Category Archives: history

The Quiet Life and Death of Kennington Theatre

From the archives, the fourth edition of our month of best history posts

The fourth in our series of images from Lambeth Archives Were you aware that for a brief moment in time greater Kennington (Walworth) had a world class theatre in Kennington Park Road? It’s marble clad limelight flourished for just 23 years before being briefly converted into a cinema, and then it lay derelict before being damaged by enemy action and then final action from Lambeth council.

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Kennington Theatre was situated to the north of the park where a hefty block of flats currently reside. The frontage was executed in Portland stone, with the interiors highlighted by marble columns and fireplaces. As was the fashion at the time, the emphasis was on French renaissance and no small expense was spared on fittings and adornments.

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Following what seemed to be a successful season of pantos and plays the theatre was closed and converted into a cinema in 1921. According to records it’s last license was granted in 1934 and then left derelict. Afterwards the Odeon group purchased the property and had designs on demolishing the building but this never transpired, and it lay derelict for a number of years.

The final nail in the coffin of Kennington Theatre came at the end of 1943 when the back of the now defunct building was partially damaged by a German bomb. As it was then deemed a hazard to the public it was purchased by Lambeth under a compulsory purchase order and bulldozed. The site is now occupied by a mid century block of flats. Next time you walk by, cast your mind back to the other century of Kennington panto goers who tread before you.

If you’ve ever wondered why listing buildings is important, now you know..

The Three Stage Life of Imperial Court

From the archives, the second edition of our month of best history posts

Fixate your eyes girls and boys, as we’re about to give you a little potted history of a lovely neo Classical institution in Kennington Lane with a funny badge on the front of it; Imperial Court.

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  1. 1. The Licensed Victuallers School, Kennington Green

In 1794 the Friendly Society of Licensed Victuallers was established to educate the children of publicans affected by long term illness, incapacity, or poverty (take it from Peggy Mitchell, running a pub isn’t easy). As this was the era that proceeded free public education, publicans were keen to ensure their children’s education and well being. The school was so popular that admission was granted exclusively on the basis of a lottery, but over time the school was so oversubscribed that a larger building was required.

The original school was demolished in 1835 and the core of the building we have inherited was erected in 1836 (with extensions in 1890). The school was now able to expand its enrollment from 100 to 250 pupils, both boys and girls. The children were generally taught apprenticeships and educated from the age of 7-12 until they were 15, and then sent on their way with a small bonus for good conduct. The school moved to Slough in 1921.

  1. NAAFI

Following WW1 The comprehensive welfare of Forces was put into sharp focus, and from 1921 to 1992 Imperial Court again served the public proudly as the headquarters of  the Navy, Army, and Air Forces Institutes, or ‘NAAFI’. NAAFI existed (and on a much smaller scale still does) to provide catering and recreational activities needed by the British Armed Forces and their families posted overseas. This included mess services, selling British goods, and organising entertainment and activities.

Providing non combat services to troops and families required trained staff, on a voluntary and on a paid basis. To this extent NAAFI in Kennington served as a training centre for cooks, cleaners, caterers, and people interested in the logistics of getting auxiliary services to people overseas. Training at NAAFI was often undertaken by women, and their work in the war effort is duly celebrated at the Imperial War Museum (keeping it local).

Join the NAAFI - Serve the Services (Art.IWM PST 0764) whole: the image is positioned in the upper three-quarters, with three smaller images located in the lower right. The title is partially integrated and placed in the upper third, in green and in red. The text is separate and located in the lower quarter, in green and in red. The smaller images and text are held within a white inset. All set against a light green background. image: a shoulder-lengt... Copyright: � IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/23806

3. Flats

Imperial Court was Grade 2* listed in 1980, so it is luckily beyond the grasp of the wrecking ball. After it was sold in 1992 it was converted into flats and now functions as a home to your neighbours.

Manor Place Baths

From the archives, the first edition of our month of best of history posts

From Baths to Boxing to Buddhism

Victorians are well known for many things. We know they were sanctimonious and strived to make our minds pure, and the natural progression was to have clean bodies and clothes,  so for the health and hygiene of all the mortal bodies of Walworth, in 1895 work got underway to create Manor Place Baths. In addition to offering showers, it also had three swimming pools, private changing cubicles and large do it yourself laundry facilities. Think of it as kind of a Victorian water park.

