Dating back to 1610, Lambeth Palace Library can claim to be the oldest public library in the country. It may be quiet inside but is also buzzing with activity. The entire Lambeth Palace Library collection is being rehoused in a vast new purpose-built centre in the Palace gardens. Due to open in 2020, the new […]
Walcot Foundation: 350 years of helping ‘the Lambeth poor’
The Walcot Foundation gives away an average of £1.8 million a year ‘for the relief of the Lambeth poor’. The charity has been around for 350 years, established by the 1667 will of a wealthy haberdasher, Edmund Walcott (his surname originally had two ‘t’s), who endowed it with 17 acres of what was then […]
Vauxhall
Some Mesolithic (8300-4000 BC) flint blades together with some Neolithic (4000-1800BC) pottery shards were found at an archaeological dig on a site directly opposite Vauxhall Park in South Lambeth Road. The site of a prehistoric bridge dating to between 1750BC and 1285BC has recently found near Vauxhall Bridge, which suggests that the area had a […]
St Thomas’s Hospital
St Thomas’s Hospital was founded in about 1106, probably as part of the Priory of St Mary Overie, Southwark but its name The Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr probably dates after Thomas Beckett was made a cannon in 1173. Around 1210 the Priory was destroyed by fire and the hospitals moved to land near […]
Stockwell
The name Stokewell (first recorded in 1197) means the well by the stump or wood and comes from the Old English stocc + wella. There was a Stockwell Wood till the 17th century. The manor of Stockwell was formed in the late 13th century, when King Edward I acquired the manor of South Lambeth and […]
Royal Pharmaceutical Company
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society was founded in 1841 by Jacob Bell, owner of a large pharmaceutical business, to promote the interests of the trade. Bell also established the Society’s periodical, Pharmaceutical Journal, which he edited from the Society’s premises at 17 Bloomsbury Square. It moved to 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN in 1976 […]
Plague
The plague is primarily a disease of rodents which is transmitted to people through the bite of fleas that are normally parasitic on the rodents. When the original host dies the fleas desperately seek new animal hosts – humans. The plague bacillus is extremely virulent. Laboratory mice die after being infected with just three bacilli […]
Nine Elms
William Lithgow’s Survey of the Civil War defences of London in early May 1643 mentions a fort at ‘Nyne Elmes’. This area was a low swampy district, which was prone to flooding and had some windmills and some willow beds. Despite its swampy setting, the area soon attracted industry with docks for wood and timber […]
Sir Samuel Morland (1625-1695)
Samuel Morland was born in 1625, in Berkshire, the son of a clergyman. He studied mathematics at Winchester College, Cambridge University and became a fellow of Magdalene College in 1649. In 1675 he took a 31-year lease on the old Manor House of Vauxhall from the Duchy of Cornwall. This house was close to the […]
Lower Marsh
The text for this topic is taken from the excellent www.lower-marsh.co.uk website with their kind permission. Lower Marsh Street pre-dates all the buildings now present. It is shown in the de la Feuille survey of 1690 as a lane lined with cottages and small holdings crossing Lambeth Marsh, on an almost identical alignment. It formed, […]
Lambeth Wells
There were two wells called ‘Nearer’ and ‘Farther’ situated on, or very close to what is now Lambeth Walk. At some time before 1697 a ‘Great Room’ was opened for music and dancing, the admission being 3d (1.25 pence); by 1721 the entry fee, for special events, had risen to 1s (one shilling – 5 […]
Lambeth Marsh
Until the early 19th century much of north Lambeth (now known as the South Bank) was mostly marsh. This was drained and leveled by William James who was land agent for the Earl of Warwick. William Curtis, the 18th-century botanist, had his home and botanical gardens on Lambeth Marsh.
