Lambeth

Lambeth's name was recorded in 1062 as 'Lambehitha', meaning 'landing place for lambs', and in 1255 as 'Lambeth'. A church in Lambeth was also recorded in 1062, as built by Goda, the sister of Edward the Confessor.

The manor of Lambeth belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury from at least 1190, and in 1197 Archbishop Hubert Walter created the residence of Lambeth Palace. Archbishops have lived there since the early 13th century; its oldest parts, Langton's Chapel and its crypt, date from that century.

Lambeth and its palace were the site of two important international treaties in the 13th century: the Treaty of Lambeth of 1212 and the Treaty of Lambeth of 1217.

Falkes de Breauté, the head of King John's mercenaries, got South Lambeth in 1216 when he married Margaret FitzGerold. His large house there was called Faulke's Hall, later Foxhall; this is generally thought to be where the name Vauxhall comes from.

In 1293 South Lambeth and the manor of 'la Sale Faukes' passed, probably by trickery, to King Edward I, who bought several lands from Isabel de Forz, Countess of Devon.

Edward, the Black Prince, lived in Lambeth in the 14th century, on an estate that also included Kennington. Black Prince Road in Lambeth is named after him.

The tower of the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth dates from 1377. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1851, to designs by Philip Hardwick.

The Water or Lollards' Tower, built of Kentish Ragstone, was added at the north-west corner of Lambeth Palace in 1434–35, for more private rooms.

Cardinal John Morton built the palace's five-storey brick gatehouse, Morton's Tower, now its main entrance. It held eight lodgings for the Archbishop's household.

Archbishop Richard Bancroft founded Lambeth Palace Library in 1610.

In 1642 Londoners built defences around London against Royalist attacks during the Civil War. Vauxhall was the south-western end of them.

On 23 June 1665 Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he took a boat to 'Fox Hall', where the air and the pleasure of the garden were 'a great refreshment' to him.

Lambeth was where the Dukes of Norfolk had their main medieval London home. By 1680 the house had been sold and became a pottery, making some of the first English delftware.

In the late 17th century large country houses began to be built in Clapham, and in the 18th and early 19th centuries rich City merchants built many large houses and villas around Clapham Common. Samuel Pepys spent the last two years of his life in Clapham, until 1703.

The area only became widely known as Vauxhall when the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens opened to the public, and Westminster Bridge made it easier to cross the Thames, in the 1740s.

In 1774 Clapham's old church was taken down under an Act of Parliament, and the next year a new church, Holy Trinity, was built on the north side of the Common.

The Society for Missions to Africa and the East, later called the Church Mission Society, was founded on 12 April 1799 at a meeting supported by members of the Clapham Sect, led by John Venn, the Rector of Clapham.

Vauxhall Bridge opened in 1816. With easier access to central London, Brixton began to grow into a suburb. Ashby's Mill, one of the few windmills left in London, was built just off Brixton Hill in the same year.

The Surrey House of Correction, later Brixton prison, was set up in 1819.

Lambeth became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1829. Between 1801 and 1831 Lambeth's population trebled.

Between 1829 and 1834 Edward Blore, who later rebuilt much of Buckingham Palace, added new buildings to Lambeth Palace in a neo-Gothic style, including a new private home for the Archbishop, finished in 1833.

In the 1840s the London and South Western Railway was extended from Nine Elms to a new terminus at Waterloo. After the large Waterloo station opened in 1848, the area around it and Lower Marsh became known as Waterloo.

The Lambeth Ragged School was built in 1851 to teach children from very poor families.

Angell Town was laid out in the 1850s on the east side of Brixton Road. It is named after a family that owned land in Lambeth from the late 17th century until well into the 20th.

Brixton was connected to central London by rail on 25 August 1862, when Brixton and South Stockwell station opened. Between the 1860s and 1890s Brixton became a middle-class suburb and a major shopping centre.

The Albert Embankment, made by the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, was finished in 1869. It forms the edge of Lambeth by the river.

Bon Marché, the first purpose-built department store, opened on Brixton Road in 1877, and Electric Avenue was one of the first shopping arcades to have electric lighting. By 1881 Brixton had 62,837 people.

Brixton Synagogue opened at 49 Effra Road in 1913. It closed in 1986, and its congregation joined Streatham Synagogue.

Brixton Market began in Atlantic Road, and in the 1920s it moved to Station Road to ease traffic jams.

From 1937 until 2007 the London Fire Brigade's headquarters were on Albert Embankment, in an art deco building designed by London County Council architects.

Lambeth Walk had a market for many years; by 1938 it had 159 shops, including 11 butchers.

In 1948 the first 492 people of what became the British African-Caribbean community arrived at Tilbury Docks on HMT Empire Windrush from Jamaica, and were housed for a time in the Clapham South deep shelter. In the 1940s and 1950s many people from the West Indies and Ireland settled in Brixton. In 1998 the area in front of Brixton Library was renamed Windrush Square.

The London Borough of Lambeth was created in 1965. Streatham and Clapham, which had been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, joined Lambeth to make it.

St Mary-at-Lambeth stopped being a church in 1972. Since 1977 it has been the home of the Garden Museum.

In April 1981, when Brixton had deep social and economic problems, there were riots. A public inquiry led by Lord Scarman found 'unquestionable evidence of the disproportionate and indiscriminate use' of 'stop and search' powers by the police against black people. Its recommendations led to a new code for police behaviour in 1984 and an independent Police Complaints Authority in 1985.

Brixton had its own local money, the Brixton pound. It was first traded on 18 September 2009, when 80 local businesses accepted it. In 2015 the artist Jeremy Deller designed a special B£5 note for its fifth birthday.