Time Walk
A Street That Still Ends at a Gasworks
A row of 1780s town houses still faces straight down the street at a gasworks. Montford Place is narrow, with a long Georgian terrace along its south side and soft front gardens kept to stone paths. Look west and the street's view is closed not by a church or a square but by a gas holder.
That view is no accident — the land behind it was a working gasworks site from the 1840s, and the giant iron structures that still dominate the skyline are part of that story. The terrace and the industry behind it grew up side by side. The name above the street sign, though, is where the written record runs out.
Name Origin
A Name Without an Explanation
The sources used for this page do not explain the origin of the name Montford Place. No lease, listing record or council document consulted here gives the person, place or event the street was named for. What can be dated with confidence is the street itself: a Grade II listed terrace standing at Nos. 3 and 7–25 was built around 1780, giving the earliest firm date for the street as it survives today.
History
From Georgian Terrace to Gasholder Station
The terrace came first. Nos. 3 and 7–25 Montford Place were built around 1780, three storeys high, with arches at ground level and tall windows above. No. 25 still carries its original spear railings, and No. 23 keeps a run of 19th-century Gothic-style railings.
Industry arrived behind the houses within a lifetime. The Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Company, established in 1824, bought the South London Water Works site in 1847 and moved its works to Vauxhall. In the 1870s the South Metropolitan Gas Company took the site over and ran it as a holder station, erecting a conjoined pair of gasholders at Kennington Oval, rare in sharing a single column between them. The Phoenix company itself was absorbed into South Metropolitan Gas in 1880.
Later, around 1900, Haywards Pickle Factory rose at No. 20: a six-storey red-brick building with a domed tower, originally central, until the left-hand side of the building was lost to enemy action in the Second World War.
The gasholders behind Montford Place were built as a conjoined pair sharing a single column — a design thought to be very rare — and stand 41 metres tall.
Culture
Pickle Factory to Gin Distillery
Industry still has a presence on the street. The Beefeater Gin distillery is situated in Montford Place, standing among the Georgian terrace and the surviving gasworks structures.
Today
A Terrace Kept, a View Kept
Only the south side of Montford Place lies within the conservation area today. Late 20th-century infill at Nos. 1 and 5 replicates the look of the listed terrace beside it, restoring gaps in the row. Not every later addition fits: the railings at No. 3 are noted as out of character, while those at No. 5 are held up as a faithful reinstatement.
Lambeth Council has flagged the street's electricity substation and its excessive street signage and bollards as things that could still be improved. The long view west, though, remains deliberate: a narrow Georgian street still looking straight at the gas holder that has stood behind it since the 1870s.
On the Map
Montford Place Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Montford Place?
The sources used for this page do not explain the origin of the name. No record consulted here names the person or event behind it.
What is Montford Place known for?
Its late 18th-century listed terrace, a former Victorian pickle factory, and the rare pair of 1870s Phoenix Gas Company gasholders that still close the view west along the street.
How old are the buildings on Montford Place?
The main terrace at Nos. 3 and 7–25 dates from around 1780. No. 20, the former Haywards Pickle Factory, was built around 1900, and Nos. 1 and 5 are late 20th-century infill.