Kennington Common

Kennington Common was one of the earliest London cricket venues and is known to have been used for major cricket matches from 1724 to 1785. Cricket on Kennington Common provided an alternative spectacle to public executions. The common was in effect the south London equivalent of Tyburn and there are records of executions all through the time of cricket's tenure. The gallows was where St. Mark's Church now stands, not far from Oval tube station. In 1600, the common was bounded on the south west by Vauxhall Creek. It extended over marshy land to the south west of the Roman road called Stane Street, now Kennington Park Road. There is a 1660 record of a common keeper being paid for grazing and, in 1661, the notorious Vauxhall Pleasure...