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Roman Watling Street
C1 Watling Street built by the Romans to connect Dover to London via Canterbury and on to Holyhead, Wales.
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Medieval Kent Street
The old road to Canterbury and Dover - roughly on the alignment of the Roman road became known as Kent Street. It adjoined Borough High Street.
C12 Lock Hospital for Lepers established on Kent Street. Intended by the City of London authorities to keep lepers outside the City borders.
C14 Pilgrims to shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral stopped to water horses at stream (Earl’s Sluice) on Old Kent Road. Hostelry there was known as St Thomas a Watering (now Thomas a Becket pub).
1415 Clergy of London met Henry V at St Thomas a Watering after his victory at Agincourt.
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Tudor Kent Street
1539 The vicar of Wandsworth & three others hung drawn & quartered at St Thomas a Watering for denying Henry VIII’s supremacy over Rome in matters of faith in England.
1593 John Penry, a Puritan, hung, drawn and quartered at St. Thomas a Watering. His head was left on a post as a warning to the Puritans.
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Stuart Kent Road
1660 Charles II returned to London via the Kent Road on his restoration.
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Georgian Kent Road
1740 Last use of the gallows at St Thomas a Watering.
1746 Rocque’s Map of London. Showed Lock Hospital.
1751 Turnpike Trust upgraded a local footpath into New Kent Road.
1785 - 1820 Terraces of three-storey brick houses built on New Kent Road
1789 Paragon housing on New Kent Road developed by Michael Searles (1750–1813).
1796 Surrey Square by Michael Searles off Kent Road
(circa) Kentish Drovers established
(circa) Michael Searles built his own house on Kent Road (No 155 SE1 5UT)
1807 Deaf and Dumb Asylum (est. 1792) moved from Grange Road to 68b Old Kent Road. Space and facilities to help up to 200 children reach their potential
Surrey Canal reached Kent Road at Canal Bridge.
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Regency Kent Road
1827 Licensed Victuallers' Asylum founded, on six acres of freehold land lying just off the Old Kent Road on Asylum Road. It consisted of a group of one-storeyed houses, chapel, chaplain’s residence, board and court rooms, library, &c., set round two green lawns. It was for distressed members of the licensed victuallers’ trade, and their wives or widows, to enable them to spend the latter part of their days in peace and quietness.
1831 Lizzie Siddell (1829-1862) moved to area with her family. Later to model for Rossetti & marry him.
1833 South Metropolitan Gas works at Old Kent Road began. Coal supplied by canal.
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Early Victorian Old Kent Road
Became known as Old Kent Road
1837 Cary’s New Plan of London map
1838 Christ Church by Samuel Angell (1800-1866) opened on Caroline Place (now Ruby Street), north of Old Kent Road. See Stanford’s Map of London.
1840 Kentish Drovers public house opened at 79 Old Kent Road (SE1 3PA).
1844 Bricklayers Arms railway station by Lewis Cubitt (1799-1883) opened.
(Bricklayers Arms Inn at 37-39 Old Kent Road, on the corner of Tower Bridge Road).
1845 Glengall Road built.
1852 Bricklayers Arms railway station closed. Replaced by engine sheds.
1856 Old Dun Cow opened at 279 Old Kent Road. Gin palace with 11 drinking rooms.
IMAGE 5
1858 Old Kent Road Tollgate by Dun Cow & Green Man pubs
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Mid Victorian Old Kent Road
1860s Stanford’s Map of London
1861 Horse drawn Trams used on Old Kent Road.
1866 Old Kent Road railway station opened on South London Line (by current railway bridge).
1868 Old Christ Church closed to make way for new gas works.
New Christ Church by Enoch Bassett Keeling (1837–1886) opened on South side of Old Kent Road (Nos 676-680).
Fire station opened at 306-312 Old Kent Road.
World Turned Upside Down pub, 145 Old Kent Road, rebuilt.
1871 East London Line linked with South London Line (closed in 1966).
1877 Kent Street by Borough High Street renamed Tabard Street.
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Late Victorian Old Kent Road
1890 Livesey building at 682 Old Kent Road bequeathed by George Livesey as a free public library and operated until 1966 when the library was moved.
Ca. Paragon housing on New Kent Road demolished. Replaced by Searles Road.
1891 Waleran Flats built as five and six-storey tenement buildings on Rolls Estate land (Bricklayers Arm’s estate) on Old Kent Road (SE1 5UU).
Albert Chevalier (1861-1923) wrote Music Hall number Knock'd Em In The Old Kent Road
1890s Old Thomas a Becket pub at 322 Old Kent Road demolished.