Over the years the Baths became more of a community centre and also a place for people to obtain a bit of privacy in an era where privacy was at a premium. Women could trade children’s clothes, men could catch up in the men’s pool, and even children could come along. As the pools weren’t heated and our Greater Kennington forebears didn’t fancy losing their toes to frostbite, the men’s and women’s pools were covered over with wooden flooring in the wintertime, which gave said forebears a brilliant idea……Use it in the winter as a boxing venue. 

Manor Place saw its first bout in 1908 and went on to host a roll-call of the famous and infamous, including the Kray twins. It became so well known that when the BBC began to broadcast boxing they chose our little Baths as their first venue. For more than 40 years, The Metropolitan Borough of Southwark’s Charity Boxing Committee organised the bouts, which saw the cream of the boxing world come to Walworth, giving locals the chance to see top-flight, professional boxing on their own doorstep

Fast forward to the 1970’s. By then the now sadly extinct Heygate Estate had been built and most people had their own bathrooms. Domestic labour saving washing machines were now commonplace and those who didn’t found that newly opened laundrettes would do quite nicely. The final nail in coffin of Manor Place came when the new Elephant and Castle Leisure Centre opened in 1972, which put into sharp focus just how deteriorated and outdated Manor Place had become.

Later in life our Baths were used as offices for Southwark Council and later rented out by a Buddhist organisation for use as a meditation facility. It was purchased by Notting Hill Housing Trust in 2017 and it is currently being developed into market rate flats and ‘affordable’ housing. The reason this is taking so long is that the building is, thank baby Jesus, Grade II listed and Notting Hill have to be very careful as to how it is adapted. 

Charlie’s Home Movie

We’d like to share with you a fascinating clip of our local Tramp Charlie Chaplin visiting his old homes in central Kennington in 1959, where he lived in at least four places. In this home movie (at bottom) made by his wife, he first visits 287 Kennington Road, just behind the Doghouse Pub. The next home is at 3 Pownall Terrace, a now nonexistent row of homes just behind the Texaco in Kennington Road (and if your friends tell you that he lived in Pownell Terrace at the back of Kennington Park – smugly correct them). This flat is mentioned many times in his memoirs. And after a few scenes in West Square, Chaplin finds himself by a very different looking Methley Street where Chaplin, with his mum and brother, lived in the garret at number 39. Chaplin also famously lived at the Lambeth Workhouse which we wrote about in 2019. 

This video gives us a snippet of our hallowed patch in the 1950’s and is an interesting testament to how things change but at the same time remain constant.  After two minutes the video morphs into more of a traditional home movie, showing scenes of a rather dismal and tophatted London still recovering from bomb damage. And the brightest of you (which is most, as you’ve read this far), will see a brief glimpse of Chaplin’s old school, now the Lycee flats in Kennington Lane. 

The Tale of Two Fountains

Next time you go for your constitutional in Kennington Park, take a moment to inspect two unloved fountains which you’ve probably walked past a thousand times but never taken notice of. Their creation and endurance are interesting reminders of the people and events that have unfolded in our hallowed patch over the years. 

In the southwest corner of the park you can find part of a fountain which was donated by philanthropist Felix Slade in 1861. This is the same Slade who founded the school of art and a number of professorships. Slade lived in Aulton Place, and the story goes that while walking through the park he asked for a glass of water and was handed dirty water in a chipped glass (with Aulton Place only over the road he could have just popped back home but let’s not get stuck on tiny details). When he saw kids playing in the park without access to clean water, Slade to took to the task like a duck to, well, water.  

Slade’s solution for the lack of clean water was laudable but perhaps a bit over the top for a working class Victorian neighbourhood. He funded the erection of an elaborate fountain on a plinth in red Aberdeen granite with brass handles, a large bronze urn, and his own monogram stamped over it, lest people forget who put it there. The handles were nicked shortly thereafter, followed by the urn. When the urn was replaced it was nicked again and then went from being a fountain to a curious oddity and relic of the past.  The ornate base remains and is a reminder of the gulf of understanding and wealth that exists in Greater Kennington to this day.

