The subterraneanRiver Neckinger, which originates inGeraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, flows east under the area towardsSt Saviour's Dock where it enters the Thames. The area was significantly remodelled in the 1960s as part of post-war reconstruction. A new wave of redevelopment began in the late 2000s with the demolition of thebrutalistHeygate Estate. The various phases of the project are due to last until the late 2020s. The demolition of the shopping centre andThe Coronet took place in 2021.
The Elephant has two linkedLondon Underground stations, on theNorthern andBakerloo lines, and aNational Rail station served by limitedSoutheastern services andThameslink suburban loop line services to Mitcham, Sutton and Wimbledon, and services to Kentish Town and St. Albans to Orpington or Sevenoaks via Catford.
The name "Elephant and Castle" is derived from the name of a pub/coaching inn located at this major crossroad.[3] The earliest surviving record of this name in relation to this area appears in theCourt Leet Book of the Manor ofWalworth, which met at "Elephant and Castle,Newington" on 21 March 1765.[4]
The inn was rebuilt in 1816 and again in 1898, and the present Elephant & Castle pub, at the junction ofNew Kent Road and Newington Causeway, was part of 1960s comprehensive redevelopment.
Newington, which was the name of the village forming the basis to the neighbourhood before the inn's name took over, is a common place name in England.[a] London quickly expanded into the northern parts of the parish from 1750 to 1830. By the end of the 19th century ten daughter parishes had arisen in Newington including its secondary manor, Walworth. No notable upper, lower, or hill parts of the ancient parish nor compass points have been used, so to locate businesses and homes without reference to traditional saints divisions, many people popularised the informal name, of the notable public house. Other instances inInner London are 'Angel' atIslington andBricklayers Arms at the east end of New Kent Road.
The popular and enduring idea that the inn itself derives its name from an English corruption of the phraseLaInfanta deCastilla, as a reference toEleanor of Castile, has been debunked by local historian Stephen Humphrey in his 2013 bookElephant and Castle, a History. However it still remains under dispute a connection with another Princess ofCastilla,Catherine d'Aragon, first wife ofHenry VIII, who when first arrived into London in 1502, took lodging into a house on South Bank, which would later become the residence of the architectChristopher Wren. This building is about a mile and a half from where Elephant and Castleroundabout stands today.
The Infanta de Castilla house's plaque in London South BankThe Infanta de Castilla house in London
According to Stephen Humphrey, after examining how the image of an elephant with a castle on its back has been popular for centuries and throughout Europe (the earliest example predating Queen Eleanor by 1,500 years), and pointing out the fact that the sign only begins to be used in the area about 500 years after Eleanor was alive, he states:
The story of Queen Eleanor in relation to the Elephant and Castle is therefore a myth. It is wildly anachronistic both in respect of the sign in general and in its specific use in Newington, and she has no connection with the sign or with the place.[5]
The author also refutes the claim that the pub name derives from the Cutlers' Company. First he notes:
The sign was adopted by the Cutlers' Company of the City of London, because of the use of ivory in the handles of cutlery. The Royal African Company of 1672 likewise used the sign due to the ivory trade.
Prior to the public house's appearance in the records in 1765, John Flaxman had been allowed to build a workshop on the site around 1642. Stephen Humphrey describes him as a smith or farrier. Thirty years later another farrier is cited as lessee of the site, which is now known as the White Horse. The building is first described as a public house called the Elephant and Castle with a licensee called George Frost in 1765, although this may not have been the year of opening. The author adds:
We can only say that the Elephant and Castle pub existed without doubt from 1765 and may have been founded under that name by George Frost as early as 1754.
Stephen Humphrey explains that George Frost's name appears in other manor and vestry records
but he made no appearance in the records of the Farriers' Company and was not included among the apprentices of the Cutlers' Company. There is no evidence to connect him with the shoeing of horses, the cutlery trade or with another pub elsewhere before he arrived at Newington. The sudden appearance of the ancient sign under his proprietorship cannot be explained by his career. As with the vast majority of pub names, the choice in this case was probably a random one.
