A215 road

The A215 is an A road in south London, starting at Elephant and Castle and finishing around Shirley. It runs through the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Croydon.

The A215 was Britain's most crash-prone A road between 1999 and 2010, having 2,836 crashes over its ten-mile length.

At its northernmost point at Elephant & Castle in Newington, the A215 begins as Walworth Road, which runs between Elephant and Castle and Camberwell Road. It runs through Walworth and is the major shopping street of the area. East Street Market is especially busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Other attractions include the Cuming Museum, Newington Reference Library and John Smith House, a former Labour Party headquarters which is now used by the local education authority.

Charles Babbage, the Victorian mathematician and computer pioneer, was likely born at 44 Crosby Row, now Larcom Street, Walworth Road on 26 December 1791. A commemorative blue plaque is displayed on the Sexual Health Clinic at the junction of Larcom Street and Walworth Road.

Just off the Walworth Road was Walworth Road railway station on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway that was opened in 1863 and shut in 1916 due to wartime constraints.

Walworth Road transitions into Camberwell Road where the A215 enters the former Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell. The road runs adjacent to the railway between Elephant & Castle tube station and Loughborough Junction railway station. Much of Camberwell Road is a conservation area, due to its well-preserved large houses from the early 19th century.

By the time of the Domesday Book, Camberwell was already a significant settlement. The town remained a popular resort for Londoners due to its believed medicinal wells. In 1685, John Evelyn's Diary mentions a Roman urn filled with bones which was uncovered intact during repairs to the road and exhibited at the Royal Society.

Camberwell Green, at the junction of Camberwell Road and Camberwell Church Street, was the traditional site of Camberwell Fair, an annual fair held every August. Following complaints about the noise and high crime levels generated by the fair, a group of residents bought the fairground in 1855, converting it into the park which remains today.