Black Prince Road

Black Prince Road is named after Edward the Black Prince, the 14th-century Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, who owned the Manor of Kennington. In 1337 Edward III had granted the manors of Kennington and Vauxhall, along with a meadow in Lambeth and Newington, to his son. Mosaics set within the nearby railway arches still depict the prince the road commemorates.

The name is comparatively recent. Before 1939, the route was assembled from older, separately named stretches: Broad Street, Lambeth Butts, Workhouse Lane, Elizabeth Place and Prince's Road, as shown on Horwood's map of 1791–99. Workhouse Lane was later renamed Prince's Road, and Lambeth Butts was absorbed into Broad Street in 1882. Broad Street and Prince's Road were finally renamed Black Prince Road in 1939. An even earlier layer survives in a 1636 plan of the Kennington Manor demesne, where the route corresponds to "Kennington Way".

The road's story begins with archery, not royalty. "The Butts" — a parish ground for longbow practice — gave the street one of its earliest identities, recorded in a 1661 lease of Kennington Manor in which Anne Hinde held land and six cottages "in the Butts". The old village of Lambeth itself consisted of houses strung along Church Street and Lambeth Butts, bordering the river.

The Black Prince's own connection to the area ran deeper than the name alone suggests. In 1362 he granted Vauxhall, with over 31 acres of land in Lambeth, to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, to found chantries for himself and the king. The grant was reportedly a condition the Pope set for the prince's dispensation to marry his cousin, the Fair Maid of Kent.

By the late 18th century the road was "fairly continuously built up on both sides", according to the Survey of London's account of the map evidence. Nearby, Doris Street was laid out about 1812, and Vauxhall Walk already appeared as a lane on Rocque's 1745 map, leading from Lambeth Butts to Vauxhall Gardens.

Pottery and pubs both left their mark here. The Royal Doulton building, now known as Southbank House, has two of its western bays fronting Black Prince Road.

The street has also drawn the occasional film crew: the Jolly Gardeners pub was cast as "The Drowned Trout" in the 2000 film Snatch. Two older pubs mark the road's earlier names — the Queen's Head, rebuilt in 1890, stood at what became No. 71, and the Rising Sun, recorded at Elizabeth Place, Prince's Road in 1825, was renumbered to 50 Black Prince Road in 1938.

Sir Arthur Sullivan was born at No. 8, Bolwell Street, off Black Prince Road, on 13 May 1842. A commemorative tablet was later erected at the house by the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

In 1927 Lambeth Council built the Black Prince Estate on a site that had held a workhouse shown on the 1875 Ordnance Survey map. Four five-storey blocks originally housed over 500 people in 108 flats; the two smaller middle blocks were later demolished, creating open ground between the surviving Sullivan House and Deacon House.

An extension to London Fire Brigade Headquarters, housing its control room, was built around 1990 to the rear of the main building, fronting Black Prince Road. No. 35 is a Grade II listed almshouse-style building of 1913–14 by Adshead and Ramsey, now used as a day hospital for St Thomas' Children's Department.