Stockwell

Stockwell is a district in inner south London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth.It is situated 2.4mi south of Charing Cross. Battersea, Brixton, Clapham, South Lambeth and Kennington all border Stockwell. Once one of London's poorest neighbourhoods, it is now an up-and-coming area, owing to its close proximity to Central London and excellent transport links.HistoryStockwell probably got the second half of its name from a local well; the other half is from "stoc", which was Old English for a tree trunk or post. From the thirteenth to the start of the nineteenth century, Stockwell was a rural manor at the edge of London. It included market gardens and John Tradescant's botanical garden - commemorated in Tradescant Road, which was built over it in 1880, and in a memorial outside St Stephen's church. In the nineteenth century it developed as an elegant middle-class suburb. Residents included the artist Arthur Rackham, who was born in South Lambeth Road in 1867, moving with his family to Albert Square when he was 15.Its social and architectural fortunes in the twentieth century were more mixed. The area immediately around Stockwell tube station was extensively rebuilt following the Second World War, and the original domed tube station was replaced first in the 1920s, then again with the opening of the Victoria line in 1971.