Place Name
Directional, the road leading to Walworth. Takes its name from the Old English word walh meaning strangers, Wales gets its name from the same root. David Mills in A Dictionary of London Place Names explains: “This name is particularly interesting because it indicates the survival of a Celtic population in this area into the Anglo-Saxon period.” So Walworth means the enclosure of the serfs or Britons. The area Walworth, which gave this street its name, was first recorded as Wellawyrðin 1006. By the time that the Domesday survey was compiled in 1086 it was spelt Waleorde and in 1196 Wallewurd. It took today’s spelling in 1354.
