CHAPTER V - Myatt‘s Fields Area, Denmark Hill
and Herne Hill
This district probably formed part of the
Manor of Milkwell, a relatively small
Manor which lay partly in Lambeth and
partly in Camberwell; its history is so obscure
that its position cannot be indicated with any
precision.
In 1291 the Manor of Milkwell belonged to
the Hospital of St. Thomas, Southwark, and was
taxed at £1 5s. (ref. 1) In 1305 it was granted by the
Hospital to St. Mary Overy Priory at a yearly
rent of 10s. (ref. 2) At the Dissolution it was valued at
£5 2s. (ref. 3) In 1540 the Manor “and the wood
called Mylkewell woodde, in the parish of Lambeth,
belonging to the said late monastery’ of
St. Mary Overy, was granted to Sir Thomas
Wyatt, to be held by knight service for a rent of
10s. 9d. (ref. 4) In 1550 custody of the Manor was
granted to Richard Duke during the minority of
Thomas Duke, son and heir of George Duke
deceased. (ref. 5) It was described in 1609, after the
death of Thomas Duke, as consisting of six messuages,
eight cottages, five barns, five gardens,
150 acres of land, 20 acres of meadow, 200 acres
of pasture, 30 acres of wood in Milkwell, Camberwell
and Lambeth, parcel of lands of the late
Priory of St. Mary Overy. Duke also died seized
of 20 acres of land, seven acres of pasture, three
acres of meadow in Camberwell and Lambeth,
formerly parcel of the lands of the monastery of
Bermondsey (St. Saviour's). Save for 25 acres the
Manor was held of the King in chief for a tenth
part of a knight's fee at an annual rent of 40s. 9d. (ref. 6)
Thomas Duke's heir, Sir Edward Duke, sold a
small portion of the Manor to Edward Alleyn of
Dulwich, (ref. 7) and the remainder to Robert Cambell,
alderman of London. (ref. 8) By his will (ref. 9) the latter left
his lands in Lambeth Dean and Camberwell to
his son James, whose widow Theophila was
granted letters of administration of his estate in
1660. (ref. 10) Theophila Cambell, who was commonly
called Lady Cambell, died in 1670 or 1671,
leaving three daughters, Theophila, Philippa and
Isabella. (ref. 11) The Manor of Milkwell appears to
have been divided amongst these three daughters,
for one third descended to Theophila (ref. 12) and in
1672 Richard Bassett, husband of Philippa,
suffered a recovery of another third of the Manor. (ref. 13)
The later history of the Manor is very confused.
One of the three daughters, Theophila, married
Sir John Corbett, and in 1691 their son Robert
Corbett sold his third of the Manor to John
Godschall of London, merchant, for £3,680. (ref. 12)
This property comprised some 124 acres in the
areas later known as Denmark Hill and Herne
Hill, and included a farm or Manor called Betton's.
Despite its description in the deed of sale as part
of the Manors of Betton's and Milkwell, an
annual quit-rent of 6s. 8d. was payable to the
Manor of Lambeth. (ref. 14) The Godschall family
continued to hold this land until 1783, when
William Man Godschall sold it to Samuel
Sanders, (ref. 15) a timber merchant with premises on
Pedlar‘s Acre, Lambeth. Shortly after the passing
of the Lambeth Manor Inclosure Act of 1806,
objections were raised that Sander‘s property was
not part of the Manor, but he and one of his
tenants attended one of the Inclosure Commissioner‘s
meetings “and made it appear that the
property was within the Manor of Lambeth and
paid a quit-rent to the Lord’. (ref. 16)
The descents of the other two-thirds of the
Manor of Milkwell are less clear. In the latter
part of the 17th century Abraham Harrison, a
goldsmith of Covent Garden, was buying land in
Kent, (ref. 17) and by his will, dated 1717, he bequeathed
a farm called Lambeth Dean Farm,
then said to be part of an ancient manor, with 109
acres in Lambeth and Camberwell, to his son
Thomas. (ref. 18) The property passed to Thomas's
nephew James Harrison who sold it in 1747 to
the executors of the will of Thomas Lord Wyndham,
formerly Lord High Chancellor of Ireland,
for £3,352. (ref. 19) In 1762 the property was
conveyed to the use of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull
Wyndham, (ref. 20) and a recovery was suffered to bar
the entail. (ref. 21) Shortly afterwards Sir Wyndham
Figure 45.:
Fig. The Minet estate, 1841
died, leaving all his lands to his uncle Sir Edward
Knatchbull. (ref. 22) In 1770 the latter sold the property
to Hughes Minet, (ref. 23) whose descendants still
own the greater part of it. Although no direct
connection has been traced, it is probable that the
Minet property was formerly part of the Manor
of Milkwell.
