It lay on the old Roman road from London to West Sussex, specifically directly to Chichester (also linking to London/Westminster much of Surrey including Kingston and Guildford) (this was one of the Stane Streets).

The proximity to London meant stalls, stables and stores were by the late medieval period numerous.

The first mention of Newington (or Neweton) occurs in the Testa de Nevill (a survey of feudal tenure officially known as the Book of Fees compiled 1198–1242) during the reign of Henry III, wherein it is stated that the queen's goldsmith holds of the king one acre of land in Neweton, by the service of rendering a gallon of honey.

Newington gained in importance with the creation of the Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the associated improvements of London Bridge which required a series of new roads across St George's Fields to interconnect the routes from them and allow traffic from the Georgian West End to travel south and to Southwark without transitting through the City.

All of these roads converged at a junction where there was a blacksmith's forge and inn called Elephant and Castle which then became a name to signify the area.

The local landowner, Henry Penton (Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester), started to sell some of his farmland.

The Trinity House Newington Estate, laid out on property the institution was left in the seventeenth century, became a high class residential district which is still largely in existence.

The parish of Newington St Mary was part of the Brixton Hundred of Surrey and this contained all of the manor of Walworth.

It is represented by Councillors Eleanor Kerslake and Alice Macdonald of the Labour Party and James Coldwell, Independent.