Elections to Lewisham London Borough Council were held on 7 May 1998. The whole council was up for election for the first time since the 1994 election.
In between the 1994 election and this election there were a total of 6 by-elections to replace councillors who either resigned from their seat or died in office, however only 1 of them resulted in a seat changing parties by going from Liberal Democrats to the Labour Party. In addition to this change there were 3 defections from the Labour party, 2 to the Socialist Party and 1 to the Socialist Labour Party, as well as one Labour seat that became vacant without enough time to hold a by-election. This meant the composition of the council just before the election was as follows:
After the election the composition of the council was as follows:
(*) - Indicates an incumbent candidate
(â ) - Indicates an incumbent candidate standing in a different ward than the one they were elected to