COMMON LAND
Kennington Common
Fig. 3, plots 11 and 12
The common land in Kennington lay on the
south-eastern border of the Manor, and is now
covered by St. Mark’s Church and burial ground,
the triangle of land between Brixton and Kennington Park Roads, and a large part of Kennington Park. The Common was bounded on the
south-west by Vauxhall Creek and was marshy;
Hodskinson and Middleton’s survey shows a pond
near the south-east corner, and a ditch on the
north-east and east sides. (ref. 6) Cattle belonging to the
tenants of the Manor were grazed there, provided
that they were clearly marked, and in 1660 it is
recorded that 2d. was to be paid to the “common
keeper” for every horse or mare and 1d. for every
head of kine set to pasture there. (ref. 73) The animals
were probably driven to pasture form the riverside
parts of the Manor along the track which became
Kennington Road. Fines for making cartways
across the Common are recorded frequently in
the court rolls; in some cases the carts were said
to be carrying bricks.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Kennington
Common gained an evil reputation. Part of it,
including the site of the church and burial ground
(plot 11) and the triangle of land between Brixton
and Kennington Park Roads, was used as a place
of execution and known as Gallows Common.
Several Jacobites were executed here after the
rising of 1745, and in 1866 when the removal of
Temple Bar from Fleet Street was being considered, there was a suggestion that it should be
re-erected in the Park to commemorate their
execution. (ref. 74) Crowds came to the Common not
only to witness executions, but also to hear itinerant preachers “arguing upon their different
religions”, (ref. 46) and to see the cricket matches
so profitable to the landlord of the Horns
Tavern.
In 1801 the Grand Surrey Canal Company
approached the Duchy of Cornwall with a
request to purchase Gallows Common for the
construction of a canal basin there. Similar proposals were made in 1807 and 1817 but they all
failed. (ref. 75)
A part of the Common was surrendered for the
formation of Camberwell New Road and another
for St. Mark’s Church and burial ground (see
below). Rights of common were extinguished
over the surrendered portions and the remainder
was inclosed with posts and rails. (ref. 49) After the
Reform Act of 1832 candidates for the Parliamentary Borough of Lambeth were nominated
on the Common and some twenty thousand
Chartists gathered there in 1848 before the
presentation of the National petition to Parliament. (ref. 76)
The Common was converted into a Park by the
Kennington Common Inclosure Act of 1852,
which extinguished all rights of common. (ref. 77)
St. Mark’s Church
Fig.3, plot 11
St. Mark’s was the second of the four “Waterloo” churches to be built in Lambeth under the
Act of 1818 for providing additional churches in
populous areas. (ref. 78) From the funds available to
them the Commissioners for Building New
Churches appointed under the Act granted
£64,000 for the four Lambeth churches. (ref. 79) Considerable
financial restrictions were therefore
imposed on the designing and building of the churches.
The site chosen for the church at Kennington
was part of Gallows Common; the Duchy of
Cornwall was approached to convey the site, but
it had no power to sell common land. (ref. 80) The only
solution to the dilemma was to obtain an Act of
Parliament empowering the Duchy to convey and
the Commissioners to acquire common land of
Kennington Manor. The negotiations were
necessarily protracted, and in June 1823 the
Lambeth Vestry expressed its desire “to avoid
the unpleasant circumstance of finding the consecration
of the church delayed after its completion
from the want of power to convey the site”. (ref. 80)
The Vestry’s fears were almost realized; the Act
of Parliament did not receive the Royal Assent
until June 24, 1824, (ref. 81) six days before the church’s
consecration.
Common rights over the church site and burial
ground were extinguished, and £ 484 6s. 3d. was
paid as compensation to the Lambeth Vestry,
which was presumably acting on behalf of the
tenants of Kennington Manor. Part of this
money was given to the Trustees of the Kennington
Schools and part was used for fencing, marking
and draining the rest of the Common and “for
the erection of further Lamp Posts or Pillars in
Saint Mark’s Church Yard and otherwise improving
the said Common”. (ref. 49)
The architect appointed for the church was
D.R. Roper. (ref. 80) It has been suggested that A.B.
