Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places.Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 6
Walford, Edward
1872-78
Newington and Walworth.
Newington and Walworth.
| |
is within the limits of the parliamentary borough of ; it is a parish of itself, and adjoins on the south. It was anciently called Neweton, or New Town. Lysons considers that in early times the church of this parish stood at , and that on its removal further westward, the buildings erected around it gradually acquired the name of
| |
A small portion of the main road through the parish, running southward from the is called , which, writes Northouck, is thought to have been so designated, Other writers, however, are of opinion that the derivation is from the family of Butts, or Buts, who owned an estate here. | |
The public-house, now a mere central starting-point for omnibuses, was formerly a well-known coaching house; its sign was the crest of the Cutlers' Company, into whose trade ivory enters largely. | |
This celebrated tavern is situated about mile and a half from , Waterloo, and Blackfriars Bridges, and on a spot where several cross roads meet, leading from these bridges to important places in Kent and Surrey. Before railways drove our old stage-coaches from the road, the was a well-known locality to every traveller going anywhere south of London. Its character, however, has become to a certain extent | |
256 | changed, and it is now chiefly known to the inhabitants of Camberwell, Dulwich, , , Stockwell, and Clapham. |
In the Middle Ages, as we are reminded by Mr. Larwood, in his the elephant was nearly always represented with a castle on his back. Early manuscripts represent the noble brute with a tower strapped on his back, in which are seen knights in chain armour, with swords, battle-axes, cross-bows, and emblazoned shields, thus realising the words of the Roman satirist, Juvenal- The in elaborate and costly sets of chessmen, is often set on the back of an
| |
In the early part of the present century this spot | |
had an additional renown. Within a few doors of the old inn, Joanna Southcott, of whom we have spoken in our notice of Wood, set up a meeting-house for her deluded followers. Her disciple, Mr. Carpenter, covered the walls with strange pictures representing, as he said, visions he had received; observes a writer in the ,
| |
In , whilst some workmen were engaged in laying down pipes for the water company, a portion of the roadway in front of the and within a few feet of the kerb, was opened, when of the men came upon what he thought at was a box, but what in the end proved to be a coffin containing human remains. These were found to be those of a person, it was believed, of some years of age. All the parts were nearly complete, but, singular to state, there was an absence of either hands or feet. The skull was in a wonderful state of preservation, but on side there was an indentation, as though a blow had been given causing a fracture. In the coffin was found a clasp-knife, somewhat resembling that carried by sailors. There was also a piece of woollen fabric, upon which were marks believed to be those of blood. The discovery was considered as very singular, considering the frequent alterations that had been made in the roadway for years past. It was believed that the coffin and contents must have been under ground for quite years. | |
In , near the are the Drapers' Almshouses, founded by Mr. John Walter, in . The houses are of brick, and were rebuilt in . To these almshouses the parish has the privilege of nominating of its own parishioners; the remainder are appointed by the Drapers' Company. | |
On the west side of the , and on the site now occupied by the horse repository, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and the colossal block of buildings at the corner of , stood for many years, down till the year , a picturesque cluster almshouses belonging to the Fishmongers' Compaiy. There were separate buildings. , Hospital, was built by the company in --; the other, due to the munificence of Mr. Jajes Hulbert, a liveryman, dated its erection from . These almshouses were quaiint,--old-fashioned, quadrangular piles of building, of Gothic architecture, with mullioned windows; they were enclosed by low walls, and in part surrounded by patches of garden-ground, sunk below the roadway. They appear to have been, from the , in part supported by a voluntary appropriation, by the Company of Fishmongers, of a portion of the revenues of Sir Thomas Kneseworth's estate; but the earliest benefaction which can be considered as a specific endowment, and which seems to have given occasion to the erection of the hospital, was that by Sir Thomas Hunt, who,
| |
William Hunt, Esq., son of the above-mentioned Sir Thomas, in accomplishment of his father's will, executed several grants of annuities of each, dated , issuing from cottages and lands in , which annuities were granted
| |
