Tucked away behind Waterloo Station you will find a charming little pocket of history: an almost perfectly preserved street of late Georgian worker’s cottages called Roupell Street.
Miraculously it has survived the railway expansions, the Blitz and finally the appetites of developers/city planners. Thank goodness it did because it is a real London treasure.
You feel very much like you’ve stepped back in time. The traditional-style lamps and occasional vintage car, like the one below, help with that.
Roupell Street: The History
Roupell street and the surrounding streets were laid out in 1824 by John Roupell, a merchant in metal and aspiring property magnate. Slightly egotistically he initially named the surrounding streets after himself and his family: John Street, Catherine Street and Richard Street but the names were changed in the late 1800s.
It must have been a tight squeeze with, initially, up to 20 people living in each house of 4 rooms. Builders, blacksmiths, printers, nurses, bakers, butchers and teachers, i.e. ordinary Londoners, would have all been rubbing shoulders on Roupell Street in Georgian/Victorian London.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a grand, gorgeous Georgian townhouse or Victorian mansion but it’s rarely the houses of the working classes that have survived the test of time in central London. That’s what makes this street particularly special.
Roupell street and the surrounding streets: Theed Street, Whittlesey Street, Cornwall Road and Windmill Walk are all now part of the Roupell Street Conservation Area. They have a website and a strong sense of local community which is so nice to see in London. Read more on their website here.
Due to its pristine period look it features frequently on both the big and small screens. Doctor Who, the Kray twins film: Legend and Call the Midwife all filmed scenes here.
Roupell Street: Fire Insurance Plaques
When walking down the street keep your eyes peeled for small metal plaques (pictured below) on the sides of the houses, I found 2. These are fire insurance plaques: a pre-1865 leftover, when the public London fire service was created.
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, entrepreneurs spotted a business opportunity and set up fire insurance companies. Paid up clients would have displayed one of these plaques on the side of their house.
Should they then have a fire, the insurance company’s private fire fighting team would put it out. If they didn’t, they would possibly leave, possibly try and sell you an insurance policy on the spot. There were apparently even occasions when they were known to have stayed to just watch as observers!
You can see below a plaque for the Sun Fire Office established in 1710. This merged over the years to become the RSA Insurance group, the oldest insurance company in the world and the largest in Britain.
The King’s Arms
Half way down Roupell Street you will find the King’s Arms. A grade II listed Victorian pub, it is quintessentially British with an impressive nine real ale pumps.
Where Circus Began
At the Cornwall Road end of Roupell Street you will see a blue plaque affixed to the back of a London Underground electrical substation (it is as inspiring a building as it sounds).
It marks the site where in 1768, in a field, Philip Astley first performed a show that is considered the birth of circus as we know it.
Astley performed acrobatic horse riding tricks and introduced clowns, jugglers and tightrope walkers to the act. In 1769 he opened the first circus building ‘Astley’s amphitheatre’ near the Lambeth end of Westminster Bridge. The show was so popular he was invited to perform for Louis XV in the Palace of Versailles in 1772.
Roupell Street is that rare thing in London, a relatively untouched historical gem. It is well worth a wander down if you are in the area.
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Another very interesting blog Jack – keep it up!
Thank you!!! 😁
Hello, loved reading your piece on Roupell St. I was a twin and we were born at number 21 in 1962. I went to school a St Andrews that is now a collage I believe. We just took it for granted but when I look back I realise how lucky I was to have lived in such a famous, historical place.
From looking at new census it appears my dads, grandmothers, mother lived in this street- her father was named Wallace. They are all south London through and through!
Could you find out what number they loved at as we would like to come and visit soon and have a meal at the pub!
Hi Charlotte, really pleased to hear you enjoyed the blog and that your ancestors used to live on it- how interesting! Jack
Fascinating, will make sure I walk in this area when I am next in London! Could you do a blog on the area around the lovely Woburn Walk – London’s first pedestrian shopping street. My 3 x Great-grandfather, Augustus Oakley Deacon, an artist, lived behind it in Burton Street and got married in St Pancras New Church on the corner 1844, and Charles Dickens also attended this church for a time. Would love to find out more about the area.
I was writing up my memoirs of working on the railways in 1976 at London Bridge. I used to walk along Roupell St in the middle of the night to take empty passenger trains from Southwark to London suburbs. My rail colleagues told me the cockney comic actor Arthur Mullard was from this street. Is that true?
A very insightful blog Jack, thank you. I will be making my way there the next time I’m in London.
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The top photo under the heading Roupell Street is actually Whittlesey Street. We bought and renovated a house condemned as unfit human habitation there in 1993. At the time the houses were descending into decay around the lives of elderly tenants by the landed who owned many of the houses on the Lambeth Estate and invested nothing in them. In 1993 our house had no connection to the mains drains, only an outdoor lavatory at the end of the garden and a dripping tap
in a lean to and the back of the house. It was however protected by being a listed building and we were amongst a number of people who took on renovating them as they came up for sale. Amongst the transformations we saw were the former “cardboard city” under the Bullring roundabout at the end of London Bridge became the IMAX and we watched the London Eye being erected and as local residents were Guinea pigs on the first flights. It was the best place we’ve ever lived.
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