Lambeth Marsh

Lambeth Marsh. In documents of the 16th century this name was given to the whole of the low swampy tract lying along the Thames, between Lambeth Church and Blacldfriars.¹ Later the term was restricted to the marsh east of Westminster Bridge. As late as the reign of James I. it was a haunt of wild fowl and a royal hunting ground.

August 1, 1612.—Grant to Ellis Holcombe of the office of keeping the game from Southwark to Lambeth Marsh and elsewhere, Co. Surry for life.—Cal. State Pap., 1611–1618, p. 240.

April 18, 1616.—Grant to Alex. and Vincent Glover of the office of game keeper in Lambeth Marsh and elsewhere, Co. Surrey for life.—Cal. State Pap., 1611–1618, p. 362.

Until the early years of the 19th century Lambeth Marsh remained for the most part open fields, divided by broad deep ditches, bordered by willows and crossed by planks or narrow bridges. Patches of the less spongy soil were cultivated as vegetable or flower gardens, or occupied by cottages and sheds, and occasionally by tea-gardens and more questionable places of amusement, whilst the more inhabited parts were notorious as the haunts of thieves and prostitutes, sharpers and coiners. The construction of broad roads from Blackfriars, Westminster, and Waterloo Bridges served to open and to drain the district, which was at first gradually but soon rapidly covered with a network of narrow streets and mean houses; into which, however, the construction of the South Western Railway has let a little wholesome light and air. Lambeth Upper Marsh, the short and narrow way from Stangate Street to Westminster Bridge Road, and Lambeth Lower Marsh, the longer and broader street from Westminster Bridge Road to Waterloo Road, traverse the centre of what was Lambeth Marsh and perpetuate its memory.

I had one Sunday preached for Mr. Gataker at Redriff and lodged there that night. Next morning I walked with him over the fields to Lambeth, meaning there to cross the Thames to Westminster. He showed me in the passage divers remains of the old channel, which had heretofore been made from Redriff to Lambeth, for diverting the Thames whilst London Bridge was building, all in a straight line or near it, but with great intervals, which had been long since filled up; these remains, which then appeared very visible, are I suspect aU, or most of them, filled up before this time, for it is more than fifty years ago, and people in those marshes would be more fond of so much meadow grounds than to let those lakes remain unfilled; and he told me of many other such remains which had been within his memory, but were then filled up.—Dr. Wallis, the Mathematician, to Pepys, October 24, 1699.

The masters never prosper'd
Since gentlemen's sons grew 'prentices: when we look
To have our business done at home, they are
Abroad in the Tennis Court, or in Partridge Alley,
In Lambeth Marsh, or a cheating ordinary.
Massinger, The City Madam.

Mistris Birdlime. But I'11 down to Queenhive, and the watermen which were wont to carry you to Lambeth Marsh shall carry you thither.—Westward Ho (1607).

Inigo Jones, the great architect, buried his money in Lambeth Marsh during the Great Civil War.²

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¹ In the Act of 22 Henry VIII. c. 9 (1531), the Bishop of Rochester's house is described as being in Lambeth Marsh.
² Cunningham's Life of Inigo Jones, p. 37.