Editing Elephant and Castle (section)

== Notable residents ==

* Playwright and associate of Shakespeare [[Thomas Middleton]] lived in the area in later life and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard when he died in 1627.
* The [[Forty Elephants]] or Forty Thieves were an 18th to 20th century all-female London crime syndicate who specialised in shoplifting. They operated from the Elephant and Castle and were allied to the Elephant and Castle Mob led by the McDonald brothers. [[Shirley Pitts]] was "educated" by the gang, while [[Alice Diamond]] was one of its leaders, in the first half of the 20th century.
* Fanny Blood, a friend of [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]'s, met in 1775, lived in Newington Butt. In 1777, Wollstonecraft persuaded her family to move to Walworth. She soon became a lodger of philosopher [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Thomas Taylor]] and his family, in Manor Place. Taylor became her tutor and by 1778, she was working as a paid companion for him. She moved in with the Blood family in 1782.<ref name="Wollstonecraft">{{cite web |url=https://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/a-brief-history/wollstonecrafts-walworth/ |title=Wollstonecraft's Walworth |publisher=elephantandcastl.org.uk|access-date=5 May 2021}}</ref> 
* The mathematician [[Charles Babbage]] was born in [[Walworth]] in 1791 and was baptised at St Mary's Newington. The family lived at 44 Crosby Row, which is now called Larcom Street. A blue plaque is visible at the corner of Larcom Street and Walworth Road.
* In the middle of [[Elephant Square]],{{efn|Formerly a second, namely, the northern roundabout}} is the [[Michael Faraday Memorial]], a large stainless steel box built in honour of [[Michael Faraday]], who was born nearby in 1791. It contains an [[electrical substation]] for the [[Northern line]]. Alternative DJ [[Aphex Twin]] has long been rumoured to have lived for some time inside the monument, although this story has been debunked. He is also rumoured to have lived in a disused bank building on Newington Causeway (now demolished) in the 1990s.<ref name="twin">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/30/aphex-twin-elephant-and-castle-mystery-logos |title=Mystery images at tube station hint at new Aphex Twin album |work=The Guardian|date=30 July 2018 |access-date=5 May 2021}}</ref> 
* [[Elhanan Bicknell]] was a businessman and shipowner. He became one of the leading collectors of contemporary British art. Around 1809, he entered into partnership with his uncle John Walter Langton who was a tallow chandler at Newington Butts. The firm, which was located opposite St Mary's Church, become the leading oil merchants and [[spermaceti]] refiners in London by 1835.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.clarencebicknell.com/images/downloads_news/elhanan_bicknell_oil_trade_mark_howard.pdf |title=Mark Howard, "Elhanan Bicknell, oil merchant and shipowner." |publisher=}}</ref> A friend and close business associate there at Newington Butts was fellow oil merchant and shipowner, [[Thomas Sturge]], who was also a cement manufacturer, railway company director, social reformer and philanthropist. [[Thomas Sturge the elder]] had founded what was to become Thomas Sturge & Sons in the early 1780s. The business remained there until the 1840s.
* The inventor of the periodic table, [[John Newlands (chemist)|John Newlands]], was born on 26 November 1837, in West Square, just behind the Bethlem Hospital, which now houses the [[Imperial War Museum]].
* On 18 March 1861, renowned [[Particular Baptist]] preacher [[Charles Spurgeon]] moved his congregation to the newly constructed purpose-built [[Metropolitan Tabernacle]], which seated 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. It was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon remained in charge of the church until his death in 1892.
* [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician, [[banker]] and [[City of London|City]] merchant [[James Daniel Gilbert]] was born on 5 February 1864 and subsequently brought up in the ward of West Newington, which he later came to represent at the [[London County Council]].
* Communist militant and trade union leader [[Jack Dash]] was born in Southwark on 23 February 1907, and grew up on Rockingham Street.
* Gangster "Mad" [[Frankie Fraser]] was born on Cornwall Road in [[Waterloo, London|Waterloo]], [[London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/#section-news |title=The Times & The Sunday Times |website=[[The Times]]|access-date=16 May 2017}}</ref><ref name="Morton2">{{cite news |last=Morton |first=James |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/26/frankie-fraser |title=Frankie Fraser obituary |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=28 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thewhitehartwaterloo.co.uk/findus/ |title=Find & contact The White Hart in Waterloo |work=The White Hart |access-date=28 November 2014 |archive-date=4 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204132334/http://www.thewhitehartwaterloo.co.uk/findus/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Morton">{{cite book |last=Morton |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0753512750 |title=Mad Frank's Underworld History of Britain |year=2007 |publisher=[[Virgin Books]] |isbn=978-0753512753 |access-date=28 November 2014}}</ref> At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on the Walworth Road.
