Facts about Stockwell
Stockwell History
The name Stockwell is likely to have originated from a local well, with “stoc” being Old English for a tree trunk or post. 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 on South Lambeth Road in 1867, moving with his family to Albert Square when he was 15 years old. Another famed cultural figure who was born in Stockwell in October 1914, was theatre director Joan Littlewood, who has been called the mother of modern theatre.
General Info
Stockwell is a district in South West London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated 2.4 miles south of Charing Cross. Battersea, Brixton, Clapham, South Lambeth, Oval and Kennington all border Stockwell. Stockwell is a ward in the London Borough of Lambeth.
It is currently represented by three Labour councillors: Lucy Caldicott, Dr. Mahamed Hashi and Mohamed Jaser. At the parliamentary level, it is in the Vauxhall constituency, represented by Labour MP Florence Eshalomi. From 1979 to 1982, future Labour MP and New Labour ‘spin doctor’ Peter Mandelson was a ward councillor.
