- published: 03 Nov 2014
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Coordinates: 51°29′25″N 0°07′09″W / 51.4903°N 0.1193°W / 51.4903; -0.1193
Lambeth is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of Charing Cross.
The name is recorded in 1062 as Lambehitha, meaning 'landing place for lambs', and in 1255 as Lambeth. The name refers to a harbour where lambs were either shipped from or to. It is formed from the Old English 'lamb' and 'hythe.South Lambeth is recorded as Sutlamehethe in 1241 and North Lambeth is recorded in 1319 as North Lamhuth. The marshland in the area, known as Lambeth Marshe, was drained in the 18th century but is remembered in the Lower Marsh street name. Sometime after the opening of Waterloo railway station in 1848 the locality around the station and Lower Marsh became known as Waterloo.
The current district of Lambeth was part of the large ancient parish of Lambeth St Mary in the Brixton hundred of Surrey. It was an elongated north-south parish with a two mile River Thames frontage to the west. In the north it lay opposite the cities of London and Westminster and extended southwards to cover the contemporary districts of Brixton, West Dulwich and West Norwood, almost reaching Crystal Palace. Lambeth became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1829. It continued as a single parish for Poor Law purposes after the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and a single parish governed by a vestry after the introduction of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855. In 1889 it became part of the county of London and the parish and vestry were reformed in 1900 to become the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth, governed by Lambeth Borough Council. In the reform of local government in 1965 the Streatham and Clapham areas that had formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth were combined with Lambeth to form the London Borough of Lambeth.