Time Walk
A Drained Swamp Beneath the Pavement
A drained field of brick clay gave this short Lambeth street both its ground and its name. Walking along Claylands Road today, little hints at that marshy past beyond the solid Victorian chapel on its north side, long the street's one landmark building.
Beneath the paving lies a shallow depression where a river once flowed and often overflowed, keeping the ground waterlogged until it was drained at the start of the nineteenth century — which is where the street's name begins.
Name Origin
Fields of Brick Clay
Claylands Road is named after a field called Claylands, also recorded as Clayfields. According to Sheila Fairfield's The Streets of London: A Dictionary of the Names and Their Origins, Claylands Road and Claylands Place were named after brick clay fields that occupied the ground here before 1800.
The field sat in a shallow, waterlogged basin, the kind of ground that produces good clay for bricks but poor ground for building until it is drained.
History
From Marsh to Mansion to Chapel
The Claylands field changed hands in 1801. John Daniel of The Lawn bought the plots that made up Claylands, then sold parts of them on to Sir Charles Blicke and to John Fentiman, senior.
Fentiman took on the hard part himself. The land was very marshy, with stagnant pools standing on it, and he paid to have it drained at his own expense before building a handsome mansion for himself south of the Oval, opposite the end of what became Claylands Road.
A generation later the drained ground carried a chapel. Claylands Congregational Church opened on the north side of Claylands Road on 29 June 1836, built for a congregation that had seceded from Holland Chapel. Its foundation stone had been laid by the Rev. John Styles, D.D., on 1 January that year. Sunday schools were added at the rear in 1899, built by Messrs. Rice and Son to designs by the architect W. E. Davis. By the 1950s, the church was found disused — a plain stock-brick building with a Classical pedimented front.
John Fentiman drained the marshy Claylands field with his own money, then built himself a mansion looking straight down what is now Claylands Road.
People
A Dissenting Minister and a Draining Landowner
Two men shaped what this ground became. John Fentiman, senior, turned a waterlogged field into building land, then settled nearby in a mansion that faced straight down the new road.
Dr. John Styles arrived later, leading a congregation that had broken away from Holland Chapel. He laid the foundation stone of their new church on New Year's Day 1836, saw it opened that June, and remained its minister until 1844.
On the Map
Claylands Road Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Claylands Road?
It takes its name from Claylands, also called Clayfields, a field of brick clay that stood on the site before 1800. The ground was bought up and drained in 1801 before the street was built on it.
What is Claylands Road known for?
It was the site of Claylands Congregational Church, opened in 1836 for a congregation that had broken away from Holland Chapel, with a foundation stone laid by Dr. John Styles.
Who drained the Claylands field?
John Fentiman, senior, who bought part of the field in 1801, paid at his own expense to drain the marshy, pool-ridden ground, then built his own mansion opposite the end of the road.