Borough - Newington

Because of the size of the file for this dense inner city area, the square has been divided into four. This is the south west quarter

The north west corner is  Borough
The north east corner is The north east corner is  Borough Bermondsey borders
The south east corner is Borough Newington and Trinity

Post to the north Bankside
Post to the west St,George and Waterloo
Post to the south Walworth
Post to the east Bermondsey



Arch Street
In the 19th the street was lined on either side with stables and a coal depot which appear to belong to the Great Northern Railway. By the early 20th the stables were closed and replaced with garages with became works fronting onto Rockingham Street.  The site appears to have been bombed although the coal depot remained to be replaced by council housing in the 1960s

Avonmouth Street
Etc Venues. Avonmouth House. Conference Centre. This is a training and meeting venue where rooms can be hired,
LCC Gas Meter Testing Office. This stood at the rear of the Sessions House but appears to have been accessed from Avonmouth Street.

Bath Terrace
15 this was the second base for the South London Shoeblack Society from 1890 where it could house 35 destitute boys younger than 16.  The boys worked cleaning shoes in the daytime and wore red jerseys.  It had closed by 1890.
29 Uxbridge Arms. Demolished in 2016 this estate pub is now replaced with housing
Rockingham Street School.  This school seems to have been on the corner with Harper Road.  It was that on the site of houses called Newington Grove and was a London School Board School. It was opened in 1885 and expanded in 1888.  It is said to Have been destroyed in bombing in 1940.
Stone yard. – two stone yards are show here in the 19th century

Brockham Street.
H.Dunn Electrical Works. A works was located to the rear of the houses on the west side which may once have been known as Trinity Mews.

Dickens Square
This was once called Union Square and was surrounded by housing built in 1844. Most of these survived the Second World War but were demolished in 1971-2 because of a designation of the area as Public Open Space
Dickens Park. Also known as Dickens Fields. The park was built on an area partly destroyed by a V2 in the Second World War. It includes a Butterfly Walk conservation area and an adventure playground managed by the Rockingham Estate Play Association 

Falmouth Road
This runs roughly on the line of a previous ‘Halfpenny Hatch”.  This was a private footpath on which a toll would be charged. 
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.  This was founded in Nigeria in 1956 and this Southwark branch is in what was the Welsh Presbyterian Church. Worshippers wear white robes known as "soutane".
Welsh Presbyterian church. This was opened in 1889 by a congregation which previously met in Crosby Row. It was designed by Charles Evans-Vaughan. It was here that a London eisteddfod began which outgrew it to meet in the Royal Albert Hall, The Old Vic and Methodist Central Hall. It ended in 1959. Membership of the chapel peaked at 514 in 1938, but when it closed in 1982 the average Sunday congregation was just 20 people.
Falmouth Road Park. This  opened in March 2006. It includes a bench is made from a London plane tree that once stood on the Tower of London Wharf. It once included designs created by local children.

Gaunt Street
This was previously Lancaster Street
103 Ministry of Sound. This is a dance club which opened in 1991 in what is said to have been a bus garage.   The company has also diversified into ownership of a record label, radio etc etc.

