On rediscovering where you were born ............. The General Lying in Hospital at Lambeth

My hospital, 2007

We all have little bits of our past which we stumble across.

Most are too personal to warrant even a sentence in a history book but sometimes you know that there is a story and it is story which will pretty much touch lots of people.

I had never bothered looking up where I was born after all given that it happened on an October day in 1949 I just assumed like so many places in my life the hospital would long ago have vanished replaced by a dreary 1950’s office block or worse a car park.

But the General Lying in Hospital at Lambeth on York Road is still there although it closed for business in 1971.

Now if I am to be strictly accurate the building that saw me enter the world was the second Lying in Hospital.

The first opened on Westminster Bridge Road was replaced by my hospital in 1828 and in its time according to one source 150,000 babies were born there.*

All of which puts me in good company and no doubt once the story hits the web there will be some who come forward with their own stories.

Not that there is much to mine and until I began digging I had even got the name wrong believing that it was the Royal Lying in Hospital.

Nor do I have any memory of this grand building or whether I visited it when my four sisters were born.

I know that after its closure it fell into disrepair, went on to the Buildings at Risk Register and finally a shed load of money was spent on its restoration only for it to be sold to a hotel chain.

Perhaps it’s time for me to book a room there although I hardly think I will end up anywhere near where I resided 69 years ago.***

Picture; the General Lying in Hospital, August 27 2007, © Elliot Simpson

* The General Lying in Hospital, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Lying-In_Hospital

**York Road, BHO British History on line http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol23/pp40-44 

***London, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/London

The Pillar Box …… and the journey

I always like to get pictures from friends, and knowing our shared liking for those old red post boxes, Barbarella sent me this one.

Barbarella's post box, 2023

She said it was “near Blackfriars Station, where Calvi got killed in the 1980s”.

Calvi was Roberto Calvi who according to my Wikipedia "was an Italian banker, dubbed 'God's Banker' by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. 

He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of Italy's biggest political scandals.

Calvi's death in London in June 1982 is a source of enduring controversy and was ruled a murder after two coroners' inquests and an independent investigation”.

And if you want more just follow the link or look up other biographies because that is all I am going to write about him.

Instead it is the post box and its location which has drawn me in.

At a time when people are speculating on how soon it will be before the King’s name, face or initials appear in public here is one of the red boxes with the letters for Queen Victoria.

My posty friend David Harrop will I am sure offer up a heap of interesting information on the said box so I shall await his response.

On Tudor Street, 2023

In the meantime I went on a bit of a journey to find it. 

Barbarella had said near the railway station, and the giveaway was a  sign for a restaurant.  

It was only the two letters J. D., but a search of London restaurants turned up a J. D. at 24 Tudor Street E.C.4, and the rest as they was a simple trip to google maps and the location of Jones Dairy just yards from Queen Victoria’s pillar box.

It is open all day, from 6.30 till 4 pm, has some good reviews but bizarrely the link to its website takes you to Holland.

Tudor Street is one of those longish, narrow streets which runs from New Bridge Street to Temple Avenue and is just a few minutes’ walk from the River.  

Its origins are perhaps hinted at by the names of Whitefriars and Carmelite Streets, and it is easy to slip back and recreate what it might have been like in the past.

Today huge modern buildings rise from the street which are a mix of styles and periods.  

Directly opposite J.D’s and our pillar box stands a fort like structure with few windows at ground level.  It is big, impressive and stands on the site of the City of London Gas Works, which boasted 16 gasometers of varying sizes of which the largest stood on that big and impressive Tudor Street building.

Tudor Street and a Gas Works, 1872

It is unclear as yet what stood beside our pillar box in the 1870s but they look to be smaller properties, possibly residential while just a little to the west was a glass manufacturer, and beyond that the Temple.

By 1910 the short strip bounded by Whitefriars Street and Dorset Street consisted a publishers, a manufacturing stationers and a firm of analysts with the White Swan, a coffee shop, a doctor’s surgery along with a newsagents, dinning rooms and a tobacconists all of whom would no doubt have made use of our pillar box.