In Mr. Robert Spencer gave towards erecting or more almshouses for the company's poor; and in the following year, on mention of Hunt's legacy and Spencer's donation, and an estimate by the wardens that dwellings could be erected for , the court of the company consented to the erecting thereof, and they obtained, on petition, from James I., dated , permission to erect and establish the said almshouses, to be called and the court of the company to be incorporated by the name of &c., with a common seal, power to hold lands, &c., and to make statutes for the government of the said hospital. The court ordered () that poor men and women should be placed in the hospital at the next Christmas, of them being pursuant to Hunt's will. Each of them were to receive so much money weekly as, with the company's alms and Hunt's legacy, should make their pensions weekly. | |
By degrees more houses were added to those | |
258 | originally built, and the whole building as it stood, down to the time of its demolition, consisting of dwellings, a chapel, and a hall, was finished in , as appeared by an inscription on the east front of the hall. The windows of the hall were enriched with painted glass, and over the chimney-piece were the arms, supporters, crest, and motto of the Fishmongers' Company. Hospital is now located at Wandsworth. |
Hulbert's Almshouses were erected on a piece of ground belonging to the Fishmongers' Company, lying on the south side of Hospital. It was a neat and imposing little pile, consisting of courts with gardens behind, together with a dining-hall and chapel, and a statue of the founder on a pedestal in the centre of the enclosure. | |
In the high road between the and Park stands the old , with the date over the door. | |
There was formerly a hospital of Our Lady and St. Catherine at , which continued till the year , when their proctor, William Cleybrooke, being dispossessed of his home, was fortunate enough to obtain a licence to beg! | |
At the beginning of the century there was in this parish a theatre, in which the Lord Admiral's and Lord Chamberlain's performed. This theatre was occasionally used by the players from the at , in Shakespeare's time. The exact site of the abovementioned theatre is not known, but it was probably very near to the spot where now stands the Theatre, on the south side of the , near the railway station. | |
At a short distance westward of the Fishmongers' Almshouses, near to , on the south side of , formerly stood the tall boarded structure represented in our illustration on page . It served for some time the purposes of a semaphore telegraph tower. | |
Nearly opposite the and on part of the ground formerly occupied by the Fishmongers' Almshouses, stands the Metropolitan Tabernacle-better known as --the stone of which was laid by Sir Samuel Morton Peto in . The edifice, which | |
259 260 | is upwards of feet long, feet broad, and feet high, is approached at the eastern end by a flight of steps which extend the whole width of the building. The principal entrances are beneath a noble portico, the entablature and pediment of which are supported by lofty Corinthian columns. The chapel contains some sittings of all kinds. There is room for persons without excessive crowding; and there are also a lecture-hall capable of holding about , a school-room for children, class-rooms, Besides these the building contains
|
As we have already had occasion to state, the congregation for whom this edifice was erected, met originally in New Chapel, . In the month of , [extra_illustrations.6.260.1] , being then years of age, preached there for the time. It may not be out of place here to say a few words about the career of so eminent a preacher as Mr. Spurgeon. Born at Kelvedon, in Essex, in , he was educated at Colchester, and as youth advanced he became usher in a school at Newmarket. as we gather from
During the years of Mr. Spurgeon's ministry in London, and in consequence of his untiring perseverance, upwards of had been subscribed for the building, and the structure was accordingly opened free of debt. | |
During the short time that Mr. Spurgeon occupied the platform at Exeter Hall, paragraphs appeared in the newspapers announcing that Remarks of no very flattering character appeared in various journals, and the multitude was thereby increased. Caricatures adorned the printsellers' windows; among them entitled wherein the popular preacher was depicted with his head surmounted by of those peculiarly-prepared sheets of fly-paper known by that name, to which were adhering or fluttering all sorts of winged characters--from the Lord Chancellor down to Mrs. Gamp-and in the most ridiculous attitudes; Mr. Spurgeon's name, too, continued to be made more and more known by pamphlets and letters in the papers, which all tended to swell the crowd. As we shall have more to say of Mr. Spurgeon and his preaching presently, when dealing with the music-hall in the Surrey Gardens, we will only add here that in treating of the hostility which the Puritans and Nonconformists have always shown to the stage, M. Alphonse Esquiros remarks in his that and he adds, It would seem, however, as if there were no limits to Mr. Spurgeon's personal popularity. | |
In connection with the Metropolitan Tabernacle are some almshouses and schools close by the Railway Station; a college | |
261 | for training young men for the Nonconformist ministry; and an orphanage at Stockwell. |
At a short distance beyond the Metropolitan Tabernacle, down to the close of the year , the roadway running southward was considerably narrowed, and formed an awkward bend, by the inconvenient position of the old parish church of St. Mary, , the eastern end of which closely abutted on the roadway. The extent of parish is thus set forth in the ():--