Harper Road
Used to be Horsemonger Lane and later Union Street. 
Horsemonger Lane Gaol. This was built between 1791 and 1799 to designed by George Gwilt the Elder, the then Surrey County Surveyor. It was then the largest prison in the county, and adjacent to the Sessions House. It replaced the old White Lion Gaol, the county gaol housed on Borough High Street. It housed both debtors and criminals and 131 men and four women were executed there. It was demolished in 1881 and the site is Newington Gardens
25-29 The Inner London Sessions House Crown Court. There has been a judicial building on the site since 1794 when the County Sessions House was opened here. A new Court building was opened in 1875, which was replaced by the present Inner London Sessions House in 1921 by W.E.Riley. This became the ‘county’ criminal court for London and is the location for the  Recorder of Southwark. It became a Crown Court in 1971 and was extended in 1974 to provide ten courts, Most recently it has been a parcel sorting depot and is now due for demolition.
Hotel Elephant. Studio providing workspaces
Newington Gardens. This was built on the site of Horsemonger Lane Goal and was laid out by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and opened in 1884. Later it was enlarged under the London County Council and play apparatus and a bandstand were added, but have now gone. There are now two basketball courts and two children's play areas.
Baitul Aziz Islamic Cultural Centre and mosque. This site became a mosque in 1990 and has since been expanded.  It is built slightly askew in order to face Mecca.
16 King William IV.  Later known as the LE KVO Lounge and is now the Buddhist Lounge, the Hi Ha Bar.
31 Masons Arms. Pub now demolished.
42 Royals Salsa. This was previously the Royal Standard Pub but became a salsa club from 2012. It was a 1930s brick building adjacent to and built into flats called Bramwell House. Since demolished for housing.
69 Albion Pub. Now demolished.
98 The Rising Sun. Pub dating from the 1840s but clearly rebuilt since.
Squires Youth Club. This is on the edge of Dickens’ Park
Weights and Measures Office. This dated from 1892 and replaced an office in the prison gatehouse, but was destroyed in Second World War bombing.
Mains Floor Cloth Factory. This stood slightly east of the Falmouth Road junction on the south side of the road

Meadow Row
Hand in Hand pub. Estate style pub for sale 2008
St.Matthew’s Church. The old church was demolished in 1993. The new church is linked to a new community centre. The church hosts musical performances as well as community events and services. There is a separate minimalist iron spire at the street entrance suggesting both old and new-style church architecture. The building includes some flats.

New Kent Road
This road is fundamentally a bypass.  It was built by the local Turnpike Trust in 1751 on the site of a footpath in order to access the new Westminster Bridge. It runs from the Elephant and Castle roundabout to the junction with Great Dover Street at Bricklayers Arms where it joins the Old Kent Road. It was originally called Greenwich Road.
Shopping centre (see square to the south)
16-18 London (Elephant and Castle) Horse and Carriage Repository. This was an auction house for horses, ponies and vehicles. It was on the site of the shopping centre but lay nearer to the road.
26 Charlie Chaplin pub. Named after a famous local ex-resident who it is said that had a martini at the pub during a visit to the area in the 1950s. This is also a hostel of some sort. It is on the site of a musical hall where Chaplin is said to have played and is probably built contemporary with the shopping centre
Coronet Elephant Cinema. This was originally the site of the Theatre Royal/Elephant and Castle built as a public gall but used as a music hall.  Thus was built in 1872 but burnt down in 1878, It was replaced by a new theatre, designed by Frank Matcham – his first assignment. This opened in 1879 and was rebuilt in 1882, and 1902. It stooped being used for live theatre in 1928 when on the last night the audience sang ‘Knocked em in the Old Kent Road’. It was taken over by Associated British Cinemas whose architect William Riddle Glen redesigned it with an Art Deco interior. It re-opened in 1932 with a Christie 3Manual/11Rank organ with an illuminated console. Variety shows also continued here. It briefly closed in 1941 following bombing. In 1967 it was modernised and renamed ABC in October 1967 and the facade was covered with blue metal sheeting. In 1981 it became a triple screen cinema and taken over by the Cannon Group in 1986 who sold it the Coronet chain in 1986 and it was re-named Coronet. This closed in 1999. In 2003 it reopened as a nightclub although some films were shown. It closed in 2015 and is scheduled for demolition. A new cinema is planned for a new development.
Trocodero. This very big cinema was built for Hyams and Gale and opened in 1930 designed by George Coles and on an awkward site. The auditorium was in a French Renaissance style, with gilt features. The side walls had alcoves with Roman eagles. There was a large stage, with dressing rooms and a Wurlitzer 4Manual/21Rank organ shipped from America. .It was taken over by Gaumont Super Cinemas in 1935, and was closed for a mintrh through Second World War bombing. It was closed by the Rank Organisation in 1963 and the Wurlitzer was installed at Southbank University by the Cinema Organ Society. The cinema was demolished and replaced by Alexander Fleming House with an address in Newington Causeway
Odeon Cinema. This replaced the Trocerdero and was designed by Erno Goldfinger. It was in concrete and had a roof ingeniously cantilevered from diagonal beams. It opened in 1966, later became a Coronet and closed in 1988 when it was demolished.  The site is now an annexe to Metro Central Heights. The Wurlitzer is now at the Troxy Cinema, Stepney
Railway Bridge. Carries what was the London, Chatham and Dover Railway over the road. It is now Thameslink and the line runs into Blackfriars from the Elephant and Castle. The original bridge dated from 1863.
Albert Barnes House. An 18-storey block of council flats dating from 1964. In the 1860s this was a short lived market which appears to have been replaced with housing.
Fish and provisions market promoted by Samuel Plimsoll. 1883-1886.
Holy Trinity and St.Matthew. This was a gothic church to St.Matthew, oriented north-south with major alterations in 1927. The parish was merged with Holy Trinity in 1970 and the church was disused from 1980, declared redundant in 1988. It was demolished 1992, There is now a replacement church to the rear in Meadow Row.
81 Vicarage for St. Matthew. This is now leased out by the Diocese
Cranleigh Hall. This was the church hall for Holy Trinity and St. Matthew
83 this was built in 1905 on the site of a villa. It was originally the Morning Post Embankment Home, a charity set up in memory of Oliver Borthwick, editor of the Morning Post Newspaper, and which charity still exists to help homeless people. It later was also the Borthwick Teaching Training College. Until 1961 It was used by Garnett College which trained lecturers as part of an extension in Southwark to their main site at Roehampton.  It was later used to house Rachel McMillan College's Education courses and in 1976 the College became part of the South Bank Polytechnic. During 1989-90 the building was converted into halls of residence for South Bank University and is still in use
Tavern Court Flats belonging to . Family Mosaic Housing Association. This is on the site of what was the County Terrace Tavern , which closed in 2003 having been built in 1811.

