Living in Vauxhall: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
The recent ITV adaptation of the 1848 novel Vanity Fair saw Becky Sharp failing to get Jos Sedley to propose in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, then a south bank entertainment venue with hot-air balloon rides, trapeze artists, music and infamous “dark walks” for romantic assignations.
Today the site is a quiet, pleasant park with a tea house and a city farm that’s home to sheep, ducks, alpacas and horses, but the world beyond it would take even pert Miss Sharp’s breath away.
Vauxhall is in the middle of central London’s largest regeneration project. From Lambeth Bridge to Chelsea Bridge, 560 acres of former office and industrial buildings are being swept away for at least 20,000 new homes, a rebuilt Covent Garden Market and a linear park running from Lambeth Palace to Battersea Power Station.
Property firm JLL has identified 25 major developments in the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea area with 4,884 homes under construction and another 9,129 in the planning.
The catalyst for this flurry of activity was the US Embassy’s 2008 decision to move from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms.
The new embassy that President Trump famously refused to open is now a landmark building, surrounded by an emerging cluster of tower blocks that are changing the character of Vauxhall forever.
Dexters estate agent Mark Breffit says that until recently, Vauxhall offered the early riverside scheme St George Wharf, the MI6 building, a busy transport hub — and not much else. “That is changing. Vauxhall is becoming a destination in its own right, and that will continue.”
The property scene
Roads and squares of period houses are found in Vauxhall and nearby Kennington, Oval and Stockwell, while many new flats include EcoWorld Ballymore’s Embassy Gardens with its planned glass “Sky Pool”, a see-through 10th-floor swimming pool strung between two tower blocks.
The most expensive period home currently for sale is a five-storey, six-bedroom listed house in Albert Square, Stockwell, at £2.4 million. The priciest flats are four-bedroom off-plan sales at 50-storey Aykon London One in Bondway with Versace interiors, at £13.5 million, completing in 2020.
Residents including garden designer Dan Pearson transformed Bonnington Square into a Vauxhall hidden gem, with wild planting and two community gardens. There’s a much-loved community café and Italo, a popular Italian café and deli.
What's new?
After Battersea Power Station, the largest scheme under construction is Nine Elms Square with 1,900 homes and a new fruit and veg market. Vauxhall Cross Island, a Zaha Hadid Architects-designed scheme, is still in the planning and will be on the island site outside Vauxhall station in the middle of the Vauxhall gyratory. T
wo towers are planned, of 53 and 43 storeys with 250 flats and 500 hotel rooms. The scheme includes a new high street for Vauxhall but some locals are against the removal of the landmark “ski jump” bus station.
Embassy Gardens in Nine Elms has 2,000 homes including 261 affordable. Being built in three phases around the US Embassy, phase two, with 709 homes in three Legacy Buildings, has one-bedroom flats from £960,000, two-bedroom flats at £1,085,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1,525,000.
Some are ready to move into next month. The Sky Pool will open next year. Call Savills (020 7409 8756; embassygardens.com).
Keybridge, a joint venture between Mount Anvil and housing association A2 Dominion in South Lambeth Road is by architects Allies and Morrison. Spread over six buildings, including the country’s tallest residential brick tower at 37 storeys, are 595 studios, and one-, two- and three-bedroom flats of which 51 are affordable.
The current phase, Keybridge Capital, has 125 homes. One-bedroom flats start at £690,000; two-bedroom flats at £960,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1.28 million.
The whole scheme will be finished by spring 2021. Call 020 3553 7086 (keybridgelondon.com). The Residence in Ponton Road, next to the US Embassy and near the new Nine Elms Tube station, is a Bellway Homes scheme of 349 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, of which 76 are affordable.
The first phase, Haines House, is complete; Glacier House will finish by the end of the year and 18-storey Madeira Tower will be ready by next summer.
A few move-in ready flats are available, the rest are being sold off-plan. One-bedroom flats start at £625,000, with two-bedroom flats at £840,000. Call 020 3092 0747.
Affordable homes
Housing association A2 Dominion has three shared-ownership flats at Keybridge.From £125,625 for 25 per cent of a studio with a market price of £502,500.
One-bedroom flats start at £151,250 for a 25 per cent share of a home with a £605,000 market price.
Renting
Dexters rental manager Tom Hopkinson says the Vauxhall market is seasonal with students looking for homes in summer and corporate lets in the first few months of the year.
Families often opt for the period houses in the Stockwell Park conservation area, but young professionals go for the new flats.
Most US Embassy staff go north of the river in Pimlico or Westminster. “With so many new flats, many with superb facilities, landlords in older developments find it hard to compete unless they upgrade their flats.”