Lambeth Delftware
Tin-glazed* earthenware was made at a number of factories in Lambeth and Vauxhall during the 17th and 18th centuries. Typical 17th-century examples include wine bottles, drug pots, and ointment pots, usually decorated in blue on white. Sometimes the decoration consists of bold horizontal lines and freehand lettering, sometimes of arms, shells, masks, or cupids. Large […]
Lambeth
Lambeth has been described as a village between Southwark and Battersea. The name comes from Lamhytha (1088), a ‘Landing-place for lambs’. Lambeth has been spelt in various ways including Lamb-hythe, Lamheth, Lambyth, Lamedh, Lamhees. The area was mostly marsh and fields with scattered villages and hamlets until the 18th century. King Harthacnut owned the Manor […]
Lambeth Workhouse
The text below has been compiled from various websites, particularly Peter Higginbotham’s Workhouse site and England’s Poor Law Commissioners and the Trade in Pauper Lunacy website. Related links Inquest on boy flogged at Lambeth Workhouse ‘A Night in a London Workhouse’ (song) The workhouse system provided basic sustenance for the very poor, infirm and aged, […]
Kennington: Walter Thornbury
The following is an extract from the six-volume History of Old and New London by Walter Thornbury published between 1872-1878. On the north side of Stockwell, and hemmed in by Walworth, Newington, and South Lambeth, is the once royal manor of Kennington. The name of Kennington, it is said by some topographers, was probably derived originally […]
William Juxon (1582-1663)
William Juxon was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death. He rebuilt the Great Hall at Lambeth Palace (now the Library). He was probably born in Chichester, the son of Robert Juxon, and educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, London and St John’s College, […]
Robert James (1705-1776)
On a number of 18th-century maps of North Lambeth a property is identified as Dr Robert James’s Laboratory (1766 plan from the Gentleman’s Magazine). This doctor must surely have been the friend of Dr Johnson and inventor of James’s Powder, a ubiquitous medicine of doubtful effectiveness that was in use until the late 19th century. […]
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)
Wenceslaus (or Wenzel) Hollar was born in Prague on 13 July 1607, and died in London on the 28 March 1677. His family was ruined by the capture of Prague in the Thirty Years War, and though originally destined for the law, Hollar was determined to become an artist. A major influence upon Hollar’s […]
Gunpowder Plot
Most people know of Guy Fawkes and the 1605 Gunpowder plot to blow up James I and his parliament because of Catholic oppression. But few know the names of the other main conspirators: Robert Catesby, who was the originator of the plot, Thomas Percy, John Wright and Thomas Wintour.On 20 May 1604, in his Lambeth […]
Glasshouse Walk
Glasshouse Walk (formerly Glasshouse Street), just off the Albert Embankment, is now the only reminder that the glass making industry was once an internationally important industry in Vauxhall. Glass-making was first introduced to Britain by the Romans, who started blowing glass into moulds, thus allowing a wide variety of shapes to be made, including the […]
Flooding
Vauxhall and areas to the south are in the Thames tidal flood plain and the risk of flooding is increasing. The sea level is rising by about 2ft (60cm) every hundred years owing to a number of factors including: higher sea levels greater storminess increased tidal amplitude the tilting of the British Isles Rising ground water […]
Effra River
This article is based on an article in the Vauxhall Society’s Newsletter of January 1987. The Effra (from the Celtic yfrid – a torrent) rises in the south near Crystal Palace then flows through Norwood Cemetery, parts of Dulwich, Herne Hill, Brockwell Park, Brixton and Kennington before joining the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge. The River […]
Lambeth pottery
We don’t know exactly when pottery was first made on the banks of the Thames in Lambeth but the trade probably started in Roman times. The tradition most likely continued from then through the Middle Ages until Royal Doulton moved its headquarters and works from the area in the mid 20th century. In 1570 two […]
Doulton pottery
John Dwight Doulton, sometimes called the father of English pottery, took out patents in 1671 for stoneware of the type previously imported from Cologne (Cologne ware). He set up a pottery in Fulham, which was then just a small village near London. John Doulton was born in Fulham in 1793 and completed his apprenticeship at […]
Cuper’s Gardens
This celebrated pleasure garden, also known as Cupid’s Gardens, was originally part of Lambeth Marsh. In the late medieval period three acres of this meadowland came into the possession of the Earls of Arundel. After passing through other hands, it eventually came back in the form of a large garden to Thomas, Earl of Arundel […]
Caron Almshouses
Sir Philip Noel Caron was the Dutch Ambassador to the court from 1609 to 1624. He was a close friend of King James 1. In 1618 he founded an almshouse, in what is now Wandsworth Road. It was a long, two-storied building containing seven apartments built specifically for seven “poor but honest women”. Caron died […]
Carlisle House
In about 1200 a house was built for the Bishop of Rochester on a site between modern day Hercules Road and Carlisle Lane. Some time about 1217 it was rebuilt and called La Place. In 1531 a poisoning attempt was made on John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, by his cook Richard Rouse (Rose). But the […]
St Mary’s, Lambeth
St Mary-at-Lambeth Church is mentioned in the Domesday Book as being owned by Countess Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor. The Bishops of Rochester were later given the living, which in 1197 passed to the Archbishops of Canterbury. The church was rebuilt in the 1370s and again in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. […]
Lambeth Bridge
A horse ferry had linked the Lambeth and Westminster banks of the Thames for centuries, one of only a few Thames ferries capable of taking a coach and horses. The ferry sank on many occasions, notably in 1633 with Archbishop Laud’s belongings and in 1656 with Oliver Cromwell’s coach. Permission to build a bridge here […]
Tradescant family
Text taken from the Vauxhall Society’s “A guide to the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, London” by Francis Terry We are indebted for the material in this section of the Guide to Mea Allan, biographer of the Tradescants. Her book, although out of print, is obtainable from libraries in London and elsewhere. We are also […]
Elias Ashmole
English archaeologist and antiquary. Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) produced exhaustive antiquarian studies, most notably The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter (1672) and The Antiquities of Berkshire. In 1677 he donated to Oxford University a collection of curiosities, including his own contributions and those bequeathed to him by John Tradescant.< His gift […]
Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official residence. The Convent of St Andrew of Rochester sold part of the Manor to Archbishop Haldwin of Canterbury in 1190. Archbishop Hubert Walter bought the rest of the Manor in 1197 and built a house by the river roughly opposite the Palace of Westminster. This house was […]
