Victoria Line Walks - Vauxhall - Stockwell

There are frequent Victoria Line tube trains to Vauxhall and Victoria, and Northern Line trains to  London Bridge.

A flat walk, which leaves the noise and bustle of Vauxhall, heading via a 'secret garden'  and the Oval Cricket Ground, for Kennington Park, with an opportunity to relax or explore.  Leaving the park we experience more traffic before heading south, through quiet residential streets (where fine examples of mid Victorian terraces are interspersed with post-war council housing), to arrive at a 1950’s building, which in its time lead the world.  Finally, on a busy traffic roundabout, we find reminders of how the area has changed since 1940.

[1] Leave Vauxhall Underground Station (A), following signs to the National Rail station.  At the National Rail station main entrance, face the bus station and then turn left, to go along a quiet road, under the railway (South Lambeth Place). At the end, cross the busy South Lambeth Road using the pedestrian lights, towards the British Interplanetary Society building. Turn right to continue on left hand side of South Lambeth Road (beware cyclists).  Turn left down Langley Lane and continue into Bonnington Square.  Cross towards the pillar box and almost immediately arrive at the entrance to Bonnington Square Pleasure Garden (B).  Do have a look inside!

[2] Continue along the road, crossing towards the left hand corner.   Go through the door between numbers 35 and 39, open during daylight hours, and along a passage to Harleyford Road Community Gardens (C). (No dogs).  In the gardens, turn left at a path junction (following the mosaics in the paving stones) and turn right just before the pond. Fork left to leave the gardens through a gate onto Harleyford Road opposite the Beehive Pub.

Alternative route with dog, or if closed:  retrace your steps slightly to Vauxhall Grove and follow this to the main road (Harleyford Road).  Turn right and rejoin the main route at the pedestrian lights. 

[3] Use pedestrian lights to cross towards the Beehive, and then turn right along Harleyford Road towards the Oval.  

(D) Oval Cricket Ground is a famous venue for test matches, and has been the home of Surrey County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1845. Prior to that it was a market garden. The original contract for turfing the Oval cost £300; 10,000 grass turfs came from Tooting Common. The plant-covered wall is the rear wall of the four-tier grandstand built in 2005.

Turn left at the cricket ground into Kennington Oval.  Cross Vauxhall Street and go past the Gasholders' site entrance.  Turn left, into Clayton Street.  Turn left at Kennington Road and, almost immediately fork left.  By Montford Place cross to the small Kennington Green.  

(E) Turn round to see view of gasholders and, in right hand corner, the Chivas Bros Gin Distillers distillery. The Distillery, here since 1958, produces Beefeater Gin, the only international London Dry Gin still distilled in London.

Cross the green and use pedestrian lights, to cross and turn right, along busy Kennington Road.  

[4] At the T-junction keep left and then using the pedestrian lights, cross Kennington Park Road and enter Kennington Park and the St Mark's Conservation Area. 

(F) Kennington Park has a history going back to the 1700s when as Kennington Common it was South London’s Speaker’s Corner. The Methodist, John Wesley addressed 30,000 people here in 1739 and over 25,000 Chartists assembled here in 1848, to press for a National Charter of Rights for the Kennington and Kennington Park Working Classes. It also hosted fairs, sports and public hangings until enclosed and opened as a public park in 1854. The park had fallen into disrepair but has been refurbished in the last 5 years with new facilities. The park’s Victorian areas are Grade II listed by English Heritage.

Almost immediately, turn right, past the back of the Prince Consort’s Lodge.  At next entrance, turn left, past the Memorial.  At the T-junction, turn left and go back past the front of the Lodge.  Turn right, at railings, towards children's playground.  

Note, on left, in distance, the Strata and Shard towers. 

Turn right and follow path round passing childrens’ play area and wildlife area. (Toilets in Play Area). Go past the café. Where paths cross, fork left onto brick path into the English Garden (no dogs).

Here you may like to take a break or explore further, before continuing your journey.  (Alternative route with dog: go right and rejoin route at next garden entrance).

[5] Leave garden by exit nearest Tennis Courts and head towards the wooden shelter.  Go past the shelter and turn left, onto main path, near the Fountain of Life. Continue alongside tennis courts and leave park.  Use pedestrian lights, on left, to cross Camberwell New Road and at island, turn right and use further set of lights to cross Brixton Road, towards St Mark's Church (G) and enter churchyard gardens.  Go left, alongside church and then turn right, across the front of the church, to leave churchyard and cross road, towards Oval Underground station.  Turn left at station, to go along Kennington Park Road.  Shortly turn right into Hanover Gardens and the St Marks Conservation Area (H).