Clayton “ghosted” for Roper, (ref. 82) but this cannot
easily be proved; Roper certainly dealt with the
Church Building Commissioners in all matters
concerning the church. The contractors were
Messrs. Moore, Grimsdell and Davis. (ref. 83) The
design was for a building of “The Grecian Doric
Order … With Portico, and Tower, terminated
with a Cupola of the Grecian Ionic
Order”. (ref. 80) Roper estimated the cost at £ 15,248,
the lowest figures “consistent with the Stability
and Character of the Building”. (ref. 80) Of the final
cost of £16,093 4s. 3d., the parish of Lambeth
raised £8,442 2s. 6d. and the rest was paid by the
Commissioners. (ref. 80) The first stone was laid on
July 1, 1822, and the church was consecrated on
June 30, 1824, both ceremonies being performed
by the Archbishop of Canterbury (ref. 84) (Plates 2, 4a,
11a).
The church had accommodation for over two
thousand persons. 1,082 of the sittings were
rented, and under a deed of February 13, 1827 (ref. 80)
the surplus of the pew rents after paying the minister’s
stipend was set aside for providing a parsonage
house. The first incumbent was the Rev.
William Otter, later Bishop of Chichester.
Correctly orientated and sited within an extensive
churchyard, St. Mark’s has a direct and wellarticulated
plan on conventional lines. The body
of the church forms an oblong with splayed
angles, its major axis running east-west. An
extension at the west end, fronted by the portico,
contains an octangular vestibule placed centrally
and forming the base of the steeple, flanked by
staircases that lead to the gallery extending round
three sides of the interior. A shallow eastern
extension forms a recessed setting for the altar.
The plan is well expressed in elevations of
Grecian design with a distinct Regency flavour,
built in grey brick with dressings generally of
Bath stone. Steps bounded by plain pedestals rise
to the portico, which is wholly of Portland stone.
In elevation this portico is tetrastyle in antis, but
since the ends are open the antae have the form
and function of square piers. The deep entablature,
appropriately adorned with triglyphs, is surmounted
by an ill-proportioned pediment.
Each side of the building presents a brick face
divided into five equal bays by stone pilasters.
Appropriately spaced within these bays are two
tiers of windows, segmental-headed and without
architraves, the lower tier being of squat proportion.
The splayed angle walls form a further
windowless bay at each end, and the return face
of the portico includes a stone-faced bay containing a
doorway with a window over.
The steeple, which is placed centrally behind
the portico but free of the roof over the body of
the church, is a curious design savouring of the ill-assorted
flavours of Soane and Smirke. The square
first stage has four identical faces, each with a louvred
segmental-headed opening framed by wide
antae and a simple entablature. At each corner is a
tall pedestal-like pier crowned by an elaborate anthemion
ornament. From an octangular pedestal,
each cardinal face containing a clock dial flanked
by stele, rises the extremely attenuated lantern.
Circular in plan, its eight Ionic columns support
an entablature and a hemispherical dome of stone,
surmounted by a cross. A tall pedestal is introduced
into each intercolumniation.
St. Mark's was a typical Commissioners' church
in the arrangement and decoration of its interior.
The gallery extends round three sides and over
all there is a single-span ceiling, here with a
shallow coved surround. Doric columns of cast-iron
support the gallery, its front being appropriately
adorned with a simple entablature. The
walls behind the gallery are divided into bays by
pilasters with moulded capitals, supporting an
entablature having a frieze relief of anthemion
ornament with paired sphinxes over the pilasters.
The altar recess is handsomely framed by paired
Ionic columns. Further plaster enrichments,
including the festoon and cherub-head motifs
over the windows, were introduced during the
1901 restoration.
The interior has, in fact, undergone extensive
restoration twice, each time at the hand of an
architect who was completely out of sympathy
with his predecessor. In the 1870s, when the
original pews were replaced by the present seating
and choir-stalls, and the organ was removed from
the west gallery to the east end, the mode was
fiercely Gothic, while in 1901 it was revived
Wren. The church was severely damaged by
enemy action in September 1940; after partial
restoration it was re-dedicated on April 9, 1949.
In 1898 the fine late 19th century carved oak
pulpit was brought from the demolished City
church of St. Michael's, Wood Street. (ref. 85) The
brass lectern was presented in the same year by
Charlotte Darlington and was restored in 1949.
In 1899 the font, which was originally erected in
1844, was removed to the west end. In 1903 eight
tubular bells were given by the vicar, John
Darlington. The communion rails were presented
in 1905, and the oak screen in the gallery
in 1919.<In about 1923 the rector bought an old carved oak reredos, then in the church of St George the Martyr, Southwark, but originally from the demolished City church of St Michael, Wood Street. This he placed at the back of the west gallery to fill the void left there by the removal of the organ to the east end in 1874.> The oak screen in the chapel in the
south aisle was given by Emily Sophia Kinchin
in 1935. The stained-glass window on the south
side of the church was given in memory of John
Arnoldi Cotton and his wife; it was designed by
W. T. C. Shapland and made in 1952 by Barton,
Kinder and Alderson; the subject is St. John
baptising Our Lord. A stone set in the south wall
is crudely carved “W.H. 12 Aug 1769”.
