Herne Hill

London - Pax Britannica -VAL- London Borough of Southwark

Herne Hill /hɜːrn/ is a district in South London, England, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Denmark Hill, Dulwich Village, Loughborough Junction and Tulse Hill. It overlaps the boundary between the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. There is a road of the same name in the area (which is part of the A215 and was formerly called Herne Hill Road), as well as a railway station.

History

In Rocque's 1746 map, the area is shown as "Island Green", probably reflecting the presence of the River Effra and smaller tributaries. Early references to the area also use the form "Ireland Green". The earliest documented reference to "Herne Hill" is in two fire insurance policies issued by the Sun Insurance Company in 1792 (where the spelling is "Hearns" and "Herns" Hill) A map showing the Herne Hill ward of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916.
The area now known as Herne Hill was part of the Manor of Milkwell, which existed from at least 1291, and was a mixture of farms and woodland until the late 18th century.[4] It was divided between the ancient parishes of Camberwell and Lambeth. In 1783, Samuel Sanders (a timber merchant) bought the land now occupied by Denmark Hill and Herne Hill from the Manor; he then began granting leases for large plots of land to wealthy families. By the mid-19th century, the road from the modern Herne Hill Junction to Denmark Hill was lined with large residential estates and the area had become a prosperous suburb for the merchant class. (John Ruskin grew up, from the age of 4, in a house on Herne Hill).

Herne Hill was transformed by the arrival of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway in 1862. Cheap and convenient access to London Victoria, the City of London, Kent and south-west London created demand for middle-class housing; the terraced streets that now characterise the area were constructed in the decades after the opening of Herne Hill station and the old estates were entirely built over. A letter reporting a Herne Hill sighting of Victorian folklore demon Spring-heeled Jack, "that malapropre fellow of the ghost", was published in the Camberwell and Peckham Times on 9 November 1872. The incident was recorded as taking place where the footpath on Herne Hill ran past St.Paul's Church into Half Moon Lane.

The Half Moon is a Grade II* listed public house in Half Moon Lane.