Location; Tudor Street, City of London

Pictures; our Victorian pillar box, 2023, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento and Tudor Street in 1872 from the OS map of London, 1872, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Roberto Calvi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi

Looking east along the River …………. past a forest of cranes

This is the view from London Bridge that I remember.

And it was a scene I thought was lost forever, leaving me just a memory of that forest of cranes, and ships that had crossed the oceans to unload goods as varied as fruit, ball bearings and much more.

Now I know there are heaps of pictures of the Thames when it was a busy industrial waterway, but not this view, which was one I saw, as I walked over London Bridge in the late 1950s and 60s.

I regularly travelled up from Peckham and later Well Hall on the train, alighting at London Bridge Railway Station, and by degree making my way over the river, down those stairs at the northern end of the bridge and then along Lower Thames Street, past Billingsgate Market to the Tower of London.

It was a Saturday trip I did quite frequently, almost always on my own, with the aim of submerging myself in the history of this bit of London.

The Tower was always the object of the trip, but there was always so much to see, and in the case of the old Peak Freens factory to smell as well.

And to this day, the equally powerful smell of the fish market bounces back from my memory and reminds me of the image of bits of abandoned ice and fish bits which lay in the gutter before they were cleared away.

On the odd occasion I get home, and equally rarer moment that I retrace my steps over the river at London Bridge, that old scene of the warehouses, ships and cranes is difficult to recreate.

So, I was pleased that John King shared his picture of the Thames from the bridge which he took in 1968, and its companion taken over 40 years later.

Together they encapsulate the changes which have taken place along the river.

And here I am the first to say I don’t do nostalgia.  The Thames could be a cruel place, and those who made their livelihood along it, did back breaking and dangerous work, often for a pittance, while life in the terraced houses and tenements behind the warehouses could be a constant struggle to make a home clean, and safe in buildings which were long past their sell by date.

But given all of that, I miss that view, east over the water to Tower Bridge and the docks.

Location; London

Pictures; the River Thames, 1968 and 2011, from the collection of John King

The Covid Memorial Wall …………. London ….. today

I sometimes think those powerful words “Lest We Forget” are used too lightly.

So often they are the response to a picture or story about the sacrifices of those who fought or were just caught up in the wars this country has fought in the last two centuries.

And while I don’t criticize those who post the lines, sometimes the image or the account of one person’s experience demands more.

That said I found Paula Griffin’s  pictures of The Covid Memorial Wall very moving.  

The wall Paula writes "is on the Lambeth side of the Thames by St Thomas’s facing the Houses of Parliament... Really difficult to convey the size of this with hearts representing all of those who have died after contracting this disease just to say it stretches all the way from Westminster Bridge to Lambeth Palace.”

And for those of us who are Londoners or live in the city that is a significant distance.

In all Paula recorded 24 images which are on that excellent site All Things Photographic, where they can all be seen.*

I would just like to thank Paula for allowing me to use some of the pictures.

Location; London

Pictures; The Covid Memorial Wall, London, 2021, from the collection of Paula Griffin

*All things Photographic, https://www.facebook.com/groups/331565394411795

Travel bargains from Jolly Josephus ........ twice round the block with Queen Boudicca

“Travel with the Iceni ……… experience the shock of the destruction of Londinium, Camoludunum and Verulamium ……..and thrill at the final showdown when the legions face out Boudicca’s forces.

Reductions for party groups and genuine Romans”.

Gnaeus Julius  Agricola, former soldier and now fashion correspondent for the Tribune remarks

“Scythes are so passe this year ... they may have been last seasons must have accompaniment but are now so  unacceptable in view of the Imperial decree from Rome from the office of the Emperor Nero that they constitute a health issue and should only be attached when celebrating the Festival of Sul”.

Location; London

Picture; Boudicca about to set off on the rampage, 2020, from the collection of Stephen Hale

Travelling the DLR, looking for the driver

Now I have yet to travel the Dockland Light Railway, which is nothing to do with the lack of a driver, just that I left Well Hall in 1969, and rarely get back.

But in my absence, they built a railway, which my friend who also lives in the North travels on whenever he can.

So here is his picture with his comment,

“I've travelled on the DLR to all its extremities sitting at the front wherever possible.