Known previously as Newington (Newington Butts and Newington Causeway are two of the principal roads of the area), in the medieval period it was part of ruralSurrey, in the manor ofWalworth. This is listed in the Domesday Book as belonging to theArchbishop of Canterbury; the income from its rents and tithes supplied the monks at Christ Church Canterbury with their clothing, and a 'church' is mentioned.[6] The parish was called St Mary, Newington, which church occupied the southwest side of today's southern roundabout, near the Tabernacle, and was first recorded by name in 1222.[6]
In May 1557, William Morant, Stephen Gratwick and a man named King, known as theSouthwark Martyrs, were burnt at the stake in St George's Field on the site of the present Tabernacle during theMarian Persecutions.[7]
St Mary's Church was rebuilt in 1720 and completely replaced in 1790, to a design of Francis Hurlbatt. Within another hundred years this too was to be demolished, with its replacement on Kennington Park Road ready in 1876.[8] It was destroyed by bombing in 1940 during theSecond World War.[8] The remains of the tower and an arch were incorporated into its replacement of 1958. The open space is still known as St Mary's Churchyard, and the narrow pedestrian walk at its south end is Churchyard Row.
There is record of a 'hospital' before the Reformation. In 1601 theWorshipful Company of Fishmongers erected St Peter's Hospital on the site of the present London College of Communication. This expanded and survived until 1850, when it was removed to Wandsworth. The Drapers' livery company created Walters' Almshouses on a site now at the southern junction island in 1640, giving the tower block opposite the name Draper House. The almshouses were relocated to Brandon Street in the 1960s as part of the major redevelopment.
The Elephant and Castle Hotel as rebuilt in 1898Street layout in 1888
The neighbourhood became urbanised and somewhat commercial after the building ofWestminster Bridge in 1751 and the improvements toLondon Bridge in the same period. These required 'by-pass' roads across the south side approaches to each other and also to the main routes to the south and southeast coasts. These road improvements – Great Dover Street, Westminster Bridge, New Kent Road, St George's Road and Borough Road – connect to the olderKennington and Old Kent Roads to facilitate this traffic. In 1769 the new Blackfriars Bridge was connected to this system at what is now St George's Circus and Blackfriars Road (originally Great Surrey Road) and to the Elephant junction with the new London Road. As a result of these improvements, the area became a built-up part of the metropolis during the late Georgian and Victorian periods.[9][10]
The railway arrived here in 1863 and the first deep-level tube line, now part of theNorthern line's City Branch, in 1890. TheBakerloo line terminus was created in 1906.[11] The middle-class and working-class populations increased, the first settling on the major roads, the latter on the streets behind these. The area declined socio-economically in much of the Walworth (south-east) side as work inLondon Docklands shifted further east and became more mechanised, and the regional-level railway yard work decreased (seeBricklayers Arms railway station).
In the 19th century the nationally famed Baptist preacherCharles Haddon Spurgeon built theMetropolitan Tabernacle here.[12] The building, designed byWilliam Willmer Pocock,[12] was finished in 1861 and dedicated on 18 March. It was bombed in thebombing of London but the portico and basement survived. In 1957 the tabernacle was rebuilt to a new, much smaller design, accommodating surviving original features.
The Theatre Royal was built in 1872 and destroyed by fire only six years later. Renovations were initiated by Jethro Thomas Robinson after the fire, and completed by Frank Matcham, to what became the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1879. The Theater was converted to an ABC cinema in 1928, and becameThe Coronet Cinema in 1981.
During the late 19th century there was a cemetery in the vicinity,[13] but it was built over during London's rapid expansion. A few gravestones remain in St. Mary's Churchyard. At the north side of the churchyard, the church of St Gabriel's Newington was built in 1874 before being demolished in 1937 on what is now a walkway called St Gabriel Walk.[14]
The area became the location for a thriving shopping area, known as "the Piccadilly (Circus) of South London",[1] with its own department store (William Tarn and Co) and many smaller outlets. Also featured were a shoe factory, a branch of Burton and a renowned hatter.
