Horseferry Road

Last updated January 29, 2025

The Thames at Horseferry by Jan Griffier, showing Lambeth Palace at right and St Paul's Cathedral in the distance. Horseferry.jpg — *The Thames at Horseferry* by Jan Griffier, showing Lambeth Palace at right and St Paul's Cathedral in the distance.

Horseferry Road is a street in the City of Westminster in central London running between Millbank and Greycoat Place and designated part of the B323 road, along with Greycoat Place, Artillery Row and Buckingham Gate.^[1] It is perhaps best known as the site of City of Westminster Magistrates' Court (which until 2006 was called Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court), whose ubiquity in newspaper crime reports means that the road name has wide recognition in the UK. It is not to be confused with streets of the same name in Limehouse, London E14, parallel to Narrow Street, and off Creek Road in Greenwich.

Other notable institutions which are or have been located on Horseferry Road include Broadwood and Sons, the Gas Light and Coke Company, British Standards Institution, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the Burberry Group, the Environment Agency headquarters in Horseferry House, the National Probation Service, the Department for Transport at no. 33 and Channel 4. The Marsham Street Home Office building backs on to this road. Phyllis Pearsall conceived and created the London A to Z map while living in a bedsit in Horseferry Road.^[2]

Ferry and bridge

The road takes its name from the ferry which existed on the site of what is now Lambeth Bridge.^[3] Owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ferry was an important crossing over the Thames, from Westminster Palace to Lambeth Palace.^[4] The earliest known reference to the ferry dates to 1513, but there may have been a ford near the site in Roman times. The ferry pier was the starting point for the flight of King James II from England in 1689. In 1736, Princess Augusta, who became the mother of George III, crossed the Thames via the horse ferry on the way to her wedding.

In 1734, plans were drawn up for a bridge to replace the ferry. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1736, and the money was raised by lottery and grants. Parliament changed the plans for the position of the bridge, and Westminster Bridge was finished first, resulting in the gradual decline of the ferry. It was eventually replaced on 10 November 1862, when the first Lambeth Bridge was opened. It quickly deteriorated, and was replaced in 1932.

Buildings

Horseferry House

This was the location of No. 5 (London) Regional Fire Control Centre during World War II,^[5] and the headquarters of 26th Middlesex (Cyclist) Volunteer Rifle Corps.^[6] The building was most recently used by the Home Office to house Prison and Probation head office staff, and is as of 2007 being converted into residential flats.

Westminster College

Established by the Methodist Church in 1851, Westminster Training College was on the street until it relocated to Oxford in 1959. Today their Oxford site is the Harcourt Hill Campus of Oxford Brookes University, where their archives and art collections can still be viewed. Their site on Horseferry Road is now the location for the Channel 4 Headquarters, which were built there in 1994.

No. 95

The regimental headquarters and museum of the London Scottish Regiment is in a 1985 building at no. 95, on the former site of the Industrial Museum. That Museum was completed in 1914 but was used for educational and social purposes by the Australian Imperial Force (AEF) and Metropolitan Police until the Museum finally opened in it in 1927.

AEF Administrative Headquarters

The AEF also had its administrative HQ on the street, in buildings rented from Westminster College throughout the war while the college was evacuated to Richmond.^[7]

Related Research Articles

The London Borough of Southwark in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.

Newington is a district of South London, just south of the River Thames, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was an ancient parish and the site of the early administration of the county of Surrey. It was the location of the County of London Sessions House from 1917, in a building now occupied by the Inner London Crown Court.

Lambeth is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charing Cross, across the river from Westminster Palace. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area experienced some slight growth in the medieval period as part of the manor of Lambeth Palace. By the Victorian era the area had seen significant development as London expanded, with dense industrial, commercial and residential buildings located adjacent to one another. The changes brought by World War II altered much of the fabric of Lambeth. Subsequent development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has seen an increase in the number of high-rise buildings. The area is home to the International Maritime Organization. Lambeth is home to one of the largest Portuguese-speaking communities in the UK, and Portuguese is the second most commonly spoken language in Lambeth after English.

Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge, originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge, built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the south bank of the Thames. The bridge was built at a location in the river previously served by a ferry.

Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east–west direction in central London. The river flows north at the crossing point. Downstream, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge; upstream, the next bridge is Vauxhall Bridge.

Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge crossing over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side.

