Elephant & Castle
From Roman crossroads to one of London's biggest regeneration projects.
The Piccadilly of the South
Elephant & Castle is a south London junction that has been important since Roman times. Two Roman roads, now Old Kent Road and Newington Causeway, crossed here on their way into the city. By the 1890s, the area was known as the "Piccadilly of the South," full of music halls and theatres. A young Charlie Chaplin performed here.
The Blitz flattened most of it. Post-war planners replaced the terraced streets with slab-block estates and a massive gyratory road system. But amidst the concrete was beauty, entrepreneurship and community. The 1960s saw an era of building on a par with today's redevelopment. Europe's first covered shopping mall opened here in 1965. The same year, London's tallest building at the time opened across the road from the underground. Meanwhile the University of the Arts London has opened a new College of Communication campus next to the historic Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Twenty years of rebuilding
Since 2004, Elephant & Castle has been designated a London Plan Opportunity Area. The Heygate Estate came down. Elephant Park went up: new housing, a park, and over a thousand new trees. The old shopping centre closed in 2020 and is being rebuilt as homes, shops, restaurants, and a cinema, due to complete in 2026. Castle Square, a new public space on Elephant Road, now hosts many of the independent traders who used to work inside the centre.
A new chapter
Elephant & Castle remains home to a global mix of communities, restaurants and shops. A twenty-year-old Colombian bakery trades next to a Scandi coffee roastery, across the street from a fish and chip shop. New venues are opening weekly as the Town Centre comes to completion. And on warm days the park is filled with families and sunbathers. Now is a great time to visit. If all roads lead to Rome then all roads must lead to Elephant & Castle too.