Kennington Park *

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

Kennington Park was laid out in 1852-54 by James Pennethorne for the Department of Woods and Forests on c.7.5 hectares of reclaimed land, which was formerly part of Kennington Common. The common had long been used for recreational and other purposes, with cricket played here from at least the early C18th, and until 1799 it was a place of public execution. People gathered here to listen to the hustings and to public orators including the Methodists John Wesley and George Whitefield, who attracted crowds of 30,000 people in 1739. It was the site of the famous Chartist demonstration of 10 April 1848, following which the common was enclosed in 1852 to prevent 'vulgar recreations' taking place without permission.

Kennington Park opened to the public in 1854 and its original boundaries were Kennington Park Road, Kennington Park Place, St Agnes' Place, Kennington Terrace and Brixton Road, with a detached triangle of land to the south-west bounded by Kennington Park Road, Camberwell New Road and Brixton Road. This section had been detached from the common when Camberwell New Road was constructed in 1818. The park was laid out with a central area of lawns enclosed by paths that were lined by plane trees. Most boundaries had shrubberies and trees, and mature trees include planes, thorn, acacia, holm oak, ash and horse chestnuts. The Prince Consort Model Lodge, also called Prince Albert's Cottages, was re-erected in 1853 midway along the park's west boundary on Kennington Park Road. These twin cottages were designed as model working-class housing by Henry Roberts for display at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park (q.v.). To the north and south of this were sunken gardens with massed bedding, which was replaced in the later C20th by rose beds. Half a hectare of land had been added to the north-east corner of the park in 1888, and by 1900 the bandstand was erected, soon popular for concerts. Paths led across the park and there were tennis courts within the lawns; an Arts and Crafts teahouse was provided in 1897. Two drinking fountains were donated to the park; the earliest, designed by Charles Henry Driver, was donated in 1862 by Felix Slade particularly for the use of children using the Gymnasium that had been provided in the park in 1861, and George Tinworth's 'Pilgrimage of Life' fountain was donated by Sir Henry Doulton in 1869.

In 1921 the park was extended by a further 2 hectares from the site of Kennington Terrace as a result of slum clearance. This allowed for the creation of an enclosed formal garden, designed in the style of those created by the Head of LCC Parks, Lt Col J J Sexby (1848-1924), with a pergola and symmetrical scheme of roses, borders and bedding. This opened in 1931 as the Old English Garden, in the same year as the new swimming pool with extensive playground to the east. The swimming pool eventually closed in 1988, the site filled in and laid out as tennis courts. During both world wars the park suffered bombing. In WWI the first bomb on London landed in the park's south field, and as in many parks, the railings were removed for the war effort in 1914. A war memorial was erected in the park in 1924. In WWII the area was badly bombed, including a public air-raid shelter in the park that led to the deaths of at least 104 people; a monument in their memory was unveiled in 2006, designed by sculptor Richard Kindersley. The park was also used for allotments during the war.

In 1971 responsibility for Kennington Park transferred to Lambeth Council. In the 1970s a further 4 hectares were added to the south-east and laid out for recreational and sports facilities including all-weather pitches. The detached triangle was re-landscaped in 1983/4 with paving and shrubbery around the mature trees and a central fountain basin. The Friends of Kennington Park were formed in 2002, by which time the park had become neglected, and since then they have worked actively with Lambeth Council to secure funding for improvements. These have included a new playground and nature trail, new seating and planting schemes, and funding is in place for interpretative signage.