Time Walk
Where the Viaduct Meets the Road
A Victorian charity school gave way to a contemporary art gallery, but the railway beside it never left. Walking it today, you pass a remnant of that school, a scene-painting workshop turned gallery, and the long unbroken wall of the viaduct itself — one of the few stretches nearby that still feels firmly nineteenth-century.
Underneath that industrial surface is an older street with a different name, long before Damien Hirst's gallery opened at its northern end. That change of name is where the story of Newport Street really starts.
Name Origin
From Doughty Street to Newport Street
Newport Street was formerly called Doughty Street. The sources used here do not explain why or when it was renamed, or what "Newport" refers to.
History
Beaufoy's Memorial School
In 1851 the philanthropist Henry Beaufoy built the Lambeth Ragged Schools on Newport Street as a memorial to his wife. She had taken an interest in a school that had previously been held in one of the nearby railway arches. The building had three wings, with a Greek pediment and colonnade on the central one.
The schools did not last in that form. Around 1904, when the railway was widened, all but the southern wing was pulled down. The school itself moved on, first to temporary premises in Auckland Street, Vauxhall, and later to Wandsworth Road.
The southern wing survived, however, funded originally by local philanthropists, and still stands on the street today at No. 22.
Culture
From Scenery Shop to Gallery
Two galleries now sit within a few doors of each other on this short street.
Further along, the surviving southern wing of the old Ragged School at No. 22 is now in use as the Beaconsfield Art Gallery. The pediment and colonnade of the original 1851 building are the most tangible link left to Beaufoy's school.
People
A Memorial to a Wife
Henry Beaufoy built the school as a memorial to his wife, who had taken an interest in an earlier school housed in one of the nearby railway arches.
Today
Viaduct, Gallery, Wall
Newport Street still runs hard against the railway viaduct on its eastern side. Council appraisals single this stretch out as one of the last places nearby where the brick of the viaduct and the line of the road still read as a single nineteenth-century industrial scene.
The building that now houses the Damien Hirst Gallery was built in 1913 as a scene-painting workshop, long before it became an art space.
Historic industrial and commercial premises along the street were considered in 2016 for inclusion in the Albert Embankment conservation area, as part of a wider push to bring together scattered pockets of this older character.
On the Map
Newport Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Newport Street?
The street was formerly called Doughty Street. The sources used here do not explain when or why it became Newport Street.
What is Newport Street known for?
It is known for the Lambeth Ragged Schools, founded here in 1851 by Henry Beaufoy, and for the Newport Street Gallery, a contemporary art space built into a former scene-painting workshop.
Does anything survive of the Ragged Schools?
Yes — the southern wing of the original 1851 building survives at No. 22 and is now used as the Beaconsfield Art Gallery.