A Brief History of Vauxhall Park
Compiled by Peter Reed
Copyright 4/3/2000 The Friends of Vauxhall Park
History of the Neighbourhood
Some Mesolithic (8300 - 4000 BC) flint blades together with some Neolithic (4000 - 1800BC) pottery shards were found at an archaeological dig on a site directly opposite the park in South Lambeth Road. However the main indications are that the area was inhabited in the late Iron Age (600 BC - AD. 43), immediately before the Roman Invasion of Britain.
There is no mention of Vauxhall in the 1086 Domesday Book (Doomsday Book), but from various accounts three local roads, the South Lambeth Road, Clapham Road (previously called Merton Road) and Wandsworth Road (previously called Kingston Road) were ancient and well known routes to and from London. The area was flat and marshy with parts poorly drained by ditches. The area only started to be developed in the mid18th century. Prior to this it provided market garden produce for the nearby city of London.
The area formed part of the extensive Manor of South Lambeth, which was probably given by Harold to Waltham Abbey, this gift being confirmed by Edward the Confessor. After the Norman Conquest it was acquired by the king's half brother, the Count of Mortain but was forfeited by his son in 1106. By 1263 the manor included Vauxhall, Stockwell and parts of Streatham and Mitcham.
By the reign of King John the De Redvers family, the Earls of Devon, held the land. In 1216 the widow of Baldwin de Redvers, Margaret, was forced to marry a notorious Gascon mercenary named Falkes de Breauté. Falkes gained possession of some of the land and built a hall, which became known as Falkes Hall. Subsequently the hall and the surrounding area has been known at various times as Fulke's Hall, Faukeshall, Fawkyhall, Foxhall, Faux Well, and eventually Vauxhall.
Falkes came from humble origins but through a number of successful military adventures he rose to become the Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1211. Later he was to become one of King John's evil counsellors. However in 1223 he joined the Earl of Chester's unsuccessful scheme to seize The Tower. He surrendered on threats of excommunication and as punishment for his insurrection many of his possessions were forfeited back to the crown. It is not clear if the land at Vauxhall was part of the forfeit but after Falkes died, in 1226, the King granted the land to Earl Warenne till the son and heir of Baldwin, Earl of the Isle of Wright, came of age. So the land reverted to the Redvers family.
In 1293 the land at Vauxhall and the South Lambeth Manor passed back to the crown (Edward 1) on the death of Isabel de Fortibus, sister of Baldwin de Redvers. Shortly afterwards the two 'manors' were amalgamated under the name of Vauxhall and references to the Manor of South Lambeth start to disappear from the records to be replaced by the Manors of Vauxhall and Stockwell.
In 1308 Vauxhall was granted to Richard de Greseroy, the King's Butler, and in 1317 to Roger Damory and Elizabeth his wife, the King's niece. Roger teamed up with the rebel Earl of Lancaster in 1321 and at his death his estate was forfeited to the crown. In 1324 the manor was granted to Hugh le Despenser the elder, but in 1337 Edward III granted it to the Black Prince.
In 1340 the Abbot of Westminster had to repair a bridge over a creek near the present day Vauxhall Cross (Junction of Kennington Lane, Wandsworth Road and South Lambeth Road). This bridge was called Cox's bridge (Cokesbrugge). At later times this bridge was known as Vauxhall Bridge however this bridge was just over what is now called the River Effra which feeds into the Thames at Vauxhall. There was another bridge over the 'Vauxhall Creek' on the Clapham Road. The first bridge over the Thames was only opened in 1816.
By 1349 courts were being held at Vauxhall. In 1362 the Black Prince granted income from part of the land to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church Canterbury to provide a chantry to celebrate masses for his soul in the Cathedral crypt. This grant was a condition by the Pope, for a dispensation allowing the Black Prince to marry his cousin, the Fair Maid of Kent.
After the Dissolution, the majority of the Manor of Vauxhall was transferred to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church Canterbury with some land in the 'Lambeth Marsh' going direct to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Although parcels of land were sold off the manor of Vauxhall remained broadly as one. In 1449 the manor was leased to two citizens of London - Thomas del Rowe and Peter Pope, for £20 per year. Effectively the church owners had become absentee landlords using the rent to continue the prayers for the Black Prince. By 1472 the cost of maintaining the chantry had risen to £40 a year but the income was still only £20 and the lease on the whole of the manor ended shortly afterwards. The land was subsequently let more profitably in smaller parcels.