Manning and Bray state that Milkwell Manor
was acquired from the Cambell family by the
Bowyers, from whom it descended to the Wyndhams
and Smyths. (ref. 24) These last three families
successively owned extensive property in Camberwell,
together with a small piece in Lambeth
south-east of Kennington Common. Part of their
estate probably represents the final third of
Milkwell Manor.
Building development in the area of the former
Manor of Milkwell began at the end of the 18th
century. In the Denmark Hill and Herne Hill
areas it took the semi-rural form of large detached
houses with large gardens. North of Coldharbour
Lane there was not much development until after
the formation of Camberwell New Road in 1818;
building was on a more modest scale here, and
mostly took the form of small terrace houses.
MYATT‘S FIELDS AREA
Much of this district is comprised in the Minet
estate. The Minets were a French Huguenot
family. After the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes in 1685, Isaac Minet, whose parents had
kept a pharmacy in Calais, was imprisoned with
his mother. They managed to escape to England,
where some of Isaac's brothers had already established
themselves. Isaac Minet had spent some
months at Dover in his boyhood learning English,
and he and his brother Ambroise set up a shop of
“licors and parfumes” in London. Isaac's grandson,
Hughes Minet, was born in Kent in 1731 (ref. 25)
and it was he who in 1770 bought 109 (by a
later measurement 118) acres of land from Sir
Edward Knatchbull. (ref. 23) Most of the estate was in
the parish of Camberwell, but the greater part of
it is now in the borough of Lambeth. The relatively
short frontage to Camberwell New Road
was partially developed shortly after the authorization
of the road in 1818 (fig. 45), but the flat,
low ground did not attract the more prosperous
classes who were migrating to the suburbs in
the first half of the 19th century. In 1863 the
opening of the Metropolitan Extensions of the
London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company
quickly created a very large demand for small
suburban houses. Several acres along the south-east
side of the estate were bought by the Railway
Company, and the remainder was carefully laid
out for residential use (fig. 46). Builders applied
for plots which were granted on long leases; when
the houses were finished they were sold by the
builder and a direct lease was granted to the tenant
by the freeholder, James Lewis Minet, or after
his death in 1885, by his son William Minet. By
1871 most of the estate had been divided into
plots and building was going on in Paulet Road,
Knatchbull Road and the connecting streets. (ref. 26)
James Lewis Minet provided a site for the Church
of St. James's, Knatchbull Road, and bore the
entire cost of building. In 1889 his son, William
Minet, gave some 14½ acres known as Myatt's
Fields to the London County Council for use as
a permanent open space. The Minet Public
Library was opened in the following year. The
history of the estate provides a good example of
the benefits which a public-spirited family of
landlords could confer on their tenants.
Figure 46.:
The Minet estate, 1885
Church of St. James The Apostle, Knatchbull Road
The site of this church was freely given by
James Lewis Minet, who also bore the entire
cost of the building. (ref. 27) The foundation stone was
laid on June 19, 1869, and the church was consecrated
on June 27, 1870; a consolidated chapelry
was formed in 1874. (ref. 27) The architect was George
Low and the builders Dove Brothers of Islington. (ref. 28)
The church, which accommodates 780
people, (ref. 27) is designed in Decorated Gothic style
with unusual detailing, and is faced with Kentish
ragstone with Bath stone dressings. It has a
clerestoried nave flanked by lean-to aisles terminating
in short gabled transepts. At the north-west
corner there is an almost free-standing
steeple; the tower has octagonal corner buttresses
finished with canopied pinnacles, and there are
dormer windows in alternate faces of the octagonal
stone spire. The interior of the church is plain
and detailed in a rather mechanical manner; the
sanctuary has an apsidal end and the transepts are
separated from the aisles by two-bay transverse
arcades.
