It might be hard to believe but at one stage our part of Kennington used to be home to a number of windmills, including the curiously named Drug Mill. Unfortunately, none remain today to be seen, but we are fortunate enough to have a number of prints that show how they would have looked.
Many of the things we buy used to be made locally. London was surrounded by fields and farmers could bring their grain directly to windmills to be made into flour for bread. But windmills were important for other things too — grinding drugs and spices, and using their wind power to saw wood and pump water. The advent of the industrial revolution and the corresponding expansion of the railways would lead ultimately to their demise.
Although gone, there are traces and clues to the former presence – Windmill Walk in Waterloo, Windmill Row in Kennington and the Windmill Pub on Lambeth High Street. Sail Street in Waterloo, is another reminder, referencing the sails of the windmills that once stood on the site.
The Drug Mill – Ethelred Street
This was the old mill belonging to the Apothecaries’ Company, it was used for grinding and pounding their drugs and compounds and became known as the Lambeth drug mill. The mill was built in 1737 and stood here until 1867.
It first appeared on maps in the mid-18th century but had disappeared by the 19th century. A watercolour of 1780 shows it as a three-storey tower mill with a stage at first-floor level and an oddly shaped cap with an unusually elongated windshaft projecting at the front.
It was almost certainly demolished as the railway lines to Waterloo (then York Road) expanded.
This was one of three windmills that were in the vicinity of Lambeth Walk.
Juxon Street Windmill
The most northerly windmill was in a field to the west of the Walk and north of Paradise Row. It was approached by means of a lane which later became known as Mill Street (now Juxon Street, after William Juxon, an Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1660s).
The first evidence of the mill’s existence is a drawing by Bernard Lens in 1735 entitled “a view of the Palace of Lambeth” which shows the mill standing before the palace as seen from the river.
A panorama of the Thames from around 1830 shows it to the right of Lambeth Palace as seen from the river, its height being about two-thirds of the height of Lambeth Church tower. It also appeared in Rocque’s survey of 1741-5 and in later maps including one of 1767.
A watercolour by H. Pyall of 1820 shows the mill as a seven-storey tower, being circular and stone built, with an upper ten-sided portion of wood. There were four common sails with furled canvas and a semispherical cap. By this date, the mill appears hemmed in by small houses on all sides, although only eight years previously, in 1812, a map by WES Driver showed the area to the south of Mill Street as open ground. It was used to mill corn into flour until it’s demolition to facilitate the expansion of the railway in 1848.
See here for more on Juxon Street
North Lambeth Windmill
This windmill first appeared on a map in 1658, this post mill stood on the current site of the Royal Festival Hall. It was a square sawmill, known in Holland as a “paltrok” mill because its shape resembled the dress of women in the Zaan district. Illustrations from the 17th century show a square body among low buildings and piles of timber a few yards from the water’s edge.
The Cut Windmill
This octagonal smock mill stood on what is now Cons Street (formerly Little Windmill Street). It was built on a three-storey base and had four common sails and was used to mill corn.
Although the mill was shown on maps as early as 1794, the exact date of its construction is uncertain. It was demolished sometime between 1816 and 1819.
Whitgift Street Windmill
Standing roughly at the point where the railway arch now crosses Whitgift Street (opposite the Windmill pub), this smock mill was probably used to produce mustard and starch before switching to flour production.
Like the mill on Juxon Street, its demise was due to the growth of the railways. The three-storey stone base supported an octagonal body covered in horizontal waterboarding.
Randall’s Mill
By the early 19th century there seem to have been at least three windmills and a watermill in the Nine Elms area. The one known as Randall’s Mill sat right on the bank of the Thames, by the creek of the River Effra.
An 18th-century watercolour shows it as a stone-built tower mill with three storeys above the wharf level and four common sails. Later illustrations show double-shuttered sails and a fantail.
It’s not clear whether the mill was used for grinding corn; it may have been connected with a local cement factory or china mill. It was probably another victim of the expansion of the railway lines from Waterloo.
Lambeth’s surviving windmill
Luckly if you wish to see London’s last working windmill you do not have far to travel, just take a bus to Brixton to visit the fabulous Brixton Windmill.
https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/
Sources
https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/about/history/other-lambeth-mills/
