New Kent Road
[1] This was done as part of the general road improvements associated with the creation of Westminster Bridge; in effect it was possible to travel from the West End/ Westminster to the south-east without having to go via the Borough of Southwark but could now cross St George's Fields to the junction of Newington Causeway and Newington Butts which is where New Kent Road starts at Elephant & Castle.
The southern side of New Kent Road starts at the site of the former Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, built in the 1960s and often cited as London's ugliest building.
"[3] At 26 New Kent Road, a pub attached to the Shopping Centre was named after a famous local ex-resident Charlie Chaplin.
[6] It is being developed by Oakmayne Properties[7] who also built the nearby South Central East residential building on Walworth Road.
The site of Oakmayne Plaza was formerly occupied by UK's largest used Volvo showroom and the Elephant Road Industrial Estate.
From Elephant Road to Rodney Place previously stood the Heygate Estate[8] In the summer of 2008, a 35 feet (11 m) high sculpture of a stag by Ben Long was erected on the Oakmayne Plaza site.
Crossway United Reformed Church was the last part of the Heygate Estate that remained standing, until it closed in 2017 and was relocated to a new building nearby.
The Two Caryatids sculpture by Henry Poole, originally created in 1897 for the old Rotherhithe Public Library, stood in a locked garden behind the church for many years, but was removed in 2009[10] A footbridge that connected the Heygate Estate with the north side of New Kent Road was demolished in 2014.
The school closed in 1988 and was for a number of years run by Southwark Council as a centre for Evening Classes and art studios before finally being sold for private development and converted into a residential building named The Paragon.
A plaque next to the Metro Central Heights convenience store explains that this was previously the site of the Trocadero Cinema at 1–17 New Kent Road, which closed in 1963.
[14][15] Beyond the railway bridge stands Albert Barnes House, an 18-storey block of council flats owned by the London Borough of Southwark.
The main building is built low, with the separate minimalist iron spire at the street entrance suggesting old and new-style church architecture simultaneously.
[19] Next to the park, Tavern Court at number 95 is a six-storey shared-ownership residential building managed by Family Mosaic Housing Association, and which opened in 2005.
It appears that this low lying area ... was fields until the development of the County Terrace public house and adjoining properties during the 19th century.
"[23] The 1888 red brick church behind Tavern Court is the former Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, a listed building designed by Charles Evans-Vaughan in mixed Queen Anne and Romanesque revival styles.
With the removal of the plinth and plaque, the only remaining reference to the Dickens novel is a quotation from Copperfield's aunt inlaid into the path through the park: "...a little change, and a glimpse of life out of doors, may be useful, in helping you to know your own mind..."[26] At the corner of Harper Road is a five-storey residential block comprising fifteen apartments, with a branch of Tesco Metro on the ground floor.
In 2005, journalist Peter Preston noted that the multi-cultural nature of the area is that this block of businesses includes an African hairdresser, a Turkish grocers, a Chinese take-away and a Bolivian restaurant.
