Camberwell the People The population of Camberwell was estimated to be 37,000 in 2004.
According to the 2001 census, just over one third of the population of Camberwell is Black. The highest proportion of these are Black African people at 1 in 5; there are also Black Caribbeans and Black people of other origins. Just over half the population are White. There are also small proportions of Mixed and Asian people.
Also according to the 2001 census, more than a quarter of the population of Camberwell were born in countries outside the European Union.
In the years since the census was taken, it is likely that the population has become even more diverse, especially with increasing numbers of people from Eastern Europe.
The population of Camberwell is relatively young with higher proportions of children and young people and lower proportions of older people.
Immigration into Camberwell
 For centuries, Camberwell has offered a home to people fleeing persecution or seeking to improve their lives.
In the late seventeenth century, many Huguenots came to Camberwell. The Huguenots were French Protestants who suffered from persecution in France at the hands of the Catholic King. They left their mark on the place names of Camberwell.
Champion de Crespigny is remembered in the road names Champion Hill and De Crespigny Park, and Minet, which became Myatts, as in the park Myatt’s Fields.
Two centuries later, Camberwell was home to a large and close-knit community of Germans. These included wealthy banking families who settled around Champion Hill and Denmark Hill, and also small traders and shopkeepers. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, however, non-naturalised Germans in Britain were interned or deported by the government and German shops in Camberwell were attacked by gangs. The German community disappeared.
In 1948 the ship 'The Empire Windrush' brought the first wave of settlers from the Caribbean to Britain. In the years that followed many thousands more came from the Caribbean and from Africa. In Camberwell and elsewhere they faced many difficulties at first, for example, most landlords refused to rent their rooms out to Black people. But Black people played a key role in helping rebuild London, which had been devastated by bombs.
More recently, people have come to Camberwell from many corners of the globe: such as French-speaking African countries, Ghana, Nigeria, Latin American countries, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Poland.
Contact us
Katherine Pitt
Tel: 020 7525 6433
Fax: 020 7708 2484
katherine.pitt@southwark.gov.uk
Southwark Council
73 Camberwell Church Street
London
SE5 8TR
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