History Of The Beautiful Roupell Street: Where Time Has Stood Still

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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