Time Walk
A Bridge Road That Found a Cricket Ground
This was built as a bridge approach road, but it's a cricket pavilion that now dominates it. Walking its length today, a visitor passes the tall brick wall of the Oval ground on one side and the bustle of Oval tube station's junction at the other.
Underneath that modern rhythm lies a plain piece of Georgian road-building: a route laid out soon after Vauxhall Bridge opened. Its very name was chosen to avoid confusion with a grander road nearby — which is where its story properly begins.
Name Origin
Borrowed, Then Set Apart
Harleyford Street was formed in 1818 by the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads as an approach road to Vauxhall Bridge, which had opened two years earlier in 1816.
Its name, though, belongs properly to a different road. Harleyford Road was built at the same period as a separate new route running from Vauxhall to Camberwell, and it was named after Harleyford in Buckinghamshire, the seat of the Clayton family, who held the lease of the local demesne land. Harleyford Street took the same name but was marked out as "Street" specifically to distinguish it from "Road" — two new thoroughfares from the same building campaign, kept apart in name as well as on the map.
History
From Turnpike to Transport Hub
The street's first job was practical: a way from the Oval and Kennington Park Road down to the newly built Vauxhall Bridge, part of the turnpike network laid out by the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads.
Seventy years later, the junction at its end became a transport landmark in its own right. Oval tube station opened on 18 December 1890 as part of the City and South London Railway, standing where Harleyford Street meets Kennington Park Road, Camberwell New Road and Clapham Road.
Culture
A Pavilion Wall for a Street
Cricket gives the street its character, turning an otherwise functional road into the edge of one of London's most famous grounds.
People
A Field Marshal's Birthplace
One name stands out from this ordinary bridge-road. Bernard Montgomery, who would become Field Marshal and 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, was born in Harleyford Street in 1887 — decades before the street took on its cricketing backdrop.
On the Map
Harleyford Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Harleyford Street?
It shares its name with Harleyford Road, which was named after Harleyford in Buckinghamshire, seat of the Clayton family. Harleyford Street was given the same name but marked "Street" to keep it distinct from the Road.
What is Harleyford Street known for?
It runs alongside the Oval cricket ground, whose 1895–7 pavilion fronts the street, and it was the birthplace of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in 1887.
When was Harleyford Street built?
It was formed in 1818 by the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads as an approach road to Vauxhall Bridge, which had opened in 1816.