Stockwell

Stockwell is an inner city area in the London Borough of Lambeth.

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Stockwell is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) south south-east of Charing Cross and located between Brixton, Clapham, Vauxhall and Kennington. The A3 road runs through Stockwell.

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From the thirteenth to the start of the nineteenth century, Stockwell was a rural manor at the edge of London. It included market gardens and John Tradescant's botanical garden – commemorated in Tradescant Road which was built over it in 1880, and in a memorial outside St Stephen's church. In the nineteenth century it developed as an elegant middle class suburb. Residents included the artist Arthur Rackham, who was born in South Lambeth Road in 1867, moving with his family to Albert Square when he was 15.

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Its social and architectural fortunes in the twentieth century were more mixed. The area immediately around Stockwell tube station was extensively rebuilt following the Second World War, and its appearance remains somewhat dispiriting. The area also has much social housing, some of it of doubtful quality. However, many remnants of the area's nineteenth century grandeur can be found in the side and back streets of Stockwell, notably in the Stockwell Park Conservation Area, built around 1840 and centred on Stockwell Park Road and Stockwell Park Crescent, and in the area's Albert Square. The only twentieth century building of significant architectural interest in the area is Stockwell Garage.

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Stockwell and neighbouring South Lambeth are home to the UK's biggest Portuguese communities, most originating in Madeira. They have established many cafes, restaurants, bakeries, neighbourhood associations and delicatessens. People of Caribbean and of west African origin are also well represented locally.

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Famous former and current residents of Stockwell include Lilian Baylis, Edward Thomas, Vincent Van Gogh (briefly), French Resistance heroine Violette Szabo, Joanna Lumley, Jerry Dammers, Roger Moore and Will Self. Following the 21 July 2005 London bombings, Stockwell gained a certain unexpected and unwelcome notoriety as the scene of the shooting by police of a terror suspect (who later proved to be an innocent Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes) in the tube station and of the arrests of other suspects in nearby housing.

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Nearest places:

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• Brixton
• Camberwell
• Vauxhall
• Kennington
• Clapham

Nearest tube station:

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• Stockwell tube station

Nearest railway stations:

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• Brixton railway station
• Vauxhall station

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Stockwell related Images and Photos (experimental)

Dean Stockwell

Down to the Sea in Ships Lionel Barrymore Dean Stockwell Richard Widmark 1949