Kennington Park Walk

Date of Walk: Wednesday 17th May

Time of Walk: 11.00am

Start & Finish Point: Stockwell Centre, 1 Studley Road, SW4 6RA

Walk Duration: Approximately 1.5 hour

Approximate Length of Walk: 3.1m / 5km

The Walk

We will be entering the park via the Camberwell New Road entrance and walking till we complete a full circuit of the park. The route can be decided by you as a group, or if someone wants to take the lead.

Kennington Park Information

Kennington Park is large and attractive Victorian-era public park, with winding paths and numerous mature trees, helping create a graceful, historic yet peaceful atmosphere.

Originally called ‘Kennington Common’, it was a large open area of land where local people exercised ‘rights of common’ such as grazing livestock. It was also a gathering place for demonstrations, protests and speeches, because it was outside the jurisdiction and more stringent regulations of the City of London.

One of the most famous events on Kennington Common was in April 1848 when over 25,000 supporters of the ‘Chartists’ movement, which campaigned for ‘universal suffrage’ (electoral reforms such as greater voting rights), came together on the Common. As well as listening to famous Chartist leaders, they planned to march on Parliament to set out their demands, but this was prevented by the authorities.

Soon afterwards, the Common was abolished and converted into a new public park in 1852, one of the first ones in London, with boundary railings, an outdoor gymnasium, formal gardens, and fountains.

At the heart of the park is an award-winning Old English ‘Flower Garden’, recently restored with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Lambeth Council. The park also contains the ‘Prince Consort Lodge’, originally designed by HRH Prince Albert as ‘model dwellings for poor workers’.

As well as retaining many of these original features, the park also contains a children’s playground, café, toilets, and various sporting facilities, including Astroturf sports pitches for football and netball, and tennis courts. The ‘Kennington Park Extension’, was added to the main park in 1951 and is home to cricket and other grass sports.

Kennington Park also contains many mature and historic trees as well as open areas for wildlife and biodiversity. The park has a café, an 'old English' flower garden, rose beds and a new 'Green Link' connecting the older Victorian park to the newer extension.