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New Kent Road is a short road in the London Borough of Southwark, created in 1751 when the Turnpike Trust upgraded a local footpath. ^[1] The road starts at Elephant and Castle, and runs eastward for a few hundred yards to a junction with Great Dover Street and Tower Bridge Road (called the Bricklayers' Arms) before being renamed Old Kent Road (the A2).

The road forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and as such forms part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone. New Kent Road is designated the A201. To the north-west, past the Elephant and Castle, this becomes London Road.

In 1878, historian Edward Walford noted that the New Kent Road was formerly named Greenwich Road, and explained that "[it] is a broad and open roadway; it has been lately planted on either side with trees, so that in course of time it will doubtless form a splendid boulevard, of the Parisian type, and one worthy of being copied in many other parts of London." ^[2]

The 1955 Survey of London still maintained that "[the] road also has a spaciousness lacking in many of its 19th century counterparts, for the 1751 Act stipulated that the road should be not less than 42 feet wide and many of the older houses still retain their front gardens." ^[3]. Some older houses still remain in 2008, mostly on the south side.

Contents 1 South side 1.1 Shopping Centre and around 1.2 Heygate Estate 1.3 Beyond the Heygate 2 North side 2.1 Metro Central Heights to Falmouth Road 2.2 Falmouth Road junction 2.3 David Copperfields Garden 2.4 Harper Road to the Bricklayers Arms 2.5 References 2.6 External links

[edit] South side

[edit] Shopping Centre and around

The southern side of New Kent Road starts at the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, where there are some market stalls around the ground floor entrance. Just inside the first-floor entrance there is a small grocery kiosk run by and for the area's Ecuadorean community. On Saturdays and Sundays it becomes an informal lunch restaurant and social centre, where very little English is spoken.

At 26 New Kent Road, the pub attached to the Shopping Centre is named after a famous local ex-resident: The Charlie Chaplin. It is said that Chaplin had a martini at the pub during a visit to the area in the 1950s.

The Coronet (28) is a club and live music venue marked by a flashing neon sign. The site was first occupied by the Theatre Royal, built in 1872 and destroyed by fire only six years later^[4]. Rebuilt as the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1879, Charlie Chaplin performed there. It was converted to an ABC cinema in 1928. After several more name changes, it became the Coronet Cinema in 1981. The Coronet Cinema closed down in 1999, leaving the Elephant and Castle area with no cinemas, but the adjoining Oakmayne Plaze development, due for completing in 2009, will include a 5-screen cinema.

Elephant Road itself is a short road that connects New Kent Road with the Walworth Road. The railway arches on the west side house businesses including a bike shop, Corsica Studios art space and several businesses selling Colombian and Ecuadorian goods.

[edit] Heygate Estate

Oakmayne Plaza is awaiting planning permission at the corner of New Kent Road and Elephant Road. It is being developed by Oakmayne Properties^[5] who also built the nearby South Central East residential building on Walworth Road. The site of Oakmayne Plaza was formerly occupied by UK's largest used Volvo showroom and the Elephant Road Industrial Estate, and the new complex will include business and residential units. It is due for completion in 2009.

In May 2008, a 35-feet high sculpture of a stag by Ben Long appeared on the Oakmayne Plaza site. It is constructed from scaffolding materials, and will dismanted in July 2008 and reformed into a new sctructure on a new site^[6].

From Elephant Road to Rodney Place, this side of the New Kent Road is dominated by the Heygate council estate. Completed in 1974, the estate has aged badly and is due for phased demolition by 2011. It will be replaced by new housing developments. ^[7]

The multi-coloured spherical lights in the trees next to the Heygate were installed in 2005 by the Elephant Impacts project. The project has repainted and added feature lighting to a number of bridges and buildings in the area, including the adjoining railway bridges on Walworth Road and Newington Causeway, and to London College of Communication and the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Proposed feature lighting at Metro Central Heights was abandoned when residents feared it would cause light pollution.

The Crossways United Reform Church is part of the Heygate. Immediately behind the church, in a locked garden, is a sculpture Two Caryatids by Henry Poole, originally created in 1897 for the old Rotherhithe Public Library.

[edit] Beyond the Heygate

At 128 New Kent Road, Watling House, like Tavern Court (see below), is a new development of flats managed by the Landmark Housing Association. Like most of the new housing in the area, both developments are aimed at first-time buyers who cannot afford to buy on the open market. Residents of the Heygate and other social housing, and those on the social housing waiting list, receive priority.

The distinctive Baroque style building at 172-180 is Driscoll House. It was originally built as a women's hostel in 1913 and became a hostel primarily aimed primarily at international students, until it closed in 2007. The interiors are mostly unchanged since the building opened. It has been sold to property developers, but is also a listed building. In July 2007, the site was prepared for building work and redevelopment, with concrete barriers, window coverings and additional fencing added.