In 1930, the Trocadero, a monumental neo-Renaissance style picture house seating over 3000 and fitted with the largestWurlitzer organ imported to the United Kingdom, was built at the northern corner of the New Kent Road (a plaque commemorating the building was unveiled in 2008 byDenis Norden, who had worked there in his youth).[15] This was replaced in 1966 by a smaller cinema (the Odeon, known for a time after closure as an Odeon in 1982 as the Coronet, not to be confused with the Coronet below) which was demolished in 1988.
In 1932, another cinema opened across the street,The Coronet. From the early to mid 2000s until its eventual closure for impending demolition, The Coronet building was mostly used as a night-club and concert venue.[16]
At the time it seated over 2000 people, and was an art-deco conversion of the Elephant and Castle theatre, opened in 1879 on the site of the short-lived Theatre Royal (built in 1872 and burnt down six years later). It was reconstructed in 1882 and again in 1902.
One monument to cinema still remains just off the Elephant, theCinema Museum is a volunteer-run museum with screenings of classic cinema and a vast collection of cinema memorabilia. It is located in the old workhouse whereCharlie Chaplin spent time as a child.
The major development of the 1960s consisted of post-war reconstruction to a larger metropolitan plan, much of it replacing properties destroyed by bombing in World War II and creating two infamous roundabouts.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle was reconstructed behind its preserved classical facade to a smaller scale than the original. Alexander Fleming House (1959), originally a group of government office blocks and nowMetro Central Heights residential complex, is a prime example of the work of the Hungarian modernist architectErnő Goldfinger.
The shopping centre, designed by Boissevain & Osmond for the Willets Group, was opened in March 1965. It was the first covered shopping mall in Europe,[19] with 120 shops on three levels and a two-storey underground car-park. In the sales brochure (1963), Willets claimed it to be the "largest and most ambitious shopping venture ever to be embarked upon in London. In design planning and vision it represents an entirely new approach to retailing, setting standards for the sixties that will revolutionise shopping concepts throughout Britain." When it opened, budget restrictions meant that the proportions and finishes of the building had had to be scaled down and only 29 out of a possible 120 shops were trading. The demolition of the shopping centre andThe Coronet took place in 2021.
The Elephant is the location of theLondon College of Communication, formerly the London College of Printing, an internationally renowned dedicated college, part ofUniversity of the Arts London. The present structure was constructed during the redevelopment of the area in the early 1960s. It is slated for demolition in the mid 2020s, when the college is due to move to a new campus being built on the site of the Coronet Theatre.
In 1974 theBrutalistHeygate Estate, designed by Tim Tinker,[20] was completed.[21] It was home to more than 3,000 people.[22] The estate was once a popular place to live, the flats being thought light and spacious,[23] but the estate later developed a reputation for crime, poverty and dilapidation.[24] It was demolished in the 2010s and replaced with the Elephant Park development, which, the developer claimed, includes "the largest new green space to be created in London for 70 years."[25]
Perronet House, an award-winning residential block owned by Southwark Council, was designed bySir Roger Walters. It was completed in 1970 and extended in 1987.
At the south of the area stood Castle House (an office building now replaced byStrata SE1), which was part of the Draper Estaste. When Draper House, which still exists, was built in 1964, with its 25 floors, it was the tallest structure in London. The design was byHubert Bennett of the London City Council's (LCC's) Architects Department and inspired by Le Corbusier. Well regarded at the time, the building was featured in Architecture Review which said it, 'sets a standard of clarity and vigour'.[26]
Demolition of theHeygate Estate, construction of Elephant Central, and the Artworks – May 2014Elephant Park – former site of theHeygate Estate
In recent times the area has had a reputation for successful ethnic diversity and centrality. The area's proximity to major areas of employment, including Westminster, theWest End and theCity, has meant that a certain amount ofgentrification has taken place.[27]
From the mid-2000s, the area became the subject to a master-planned redevelopment budgeted at £1.5 billion. A Development Framework was approved bySouthwark Council in 2004. It covers 170 acres (688,000 m2) and envisages restoring the Elephant to the role of major urban hub for inner London that it occupied beforeWorld War II.[28] There have been moves to protect the last of the architecturally important tenement blocks nearby through the creation of a conservation area covering thePullens buildings.
