April 1. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



295 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1854. 

 KENSINGTON COMMON. 



Before all traces be lost of Kennington Com- 

 mon, so soon to be distinguished by the eupho- 

 nious epithet of Park, let me put a Query to some 

 of your antiquarian readers in relation thereunto ; 

 and suffer me to make the Query a peg, whereon 

 to hang sundry and divers little notes. And pray 

 let no one ridicule the idea that Kennington has 

 its antiquities ; albeit that wherever you look, 

 new buildings, new bricks and mortar, plaster and 

 cement, will meet your eye ; yet, does not the 

 manor figure in Domesday Book ? Is it not dig- 

 nified by the stately name of Chenintune ? Was 

 it not held by Theodoric of King Edward the 

 Confessor ? And did it not, in times gone by, 

 possess a royal residence ? 



Here, at a Danish marriage, died Hardi Knute 

 in 1041. Here, Harold, son of Earl Godwin, who 

 seized the crown after the death of the Confessor, 

 is said to have placed it on his own head. Here, 

 in 1231, King Henry III. held his court, and 

 passed a solemn and a stately Christmas. And 

 here, says Matthew Paris, was held a Parliament 

 in the succeeding year. Hither, says good old 

 Stow, anno 1376, came the Duke of Lancaster to 

 escape the fury of the populace of London, on 

 Friday, February 20, the day following that on 

 which WiclifTe had been brought before the 

 bishops at St. Paul's. The Duke was dining "with 

 one John of Ipres" when the news arrived, borne 

 by a breathless messenger, that the people sought 

 his life. When the Duke "leapt so hastily from 

 his oysters, that he hurt both his legges against 

 the foarme : wine was offered to his oysters, but 

 hee would not drinke for haste ; he fledde with 

 his fellowe Syr Henry Percy, no man following 

 them ; and entring the Thamis, neuer stinted 

 rowing vntill they came to a house neere the 

 manor of Kenington (besides Lambeth), where at 

 that time the Princesse was, with the young Prince, 

 before whom hee made his complaint." Doubt- 

 less, Lambeth Marsh was then what its name im- 

 ports. Hither also came a deputation of the 

 chiefest citizens to Richard II., June 21, 1377, 

 "before the old King was departed," "to accept 

 him for their true and lawfull King and Gouer- 

 nor." But the royal residence was destroyed 

 before 1607. " The last of the long succession of 

 royal tenants who inhabited the ancient site," 

 says a writer in the Illustrated London News not 

 long since (I have the cutting, but neglected to 

 note the date of the paper), " was Charles I., when 

 Prince of Wales : his lodging, a house built upon 

 a part of the site of the old palace, is the only 

 existing vestige, as represented in the accompany- 



ing engraving (in the Ulus. Lond. News), unless 

 earlier remains are to be found in the lower parts 

 of the interior." But I believe that the identity 

 of the site of this ancient mansion (which is 

 situated on the western side of Lower Kennington 

 Lane), with part of the site of the old palace, is 

 not quite so certain as the writer appears to in- 

 timate. In 1720, however, the manor gave the 

 title of Earl to William Augustus, Duke of Cum- 

 berland, second son to George II. 



Kennington Common acquired an unenviable 

 notoriety from being the place of execution for 

 malefactors tried in this part of the county. 

 "After the suppression of the rebellion in Scot- 

 land in 1745, many of the insurgents having been 

 convicted of treason at Southwark, here suffered 

 the sentence of the law" (Dugdale's England and 

 Wales, p. 1015.). "Seventeen officers of the rebel 

 army were hanged, drawn, and quartered" on this 

 spot. (Goldsmith's History, continued by Morell, 

 4to., 1807, vol.ii. p. 165.) 



" One of the last executions which took place on 

 Kennington Common was that of seven men ; three 

 of whom belonged to a notorious gang of house- 

 breakers, eighteen in number. These men kept shops, 

 and lived in credit : of the three who were executed, 

 one made over a sum of 2000/. to a friend, previous to 

 his trial. They confessed that the profits of their 

 practices, for the five years past, had been upwards of 

 150OZ. a year to each. This was in the year 1765." — 

 From a cutting, sent me by a friend, from the Sun- 

 day Times' "Answers to Correspondents," March 13, 

 1853. 



Here too occurred the Chartist meeting, on the 

 memorable 10th of April, 1848. 



Now comes my Query. Was there ever a theatre 

 on Kennington Common ? In the Biographia 

 Dramatica of David Erskine Baker (edit. 1782, 

 vol. ii. p. 239.), we are told, that the " satyrical 

 comical allegorical farce," The Mock Preacher, pub- 

 lished in 8vo. in 1739, was "Acted to a crowded 

 audience at Kennington Common, and many other 

 theatres, with the humours of the mob." Was it 

 acted in a booth, or in a permanent theatre ? 

 The words, " many other theatres," almost give 

 one the impression that the latter is indicated. 



Many more notes might be added, but I fear 

 lest this paper should already be too local to in- 

 terest general readers. Suffice it to say, that 

 Clayton Street, close to the Common, takes its 

 name from the Clayton family ; one member 

 of which, Sir Robert Clayton, was sometime 

 Master of the Drapers' Company, in whose Hall 

 a fine portrait of him is preserved. Bowling 

 Green Street derives its name from a bowling 

 green which existed not very many years since. 

 And White Hart Street from a field, which was 

 so called certainly as early as 1785. On the Com- 

 mon was " a bridge called Merton Bridge, which 

 formerly was repaired by the Canons of Merton 



