History Corner: WW2 Stretchers as Railings

Mereton Mansions in Brookmill Road, Deptford was formerly Carrington House, a homeless hostel. The railings outside have an interesting history too - they are made from metal stretchers used by ARP (Air Raid Protection) during the Second World War.

Similar examples of this recycling can be found elsewhere in London. I spotted these on the East Dulwich Estate:

See also The Great Wen on World War 2 Railings - he mentions that there are similar railings in Harleyford Street SE11. There is an interesting discussion on flickr too with pictures from elsewhere, and some detail that confirms this is not just an urban myth. In fact here's a photo of one of the stretchers in action:

from Wartime Memories by Ruth Durrant - note the stretchers
(this picture was taken on one of the River Emergency Service boats in the Second World War,
which operated from Cherry Gardens Pier in Bermondsey)

History Corner: Transportation from Deptford to Australia

The Deptford riverside has been the starting point for  many journeys across the oceans, some of them freely chosen adventures, many of them not. One destination was Australia, where convicted prisoners were shipped off to penal colonies from the 1780s (the practice formally ended in 1868, though it had become rare by that point).

Reg Rigden's The Floating Prisons of Woolwich and Deptford (a pamphlet published by Greenwich Council in 1976), mentions one such voyage. On the 11 December 1814, Mary Langridge, Sarah Morris, Maria McIntyre and Ann Roberts were 'put on board the Northampton at Deptford'.

According to the Australian site Convict Records, 110 prisoners - all of them women - were taken on that voyage arriving in New South Wales in June1815. The ship went from Deptford to Portsmouth, from where it set sail on New Year's Day 1815. It was an eventful voyage, with the ship being temporarily captured by an American ship off Madeira. It made its way via Rio de Janeiro to Port Jackson, with four women dying during the voyage. On the way home, the Northampton went to China, returning to Hastings with a cargo of sandalwood. 

Just one voyage amongst so many, but showing clearly how Deptford in that period was a key point in the international  circulation of labour, commodities, ideas and much more. Globalisation is nothing new in South East London on Thames.

History Corner: medical negligence in 1920s Deptford

In the 1920s a New Cross doctor was involved in a tragedy that led to his prosecution for manslaughter. Dr Percy Bateman lived at 423 New Cross Road and in July 1924 he was called in by a midwife to assist in a difficult childbirth. The mother, Mary Ann Harding, 'was the wife of a builder's labourer, and lived in Deptford in two rooms at the top of four flights of stairs. She was about 33 years of age, she had had four children before, their ages ranging from 13 to 4' (BMJ, 7 Feburary 1925).

The baby died and the mother, Mary Ann Harding, became very ill. Over the next week she continued to deteriorate and was visited twice daily by Bateman, who refused the request of Mary's husband and the midwife to admit her to hospital. When she finally was admitted she was found to be unfit for an operation and she died on the 30th July. It was discovered in the post-mortem that the doctor had mistakenly removed most of her uterus along with the placenta during the childbirth.

A jury found him guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to six months imprisonment in December 1924, but the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Hewart) quashed the conviction on appeal in February 1925 and he was released. The prosecution argued in the appeal that 'What impressed the jury was the callous neglect he showed. He did not call in another doctor, he took the uterus home with him, he concealed the facts of the matter from everybody who might be in a position to give help or advice' (BMJ 14 February 1925). But Bateman was largely backed by the medical profession who were concerned about the implications of doctors being jailed for negligence.

The appeal judgement in Rex v Bateman 1925 is still quoted today as it helped establish the definition of manslaughter in cases like this. The  Court ruled that simply causing the death of somebody was not enough to prove manslaughter, rather it was necessary to show that the accused 'showed such disregard for the life and safety of others as to amount to a crime against the State and conduct deserving punishment'.

Bateman died at his home in New Cross in 1936.

History Corner: Peckham Anarchists in the 1890s

Interesting account by Nick Heath at Libcom on 'state repression against the Peckham Anarchist Communist Group in 1894':

'In the 1890s several groups of, in the main, young activists broke away from Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation and coalesced as anarchist groups in Canning Town, Deptford and Peckham. The Peckham Anarchist-Communist Group was one of these groups and was extremely active. It engaged in much local activity , although the rather suspect anarchist H. B. Samuels became a member of the Group.

However this period -1893-1894-was one of active repression against the British anarchist movement, with government, police and judiciary acting to attack open air meetings organised by anarchists, as in Hyde Park, Manchester and indeed in Peckham.

In March 1894 Peckham Anarchists held an open air meeting in Peckham Park Road on 15th March. A group of right wing thugs in collusion with the police attacked the meeting and seized the group’s red flag which was then torn to pieces. The group defended themselves with walking sticks and the police, who had been actively inciting the mayhem moved in. Detective Sergeant Walsh of the CID apparently got behind little boys and pushed them forward, according to Freedom of April of that year. Alfred Foster, the main speaker, twenty seven years old and living at Commercial Road, Peckham was arrested by P.C. Martin for ‘disorderly conduct by causing a crowd to assemble’!

At Lambeth Police Court the following day Foster appeared before Justice Biron. Speaking for the defence was another member of the group William Hart, a tailor’s trimmer, who stated that he was an atheist and took an affirmation rather than swearing on the Bible. Biron was hostile from the beginning asking “You were making Anarchist speeches?” Foster was ordered to find a surety of £25 to be of good behaviour for six months or go to prison for a month.

