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The road forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and as such forms part of the boundary of the London Congestion Charge zone. New Kent Road is designated the A201. To the north-west, past the Elephant and Castle, this becomes London Road . =South side= SHOPPING CENTRE The southern side of New Kent Road starts at the community. On Saturdays and Sundays it becomes an informal lunch restaurant and social centre, where very little English is spoken. The pub (26) attached to the Shopping Centre is named after a famous local ex-resident: The Charlie Chaplin . It is said that Chaplin had a Martini at the pub during a visit to the area in the 1950s. THE CORONET The Coronet (28) is marked by a flashing neon sign. The site was first occupied by the Theatre Royal, built in 1872 and destroyed by fire only six years later. Rebuilt as the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1879, Charlie Chaplin performed there. It was converted to an ABC cinema in 1928. In 1966 it was rebuilt yet again as the Odeon cinema, designed by Ernő Goldfinger . After several more changes of name, it became the Coronet cinema in 1981. The Coronet cinema closed down in 1999, and reopened in 2003 as a music, club and film venue following a £2-million refurbishment which has restored its Art Deco glory. Following a brief closure in 2003, Oasis , Franz Ferdinand and Justin Timberlake performed low-key gigs there in 2004. The Coronet closed again in 2005, amid rumours of a cash crisis, but some events have been announced for 2006. ELEPHANT ROAD Just before the railway bridge, there is a small private mews that is locked shut outside business hours. The mews houses a pet shop and a Mexican catering company. After the junction with Elephant Road, the used Volvo showroom (50) is the largest one in the UK. Elephant Road itself is a short road that connects New Kent Road with the having been granted in early 2006. HEYGATE ESTATE From the Volvo showroom to the Crown and Anchor Irish pub on the corner of Rodney Place, this side of the New Kent Road is dominated by the Heygate Council Estate . Completed in 1974, the estate has aged badly and is due for phased demolition between 2006 and 2011. It will be replaced by low-rise housing. The multi-coloured spherical lights in the trees next to the Heygate were installed in 2005 by the Elephant Impacts project. The project repainted and added feature lighting to a number of bridges and buildings in the area during 2004 and 2005, including the adjoining railway bridges on Walworth Road and Newington Causeway , and to London College Of Communication and the Metropolitan Tabernacle . The Crossways United Reform Church is part of the Heygate. Immediately behind the church, in a locked garden, is a sculpture ''Two Cariatyds'' by Henry Poole, originally created in 1897 for the old Rotherhithe Public Library. BEYOND THE HEYGATE Watling House, like Tavern Court (see below), is a new development of flats managed by the Landmark Housing Association . Like most of the new housing in the area, both developments are aimed at first-time buyers who cannot afford to buy on the open market. Residents of the Heygate and other social housing, and those on the social housing waiting list, receive priority. The distinctive Baroque style building at 172-180 is Driscoll House . It was originally built as a women's hostel in 1913 and is now a somewhat dilapidated hostel primarily aimed at international students. The interiors are mostly unchanged since the building opened. It has been sold to property developers, but was saved from closure in March 2006 by a campaign to make it a Listed Building . There is a small green space next to Driscoll House, and beyond Searles Road there is a larger one called Paragon Gardens, named after the building erected on the site in 1787, designed by Michael Searles . It was demolished in the 1890s and replaced with more modest housing and a school. The school has since been converted into a residential building and also named The Paragon. There is some ambiguity over where New Kent Road actually ends and becomes Old Kent Road . The London A-Z marks number 240 just before Darwin Street, and 54 Old Kent Road just after Darwin Street. Local bus maps wrongly show New Kent Road continuing several hundred yards further, as far as Massinger Street and the Lidl store. =North side= METRO CENTRAL HEIGHTS TO FALMOUTH ROAD The north side of New Kent Road begins at owned by the London Borough Of Southwark . It was completed in 1964 and contains 99 flats. At the Meadow Row intersection stands St Matthews at the Elephant, a contemporary Anglican church and community centre rebuilt in 1993 on the site of the old St Matthews church. The church has particularly good acoustics and hosts musical performances as well as community events and services. The main building is built low, with the separate minimalist iron spire at the street entrance suggesting old and new-style church architecture simultaneously. 183 New Kent Road is a residence for students at the nearby London South Bank University , with 81 students living in shared flats. FALMOUTH ROAD TO HARPER ROAD The small Falmouth Road Park opened in March 2006. The bench is made from timber from a London plane tree that once stood on the Tower of London Wharf, and features designs created by local children. Next to the park, Tavern Court (95) is a new six-storey residential building managed by Landmark Housing Association . Tavern Court opened in 2005 on the site of the County Terrace Tavern pub, which closed in 2003. The Museum Of London Archaeology Service surveyed the site in May 2004 and found that "There was no evidence to confirm that this site was occupied until the post medieval period. It appears that this low lying area ... was fields until the development of the County Terrace public house and adjoining properties during the 19th century. A thick layer of top soil containing 18th and 19th century material including broken bricks, clay pipe stems and 19th century pottery was found." [http://www.molas.org.uk/pages/siteSummariesDetailsAll.asp?year=summaries2004&borough=Southwark] The 1888 red brick church behind Tavern Court is one of four churches in London used by the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star , a worldwide church organisation based in Nigeria, led by Olumba Olumba Obu. Worshippers wear distinctive white robes and head-dresses to services, and can often be seen on New Kent Road. The church has been described as "an interesting offshoot of orthodox Christianity, and combines the beliefs of varying religions, including ancient Indian philosophy and Islamic teachings." [http://www.ukattraction.com/london/brotherhood-of-the-cross-and-star.htm] Under the footbridge across to the Heygate Estate, there is a small public green space called David Copperfields Garden. A plaque erected in September 1931 by the Dickens Fellowship explains that this was the place where in the Charles Dickens novel, David Copperfield stopped "in the Kent Road ... at a terrace with a piece of water before it, and a great foolish image in the middle, blowing a dry shell". The pond has been filled in as a flower bed, and the small statue has lost both its shell and, more recently, its head. BEYOND HARPER ROAD A block of shops after . A sign of the multi-cultural nature of the area is that the block of businesses ends with an Indian restaurant, a Polish deli, an Ethiopian restaurant and a Chinese take-away. There is a Nisa Today's convenience store attached to the BP petrol station. It replaced a Safeway store in 2005, although the shopping baskets still bear the Safeway logo, and the signage uses a font and style that mimics Safeway. The last building on the North side of New Kent Road is St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School, for girls aged 11 to 18. EXTERNAL LINKS
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