Kennington - Kennington Park

Kennington Park

Kennington Park, laid out by Victorian architect James Pennethorne, and St Mark's Churchyard now cover the site of Kennington Common. The Park was the first public park in south London, and was created when the Common was enclosed in 1852, and designated one of the Royal Parks of London (today, management of the Park is undertaken by Lambeth Council).

The Park, historically, was a place for executions, a Speakers' Corner for public gatherings for political and religious purposes, and a place for entertainment and sporting events.

In the 1730s, Methodists John Wesley and George Whitefield preached to thousands here. In 1746 the Surrey County Gallows at the southern end of the Common was used for the execution of nine leaders of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. The Common was also where the Chartists gathered for their biggest demonstration in 1848. "The Gymnastic Society" met regularly at Kennington Common during the second half of the eighteenth century to play football. The Society — sometimes claimed to be the world's first football club — consisted of London-based natives of Cumberland and Westmorland.

The tradition of political gathering at Kennington Park in advance of marches upon Parliament returned in the 1970s. In 1986, the Park was the location for the Gay Pride march of that year, and for several years thereafter. On March 31, 1990, some 200,000 people amassed at Kennington Park to march upon Trafalgar Square, in protest against the Community Charge. This, during the course of the day, escalated into mass disturbances: the Poll Tax Riots. In April 1997, a march organised by Reclaim the Streets set off from the Park for central London; and in May 2004, the Park was the starting point for a march to the Cannabis Festival at Brockwell Park. In March 2007, the Archbishop of Canterbury preached at Kennington Park to mark the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807. The Park had been a significant location for important anti-slave trade rallies. In March 2011, the Park was the South London starting point for a feeder march to the 2011 anti-cuts protest in London.

(Fuller details of the Common's history are in the Kennington Park article).