Camberwell

Camberwell St Giles is the name given to an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Brixton hundred of Surrey.[6][7] The parish covered 4,570 acres (18.5 km²) in 1831 and was divided into the liberty of Peckham to the east and the hamlet of Dulwich to the southwest, as well as Camberwell proper. The parish tapered in the south to form a point in what is now known as the Crystal Palace area.[7] In 1801, the population was 7,059 and by 1851 this had risen to 54,667.[8] In 1829, it was included in the Metropolitan Police District and in 1855 it was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works, with Camberwell Vestry nominating one member to the board. In 1889 the board was replaced by the London County Council and Camberwell was removed administratively from Surrey to form part of the County of London.[9]

A map showing the wards of Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell as they appeared in 1916, This includes Dulwich, Peckham, etc.

In 1900, the area of the Camberwell parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.[10] In 1965, the metropolitan borough was abolished and its former area became the southern part of the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. The western part of the area is situated in the adjacent London Borough of Lambeth.

The area has historically been home to many factories, including R. White's Lemonade, which originated in Camberwell, as well as Dualit toasters. Neither of these companies is now based in the area.

Wilson's School was founded in 1615 in Camberwell by Royal Charter by Edward Wilson, vicar of the Parish of Camberwell. The charter was granted by James I. The school moved to its current site in Croydon in 1975. A school for girls, Mary Datchelor Girl's School, was established in Camberwell in 1877. It was built on two houses at 15 and 17 Grove Lane, the location of a former manor house. All except one of its 30 pupils came from the parish of St Andrew Undershaft in the City of London. The funding for the school came from a bequest from Mary Datchelor, who died childless. Proceeds of a property in Threadneedle Street used as a coffee-house were used to pay for apprenticeships for the poor boys of the parish, but as demographics in the City changed, it was decided to set up a school. By the 1970s, the school was receiving funding from the Clothworkers' Company and the Inner London Education Authority funded teaching posts. The school came under pressure from ILEA to become co-educational and comprehensive. Faced with this choice or becoming fully private, the school's governors instead decided to close in 1981. The school buildings were later used as offices for the charity Save the Children but have now been converted to flats.[11][12][13] Camberwell Collegiate School was an independent school located on the eastern side of Camberwell Grove, directly opposite the Grove Chapel. The Collegiate College had some success for a while, and led to the closure for some decades of the Denmark Hill Grammar School. However it had difficulty competing with other nearby schools including Dulwich College, and was closed in 1867.The land was sold for building.[14] [15] [16]

Camberwell has several art galleries including Camberwell College of Arts, the South London Gallery and numerous smaller commercial art spaces. There is an annual Camberwell Arts Festival in the summer.[24] The Blue Elephant Theatre on Bethwin Road is the only theatre venue in Camberwell.[25]

A group now known as the YBAs (the Young British Artists) began in Camberwell – in the Millard building of Goldsmiths' College on Cormont Road. A former training college for women teachers, the Millard was the home of Goldsmiths Fine Art and Textiles department until 1988. It was converted to flats in 1996 and is now known as St Gabriel's Manor.

The core of the later-to-be YBAs, graduated from the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art degree course in the classes of 1987–90. Liam Gillick, Fiona Rae, Steve Park and Sarah Lucas, were graduates in the class of 1987. Ian Davenport, Michael Landy, Gary Hume, Anya Gallaccio, Henry Bond and Angela Bulloch, were graduates in the class of 1988; Damien Hirst, Angus Fairhurst, Mat Collishaw, Simon Patterson, and Abigail Lane, were graduates from the class of 1989; whilst Gillian Wearing, and Sam Taylor-Wood, were graduates from the class of 1990. During the years 1987–90, the teaching staff on the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art included Jon Thompson, Richard Wentworth, Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Jeffrey, Helen Chadwick, Mark Wallinger, Judith Cowan and Glen Baxter. Collishaw has a studio in a pub in Camberwell.[26] as does the sculptor Anish Kapoor.[27]

In his memoir Lucky Kunst, artist Gregor Muir, writes:

Not yet housed in the university building at New Cross to which it eventually moved in the late 1980s, Goldsmiths was a stone's throw away in Myatts Field on the other side of Camberwell Green. In contrast to Camberwell's Friday night bacchanal, Goldsmith's held its disco on a Tuesday evening with dinner ladies serving drinks, including tea, from a service hatch. This indicated to me that Goldsmiths was deeply uncool.