Myatt's Fields
In 1889 William Minet gave 14½ acres of land
to the London County Council for use as a
permanent open space, and after the Metropolitan
Public Gardens Association had spent some
£10,000 on the layout of the park, it was opened
on April 13, 1889. In 1935 Miss Susan Minet
presented a further quarter of an acre near the
junction of Knatchbull Road and Calais Street. (ref. 29)
The name Myatt's Fields commemorates Joseph
Myatt, a former tenant who had been famous
for the rhubarb which he grew there.
The Minet Library, Knatchbull Road
The building which now houses the library was
originally intended by William Minet to serve
as a hall for the use of the tenants of the estate
and as a church hall for St. James‘s, Knatchbull
Road. Mr. Minet‘s wife died in 1887 before
the hall was finished and he then decided to
turn it into a library in memory of her. After
building work had been interrupted for a time by
the contractor's bankruptcy, Mr. Minet, who was
much interested in the co-operative movement,
conceived the idea of forming a private company
on co-operative lines. The experiment proved
successful and the library, which was designed by
George Hubbard, was finished and opened in
1890. (ref. 30)
Until the constitution of the metropolitan
boroughs in 1899 the library stood in the parish
of Camberwell; it is now in the borough of
Lambeth. In 1889 Mr. Minet offered to present
it to the Camberwell Libraries Commissioners. (ref. 31)
The latter asked the Lambeth Commissioners to
share in the cost of maintenance, and application
was made to the President of the Local Government
Board, by whose help the necessary powers
were inserted in the Public Libraries Amendment
Act, 1889. (ref. 32) An agreement was then reached
that there should be a Joint Committee consisting
of equal numbers of Commissioners from the two
parishes. This arrangement was in the first
instance to last for ten years, after which it was
to be terminated on either side by one year‘s
notice, the building and contents then passing to
the Commissioners to whom the notice was given.
On June 25, 1890, Mr. William Minet conveyed
the site and buildings to the two bodies of Commissioners. (ref. 31)
In later years he gave to the library
his important collection of Surrey archives. Many
additions have been made to this valuable collection
and the library is recognised by the Master of
the Rolls as a repository for manorial records.
The library was partially destroyed by incendiary
bombs on December 8, 1940, but the entire
Surrey collection was preserved.
The building is designed in Gothic Style and
is octagonal with the ground floor raised above a
semi-basement. It is built of red brick with stone
dressings, and has a wing at the rear. Within the
shell of the ground storey a temporary building
has been erected to serve as a children's library.
Cormont Secondary School, Cormont Road
This school was built for the London School
Board. The contractors were Holliday and
Greenwood of Brixton, whose tender for a school
for 894 children was for £18,601. (ref. 33) The architect
was T. J. Bailey, (ref. 34) and the date of opening
was January 10, 1898. (ref. 35) The school is a more
elaborate version of Kennington Manor School.
It comprises a lofty three-storey central block
flanked by six-storey towers, which are linked to
three-storey end pavilions by five-storey lavatory
blocks.
St. Gabriel's College, Cormont Road
The foundation stone of St. Gabriel‘s Church
Training College for women teachers was laid
by Lady Cranborne, later Marchioness of Salisbury,
in July 1899. The architect was Philip
A. Robson, and the contractors for the main block
were Messrs. J. Garrett and Son of Balham Hill.
The chapel, which was the personal gift of
Canon C. E. Brooke, vicar of St. John the Divine,
Vassall Road, was erected shortly after the main
block, and was dedicated in 1903. (ref. 36)
The building is typical of its period and employs
mixed Gothic and Renaissance motifs. It is built
of a hard red brick with sparingly used Portland
stone dressings and is five storeys high, the top
storey being a very recent addition. In the centre
is a gabled porch with a three-centred arch and
above a statue of St. Gabriel. It is approached by
a double flight of steps supported on a wide segmental
brick arch. The chapel comes forward at
an angle to the main building and is more competent
and more decidedly Gothic in character.
It has gabled buttresses, lancet windows with
traceried heads slightly recessed under stone
relieving arches, and a canted east end where the
three light window has curvilinear tracery. The
steeply pitched roof is covered with green slates.