1895 Dover Flats constructed as phase two of the Bricklayers Arm’s estate development.
1898 Thomas a Becket pub rebuilt.
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Edwardian Old Kent Road
1903 St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School opened on New Kent Road.
1904 New fire station opened at 306-312 Old Kent Road.
1905 Wellington Public Baths opened on Old Kent Road at the junction with Marlborough Grove. Designed by architect E Harding Payne, were the first in London to be built by a local authority with a Turkish baths suite in the basement
1908 Bartholomew's Handy Reference Atlas Of London & Suburbs (map 1 + map 2)
1910 Old Kent Road Picture Palace opened at 42-44 Old Kent Road (SE1 4NU).
Globe Electric Theatre opened at 59-61 Old Kent Road (SE1 4RF).
1911 Camberwell Electric Theatre opened at 388 Old Kent Road (SE1 5AA).
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Old Kent Road in First World War
1915 Palasino Electric cinema opened at 593-613 Old Kent Road (SE15 1LA).
1917 Old Kent Road railway station closed.
19 Oct: Zeppelin bombed Albany Road - 12 killed (memorial in Chumleigh Gardens).
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Pre-War Old Kent Road
1930 Astoria Cinema built on the site of Palasino at 593-597 Old Kent Road. Designed by Edward Albert Stone.
1930s World Turned Upside Down, 145 Old Kent Road, rebuilt by A W Blomfield.
1937 Regal cinema opened at 810 Old Kent Road. SE15 1AJ. Designed by W.R. Glen (1885-1950).
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Old Kent Road in Second World War
1941 Bricklayers Arms goods depot attacked by German bombers & damaged.
1945 Wellington Public Baths destroyed.
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Post War Old Kent Road
1953 Old Kent Road Gas Works closed.
1956 Old Kent Road Picture House at 42-44 Old Kent Road closed.
1960 Globe Cinema at 59-61 Old Kent Road, SE1 4RF, closed.
Licensed Victuallers' Asylum sold to LB Southwark, as social housing. Southwark renamed it Caroline Gardens after Caroline Secker, a former resident and widow of James Secker, who was the marine in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) said to have caught Nelson when he fell.
1962 Avondale Estate constructed between 1958 and 1962 on the Old Kent Road. City of London's largest estate, containing 680 homes. The area the estate occupied has belonged to the City since 1251, and was originally known as Twelve Acres.
1963 Bricklayers Arms freight depot closed but sidings remained in use.
Bricklayers Arms pub at 37-39 Old Kent Road, SE1 shut.
ca. Kings Arms pub at 40 Old Kent Road closed. Later demolished.
1964 North Peckham Civic Centre constructed with mural of history of Old Kent Road by Adam Kossowski (1905-1986).
1967 North Peckham Civic Centre opened at 600-608 Old Kent Road.
1968 Deaf and Dumb Asylum moved from Old Kent Road.
Bricklayers Arms Flyover opened.
Astoria Cinema at 593-597 Old Kent Road closed.
1969 Manfred Mann opened his own recording studio at 488-490 Old Kent Road, called Maximum Sound, but soon re-named as The Workhouse.
1970 Grand Surrey Canal closed and later filled in.
1971 Pathe News film of Old Kent Road (canal shown at 3:40).
New Fire station opened at 405 Old Kent Road. Replaced old Fire station at 302-316.
1973 Burgess Park named after Jessie Burgess, a mayor of Camberwell.
1974 ABC cinema at 810 Old Kent Road closed.
Livesey library re-opened by Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman as an interactive children's museum.
1977 Ian Dury (1942-2000) recorded New Boots & Panties!! album at The Workhouse studio 488-490 Old Kent Road.
1978 George Carter & Sons, Mens outfitters, closed at 215 Old Kent Road.
1981 Bricklayers Arms goods sidings closed by British Rail. Housing & business park built on the land.
1985 BBC Arena film (11:36) of the Old Kent Road.
1990s Surrey Canal bridge demolished (Canal Head)
1999 Duke of Kent pub at 365 Old Kent Road converted into a mosque.
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C21 Old Kent Road
2003 Shard Arms pub at 610 Old Kent Road closed and later demolished.
2004 Dun Cow pub closed & became a surgery.
Asda Superstore opened on corner of Old Kent Road & Malt Street.
2005 The Guardian’s Peter Preston on the diversification of Old Kent Road.
2008 Livesey Museum closed by Southwark Council.
Green Man pub closed at 278-280 Old Kent Road.
2009 World Turned Upside Down, 145 Old Kent Road, closed down.
2012 Burgess Park re-opened after an £8 million redevelopment.
2013 Frog & Nightgown/Virgo’s at 148-150 Old Kent Road demolished.
New Fire station opened at 405 Old Kent Road to replace earlier station.
2019 Southwark Council released its updated 2017 Area Action Plan, with on Old Kent Road & the wider area to be Inner London’s last large-scale regeneration opportunity with 20,000 new homes envisaged, 7,000 of them affordable and 10,000 new jobs. Dependent on two new Underground stations being built. FT article
2020 Article on variety of international cuisine available on Old Kent Road.
2021 Proposal for introduction of trams on the Old Kent Road SN article
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