Vauxhall Road - again

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 89328

Some of you with long memories going back at least six weeks <g> will 
recall a long thread on Vauxhall Road arising from the fact that Tom 
Riddle's diary carried a label with the name of a newsagent's shop in 
Vauxhall Road.

Shaun Hately and I, at opposite ends of the globe, pursued our own 
investigations which seemed to narrow down Vauxhall Road, as it was 
in about 1942, to having been what is now the eastern end of 
Kennington Lane. Shaun raised the point that Wandsworth Road had also 
been known as Vauxhall Road but I felt that this had been so long ago 
that it would not have been remembered by this name in the 1940s.

I contacted the Reference Library in my old area of London (where I 
lived from 1949-94) about this. After problems with crossed and 
missing emails, the email reproduced at the end of this posting 
reached me today. It suggests that Wandsworth Road as a name was in 
use over a century before Tom Riddle began to prowl the streets. I 
feel that it continues to lay firm foundations for our belief that 
the road TR knew was close to the Elephant and Castle and not a 
million miles from the Stockwell Orphanage.

If anyone wonders what on earth I am wittering on about, the thread 
makes quite interesting reading as a bit of modern HPFGU detective 
work and starts at message 86517.

The email.....

"Dear Mr Bannister

Thank you for your email originally dated 17th December 2003 regarding
Wandsworth Road and Vauxhall Road. I have found a reference to 
Vauxhall Cross being an abolished name for a part of Wandsworth Road, 
in the LCC's Names of streets and places ... (1929). However this 
name still appears in the modern street atlas for London, probably 
for much the same area.

The 1745 Rocque map calls the Wandsworth Road the Kingston Road, as 
does the 1801 book "Companion from London to Brighthelmstone" by 
Edwards. This book also refers to the Vauxhall (turnpike) gate on the 
Kingston Road. The 1835 Battersea Poor Rate Book refers to the 
Wandsworth Road. 

There is no reason that it should not have been referred to as the 
VauxhallRoad, but I have not found it mentioned. (Battersea Park Road 
was once called the Lower Wandsworth Road.) It is worth checking with 
Lambeth Archives in case they can trace more information on Vauxhall 
Road:- archives at lambeth.gov.uk 

I am sorry not to have found more.

Yours sincerely

David Ainsworth

Wandsworth Local History Service
Battersea Library"