Agnes Henry volunteered to put up the money but was refused as a woman! H.B. Samuels in his turn offered to put up the surety but was refused because he would not swear on the Bible! After a week in prison Foster was freed when W. B. Parker put up the money.

The following week the Peckham anarchists again held an open air meeting which was “perfectly orderly” until a group of blackleg gas-stokers operating in collusion with CID detectives attacked the meeting. As a result the Peckham group gave up holding open air meetings, but continued an active propaganda.

It was present for the May Day assembly in Hyde Park later in the year where its black banner was inscribed with the motto: ‘Away with authority and monopoly - We demand free access to the means of life’.

Read the full article here

History Corner: New Cross Gate Cutting

A fascinating tour of London Wildlife Trust's New Cross Gate Cutting/Brockley nature reserve last weekend in the company of New Cross Commoners, with volunteer warden Steve Cleall giving us an insight into the site's history and wildlife.

The reserve, situated alongside the railway line with its entrance on Vesta Road SE4, is a great slice of wild London just along the track from New Cross Gate station.  One thing that struck me was how much of what we regard as simply a natural environment is in fact the result of centuries of interaction between human beings, other species and the land.

top path through the woods

The very landscape of the railway cutting was largely dug out by hand by navvies building the route of the Croydon canal and then the railway in the nineteenth century (Karl Marx mentions the terrible working conditions of navvies on the Lewisham-Tunbridge Wells line in Capital). The woodland itself only started to grow after the Second World War, when the site stopped being used for allotments (another allotments site survives of course on the opposite bank of the railway cutting).

The Croydon railroad under construction in 1839, as seen from New Cross. In the distance on the right, workers can be seen on the site of what is now the nature reserve. Incidentally, the house on the right may be Telegraph Cottage, home of the poet Robert Browning in the 1840s.

Detail from above painting showing navvies at work, shaping the landscape. .

Prior to the allotments and indeed prior to the railway, most of the site would have been used for farming. A water trough still stands in the woods which is believed to date back to that period in the 19th century.

Water trough

The soil of the site is acidic as a result of numerous fragments of red brick left over from the manufacture of bricks locally and their use in the building of the area. This favours the growth of some plants and trees.

Red brick fragments on the pathway

While centuries past the area was covered by the Great North Wood which stretched down to Croydon, the oldest tree on the site is probably only about a hundred years old - this sycamore at the furthest point on the lower path. 

The oldest tree in the nature reserve

This human impact on woodland is not new. As the historian Peter Linebaugh notes, even in the days when much of England was covered in woodland, it was extensively shaped by our ancestors: 'Old trees are the result not of the wildwood (of the Ice Age thirteen millennia earlier) but of wooded pasture. The wooded pasture is a human creation, through centuries of accumulated woodsmanship', including the coppicing and pollarding of trees to encourage more growth. As well as grazing their animals amongst the trees, people relied on wood for fuel and building materials: 'Whole towns were timberframed: the strut and beam of cottages, the curved wooden rafters, the oak benches of worship. Then wheels, handles, bowls, tables, stools, spoons, toys, and other implements were all made of wood. Wood was the source of energy'. That is why the struggle to retain common rights of access to the woods was so bitterly fought during centuries of enclosure (Peter Linebaugh, The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All, 2008).

Today keeping the New Cross Gate Cutting site as a diverse wildlife habitat also requires ongoing human effort - without it a few species would tend to dominate, particularly some of those introduced by humans from other parts of the world in the past. Volunteers meet on the second Saturday of every month to work on the site (details here), and these are also the only days when the site is open to the public. If you've never been for a wander around, you definitely should.

At a time of general pessimism about humans and the natural world, the nature reserve shows not only that 'nature' is more robust than people imagine (taking only a few decades to re-establish woodland) but that as part of nature, human beings can play a constructive role in co-creating the natural landscape.

History Corner: Pearce Signs, New Cross

A comment on an ealier post about the history of Laurie Grove Baths set me off looking into another nearby site: 'Loring Hall, one of Goldsmiths Student Residences' (next to the Hobgoblin) 'was built on the site of Pearce Signs offices and factory' with a 'quite elaborate' display of 'a little illuminated man climbing a ladder to a large advert sign' still remembered by many locals.

According to the firm's history, Pearce Signs started out as a small sign-writing business in late 18th century Southwark, expanding to a factory in New Cross Road during the 19th century. In the 20th century it diversified into neon lighting and then, during the Second World War switched to war production: 'Domed headlights were designed and manufactured to reduce the visibility of car lighting from the sky and incoming enemy aircraft'.

Robert Hatton remembers that as a child he was 'blown through the fence of Pearce Signs' by the V2 rocket on 25 November 1944 which destroyed Woolworths opposite, killing 168 people. A temporary mortuary was established at Pearce's.

With peacetime, sign manufacture expanded once again. According to local historian Malcolm Bacchus, who gave a talk earlier this year on the history of New Cross Road at the New Cross Learning Centre, the signage for the first UK McDonalds - in Woolwich - was made there.

The New Cross factory closed in the mid-1990s. Its address in 1995 was still given as Insignia House, 274 New Cross Road, but I believe it closed the following year - though the company is still going with its HQ now in Gosport (Hampshire).