It's a bit unnerving to travel with just a guard and no driver but excellent for photography as can be seen from this picture approaching Canary Wharf”.

Location; London

Pictures; arriving at Canary Wharf, 2012 from the collection of Ron Stubley 

Cab shelters I have known ...... number 2 ..... Kensington Road, London, 2013

Now I am a great fan of street furniture which can come in all shapes and sizes and once performed different tasks.*

My own favourite has to be the horse, tough which when I was growing up in London were still very much in use.

Over the last two years lots of other bits of street furniture have caught my fancy and made their way in to the series.

And yesterday I dug out an old picture of the cab man’s shelter I took in Ripon in 2014.

Passing it again at the weekend it stirred the pot and became a story.

Bill Sumner followed up with heaps of information about it and Dave pointed out my miss spelling of Ripon which as regular readers will know is a feature of the blog.

But passing over that, here is another cabman’s shelter, from the camera of my old friend Andy Robertson whose accompanying comment was short and pertinent, ....... “not to be outdone!.....Kensington Road, near Hyde Park, London, September 2013."

And with that I await more additions to the series, Street Furniture lost and saved and point out that, the white and grey plaque adds the bits I left out.*

Although as an after thought I am looking for that famous image of two "high society darlings" slumming it after a night on the town with a cup of tea and shed load of London cabbies.

The decade could be the '30's but equally might stray into any year from the next two decades.

The photographer may have been Bill Brandt, and that I think adds a second challenge.

Location, London


Picture; cabman’s shelter, London, 2013 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Street Furniture lost and saved, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Street%20Furniture%20lost%20and%20saved

Mr Bishop and his sons do ghost signs

I have to say it has been a while since I did a ghost sign and so was very pleased when Brian sent this one over.

It was taken not far from Victoria Railway Station in London.

I don’t suppose I will ever find out much about the firm, but someone might, so for now I shall just thank Brian and see if anyone comes up with a story.

London

Picture; ghost sign, London, 2018 from the collection of Brian Robertson

Tower Bridge .............. and thoughts of crossing the Thames

Now if you come from south east London the river is one of the things that defines who you are.

I have always felt comfortable in my bit of London and if truth were told only really feel I have come home when the train pulls across the Thames into Waterloo.

Many of us will also have experienced that rather sniffy and condescending attitude from those who live over the river and which always comes down to tales of taxis refusing to go over London Bridge and a belief that they have the keys to the real city.

So with that in mind after I had bored Peter with the pleasures of my part of London he agreed to take Ryan Ginn’s fine picture of Tower Bridge and paint it, and here is the result.

I am always impressed by both Peter's paintings and Ryan's photographs which are a regular feature of the blog and appear on various facebook sites.

Painting; London Bridge from a photograph by Ryqn Ginn, © 2016 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures, 
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

*Crossing the Thames early one morning .................. home thoughts from abroad
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/crossing-thames-early-one-morning-home.html 

Crossing the Thames early one morning .................. home thoughts from abroad

Sometimes a single picture has the power to call up thoughts of home.

It’s not something that happens that often.

The North has been my home for forty five years which is  far longer than my life in London and I am very happy here but  just occasionally I am reminded of what I left and Ryan's picture has done that for me.

Of course given the size of the place most Londoners define themselves by the bit they come from and for me it is south east London.

I was born in Lambeth, lived for a while on the borders of Peckham and New Cross and ended up in Eltham.

All of which means that I only really feel I have come home when the train pulls out of Charing Cross Station  across the river towards Waterloo.

Now it is easy to over sentimentalise the Thames but as I write this I realise just how much of my early life was spent close to it.

As a kid we would play on that bit of beach in front of the Tower or down beside the Naval College and a little later spent lots more time just sitting on the ferry.

So much so that recently on our way back from Kent and having messed up the M25 we found ourselves passing the old house at Well Hall and I knew that we would have to make the crossing at Woolwich.

The wait to embark took far longer than the crossing but it was magic and Tina who is Italian loved it.

The river is no longer the busy, noisy thoroughfare I remember from my youth but the smell and the views were still pretty good.

So I will close by thanking Ryan for posting his photograph and giving me permission to use it.

