{{Short description|Street in Camberwell, United Kingdom}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox street | name = Camberwell Grove | image = Camberwell Grove. SE5 - geograph.org.uk - 1751588.jpg | caption = Camberwell Grove in 2010, looking South | postal_code = {{postcode|SE|5}} | addresses = | length_m = | length_ft = | length_mi = | length_km = | length_ref = | width = | location = Camberwell, London, England | maint = Southwark London Borough Council | coordinates = {{Coord|51.46923|-0.08560|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | direction_a = North | terminus_a = Camberwell Church Street | direction_b = South | terminus_b = Grove Hill Road | construction_start_date = mid-1770s }} thumb|Camberwell Grove (diagonal) on an 1890s Ordnance Survey map. thumb|Grove Chapel '''Camberwell Grove''' is a residential street in Camberwell, London, England, in the Borough of Southwark. It follows the line of a grove of trees, hence the name. The street once led from a Tudor manor house south to the top of a hill, which afforded a view of the City of London,<ref name="SHoOS">{{Cite episode |title = Camberwell Grove |series = The Secret History of Our Streets |url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jzpm3 |accessdate = 30 September 2013 |network = BBC |date = 13 June 2012 |number = 2 }}</ref> approximately three miles to the north. Today, the grove is part of Camberwell Grove Conservation area.<ref name="SGCA">{{cite web|url=http://www.southwark.gov.uk/download/1093/camberwell_grove_part_one|title=Camberwell Grove Part one|publisher=Southwark Council|access-date=5 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007054806/http://www.southwark.gov.uk/download/1093/camberwell_grove_part_one|archive-date=7 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Creation== In the mid-1770s, when Camberwell was still a rural village, the dilapidated manor house was demolished and the surrounding land subdivided and sold. The first four houses, still standing today (numbered 79–85),{{efn|Numbers 79-85: {{Coord|51.47142|-0.08708|region:GB_type:landmark|name="First houses, numbered 79-85"}}}} were built by speculators at the northern end as a terrace shortly afterwards.<ref name="SHoOS" /> They are jointly Grade II listed.<ref name="EH-79">{{NHLE|num=1378414 |desc=|accessdate=5 October 2013}}</ref> Numbers 33–45 also date from this period.<ref name="Streets">{{cite book | last = Bullman | first = Joseph | title = London : a social history through the houses and streets we live in | publisher = BBC Books | location = London | year = 2012 | isbn = 9781849904506 }}</ref>
==19th century== [[File:John Coakley Lettsom (1733-1810), physician, with his family Wellcome V0017955 (unframed).jpg|alt=|thumb|John Coakley Lettsom (1744-1 Nov 1815), physician, with his family in the garden of his house in Grove Hill, Camberwell, Surrey. Oil painting by an unknown English artist, ca.1786. Wellcome Library]]
John Lettsom, a doctor, had a villa built at the southern end which was demolished when the estate was broken up in the early 1800s, but one of its cottages, 'The Hermitage' (number 220) survives, at the junction with Grove Hill Road.<ref name="SHoOS" /> A side-street, Lettsom Street,{{efn|Junction with Lettsom Street: {{Coord|51.47008|-0.08619|region:GB_type:landmark|name="Junction with Lettsom Street"}}}} Lettsom Gardens,{{efn|The Hermitage: {{Coord|51.46659|-0.08140|region:GB_type:landmark|name="Lettsom Gardens"}}}} a community garden,<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=http://lettsomgardens.org.uk/history.html |publisher=Lettsom Gardens Association |access-date=6 December 2020 |archive-date=26 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226011717/http://lettsomgardens.org.uk/history.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and a nearby housing estate are named in his honour. The cottage is also Grade II listed.<ref name="EH-220">{{NHLE|num=1378433 |desc=|accessdate=5 October 2013}}</ref>{{efn|The Hermitage: {{Coord|51.46577|-0.08314|region:GB_type:landmark|name="The Hermitage"}}}} A number of other buildings on the street, including Grove Chapel (built 1819, by David R Roper)<ref name="EG-GCh">{{NHLE|num=1378434 |desc=|accessdate=5 October 2013}}</ref>{{efn|Grove Chapel: {{Coord|51.46945|-0.08637|region:GB_type:landmark|name="Grove Chapel"}}}} and the Georgian crescent terrace of eight houses forming Grove Crescent,<ref name="EG-GCr">{{NHLE|num=1378426 |desc=|accessdate=5 October 2013}}</ref>{{efn|Grove Crescent: {{Coord|51.46822|-0.08430|region:GB_type:landmark|name="Grove Crescent"}}}} are also listed.
The South London and East London railway lines, built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in the 1860s and now operated by Southeastern and London Overground, pass below the street{{efn|Rail line: {{Coord|51.46914|-0.08554|region:GB_type:landmark|name="rail line"}}}} (in a tunnel to the west and cutting to the east), just east of Denmark Hill station.
In 2012, the street was the subject of an episode of the BBC series ''The Secret History of Our Streets'', based on the work of Victorian social researcher Charles Booth.<ref name="SHoOS" /> Booth assessed the social class of the residents in the street in 1889. The northern end was categorised as middle class "fairly comfortable" and "well-to-do", with parts of the southern end categorised as upper class "wealthy". However, on returning to the street ten years later the social class of residents was recorded as "declining".<ref name="Streets"/>
==20th century== Some of the houses on the grove were damaged by bombing in World War II, and subsequently demolished.<ref name="SHoOS" /> The site is now occupied by the flats numbered 100–138.{{efn|Flats, 100–138: {{Coord|51.46876|-0.08563|region:GB_type:landmark|name="Bomb site, now flats 100–138"}}}}
In the 1960s, a proposal to build an elevated motorway across the grove, above the railway, in the style of the Westway, was opposed and eventually overturned by local residents.<ref name="SHoOS" /> The artists David Hepher and his wife Janet bought a house on the grove in 1961, and set up studios there.<ref name="SHoOS" /> In 1967 the television producer Jeremy Bennett bought a house there.<ref name="SHoOS" />
== Coordinates == {{GeoGroup}} {{Notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
{{Commons category-inline|Camberwell Grove}}
Category:Streets in the London Borough of Southwark Category:Camberwell