Place Name
A well-established route, first called Workhouse Lane on account of the workhouse which opened here in 1818, it was renamed after local residents, the Havil family sometime around 1860. The Havils had a house on the lane which was demolished in about the 1860s to make way for a new vestry hall. In the late 19thCentury Camberwell saw a massive population increase and its old vestry hall was no longer fit for purpose. The parish vestry – a prototype parish council – brought the freehold of Havil House for £1,740 and built a new vestry hall, which opened in 1873, on its site.
