CHAPTER 16: NEW KENT ROAD
It being an inherent tendency in human nature, clerical or otherwise,
to take short cuts where possible, there is little doubt that soon after the
monks of Christ Church obtained possession of
Walworth in the 11th century they began, when
the state of the ground permitted, to find a way
across the fields from the Canterbury road (Old
Kent Road) to Walworth Manor to avoid making
the detour up to St. George's Church and down
Borough High Street (or Blackman Street) to
Newington Causeway.
Figure 42:
Gate pier, the Paragon
The path probably became a well-defined
green road after the Archbishop made his London
residence at Lambeth and the ferry at Lambeth
came into general use. On the 1681 plan of
Walworth Manor (Plate 49) the field north of
Walworth Common Field has the legend "King's
high Way" written across it, and by a series of
gates, the path can be traced across the neighbouring fields to Newington Butts. Rocque's map
of 1761 shows the old path and a new straight
road cutting right across it. This was the New
Kent Road built under the Act of 1751 (ref. 325) by
Turnpike Trustees appointed under an earlier
Act. Towards the end of the century terraces of
two- and three-storey houses, Rockingham Row,
Rodney Buildings, Dover Place, etc., began to
appear on either side. Many of them still survive,
and their plain brick façades and the simple
decorative treatment of the fanlights, door surrounds and ironwork, though frequently repeated,
give them a certain dignity even in decay. 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.
A pleasing variety was given to the original street frontage by the
setting back of County Terrace half-way along the north side and by the
formation of Union Crescent and the Paragon on opposite sides of the way
at the eastern end. On a pedestal in the garden, which has replaced the
stretch of water in front of County Terrace, the Dickens Fellowship have
recorded that it was there that David Copperfield paused to rest on his
flight to his aunt at Dover. Union Crescent (Plate 88a) was pulled down
to make room for the St. Saviour's and St. Olave's Grammar School for Girls
in 1903.
The Paragon (Plate 86), of which a plan is given on p. 123, was
designed by Michael Searles and built in 1789–90 for the Rolls family.
Searles also designed the Paragon at Blackheath, and John Summerson
comments that in both cases the name was given point by "strict architectural
regularity on a rather unusual and decorative plan." (ref. 197) Nos. 1–12 were
built under Searles' direction, Nos. 13–15 being added by William Chadwick
in 1825 after Searles' death. It is unfortunate that the only house to survive
is one of these later ones, No. 15 (Plate 87), which since 1902 has been the
rectory of St. George the Martyr, Southwark. The rest of the Paragon was
demolished in 1898 for the erection of a school. The rusticated gate piers
in artificial stone at the entrance to each side of the Paragon still remain, the
gardens having been formed into a small public open space.
Figure 43:
St. George's Rectory and No. 220 New Kent Road
Residents in the Paragon include:—At No. 3, in 1840–50, William Oke Manning, a legal
writer and, in 1855–63, George R. Corner, who published a number of papers on the history of
Southwark; at No. 4, in 1789–91, Michael Searles; at No. 6, in 1829–55, Bryan Donkin, civil
engineer and the inventor, among other things, of a method of packing meat and vegetables in airtight containers; at No. 8, in 1802–04, John Rolls, the lessee of the ground and owner of the Rolls
Estate (see p. 122), in 1805–09, George Gwilt the elder, architect, surveyor to the County of
Surrey and district surveyor of St. George's, Southwark. William Chadwick, who built many of the
houses in Trinity Street and Square, lived at No. 15 between 1826 and 1832. (ref. 326)
Figure 44:
Lead cistern from the Paragon
Nos. 214–218 next to the Paragon were built by Samuel Harrison
on ground leased to John Rolls by St. Bartholomew's Hospital and formerly
part of the Lock Hospital property (ref. 327) (see the footnote on p. 122). Nos.
154–170, 182–204 and 220–232 on the south side of the road all date from
about the same period. Several of the houses have good fanlights. Nos.
279–283 and 289–295 at the east end of the north side are slightly smaller.
They are set back from the road.
At the end of the street nearer the Elephant and Castle most of the
original houses have been replaced by modern buildings; while shops have
been built over the front gardens of those which remain. (fn. a) Adjacent to Gurney
Street are two six-storey blocks called The Palatinate, erected in 1875, and
designed "to provide convenient and healthy dwellings at moderate rents"
to enable those "of a grade higher in the social scale" than the working class
to live near their work. (ref. 328) They were built by Messrs. Sutton and Dudley,
who were also responsible for most of the houses on the site of the Surrey
Gardens off the Walworth Road. At the time they were put up they were
a progressive experiment in housing, and the shops on the ground floor facing
New Kent Road were an unusual feature. They form a solid contrast to the
lighter and more open blocks of three-and four-storey flats now being erected
by the London County Council to replace terraces in the street destroyed by
enemy action.
Except in the Paragon there have been few notable residents in the road. The Rev.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon lived at No. 217 in 1856–57, a fact recorded on a tablet on the house.