Camberwell the Place

History

Camberwell takes its name from ‘Camber Well’, believed to have been at what is now 56 Grove Park. Once a country village it was known for its many wells. Part of the old parish of Camberwell is now in the borough of Lambeth.

Camberwell was first mentioned in the Domesday book, the great survey of England of 1086.

For hundreds of years Camberwell remained a village, with a few houses clustered around Camberwell Green and the High Street (now Camberwell Road and Denmark Hill). The only other significant road was Camberwell Church Street which began at Camberwell Green and went past fields to the village of Peckham.

A fair was held on Camberwell Green every August from 1279 until 1855. In the Middle Ages the fair lasted for 3 weeks and was mainly for merchants and farmers to trade their goods. In later centuries the fair lasted for 3 days and featured such entertainment as lions and other wild beasts.

Over 100 people in Camberwell died in the Great Plague of 1665.

The Camberwell Beauty butterfly was identified for the first time in England at a farm on Coldharbour Lane in 1748. The butterfly has long since disappeared from Camberwell, although there have been attempts to re-introduce it.

Denmark Hill is named after the King of Denmark, Christian VII, who visited England in 1768.

Camberwell once had a canal: the Grand Surrey canal was built between 1801 and 1811 and began at what is now the entrance to Burgess Park on Camberwell Road. It went all the way to Rotherhithe and so enabled barges to bring goods from the Rotherhithe docks to Camberwell. The canal was filled in in 1960.

The poet Robert Browning lived in Camberwell. He was born in 1812 at Rainbow Cottage, Cottage Green. The writer John Ruskin also lived in Camberwell in his youth.

The information on these pages is taken from:

'The Story of Camberwell' Mary Boast, London Borough of Southwark 2000
'Green Camberwell' (map) Eleanor Margolies 2005

Katherine Pitt
Tel: 020 7525 6433
Fax: 020 7708 2484
katherine.pitt@southwark.gov.uk
Southwark Council
73 Camberwell Church Street
London
SE5 8TR