Eltham Street was once part of the most densely populated part of London with no open space at all and counting 249 people per acre in St Johns Ward.
In 1776 James Maddock and his wife moved to Walworth setting up the Walworth Garden. Immediately to the south was John Bendel’s
Montpelier Tea Gardens with about five acres of ’trees, shrubs and other plants’. In 1792 the Florist’s Directory by James Maddock, Florist at Walworth was published. In 1798 Maddock moved and the nursery passed into the hands of his rich relatives, Goring & Wright.
Nursery Row thus gained its name having been called after a Walworth nursery.
Land to the south of Nursery Row was vacant until the 1850s when Eltham Street was built.
East Street Recreation Grounds was established around 1885. In 1897, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association spent £1000 on planting and laying out a park. In time this became known as Nursery Row Park.
As part of a policy of “slum clearance” of traditional terraced housing in the borough of Southwark, Eltham Street came to its end in 1978. Nursery Row Park was extended in its place during 1980 following the demolition of Eltham Street, Blendon Row and Nursery Row itself.
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Eltham Street was once part of the most densely populated part of London with no open space at all and counting 249 people per acre in St Johns Ward.
