Editing Stockwell (section)

==History==
[[File:Lambeth Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg|thumb|A map showing the Stockwell ward of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916]]

The name Stockwell is likely to have originated from a local well, with "stoc" being Old English for a tree trunk or post. From the thirteenth to the start of the nineteenth century, Stockwell was a rural manor at the edge of London. It included market gardens and [[John Tradescant the elder|John Tradescant's]] botanical garden &ndash; commemorated in Tradescant Road, which was built over it in 1880, and in a memorial outside St Stephen's church. In the nineteenth century it developed as an elegant middle-class suburb. Residents included the artist [[Arthur Rackham]], who was born on South Lambeth Road in 1867, moving with his family to Albert Square when he was 15 years old. Another famed cultural figure who was born in Stockwell in October 1914, was theatre director [[Joan Littlewood]], who has been called the mother of modern theatre.

Its social and architectural fortunes in the twentieth century were more mixed. The area immediately around Stockwell tube station was extensively rebuilt following the Second World War, and the original domed tube station was replaced first in the 1920s, then again with the opening of the [[Victoria line]] in 1971.

The area also has much [[social housing]]; the main estates are Lansdowne Green, Stockwell Park, Studley, Spurgeon, Mursell and Stockwell Gardens. However, many remnants of the area's nineteenth-century grandeur can be found in the side and back streets of Stockwell, notably in the Stockwell Park Conservation Area,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stockwellpark.com/ |title=Welcome to the Stockwell Park Residents' Association (SPRA) website. |website=stockwellpark.com |publisher=Stockwell Park Residents' Association |access-date=15 July 2017 }}</ref> mostly built between 1825 and 1840 and centred on Stockwell Park Road,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stockwellpark.com/stockwell-park-road/ |title=Stockwell Park Road |publisher=Stockwell Park Residents' Association |access-date=15 July 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427221731/http://stockwellpark.com/stockwell-park-road/ |archive-date=27 April 2016 }}</ref> Stockwell Park Crescent,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stockwellpark.com/stockwell-park-crescent/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007183551/http://stockwellpark.com/stockwell-park-crescent/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 October 2007 |title=Stockwell Park Crescent |publisher=Stockwell Park Residents' Association |access-date=15 July 2017 }}</ref> Durand Gardens, and Albert Square. The only twentieth-century building of significant architectural interest in the area is [[Stockwell Garage|Stockwell Bus Garage]]. Before the creation of the [[County of London]] in 1889, Stockwell was part of [[Surrey]].

In 1986, [[Kenneth Erskine]], a serial killer dubbed the 'Stockwell Strangler', killed seven elderly victims, three of whom were from Stockwell.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8149921.stm |title=Snaring the Stockwell Strangler |work=BBC News |access-date=13 February 2011 |archive-date=30 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130032631/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8149921.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>