[6]  Continue along Hanover Gardens and enter the square. Retrace your steps a few yards and turn right into Elias Place. Turn right into Claylands Place behind shops.  Turn right into Claylands Road and at green, turn left into Trigon Road and follow road round to left.  At a junction, fork right, crossing Fentiman Road, into Palfrey Place. At next cross-roads turn right along Richborne Terrace (I).

[7] At the end, turn left along Carroun Road to leave the St Marks Conservation area.  Turn right at T junction into Dorset Road. Turn left into Bolney Street and shortly before the church enter Albert Square Conservation Area.

[8] Turn left at St Stephens Church and sculpture (J) into Wilkinson Street. Continue straight on to enter Albert Square (K). Go round three sides of square and leave along Aldebert Terrace leaving the conservation area at end.

[9] Go straight across South Lambeth Road and at the lights, into Thorne Road and the Lansdowne Conservation Area (L).

Note inscription at parapet level at 44 Thorne Road which reads: -'ARSLONGAVITABREVIS' ('art is long, life is short').

Cross Guildford Road and turn left at Lansdowne Gardens.  

Note old sign for a local builder by the name of 'Pinder' at no. 2 Lansdowne Gardens.

Turn left at roundabout towards the church and then right into Guildford Road.  At T junction (Lansdowne Way), leaving conservation area, turn left and cross road at zebra crossing, to glance inside Stockwell Bus Garage (M).

[10] Continue past bus garage towards traffic lights.  Turn right, into South Lambeth Road and, at start of one way system, use pedestrian lights, to cross towards the centre of the one way system and enter Stockwell Memorial Gardens (N).  Pause to examine the  World War II Entrance Shaft, covered with Murals.  Turn right by sculpture and go past war memorial to end of gardens, and then turn right and use pedestrian lights to cross to National Westminster Bank. Turn left for Stockwell Underground Station (O).

The walk finishes here.  This is also the start point of the companion walk to Brixton.

(A) Vauxhall was developed on marshy land near the River Thames in the mid-18th century. The name comes from “Falkes Hall” after 13th century landowner Falkes de Bréauté. The station dates from 1848 when the London and South Western Railway extended their line to Waterloo. Vauxhall gave the Russian language its word for railway station, ‘vokzal’, as the first Russian railway ran to a pleasure garden (see Spring Gardens below). The 2004 bus station has a photovoltaic roof producing electricity to power the lights. A mural in the arch to the left of the station entrance celebrates the history and heritage of the area.

(B) Bonnington Square is a 19th century development that was almost demolished in the 1970s. Most of the houses were then squatted and today the Square is managed by housing cooperatives. The garden is a small but delightful community garden created from a derelict site, a surprisingly peaceful oasis only a few steps from the busy traffic at Vauxhall Cross. The gardens were designed as a homage to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens  - a popular attraction in Victorian times.

(C) Harleyford Road Community Garden is on the site of a Georgian terrace facing onto Harleyford Road, which by the 1970s was largely demolished and laid to waste.  Local residents started growing vegetables here in 1984. The community garden was designed and laid out from 1986-88 and continues to be maintained by local residents.

(E) The Gasholders at the Oval are actually newer than the ground by several years, having been built circa 1853 or later and are now very much part of the Oval's landscape.  Kennington No 1 Gasholder was the largest to date when built in 1877-79. It is 218 ft in diameter and 44 ft deep below ground.

(F) In Kennignton Park, the Prince Consort’s Lodge is a prize winning exhibit of 'model dwelling houses for families' from the 1851 Great Exhibition, It was re-erected in its present location in 1852. Since 2002 it has been occupied by Trees for London.  

The Memorial was erected in 2006, by the friends of Kennington Park, to commemorate the loss of life in 1940, when a bomb hit a public shelter, which stretched from here to the cafe. It bears the inscription ‘History despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again'. You can see a photo showing the extent of the shelter and read more at http://www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk/bombing.shtml#fentiman

The English Garden in Kennignton Park originates from 1931 and was designed by Colonel J.J Sexby, Parks Superintendent for the L.C.C. Take the opportunity to rest or peruse the garden before commencing the return journey. The 'Fountain of Life', by local artist George Tinworth, dates from 1869.

The Strata (2010) was the winner of the Building Design newspaper’s Carbuncle Cup award in 2010 as the worse new building in London, the 42-storey, 147 m tall building in Elephant & Castle was nominated for its 'plain visual grotesqueness' and 'Philishave stylings'. The developer described it as like Marmite – “you either love it or hate it”. Mayor of London Boris Johnson nicknamed Strata "the lipstick" and described it as a building "with a bit of oomph about it". The Philishave turbines at the top of the building cost £1.35m of the total budget of £113.5m and are expected to generate 8% of the building’s needs.  When completed in 2012, The Shard will be the tallest building in Europe, at 310m tall and have 72 floors, plus 15 further radiator floors in the roof.

