We visited the current Vauxhall Gardens open space and also the nearby City Farm, first established by squatters in the 1970s to protect the land from property developers. Squatting also features in the history of nearby Bonnington Square, where the popular cafe was originally established as a communal kitchen. The Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre in Glasshouse Walk began life as the offices of B. E. Nightingale, builders, later to be used by Scrubbs Ammonia, who sourced their raw material from the nearby gasworks. Glasshouse Walk gets its name from the earlier glass-making factory which, in the 17th and 18th centuries, pioneered the ‘muff’ method of making windows by blowing and then flattening glass cylinders.
The Victorian era brought major changes, not least physically, to Vauxhall. A new viaduct connected the London and South West Railway to its new terminus in Waterloo and saw the creation of the Necropolis Railway connecting to the cemetery in Woking. The City and South London Railway, the first electric underground line, arrived in 1890, running from near Bank to Stockwell. Kennington is now the only surviving original station. Vauxhall was badly affected by the cholera outbreak in 1848 and the Doulton Works, which dominated the skyline during the nineteenth and early 20th century, provided pipes for the new sewers being put in place along the Embankment by Joseph Bazalgette to improve London’s sanitation. Poverty and poor education were commonplace in Lambeth during the 19th century. A local vinegar manufacturer, Henry Beaufoy, set up a ‘ragged school’ in what now is the Beaconsfield Gallery in Newport Street. His son Mark, who inherited the vinegar business when he was ten, grew up to become the local MP, supporting an 8-hour working day and introducing it in his factory. Mark also set up the Beaufoy Institute, the foundation stone of which which was laid by his wife Mildred. In his younger days he was a keen footballer and played in the 1879 Cup Final at the Oval. In the centenary year of women first getting the vote, we found out about suffragist Muriel Matters, of Fentiman Road, who chained herself to a grille in the House of Commons and during efforts to remove her, became the first woman to speak in Parliament. She was also known for her use of a hot-air balloon from which she dropped leaflets across London.
Our presentation took place at the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre. Developed from improvisations by Year 5 and set in the office of the Vauxhall Times, the staff of journalists, correspondents, photographers and illustrators are busy putting their newspaper ’to bed.’ With all the huge changes in the area that happened during the reign of Queen Victoria such as the arrival of steam trains and the new electric underground, the reporters are pleased to meet a real live Victorian able to talk at length about cholera and sewers. They also encounter prominent local suffragist, Muriel Matters and an ARP warden who laments the loss of the Lambeth Baths. The newspaper appears after a rousing chorus of ‘The Lambeth Walk’ and breaking news of a new walnut tree in Walnut Tree Walk! Our newspaper – The Vauxhall Times – can be viewed here http://fluencycontent2-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/WalnutTreeWalk/MainFolder/VGCC-project-w-yr5/VauxTimesii-1.pdf