Place:Camberwell, London, England

Watchers
NameCamberwell
Alt namesCamberwell St. Gilessource: main ecclesiastical parish
Camberwell St Gilessource: original ecclesiastical parish
Camberwell St. Marksource: later ecclesiastical parish
East Dulwichsource: part of Camberwell
Herne Hillsource: part of Camberwell
Herne Hill St. Paulsource: ecclesiastical parish
Herne Hill Road St. Savioursource: ecclesiastical parish
TypeParish
Coordinates51.474°N 0.093°W
Located inLondon, England     (1889 - 1965)
Also located inSurrey, England     ( - 1889)
See alsoBrixton Hundred, Surrey, Englandancient county division in which it was located
Camberwell (metropolitan borough), London, Englandmetropolitan borough within the County of London 1900-1965
Southwark (London Borough), Greater London, EnglandLondon borough covering most of the area since 1965
Lambeth (London Borough), Greater London, EnglandLondon borough covering a small part of the area since 1965
Contained Places
Cemetery
Camberwell New Cemetery ( 1901 - )
Camberwell Old Cemetery ( 1856 - )
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog



the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Camberwell is a district of south London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is located 2.7 miles (4.3 km) southeast of Charing Cross.

The name Camberwell was first applied to the Parish of St Giles, Camberwell, which included Camberwell, Peckham, Dulwich, Nunhead, and part of Herne Hill.

Until 1889 it was part of the County of Surrey. In 1900 the original parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in the County of London. Then in 1965 most of the Borough of Camberwell was merged into the London Borough of Southwark. However, the western parts of both West Dulwich and Herne Hill come under the London Borough of Lambeth.


Geography

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The parish of Camberwell St Giles (which was also a civil parish until 1889) had three divisions. They were

  • the Liberty of Peckham to the east, which stretched from north of Old Kent Road to Honor Oak, taking in Peckham and Nunhead.
  • the Hamlet of Dulwich to the southwest which stretched from Champion Hill in the north to what is now Crystal Palace in the south, taking in Dulwich Village, West Dulwich and Sydenham Hill (See also Penge.)
  • the central division of Camberwell proper which stretched from what is now Burgess Park in the north to what is now the Horniman Museum in the south, taking in the central Camberwell area around Camberwell Green, the eastern part of Herne Hill and East Dulwich. It included a long protrusion in the west, surrounded by Lambeth, as far as what is now Myatt's Fields Park.
Image:337px-Southwark areas.png

Ecclesiastical parishes

The ancient Anglican parish, dedicated to St Giles, was in the Diocese of Winchester until 1877, then in the Diocese of Rochester until 1905, and then finally in the Diocese of Southwark. From 1825, as the population of Camberwell increased, a number of new parishes were formed:

  • Bermondsey Christ Church, Old Kent Road in 1838
  • South Bermondsey St. Batholemew in 1887
  • Camberwell Camden Chapel in 1844
  • Camberwell Emmanuel in 1842
  • Camberwell St. George in 1825
  • Camberwell St James, Knatchbull Road, in 1874
  • Denmark Hill St Matthew in 1848
  • Denmark Park St. Saviour in 1881
  • Dulwich St. Barnabas in 1894
  • East Dulwich St. John the Evangelist in 1865
  • East Dulwich St. Clement, in 1886
  • Dulwich Common St Peter in 1867
  • South Dulwich St Stephen in 1868
  • Nunhead St. Antony (formerly St. Antholin), in 1878
  • Nunhead St. Silas in 1895
  • Peckham St. Chrysostom in 1865
  • Peckham St. Mary Magdalene in 1842
  • Peckham St Andrew in 1866
  • Peckham All Saints, Blenheim Grove, in 1872
  • Peckham St. Luke, Rosemary Road, in 1878
  • Peckham St. Jude, in 1880
  • Peckham St. Mark, in 1884
  • North Peckham All Saints in 1892

In addition, as the population of neighbouring areas increased, parts of Camberwell parish were included in new parishes:

  • Herne Hill St. Paul in 1845 with parts of Lambeth St Mary
  • Bermondsey St. Philip, Avondale Square in 1876 with parts of Bermondsey St Anne
  • Camberwell St. Mark, in 1880 with parts of Newington All Saints

The neighbourhoods of Denmark Hill, Denmark Park and Herne Hill have been redirected here. All parts of Dulwich will be found under Dulwich.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Camberwell.

Research tips

Surrey Research Tips

Government

Administrative boundaries of the county of Surrey (Surrey History Centre. The centre has a website with a number of useful indexes--titheholders in various parishes, deaths at the county gaol, etc.)

Registration Districts

  • Registration Districts in Surrey from their introduction in 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.

GENUKI provisions

The website GENUKI provides a very comprehensive list of reference sources for the County of Surrey. It includes:

  • Archives and Libraries
  • Church record availability for both Surrey and the former Surrey part of Greater London
  • 19th century descriptions of the ecclesiastical parishes
  • Lists of cemeteries
  • Local family history societies
  • A list of historic maps online

History

  • The Victoria History of the County of Surrey is a series of three volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Surrey. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Surrey. Both volumes 3 and 4 contain areas which are part of Greater London and parts of modern Surrey.

Maps

  • The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.
  • A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4, chapter on Camberwell first published 1912 and available online through British History Online.
  • Old Maps of Southwark provided by the London Borough of Southwark.

Greater London Research Tips

A reminder that Greater London was not formed until 1965 and covers a much greater territory than its predecessor, the County of London formed in 1900. The City of London was only a part of the County of London. A map of the boroughs of Greater London is reproduced on all Greater London borough pages. A map of the boroughs of the smaller County of London is reproduced on all County of London borough pages.