A substantial amount of post-World War II social housing that was claimed to have failed by the Council has been demolished, including theHeygate Estate, replaced with developments consisting of a mix of social and private-sector housing and a 2-acres green space, Elephant Park, part of rebranding the whole development. This portion of the site is being developed byLendlease. The site includes what the developers called "one of the largest new parks in Central London in 70 years",[29] which only became part of the project after protests from local activists to retain as many of the mature trees on the site as possible.[30] A large water feature and paddling pool, named Elephant Springs, is located in the north eastern quarter of the park.[31]
In 2022, a timber pavilion, called The Tree House, and designed architect studio Bell Phillips, opened. The structure is triangular and is built around a tree. It includes public toilets, a cafe, and a viewing gallery on the roof.[32]
Locally, tall, mainly residential buildings have been approved or are under construction since the 148-metreStrata SE1 tower was completed in 2010. These include:
"Elephant Central" (three high-rise buildings on a shared podium).[37][38]
Southwark Council opened the new Castle leisure centre in 2016. This replaced the original Castle centre, which closed in 2012.[39][40]
In 2015, the new owners of the shopping centre, Delancey, announced redevelopment plans for a new "town centre", which is due to be completed by the mid-2020s. The project is in two phases. The first aims to replace the existing shopping centre and the Coronet Theatre, and comprise:
a new underground station entrance, though funding is currently uncertain.[42]
Once the first phase is completed, the current site of the LCC is to be redeveloped to host residential towers and a live-music venue.[43]
In February 2014, a small shipper-container precinct on three levels, inspired by theBoxpark concept, was put together at the corner of the Walworth Road and Elephant Road. Baptised The Artworks, the venue hosted small start-up businesses and a library.[44] The project was closed and demolished in 2019.
London'sLatin American population, prominent from this zone toStockwell, has been an inspiration to aspects of the regeneration. Plans are being made for shops and artwork to emphasise a Latin American corridor.[45][46]
In December 2018, it was announced that London MayorSadiq Khan had approved redevelopment plans, and that Southwark Council had too, after changes to proposals to ensure more windows in the shopping centre, 350 out of 1000 homes for rent at "genuinely affordable levels" and for traders in the current centre with rents capped for 15 years.[47] A judicial review of the decision was finally lost by campaigners in May 2021.[48]
In January 2020, a closure date was set for the centre of 30 July 2020.[49] The closure date was postponed to 24 September 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[50][51] and the centre will be redeveloped. Demolition of the shopping centre, Hannibal House and the Coronet theatre started in January 2021.[52]
In November 2023, Elephant Park was the winner of the Public Space – Building Beauty Award, handed out by theRoyal Fine Art Commission Trust.[53]
Elephant & CastleNational Rail station is approximately 100 metres from the nearby tube station. There is anout-of-station interchange between the two stations.
In 2014 the northern junction was "Britain's highest cycle casualty roundabout".[58]
Elephant and Castle is the southern terminus ofCycleway 6, which runs northwards toBlackfriars,Farringdon,Bloomsbury, andKing's Cross. The cycleway runs unbroken and signposted along the entirety of its route. The section between Elephant and Castle and Farringdon runs along traffic-freebike freeway. The northern terminus of C6 is inKentish Town.
Elephant and Castle is a busy road junction. TheLondon Inner Ring Road passes through the junction. TheA3 also passes through the junction, which carries traffic between the city and destinations such as Kennington, Clapham,Gatwick Airport (), andPortsmouth.
Air pollution from road traffic in Elephant and Castle has significantly improved in recent years. In 2015, Elephant and Castle exceeded the UK government legal limit onNitrogen Dioxide, with the local borough recording an annual mean concentration of 41micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m^3). In 2017, this figure was 34μg/m^3, below the legal limit, and in 2018, the figure was 32μg/m^3. The limit set by theDepartment for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs is 40μg/m^3.[60]
The Elephant was to have been served by theCross-River Tram,[61] which was cancelled in 2008 due to budgetary constraints.[62]
In 2010, the southern roundabout was converted to traffic light operation, with the creation of new cycle lanes and pedestrian crossings.[63] This included the removal of the pedestrian subways, described as "unpopular and imtimidating" by a local councillor.[64]
In 2014 the Elephant & Castle junction was still "Britain's highest cycle casualty roundabout",[58] prompting aTfL proposal to remove the northern roundabout as part of a £4bn package of road improvements targeting cyclists' safety.[65] TfL implemented its proposal in 2015, connecting the roundabout island to the shopping centre, thereby creating a new public space calledElephant Square.
