The marshy land, known as St George’s Fields was gradually developed in the C18 with a mixture of housing and institutional buildings, as was the area to its east, called Newington Butts, which included the start of the coaching road to Kent. The area became a transport hub in the C19 and was renamed Elephant and Castle, apparently after a coaching inn which stood there. The railway arrived in 1863 and the Underground in 1890 with the Northern Line, supplemented by the extension to the Bakerloo Line in 1906.
The area became known as the ‘Piccadilly of South London’ in the later C19 and early C20, with a department store, theatre and cinemas, as well as pubs. Redevelopment was first considered in the 1930s by the London County Council (LCC), but nothing came of it. Bombing in the war caused much destruction, and the LCC bought up land in the area, initially to provide parking during the Festival of Britain. The area was declared a Comprehensive Development Area (as allowed by the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947). A new road layout was implemented in the late 1950s, and this caused the demolition of further buildings, including the original Elephant and Castle pub which was set on a triangular island site. Two, large new roundabouts were created to join the many roads which converge here. In 1956 the LCC Planning Committee announced redevelopment over a site extending to thirty acres.
This scheme, drawn up by the LCC Planner, Walter Bor, included a space of three acres for a large shopping centre, to be set to the east of the short roadway that joined the two new roundabouts. This was offered through a competition to private developers and their architects. Retail space could be between 100,000 and 130,000 square feet in extent and there were to be a restaurant and two public houses (one of which, The Charlie Chaplin, was to be built into the shopping centre, and the other free standing). Office space was a requirement, and so were advertising screens on the main façade, in an attempt to reassert the Elephant and Castle as the ‘Piccadilly of the South’.
The LCC received 36 entries, several of which came from well-known practices, such as Richard Seiffert, Owen Luder, John Burnett and Tait. Five of these were short listed, including one from Erno Goldfinger, who was then building Alexander Fleming House (now Metro Heights) on the opposite side of the New Kent Road. The eventual winners were Paul Boissevain (1922-2014) and Barbara Osmond (1922-1975), a team of husband and wife. Their practice had established itself with near-wins in international competitions, including Sydney Opera House (placed third, 1957) and the northern extension to the National Gallery (placed second, 1958-1959). Although they had no direct experience of designing a shopping mall, Boissevain had toured the United States and may well have been aware of the out-of town malls being built there.
The Elephant and Castle mall opened in March 1965. Had it been finished to time in 1963 it would have been the first enclosed example of a shopping mall in the United Kingdom. Delays with construction meant that the Bull Ring in Birmingham opened in May 1964 and is considered to be the first completed shopping mall, although designed after the Elephant and Castle.
The Charlie Chaplin pub was designed as an integral part of the shopping centre and connected to it at the upper ground-floor level. The overall plan and positioning were decided by Boissevain and Osmond, but the detailed finish was undertaken by Erdi and Rabson for Watney Mann. The name of the pub was chosen in a competition and honours the comic actor who had grown up locally and played in vaudeville theatres at the Elephant and Castle as a boy. A sculpture in the form of a wrought iron mural, celebrating Chaplin’s role in ‘Modern Times’ was created using springs and cogs by the sculptor G Dereford of Marlow Mosaics. It was two storeys in height but was later replaced by the present metal silhouette of Chaplin to the right of the northern entrance front. Contemporary accounts say that the pub had two bars at ground floor level, one of which served snacks, and a cocktail bar and grill at first floor level. It was initially run for Watney’s by the Westminster Wine Company.
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