The name means "new farmstead" or the newer part of the manor of Walworth but because of its position on the principal road to the south-coast subsumed it. The first mention of Newington occurs in the Testa de Nevill during the reign of Henry III, wherein it is stated that the queen's goldsmith holds of the king one acre of land in Neweton, by the service of rendering a gallon of honey. In 1313 it is mentioned again in the Archbishop of Canterbury's Register as Newington juxta London. The name survives now in the street names Newington Causeway and Newington Butts and in the open space Newington Gardens, formerly the location of Horsemonger Lane Gaol from 1791. Newington Ward is one of three local council wards in Walworth, covering the area from the West side of Walworth road up to the border with Lambeth.
Urban development
The area remained as a farming village with a low level of population until the second half of the 18th century. There was a little industry, for example, the manufacture of clay pipes for tobacco smoking. In William Shakespeare's time, there was a theatre called Newington Butts and later there were further theatres. Newington gained in importance with the creation of the Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the associated improvements of London Bridge which required a series of new roads across St George's Fields to interconnect the routes from them and allow traffic from the Georgian West End to travel south and to Southwark without transitting through the City. These routes were Westminster Bridge Road and Borough Road for the West End and Southwark; for the route to the southLondon Road and St George's Road supplemented and by-passed the Borough High Street and Newington Causeway. All of these roads converged at a junction where there was a blacksmith's forge and inn called Elephant and Castle which then became a name to signify the area. Traffic heading to the south-east from the West End was connected to the older route from the City of London and Southwark to Kent as New Kent Road from Newington to a junction with the older route at the Bricklayers Arms. New roads brought development opportunities. The local landowner, Henry Penton, started to sell some of his farmland. The 19th century brought more dense speculative house building, and some philanthropic provision too. The Trinity House Newington Estate, laid out on property the institution was left in the seventeenth century, became a high class residential district which is still largely in existence. It was built around an 1820s classical church by Francis Octavius Bedford. Further urban stimulus was given by the arrival of mainline railway routes from the City to the south, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway built a station at Elephant and Castle in 1863. In 1890 the City and South London Railway was projected through the area with stations at what was termed 'Kennington' and also at Elephant. In 1906 the new Bakerloo line terminated at the Elephant also.
Local governance
The parish of Newington St Mary was part of the Brixton Hundred of Surrey and this contained all of the manor of Walworth. Before the creation of elected County Councils, in 1889, the county Magistrates were responsible for ensuring compliance with local bye-laws and ordinances, so that with the creation of the new Surrey County Sessions House at Newington Causeway in 1792 Newington was the County Town, until Kingston on Thames was designated as such in 1893. In 1855 it came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works and the parish vestry was incorporated as a local authority. In 1889 it became part of the County of London. There was a reorganisation of local government in 1900 and the parish became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark and the vestry was abolished. The civil parish was finally abolished in 1930. The parish was of and the population peaked in 1901 at 121,863. Newington is a ward within the London Borough of Southwark and the Parliamentary seat of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. It is represented by Councillors Neil Coyle and Patrick Diamond of the Labour Party and Catherine Bowman of the Liberal Democrats.
Ecclesiastical parish
The ancient parish, dedicated to St Mary, was in the Diocese of Winchester until 1877, then the Diocese of Rochester until 1905, and then finally in the Diocese of Southwark. From 1826, as the population of Newington increased, a number of new parishes were formed:
In addition, as the population of neighbouring areas increased, parts of Newington parish were included in new parishes:
St Agnes, Kennington Park in 1874 with parts of St Mary, Lambeth
St Mark, Camberwell in 1880 with parts of St Giles, Camberwell
Politics
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of St Mary Newington was divided into four wards : No. 1 or St Mary's, No. 2 or Trinity, No. 3 or St Paul's and No. 4 or St Peter's. In 1894 as its population had increased the incorporated vestry was re-divided into five wards : St Mary's, St Paul's, St Peter's, St John's and Trinity.
