Place Name
In about the mid-18thCentury, having made his fortune in nearby New Cross, wealthy market gardener Robert Edmunds purchased a large tract of land from Wyndham Bowyer, lord of Camberwell manor. At that time the area, as shown on John Rocque’s 1741 Camberwell map, was largely fields and market gardens attached to the rural village of Camberwell. However, soon the coming of Camberwell New Road in 1818 would spark a major phase in its development. The land originated as part of the ancient Camberwell manor which is mentioned at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 as belonging to Haimo. It had various owners after that before bits of it appear to have started being carved off and sold from around the time of King Henry VIII, which is when the Bowyers first acquired their part. It descended through many generations of Bowyers before eventually converting to market gardens. The street appears to have been built in the 1850s.
