Place Name
Directional, runs south from the City of London to Camberwell. There’s been a significant settlement at Camberwell since at least the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, when the name was recorded as Cambrewelle. Later versions include Cambyrwell in 1154, Camerewelle in 1199, and Camberwelle in 1241. Its meaning is obscure. While the second element, wella, is known to have come from the Old English word for a spring or stream, the springs and wells on the slopes of Denmark Hill had since early times made the area popular with resorting Londoners, there are various suggestions as to the first part of the name. David Mills in A Dictionary of London Place Names suggests it might have been borrowed from the Latin word Camera, meaning a vault or room, perhaps in reference to some early structure overlooking the spring. Sheila Fairfield in The Streets of London suggests it could be from an Old English word for wildfowl. Another theory suggests it’s an Old English personal name, literally, Cantbeohrt’s spring. Alternatively, some say it could be from an old word Cumber, which was used to describe Welsh people, perhaps in reference to the area being populated by Celts during Anglo-Saxon times. In any case, the street is well established, recorded from at least the 15thCentury. The area was built up from the 1860s after the coming of the railways. Today this is part of the A215 between Elephant and Castle and Shirley in Croydon.
