Plaque: Centenary Hall - McArthur
Erection date: 9/7/1883
This stone was laid by Aldn. Sir Wm. McArthur, KCMG, MP, 9th July 1883.
G. L. Wade - Architect
B. E. Nightingale - Builder
Site: Centenary Hall (3 memorials)
SE11, Cottington Street, Centenary Hall
High on the front, at the left is the Sunday Schools plaque, and on the right the Memorial School plaque. The McArthur stone is low on the front right.
In the late 1700s this street was Mansion House Row, then Mansion House Road until 1912-17 when it became Cottington Street. Lambeth 1 have a photo of an invitation to the 1883 unveiling of the foundation stone. Here the building is "New School and Mission Buildings". Another ticket on that page referring to these buildings names the school as "Centenary Memorial Sunday School".
Lambeth 2 have a 1966 photo of this building, the Vauxhall Baptist Church & Sunday School.
We found two references on the web to this Hall and an adjoining school having been destroyed by WW2 bombing. But the LCC War Damage Map shows the hall untouched, with a building immediately to the south having suffered 'general blast damage, minor in nature'.
The Kennington Conservation Area Statement has "Centenary Hall (former Memorial Hall, 1883) – Former Sunday school".
The building looks to us to have been built as a school, but we cannot discover at what point the Vauxhall Baptist Church took over, nor when it moved out.
