Do you recognise the festive, festooned building below? The date is 1935, and the kiddos outside are eagerly awaiting a visit by King George V to their home. The building still very much stands at the base of central Kennington, but is now largely empty except for a video production company around the back.
The neo-classical, Grade II building you are looking at below was built in 1852 and was the Vestry Hall (essentially the Town Hall) for Lambeth until things started getting a bit tight at the turn of the century. That’s when the Town Hall abandoned us for bigger spaces in Brixton. Lambeth then leased the building to the Church of England Children’s Society as their headquarters. Also known as the Waifs and Strays, the charity arranged pastoral care and fostering for poor and destitute kids who lived there, and the kids feature in this photo. It served this noble purpose until another Charity, the Countryside Alliance, moved in behind the columns in 1986.
Largely empty? The video company now occupy the whole building, their studio space is 373 Kennington Road.
Good afternoon
Shame it’s mostly empty. Waif and stray building I’m familier with as I grew up in the area. It’s a very attractive building and i hope it has some kind of preservation order on it. I would hate it to be knocked down and offices built in its place. I’m sur it would make an ideal place as museum of local interest, artefacts and figures. Who owns it now?