Rupert Street

The street is very quaint, nice for a walk. It feels like going back in time. There's a famous shadow, but we didn't get in.

A very peculiar and beautiful street that lies in Waterloo, London. The houses on Roupell Street are very beautiful and different, with many old cars parked there, it really is a different and nice setting. It seems we have entered a time capsule so close to the modern agitation of Waterloo Station and London. I met by chance going to the station and only then found out that it is a popular place for TV and movie shooting. If you're staying there, it's worth passing there.

I searched for rouble street whilst we were down in London to watch my son run in the 2025 marathon. My great great grandmother lived at number 14 in 1853. I didn’t realise that it had been such a famous location for so many films/programs. I even took photos of the famous Citroen cars.. Lovely little street

My experience is a tad dated. My great-aunts, Nell and Minnie, lived at 32 Roupell Street from the early 1930s till the late 1980s. They were renters, and as they were past 80 when they finally moved, the owner of the property, at the time, made few improvements and offered large sums just to get them out. An odd place for a young American to visit. They had to use a back garden 'convenience' (that's an outhouse to my fellow Yanks). There was a sizeable a hole in the street-side cellar wall (WWII bomb damage). " Hitler did that to me." was how Nell described--she took it personally. Even then the adjacent houses were being snapped up and renovated. It was a quintessential mixed neighborhood. They were pensioners, paying less than £100 a month, or so they told me, while their next-door neighbor was Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, Thatcher's Solicitor General for Scotland, who purchased the adjoining house for several hundred thousand, and then gutted everything except the exterior, street front of the building. TripAdvisor doesn't allow me to enter below the actual years I visited (1980-1984) as the dropdown only goes back to 2021.

Some reviewers seem to be confused as to which period the houses on Roupell St. should be assigned. Well , they were built in the 1820's by John Roupell which makes them late Georgian. They are now Grade 2 listed , a not uncommon fate for constructions that were originally intended for workers & artisans. The school , though , is of Victorian origin. At first , it may seem surprising to find such a time capsule so near to the modern bustle of Waterloo Station & the IMAX Cinema but it is a fact that this kind of juxtaposition exists all over London - just step into some of the side streets leading away from London's busiest roads . Nowadays it would no doubt cost you a good sum to purchase a property in Roupell St. It is a very popular site for filming, both T. V. & Cinema. The King's Arms pub sits at the junction of Roupell St. & Windmill Walk & looks a pleasant place to visit. Well worth walking down this road to experience it's ambience. Take time to look at little details such as the metal insurance plates on some house walls.

Roupell Street and its surroundings comprising rows of houses built in and remaining unscathed from the 1820s now form a conservation area. They were erected by John Palmer Roupell a gold refiner on land reclaimed from marshes on the south side of the Thames. They were rescued from disaster when a fire broke out in one of the houses in 1829 but thereafter survived the bombs of the Blitz and the covetous eyes of the developer. They include the King’s Arms which has the feel of a village pub despite being so close to the centre of London and a stone’s throw from Waterloo station. They have featured in such dramas as Mr. Selfridge, Call the Midwife and Doctor Who. The corner of Roupell Street closest to Waterloo station houses Valentino’s barbers as well as a branch of Konditor Bakery with its front painted in a luxurious mauve.

Avery well maintained and conserved Victorian style street. Even the street lights are in keeping. Howevershould have cable tv aerials ruin the image.

So Roupell Street is a conservation area with housing and a few shops built in the Victorian era and has been used as sets for period dramas on British television. Unless you have a penchant for looking at 19th century working class tenement housing or a need to see real life TV locations, don't bother. There's a little bit of charm in a sea of modernity, but there's little to see here.

It's free and about two minutes walk from Waterloo East and Not far from Southwark stations. There are two or three similar roads of which Roupell St is the best but together giving a good detailed impression of inner London life or buildings in the nineteenth century. Given that it is apparently favoured for film and TV location filming I am very surprised that some production company hasn't shelled out the very few quid necessary to rip town the tall metal poles etc and provide each home with a satellite dish sitting hidden in the roof gullies.

I first saw Roupell Street from Capital Tower in Waterloo, took a photo and wrote the following poem: South London (Southwark) Stand the terraces in ordered row, Care they not what surrounds them now; As modernity’s march of steel and glass Tramples not their encapsulated past Of huddled mass and close-knit unity, bygone world of implied community, Made tangible hope Through neighbours met in public house and corner shop. Steve Mason (July 2017) The next time I was in the area I wandered around Roupell Street and again put pen to paper to write: Roupell Street In Roupell Street stand terrace homes In ordered rows of two-up, two-down; On forgotten byways, time’s frozen street, With barber shop, pub and fancy patisserie. In Roupell Street where past becomes present, Off beaten track from modern world’s bustle, To bygone days, a havened retreat, Of gas-lamps, chimneypots and uneven cobbles. In Roupell Street from pavement, public, Cross threshold, private, to livingroom tread; Home kept very clean, for unheralded Queen, To modest abode of Ivy and Fred. Steve Mason (Sept 2017)