritage 2009, p. 8.
  19. ^ Moore 2003, p. 310.
  20. ^ A New British Atlas: Comprising a Series of 54 Maps, Constructed from the Most Recent Surveys and Engraved by Sidney Hall. Chapman V. Hall. 1836. p. 208.
  21. ^ a b Moore 2003, p. 311.
  22. ^ The Volta Review. Volta Bureau. 1927. p. 36.
  23. ^ "Metropolitan Tramways". The Railway News. 17. London: 511–512. June 1872. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  24. ^ a b Weinreb et al 2008, p. 600.
  25. ^ a b English Heritage 2009, p. 107.
  26. ^ Mills, Mary (January 2004). "The Gas Workers Strike in South London". Greenwich Industrial History. 7 (1). Goldsmiths College, London. Archived from the original on 12 May 2004. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  27. ^ Moore 2003, p. 317.
  28. ^ Nadal 2006, p. 67.
  29. ^ Nadal 2006, p. 104.
  30. ^ "Old Kent Road's new fire station opens as rebuild work begins at Dockhead fire station". London Fire Brigade News. 25 March 2015. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  31. ^ 'New baths for Camberwell' Daily Telegraph (19 Oct 1905) p.12
  32. ^ The Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer. 1904. p. 850.
  33. ^ "VICTORIAN TURKISH BATHS: Camberwell Turkish Baths: the cooling-room, 1905". Victorianturkishbath.org. 17 April 2001. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  34. ^ Skoski 2000, p. 165.
  35. ^ The Municipal Year Book of the United Kingdom. Municipal Journal. 1923. p. 214. Archived from the original on 15 January 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  36. ^ Moore 2003, p. 323.
  37. ^ Moore 2003, p. 324.
  38. ^ "New Kent Road/Old Kent Road, London: flyover at Bricklayers Arms intersection". The National Archives. 1968. MT 118/409. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  39. ^ Platt 2015, p. 43.
  40. ^ English Heritage 2009, p. 48.
  41. ^ Lock & Baxter 2014, p. 157.
  42. ^ Frame 1999, p. 94.
  43. ^ Lock & Baxter 2014, p. 156.
  44. ^ Livesey Building FAQs (Report). London Borough of Southwark Council. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  45. ^ Retail Background Paper (Report). Southwark London Borough Council. March 2010. p. 39. CDB5. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  46. ^ "Home". Old Kent Road. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  47. ^ "Elephant & Castle Partnership". Elephant and Castle. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  48. ^ "Would you like a new town in Old Kent Road?". South London News. Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  49. ^ https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/buying/new-homes/where-to-buy-a-home-near-southeast-londons-bakerloo-line-extension-a116716.html Archived 6 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Get the inside track: where to buy a home near south-east London's Bakerloo extension – Evening Standard
  50. ^ Moore 2003, p. 291.
  51. ^ "Inventory Site Record". Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  52. ^ "Old Kent Road (Arena)". London Screen Archives. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  53. ^ Bratton 1986, p. 19.
  54. ^ Constable 2007, p. 110.
  55. ^ "Calling Cards". Madness (official website). Archived from the original on 29 November 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  56. ^ "Cardboard Box City". Levellers Tabs. Archived from the original on 27 January 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  57. ^ Girls Aloud – Long Hot Summer, archived from the original on 30 June 2020, retrieved 30 June 2020

Sources

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