The History of Wandsworth Common

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Last modified: 30 October 2026 · Build 1

The Bevington Family of Ivy House
Research notes

The Bevingtons were Quaker leather manufacturers, owners of the Neckinger Mills in Bermondsey since the 1790s. By 1841 James Buckingham Bevington had moved his family out to the cleaner air of Ivy House, on the west side of Wandsworth Common.

His younger son Geoffrey became an accomplished early photographer, whose album is now in the V&A. His elder son Samuel became the first Mayor of Bermondsey. And their cousin Louisa was a poet and anarchist.

These are working notes, added to as the research goes on. The newest findings are in the research log at the foot of the page.

How sure each point is: confirmed in a reliable source; to check stated somewhere but not yet verified; lead an inference, not yet sourced.

Contents

Croquet on the lawn at Ivy House, 1860s
Croquet on the lawn at Ivy House, 1860s. Geoffrey Bevington is second from left. From the Geoffrey Bevington Album. (Click to enlarge.)

The family in outline

Samuel Bevington of Neckinger Mills (died at Wandsworth Common, December 1848, aged 75) confirmed

James Buckingham Bevington (born c.1805, Bermondsey), leather manufacturer, of Ivy House confirmed
married Mary Knox (c.1804–1873), daughter of John Knox JP of Rushbrooke, Co. Derry confirmed

Samuel Bourne Bevington (1832–1907), first Mayor of Bermondsey confirmed

Geoffrey Bevington (1838–1872), photographer confirmed

Alexander Bevington, brother of James Buckingham confirmed

Louisa Sarah Bevington (1845–1895), poet and anarchist confirmed

Mary Bevington, sister of James Buckingham, married Millis Coventry of Fernside confirmed

Henry P. Bevington, leather manufacturer of Brunswick Square, Camberwell (1851): another brother? lead

Neckinger Mills

By 1795 Samuel Bevington senior had set up the business on the site of the former Neckinger paper mills in Bermondsey. As Bevingtons & Sons it became one of the most important of the Bermondsey tanning and leather firms. It made fine leathers such as Morocco for shoes and fancy goods, as well as gloves. confirmed

Geoffrey Bevington photographed the works and its men at their trades. One print, “Finishing Skivers and Persians for Hats”, is in the V&A. confirmed

Ivy House

The family were already at Ivy House by 1841: they appear in that year’s census, and on the tithe apportionment, where Ivy House is plot 273, facing the Common. confirmed

The address shifts from census to census: St Anne’s Lane in 1841, “Wandsworth All Saints” in 1871, when it is listed between “Agnes’s Cottage, Allfarthing Lane” and “6 Agnes Cottage”. confirmed

Samuel was born in Newington in 1832, Geoffrey at Wandsworth in 1838, so the move came between those dates. confirmed Was it for Geoffrey’s health? lead

Geoffrey Bevington, photographer (1838–1872)

The Bevington family: Samuel, Geoffrey, James Buckingham Bevington, a grandson, and Mrs James Bevington
From the Geoffrey Bevington Album: Samuel, Geoffrey, their father James Buckingham Bevington, a grandson (Robert?), and their mother, Mary, née Knox. (Click to enlarge.)

Schooled at Thomas Usmar’s school in Croydon and later Epping, Geoffrey lived at Ivy House as a “dividend holder” and became an accomplished amateur photographer in the 1850s and 1860s. confirmed

His photographs include the only known photograph of the Craig Telescope on Wandsworth Common, convincing studies of workers at their trades, and many views of family life and of Ireland, where his mother’s family lived. confirmed

He died on 31 October 1872, of a heart condition (a disorder of the mitral valve). confirmed

Samuel Bourne Bevington (1832–1907)

Born on 20 October 1832; a student at King’s College, London, in 1851. His four children were all born at Wandsworth, presumably at Ivy House. confirmed

Later of The Elms, Bromley, and Merle Wood, Sevenoaks. Colonel Bevington, Master of the Leathersellers’ Company (1897–98), and first Mayor of the new Borough of Bermondsey in 1900. A full-size statue of him in mayoral robes stands in Tooley Street. confirmed

He was among the defenders of Wandsworth Common in 1867. confirmed

The cousins: Louisa Bevington and the Coventrys

James Buckingham’s brother Alexander was the father of Louisa Sarah Bevington, born on St John’s Hill in 1845, poet (at first as “Arbor Leigh”) and later anarchist writer. confirmed

His sister Mary married Millis Coventry of Fernside. That explains the Coventry boys found at school alongside Geoffrey in 1841 and 1851, and the Coventrys living near the Bevingtons on St John’s Hill in 1841: they were cousins, not just neighbours. confirmed

Which Millis Coventry, father or son, married Mary Bevington needs checking. to check

The Bevingtons and the Common

Shirley Passmore mentions a “Mr Bevington JP” who chaired meetings to defend Wandsworth Common against sales of land by Earl Spencer, around 1851. This is almost certainly James Buckingham Bevington. lead

How did he get on with the radical John Charles Buckmaster? And was he connected, beyond being a neighbour and a fellow JP, with William Nottidge of The Elms, Allfarthing Lane? lead

Open questions

Research log

30 October 2026 — Page started as a single family overview, drawing together the existing Bevington pages, the Louisa Sarah Bevington page and the Geoffrey Bevington Album. The detailed earlier pages stay where they are and are listed below.

Sources

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