Kennington Road

Kennington Road stretches nearly a mile in an almost perfectly straight line south from Westminster Bridge Road through Walworth, one of London’s most direct throughfares. Built in 1751, a year after Westminster Bridge opened, it was constructed by the Turnpike Trustees to improve communication from the bridge to routes south of the river Thames. Designated the A23, this Victorian-lined boulevard became the primary route south toward Brighton and the coast beyond—a journey taken by royalty and now commemorated annually in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Though there has been much rebuilding and demolition, many of the grand Georgian terraces lining Kennington Road still survive.

Today

A23, Kennington Road

Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

The street today is anchored by the Old Town Hall for the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth, a neoclassical landmark that served as the civic heart of the area until 1908. Lambeth North Underground station sits at the northern end, while the Imperial War Museum stands to the east. Its name carries the weight of more than a thousand years of English history—a legacy worth understanding.

The name comes from the Old English Chenintune, meaning 'settlement of Chenna's people', though another explanation is that it means 'place of the King', or 'town of the King'. Kennington takes its name from Old English, presumed to be Cyning tun; 'King-estate'. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Chenintune, and later appears as Kyning-ton. The etymology reveals a place of royal significance—whether a settlement governed by a king or one belonging to a founder named Chenna, the Anglo-Saxon root remains consistent. The increase of traffic resulting from the building of Westminster Bridge and its approach road brought into prominence the deficiencies of the roads further out. As an attempt to remedy these, an Act was passed in 1750–1 empowering the Turnpike Trustees of Surrey, Sussex and Kent to repair and widen certain existing roads and to make new ones. The new Kennington Road, known as the New Road or Walcot Place, linked Westminster Bridge Road with Kennington Common.

It was laid across open fields and gardens, and there was therefore no difficulty in complying with the clause in the Act which said it was to be as straight as possible. Three estates were concerned—those of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Walcot Charity and the Duchy of Cornwall. Most of the road frontage was built up by the early years of the 19th century. Houses were erected about 1790 on part of the copyhold land of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the street became the preferred address for merchants, lawyers, and artists drawn by Westminster Bridge’s opening and the respectability of Georgian townhouses. Charles Booth’s poverty map of London (1898–99) identifies Kennington Park Road as 'Middle class' and most streets as 'Mixed. Some comfortable, others poor'. By the early 20th century, the street had established itself as respectable and diverse—neither the grand establishments of Westminster nor the working tenements of Elephant & Castle, but a genuine middle landscape.

In the 19th century, this area near the Canterbury and Gatti's music halls in Westminster Bridge Road was much favoured as a residence by performers in the music hall tradition. Public houses on Kennington Road such as 'The Three Stags' (which still exists and now has a 'Chaplin Bar'), 'The White Horse', 'The Tankard' (which exists now as the Grand Union) and the famous 'Horns Tavern' (demolished in the 1960s) were patronised by music hall professionals.

The street’s public houses were also nodes of Victorian working-class sociability and entertainment. A men’s public convenience built opposite in 1898 is now preserved as an arts venue and likely to have been used by a young Charlie Chaplin. The convergence of theatres, performers, and affordable lodgings made Kennington Road an artistic quarter long before it became a residential thoroughfare.

The artist Vincent van Gogh lived at Ivy Cottage, 395 Kennington Road, from August to October 1874 and from December 1874 to May 1875. Felix Slade, a lawyer and collector, lived at Slade House and endowed professorships of fine art at Oxford, Cambridge and University College London, founding the Slade School of Art. Sir Julian Corbett, a prominent British naval historian and geostrategist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was born at Walcot House and his works helped shape the Royal Navy’s reforms.

Victoria Drummond, Queen Victoria’s god-daughter and Britain’s first qualified female marine engineer, lived at Kennington Road from 1929 until near the end of her life. Charlie Chaplin lived at 287 Kennington Road as a child, now marked by a plaque, and at various other locations on the road and in the immediate vicinity. Sir Christopher Chataway, an Olympic athlete and politician, lived at 145 Kennington Road.

World War II bombing caused extensive damage to sections of Kennington Road and surrounding terraces. The subsequent rebuilding altered the street’s architectural character significantly, though many grand Georgian terraces still survive. The late 20th century saw further changes: the closure of industrial and commercial uses, the conversion of large townhouses into flats, and increased traffic along the A23 corridor as a major transport artery.

Conservation efforts in recent decades have aimed to protect remaining period features—original sash windows, cast-iron railings, and decorative brickwork. The street’s proximity to the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth North station, and Kennington Park has made it increasingly valued as a residential location, though its character remains divided between preserved Georgian terraces and modern apartment blocks erected during post-war reconstruction.

Kennington Road today balances heritage with modernity. The surviving Georgian terraces remain the street’s most distinctive feature—three-storey yellow stock brick townhouses with elegant door surrounds, iron balconies, and period windows still line stretches of the road despite wartime damage and 20th-century infill. The street functions as both a local residential neighbourhood and a strategic transport corridor, carrying significant traffic southbound toward Surrey and the coast.

The area has undergone considerable gentrification since the 1990s, with Georgian terraces increasingly restored and let to affluent renters and owners. Local amenities include independent shops, restaurants, and cafes catering to the young professional demographic. Lambeth North Underground provides direct connections to the West End and City, while the Imperial War Museum and Kennington Park anchor the street within the wider cultural and recreational landscape of south London. Despite post-war rebuilding that replaced sections of the 19th-century streetscape, Kennington Road remains recognisable as a Georgian commercial and residential thoroughfare adapted to modern needs.