Vauxhall Park Walk

Date of Walk: Friday 12th May

Time of Walk: 1.00pm

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

Walk Duration: Approximately 1 hour

Approximate Length of Walk: 2.1m / 3.4km

The Walk

We will be entering the park via the South Lambeth 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.

Vauxhall Park Information

Formation of the park

In 1886/7 a speculative local developer, John Cobeldick of St. Piran’s Stockwell Green, bought the area to the north (occupied by Carroun House, its gardens, and The Lawn). He proposed turning the land into housing with roads crossing it. Luckily following pressure from various people and groups, Cobeldick was persuaded to sell eight and a half acres of the land to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The land was purchased under a special Act of Parliament (The Vauxhall Park Act 1888) with money coming from various sources including:

Technically the ownership of the land was passed to the Lambeth Vestry for £43,500 in May 1889, but the real drive behind the formation of the park came from some influential people notably:

Henry Fawcett (1833-1884) lived at No 8 The Lawn. Fawcett was a Member of Parliament, an educational reformer, and an economist. He became blind at the age of 25 when his father’s shot gun accidentally discharged whilst they were partridge shooting.

It was Fawcett’s special wish to form a park on the site of his home so after his death in 1884, his widow Millicent Fawcett co-operated with Octavia Hill and the Kyrle Society in the formation of the park.