The building was also the hospital where Vera Brittain served as a nurse and described in her memoir Testament of Youth.[28]

Thomas Hood, humorist and author of The Song of the Shirt, lived in Camberwell from 1840 for two years; initially at 8, South Place, (now 181, Camberwell New Road). He later moved to 2, Union Row (now 266, High Street). He wrote to friends praising the clean air. In late 1841, he moved to St John's Wood.[29] The Victorian art critic and watercolourist John Ruskin lived at 163 Denmark Hill from 1847, but moved out in 1872 as the railways spoiled his view.[30] Ruskin designed part of a stained-glass window in St Giles' Church, Camberwell.[31] Ruskin Park is named after him, and there is also a John Ruskin Street.

Peckham Rye Common

Another famous writer who lived in the area was the poet Robert Browning, who was born in nearby Walworth, and lived there until he was 28.[32] Novelist George Gissing, in the summer of 1893, took lodgings at 76 Burton Road, Brixton. From Burton Road he went for long walks through nearby Camberwell, soaking up impressions of the way of life he saw emerging there."[33] This led him to writing In the Year of Jubilee, the story of "the romantic and sexual initiation of a suburban heroine, Nancy Lord." Gissing originally called his novel Miss Lord of Camberwell.[34] Muriel Spark, the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Ballad of Peckham Rye lived, between 1955 and 1965, in a bedsit at 13 Baldwin Crescent, Camberwell.[35] The novelist Mary Jane Staples, who grew up in Walworth, wrote a book called The King of Camberwell, the third instalment of her Adams family saga about Cockney life.[36] Comedian Jenny Eclair is a long-term resident of Camberwell, and the area features in her 2001 novel Camberwell Beauty, named after a species of butterfly. Playwright Martin McDonagh and his brother, writer/director John Michael McDonagh, live in Camberwell. The 2014 novel The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters is set in 1920s Camberwell.[37]

Nearby Peckham Rye was an important spot in the imaginative and creative development of poet William Blake, who when he was eight, he claimed to have seen the Prophet Ezekiel there under a bush, and he was probably ten years old when he had a vision of angels in a tree.[38]

Camberwell has played host to many festivals over the years, with the long-running Camberwell Arts Festival celebrating 20 years in 2014, and Camberwell Fair taking place on Camberwell Green in 2015, 2017 and 2018, resurrecting an ancient Fair that took place on the same green from 1279 to 1855.{[39] Since 2013, there is also an annual 10 day film festival - Camberwell Free Film Festival (CFFF) which is usually held in March/April in addition to special one-off screenings at other times of the year.[40]

Until the First World War, Camberwell was served by three railway stations - Denmark Hill, Camberwell Gate (near Walworth), and Camberwell New Road in the west. Camberwell Gate and Camberwell New Road were closed in 1916 'temporarily' because of war shortages, but were never reopened.[41][42]

London Underground has planned a Bakerloo line extension to Camberwell on at least three occasions since the 1930s.[43]

Denmark Hill and Loughborough Junction railway stations serve Camberwell, whilst Peckham Rye and East Dulwich are both approximately one mile from Camberwell Green. These stations are all in London fare zone 2.[44] London Overground, Southeastern, and Thameslink trains serve Denmark Hill. There are regular rail services to various destinations across Central London. There are also direct rail links to destinations elsewhere in London and the South East from Denmark Hill.

London Overground connects the area directly to Clapham and Battersea in the west, and Canada Water and Dalston east London. Thameslink trains carry passengers to Kentish Town in the north, whilst some peak-time services continue to destinations in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, such as Luton Airport. Eastbound Thameslink services travel towards Orpington or Sevenoaks, via Peckham, Catford, and Bromley, amongst other destinations. Southeastern trains eastbound serve destinations in South East London and Kent, including Peckham, Lewisham, Gravesend, and Dover.[44]

Loughborough Junction is on the Thameslink route between St Albans City and Sutton. This provides Camberwell with a direct link southbound to Herne Hill, Streatham, Tooting, Wimbledon, Mitcham, and Sutton, amongst other destinations in South London. Northbound services run through the City of London and St Pancras. Destinations north of St Pancras include Kentish Town and West Hampstead. A limited Southeastern service between Blackfriars and Kent runs through Loughborough Junction.[44]

Camberwell is served by numerous London Bus routes.