A bit further up into the park you can see the column which is the remains of Tinworth Fountain. It was created in 1872 in buff terracotta by the Doulton Factory in Vauxhall and was the centrepiece of an ornate sunken garden located where the basketball courts currently reside. It was almost totally destroyed in WWII and put back together without its resplendent and overflowing bowl, which moved and then lost. After being relocated several times it found its current home while still sporting its grand central feature, a sculpture depicting the pilgrimage of life. Sadly the sculpture was knocked over and completely destroyed in 1981. The column that we see today was later used as target practice by local youths. 

Our beaten and bombed column still stands and if you look closely you can see the painstaking efforts made to both restore and destroy it. Some very clever soul even decided to replace some of the unglazed buff terracotta  poured concrete. Nevertheless, Kennington Park has meant many things to many people over the years, and our battered little monuments stand as eternal reminders of that.

Kennington Tube Blazes the Trail

Unlike other areas in south London, Greater Kennington is awash with tube stations. Two of them, Kennington and Oval, were the first deep level electric underground stations in the world when they were completed in 1890 (aren’t we always ahead of the curve). The line was built by City and South London Railway Co. and originally stretched from Stockwell to King William St. (near Bank). It proved such a wild success that it inspired other speculative builders to rip up streets and dig routes into the City from places like Shepherd’s Bush (Central Line) and Waterloo (W&C Line). 

In 1890 alone our little stretch of what would later become part of the Northern Line attracted over five million passengers. The price of the fare was low enough to attract not just snooty bankers living in Kennington Lane, but also people who worked as clerks, in factories, or as teachers. The line also attracted sightseers to gawp over our anointed and hallowed patch and get some R&R in Kennington Park. And by 1897 more nerdy types might have been enticed by the first electric lift of any tube station (remembered by the now redundant dome). 

Entrance hall, 1934

For our forebears, all of the giddy thrill associated with travelling through a hole in the ground did have certain drawbacks. The carriages were described as  ‘padded cells’ and people faced stifling heat in addition to near blackouts when the train accelerated. As the novelty wore off electrified trams began scuttling down Kennington Park Rd. and into the City. Not only did trams minimise the risk of getting touched up in the dark, they also had many more stops. So profits began to decline for our pioneering Railway Company, and by the 1920’s  shareholders gladly sold up to the ever expanding tube network. 

Sadly, while researching this piece we made little headway in ascertaining the source of the great pong of Kennington tube. For those who weren’t around, the smell was somewhere between just stomped on cheddar cheese and wet cat hair. 

Trams on a very different looking Kennington Park Rd. at Oval tube.

A Local Victory

If it was possible we would buy all of our readers a colourful Christmas gift. Unfortunately, we once again failed to get a bonus this year or any other kind of appreciation from Runoff management. Well, unless you count Monday morning when Phil from finance shouted ‘here’s your lot’ and threw a handful of Quality Street into our cubicles before walking away.  What we can give you, therefore, is a present that will enhance our lives in other ways. 

Lambeth County Court has stood proudly near Kennington Cross for almost a century. It’s functional life came to an end in 2017 and its future was very much in doubt. It was tantalizingly shut from public view after that with the exception of  two occasions, which we chronicled in 2019 and earlier this year. During this time the Duchy of Cornwall, who owns the property, cynically applied for the building to be immune from listing with the plan to convert it into……you guessed it……luxury flats, with the added indignity of an extra floor plopped on top. This would of course entail gutting the building and destroying the original, period courtrooms.  

We’ve always had a passion for the Courthouse, but we’ve given our opinion about planning consent before and let’s just say it took the better part of a year to put that toothpaste back in the tube so we weren’t doing that again. However, to the rescue came the 20th Century Society who gave advice (read, pressure) to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to list the building and after a great deal of exertion the building was granted Grade II status, ensuing that it will remain intact. We’re happy that the Society used some of our images on their website. 

At the moment part of the building is used as studios for artists affiliated with City and Guilds. In our little crystal ball the Courthouse could perhaps become a gallery or studio space for everyone in the community to enjoy in perpetuity. Everyone needs a place to live, but they also need a place to explore. Merry Christmas……

History and Cameras

Last weekend our newish MP, Florence Eshamoni, opened the spanking new ‘History Hut’ in Kennington Park close to the tennis courts. Formerly a seating area frequented by gentlemen who like to enjoy an outdoor beverage,  the rest stop has been transformed by the installation of eight boards celebrating the vitality and diversity of our area. The boards cover areas from royalty to hangings, cricket to Chartists, and Van Gogh to WW1. If you are an astute reader you’ll be aware that we have written about many of these things before *collective office high five*.  Well worth a pre-Christmas perambulation to work off those extra calories 

The boards also mention a little known but fascinating tattle of trivia taken from the estates around Greater Kennington. The strange railings that you see around many estates are not actually railings at all, but repurposed stretchers from WW2. They were placed in storage by the Civil Defense Corps until the 1960’s in case of a nuclear (!) attack. We wrote about them in 2019. 

