Kennington Cross

Kennington Cross is the local name for the convergence of Kennington Lane and Kennington Road. A cross stood at this point from medieval times up to the 17th century, and it is this cross, rather than any building that replaced it, that gave the crossroads its name. The sources used here do not explain the origin of "Kennington" itself.

Kennington Cross is formed by the triangle of land bounded by Kennington Lane, Windmill Row and Kennington Road. It had long been a detached piece of the copyhold estate of Mary Cleaver, and appears as such on Harbord's map of 1636.

In 1752 and 1754 the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads bought land from Mary Cleaver to build Kennington Road, but were never formally admitted to it in the Manor court. The triangle was afterwards let "to various tenants who used it for gardens."

By 1834 there was little room left for development at Kennington except on small pieces of land such as this. In 1823 the triangle was considered as a site for St Mark's Schools, but negotiations failed. In 1842 a Police Court was proposed for the same ground, and abandoned after local residents objected. That same year the Trustees applied to be admitted as copyholders so they could sell their interest; it was said to have passed in 1843 to a builder, Mr Howard. In 1845 a licence was granted to demise the property to Thomas Lee, a builder of Blackfriars Road, who had already begun building on the site in 1844.

St Anselm's parish was formed here in 1901, its advowson belonging to the Crown. The first St Anselm's was a small red-brick building, the church above a meeting hall below. By 1912 a new church was being built beside it, and this building, dated 1932-3, is the St Anselm's visible from Kennington Cross today.

Charlie Chaplin is thought to have used the lavatory as a child, and wrote of sitting nearby when locked out of his home.

Havilland Hubert Allport Sands held the vicarage of St Anselm's, Kennington Cross, for thirty years, from 1936 to 1966. Richard Fox Cartwright served as a curate there after his ordination in 1937. Earlier still, in 1823, a corn-dealer named Arnold Heath held a building lease on land at Kennington Cross.

Tradition reaches further back. A royal residence was said to have stood near the spot since Saxon times, and Hardicanute was said to have died here in 1041. Edward III gave the manor of Kennington to his son, Edward the Black Prince, in 1337, and the Black Prince built a large palace nearby. John of Gaunt came to Kennington in 1377 to escape the fury of the people of London. Charles I, as Prince of Wales, is said to have inhabited a house built on part of the old palace site.

Two transport schemes once marked Kennington Cross on their maps without reaching it in brick and rail. The City and Brixton Railway planned a station here before heading south to an interchange at The Oval. Decades later, the Cross River Tram proposal considered Kennington Cross as a possible stop on its north-south route.

A listed Metropolitan drinking trough stands at the crossing, alongside the Dog House Pub, a landmark of the junction.

St Anselm's Church and the Durning Library, built in 1889, are both visible from the crossroads. The cross that named this place is long gone, but the junction it marked is still called Kennington Cross.