(pictures of factory taken from company website - I am guessing they were taken in the early/mid 1960s. Anybody got any pictures of the outside, including the famous sign)

History Corner: Every Brick Tells a Story

On the Thames beach at Deptford there are various industrial archaeological fragments, each with their own history. Here are three bricks I came across recently.

This first brick is marked 'Glenboig'. The Glenboig Fire Clay Company was founded in 1865 in the central Scottish village. It had its own clay-mine as well as the factory which made the bricks. In 1901 clay miners staged a long and bitter 10 month strike; in 1909, four miners were killed in a roof fall. Glenboig bricks were exported all over the world, this one ending up on the shore of the Thames.

Thistle Bricks also came from Scotland, and were manufactured by John G Stein & Co. Its mine was in Castlecary.

A 1940 catalogue shows that Thistle bricks were designed for use at high temperature, such as in furnaces, and were composed of Silica, Alumina and Ferric Oxide.

The London Brick Company (LBC) was founded in 1900, not in London but at Fletton near Peterborough, where bricks continue to be made from 'Oxford clay' to this day. Brick production brought many Italian workers and their families to the area - in 1960, around 3,000 Italians were employed there by London Brick. 

So now you know, these bricks are not just random refuse. An experienced brick spotter would be able to date bricks such as these by changes in the lettering and fonts over time - not sure I have the time for that just now.

History Corner: The Fifth Monarchists, 17th century London religious radicals

In 1660, the monarchy was restored in England after 11 years in which the country had managed fine without a King. Charles II wasted no time in tracking down and killing the 'regicides' associated with the execution of his father, King Charles I, at the end of the English Civil War in 1649.

The first of the regicides to be hanged, drawn and quartered was Thomas Harrison, who was executed at Charing Cross. He had been one of the Fifth Monarchists, a radical current who believed that the age of earthly kings was over and that Christ would soon return and bring about social justice.

In the aftermath of Harrison's execution, a group of Fifth Monarchists decided to stage an uprising.  On 6 January 1661, around 50 Fifth Monarchists headed by Thomas Venner (a wine-cooper), set off from their meeting house in Swan Alley, off Coleman Street in the City of London. Their manifesto 'A Door of Hope: or a Call and Declaration for the gathering together of the first ripe Fruits unto the Standard of our Lord, King Jesus' called for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, the end of the death penalty for theft, and other social reforms, as well as for the overthrow of the monarchy. After several days of fighting, they were defeated. Venner and ten others were hanged for treason.

In the aftermath of the rising, the government rounded up all kinds of religious dissenters, including Quakers, Baptists and Congregationalists. Their meetings were banned, and thousands were jailed: 'Some 400 Baptists and 500 Quakers were arrested in London alone... So many sectaries were committed at the Croydon sessions for refusing to take the oath of allegiance that Sir John Maynard wondered where they could be detained... According to Maynard, the leader of the Croydon sectaries, Dr Bradley, was allowed by the jailer to 'imprecate destruction on the kings and all the Royall Line, in that which they call there devoction"'.

Despite this repression, dissent continued - including in Southwark and Deptford. In 1661 it was reported to magistrates 'that dissidents were meeting daily at the Southwark home of George Tutchins. Having failed in Venner's attempt, he allegedly said, they would rise again on the next moonlit night, and this time would have the use of fifty five barrels of powder stored in Deptford'.

An intelligence report in March 1661 'noted that a Deptford radical was expending funds to win supporters in the army, while another report of about the same date indicated that ministers in the west who were managing a design were corresponding with the Congregationalist Ralph Venning, lecturer at St Olave's, Southwark'. There were clashes between radicals and conservatives at the time of parliamentary elections in 1661 (albeit elections in which many did not have the vote):  'in Southwark, where there was a long-standing radical community, the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers, under the leadership of Colonel George Thompson and Captain Samuel Lynn, were unable to prevent the election of four conservatives. Once their defeat was apparent, the radicals drew swords and fought with the supporters of Sir Thomas Bludworth'.

Another hotbed was Lee - then in Kent, now part of Lewisham. 'Because it was only a few miles southeast of London, it was easily accessible to radicals from the City. On 1 October [1661], a number of ex-Cromwellians were at Lee, including Colonels Robert Blount (or Blunt) and Thompson along with three other officers. The pulpit at Lee was open to virtually all comers. In the opinion of the informer Edward Potter, its congregation of more than a hundred would "prove as Dangerous to the government of England as any if They are not sudenly prevented". The minister at Lee, William Hickocks, contributed to such fears by preaching that the saints must be willing to die for God's cause'.

In 1662, 'Concerned about meetings of armed dissidents near Deptford in January, the king directed a constable with a band of volunteers to seize all concealed weapons in Blackheath Hundred. In March, London authorities discovered that the grocer Thomas Bone had some twelve pounds of powder and six bullets. Bone not only had ties to the Fifth Monarchist preacher Anthony Palmer, who told him "thes times cannot last long" but was also sending provision to men incarcerated in the Tower for treason'.

In another planned rising (the 'Tong plot' of 1662), conspirators considered a plan to seize the king 'at Camberwell on one of his biweekly visits to Henrietta Maria at Greenwich'.

Re-enactment 2013

Inveterate agitator Ian Bone and others are planning a film/history walk/re-enactment of Venner's 1661 rising early next year. He says:  'On January 6th we will be laying a wreath in Swan Alley off Coleman Street in memory of  Thomas Venner and  his fellow Fifth Monarchists who courageously rose  up here  against the return of the monarchy in 1661'. Meet in Swan Alley at noon - more details here.

