Bellenden Road is a street in southeast

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The local area around it, situated between

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

and

East Dulwich East Dulwich is an area of South (London sub region), South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. East Dulwich is home to the Dog Kenn ...

, is known as Bellenden.

History

Bellenden is claimed by residents to be distinct from any of its surrounding neighbours for a number of reasons, although others argue that it is just part of Peckham, East Dulwich or Camberwell. Named after the 7th

Lord Bellenden The title Lord Bellenden, of Broughton, was a lordship of Parliament created in the Peerage of Scotland on 10 June 1661 for William Bellenden, who was Treasurer-depute of Scotland. Shortly before his death, he resigned his peerage in favour of his ...

of Broughton, Bellenden Road was laid out along with neighbouring streets from the 1870s on what had formerly been largely fruit gardens serving the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

French Influence

From its earliest days, Bellenden was populated disproportionately by

French Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s, and still retains something of its French flavour, with various streets, pubs and businesses carrying French names such as the Montpelier Public House, Petit Chou cafe and Choumert Road attracting a significant French population to the area. For this reason Bellenden has for some years been known as 'the French Quarter'.

Art

Artists such as

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pl ...

, Tom Phillips and John Latham have lived and worked on Bellenden Road and in the area. As part of Southwark Council's Bellenden Area Renewal programme Gormley designed

bollard A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats. In modern usage, it also refers to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to pre ...

s and

street furniture Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes bench (furniture), benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic ...

for the area, Phillips designed

lampposts A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

and

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s, several shop fronts were refitted and Latham installed a major artwork through the front of his house and studio which he named

Flat Time House Flat Time House was the studio home of British conceptual artist John Latham (1921–2006) and is now open as a contemporary art gallery, centre for alternative learning and artist residency space, housing the John Latham archive. It is locate ...

. Flat Time House is now a publicly accessible art and education space and houses the John Latham

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

. Bellenden has a growing spread of

shop Shop or shopping may refer to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop * Reta ...

s and

cafes A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...

. The Bellenden Road Nature Garden is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

managed by

London Wildlife Trust London Wildlife Trust is an English wildlife charity based in London. Founded in 1981, London Wildlife Trust is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature charity ...

Political significance

Bellenden has been home to a number of politically-engaged community groups, such as the Peckham Black Women's Group until 1990, and the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre from 1992 to 1995. The latter was commemorated with a

Rainbow Plaque The rainbow plaque programme is a UK scheme to create commemorative plaques to highlight significant people, places and moments in LGBTQIA+ history. Emulating established UK blue plaque programmes run by English Heritage, local authorities and o ...

in 2024.

References

{{coord, 51.4687, -0.0726, region:GB-SWK_type:city, display=title Areas of London