Time Walk
A Road That Outlasted Its Marsh
This lane once crossed a swamp, and the swamp is gone but the lane is still trading. Walk it today and you find market stalls, cheap eats and small shops pressed hard against the brick flank of Waterloo Station, whose viaducts cut this street off from the river it once ran towards.
Beneath the stalls lies a drained marsh settled, by one account or another, since at least the fourteenth century. That older, wetter world is what the name still points back to.
Name Origin
From Lambeth Marsh to Lower Marsh
The name is a plain description of the ground. Lambeth Marsh, the low wet land south of the Thames, is mentioned in the Lay Subsidy returns as far back as 1332. John Norden's 1615 survey of Kennington Manor covered the same ground, which lay partly within the Manors of Lambeth and Kennington.
A 1690 survey by de la Peuille identified a lane across the marsh, lined with cottages and smallholdings. John Rocque's survey of 1741 shows a line of houses already called Lambeth Marsh, and the name persists on Morgan's map of 1782. Through the 18th century, as the marsh was drained and development began, the name came to be applied specifically to the road running across it towards St George's Fields.
That single road became two streets when Westminster Bridge opened in 1750 as the second Thames crossing downstream, and Westminster Bridge Road was driven through the settlement, dividing it into Upper Marsh and Lower Marsh. The names are still in use today.
History
Tollgate, Terraces and a Severing Railway
A tollgate stood where Lower Marsh met the new road to the bridge. From 1760 the Marshgate turnpike collected tolls at that junction until 1844. Around 1820 the New Cut, later simply The Cut, was laid out as a continuation of Lower Marsh east of Waterloo Road.
Development followed the drainage. From the 1780s the marshes were drained and the whole area began to be built up, and by 1816 the Manor of Lambeth Enclosure Map shows tight terraces around Westminster Bridge Road and Lower Marsh, with timber yards, factories and distilleries filling the gaps. London Bridge Station opened in 1838, and in 1848 Waterloo Station's first four platforms opened nearby. Carried on high viaducts, the railway severed Lower Marsh from the riverside, removing hundreds of houses and small streets in the process.
By 1875 the First Edition Ordnance Survey map shows Lower Marsh densely built up, with few if any private gardens left. County Hall was built nearby in 1917, replacing the Lion Brewery on the riverside. In 1984 the street was designated Conservation Area 40, intended to protect its character and strengthen its role as a shopping centre.
Lower Marsh sits on a slightly raised ridge of river gravel, a trace of firmer ground amid the old marsh — it's still visible on Westminster Bridge Road, where the ridge forces a stepped kerb.
Culture
Costermongers and a Relocated Market
Together with The Cut, the market formed the commercial heart of the area. In the 1950s, when The Cut was designated the B300 route between Borough High Street and Westminster Bridge Road, its market was relocated onto Lower Marsh. Two of the street's 19th-century pubs are recorded by address: the Spanish Patriot at No. 34 and the Artichoke at No. 121, the latter also listed in earlier insurance records under different numbers before the street was renumbered. More recently, the specialist transport publisher and shop Ian Allan had a store on Lower Marsh, which closed in 2020.
People
Mr Privatisation Takes a Title
John Moore, who sat as Conservative MP for Croydon Central from 1974 to 1992, served in the Cabinet as a Secretary of State between 1987 and 1989 under Margaret Thatcher, where he became known as "Mr Privatisation" for his part in the government's privatisation programme. When he was made a life peer, he took the title Baron Moore of Lower Marsh.
Today
Piecemeal by Design
Lower Marsh is a district shopping street running close against Waterloo Station. Most of its buildings date from the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries, many rebuilt piece by piece rather than all at once, and that patchwork is said to give the street much of its character. Given the long run of settlement on this ground, there is thought to be a reasonable chance of earlier remains surviving beneath today's shopfronts.
The marsh is centuries gone, drained and built over twice beyond recognition. But the market that grew on it, and the name it carried, are both still here.
On the Map
Lower Marsh Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Lower Marsh?
It takes its name from Lambeth Marsh, the wet ground that once covered this part of Lambeth. When Westminster Bridge Road was cut through the old settlement after 1750, it split into Upper Marsh and Lower Marsh.
What is Lower Marsh known for?
A street market that has traded on the road since the early 19th century, once drawing an estimated 300 costermongers alongside The Cut, and today still running as one of Waterloo's main shopping streets.
How old is Lower Marsh?
The area it stands in, Lambeth Marsh, is mentioned as early as 1332. A lane across the marsh lined with cottages was recorded in a 1690 survey, well before the current street layout took shape.
Why was Lower Marsh cut off from the river?
Waterloo Station opened in 1848 on high viaducts that removed hundreds of houses and small streets, severing Lower Marsh's old connection to the riverside.