South Lambeth

South Lambeth is the bit of London that estate agents call Vauxhall when they want it to sound lively and Stockwell when they want it to sound affordable. It is mostly council blocks and chopped-up Victorian terraces arranged around the Vauxhall gyratory, a one-way system that has been beating drivers since before most of the people living next to it were born. Across the railway, the Nine Elms glass towers went up selling river views, so South Lambeth can now see the money from its kitchen window without ever being invited round. The name started out meaning a landing place for lambs, and that is still how the commuters at Vauxhall station look at half eight.