Staying power
Kennington, Oval and Stockwell, with their fine architecture, have always had a strong following, with families staying for generations. Only time will tell whether the new Vauxhall will generate the same degree of loyalty.
Postcode
Vauxhall straddles several different codes, SW8, the South Lambeth postcode, being the main one, with SE1 along the river to the east and the SE11 Kennington postcode to the south.
Best roads
Dexters estate agent Mark Breffit likes Bonnington Square where there is a waiting list of people wanting to buy. Other strong contenders are Stockwell Park Crescent in the Stockwell Park conservation area and West Square behind the Imperial War Museum.
Up and coming
Vauxhall still has large estates of social housing and right-to-buy flats are the cheapest local option. For example, a two-bedroom duplex in a medium-rise block in Tyers Street is for sale for £375,000.
Travel
Vauxhall is one of London’s biggest transport hubs with a lot of commuters getting off trains there rather than at Waterloo, to connect with the Victoria line into the West End.
Twelve bus routes run through the Vauxhall gyratory and six cross Vauxhall Bridge, bound for Aldwych, Camden Town, Marylebone, Queen’s Park, Kensington and Kensal Rise.
The whole regeneration area is about to become even better connected once the extension of the Northern line arrives, with two new stations at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station due to open in 2020.
Council
Lambeth council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,386.27.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
Vauxhall doesn’t have a high street. There is a large Sainsbury’s in Wandsworth Road, a large Tesco in Kennington Lane and two Waitrose stores, one in New Union Square off Nine Elms Lane, the other in Bondway.
Nine Elms Vauxhall Sunday Market with 400-plus stalls is held in New Covent Garden Market. There is a row of local shops and cafés close to the gyratory along Kennington Lane that includes two Korean restaurants — Jihwaja and Daebak.
In nearby Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens the Tea House Theatre is a popular café with a wide selection of teas, sandwiches and cakes. The theatre puts on events including Debating London, a series of public debates, on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.
Under the railway arches that bisect the gyratory are branches of chain restaurants Nando’s and Soho House’s Dirty Burger, as well as a branch of Mother Kelly’s, a small chain of “taprooms and bottleshops”. Vauxhall is famed for its gay clubbing scene, centred around the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
Vauxhall/Stockwell has a large Portuguese community and there are Portuguese cafés and restaurants in South Lambeth Road.
The two best local restaurants are Brunswick House among the architectural antiques for sale at LASSCO, and the Canton Arms, a gastropub in South Lambeth Road.
Open space
More riverside walks and a linear park threading between the new developments are coming soon. For the time being Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is a pleasant, if uninspiring small park, which is also home to allotments and Vauxhall City Farm.
Leisure and the arts
Vauxwall Climbing Centre, for sport climbing, is under the railway arches in South Lambeth Road.
There is a large art scene in Vauxhall with Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery and Pharmacy 2 café in Newport Street, plus two more contemporary art galleries — Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, housed in a former ragged school that’s also in Newport Street, and Gasworks in Vauxhall Street.
Schools
Primary school
Vauxhall is blessed with a large number of state schools rated “outstanding” by Ofsted.
The primary schools are: Wyvil in Wyvil Road; Herbert Morrison in Hartington Road; Vauxhall in Vauxhall Street; Ashmole in Ashmole Street; Reay in Hackford Road and St George’s CofE in Corunna Road.
Comprehensive
The three “outstanding” comprehensive schools are Lilian Bayliss (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Kennington Lane, Platanos College (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Clapham Road and Oasis Academy South Bank (co-ed, ages 11 to16), a Free School in Westminster Bridge Road.
King’s College London Maths School (co-ed, ages 16 to 18) in Kennington Road is a selective sixth form with an “outstanding” rating.
Other nearby “outstanding” secondary and sixth form colleges over the river in Pimlico and Westminster are: Pimlico (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Lupus Street; Grey Coat Hospital (girls, ages 11 to 18, with boys in the sixth form) in Greycoat Place, and Harris Westminster Sixth Form (co-ed, ages 16 to 18) in Tothill Street.
Private
Top-performing private school Westminster (ages 11 to 18, boys with girls in the sixth form) is in Deans Yard in the Westminster Abbey precinct; the Under School (boys, ages seven to 14) is in Vincent Square.
There are two choir schools which provide choristers for Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral: Westminster Abbey Choir School (boys, ages eight to 13) is in Deans Yard, while Westminster Cathedral Choir School (boys, ages four to 13) is in Ambrosden Avenue. Newton Prep (co-ed, ages three to 13) in Battersea Park Road is a popular preparatory school.