(G) St Mark's Church dates from 1824 and is one of four ‘Waterloo’ churches built in south London following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.  It was built on the old gallows corner of Kennington Common, where Jacobite rebels were executed in 1745. It suffered serious damage during the Second World War but was restored in 1960.

(H) The St Marks Conservation Area, designated in 1969 is characterised by smart terraced housing dating from the early 19th Century onwards; of particular note is Hanover Square.

(I) Richborne Terrace, an attractive street of Victorian Terraces is almost complete.  There were two war-time bombings here.  A string of bombs, on the night of 27/28 September 1940, led to the demolition of Nos 34-60,  and killed 9 people. The properties were replaced by a block of flats.  The last bomb to fall on Lambeth - a V1 jet-propelled pilotless "doodlebug - landed between Richborne Terrace and Fentiman Road - on 5 January 1945. 13 people were killed and 100 made homeless. See http://www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk/bombing.shtml#fentiman for more information and photos of damage.

(J) The original 19th century St Stephen’s Church was demolished in 1951; the current church and adjacent blocks of flats stand on the original site. The Tradescant Memorial was commissioned by the local residents’ association. Unveiled in 1988 by naturalist David Bellamy, it is a memorial to the Tradescant family. John Tradescant, father and son, were 17th century pioneer collectors of plants from around the world, and the inspiration of gardeners through time. They lived and gardened in the immediate vicinity. Find out more about them in the Exploring Garden history section at http://www.museumgardenhistory.org/ 

(L)  Landsdowne Gardens Conservation Area -  Residential development in this area began in the 19th century following the construction of Vauxhall Bridge and the laying out of estate roads to facilitate the construction of speculative housing. Lansdowne Circus was erected 1843 – 1850. The houses are smart and fashionable for the time with details derived from ancient Greece. Residential development continued in a piecemeal fashion until the whole area was developed by the 1870s. This latter development is mostly in terraces with Italianate details.

St Barnabas Church was built at a cost of £4,800 and consecrated in 1850. It provided accommodation for 1500 people. In the mid 1980s Ekarro a registered Housing Association purchased the church and vicarage. Volunteer labour by Ekarro members turned these properties into 44 housing units, now known as Ekarro House, Barnabas Lodge and Mondragon House. 

(M) Stockwell Bus Garage had, at the time of construction, in 1952, the largest unsupported area under one roof in Europe. Reinforced concrete was used as structural steel was in short supply. Since 1988, the garage has been a Grade II listed building, reflecting its importance in post-war architectural and engineering history.

(N) Stockwell Memorial Gardens, a small unpromising island has a number of interesting historical and artistic features in addition to the war memorial.  

The Entrance shaft is to a deep-level air-raid shelter. Built in 1942, it is below the current underground station and comprises two parallel tunnels, each of which is approximately six times the length of the current platform plus connecting and branch tunnels used for medical posts, lavatories, and for ventilation. Accommodating 1,600 people it was used as a hostel for American troops prior to the D-day landings. Access was via the station and two entrance shafts containing spiral staircases – one here and the other in Studley Road. Read more about London's deep level shelters and see photos and engineering drawings at subhttp://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/deep_level_shelters/index.html

The Mural by Brian Barnes, commemorates Violette Szabo and other local people who gave their life in the war. Violette, as a teenager, lived on Stockwell Road and later was a secret agent in occupied France. She was executed in 1945 and received a posthumous George Cross. Six hundred poppies have been painted on the mural - one for every local who lost their life in the two World Wars. The Mural also features Stockwell's famous people. The ‘Empire Windrush’ image refers to the employment opportunities offered in Stockwell to the first immigrants from the Caribbean, who sailed to England in 1948.

The Bronze Woman sculpture in the Memorial Gardens was commissioned by the Stockwell Partnership, at a cost of £50,000, from Ian Walters, to honour Afro-Caribbean women.

(O) The name Stockwell comes from stocks (woodlands) and natural springs or wells. The abundance of water and timber led to the original settlement at Stockwell Green, about 1 km along Stockwell Road, as early as the 13th century. Stockwell Station opened in November 1890 as the most southerly station on the City and South London Railway - London's first deep level tube railway. The line was extended to Clapham Common in 1900.

This walk can be combined with the the companion Victoria Line Walk - Stockwell - Brixton (6 miles in total).