The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court was a magistrates' court located at 70 Horseferry Road, in the City of Westminster, London. It was originally called Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, after the road in which it was sited. However, it was renamed in July 2006 following the closure of Bow Street Magistrates' Court. It served as the court where the Chief Magistrate of England and Wales sat, and all extradition and terrorism-related cases passed through the court. The court closed permanently on 22 September 2011, and was replaced on 27 September 2011 with Westminster Magistrates' Court, built on the site of Marylebone Magistrates' Court at 181 Marylebone Road.

Bow Street Magistrates' Courtand Police Station each became one of the most famous magistrates' courts and police stations in England.

Westminster Bridge Road is a road in London, England. It runs on an east–west axis and passes through the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.

Waterloo Road is the main road in the Waterloo district of London, England straddling the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. It runs between Westminster Bridge Road close to St George's Circus at the south-east end and Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames towards London's West End district at the north-west end.

The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people died and thousands were made homeless when floodwaters poured over the top of the Thames Embankment and part of the Chelsea Embankment collapsed. It was the last major flood to affect central London, and, along with the disastrous North Sea flood of 1953, helped lead to the implementation of new flood control measures that culminated in the construction of the Thames Barrier in the 1970s.

The A3036 is an A road in London, England, running from Waterloo to Wandsworth.

Imperial Chemical House is a Grade II listed building situated on Millbank, London, England, near the west end of Lambeth Bridge. It was designed by Sir Frank Baines in the neoclassical style of the inter-war years, and constructed between 1927 and 1929 as the headquarters for the newly created Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Thames House, the next building south along Millbank, across Horseferry Road, was also designed by Baines and constructed at the same time.

Lambeth Marsh is one of the oldest settlements on the South Bank of London, England.

The South Bank Lion is an 1837 sculpture in Central London. Since 1966 it has stood next to County Hall, on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is a significant depiction of a lion, along with the four that surround Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square just across the river.

Peterborough House, on the south-west side of Parsons Green, near Eel Brook Common, was a London townhouse owned by the Mordaunt family, Earls of Peterborough and later by the Grosvenor family. It was the most westerly townhouse in the City of Westminster.

The Horseferry Road drill hall was a military installation at 95 Horseferry Road, London.

This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Westminster. The Westminster area has no formally defined boundaries - those utilised here are the generally accepted boundaries of: The Mall and Northumberland Avenue to the north, the river Thames and Victoria Embankment/Millbank to the east, Vauxhall Bridge Road to the south and Buckingham Gate, Buckingham Palace Road and Bressenden Place to the west. For convenience Constitution Hill and Spur Road in the Royal Parks, and the area around the Wellington Arch, are included here, as are the streets in the Leicester Square area.

Rochester Row is a street in the City of Westminster in London that runs between Greycoat Place in the north and Vauxhall Bridge Road in the south.

References

↑ "B323". Sabre Roads. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
↑ "Blue plaque award for founder of the A-Z". BBC News. 13 July 2006.
↑ "Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court history". HM Courts & Tribunals Service. 11 May 2005. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011.
↑ "Lambeth Bridge and its predecessor the Horseferry". Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall. Survey of London. Vol. 23. 1951. pp. 118–121. Retrieved 3 October 2007.
↑ "SiteName: London – Home Security Region 5 War Room". Subterranea Britannica.
↑ "25th (County of London) (Cyclist) Battalion, The London Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 17 August 2007.
↑ "Australians in France: 1918 – Friends and Foe – Australian soldiers' relations with their superiors". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 3 May 2011.

51°29′42″N0°07′53″W / 51.4949°N 0.1313°W / 51.4949; -0.1313

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[1] "B323". Sabre Roads. Retrieved 19 January 2017.

[2] "Blue plaque award for founder of the A-Z". BBC News. 13 July 2006.

[3] "Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court history". HM Courts & Tribunals Service. 11 May 2005. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011.

[4] "Lambeth Bridge and its predecessor the Horseferry". Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall. Survey of London. Vol. 23. 1951. pp. 118–121. Retrieved 3 October 2007.

[5] "SiteName: London – Home Security Region 5 War Room". Subterranea Britannica.

[6] "25th (County of London) (Cyclist) Battalion, The London Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 17 August 2007.

[7] "Australians in France: 1918 – Friends and Foe – Australian soldiers' relations with their superiors". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 3 May 2011.

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