Kennington Park
Fig. 3, plots 11, 12 and 13
With the rapid development of the surrounding
area in the first half of the 19th century, Kennington
Common lost its ancient agricultural purpose
and became a mere dumping ground for rubbish.
In 1849 an observer stated that “The stunted
herbage is trodden and soiled by a troop of cows
belonging to a neighbouring milkman. A kind of
pond near one corner, and a deep ditch opposite
South Place, are the cemeteries of all the dead
puppies and kittens of the vicinity.” The vitriol
factory on the east side gave off a constant stream
of sulphurous vapour, and the ditches presented
“an accumulation of black offensive muddy
liquid, receiving constant contributions from
numerous unmentionable conveniences attached
to a line of low cottage erections”. (ref. 86)
In 1841 there was an unsuccessful proposal to
form a park in the area between Doddington
Grove and Wyndham Street a little to the east
of the Common. Ten years later the Rev. Charlton
Lane, minister of St. Mark's Church, perhaps
alarmed by the vast Chartist gathering in 1848,
led a deputation to the First Commissioner of
Works and the Duchy of Cornwall requesting
that the Common should be made a Park. A
local committee was set up to raise £1,000 of the
estimated cost of £3,650, and a Bill was promoted
in Parliament, (ref. 46) which became law in 1852.
The Kennington Common Inclosure Act
vested the Common in the Commissioners of Her
Majesty's Works and Public Buildings, “freed
and discharged from all Rights of Common and
all other Rights whatsoever”. It also gave the
Commissioners power to inclose, drain and plant
the Common, and to divert Brixton Road and
move the toll-gate and house. (ref. 77) Iron railings were
immediately erected round the Common by
Messrs. H. and M. D. Grissell, and the levelling
and planting of the ground was completed by
March 1854. (ref. 46) Prince Consort Lodge was also
re-erected there by William Higgs (see page 36).
Before 1852 the junction of Brixton and Kennington
Park Roads stood some 550 feet from
St. Mark's Church, and a toll-gate controlling
both roads stood near Magee Street (Plate 37b).
The first draft of the Act of 1852 proposed a
junction some 200 feet from the church, leaving
more common land to the north-east of the junction
The Trustees of the Surrey New Roads
and a number of local inhabitants objected, and
as a compromise the junction was made in its
present position some 300 feet from the church;
the work of diverting Brixton Road was carried
out by Robert Neal at a cost of £746. The position
of the toll-gate and house had also to be
changed. The old house was sold for £33 and
William Higgs built a new one at the reconstructed
junction for £199; he also moved the toll-gate
to its new position. (ref. 46) The house and gate were
finally taken down in 1865.
A triangular piece of ground containing about
three-quarters of an acre in front of South Place,
now Kennington Park Place, was not fenced in
after the Act of 1852 because it was not part of
the Common. The inhabitants of South Place
protested that if the land were left unfenced
it would be used by the undesirables who had
hitherto given the Common a bad name. The
triangle of land had been included in the area to
be purchased for the Park, but the owner, Captain
Faunce de Laune, objected to its being incorporated
in the Park. In 1864 the inhabitants of
South Place obtained a leasehold interest and fenced
the land at their own expense. Captain de Laune's
successor, another de Laune, offered the land to
the Commissioners in 1884 for £3,000, but his
offer was declined. The inhabitants’ lease lapsed
in 1886 and de Laune erected a notice-board
offering to let the land as a nursery ground. (ref. 46)
At this point the impact of wider considerations
provided a solution of the problem. Before
1888 several other London parks as well as
Kennington Park had been maintained by the
Office of Works, although not Crown property.
For some years Members of Parliament sitting
for provincial constituencies had objected to this
practice, on the ground that provincial parks had
to be maintained out of local and not central
government funds. The vote for the London
parks was defeated in 1887, and in the same year
the London Parks and Works Act transferred
Victoria, Battersea and Kennington Parks, among
other properties, to the Metropolitan Board of
Works; (ref. 87) the Board immediately purchased de
Laune’s land for £2,000. (ref. 88) The London County
Council took over the Park in 1889.