Not sure if Ian Bone is a descendent of the Thomas Bone mentioned above, or whether his current home in the borough of Croydon is anywhere near the haunts of the anti-Royalist preacher Dr Bradley.   (Most of the information above, and all the quotes, from 'Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663' by Richard Lee Greaves)

History Corner: Syndicalism in Catford 1912-13

The period before the First World War is sometimes referred to as the 'Great Unrest' as the status quo of Edwardian Britain came under attack from suffragettes, Irish nationalists, and striking workers - in 1912 for instance there were major strikes in London on the docks and amongst tailors in the East End and West End.

Within the workers movement there was intense debate about the way forward. Was the answer to get workers representatives elected to Parliament, as the emerging Labour Party argued? Or was a more radical party committed to abolishing capitalism required? Another current, the syndicalists, argued that political parties were not the answer at all. Rather workers should organise at the point of production, and their industrial organisations would eventually take over the factories, workshops and offices to usher in a classless society.

Proponents of this idea - the best known of whom was Tom Mann (pictured) - formed the Industrial Syndicalist Education League, and published a newspaper 'The Syndicalist & Amalgamation News'.  Reports in this paper show that South East London was one of the areas where these debates were raging.

In December 1912, a Sunday night meeting at the Catford Clarion Club saw 'a large and enthusiastic audience assembled to hear an address by Guy Bowman on Syndicalism. Local enthusiasm had recently run high on the subject of Syndicalism. Previous lectures had centred around the questions of parliamentary action, and Syndicalism, Direct Action, and Sabotage'. The meeting was chaired by 'Comrade Richardson'. The syndicalists presciently criticised a form of socialism as top-down state management, with Bowman arguing at that meeting that this 'would lead the workers into a worse form of tyranny that at present, as at the head of each department of industry we should have a politician comfortably fixed in a job of which he knew no more about than the average chairman of a trust does about the industry form which he draws his profits' (The Syndicalist, January 1913).

Another meeting was held in the same place a few months later - 'The Syndicalist' report by 'Richardson' states that: 'The room was full at the meeting of the Catford Clarion Club on March 9 to listen to a lecture on Social Democracy. Owing to indisposition Guy Bowman was not able to attend, but from the enthusiasm accorded Nefydd Roberts this did not militate against the meeting. In a fighting speech lasting about an hour our "Bobs" put the Syndicalist position so convincingly as to carry the audience entirely with him. He showed how parliamentarianism had led workers up a cul-de-sac. The sending of men to a middle class environment so put them out of contact with the workers as to cause them not to represent the workers at all. He held up to ridicule the Socialists of the docketing type who regard mankind as so many units to be classified out of existence'.

'His constructive criticism was as strong as his destructive. The workers' great need was to unite in militant industrial organisations. Sabotage, the Irritation Strike, and all other means to train the workers to intelligent organisation were shown to be indispensable. The moral objection to these methods was well shown by reference to Lafargue's "My right to be lazy". The case was so strongly put that although the chairman appealed for opposition, it was not forthcoming, This should promise well for linking up of our Catford friends with the ISEL' ('The Syndicalist', March-April 1913)

The same issue also reported meetings at the Morris Hall in Clapham and in Walworth, with Olive Strong writing a report of Dave Armstrong's syndicalist speech at the latter.

I don't know where the Catford Clarion Club was, but the Clarion movement was a national network of socialist clubs (which incidentally included the Clarion Cycling Club).

Tom Mann and Guy Bowman (who spoke at the December 1912 Catford meeting) were among those jailed in 1912 for Incitement to Mutiny after calling on soldiers not to open fire on strikers. Mann went on to be a leading figure in the Communist Party and the National Unemployed Workers Movement, and later in the 1920s was living in Brockley (in 1927 his address was 1 Adelaide Road). His son Charlie Mann was involved in radical theatre troupe Lewisham Red Players in the 1930s

History Corner: Leslie Large of Lewisham & The Vegetarian Cyclists (1880s)

Some notes on the SE London origins of the still existing Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club:

'The Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club can trace its origins back to 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. In September of that year, Leslie Large of Lewisham, an enthusiastic worker in the Vegetarian movement and a keen cyclist, placed notices in a number of periodicals inviting other Vegetarian cyclists to contact him with a view to forming a Vegetarian Cyclist's Club.

Their objective was to provide a means of contact between Vegetarian cycling enthusiasts and to seek to prove, by the yardstick of athletic competition that Vegetarians could easily hold their own against their meat eating counterparts.Through the Spring and Summer of 1888 a series of Club runs and social events were held and the membership built up steadily until over 100 names were on the roll.

The first formal meeting was held on October 9th, 1888 at the Central Vegetarian Restaurant, St. Bride Street, London and this was followed by a meeting on February 9th, 1889 at the Appletree Vegetarian Restaurant, 34 London Wall, when Leslie Large was elected as the first Secretary and Arnold F. Hills, a wealthy industrialist became the first President. The name of the Club was confirmed as the Vegetarian Cycling Club. Reports from those early days are few but it is evident that VCC racing cyclists performed competently if not outstandingly.

