Camberwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Camberwell is a district of London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. It is an inner-city district located 2.7 miles (4.3 km) southeast of Charing Cross. Its western edge borders the London Borough of Lambeth.
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[edit] History
The name Camberwell probably derives from the old English Cumberwell or Comberwell. i.e. British well, and springs and wells are known to have existed on the southern slope up Denmark Hill, especially around Grove Park. The name Camberwell also is known come from the Saxon language, meaning Cripple Well, which developed as a hamlet where people from the City of London were expelled to when they had life threatening diseases like leprosy for teatement by the church & clean waters from the wells. It was already a substantial settlement with a church when mentioned in the Domesday Book. Up to the mid-nineteenth century, Camberwell was visited by Londoners for its rural tranquillity and the reputed healing properties of its mineral springs. Like much of inner South London, Camberwell was transformed by the arrival of the railways in the 1860s. From 1899 to 1965 Camberwell was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
[edit] Camberwell today
Camberwell today is a mixture of relatively well preserved Georgian and twentieth century housing, including a number of tower blocks. Camberwell Grove and Grove Lane have some of London's most elegant and well preserved Georgian houses.
The crossroads at the centre of Camberwell is the site of Camberwell Green, a very small area of common land which was once a traditional village green on which was held an annual fair of ancient origin which rivaled that of Greenwich. The green was once a peaceful place, but now it is unfortunately impossible to ignore the noise of the passing traffic. However, a very extensive range of bus routes have stops at Camberwell Green (see the link to the bus spider map below for details).
The Salvation Army's William Booth Memorial Training College, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, was completed in 1932: it towers over South London from Denmark Hill. It has a similar monumental impressiveness to Gilbert Scott's other local buildings, Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern, although its simplicity is partly the result of repeated budget cuts during its construction: much more detail, including carved Gothic stonework surrounding the windows, was originally planned.
[edit] Transport
Camberwell is very well served by bus routes, its location means that it is easy to travel into central London with journey times of 12-20 minutes. Camberwell railway station closed in 1916. At one stage London Underground planned to extend the Bakerloo Line to Camberwell but this was abandoned in 1949 after work had started on extending the line from Elephant and Castle.
Nearest railway stations:
[edit] Camberwell population
The local ethnic mix includes a large proportion of people of Caribbean and African descent, a Greek Cypriot community, and number of immigrants of Middle Eastern origin. The area is popular with students, as it is home to the Camberwell College of Arts (part of the University of the Arts London - formerly the London Institute) on Peckham Road. Kings College (part of the University of London) also has a hall of residence (King's College Hall) on nearby Denmark Hill. Goldsmiths College is also found beyond nearby Peckham with many students living in Camberwell
[edit] Hospitals
Camberwell has one of London's largest teaching hospitals, King's College Hospital. The associated medical school is the (recently merged) Guy’s King’s and St Thomas’ (GKT) School of Medicine. The Maudsley Hospital, a renowned psychiatric hospital which is an international leader in developing specialist training in psychiatry, and its academic partner, the equally distinguished Institute of Psychiatry, are also close to Denmark Hill station.
[edit] Notable people born in Camberwell
- Pete Bennett
- Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte
- Robert Browning
- Joseph Chamberlain
- Pat Coombs
- Leslie Grantham
- Patricia Hayes
- Giant Haystacks
- Benjamin Jowett
- Boris Karloff
- Timothy Laurence
- Clement le Neve Foster
- Anthony James Leggett
- Martin McDonagh
- Nosher Powell
- Kenny Sansom
- Edward Burnett Tylor
- Claude Rains
[edit] Notable people who have lived and worked in Camberwell
- Lord Avebury
- Robert Browning
- John Ruskin
- Jack Jones
- Jenny Eclair
- Paul Elliot
- Jeremy Bowen
- Emma Thompson
- Kenneth Branagh
- Nicholas Serota
- Albert Houthuesen
- Robbie Coltrane
- Laurens Postma
- Antony Gormley
- Anish Kapoor
- Bill Woodrow
- Christopher Le Brun
- Tom Phillips
- Terry Jones
- Bryan Ferry
- Mark McGowan
- Donnachadh McCarthy
- Michael Caine
- Steve Chandra Savale (guitarist and composer) Asian Dub Foundation
- Lord Whitty of Camberwell
- Zoe Williams
- Daddy Massive
- Felix Mendelssohn stayed with relatives in 1842 and wrote a piano piece called 'Camberwell Green', whose popularity increased after it was renamed the 'Spring Song'. W. S. Gilbert also made ironic mention of it in the comic opera, Trial by Jury.
[edit] Camberwell Beauty
The Camberwell Beauty is a butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) which is rarely found in the UK - it is so named because two example were first identified on Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell in 1748
[edit] Nearest places
[edit] Trivia
- "Camberwell carrot" is the name of the enormous spliff rolled using 12 rolling papers, by Danny the dealer in the film Withnail and I. His explanation for the name is that "I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot".
[edit] Other places called Camberwell
- Camberwell is a small village in New South Wales, Australia.
- Camberwell is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
[edit] External links
- Camberwell Arts
- Camberwell College of Arts
- Camberwell Society
- Minet Conservation Association
- South London and Maudsley NHS Trust
- SE5 Forum, a community group
