Time Walk
A Terrace That Changed Its Name Twice
This one stretch of road once answered to two different names at once. Walking it today, what stands out is the uniformity: low cottages, strong parapet lines running the length of the terrace, window after window in near-identical rhythm.
Underneath that regularity lies a more confused history, one that took decades to settle into the single name Whittlesey Street. Where that name itself came from is the next puzzle.
Name Origin
Richard Street, Catherine Street, Whittlesey Street
The street did not start life as Whittlesey Street at all. By 1878 its west end was known as Richard Street and its east end as Catherine Street — two names for one road. By 1894 the street appears on Ordnance Survey maps as Whittlesey Street.
The sources used here do not explain why Whittlesey was chosen, or what, if anything, it refers to. What they do establish is the sequence itself: a divided, dual-named street consolidated into one name within a generation.
History
Built by a Gold Refiner
The street was laid out as speculative housing on the Lambeth Estate.
John Palmer Roupell, a gold refiner, developed Whittlesey Street between 1820 and 1840 as part of his wider Lambeth Estate. By 1841 the street was already under construction. The houses that resulted were double-fronted terraced cottages, built to a consistent pattern that still defines the street.
Much of that terrace survives intact enough to have been listed. In 1976, several groups of cottages were given Grade II status, including Nos. 2-18, Nos. 20-30, and single cottages at Nos. 23 and 37, each an early-mid 19th-century cottage of two storeys with three windows. The listings at Nos. 23 and 37 note that each stands at the end of a terrace that was largely destroyed and replaced.
Culture
Nairn's Pantiles
The street's uniformity has been read as its defining quality. Strong parapet lines, consistent brickwork and a regular building line give it what Lambeth's own conservation appraisal calls a smart, distinct character.
People
The Gold Refiner Behind the Terrace
John Palmer Roupell gave this stretch of Waterloo its shape. A gold refiner by trade, he developed Whittlesey Street between 1820 and 1840 as part of his Lambeth Estate, laying down the pattern of modest, double-fronted cottages that still lines the street.
Ian Nairn later put that pattern into words, picking out the trick of disguise in the roofline in his book Nairn's London.
Today
Listed, Protected, Still Uniform
The terrace that Roupell built is now formally protected. Whittlesey Street sits within the Roupell Street Conservation Area, and several of its cottage rows carry Grade II listed status.
It remains a street defined by its own repetition — and by a naming history that took decades to settle.
Before it was Whittlesey Street, this road answered to two different names at once: Richard Street at its west end, Catherine Street at its east, as recorded in 1878.
On the Map
Whittlesey Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Whittlesey Street?
The name appears on Ordnance Survey maps by 1894, replacing earlier names (Richard Street and Catherine Street) used for the two ends of the road in 1878. The sources used here do not explain the origin of "Whittlesey" itself.
What is Whittlesey Street known for?
Its uniform early-19th-century cottage terraces, built by gold refiner John Palmer Roupell between 1820 and 1840, several rows of which are Grade II listed and sit within the Roupell Street Conservation Area.
Did the street have another name before Whittlesey Street?
Yes. By 1878 its west end was called Richard Street and its east end Catherine Street, before it appeared as Whittlesey Street on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map.