Place Name
An admittedly oblique reference to the nearby Caesar’s Camp on Wimbledon Common. Elizabethan antiquary William Camden referenced the camp in his wide-ranging history and survey of the British Isles Britannia calling it Bensbury. This, he claimed, was on the grounds that it was named after a Saxon captain called Cneben who was killed fighting for King Ethelbert during a civil war, he wrote “’tis possible that the military fortification I saw here of a circular form, called Bensbury or Cnebensbury, might take its name”. In fact as Camden knew perfectly well, the slain warrior was called Cnebban. As for the claim – which has been long held – that the great Roman general’s forces had set down at the spot before crossing the River Thames during his second invasion of Britain, that too is false, it is in fact an Iron Age hill fort. As well as Bensbury, this fort was also called Warren Bulwarks and The Rounds. The ramparts were levelled in 1875 by an owner who intended building on the site. The fort is now a scheduled ancient monument. Like all the streets on this development it is named after a connection with the nearby Putney and Wimbledon Heath.