In 1920 the Kennington Park Extension Committee
was formed to raise subscriptions for the
purchase of six acres of land (ref. 89) adjoining the
south-east corner of the Park. (ref. 90) These six acres
were part of a croft of land and natural pasture
containing eight acres, known as Shotesgrove in
Hazards Marsh (fig.3, plot 13) which lay near
Hazards Bridge over Vauxhall Creek. (ref. 2) The formation
of Camberwell New Road had divided
Shotesgrove, leaving some six acres on the north-east side of the road. By 1920 four of the six
acres were covered by houses whose leases were
due to expire between 1921 and 1924, and the
remaining two acres were taken up by a private
road and a playground used by the schools of the
district. With contributions from the Lambeth
and Southwark Borough Councils and from other
bodies the Committee raised £15,101 and the
balance of £23,256 was contributed by the
London County Council; the purchase of the
land was completed in December 1921. (ref. 89) The
six acres are now occupied by a flower garden,
swimming pool and children’s playground.
At the suggestion of the Master of Bolton
Street school, a gymnasium was erected in the
Park in 1861 opposite the church of St. Agnes. (ref. 46)
In 1862 Felix Slade presented a drinking fountain;
the steps and the bowl were of granite and
were surmounted by a bronze vase upon which
Jacob, Rebecca, Hagar and Ishmael were represented
in low relief. The fountain was designed
by Charles H. Driver; the bronze work was
executed by Messrs. Elkington and the mason’s
work by Thomas Earp. (ref. 91) The bronze vase has
now been removed, and the bowl is used as a
jardinière. Another fountain, representing “The
Pilgrimage of Life” was modelled by George
Tinworth and was given by Sir Henry Doulton
in 1869. (ref. 46)
Prince Consort’s Model Lodge, Kennington Park
Fig. 3, plot 12
This building was originally erected by the
Society for Improving the Condition of the
Labouring Classes as part of the Great Exhibition
of 1851. The Society was established in 1844
with the Prince Consort as its President; its
Honorary Architect, Henry Roberts, was a
pioneer in the improvement of working-class
housing. Through the influence of the Prince
Consort a site at the Knightsbridge Cavalry
Barrack-yard adjoining the Great Exhibition was
obtained, and model houses for four families were
erected there. (ref. 92) The houses (Plate 73a, fig. 7) were
designed by Henry Roberts, and embodied a
number of novel ideas. Each flat had a livingroom,
three bedrooms (each with separate access)
and a scullery fitted with a sink, plate-rack, coalbin,
dust-shaft and meat-safe; there was also a
water-closet. (ref. 93) The living-room had a cupboard
heated by warm air from the fireplace. (ref. 93) The
most prominent feature of the design was the
covered central staircase in the front, which gave
access to the two upper flats. The construction
of the houses was equally unusual. Hollow bricks
were used, whereby it was claimed that “dryness,
warmth, durability, security from fire, and deadening
of sound, are obtained, as well as economy of
construction to the extent, as compared with the
cost of common brickwork, of at least 25 per
cent”. (ref. 94) No timber was used for either the first
floor or the roof, which were formed with flat
arches of hollow brickwork, rising from eight to
nine inches, set in cement, and tied by wroughtirom
rods connected with cast-iron springers, which
rested on the external walls and bound the whole
structure together. Concrete was used for levelling
off the arches. The internal face of the walls
was so smooth that plastering was unnecessary. (ref. 94)
The total cost of the four dwellings was
£458 14s. 7d. (ref. 93) The design was subsequently
used in a number of places, notably in Cowley
Gardens, Stepney, in Fenelon Place, Kensington
and in Hertford, but the use of hollow bricks,
despite its advantages, was never very widespred. (ref. 93)
Figure 7.:
Prince Consort's Model Lodge, 1851-2. Henty Roberts, architect
After the Great Exhibition had closed, the
houses were re-erected in 1852 by William Higgs
on their present site for £557. The projecting
porch at the back, which does not form part of
the original design, was probably added at this
time. The houses were to be used as homes for
two attendants and “as a Museum for Articles
relating to Cottage economy to which the public
may be admitted”. (ref. 46) When the outside staircase
was enclosed in 1898, (ref. 46) part of the ground-floor
set of rooms was used as store-rooms and offices,
and the remainder, together with the upper
rooms, was inhabited by the Superintendent of the
Park. (ref. 95)