Time Walk
Walking the Edge of a Vanished Garden
This was once the edge of Vauxhall Gardens, the pleasure grounds that drew Londoners for nearly two hundred years. Walking it today means passing beneath railway arches packed with commercial units, air-conditioning plant clipped to their walls. It now works as little more than a service route for the businesses inside those arches.
Underneath that workaday surface is an older line: the street still runs along the old western boundary of the gardens, which closed in 1859. That boundary is the thread worth following into the name.
Name Origin
A Boundary, Not Yet Explained
Goding Street was one of the boundaries of the site of Vauxhall Gardens once the grounds were built over after their closure in 1859. What is not clear, in the sources used here, is where the name "Goding" itself came from — no explanation of the word is given, so it stands unexplained for now.
History
From Pleasure Ground to Artisans' Streets
Vauxhall Gardens stood immediately to the east of what is now Goding Street, open to the public from 1661 to 1859. When the gardens finally closed, their twelve-acre site was built over, and Goding Street was set out as one of its boundaries.
The new streets that rose on the former gardens brought a different kind of life: 300 artisans' houses, a church, two pubs and two schools filled the site bordering Goding Street.
Today
A Service Route Beneath the Arches
Goding Street today runs north–south along the edge of the railway viaduct, on the western side of the old gardens site. The arches that line it are filled with commercial units, their walls pocked with air-conditioning units and other plant.
A 2016 council assessment found the street serves as little more than a service route for the businesses housed in those arches. The pleasure grounds are long gone, but the street that once marked their edge still traces the same line.
When Vauxhall Gardens closed in 1859, its twelve-acre site was redeveloped with 300 artisans' houses, a church, two pubs and two schools — all built on ground that Goding Street now borders.
On the Map
Goding Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Goding Street?
The sources used here do not explain the origin of the name "Goding." What is recorded is that the street formed as one of the boundaries of the Vauxhall Gardens site after the gardens closed in 1859.
What is Goding Street known for?
It marks the former western edge of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, which operated from 1661 to 1859, and today runs beneath a railway viaduct whose arches hold commercial units.
What stood here before Goding Street existed?
Vauxhall Gardens, a pleasure ground open to the public from 1661 until its closure in 1859, stood immediately to the east of the site that became Goding Street.