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Austral Street

A Victorian street named after a distant continent, lined with period terraces that survive from Kennington’s expansion boom.

Named After
Australia
Character
Victorian Terrace
Borough
Southwark
Last Updated
Time Walk

A Quiet Residential Street in Kennington

Austral Street today is a peaceful residential street lined with Victorian terraced houses, their original brickwork and sash windows largely intact. The street forms part of the grid of Kennington roads developed in the 1880s and 1890s, and it retains the character of that period—a working-class neighbourhood of compact homes built for the expanding population of South London. Traffic is light, the pavement tree-lined, the street undeveloped by new buildings.

The name itself is the curious relic of a naming convention that looked outward, beyond Britain. How a Kennington terrace came to be called after a continent across the world tells us something about Victorian ambition and the reach of empire.

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Name Origin

A Name from the Far South

Austral Street takes its name from Australia. The word ‘Austral’ is derived from Latin, meaning southern—and was used in the nineteenth century as an elegant, classical way to refer to the Australian continent and its surrounding regions. The street was named during the rapid expansion of Walworth in the 1880s, a period when London’s property developers looked to geography, empire, and distant places for street names. Other roads in the immediate vicinity share this pattern: Columbian Street (named after Columbia, the poetic name for America), and other streets drawing on global references reflect the confidence and far-reaching imagination of the Victorian era.

Why Australia specifically was chosen for this Kennington street remains undocumented. It may simply have been that the developer or surveyor favoured the name for its sound and classical ring, or there may have been a local connection now lost to time. What is clear is that the name arrived not through any local history, but through the expansionist mood of the 1880s, when Britain was conscious of its reach across the globe.

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The Street Today

Victorian Heritage in Working-Class Kennington

Walking Austral Street today, the Victorian character is unmissable. The terraced houses—two and three storeys, built of London stock brick with slate roofs—date from the 1880s and 1890s, and many retain original features: sash windows, decorative tilework at the eaves, and solid timber doors. The street has never been significantly redeveloped, and modern interventions have been modest. The pavements are narrow by current standards, reflecting the density of the original development. Trees grow along the street, their presence a green relief in a densely built area. The street is quiet, residential, and still serves the local community much as it did over 140 years ago, though the population that lives here now reflects London’s contemporary diversity rather than the working-class families of the Victorian era.

Austral Street does not draw tourists or have a marked cultural reputation. It is simply a street where people live—and that ordinariness, preserved from the Victorian period, is itself its significance. It stands as evidence of how rapidly South London was built, how deliberately place-names were chosen to express imperial confidence, and how such streets, once ordinary, become historical artefacts simply by enduring.

Did You Know?

The name ‘Austral’ comes from Latin, not English. It was used throughout the nineteenth century as a poetic alternative to ‘Australian’ and appears in poetry, geography books, and official documents of the period—before gradually falling out of favour in the twentieth century.

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On the Map

Austral Street Then & Now

National Library of Scotland — Ordnance Survey 6-inch, c. 1888. Hosted by MapTiler. Modern: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called Austral Street?
Austral Street was named after Australia during the 1880s development of Kennington. ‘Austral’ is a Latin-derived word meaning southern, and the name reflects the Victorian enthusiasm for geographical and imperial references. It was chosen by the developer or surveyor responsible for laying out this grid of streets, alongside other globally-inspired names like Columbian Street.
When was Austral Street built?
Austral Street was developed during the 1880s and 1890s as part of the rapid Victorian expansion of Kennington. The surviving terraced houses date from this period and represent the working-class housing boom that transformed South London in the late nineteenth century. The street layout and building patterns reflect the standardised approach to suburban development of that era.
What is Austral Street known for?
Austral Street is known as a well-preserved example of late Victorian terraced housing in Kennington. The street retains its original character and building stock from the 1880s–1890s, with many houses maintaining period features including sash windows and original brickwork. Today it serves as a quiet residential street and a historical record of how South London was rapidly built to house the expanding urban population.
Street Origin Products

Every address has a story. Here’s yours.

Austral Street has been part of Kennington since the 1880s. Here’s how to put that history to work.