Playwright and associate of ShakespeareThomas Middleton lived in the area in later life and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard when he died in 1627.
TheForty Elephants or Forty Thieves were an 18th to 20th century all-female London crime syndicate who specialised in shoplifting. They operated from the Elephant and Castle and were allied to the Elephant and Castle Mob led by the McDonald brothers.Shirley Pitts was "educated" by the gang, whileAlice Diamond was one of its leaders, in the first half of the 20th century.
Fanny Blood, a friend ofMary Wollstonecraft's, met in 1775, lived in Newington Butt. In 1777, Wollstonecraft persuaded her family to move to Walworth. She soon became a lodger of philosopherThomas Taylor and his family, in Manor Place. Taylor became her tutor and by 1778, she was working as a paid companion for him. She moved in with the Blood family in 1782.[66]
The mathematicianCharles Babbage was born inWalworth in 1791 and was baptised at St Mary's Newington. The family lived at 44 Crosby Row, which is now called Larcom Street. A blue plaque is visible at the corner of Larcom Street and Walworth Road.
In the middle ofElephant Square,[e] is theMichael Faraday Memorial, a large stainless steel box built in honour ofMichael Faraday, who was born nearby in 1791. It contains anelectrical substation for theNorthern line. Alternative DJAphex Twin has long been rumoured to have lived for some time inside the monument, although this story has been debunked. He is also rumoured to have lived in a disused bank building on Newington Causeway (now demolished) in the 1990s.[67]
Elhanan Bicknell was a businessman and shipowner. He became one of the leading collectors of contemporary British art. Around 1809, he entered into partnership with his uncle John Walter Langton who was a tallow chandler at Newington Butts. The firm, which was located opposite St Mary's Church, become the leading oil merchants andspermaceti refiners in London by 1835.[68] A friend and close business associate there at Newington Butts was fellow oil merchant and shipowner,Thomas Sturge, who was also a cement manufacturer, railway company director, social reformer and philanthropist.Thomas Sturge the elder had founded what was to become Thomas Sturge & Sons in the early 1780s. The business remained there until the 1840s.
The inventor of the periodic table,John Newlands, was born on 26 November 1837, in West Square, just behind the Bethlem Hospital, which now houses theImperial War Museum.
On 18 March 1861, renownedParticular Baptist preacherCharles Spurgeon moved his congregation to the newly constructed purpose-builtMetropolitan Tabernacle, which seated 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. It was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon remained in charge of the church until his death in 1892.
ActorTod Slaughter took over the Elephant and Castle Theatre from 1924 until several months before its closure in 1927. His company revived Victorian "blood-and-thunder" melodramas to enthusiastic audiences. Slaughter also staged other types of production such as the annual Christmas pantomime, where he would cast prominent local personalities in bit-parts for audience recognition.
English comedian, actor, writer and singerCharlie Drake was born there on 19 June 1925.
On 17 January 1932, agriculturalist and Labour Co-operative politicianDenis Carter was born in Elephant and Castle, where his parents, Albert and Annie Carter, worked in a tea warehouse and as an office cleaner, respectively.
Speedway riderGeorge Barclay was born in Elephant on 1 April 1935.
ActorAlan Ford, who was born in Camberwell on 23 February 1938, grew up on the area.
Rock singerTerry Dene was born in Lancaster Street on 20 December 1938.
ActorWindsor Davies taught English and Maths at a school in Elephant and Castle.
Journalist and war correspondentDavid Blundy grew up near Elephant and Castle in a house that was also the location of his father's antique store.
DJ, club promoter and music producerJeff Dexter was born 15 August 1946 inLambeth Hospital and grew up inNewington Butts, moving to Camberwell Road when he was ten years old.
