26 Facts About Kennington

Kennington is the location of three significant London landmarks: the Oval cricket ground, the Imperial War Museum, and Kennington Park.

Kennington appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Chenintune.

The manor of Kennington was divided from the manor of Vauxhall by the River Effra, a tributary of the River Thames.

Kennington was the occasional residence of Henry IV and Henry VI.

In 1531, at the order of King Henry VIII, most of Kennington Palace was dismantled, and the materials were used in the construction of the Palace of Whitehall.

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Development of Kennington came about through access to London, which happened when, in 1750, Westminster Bridge was constructed.

In 1751, Kennington Road was built from Kennington Common to Westminster Bridge Road.

Imperial Court, on Kennington Lane, was built in 1836 for the Licensed Victuallers' School.

Dense building and the carving-up of large houses for multiple occupation caused Kennington to be "very seriously over-populated in 1859, when diphtheria appeared" .

Church of St John the Divine, Kennington, which was to be described by the poet John Betjeman as "the most magnificent church in South London", was designed by George Edmund Street, and was built between 1871 and 1874.

Durning Library, at Kennington Cross, was designed in 1889 by S Sidney R J Smith, architect of the Tate Gallery, and is a fine example of the Gothic Revival style.

Houses in Kennington were suited to multiple occupation and were divided into flats and bedsits, providing cheap lodgings for lower-paid workers.

Kennington ceased to be the administrative centre for the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth in 1908.

In 1913, Maud Pember Reeves selected Kennington for Round About a Pound a Week, which was a survey of social conditions in the district.

Kennington station was substantially remodelled in 1925 to accommodate the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line along with the improvements to the City and South London Railway to form the Northern line.

In recent years, Kennington has experienced gentrification, principally because of its location and good transport links to the West End and the City of London.

Nevertheless, a significant proportion of housing in the area is council-owned, including some council estates adjacent to Kennington Lane, leading up to Elephant and Castle, and around the Kennington Park area.

Kennington is a standalone ward itself represented by three Labour Party councillors.

Kennington has no official boundaries but the ancient manorial boundaries are easily discerned and for historical purposes, this article has confined itself to them although estate agents use the term more loosely so as to promote any particular property they wish to act in disposal of, and modern classifications of which areas fall within the district vary.

Kennington is essentially a multi-ethnic area with a mixed and varied population, all falling within different geodemographic strands.

Kennington is within the Division bell zone for the Houses of Parliament.

The Friends of Kennington Park is a local organisation, involved with the promotion of Kennington Park as a valuable resource for the community.

Kennington is home of The Cinema Museum – a popular local venue for watching films and learning about the history of cinema.

Kennington Park, laid out by Victorian architect James Pennethorne, and St Mark's Churchyard now cover the site of Kennington Common.

Kennington Park Road, which continues beyond Kennington as Clapham Road, is a long and straight stretch of road because it follows the old Roman Stane Street.

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Kennington is linked to other areas of London by several cycle routes, including:.