Newington Causeway
1 Elephant and Castle Pub. This 1966 building replaced the original pub after which the area is named and which stood on the site of the central roundabout.
Alexander Fleming House. This is now Metrocentral Heights.  It was originally a multi-storey office complex designed in the early 1960s by Hungarian born  Ernő Goldfinger for Arnold Lee of Imry Properties. the internal design of the building was made as flexible as possible, providing open decks which could be readily subdivided and services re-routed. The original tenant was the Department of Health and Social Security, which led to its being named Alexander Fleming House, after the discoverer of penicillin. it was converted into a residential development by St George Plc in 1997.
Metro Central Heights is a group of residential buildings in what was Alexander Fleming House.
Plaque. A commemorative plaque, donated by the Cinema Theatre Association, was unveiled by TV writer Denis Norden, who began his cinema career as assistant manager at the Trocadero Cinema in the Second World War, It outlined the history of the Trocadero Cinema.
7 Horseshoe Inn
27 Wagon and Horses. Demolished
37 John Haywood. Oilcloth manufacturer  in the 19th
45  Works for Sharps Kreemy Toffee of Maidstone 1950s
48-50 Atlas Paper works. The firm originated as a partnership in 1849 and was  set up in 1865 as Crescons Robinson & Co Ltd, account book and stationary manufacturers. The site was expanded in 1888 and by the 1900s it stood on both sides of the road. The works had three caryatids holding globes on their shoulders.. The works closed in 1981
55 Artichoke pub. Demolished
59-62 Institute of Optometry. This was formerly the London Refraction Hospital,. Set up  in October 1922. In 1988 the LRH changed its name to the Institute of Optometry and expanded to include postgraduate training, education and research. It is an independent self-financing registered charity, relying on voluntary support for its services.
63-67  Job Centre
69-71 Startrite Machine Tool Ltd. 1970s
Surrey House.  Olivers. This firm began in 1815  and by the 1830s the address was operated as a boot and shoe warehouse "town and Country trade .. supplied on the shortest notice" for wholesale, exportation and,  retail.  . They later opened a depot in Knightsbridge
Waygood –this company of lift  engineers were here from the 1840s, moving to Falmouth Road when the railway took over their site in 1863.
Rail bridge
77-85 Southwark Playhouse. The Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice and Tom Wilson. They leased a disused workshop here and turned it into a flexible theatre space.
Mecato Metropitano  courtyard, An Italian market.
96 Kings Head,. Bombed and closed in 1941
101 The Salvation Army UK and Republic of Ireland headquarters
97-103 Elephant Motors, Ltd., present in 1934
119 Rockingham Arms. This is a new pub owned by Wetherspoons.
140 The Alfreds Head. This pub closed in 1961 and was demolished in 1962 as part of the Elephant & Castle redevelopment
175 Rockingham Arms. This pub had turrets and was built in 109. It was demolished in redevelopment of the 1960s.vc
Globe Lamp Works, Owned by S.P. Catterson and Sons 1895-1900s
192 S Tourney, and Company, Borough Wheel Works. Wheels manufactured by machinery. They were present in the mid 19th.

