Vauxhall Road and the Elixir of Life ( was The Diary (just where did V get

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 86880

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:

Shaun: 
> I *believe* the Vauxhall Baptist Chapel (scene of the Dobkin 
murder) was located 
> on or near the corner of what is now Kennington Lane and Cottington 
Street. I 
> believe this area was redeveloped in 1948 and I surmise that the 
ruined chapel 
> was demolished at that point.
> 
> This is the area therefore that would seem to have possibly been 
also known as 
> Vauxhall Road in 1942 - Kennington Lane.

Geoff:
I think we may have cracked it!! Shaun's bit of info above looks like 
the last piece of the jigsaw. We have dogged Tom Riddle's footsteps 
to the right area.

By coincidence, I am a Baptist. However, checking my current Baptist 
Union directory, there is no Vauxhall Baptist Church. With a bit of 
shrewd browsing this afternoon, I can confirm Shaun's theory that the 
address of Vauxhall Baptist Church was Cottington Street.

Now, in my post 86803, I said that, from my 1934 bus map information, 
the only possibility seemed to be that Vauxhall Road had to be the 
section of the present Kennington Lane east of the crossing with 
Kennington Road running up to Newington Butts on the approach to 
Elephant and Castle.

Guess where Cottington Street is? It is about halfway along along 
this stretch of road. So now I think we know where Tom Riddle walked  
along to get his diary. Further to my post, it is indeed only a 
couple of hundred yards from the Northern Line Tube station at 
Kennington.

QED.

Geoff