PLACE NAME
There has been a village green at Camberwell since at least medieval times, when the land was held by the local lords of Camberwell manor but used as common land, meaning that it was subject to certain grazing and public use rights. It is recorded as Camerwell grene in 1572. Needless to say it takes its name from the local area, already a major settlement by the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, and the Middle English word, grene, for a village green. The origin of the name Camberwell, variously recorded since 1086 as Cambrewelle, Cambyrwell, Camerewelle, and Camberwelle, is however obscure. While the second element, wella, is known to have come from the Old English word for a spring or stream, its springs and wells had made the area popular with resorting Londoners since early times, 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. From 1279 the green was the scene of the annual Camberwell Fair which ran for about 600 years before being shut down by the authorities in 1855. Not long after, during a period of major development, the lords sold it to Camberwell Parish Vestry thus protecting it from the same fate. Camberwell Green is also the name of the London Borough of Southwark electoral ward around the green.