* Actor [[Tod Slaughter]] took over the Elephant and Castle Theatre from 1924 until several months before its closure in 1927. His company revived Victorian "blood-and-thunder" melodramas to enthusiastic audiences. Slaughter also staged other types of production such as the annual Christmas pantomime, where he would cast prominent local personalities in bit-parts for audience recognition.
* By at least 1924, Barbadian-born physician, [[Pan-Africanist]] and co-founders of the [[League of Coloured Peoples]] [[Cecil Belfield Clarke]] practised at 112 [[Newington Causeway]], as he would do for the rest of his professional career.<ref>In 1924 he gave his address as 112 Newington Causeway on a ship's manifest. {{Cite web |url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA%2FBT27%2F1039%2F00%2F0052%2FP%2F0004F&parentid=TNA%2FBT27%2F1039000052%2F00066 |title=Find My Past: Van Rensselaer|access-date=12 January 2021}}</ref> He may have practised there as early as 1920.<ref name="Bourne">{{Cite book |last=Bourne |first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Bourne (writer) |title=Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939-45 |publisher=The History Press) |year=2020 |isbn= |location= |pages=91–92}}</ref>
* English comedian, actor, writer and singer [[Charlie Drake]] was born there on 19 June 1925.
* On 17 January 1932, agriculturalist and Labour Co-operative politician [[Denis Carter, Baron Carter|Denis Carter]] was born in Elephant and Castle, where his parents, Albert and Annie Carter, worked in a tea warehouse and as an office cleaner, respectively. 
* Speedway rider [[George Barclay (speedway rider)|George Barclay]] was born in Elephant on 1 April 1935. 
* Actor [[Alan Ford (actor)|Alan Ford]], who was born in Camberwell on 23 February 1938, grew up on the area.
* Rock singer [[Terry Dene]] was born in Lancaster Street on 20 December 1938.
* Actor [[Windsor Davies]] taught English and Maths at a school in Elephant and Castle.
* Journalist and war correspondent [[David Blundy]] grew up near Elephant and Castle in a house that was also the location of his father's antique store.
* DJ, club promoter and music producer [[Jeff Dexter]] was born 15 August 1946 in [[Lambeth Hospital]] and grew up in [[Newington Butts]], moving to Camberwell Road when he was ten years old.
* In 1956, [[Austin Osman Spare]] moved to a flat situated above the loading bay of a [[Woolworths (United Kingdom)|Woolworths]] store at 56a Walworth Road. Aged 17, in May 1904, he had held his first public art exhibition in the foyer of the Newington Public Library on the same road.{{cite book |title=Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London's Lost Artist |last=Baker |first=Phil |year=2011 |publisher=[[Strange Attractor Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-1907222016}}
* [[Charlie Chaplin]]<ref name="workhouses">{{cite web |url=http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Chaplin/ |title=Charlie Chaplin |publisher=The Workhouse|access-date=2 May 2014}}</ref> and [[Michael Caine]], who were born and grew up locally.<ref name="elephanttohollywood">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8037074/Michael-Caine-interview-for-his-autobiography-The-Elephant-to-Hollywood.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8037074/Michael-Caine-interview-for-his-autobiography-The-Elephant-to-Hollywood.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Michael Caine interview – for his autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=4 October 2010 |access-date=2 May 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[Charlie Mullins]] OBE, the founder of Pimlico Plumbers, was born 28 October 1952 and grew up on the Rockingham Estate.
* Footballer [[Tommy Langley]] was born in Elephant on 8 February 1958.
* In December 1962, [[John Major]] started work at the [[London Electricity Board]].
* Actress and television presenter [[Lisa Maxwell (actress)|Lisa Maxwell]] was born in the area on 24 November 1963, where she was raised by her single mother and her grandparents.
* Trade Unionist [[Steve Turner (trade unionist)|Steve Turner]] grew up on the now demolished [[Heygate Estate]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/unite-leadership-candidate-steve-turner-labour-mps-b948046.html |title='Get down the pub to win back voters', Unite leadership candidate Steve Turner tells Labour MPs |date=28 July 2021 |access-date=29 July 2021}}</ref>
* Irish writer and novelist [[Darren O'Shaughnessy]], who was born in 1972, spent the first six years of life in Elephant, going to the English Martyrs' RC Primary School from the age of three. 
