Hopton Street

Hopton Street runs off Southwark Street towards the river, nestled amongst new developments around the south side of Blackfriars Station. The street stands in the shadow of modern Bankside, yet two structures survive from centuries past. Two historic houses were built in the 1740s by Thomas Ellis and William Cooley. But the street’s most striking landmark is Hopton’s Almshouses, which give a glimpse into life on Bankside over 250 years ago, built in 1752 with money left for this purpose by Charles Hopton.

2011

Hopton St, London SE1, 30 May 2011

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

2018

Number 61 And Attached Railings And Overthrow To Gate — near Hopton Street

Wikimedia Commons · CC0

2018

Number 61 And Attached Railings And Overthrow To Gate 2 — near Hopton Street

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Today

Blackfriars Station — near Hopton Street

Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

What defines the street today is not its architecture but its history. The name itself is a story—not of Hopton the person, but of an act of erasure and recovery. The street had been called Green Walk for nearly three centuries before being renamed in honour of the man whose charity gave it meaning.

The street was originally called Green Walk and appears on William Morgan's Map (1682). Towards the end of the 17th century a path was made across this land from the Mill Pond in Upper Ground to Christ Church, which became known as Churchway or Green Walk. The road name eventually came to originate from Hopton's Estate, which is today the Hopton Gardens Almshouses. In Grace Golden's history of Old Bankside, published in 1951, she refers to: "An apparently puritanical drive has recently changed Holland into Hopton Street, named after Charles Hopton". The licensing records for the Founder's Arms state that the original address was 8 Holland Street and the address was changed to 56 Hopton Street between 1934 and 1938. The money (and name) for the almshouses came from Charles Hopton who on his death left a large sum of money to his sister, and on her death the money was used to build the Almshouses. Hopton was born around 1654 into a wealthy merchant family and was a member of the Guild of Fishmongers.

In 1699, Austin Oldesworth, acting on behalf of William Austin, junior, the heir of the property, sold the ground on the east side of the way to James Price and John Morgan. One house, formerly No. 61 Hopton Street (and even earlier than that, 9 Green Walk), is a tiny survivor dating from 1702 and built by James Price. The house at 9 Green Walk is the tiny survivor, dating from 1702 and built by James Price. Over the centuries it's been home to Edward Knight, a trustee of a charity school nearby c. 1720, Henry Batterson a bricklayer c. 1744 and Eliza Reynolds, a vellum binder (fine animal skin used for binding books) in 1895.

The house and attached railings are Grade II listed. It’s the oldest surviving house in this area, second only to 49 Bankside, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century according to Historic England. The almshouses were built in 1752 with money left for this purpose by Charles Hopton. Twenty-six poor men were selected to live in the alms-houses who also received £6 per annum.

Hopton Street contains Hopton's Almshouses and No. 61, both listed buildings of historical significance. The almshouses themselves stand as a physical record of 18th-century poor relief. Hopton's Almshouses were founded by will by Charles Hopton in 1730, for twenty-six poor men, with £10 a year and a chaldron of coals apiece. These were not token buildings but functional homes where residents actually lived for decades.

The renaming of the street in the 1930s was itself a cultural act. There was an initiative to change from Holland to Hopton Street to erase the reference to what must have effectively been a brothel kept by Sarah Holland at the old Paris Garden's Manor House. The street’s name shift reflects a desire to distance Southwark’s riverside from its notorious past and claim a more respectable identity through association with charity.

Hopton Street is nestled amongst new developments around the south side of Blackfriars Station. Most of the street's footprint has been rebuilt in recent decades, yet two structures stand as reminders of older Southwark. The almshouses remain occupied, though now managed as heritage buildings. The Grade II listed house at No. 61 stands dwarfed by modern apartment blocks, protected by its listing status from alteration or demolition.

The street’s transformation is incomplete—the names of institutions have changed, the glass works have vanished, and modern architecture now frames the old buildings. Yet the street name originates from Hopton's Estate, which is today the Hopton Gardens Almshouses, a direct link to the 18th-century charity that gave the street its current identity.