To the west of York Road is the old County Hall, Shell Centre, Jubilee Gardens and, beyond, the London Eye and the River Thames.
The first Waterloo Bridge Act contained a clause for the continuation of Stamford Street across Waterloo Road to Westminster Bridge Road. The new road, which was for several years called Stamford Street, but which ultimately became York Road, was made across the land of the Archbishop’s manor of Lambeth.
Except for a fringe of cottages along Narrow Wall and for Phelps’ soap factory, which stood east of Narrow Wall (i.e. on ground between Belvedere Road and York Road and adjoining north on Waterloo Road) the land was undeveloped. It was divided by open ditches into fields: Float Mead, The Twenty-one Acres, and the Seven Acres.
In 1807 the Archbishop obtained an Act authorising the development of this ground for building. The road was cut in 1824, and between 1825 and 1830 practically the whole frontage on either side was let on building leases. The turnpike, which stood approximately opposite the present entrance to the tube station, was taken down about 1848.
The whole of the ground east of York Road between Waterloo Road and Vine Street and extending east nearly to Lower Marsh was let on building lease to John Field, wax chandler, and Agnes Bazing in 1824-29. Part of this land was sold to the London and South Western Railway in 1848 when the line was extended from Nine Elms. Waterloo Station, which was raised above the marshy ground on a series of arches, was designed by Sir William Tite and opened on 11 July 1848. In 1864 the South Eastern Railway extended their line from London Bridge to Waterloo and Charing Cross, Waterloo Junction being linked with the main station by a bridge across Waterloo Road. Substantial alterations and additions were made at various times during the 19th century, and in 1872 the South Eastern Railway Company bought the eastern part of the ground originally leased to Field, which had by then become a slum.
Owing to its piecemeal construction the lay-out of the station was by the end of the nineteenth century confused and unsatisfactory, and in 1900 an extension and complete rebuilding of the old station was begun. It was finished by the erection of a building linking the new offices with those lining the approach from York Road, including the great arched entrance to the station which formed a staff war memorial. The Times, describing the opening of the new buildings in 1922, remarked that “nothing of the original structure now remains except the arches upon which the new station has been built.”
On 7 August, 1765, a Dr John Leake addressed a meeting at Appleby’s Tavern in Parliament Street, Westminster, and propounded a scheme for a hospital “for the Relief of those Child-bearing Women who are the Wives of poor Industrious Tradesmen or distressed House-keepers, and who either from unavoidable Misfortunes or the Expences of maintaining large Families are reduced to real Want. Also for the Reception and immediate Relief of indigent Soldiers and Sailors Wives, the former in particular being very numerous in and about the City of Westminster.” The hospital was then built in Pimlico and opened in April 1767, as the Westminster New Lying-in Hospital, with Dr Leake as its first physician.
Dr Leake had trained in England as a surgeon but had early become interested in midwifery and had practised it for a while in Lisbon. During the early years of the hospital he was living in Craven Street, Strand, where he gave an annual course of lectures on midwifery. His ideas were not particularly advanced even for his time, but the institution he founded, one of the first of its kind, has proved of great permanent value.
Early in the 1820s the governors decided to move to new premises. From Lancelot Holland, who was, at this time, developing the land between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the governors acquired a building lease of a plot of ground with 100 foot frontage on the east side of York Road. The new building was designed by Henry Harrison and cost about £3000. On 22 September, 1828, the minutes record that “On Friday Morning a Patient was delivered of a Son in the New Hospital and the Committee met this day in the new Hospital for the first time.” The name Westminister was dropped from the title and the institution was incorporated by royal charter in 1830 as The General Lying-in Hospital.
In March 1879, Joseph Lister, accepted the office of consulting surgeon, and he continued to serve the hospital in this capacity and as President until 1911.
The hospital moved to St Albans during the 1939-45 war and the old building received some damage. It was reopened in 1946 but later the site became a hotel.
Waterloo station (1940). Troops arrive while children who are being evacuated from London, leave.
New Times Paris Bureau Collection
Two additional County Hall wings – North and South Blocks – were planned in 1937, by the London County Council with Sir Giles G. Scott as consultant. It was built partly in 1939 on York Road and finished in 1958.
Immediately after the Second World War, York Road became known for the Festival of Britain – there was an entrance gate in the street and the Rocket Restaurant.
In 1953 the York Road entrance to the Festival of Britain re-opened as the BEA Waterloo Air Terminal (on the later site of the Shell Centre) serving passengers on BEA flights and other airlines operating out of Heathrow. It was in use between 1953 and 1957 and provided check-in facilities, luggage drop-off and a regular bus service to the airport. In 1955 a helicopter service was started between the Waterloo Air Terminal and Heathrow
In the late 1990s, the London IMAX cinema opened within the Bullring roundabout at the northern end of the road, on a site previously occupied by Cardboard City for the homeless.