There is a small green space next to Driscoll House, and beyond Searles Road there is a larger one called Paragon Gardens, named after the building erected on the site in 1787^[8], designed by Michael Searles. It was demolished in the 1890s and replaced with more modest housing and a school. The school has since been converted into a residential building and also named The Paragon.

[edit] North side

[edit] Metro Central Heights to Falmouth Road

The first few hundred yards of New Kent Road consist of the Elephant and Castle pub and the Metro Central Heights residential block, although both premises have addresses on Newington Causeway, not New Kent Road. A plaque next to the Metro Central Heights convenience store explains that this was previously the site of the Trocadero Cinema at 1-17 New Kent Road, which closed in 1963^[9][10].

Beyond the railway bridge stands Albert Barnes House, an 18-storey block of council flats owned by the London Borough of Southwark. It was completed in 1964 and contains 99 flats. There was a serious fire in Albert Barnes House in the early hours of 30 January 2007 and all 250 residents were evacuated. One flat was gutted, and another seriously damaged ^[11].

At the Meadow Row intersection stands St Matthews at the Elephant, a contemporary Anglican church and community centre rebuilt in 1993 on the site of the old St Matthews church. The church has particularly good acoustics and hosts musical performances as well as community events and services. The main building is built low, with the separate minimalist iron spire at the street entrance suggesting old and new-style church architecture simultaneously.

83 New Kent Road is a residence for students at the nearby London South Bank University, with 81 students living in shared flats.

[edit] Falmouth Road junction

The small Falmouth Road Park opened in March 2006 ^[12]. The bench is made from timber from a London plane tree that once stood on the Tower of London Wharf, and features designs created by local children.

Next to the park, Tavern Court (95) is a six-storey residential building managed by Landmark Housing Association, and which opened in 2005 as part of the first wave of regeneration of social housing in the area. The site was previously occupied by the County Terrace Tavern^[13], a pub that closed in 2003. At one time the County Terrace Tavern was the terminus of London's number 1 bus route. The Museum of London Archaeology Service surveyed the site in May 2004 and found that "There was no evidence to confirm that this site was occupied until the post medieval period. It appears that this low lying area ... was fields until the development of the County Terrace public house and adjoining properties during the 19th century. A thick layer of top soil containing 18th and 19th century material including broken bricks, clay pipe stems and 19th century pottery was found." ^[14]

The 1888 red brick church behind Tavern Court is the former Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, a listed building built in mixed Queen Anne and Romanesque revival styles. English Heritage comments that "[the] combination of different features and materials [is] calculated to produce a most variable and picturesque composition. An early instance of the Queen Anne manner applied to a church or chapel" ^[15]. Since 1991, the church has been the main London home of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, a worldwide church organisation based in Nigeria and led by Olumba Olumba Obu. Worshippers wear distinctive white robes, with women also wearing a wimple-like headdress. Their beliefs have been described as "an interesting offshoot of orthodox Christianity, [which combine] the beliefs of varying religions, including ancient Indian philosophy and Islamic teachings" ^[16].

[edit] David Copperfields Garden

A footbridge crosses the New Kent Road at this point, and the long narrow public garden that runs from the footbridge to Harper Road is called David Copperfields Garden. A plaque was placed on a plinth in the original garden in September 1931 (left) by the Dickens Fellowship, which explained that this was the place where in the Charles Dickens novel, David Copperfield stopped "in the Kent Road ... at a terrace with a piece of water before it, and a great foolish image in the middle, blowing a dry shell". The plinth had a small statue that eventually lost both its shell and its head to vandalism.

Having become popular with street drinkers, the garden was closed for a re-design in 2006. It re-opened in July 2007 after a complete relandscaping, including removal of the railings between the footpath and the garden. The original design included benches based on the milestones that David Copperfield passed on his fictional journey, but the final version has no benches. With the removal of the plinth and plaque, the only remaining reference to the Dickens novel is a quotation from Copperfield's aunt inlaid into the path through the park: "..a little change, and a glimpse of life out of doors, may be useful, in helping you to know your own mind..."^[17].

[edit] Harper Road to the Bricklayers Arms

A block of shops after Harper Road begins with Pole Position (155-157) which is both a motorcycle workshop and racing team HQ. A sign of the multi-cultural nature of the area is that this block of businesses includes an African hairdresser, a Turkish grocers, a Polish delicatessen, a Chinese take-away and one of London's few Ethiopian restaurants.

The Marks and Spencer store at the BP station opened in 2007 as part of a rollout of the Simply Food franchises on BP forecourts [1]. It replaced a Safeway.

The last building on the north side of New Kent Road is St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School. The school opened in 1903 and is for girls aged 11 to 18^[18].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• April 2005 Guardian article about multi-cultural Old and New Kent Road
• London SE1 guide to bars and restaurants on the New Kent Road
• Short history of the Coronet and Theatre Royal, with some vintage theatre programmes