Henry Light, a founder member who was elected Captain in 1890 soon became the main driving force behind the Club and under his direction standards of performance of the VCC men improved steadily. 1896 saw the VCC achieve its first outstanding success when Jim Parsley of Peckham won the prestigious Catford Hill Climb, the country's top event, in record time. The VCC were cock-a-hoop at this major breakthrough and held a dinner in Parsley's honour... In 1896 the green and gold triangular badge was introduced. Sadly, the same year, Leslie Large while on a visit to Edinburgh died of diptheria just as his dreams were becoming a reality'.

More at the VCAC website. The Catford Hill Climb is an event that Catford Cycling Club have been organising since the 1880s (see their history). It is held at Yorks Hill in Kent.

(image reproduced from Classic Lightweights)

Leslie Large placed an advert in the Vegetarian Messenger, August 1888 which provides some details, including his address in Hither Green:

'Cycling. - It is proposed to from a London Vegetarian Cyclist's Club. Qualifications: Abstinence from flesh-food and riding a machine. Objects: To collect (and diffuse) information concerning the number and doings of akreophagist cyclists in all parts of the country, and to arrange runs in congenial society for local members (London. S.E.). Badge: Small silver letters, "V.C.C." It will be ready shortly; device, cost about 3d. per set. No subscription will be necessary if the editor of V.M. and other kindred journals will kindly insert notices as required. Any necessary trifling expenses are to be borne by the hon. sec. or any who voluntarily help. It is suggested to hold runs monthly on Saturday afternoons, alternately with shorter trips by moonlight on some other evening monthly. Picnicing in suitable places is recommended, with, if necessary, a tea party at some inn. The hon. sec. intends to forward on Saturday a parcel of meal bread and biscuits to some convenient station, in readiness. Fruit, &c., to be obtained in the neighbourhood as wanted. To facilitate the formation of the lists, which, if all join, will prove most valuable, all who are qualified (ladies as well as gentlemen) are requested to send without delay their addresses and any useful particulars of the kind of machine they use, the favourite distances, achievements, &c., to Leslie Large, 1 Cambridge Terrace, Hither Green, Lewisham' (this and other adverts reproduced at International Vegetarian Union website).

I love the idea of sending a parcel of vegetarian snacks ahead to make sure the cyclists can eat! Also note the word 'akreophagist' as an alternative to vegetarian - that never caught on, not sure it's even in the dictionary.

History Corner: Southwark Bakery 1895

From the anarchist communist journal Liberty (May 1895), an article describing 'An Anarchist's visit to a London Bakery' - a Wholesale Cake Factory in Southwark Bridge Road. Said anarchist was looking for work, but decides not to take the job after talking to the workers there about the pay and conditions. The young women tell him that they 'had been at work since six o'clock in the morning, and that they expected to leave about eight or nine o'clock that night, but frequently they worked longer being just allowed time to snatch what food their scanty wage would permit them to buy'.

The foreman boasts that he 'can get 10,000 short-breads out of one of these girls (with the aid of macinery) in a day' .

History Corner: 1912 Nunhead Tragedies

A hundred years ago, the Old Nun's Head pub was the scene of a bitter inter-family dispute. The story in the South London Press was headlined 'Nunhead schoolgirl's escapade - Publican's daughter's trip to Southend on stolen coppers' (SLP 26 April 1912).

In the children's court at Tower Bridge, twelve year old Nellie Hazell was 'charged by her mother with stealing 20 shillings in coppers from the bar... Mrs Hazell stated that on April 15 she missed four 5s bags of coppers from the bar, and on the same day Nellie did not return from school. On Saturday she heard that Nellie had given herself up at Southend-on-sea'. A few weeks previously she had apparently taken a trip to Hastings in the same way.

The consequences for Nellie were serious. The Magistrate recommended that she be remanded 'with a view to the girl's committal to a school'

Death in police custody

Shortly afterwards another resident of Nunhead Green died in police custody.  Alfred Lockyer (33) 'a carman of 13 Nunhead Green' was arrested for being drunk in charge of a furniture van outside the Duke of Cambridge pub in Hooks Road, Peckham.

Taken to Peckham police station, he was found in the evening to be 'insensible'. His father had come to bail him out, but was refused permission to see him. The Divisional Surgeon ruled that he was 'fit to remain in the cells'. The next morning, a doctor was called for again and Lockyer was moved to Camberwell Infirmary where he died from a fractured skull.

The cause of the injury was not established, and the Coroner refused permission for an acquaintance of the dead man to speak; 'The jury returned a verdict of Accidental death, and added that no blame attached to the police. Lockyer's father complained that the affair was 'shocking' ('Nunhead Man's Death in a Cell', South London Press, 24 May 1912).

History Corner: Police clash with Deptford Irish 1869

Deptford had a significant Irish population in the 19th century with a frequently antagonistic relationship with the police. According to Kent historian Carolyn Conley: 'the Irish at Deptford frequently gathered on Saturday night for street dances. If local merchants complained, the police came in to disperse the dancers, with predictable results. The Irish resisted police interference, a brawl broke out between the Irish and the police, and at least one Irishman was arrested as a an example' (The Unwritten Law: Criminal Justice in Victorian Kent, Oxford University Press, 1991).