This letting was carried out in a somewhat disorganised way and in 1590 Laurence Palmer won a court case which resulted in him leasing several of the small parcels of land as one entity. The majority of Palmer's leased land was managed as a whole till 1798 when the then leaseholder Sir John Mawbey died. His property including the lease was sold to settle his debts. Shortly afterwards the church owners split up the property and sold it to different people including John Daniel of The Lawn in 1801, and some land adjoining Carroun House to Sir Charles Blicke. John Fentiman (Snr.) also purchased some of Palmer's former leasehold land.
The other leasehold land (not leased by Palmer) eventually formed two holdings known as 34 acres and 32 acres. 34 Acres included the area now occupied by Albert Square, St Stephen's Church and Terrace, Lansdowne Gardens, St Barnabas' Church and Guildford Road. 32 Acres included the area now occupied by parts of Clapham Road, Caron House Estate, Vauxhall Park, Fentiman Road, parts of South Lambeth Road, St Anne's Church, Wyvil Road and Tate library.
John Fentiman (Snr.) bought the majority of 32 Acres in 1806, which together with his parcel of the former Palmer land and his existing holdings in Kennington formed his estate. He drained the marshy Claylands (or Clayfields) and built a mansion south of the Oval opposite the end of Claylands Road. John Fentiman (Snr.) died in 1820 and the property was divided between his two sons. John Fentiman (Jnr) died in 1823 leaving his share of the property to his son, John William Fentiman who died in 1857. Fentiman Road was only laid out around 1838.
In the early 1600's most of the other land, the parts that had been sold off back in the 13th and 14th century, had been bought by Noel de Caron, Lord of Schoonewale in Flanders. Noel de Caron, the ambassador for the States General of the United Provinces (The Netherlands), was an anglophile and in 1602 he bought a 'greate howse' with dairy and 70 acres from Thomas Hewytt (Hewett) of St. Andrew Undershaft. Sixteen years later he bought several parcels of land from Sir William and Catherine Foster - Catherine was heir to the Lawrence Palmer land. Caron also owned adjoining parts of the Manor of Kennington. It is thought that over a number of years Caron replaced the 'greate howse' by a large and very grand mansion house in a surrounding estate which was well watered by the Vauxhall Creek and studded with trees. Caron died in 1624 but his estate was not finalised till 1632, partly because of disputes amongst his kin and the fact that he was an unmarried 'allien' with no progeny.
During the Commonwealth period (Oliver Cromwell and all that civil strife) the Caron mansion was owned and occupied by Alderman Francis Allen. In 1666 the King let house and park at 10 shillings (50p) per year to the Lord Chancellor, Edward, Earl of Clarendon. In 1667, Clarendon sold the estate to Sir Jeremy Whichcott (Whichcote) who had been Solicitor-General to the Prince Elector Palatine, Charles Lewis, son of Frederick V. Within a year Whichcott was granted a patent to be the warden of the Fleet Prison to be located at Caron House.
The original Caron House was pulled down between 1683 and 1685 but the name lived on - during the 19th Century two houses occupied this land - Carroun House and Caron Place but neither on the site of the original mansion.
In 1725 Edward Lovibond of St James, Clerkenwell, bought the Carroun estate. The Lovibonds let part of the estate, subsequently known as The Lawn, to James Gubbins and Phillip Buckley in 1791 who promptly erected 8 houses fronting onto a large grass covered area or lawn. Originally the houses were known as 1 to 8 The Lawn but later became known as 37 to 51 (odd) South Lambeth Road.
The Lovibond family owned the estate until 1797 when it was sold to Sir Charles Blicke. Blicke who was a Surgeon of St Bartholomew Hospital, and Governor of the College of Surgeons, probably erected Carroun House (variously called Carron House or Caron House) shortly afterwards. Then Blicke added to his estate with some small pieces of land. Soon his estate covered the area from present day Lawn Lane in the north, to but not including Heyford Avenue in the south, from the rear of Vauxhall Park to the junction of Meadow and Fentiman Roads in the east, and South Lambeth Road in the west.
