Description and History of Site:-
John Oakey & Sons, manufacturers of emery, sand, etc. papers and abrasives. Three stones, (possibly edge runners) kept as feature in housing development.

Information panel:

Wellington Mills was the site of John Oakey & Sons Ltd, a leading 19thC and early 20thC manufacturer of abrasives, sandpapers, emery boards and polishing compounds. The Wellington Mills factory was built in 1874, on land previously held by the Royal Female Orphan Asylum. The current Wellington Mills estate - comprising Holst Court, Mead Row and Oakey Lane - was built between 1970 and 1976 by the Greater London Council (GLC). It has been a housing cooperative since its inception. The architect was Barbara Bienias.

Signs and advertisements for Wellington Mills and John Oakey & Sons products were common in late 19th C and early 20C London. Oakey's products, such as Wellington knife boards and metal polish, used an image of the Duke of Wellington as a trademark. Wellington Mills' products are now part of an industrial group in India, still trading under the Oakey name.

Mead Row is the oldest name. Historical records and maps show a Mead Row from the early 1730s. Mead probably referred to meadow, and meadowlands south of Lower Marsh were granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury for development in the early 18th C. Mead may also have referred to the alcohol and the numerous drinking houses which existed in old Lambeth.

Holst Court was named after the famous composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) who was Director of Music at Morley College from 1907-1924. Composer of The Planets, Holst also wrote the music for many well-known hymns.

Oakey Lane was named after John Oakey (1813-1887), the manufacturer and founder of Wellington Mills' Oakey & Sons Abrasives Ltd. Four generations of the Oakey family ran the Wellington Mills factory for nearly a hundred years.

Wellington Mills is bounded to the north-west by Christ Church which was founded by the Rev Dr Christopher Newman Hall, a Nonconformist, supporter of the Chartist workers' movement in England and a passionate advocate of the abolition of slavery in the USA during the American Civil War. Built in 1876 through funding raised by Newman Hall's speaking tours in London and America, the spire of Christ Church is the Lincoln Memorial Tower, in memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Morley College stands to the north-east of Wellington Mills. Founded in the late 1880s thanks to an endowment from Samuel Morley MP, the college was initially the Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women. Originally on the site of the Old Vic, before relocating to Westminster Bridge Road in the 1920s, Morley College was destroyed in the Blitz and the new college was built in the post-war years. Music, drama, arts and dance have been taught there for over a hundred years.

Further Reading and References:-
http://www.glias.org.uk/news/069news.html#C

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Key Words :- housing

Address :- off Mead Row, London, Greater London, SE1
Grid Ref :- TQ 312 793
Co-ordinates :- Lat 51.497423 , Long -0.111335
Local Authority :- Lambeth London Borough Council
Pre 1974 County :- Surrey
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site redeveloped to residential housing
Contributor :- GLIAS Database - 2 June 2018

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