Researching ancestors in London will probably be more successful than researching ancestors in the rest of England, particularly for the period before 1837 and the advent of civil registration. Baptisms, marriages and burials are available online for County of London parishes, and possibly for parishes throughout Greater London as well.

  • Anglican Parishes in London is a wiki here on WeRelate listing the places of worship of the established church throughout London. The churches are grouped within the post-1965 boroughs and for each is the street address, a link to the Booth Map (inner boroughs only), the time span for which the database AIM25 holds records, the FamilySearch Wiki link (see below), the Wikipedia link, and further notes. This is a work-in-progress and not all churches are listed as yet, but it is a guide to a great deal more information on those for which information has been gathered.
  • The London Metropolitan Archives (40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB) holds records relating to the whole of Greater London. Ancestry (subscription necessary) has produced transcriptions and provides images of lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials in churches across Greater London. Many of these lists start in 1813 and stretch into the 20th century; some start even earlier.

Maps

  • A street-by-street map of London (both sides of the Thames, and stretching from Limehouse, Stepney and Greenwich in the east to Hyde Park and Kensington in the west) drawn by Edward Mogg in 1806. Blows up to a very readable level. Highly recommended viewing. Shows named areas on the edge of the County of London (1900-1965) as the small villages they were in 1800. Streets in the City are named, but churches are missing.
  • The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers edited by Cecil Humphery-Smith and published by Phillimore & Co Ltd (edition of 1995) provides a map of the City of London indicating all the parishes and includes dates of commencement of registers for parishes formed before 1832.
  • Wikipedia has an expandable map of the area of devastation of the 1666 fire. The map includes the location of Pudding Lane where the fire started.
  • A map of London in the 1890s provided by the National Library of Scotland. There are a few steps between the home page index and the individual maps which may be difficult to follow for those who don't know London, but the maps themselves are produced at the scale of 5 feet to the mile on the original and are very clear. Houses on streets are marked, but not numbered.
  • Ordnance Survey map of London 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing London parishes just after the reorganization of 1899. The map was originally drawn over a street map at a scale of 1 inch to the mile and can be blown up to inspect a single borough. Only the major streets are marked and are only visible at maximum magnification. The City of London is an inset in the top right hand corner.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Middlesex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing the parishes remaining in Middlesex after the reorganization of 1899 when much of the former area of Middlesex had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Surrey 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Surrey parishes (chiefly Southwark) just after the reorganization of 1899 when the most urban parts of Surrey were transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Kent 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Kent parishes just after the reorganization of 1899 when the western part of Kent had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Essex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Essex parishes (West Ham, East Ham, Ilford) which were absorbed into Greater London in 1965.

Registration Districts

  • Registration Districts in London, Registration Districts in Middlesex, Registration Districts in Surrey, Registration Districts in Kent, and Registration Districts in Essex are lists of the registration districts used for civil registration (births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses). There are linked supporting lists of the parishes which made up each registration district, the dates of formation and abolition of the districts, the General Register Office numbers, and the local archive-holding place. This work has been carried out by Brett Langston under the agency of GENUKI (Genealogy United Kingdom and Ireland) and UKBMD - Births, Marriages, Deaths & Censuses on the Internet, and has been updated into the 21st century. If the only information about an individual has been obtained from UKBMD, the name of the registration district is considered a "placename" within WeRelate and can be used to provide a broad estimate of the location.

Cemeteries

  • Deceased Online includes four of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries (Brompton, Highgate, Kensal Green, and Nunhead) in its inventory of 65 London cemeteries. Transcripts for Abney Park are free with registration online at www.devsys.co.uk/ap/. Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has "London, England, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966". That leaves West Norwood without comprehensive online access to burial records. (Deceased Online and Ancestry may have increased their provision since this was written in 2016.)
  • As of October 2019 Ancestry has a file titled "England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers 1800-2016" which includes Abney Park Cemetery, Greenford Park Cemetery, Acton Cemetery, Ealing & Old Brentford Cemetery, Havelock Norwood Cemetery, Hortus Cemetery, South Ealing Cemetery, Queens Road Cemetery, and Chingford Mount Cemetery.
  • The City of London Cemetery, at Manor Park, near Wanstead in the London Borough of Redbridge also contains remains transferred from former parishes in the City of London whose graveyards have been replaced by streets and commercial buildings.
  • Brookwood Cemetery, beyond the Greater London borders in Surrey, was opened in 1854 for burials for Londoners. See the Wikpedia article.

Other online sources

  • See the FamilySearch Wiki under "London" and also under "Middlesex", "Surrey", "Essex" and "Kent" for key information about Greater London's jurisdictions and records, plus links to indexes, reference aids and Family History Library holdings.
  • GENUKI has a long list of websites and archive holders in addition to London Metropolitan Archives above. (The list from GENUKI is not maintained so well that there is never a dead link in it. However, it is often worth googling the title given on the page just in case the contributor has reorganized their website and GENUKI has not picked it up.)
  • GENUKI also has a list of the Archives and Local Studies Libraries for each of the boroughs of Greater London.
  • The London Encyclopaedia by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert. An e-book available online through Google, originally published by Pan Macmillan. There is a search box in the left-hand pane.
  • London Lives. A very useful free website for anyone researching their London ancestors between the years 1690-1800. This is a fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
  • London Ancestor, a website belonging to one of the London family history societies, has a list of transcriptions of directories from the 18th century, listing in one case "all the squares, streets, lanes, courts, yards, alleys, &C. in and about Five Miles of the Metropolis..." In other parts of the same website are maps of various parts of 19th century London and Middlesex.
  • The proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, 1674-1913. A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. This website is free to use.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Camberwell. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.