Lavender Hill

Lavender Hill is a hill, and a shopping and residential street, near Clapham Junction in Battersea, south London. Lavender Hill forms the section of the A3036 as it rises eastwards out of the Falconbrook valley at Clapham Junction, and retains that name for approximately 1.3 km to the corner of Queenstown Road in Battersea, beyond which it is called Wandsworth Road towards Vauxhall.History of Lavender HillOrigin of the nameThe earliest known reference to the name 'Lavender Hill' is in 1774 when a Mr Porter, advertising a reward for the return of his lost pony, described it as having strayed or been stolen from 'a Field on Lavender-Hill', suggesting that the name was already widely known.The name refers to the commercial cultivation of lavender on the gentle north facing slopes of this part of the Thames estuary - helped by well drained soil, fresh air and several natural springs. The first building to reflect the name was Lavender Hall on the south side of the road in 1790. The road itself, which ran just below the crest of the hill, was not widely referred to as Lavender Hill until the later 1800s. Several smaller streets developed in the Victoria era including Lavender Gardens, Lavender Walk (an ancient farm lane) and Lavender Sweep also reflect the area's historic lavender industry.Early developmentIn the 1848 painting, the painter refers to Lavender Hill, although this cannot reasonably be said to be from the Lavender Hill, more the north-slope of the topographic feature. Until the 1860s Lavender Hill was mostly an area of open farmland, with small scale development at both ends. At the western end there was a crossing of the Falconbrook river with several farms. The Chestnuts, a farmhouse built in 1812, survived and has been incorporated into the modern street plan half way along Mossbury Road. The earliest reference to the still-existing Falcon public house at the west end of the street is in 1767.