One incident along these lines took place in 1869 with riotous scenes in Deptford being the subject of two court cases. Although dancing is not mentioned, the police dispersing a social gathering was the spark for the conflict. And while the nationality of the accused is not specifically stated, it is evident from the surnames of those arrested and of the witnesses that at least some of them were Irish. The case was first heard at Greenwich magistrates, as reported in The Times (9 August 1869):

'At Greenwich, Patrick Connolly, aged 26, Thomas Mansell, 34, John Kirkby, 55, and Johanna Welling, 35, were brought up for final examination charged with being concerned in a riot in Deptford, and seriously assaulting several constables of police... It appeared that on the night of Thursday the 22nd [July] the prisoner Connolly, who has been nine times convicted of assaults upon the police, was causing a disturbance in the High Street, Deptford and when requested to leave by Police Constable Garley he made use of vile language. PC Beard went to Garley's assistance, and on being asked by him to leave, Connolly struck him a violent blow in the mouth and ran away.

The constable pursued him and recaptured him, and then a crowd assembled, bricks and stones were freely thrown at police, by which time others had arrived, and the tradesman in the locality had to close their shops. On police constable Edwards attempting to get Connolly to the staton he was thrown by him violently on the curbstone and Connolly again ran away, but was recaptured. Beard received a violent blow in the eye, which blinded him for the time, and had rendered him unfit for duty since.

The prisoner Mansell then took a prominent part, and attempted to rescue Connolly from Edwards, who received a violent blow upon the face, which knocked him down. When on the ground he was kicked in the ribs, and Mansell, Kirby, and the female prisoner were distinctly sworn to as throwing stones which struck the police'.

The scene of the events, pictured in 1865. According to Old Deptford History, this was taken from the north End of Deptford High Street 'slightly right shows the entrance into Old King St which went into Watergate St at the far end. To the left we can see New King St. All this area was demolished to make way for Evelyn St to join up with Creek Road' . The buildings pictured would be about where the Harp of Erin pub and Methodist Hall now stand.


The prisoners were refused bail and committed for trial at the Old Bailey. The transcript of the trial  on 16 August 1869 at Old Bailey Online shows that the police version of events was contested by witnesses.

PC Frederick Gurley told the court there: 'On 22nd July, at 7.30 p.m., I was on duty in High Street, Deptford, and saw thirty or thirty-five persons at the bottom of the street, blocking up the thoroughfare on the pavement, and causing an obstruction—I spoke to Connolly who was there, and told him to move on—he said that he should not—I said that the shop-keepers complained that respectable people could not pass, and begged he would move away—he said, "No, I shall not, not for you; I shall stand here just as long as I like"—I asked him civilly to move again—he said, "No, I shall not, not for a b—like you"—I went into High Street and got the assistance of Beard, we returned together, and Connolly used very bad language—Beard asked him to move away and not make a disturbance there, upon which Connolly struck him a violent blow on the mouth with his fist, and ran twenty yards down King Street—I ran after him and caught him... a mob got round, and stones and brickbats were thrown in all directions.'

Other police officers described the crowd as about 100 strong and claimed that they had not use their batons. However, witnesses for the defence told a different story. Elizabeth Mansell told the court: 'I live at 18, New King Street, Deptford, and am Mansell's brother's wife—on the night of the 22nd July, when the police attempted to take Connolly, Mansell was standing by but took no part in it—I was looking at the man who knocked the policeman down, it was none of the prisoners... they had Connolly down and had their knees or their boots on his stomach—I have been fifteen years in this country and I never saw such treatment before—their staves were out and they knocked him about fearfully—to the best of my opinion they were drunk... they had all got their staves out, hitting Connolly over the head, and kicking him—I did not see him do anything to them'.

Mary Leary of  22 Barnes' Alley, Deptford said that 'I saw Connolly lying on his back in the road, and the four policemen beating him with their staves—I asked a policeman not to kill him, and he turned round and struck me on the arm'.

Kate Mahoney denied that the female accused had thrown any stones: 'I live in Queen's Court, opposite Mrs. Willing—on 22nd July, when the mob came, her door was shut; her lodger came and opened it and she came out and folded her arms, and never stooped or turned, and I saw the police pass by a step or two, and drag her by the shoulders—there are no loose stones in the court—she did not throw stones—she had her arms folded till the policeman dragged her by the shoulders'.

At the end of the trial, Connolly and Mansell were found guilty of assaulting police and sentenced to two years and one year in prison respectively, but Willing and Kirby were found not guilty.

[nb The Times reports refers to Johanna Welling aged 35; the Old Bailey reports to Johanna Willing aged 37]

History Corner: Nunhead Station Shooting 1924

On March 18 1924 there was a tragic incident at Nunhead railway station. John Alfred West, a 24 year old lorry driver from Marylebone, shot his ex-fiancee Edith Agnes Barker (23) as she was getting off the train. She recovered, but he died of his injuries at Kings College Hospital the next day.

Barker, of Gibbon Road, was a programme seller at the Scala Theatre. Her father, Thomas Cornish Harker,  ran a newsagent near to the station. He told The Times that the couple had been engaged for four and a half years, but had broken up six weeks before; 'Since then West has been bothering her with his attentions. Last night she came home as usual by herself, by the 11.50 train from St Pauls Station. At the Elephant and Castle Station, West, who appears to have been waiting for her, got into the compartment where she was. On arriving at Nunhead, just as she was getting out of the train, she tells me, West pointed a revolver at her and fired. He fired two shots at her and then one at himself. Edith fell forward on to the platform bleeding from a bullet wound in the face' (Times 19 March 1924)

At the inquest into West's death, station attendant Charles Abbs recalled 'Miss Harker jumped from the train, dropped her attache case on the platform, and collapsed in my arms, saying "He has shot me". The next thing I saw was the man standing in his carriage, and before anything could be done there was another report of a revolver. The man gave a half-right turn and fell on the back of his head on the platform with his legs remaining inside the carriage' (Times, 26 March 1924).