In 1956,Austin Osman Spare moved to a flat situated above the loading bay of aWoolworths store at 56a Walworth Road. Aged 17, in May 1904, he had held his first public art exhibition in the foyer of the Newington Public Library on the same road.Baker, Phil (2011).Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London's Lost Artist. London:Strange Attractor Press.ISBN978-1907222016.
Irish writer and novelistDarren O'Shaughnessy, who was born in 1972, spent the first six years of life in Elephant, going to the English Martyrs' RC Primary School from the age of three.
ActressNicola Stapleton was born in Elephant on 9 August 1974, grew up near East Street and attended Townsend Primary School.
In 1975, in his mid-twenties, gay American artist and writerPhilip Core settled permanently in London, living in a flat in Elephant and Castle that was painted completely black.
RapperJahaziel was born on 26 July 1976 and was raised in the area.
Horse racing announcerMark Johnson attended the thenLondon College of Printing, receiving a bachelor's degree in television, film, and theatre studies, and a postgraduate diploma in radio journalism.
Joy Crookes was born in theLambeth district ofSouth London on 9 October 1998 and grew up in the area of Elephant and Castle,[79] where she spent eight years at a Catholic state primary school.[80]
In October 2004, Richard Reynolds, a then resident ofPerronet House, launched GuerrillaGardening.org as a record of his solo attempts atguerrilla gardening. The site launched the trend in the UK and world.
Gay rights activistPeter Tatchell lives on the Rockingham Estate, where the Council installed a blue plaque in his name in 2010.[81]
In 2012, Anglican priest, journalist and broadcaster,Giles Fraser became the priest-in-charge at St Mary's, Newington.
Circuit Judge Sir (Anthony) Mark DavidHavelock-Allan, 5th Baronet, QC, FCIArb, lives in the area with his second wife Alison née Foster, whom he married 1986.
Academic, author, and broadcasterKieran Maguire was born in the Elephant and Castle to Irish parents.
A "Fancy Toy Dog Show" is held at Elephant and Castle in 1834.[84]
On 19 October 1856, during the first sermon byCharles Spurgeon at theSurrey Music Hall, seven were killed in a stampede and many injured.
Don John of Seville, a blank verse work byEdgardo Colona was first performed at the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1876.[85]
In her 1929 book,A Room of One's Own,Virginia Woolf imagines that her fictional version sister of Shakespeare, Judith, kills herself after becoming pregnant out of wedlock and that "she lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle." (Being buried under crossroads was common 'punishment' for suicides)
On 26 October 1932, the BBC's Home Service broadcast a performance byQuentin Maclean from the organ of the Trocadero cinema. Maclean had been Chief Organist there since 1930.[86]
In the early scenes of the 1944 musical filmChampagne Charlie, the hero Joe Saunders and his brother Fred arrive in London from Kent, and go to the Elephant and Castle pub, the haunt ofTom Sayers, a leading boxer. While his brother, an aspiring boxer, is having a trial bout with Sayers, Joe Saunders is persuaded to sing a song to entertain the bar's customers.
In 1949,R.C. Hutchinson publishedElephant and Castle: A Reconstruction, a fictionalised account of his investigation into a murder that took place in the area in 1938.
PhotographerBert Hardy's documentary series on the area was published inPicture Post magazine, under the title 'Scenes From The Elephant' on 8 January 1949. They depicted everyday life in the area.
There is a short film, from 1953, about the demise of London's trams, entitledThe Elephant Never Forgets. The elephant shown alongside the title is the model elephant from the Elephant and Castle. Although trams ran across all of London, the film focuses on south London.
In 1971, Unity Hall publishedEmily, A Biography of the Moroccan Princess from the Elephant and Castle, which tells the story of Emily Keene.ISBN028562010X
The music video for the 1982 songCome on Eileen by theDexys Midnight Runners was filmed on Brook Drive and Hayles Street, then known as Austral Street and Holyoak Road.
On Christmas 2002, performance artistMark McGowan rolled along the pavement from the Elephant and Castle to Gallery 1,000,000 mph inBethnal Green Road, a distance of four and a half miles, wearing yellow rubber marigold cleaning gloves and singingWe Wish You A Merry Christmas. He did this in an attempt to "get people to be kind and polite to cleaners for Christmas",[89] inspired by a time he had worked as a cleaner and had not received a kind comment or a thank you.
