In The Steps Of Architect George Edmund Street

Start point - St Paul's Church - is 7mins walk from Herne Hill Station and served by 68 and 468 bus routes.

The afternoon begins with a look at Street's church of 1856, rebuilt after a fire that year, including the interior : sculptural detailing by Thomas Earp, Street's use of marble and plaque to local resident and Influencer John Ruskin.

The first section of the walk includes the undulating landscape of Ruskin Park, Denmark Hill and Camberwell Grove, before looking at George Gilbert Scott's St Giles, Camberwell (1844) and ending at Street's 1870's St John the Divine, Kennington (10mins from Oval Station and several bus routes)

George Edmund Street moved to South London with his family in 1830, age 6. He went to school in Camberwell, later working for Gilbert Scott when the family moved back to London from the West Country settling in Peckham in the 1840s. During his career Street worked with a modelmaker based in Peckham and returned to the area to work on St Paul's, Herne Hill, a daughter Church of St Giles, Camberwell and then for the new church of St John the Divine, unfinished at GE Street's death in 1881, aged just 57. The tower and spire were completed by his son Arthur Edmund, in 1887-8.

This walk is a version of an original commissioned by The Victorian Society to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of GE Street on 20 June 1824

For more information see www.victoriansociety.org.uk/events

Host or Publisher Cultural Landscapes