History Corner: Harry Brookes, Musical Navvy

Much of the urban landscape of London - and indeed much that we imagine as the 'natural' surrounding rural landscape - was built by 'navvies', many of them Irish, who dug out tunnels and laid out railways lines and roads with pick, shovel and hammer. In Victorian times in particular their working conditions were generally appalling, and indeed the situation faced by workers on the railway from Lewisham to Tunbridge Wells was used as an example by Karl Marx in 'Capital' (chapter 25):

"We turn now to a class of people whose origin is agricultural, but whose occupation is in great part industrial. They are the light infantry of capital, thrown by it, according to its needs, now to this point, now to that. When they are not on the march, they “camp.” Nomad labour is used for various operations of building and draining, brick-making, lime-burning, railway-making, & c. A flying column of pestilence, it carries into the places in whose neighbourhood it pitches its camp, small-pox, typhus, cholera, scarlet fever & c. In undertakings that involve much capital outlay, such as railways, the contractor himself generally provides his army with wooden huts and the like, thus improvising villages without any sanitary provisions, outside the control of the local boards, very profitable to the contractor, who exploits the labourers in two-fold fashion — as soldiers of industry and as tenants... One example will suffice. In September, 1864, Dr. Simon reports that the Chairman of the Nuisances Removal Committee of the parish of Sevenoaks sent the following denunciation to Sir George Grey, Home Secretary:

'Small-pox cases were rarely heard of in this parish until about twelve months ago. Shortly before that time, the works for a railway from Lewisham to Tunbridge were commenced here, and, in addition to the principal works being in the immediate neighbourhood of this town, here was also established the depôt for the whole of the works, so that a large number of persons was of necessity employed here. As cottage accommodation could not be obtained for them all, huts were built in several places along the line of the works by the contractor, Mr. Jay, for their especial occupation. These huts possessed no ventilation nor drainage, and, besides, were necessarily over-crowded, because each occupant had to accommodate lodgers, whatever the number in his own family might be, although there were only two rooms to each tenement. The consequences were, according to the medical report we received, that in the night-time these poor people were compelled to endure all the horror of suffocation to avoid the pestiferous smells arising from the filthy, stagnant water, and the privies close under their windows'".

The Musical Navvy

The stereotype of the hard working, hard drinking, hard fighting navvy became a fixture of popular culture, but over time so did a more romantic notion of the uprooted peasant carrying with him the culture of his agricultural past, with a twinkle in his eye and the gift of the gab. Among the music hall acts of the early 20th century was Harry Brookes from Lewisham. Mentioned in the Bexhill Observer (1912) he was 'billed as “the musical navvy,” [and] does not belie the terse description. Garbed in the typical attire of the role, with pickaxe on shoulder, he indulges in some humorous patter. As a player on the banjo, mandolin and other stringed instruments, he proves himself a capable master, exhibiting a great deal of skill. He succeeded in eliciting rounds of applause on Monday night for his really clever performance'.

There are a number of photographs in existence of him from 1936. The Getty caption to this one states:  '1st May 1936: Lewisham labourer Harry Brookes (centre) plays the banjo for a group of friends, while a cameraman films them for the Gaumont magazine'. The same image at Corbis is captioned: 'A camera operator films Harry Brookes, who is wearing the trilby, who claims to be the original musical navvy. Mr Brooks used to tour the music halls and he makes his own instruments'

'Harry Brookes, a builder from south London shows off a tiny banjo he has made, believed to be the smallest real one in the world. His hobby is making and playing instruments, and he has appeared on stage as 'the musical navvy':

'Musical navvy Harry Brookes playing his musical pickaxe while a cameraman films him for the Gaumont magazine'.

Anybody know anything about Harry Brookes? Would love to find out more.

(h/t Hutnyk for the Marx/Lewisham quote)

History Corner: 'Colour Bar Pub' in Forest Hill 1964/5

Everyone surely knows about the US civil rights campaign against racially segregated lunch counters, such as the famous 1960 Nashville sit-ins. Sad to recall though that similar campaigns were still necessary in 1960s London, with a pub in Forest Hill being a key battleground in the last year before racial segregation of social spaces was finally banned.

The Dartmouth Arms (Dartmouth Road, SE23) was the focus of protests in 1964/65 as a result of its policy of banning black people from its saloon bar. In September 1964 'four coloured businessmen' (three Caribbean and one from  Hong Kong) staged a sit-in in the saloon bar, refusing to leave after they were refused service.

Peace News, 18 September 1964

Matters came to a head in December 1964 when anti-racists staged a sit-in at the pub and in January 1965 when the Brockley International Friendship Association organised a picket of 50 people outside the pub. The demonstrators included the curate of St Hildas Church in Crofton Park and eight members of the Church's youth club.

'We deplore the colour bar at the Dartmouth Arms'

A few days later the Mayor of Lewisham, Tom Bradley, was refused service in the pub when he tried to buy a drink for Melbourne Goode of the the Brockley International Friendship Association: 'He had ordered a drink for himself and a friend but had never received them. The reason: his friend was coloured. And the publican, Mr Harold Hawes, refuses to service coloured people in the saloon bar' (Mercury, 29 January 1965 - clippings below are from same paper).

