Cleaver Square

[1] Until the middle of the 18th century, the locality consisted of hedgerows, fields and meadows, traversed by Kennington Road from the City to Clapham.

[1] Mary Cleaver inherited the estate in 1743; at that point it consisted of a large open pasture, screened from the high road by a line of trees and known as White Bear Field.

[1] In 1780 she leased it to Thomas Ellis, the landlord of the Horns Tavern on Kennington Common, who laid out and developed the square.

[1] The centre of the square was acquired by the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth in 1927 in order to prevent development on it.

[10] In the north-west corner is the Prince of Wales public house, dating originally from 1792 but refaced in 1901.