Rockingham Court
This street is now partly under Alexander Fleming House
Baptist church
Carpet factory, By the 1940s this was an auction room.

Rockingham Street
Duke of Wellington. Almost under the railway arch. It had tongue and grooved wood panelling and cast iron columns. It was also called the Isaac Bell and has been demolished.
39a Southwark Glasswork. In 1890 William Henry Oldham set up a glass works here.  He was replaced by John Muzzall who remained until 1907 but it was not until 1912 that the site became known as the Rockingham Glass Works and later became the Abbott Glass Co. Ltd who were glass bottle manufacturers. They were replaced here by Kempton family members, moving here from a site in Lambeth,  who had three pot furnaces and made vases, lamp shades and chimneys as well as bottles in many colours, They named this the Southwark Glassworks.  In the late 1920s they moved to Nazeing where the glassworks is still extant. The Southwark site was redeveloped with flats in the 1930s by the London County Council.
100 Rockingham Community Centre
Salvationist Publishing. Part of the Salvation Army HQ fronting on Newington Causeway.

Trinity Church Square
The square was built from 1824 by William Chadwick for Trinity House – the organisation which provides measures for safety at sea - to finance distressed mariners and their families. It is comparable to contemporary squares in Islington.
Holy Trinity Church now the Henry Wood Hall.  It was built 1823-24 by Francis Bedford as a Commissioners Church but gutted by fire and rebuilt inside as orchestral hall, 1973-5 having closed in 1960. It is a Grecian style building on a site given by Trinity House, for the surrounding estate developed around the same time.  The conversion was by Arup Associates, to an orchestral recording and rehearsal hall, was a happy solution. The brick-vaulted crypt was given a lower floor, and became a cafeteria and stores; the church itself whose original three galleries and flat ceiling had been destroyed in the fire is now an open hall with a new gallery for choir and organ.
Gate piers and railings. Replicas of those destroyed in the Second World War
King Alfred’s statue.  This is a more than life-size figure of a king which is supposed to be London's oldest statue. The statue in the garden of Trinity Church Square, said to be one of the oldest statues in London. It may be one of eight medieval statues from Westminster Hall, five of which disappeared during work there undertaken by John Soane in 1820–25. Or it might be one of a pair made for the garden of Carlton House in 1735. Or an early 19th statue made by Bubb for Manchester Town Hall.  The whole of the upper part and most of the sides and back are a restoration in Coade stone from the 18th or 19th

Sources
Aldous. Village London
British History On line. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Diocese of Southwark. Web site
Exploring Southwark. Web site
Field. London Place Names
GLIAS Newsletter
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Greater London Council. Home Sweet Home
Historic England. Web site
Ideal Homes. Web site
Institute of Optometry. Web site
London Borough of Southwark. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Metropolitan Archive. Web site
Lucas. London
Nazeing Glass Works. Web sit
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pub History. Web site
SE1. Web site
Summerson. Georgian Buildings in London
Thorne. Old and New London
Waygood. Web site
Wikipedia. As appropriate