Later in 1965 The British government made it illegal to refuse to serve black people in pubs and other ‘places of public resort’ when it passed Britain’s first Race Relations Act (a year after the similar US Civil Rights Act). 

The pub is still there of course and today all are welcome. 

[post updated February 2024 with additional Peace News clipping]

See also:

Deptford pubs colour bar 1958 

Coventry Working Men's Club 'Colour Bar' (1971)

History Corner: Nights Out in South East London 1939

Last week on Deptford Market I found a crumpled copy of the South London Advertiser dated April 21st 1939. War was in the air, and indeed the paper reported that 'When Ellen Hamilton Williams (72), a widow, of Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, heard over the wireless that the Italian troops has occupied Albania she was upset. Later she took an overdose of medinal and died'.

But still, people needed to enjoy themselves and the paper's adverts give a fascinating snapshot of South East London social life in that period.

The Cinema

Going to the cinema seems to have been the popular option. One of the biggest in the area was the New Cross Kinema (now the Venue nightclub) which had a cafe restaurant and a Palais de Danse as well as showing films. Like most cinemas it has a Saturday morning 'Kiddies Club'.

The East Dulwich Odeon was next to where Goose Green Primary School now stands on Grove Vale.

The Gaumont Palace in Lewisham was on Loampit Vale had live performances as well as films - with Billy Cotton and his Band playing at this time - they were one of the biggest dance bands of the period.

Peckham cinemas included the Odeon (on the High Street near to the current Job Centre) and the Tower cinema on Rye Lane (part of the latter building is still there).

Camberwell Odeon was on Denmark Hill near the Coldharbour Lane junction. It later became Dickie Dirts jean store in the 1980s and then was squatted for a while before demolition in 1993.

Forest Hill cinemas included the Astoria on Wastdale Road and the Capitol - the latter now the Weatherspoons pub on London Road.

The paper reported that a new organist was starting at the Capitol - Rudy Lewis, apparently far famed after stints at Lewisham Gaumont, Luton, Dagenham and Grimsby (where he said he was mobbed by autograph hunting girls). He wrote his own songs: 'The number - the words are his own -which he has been playing much to the delight of the Capitol audiences this week is "Doing the Gas Mask Walk"'. Born Rubin Lipshitz, he seems to have ended up in Washington DC where he died in 1990. I suspect he was also responsible for Rudy Lewis and The Sputniks who released a single in 1960 (not to be confused with a different Rudy Lewis who was in The Drifters).

The Rink cinema in Sydenham was on Silverdale. It was originally opened as a roller skating rink, then converted to a cinema. It closed at the start of the war and never re-opened, though the building survived until the 1990s.

Going to the dogs

There was greyhound racing in New Cross three nights a week. The stadium was near to the present Millwall football ground, off Ilderton Road (see photo here). 

There was also greyhound racing at Crayford and Charlton.

Theatre

The New Cross Empire was a theatre and music hall. In April 1939 The Court Players were performing Lot's Wife, 'A saucy comedy about charming people'. The paper reported 'Now that the Players have settled down at New Cross they are growing increasingly popular with the patrons and many people go week by week mainly to see their favourite performers'. It interviewed 'Leslie Handford, who is making a great success in light comedy parts at the New Cross Empire' following stints in the army and with the circus as a clown. He went on to have minor parts in 1950s TV and cinema. 

Eating Out

The Amersham Hotel (now the Amersham Arms) was advertising 'four course luncheon' in its restaurant and a 'first class snack bar... for those in a hurry... something tasty always ready'

In Forest Hill, The Swiss Cottage was advertising 'The Luxury and Comfort of the West End in the Suburbs'.

Politics

Politics everywhere was dominated by the question of war and peace. A meeting was held at Lewisham Town Hall called by the 'Congress of Peace and Friendship with the USSR'. The speakers included Hewlett Johnson, the famous 'Red Dean' of Canterbury Cathedral and Arthur Skeffington, later a Labour MP for Lewisham. Johnson has been accused of apologetics for Stalinism as he loyally followed the twists and turns of Soviet foreign policy in this period, though ultimately his call for Britain to ally with Russia against Germany was to become government policy in the Second World War.

Anyone know more about R.W. Usher, the organising secretary who lived at 257 Sydenham Rd?

[source for all the above: South London Advertiser, 21 April 1939]

History Corner: Surrey Docks 1925

Another treasure from the BFI Archive - Port of London Authority Aquatic Sports Gala Day in 1925, with dockworkers, families and friends swimming, diving and playing water polo at Surrey Commercial Docks.

Some great 1920s haircuts, especially woman second from left
who also seems to be modelling Burberry

History Corner: Peckham in 1913

The British Film Institute has recently uploaded lots of films to youtube, it is a treasure trove worth spending some time browsing in. In fact I've just spend hours doing just that! An early favourite of mine is this film of Alexandra Rose Day in Peckham in 1913, a charity fundraising event featuring a large group of women in white walking and dancing in the streets while selling artificial roses to raise funds for local hospitals. Can you identify any of the buildngs? The shopping scenes are presumably Rye Lane.





Is this the corner of Rye Lane/Hanover Park, where the HSBC is now?
Note Williamson's teas and luncheons next door.