Kennington Lane

Kennington Lane takes its name from the Manor of Kennington, whose demesne and copyhold land it bordered as early as 1636. Kennington itself is thought to come from the Old English Chenintune, probably "settlement of Chenna's people", though an alternative explanation reads it as "town of the King".

The lane did not always carry one name. In 1636 the stretch between South Lambeth and Kennington Roads was known as the Kingston Road, shown as "Kingston Rode" on a survey by Sir Charles Harbord that year, while the section leading toward Newington Butts was called the "Sohowe". These later became known simply as Upper and Lower Kennington Lane, names that persisted until 1936, when they were abolished and the houses along the lane renumbered as a single Kennington Lane.

The lane changed little for over a century. Between the 1636 survey and Rocque's map of 1745, only a scatter of houses and the small development of Ketleby's Rents had appeared along it. Everything shifted after Westminster Bridge opened in 1750 and Kennington Road was built under an Act of 1751, sending new traffic through the lane on its way into London. Blackfriars Bridge, built between 1760 and 1769, made the area more desirable still as a place for country residence.

By 1785 Hodskinson and Middleton's survey showed houses lining much of the lane, and by 1799 the modern street pattern was essentially fixed. Soon after, Kennington's rural character began to fade as the area urbanised and property values fell. Vauxhall Bridge, opened in 1816, drove a further wave of development, with the approach road cut through land owned by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury and the old Royal Oak Tavern demolished to make way for it.

Vauxhall Gardens, which had bordered the lane's western end, closed on 25 July 1859 and its site was built over for housing through the 1860s, including the lane's northern frontage. One building from the gardens survives: No. 308, built in the 18th century as the residence of the gardens' manager, later given a Victorian gabled attic and now the home of a lay community attached to St Peter's Church. St Peter's itself, designed by John Loughborough Pearson, was consecrated in 1864 for the slum area that had grown up on the gardens' former edge.

The lane also became a street of schools, churches and a library. The Licensed Victuallers' School, founded in 1803, moved into a purpose-built schoolhouse designed by Henry Rose and erected in 1836 at a cost of about £14,000; its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Lord Melbourne. It was sold in 1921 and renamed Imperial Court. St Anne's Roman Catholic Church, designed by Frederick Arthur Walters, opened in 1903 and was consecrated in 1911. The Durning Free Public Library, funded by Miss J. Durning Smith and designed by Sidney R. J. Smith, architect of the Tate Gallery, opened on 6 November 1889.

St Peter's Church carries a quieter echo of Vauxhall Gardens' own musical past: it now hosts regular music events and hopes to continue that heritage, and holds a T. C. Lewis organ installed in 1870.

Benjamin Gompertz, mathematician and actuary, lived at No. 231 Kennington Lane from 1811 or 1812 until his death in 1865. He worked with Francis Baily on tables for the fixed stars and served as actuary to Sir Moses Montefiore and Nathan Rothschild, founders of the Alliance Assurance Company; his law of human mortality went on to underpin much later actuarial work.

Before him, James Bailey, local surveyor to the Duchy of Cornwall, had lived at No. 155 for some years before 1792.

Charlie Chaplin, born in Kennington in 1889, was schooled on nearby Sancroft Street. He is said to have first discovered the joys of music sitting on the pavement outside the White Hart pub on Kennington Lane.

Kennington Lane today mixes eras openly. Early 19th-century terraces such as Nos. 231–245 and the distinctive stuccoed No. 363, attributed to J. M. Gandy and once singled out as a house "of unusual distinction and originality", stand not far from the 1930s Neo-Georgian flats of the Duchy of Cornwall's inter-war redevelopment, among them Tamar House and Boyton House.

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, at the lane's western end, has become a recognised flagship venue for London's LGBT community. It stands a short walk from No. 308, the lane's one surviving fragment of Vauxhall Gardens itself.