Time Walk
A Lord Chancellor's Land, Cut Into Plots
A Lord Chancellor died, and within a few years his land was carved into streets, Palace Road among them. It was laid out on ground that rolls and dips rather than the flat terraces common elsewhere in Lambeth, and walking it today the eye catches an Italianate villa behind a terracotta porch, and further along a tile-hung Arts and Crafts house with an open timber porch.
Beneath the villas lies an estate plan drawn up by trustees managing a dead man's property, not a single grand design. That inheritance is the thread worth following into the road's name.
Name Origin
The Thurlow Trustees' Road
Palace Road was built as an estate road by the Trustees of Lord Thurlow after his death in 1806, under an Act of Parliament obtained in 1809 to open his Lambeth and Streatham estates for building. It became one of the two main arteries of the Roupell Park estate, formed out of that former Thurlow land.
The sources used here do not explain why the road was given the name "Palace."
History
Villas on Undulating Ground
The ground here rises and falls, and builders noticed. In the second half of the 19th century, Palace Road offered attractive sites for large detached houses, standing apart from the routine speculative terraces going up across Lambeth after about 1860.
One of those builders set up shop on the road itself: William Higgs, apprenticed to Joshua Higgs of Davies Street, moved his business here in 1852 and secured many contracts for churches, schools and public buildings.
A separate account from 1878 notes that out-patients of St Thomas's Hospital entered via "the new Palace Road" at the east end of the hospital buildings.
The Roupell Park estate, of which Palace Road was a main artery, was formed out of the land of Lord Thurlow, a Lord Chancellor whose estate trustees opened it for building after his death in 1806.
People
The Builder Who Made Churches and Schools
William Higgs had learned his trade under Joshua Higgs, a builder based at Davies Street, Berkeley Square. From his Palace Road base, he went on to secure many contracts for churches, schools and public buildings across the area.
Today
Two Villas Still Standing
Two houses on the list of Lambeth's locally valued buildings still mark the road's Victorian character. No. 38 is a 19th-century Italianate villa in stock brick, two storeys with a third-storey feature, sash windows and terracotta dressings around its porch. No. 60-62, dating from the 1890s, is a substantial Arts and Crafts house in brick with tile hanging, its open timber porch giving it an asymmetrical, picturesque look.
On the Map
Palace Road Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Palace Road?
Palace Road was built as an estate road by the Trustees of Lord Thurlow after his death in 1806, under an 1809 Act of Parliament. The sources used here do not explain the origin of the word "Palace" itself.
What is Palace Road known for?
It was one of the two main arteries of the Roupell Park estate and, from the 1860s, a favoured site for large detached villas on its undulating ground, including a 19th-century Italianate villa at No. 38 and an 1890s Arts and Crafts house at No. 60-62.
Who was William Higgs?
A builder apprenticed under Joshua Higgs of Davies Street, Berkeley Square, who moved his own business to Palace Road in 1852 and went on to secure many contracts for churches, schools and public buildings.