Beating Lambeth's Bounds (part 1)

Beating the Bounds is an ancient custom that was originally devised for local officials to inspect the parish boundary and the various markers thereof, and to fix the boundaries in minds of poor parishioners by having boys whacking the boundary with willow sticks as the party processed. Also by beating or bumping a boy at each boundary marker.

Tracing Lambeth parish's boundary is problematic due to centuries of development and redevelopment, but we can follow it as closely as possible within today's street pattern in a vain search for surviving evidence of the border and as an excuse to see what we find in places that a guided tour might not otherwise visit and hear what was there in the past.

For the avoidance of doubt, we will not – unlike the vestrymen of old – be climbing over walls and fences or barging through houses that straddle the boundary.…