Camera Club

We really know very little about the Camera Club other than it has been there for years and we know very little about it. It is actually one of the oldest photography clubs in the world, and the site in Bowden Street acts not only as a studio but also an exhibit space for members. Until 25 January the gallery is having its annual Winter Member’s Exhibition and it is totally free. The photos offer a poignant overview of the highs and lows we’ve all faced in 2021. The very friendly staff on hand can even tell you how you can become a member yourself if you are the snappy sort. 

Kennington’s Lost Tragedy

We often take for granted living in a society that is peaceful, calm and free of external threat. We’ve all felt vulnerable over the past two years but we also have a great deal to be grateful for. Before we get ensconced in Christmas revelry, we want to share with you a nearly forgotten tragedy that happened in Kennington Park 81 years ago.

At the outbreak of WW2, as now, most of us were vulnerable to events that were beyond our control. To address this, air raid shelters were constructed in Kennington, Vauxhall and Archbishop’s parks for people who were caught in their flats or couldn’t make it into a tube station. In reality these were hastily constructed trenches made of thin concrete slabs. While they were considered ‘bolt holes’ for people caught in the open, often folks had to seek shelter there for upwards of 12 hours. 

At 20:05 on 15 October, 1940 part of the Kennington Park shelter suffered a direct hit from a 50lb. bomb. A survivor from a nearby trench recalls the roof being lifted off followed by an eerie silence. Local rescue workers laboured desperately in what must have been extremely dangerous circumstances to recover as many survivors and bodies as possible, but erosion and mud make their task insurmountable. No official death toll was announced at the time but the figure is now believed to be 104 fatalities. 50  bodies were recovered and this remains the official death count. Most of them were buried in Lambeth Cemetery; the remainder still lie, unidentified, beneath the park. 

As you can imagine, the government did not want to impact this and other civilian disasters for fear that it would adversely affect wartime morale. In the years following the war the incident was largely forgotten until researchers began to put the pieces together from scant news reports and by speaking to survivors a few years ago. Today a stone with an inscription by Maya Angelou stands in the park as a poignant and subtle reminder of the tragedy.  So when you next stroll through Kennington Park or have a kickabout,  spare a thought for your fellow, former Kenningtonians and just how much we have to be grateful for today in spite of external threats.

From the aerial shot below of the south field in Kennington Park you can still clearly see the outlines of the former trenches. 

The Cinema Museum

Our beloved little that museum that could, the wonderful Cinema Museum, reopened its doors last week after being shut for over 18 months. We always think of the Cinema Museum as like that slightly dotty aunt Vera you have always been meaning to visit in Norfolk. You kind of forget about it and until your mum calls you in floods of tears to announce that Vera is no longer of this mortal coil.

The Cinema Museum is housed in the former administration block of Lambeth Workhouse. We wrote about it in 2019  and this building would have been the dropping off place for a destitute Charlie Chaplin and his mum. For the past 22 years it has served as HQ to the Museum and it’s fascinating and packed collection of film related ephemera including posters, projectors, scary mannequins, scripts, costumes and lights. This collection is only on view if you go for a film viewing or book a private tour with a volunteer, but doing either is easy. 

The Museum has a large viewing area amongst the historical pieces (plus a bar) and puts on a variety of talks, film series, and films both old and new. Just before closure director Ken Loach introduced a series of shorts, In the coming weeks they will be showing ‘Hairspray’, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, and very intriguing sounding film series called ‘Women and Cocaine’. They also have film related events relating to people like Laurel and Hardy, in addition to silent flicks. All can be found on their website

The Cinema Museum has always required the patronage of Greater Kenningtonians to keep it afloat and it now needs us as never before. If we fail to visit we might wake up one day and find it’s gone the path of dear aunty Vera. But worse, aunty Very will be in heaven and not reincarnated as an estate agent, barber shop, coffee shop or…….wait for it… Franco Manca pizza.