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Information about Camberwell

Camberwell
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Camberwell (Greater London)

OS grid referenceTQ325767
London borough Southwark
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region London
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district SE5
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
UK Parliament Camberwell and Peckham
Dulwich and West Norwood
London Assembly Lambeth and Southwark
European Parliament London
List of places: UK • England UK • London
Coordinates: Camberwell is a district of London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. It is an inner-city district located 2.7 miles (4.3 km) southeast of Charing Cross. Its western edge borders the London Borough of Lambeth.

History

The name Camberwell might derive from the old English Cumberwell or Comberwell, meaning Welsh well. Springs and wells are known to have existed on the southern slope of Denmark Hill, especially around Grove Park. Alternatively, the name Camberwell may have come from the Saxon language, meaning Cripple Well, which developed as a hamlet where people from the City of London were expelled when they had life threatening diseases like leprosy, for treatment by the church and the clean waters from the wells. It was already a substantial settlement with a church when mentioned in the Domesday Book, and was the parish church for a large area including Dulwich and Peckham.

Camberwell appears in Domesday Book as Cambrewelle. It was held by Haimo the Sheriff (of Kent). Its domesday assets were: 6 hides and 1 virgate; 1 church, 8 ploughs, 63 acres of meadow, woodland worth 60 hogs. It rendered £14.[1]

Up to the mid-nineteenth century, Camberwell was visited by Londoners for its rural tranquillity and the reputed healing properties of its mineral springs. Like much of inner South London, Camberwell was transformed by the arrival of the railways in the 1860s. From 1899 to 1965 Camberwell was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.

Camberwell today

Camberwell today is a mixture of relatively well preserved Georgian and twentieth century housing, including a number of tower blocks. Camberwell Grove and Grove Lane have some of London's most elegant and well preserved Georgian houses.

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Camberwell Green
The crossroads at the centre of Camberwell is the site of Camberwell Green, a very small area of common land which was once a traditional village green on which was held an annual fair of ancient origin which rivaled that of Greenwich. The green was once a peaceful place, but, owing to the noise of passing traffic, now could not be described as peaceful. An extensive range of bus routes have stops at Camberwell Green (see the link to the bus spider map below for details).
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Camberwell Leisure Centre
The Salvation Army's William Booth Memorial Training College, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, was completed in 1932: it towers over South London from Denmark Hill. It has a similar monumental impressiveness to Gilbert Scott's other local buildings, Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern, although its simplicity is partly the result of repeated budget cuts during its construction: much more detail, including carved Gothic stonework surrounding the windows, was originally planned.

Transport

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Camberwell railway station on Camberwell Station Road, closed in 1916
Camberwell is connected to London by Camberwell Road and Camberwell New Road. It is very well served by bus routes: its location means that it is easy to travel into central London with journey times of 12-20 minutes, though often much longer in the rush hour. Camberwell railway station was closed in 1916 "temporarily" owing to the First World War but it never reopened. London Underground have planned to extend the Bakerloo Line from Elephant and Castle to Camberwell on at least three occasions since the 1930s, and this is again said to be under consideration.[1]

Nearest railway stations:

Camberwell population

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Camberwell College of Arts. (October 2005)
The local ethnic mix includes a large proportion of people of Caribbean and African descent, a Greek Cypriot community, and number of immigrants of Middle Eastern origin. Nestled within this thriving multicultural hotspot is the little known but highly celebrated Camberwell Institute of Literature and Arts. The area is also popular with art students, as it is home to the Camberwell College of Arts (part of the University of the Arts London - formerly the London Institute) on Peckham Road. King's College London (part of the University of London) also has a hall of residence (King's College Hall) on nearby Champion Hill. Goldsmiths College is also found in nearby New Cross with many students living in Camberwell.

Hospitals

Camberwell is home to one of London's largest teaching hospitals, King's College Hospital with associated medical school the Guy’s King’s and St Thomas’ (GKT) School of Medicine.

The Maudsley Hospital, an internationally significant psychiatric hospital, is also located in Camberwell along with the Institute of Psychiatry.

Art

As well as the significant Camberwell College of Arts Camberwell is home to several art galleries including the South London Gallery and numerous smaller commercial art spaces. The annual Camberwell Arts Festival is well supported.

Notable people born in Camberwell

Notable people who have lived and worked in Camberwell

Camberwell Beauty

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Camberwell Beauty butterfly
The Camberwell Beauty is a butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) which is rarely found in the UK - it is so named because two examples were first identified on Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell in 1748.

Nearest places

Trivia

  • Jarvis Cocker frequently visited the art college in the early 1990s - Pulp's song 59 Lyndhurst Grove is about going to a party in Lyndhurst Grove on the Camberwell/Peckham border
  • Camberwell carrot" is the name of the enormous spliff rolled using 12 rolling papers, by Danny the dealer in the film Withnail and I. His explanation for the name is that "I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot".
  • Felix Mendelssohn stayed with relatives in 1842 and wrote a piano piece called 'Camberwell Green', whose popularity increased after it was renamed the 'Spring Song'.
  • W. S. Gilbert also made ironic mention of it in the comic opera, Trial by Jury.
  • Jenny Eclair's novel Camberwell Beauty is set in a house on Camberwell Grove.
  • Muriel Spark's novel, The Ballad of Peckham Rye also makes mention of places in and around Camberwell
  • UK dance act Basement Jaxx released a track called I Live in Camberwell

Other places called Camberwell

References

External links

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London Borough of Southwark
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London Borough of Southwark

Shown within Greater London
Geography
Status London borough
Area
— Total Ranked 340th
28.85 km
ONS code 00BE
Admin HQ Peckham Road, Camberwell
Demographics
Population
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Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The administrative area was created in 1965 and covers the City of London and 32 London boroughs. Its area also forms the London region of England and the London European Parliament constituency.
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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
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London SE postcode area


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Size 1,578 km² (609 sq mi)
Population 7.
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1.2 East of England Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk
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Camberwell and Peckham is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a Labour Party stronghold. It has the distinction of having a higher proportion of poor people than any other UK constituency in 2000 Poverty and
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Lambeth and Southwark
London Assembly constituency

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Created: 2000
Member: Valerie Shawcross
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Assembly: London Assembly Lambeth and Southwark
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