* Actress [[Nicola Stapleton]] was born in Elephant on 9 August 1974, grew up near East Street and attended Townsend Primary School.
* In 1975, in his mid-twenties, gay American artist and writer [[Philip Core]] settled permanently in London, living in a flat in Elephant and Castle that was painted completely black.
* Rapper [[Jahaziel (rapper)|Jahaziel]] was born on 26 July 1976 and was raised in the area.
* In 1979, [[David Bruce (brewer)|David Bruce]] started his first [[Firkin Brewery]] [[brewpub]] in Elephant and Castle.<ref name=Boak>{{cite web |title=Peter Austin is dead |url=http://boakandbailey.com/2014/01/peter-austin-dead/ |work=Boak & Bailey |date=2 January 2014 |access-date=1 February 2014}}</ref>
* During the 1980s, [[Mark Ashton]] lived in a council flat in Claydon House on the [[Heygate Estate]], which is where he formed with his friend Mike Jackson the group [[Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners]] in 1984.
* Horse racing announcer [[Mark Johnson (announcer)|Mark Johnson]] attended the then [[London College of Printing]], receiving a bachelor's degree in television, film, and theatre studies, and a postgraduate diploma in radio journalism.
* [[Joy Crookes]] was born in the [[Lambeth]] district of [[South London]] on 9 October 1998 and grew up in the area of Elephant and Castle,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/joy-crookes-on-the-rise |title=On The Rise: Joy Crookes |last=O'Shea |first=Clare |date=22 March 2019 |website=[[The Line of Best Fit]] |language=en|url-status=live|access-date=5 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322125745/https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/joy-crookes-on-the-rise |archive-date=22 March 2019 }}</ref> where she spent eight years at a Catholic state primary school.<ref name="Fishwick">{{Cite web |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/joy-crookes-the-soulful-singer-whos-taken-over-2019-a4268781.html |title=Joy Crookes: the soulful singer who's taken over 2019 |last=Fishwick |first=Samuel |date=23 October 2019 |website=[[Evening Standard]] |language=en|url-status=live|access-date=5 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025163618/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/joy-crookes-the-soulful-singer-whos-taken-over-2019-a4268781.html |archive-date=25 October 2019 }}</ref>
* In October 2004, Richard Reynolds, a then resident of [[Perronet House]], launched GuerrillaGardening.org as a record of his solo attempts at [[Guerrilla gardening#United Kingdom|guerrilla gardening]]. The site launched the trend in the UK and world. 
* Gay rights activist [[Peter Tatchell]] lives on the Rockingham Estate, where the Council installed a blue plaque in his name in 2010.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11440301 |title=Human rights protester Peter Tatchell gets blue plaque |work=BBC News |location=London |date=29 September 2010 |access-date=19 October 2015}}</ref>
* In 2012, Anglican priest, journalist and broadcaster, [[Giles Fraser]] became the priest-in-charge at St Mary's, Newington.
* [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] footballer [[Reiss Nelson]] was born in Elephant and Castle.
* Circuit Judge Sir (Anthony) Mark David [[Havelock-Allan baronets|Havelock-Allan]], 5th Baronet, QC, FCIArb, lives in the area with his second wife Alison née Foster, whom he married 1986.
* Academic, author, and broadcaster [[Kieran Maguire]] was born in the Elephant and Castle to Irish parents.

[[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and [[Fanny Cornforth]], who apparently took her nickname "elephant" from the place,<ref name="raphaelites">{{cite news |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41615066 |title=Re-presenting Fanny Cornforth: The makings of an historical identity |work=The British Art Journal |date=Spring–Summer 2001 |jstor=41615066 |access-date=5 May 2021}}</ref> as well as [[Elizabeth Siddal]], [[Samuel Palmer]], [[George Tinworth]], [[Robert Browning]], [[Sarah Elizabeth Wardroper|Sarah Wardroper]] and [[Octavia Hill]] are also thought to have lived in the area.<ref name="more">{{cite web |url=https://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/a-brief-history/ |title=Elephant and Castle - A Brief History |publisher=elephantandcastl.org.uk|access-date=5 May 2021}}</ref>