It was taken early yesterday morning as he headed home from the night shift and reminded me of smiliar trips.

Picture; crossing the river Monday November 3 2015 from the collection of Ryan Ginn

Rambles From the London Tube ............... a blog well worth reading

Now here is a blog well worth exploring which will take you across London and out into the open spaces beyond.*

I came across it by accident when its author replied to a story about Eltham I posted today.

Rambles From the London Tube is one of those fascinating blogs which keeps you going from one destination to another, and has so far seen me through three espressos and a missed breakfast, not to say an important piece of research, deferred while I followed Di across London.

For me of course it’s got to be the posts on South East London using the Docklands Light Railway and especially the South London Walks and the Isle of Dogs.

There is here a wonderful mix of history pictures and walks, all the more compelling for a lad who left Eltham in 1969 for the North, only return on family visits.

As such I have never been on the Docklands Railway which our Elizabeth says has reached Woolwich and can only wonder at how the Isle of Dogs has been transformed.

I shall I fear be missing more deadlines today but perhaps will ration myself to a trip a day, before wandering off again for stories from the North, and while I no longer subscribe to Johnson's line that "When a man is tired of London he is tired of life," ** Rambles from the London Tube helps you see what he might have meant.

Picture; heading picture from Rambles From the London Tube I hope with permission

*Rambles From the London Tube, http://www.londontuberambles.co.uk/

**"When a man is tired of London he is tired of life, For there is in London all that life can afford," Septemeber 20,1777, quoted by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

On Lausanne Road with that cast iron sewer pipe ................. now that’s a zippy tittle

Now I always took that tall cast iron sewer pipe beside the Swiss Tavern on the corner of Lausanne and Belfort Roads for granted.

Down in Plumstead

It was just one of those bits of street furniture you grew up with and as a result I never bothered to record it.

Happily our Colin took the one just down from Bastion Road in Plumstead and although it is painted in a slightly different colour it is no different.

Now I am pretty much sure I am going to be corrected today or at the very least attract someone who knows more about 19th century sewer ventilation pipes than I do.

They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below and I suppose they are still necessary today.

Colin reckoned he heard running water when he took one picture of the base.

I have not come across one in Manchester but I bet there will be someone who has, and posts the fact with perhaps a picture.

I expect they help date the area.  One source I read suggested that they were erected in the years after the Great London Stink in 1858 and this would fit roughly with when my bit of Peckham was being laid out.

They were particularly necessary in hilly areas where gas could get trapped in pockets, and both my the area around Lausanne Road and Colin’s Plumstead are built on hills.

And at least one chap got in on the act and in 1895  Joseph Edmund Webb, of Birmingham, patented the

“Webb’s Patent Sewer Gas Destructor in  March 1895. 

At its top behind a glass, burned a small flame from the town’s gas supply. 

This acted as a chimney, drawing the sewer gas up to the flame, where it was ignited, thus illuminating the street. The cleverness of Mr Webb’s patent was the way it regulated the supply of sewer gas.
North Tyneside council has restored ten in Whitley Bay and Monkseaton. Blyth council has restored five. Sheffield, though, is the capital of the destructor.

Henry Eddie & Co, Bow Foundry

It was built on seven hills, so there were lots of folds and u-bends in its sewer system in which to trap gas.

From 1914 to 1935, it installed 84 destructors, of which 22 remain with three still at work, casting an orange glow on the Sheffield streets.*

And much to my surprise there is even a facebook page.**

Which I think might indeed be a fitting point to close on although I have yet to find Henry Eddie & Co Ltd or the Bow Foundry.

All I need now is someone to post me a picture of my old sewer pipe which will no doubt raise a verse of
“They are moving father’s grave to build a sewer," but that as they say is another story.***

Pictures; from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick 2013   

*The Northern Echo July 2008 http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3211527.Is_this_just_the_tip_of_the_stink_pole_/

**Sewer gas destructor lamp, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sewer-gas-destructor-lamp/138360699526339

***Of sewers, music halls and deep deep tunnels, Barlow Moor Road in 1911, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/of-sewers-music-halls-and-deep-deep.html