Time Walk
Into the Dip
The road sinks into the lowest ground around before a railway crosses right over it. A viaduct throws an arched span over the street near Pilgrim Hill, and Victorian villas line part of the route, with plainer post-war housing set further along.
Beneath today's mix of villas and later infill, the ground itself has not changed: this was always the low point travellers had to cross, long before the trains arrived in a cutting here in the 1850s. That dip and the railway still frame everything built along the street — but what gave the hill its name is a different question.
Name Origin
An Unexplained Name
No source used for this page explains why the street is called Auckland Hill. The records consulted describe its topography, its buildings, and the people connected with it, but none accounts for the name itself.
History
Railway, Dip, and Late Victorian Infill
A railway line was cut through here in the 1850s, and the cutting still shapes the street's lower stretch. The section between Norwood High Street and Pilgrim Hill sits at the lowest point of the surrounding land, a natural dip rather than a planned feature. A viaduct crosses over Auckland Hill at Pilgrim Hill and gives the street much of its visual interest.
Cranfield Close, off the Auckland Hill and Norwood High Street junction, was laid out as Cranfield Villas in the late 19th century and then built up with terraced houses. Nearby, similar pairs of houses to Lancaster Villas were built on Auckland Hill close to where John Davis, an associate of the architect Blake, lived on Pilgrim Hill, in 1864–1865. Auckland Hill forms part of the boundary of the West Norwood Conservation Area.
Culture
Terracotta from Palace Wharf
Nos. 3 and 5 share a design with central porches and canted bays at both lower and raised ground floor, under hipped roofs. Nos. 7 and 9 repeat the arrangement without the hipped roof, and No. 11 stands alone with a single canted bay.
A short distance away, No. 120 Auckland Hill is a Victorian corner property noted for its contribution to the street scene.
People
An Engineer's Villas, a Child's Rescue
George Jennings was a celebrated engineer and terracotta manufacturer based at Palace Wharf in Lambeth, who developed his pottery works between 1856 and 1882 and moved into property development. The villas at Nos. 3–11 Auckland Hill are examples of that work. Jennings died in 1882 from injuries sustained in a traffic accident, and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery, grave 19,077, square 34.
In 1936, a newspaper reported that six-year-old Jack Hart rescued his five-year-old sister Mary from the live rail near the Auckland Hill railway bridge.
George Jennings, the terracotta manufacturer whose villas still stand at Nos. 3–11 Auckland Hill, is buried at West Norwood Cemetery in a specific, numbered grave: 19,077, square 34.
Today
Old Villas, Newer Infill
Auckland Hill today mixes periods along its length. Between Cranfield Close and Dunelm Grove, post-war properties at Nos. 112–118 are of unobtrusive height and appearance, making what the conservation appraisal calls a neutral contribution to the wider historic area. The railway viaduct at Pilgrim Hill still crosses overhead, and the street still runs through the same natural dip it always has.
On the Map
Auckland Hill Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Auckland Hill?
The sources used for this page do not explain the origin of the name.
What is Auckland Hill known for?
Its Victorian villas at Nos. 3–11, built by terracotta manufacturer George Jennings and linked to the architect Thomas Edward Collcutt, and the railway viaduct that crosses the street near Pilgrim Hill.
Who was George Jennings?
A terracotta manufacturer and engineer based at Palace Wharf, Lambeth, who built the villas at Nos. 3–11 Auckland Hill and died in 1882 after a traffic accident.