Place Name
Follows the route of an early, private, tree-lined road, hence the name. It is clearly shown on John Rocque’s 1741 map of Camberwell leading at its northern end to what is believed to be a Tudor mansion, situated just south of the junction with modern Peckham Road. At that time the area was still largely undeveloped. Though only a few years later, a group of fields to the east of what would become Camberwell Grove, became the venue for the fashionable Camberwell Tea Gardens, attached to what is today Camberwell Hall. The origins of the name Camberwell, first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Cambrewell, are obscure. Its second part refers to a spring or well, the area being famous for its springs and wells since early times, however there is much speculation about the first part of the name. It has been suggested that it comes from the Latin word camera and refers to an early building overlooking the spring; alternatively, it is an Old English word for wildfowl, or a personal name, literally Cantbeohrt’s spring. Some say it’s the old word Cumber which was used to refer to Welsh people, perhaps in reference to the area being populated by Celts during Anglo-Saxon times. In the 1770s, the mansion had become dilapidated and was demolished. Its land was carved up and sold for development.
