In depth history – Southwark News

A pub crawl with a prostitute, a murder, and an injured donkey: the Borough mystery that shocked Victorian London

News Desk — Wed, 07 May 2025 17:04:38 +0000

At around 3pm on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 11, 1892, a group of men were seen walking along White Cross Street (now Ayres Street) supporting a finely dressed gentleman who appeared worse for wear, writes historian Neil Crossfield… Witnesses heard the men singing ‘ta-ra-de boom-de day’ and urging their slightly stupefied colleague to join […]

The fight to keep the historic river walk open from Deptford all way to the boundary with Bexley

Mary Mills — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 12:54:42 +0000

I see that the Royal Borough of Greenwich has a consultation out about what people feel about the Riverside Path. I’m not sure how ethical it is for me to put my fairly detailed research about the path into the public arena at this stage, but I can’t really see why not. Of course, the […]

Cricket fans will be bowled over by historic podcast

Sports Desk — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 20:09:31 +0000

Wherever you look in south London, whatever corner you walk around, there is incredible history. Some of it is more obvious than others. Wherever you dig, you are likely to hit gold writes Jon Surtees… It was in this spirit that the podcast ‘Tales from The Oval’ was conceived. A new series that, through eleven […]

Southwark was not always a Labour stronghold – a century of political shifts

Herbie Russell — Fri, 31 May 2024 10:53:55 +0000

Southwark, and the three parliamentary constituencies that have traditionally overlapped with it, has a reputation as a Labour stronghold. But the party’s dominance is a fairly recent occurrence. Over the last century, all three major parties have held seats at one time or another. Constituency boundary changes ahead of the 2024 general election mean the […]

Napoleon, grave-diggers and thieves: The twisted tale of a Camberwell church

Herbie Russell — Sun, 12 May 2024 10:33:20 +0000

In 1977, Camberwell was rocked by a particularly depraved news story. Vandals had broken into a derelict church on Burgess Park. Once inside the crypt, they desecrated coffins, mutilated skeletons, and drove a stake through a corpse’s chest. St George’s Church, with its Greek-style pillars and grand portico, suffered a flurry of similar incidents in […]

History: What was diarist Samuel Pepys’ experience of Southwark?

Herbie Russell — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 10:18:21 +0000

According to his legendary diary, written between 1660 and 1669, Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire of London unfold from a tavern on the South Bank. Historians believe the ‘ale-house’ was a pub now known as The Anchor, next to Shakespeare’s Globe. Generations have read the famous entry, in which Pepys ‘weeps’ as a ‘horrid […]

Local historian rediscovers post-war Old Kent Road ‘through the eyes’ of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl

News Desk — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 07:17:11 +0000

Fifty years ago I was a pupil at St Michael and All Angels secondary modern school in Camberwell. One of the books we were given to read was Valerie Avery’s London Morning, first published in 1964, writes Stephen Bourne. I thoroughly enjoyed this semi-autobiographical novel about working-class life around the Old Kent Road as seen […]

You could tell the house of a brush family by the huge brooms they’d hang outside

Debra Gosling — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 13:07:24 +0000

In this space age, the importance of a good brush or broom has diminished. There was an art to making a broom but, even so, the wages and living conditions of the people who made them were pretty dire. If someone wanted a good quality broom, they made their way to Kent Street, off Long […]

Football under enemy fire: How a ball dribbled through no man’s land ended up in Camberwell

News Desk — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:02:21 +0000

A football that was dribbled through no man’s land by British soldiers now resides in Camberwell, over 100 years after brave infantrymen tried to score a goal in enemy trenches. After lying forgotten in a dusty box for years, the Loos Football from World War One was restored in March 2011 and has been […]

Makeshift rafts, timber and stickleback fish: A History of Southwark’s Grand Surrey Canal

Herbie Russell — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 17:53:22 +0000

For over 167 years, a four-mile canal snaked its way through Southwark, supplying south London with everything from timber to toys. Although the Grand Surrey Canal’s builders are long buried, and its waters filled in, evidence of the waterway remains in the bridges, streets and signs dotted around the borough. But, in many ways, the […]