ELEPHANT AND CASTLE (THE). A celebrated tavern at Walworth, about one mile and a half from Westminster, Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges, and situated where several cross-roads meet, leading from these bridges to important places in Kent and Surrey. Before the railways removed stage-coaches from the roads, the Elephant and Castle was a well-known locality to every traveller going south from London. It has now changed character, and is chiefly known to the inhabitants of Camberwell, Dulwich, Norwood and Herne Hill.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850