Time Walk
Behind the Embankment's Grand Front
Behind Albert Embankment's grand river front runs a plainer working lane: Whitgift Street. It is narrow and unhurried, squeezed between the Embankment and the railway viaduct, with the long block that was once the London Fire Brigade's training school and workshops along its south side.
That workshop range was built alongside the Fire Brigade's grander headquarters facing the river, and Whitgift Street marks where that showpiece world stops. The lane carries an older name too, taken from an Elizabethan archbishop connected to Lambeth Palace nearby.
Name Origin
An Archbishop Remembered Near His Palace
The street is named after John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, through his connection to nearby Lambeth Palace, the archbishops' London residence. Whitgift himself founded the Whitgift Foundation and the Croydon almshouses that still carry his name.
History
From a Riverside Mill to a Bottle Works
Before the terraces and railway arches, this ground held a working mill. A smock mill stood close to where the railway arch now crosses Whitgift Street, in line with the Windmill pub on nearby Lambeth High Street. It was probably used for grinding mustard, and may still have been working as a flour mill as late as 1845.
By the early twentieth century the ground nearby had turned industrial again. In 1929 Lambeth Borough Council bought a glass bottle factory standing on Whitgift Street, acquiring the land to enlarge what had been a burial ground into Old Paradise Gardens. Later, the Fire Brigade built its workshops and training school along the street's south side.
The smock mill that once stood near Whitgift Street was probably used to grind mustard, not flour, for much of its working life.
People
The Archbishop at Elizabeth's Deathbed
John Whitgift held one of the most senior posts in the English church when he gave this street its name. He attended Queen Elizabeth I on her deathbed and went on to crown James I. In January 1604 he represented eight bishops at the Hampton Court Conference; he died in Lambeth the following month.
He was buried not in Lambeth but in Croydon, at the parish church of St John the Baptist, now Croydon Minster, where a recumbent effigy marks his tomb.
Today
A Lane Behind the Fire Brigade
Whitgift Street is still a lane that runs behind the show front, named for an archbishop who never saw either.
On the Map
Whitgift Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Whitgift Street?
It is named after John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1604, through his connection to nearby Lambeth Palace.
What is Whitgift Street known for?
It is a quiet lane behind Albert Embankment, once home to a smock mill and a glass bottle factory, and now lined on its south side by the former London Fire Brigade workshops.
Who was John Whitgift?
An Archbishop of Canterbury who attended Elizabeth I's deathbed, crowned James I, drew up the Lambeth Articles in 1595, and died in Lambeth in February 1604, soon after the Hampton Court Conference.