Time Walk
A Church, a Troupe of Acrobats, and an Airman's Birthplace
A troupe of touring gymnasts once called this ordinary road their permanent home between tours. Walking Lambert Road today, the Gothic bulk of St. Saviour's Church, with its corner tower and pinnacles, is the one building that stands out. The houses nearby give nothing away of the lives once lived behind their doors.
Beneath the ordinary brick lies a street of private histories rather than public ones: a travelling act's lodging, an aviator's birthplace, a congregation's new parish church. None of it announces itself from the pavement. What the street was called before it carried these stories is not explained in the sources consulted here.
Name Origin
An Unexplained Name
The sources used here do not explain the origin of the name Lambert Road. No reference book, lease or rate-book entry in this pack offers a derivation, and none should be assumed.
History
Building St. Saviour's
A parish church rose on the street in the 1870s. A committee to build it met at St. Matthew's vicarage on 24 March 1873, and a site costing £775 was bought and conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
The architect E.C. Robins designed a Gothic church faced in Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, to hold 938 worshippers. It had a nave of six arcaded bays flanked by low aisles, and a tower at the north-west corner topped with four circular pinnacles and an octagonal louvred lantern. James Watney, M.P., laid the first stone on 15 July 1874, and the building was consecrated on 29 September 1875. A Consolidated Chapelry was assigned to it shortly afterwards, and in 1876 the parish of St. Saviour, Brixton Hill, was formed.
The Caron Troupe, billed as the World's Greatest Lady Gymnasts, listed an ordinary eleven-room house at 24 Lambert Road as their permanent address from 1915 to 1922, even while touring venues as far afield as the Brixton Empress and the Paris Alhambra.
Culture
The World's Greatest Lady Gymnasts
A troupe of acrobats made Lambert Road their base for years at a time rather than their stage. The group's last known British notice came in December 1924, shortly before they left to perform at the Paris Alhambra in January 1925.
People
An Aviator Born at No. 17
A future war hero was born here in 1889. Major Sydney Vincent Sippe came into the world in Brixton that year, while his parents lived at 17 Lambert Road.
Sippe grew up to design, build and test early aeroplanes, and made the first successful flight from seawater in Britain. He served in the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War and was decorated by Britain, France and Belgium. He is particularly remembered for the November 1914 bombing of the German Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen, one of the earliest long-distance bombing missions of the war.
On the Map
Lambert Road Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Lambert Road?
The sources used here do not explain the origin of the name Lambert Road.
What is Lambert Road known for?
St. Saviour's Church, consecrated in 1875, stands on the road. The street is also known as the lodging of the Caron Troupe of lady gymnasts and the birthplace of aviator Sydney Sippe.
When was St. Saviour's Church built?
A building committee formed in 1873, the first stone was laid in 1874 by James Watney, M.P., and the church was consecrated on 29 September 1875.
Who was Sydney Sippe?
Sydney Vincent Sippe (1889–1968) was a pioneer aviator born in Brixton while his parents lived at 17 Lambert Road, later decorated for a 1914 bombing raid on a German Zeppelin works.