Scenes for the 2002 BBC sitcom15 Storeys High were filmed in the shopping centre, featuring notably the bowling alley and the Sundial restaurant.[90]
A lead character of the 2003 BBC sitcomThe Crouches, Natalie, played byJo Martin, managed Poundkickers, a discount store in the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre.[citation needed]
The Walworth Farce is a 2006 play by Enda Walsh set in a council flat on the Walworth Road.
Part of the action of the 2007 filmThe Contractor is set in a safe house in Elephant and Castle (at the fictitious address 1212 Statton Road), though the filming does not appear to have taken place in the area.[citation needed]
Some of contemporary artist and ornithologistMarcus Coates' work has focused on housing in Elephant and Castle, including a film (Vision Quest – a Ritual for Elephant & Castle) and an on-stage trance in 2009.[91]
In 2011/2012 social documentary photographer and university lecturerPaul Reas completedFrom a Distance, a year-long commission on the regeneration of the Elephant and Castle in part ofThe Elephant Vanishes project, directed by Patrick Sutherland, for London College of Communication. He photographed people candidly, showing fraught and tense emotions (with the aid of an assistant with aboom mounted flashgun); portraits; cans of incense intended to provide help under specific social pressures; and discarded furniture. The photographs were exhibited in 2012 and published byPhotography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) inFieldstudy 16: From a Distance.[f][92]
Despite some general opposition from residents to the estate being used as a dystopian backdrop on film, scenes for the 2011 British science fiction comedy horror filmAttack the Block, and for 2013 American action horror filmWorld War Z were shot on the Heygate Estate.[93]
Some of the interior and exterior scenes of the 2013 British action thriller filmWelcome to the Punch were filmed at London College of Communication in Elephant and Castle in August 2011.
The 2011 novel by Matthew Fuller takes its names from the area and is set there.ISBN9781570272257
Several scenes of volume four ofBen Aaronovitch'sRivers of London series, titledBroken Homes (2013), take place in a fictionalised version of the area, which also features on the cover of the book.
The rock bandThe Maccabees, who has its studio nearby, released its 4th album,Marks to Prove It, on 31 July 2015, which pays tribute to the area.[94]
Part of the action of the 2012 post-apocalypse novelIce Diaries by Lexi Revellian, published by Hoxton Press, is set inStrata SE1.ISBN0956642276[95]
Teddy is a 2015 musical set in the Elephant and Castle in London in 1956.
The area gives its name to a 2017 screenplay by gay writerSamuel Bernstein. Elephant and Castle is also the name of theEastEnders-style soap opera starring the hero of the story. The screenplay won awards and citations at The British Independent Film Festival, the London Independent Film Awards and the New York International Screenplay Awards.[citation needed]
The images on both sides ofAphex Twin's 2005 recordAnalord 11 feature theMichael Faraday Memorial. In 2018, The artist also usedstealth marketing to trail the release of his latest album by posting a logo associated with him in the corridors of the Tube Station.[67]
Scenes from the 2019 music video for the songLondon Mine, by local girlJoy Crookes, were shot in the shopping centre, and around the area, including the Walworth Road and Wansey Street.[citation needed]
The 2021 novel,The Elephant, The Oik and a Ginger Pussy, by Richard Humphries in set in the area in the 1950s and 60s.ISBN9798777421180
^Simpson, Jacqueline (2011)."Elephant and Castle".Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names. Random House. pp. 90–92.ISBN9780099520177. Retrieved11 February 2015.The most famous pub of this name has long been demolished, but the area of London where it once stood is still known as the Elephant. [...] In the Middle Ages the elephant was regularly linked with the 'castle' both in the written descriptions in Bestiaries and in visual art, e.g. in church carvings.
^Stephen Humphrey (15 July 2013).Elephant and Castle, a History. Amberley Publishing. p. 21.ISBN978-1848687806.
^abDarlington, Ida (1955)."The manor of Walworth and parish of St. Mary, Newington".Survey of London: volume 25: St George's Fields (The parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington). British History Online. pp. 81–90. Retrieved16 September 2014.
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