Time Walk
A Dead End by the Park
A row of houses called The Lawn, named for their own grass plots, vanished over a century ago — yet still gives this lane its name. Walking it today, you pass a former school turned community centre, a laundry turned flats, and a grand red-brick block of 1890s mansion flats, all strung along its north side above Vauxhall Park.
Beneath this quiet run of buildings lies that vanished row. The lane is named for houses that are gone, not for anything that stands here now.
Name Origin
The Lawn That Gave Its Name and Disappeared
Lawn Lane is named after The Lawn, a row of eight houses named after their own grass plots. George Lovibond let them on two leases in 1791, to James Gubbins and Philip Buckley. They were demolished in 1889-90, according to Sheila Fairfield's The Streets of London.
By the time William Higgs moved his business to a four-acre site in Lawn Lane in 1867, the lane already carried the name of the houses it ran beside.
History
From Grass Plots to Schoolroom
Industry arrived here first, well before any of the buildings now visible along the street were built.
The houses of The Lawn were pulled down in 1889-90. In the 1890s Park Mansions rose at the west end of the lane: a block of 50 flats in Queen Anne style, with red brick, gables and bay windows. In 1908 the London County Council built a tall school at Nos. 40-42, with a tablet recording its name and date.
The houses that gave Lawn Lane its name were themselves named for their own grass plots — a lawn naming a lawn, one step removed.
People
Landlord, Tenants, and a Builder's Move
George Lovibond owned the ground on which The Lawn stood. Nothing more is given here about what either lessee did with the property, only that the arrangement put the houses, and eventually the lane's name, into place.
Nearly eighty years later, William Higgs brought his business to a four-acre site here in 1867, a scale of occupation that points to Lawn Lane's industrial character well before its surviving buildings were raised.
Today
School, Laundry, Mansion Flats
Three former workaday buildings now define the lane. The Lawn Lane Centre, in the old school building, serves community education. At Nos. 10-12, Park Place occupies a former Victorian laundry of three gable-ended blocks, commercial in character. Employment still continues in the railway viaduct arches along Lawn Lane, Durham Street and South Lambeth Road.
Park Mansions still stands at the west end, its gables and chimneys unchanged in outline since the 1890s. The grass plots of The Lawn are long gone, but the name they left behind still marks this short, dead-end street beside Vauxhall Park.
On the Map
Lawn Lane Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Lawn Lane?
It is named after The Lawn, a row of eight houses first let on lease in 1791 and named for their own grass plots. The houses were demolished in 1889-90, but the lane kept their name.
What is Lawn Lane known for?
A narrow Vauxhall cul-de-sac that runs along the north side of Vauxhall Park, known for its former school of 1908, a converted Victorian laundry, and the 1890s Park Mansions flats.
What was The Lawn?
The Lawn was a row of eight houses, let on two leases by George Lovibond in 1791 to James Gubbins and Philip Buckley, later renumbered as part of South Lambeth Road and demolished in 1889-90.
What is the Lawn Lane Centre?
The Lawn Lane Centre occupies the former Lawn Lane School, a school built by the London County Council in 1908 at Nos. 40-42, now used for community education.