| |
Not only Lysons, as we have already mentioned, but also other writers on the churches of Surrey, have stated that stood at some distance further eastward, or have at all events expressed some difference of opinion upon the subject. Dr. H. C. Barlow, in an article in the in , endeavours to prove that the original site of the church-that, at least, of the Domesday Record--was where the fabric stood down to the time of its recent removal. Dr. Barlow writes :--
| |
The old parish church of appears to have been, in earlier days, a very small and insignificant structure; Sir Hugh Brawne added a north aisle about the year . In the early part of the last century several were expended in repairing and the fabric; but this was all to very little purpose, for in a few years it was found necessary that the whole building, except the tower, should be taken down. The new church, on the same inconvenient spot, by the side of a great road, was opened in . Being found inadequate to the increased number of inhabitants, an Act of Parliament was obtained in for rebuilding the church upon a larger scale. The work of reconstruction was commenced in the following year, and completed in about years. The [extra_illustrations.6.262.1] was constructed of brick, with a portico in the west front, and on the roof was a small bell-turret. | |
In this church, according to Manning and Bray's was buried a certain facetious individual, Mr. Serjeant Davy, who died in , and of whom a good story is told. He was originally a chemist at Exeter; and a sheriff's officer coming to serve on him a process from the Court of Common Pleas, he civilly asked him if he would not take something to drink. While the man was leisurely quenching his thirst Davy contrived to heat the poker, and then told the bailiff that if he did not eat the writ, which was of sheepskin, he should be made to swallow the poker. The officer very naturally preferred the parchment; but the Court of Common Pleas, not being then accustomed to Davy's jokes, sent him an order to | |
263 | appear at Hall, and committed him to the for contempt. From this strange circumstance he acquired his taste for the law. On his discharge from prison he applied himself to the study of it in earnest, was called to the bar, obtained the coif, and enjoyed a good practice for many years. |
Here, too, was buried Thomas Middleton, author of the ; the , and very many other comedies, besides sundry less well-known tragedies. He died in ; and his widow, who followed him to the grave next year, was buried at the expense of the Corporation of London, who had employed her husband to write the , performed with other at Merchant Taylors' Hall, to commemorate the marriage of the infamous Earl and Countess of Somerset. | |
On the floor of the old church was, among others, the grave-stone of George Powell, who is said, by the editor of to have been styled and to have died in the year , in very flourishing circumstances--in fact, as rich, or rather as poor, as a king. | |
The churchyard, which was enlarged by Act of Parliament in the reign of George II., contains among its numerous monuments to the memory of William Allen, a young man who was killed by the firing of the soldiers in the riots which took place in Fields, in , on the occasion of the confinement of John Wilkes in the ; around the monument are several inscriptions expressing strong political feelings. | |
writes Thomas Allen, in his
| |
In this church was baptised, about the year , George Alexander Gratton, a spotted negro boy, who was shown about London and the provinces as a curiosity by Richardson. He died when only years old, in , and was buried at Great Marlow, where there is a monument to his memory. | |
In , it was proposed by the Board of Works, under the Metropolitan Improvements Act, to have the church removed, with the view of widening the roadway at that point, and an offer of was made by the Board for that special purpose. In a grant of was obtained from the London Churches Fund, and a subscription, headed by the rector with , was opened among the parishioners for the remainder of the money required, about . A site for a new church was obtained from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in a more central part of the parish, on the east side of the . This church, a large and lofty Gothic edifice of stone, having been completed, with the exception of the tower, the demolition of the old church was forthwith commenced. In the materials of the old edifice were disposed of by public auction, and realised a sum of . The remains of some persons were carefully removed from the churchyard, and re-interred in a vault built for the purpose. In instance bodies were taken from under the altar, and the inscriptions on the coffins showed that they were the remains of Dr. Horsley and his wife, the latter of whom died in . The remains were in a state of preservation, having been buried some feet below the surface. They were removed to Thorley, in Herts, by the family of the deceased bishop. Among the other remains which were disinterred | |
264 | there was the skeleton of a man who had been buried in a complete suit of black, the coat and boots being perfect. |
Besides the old church several houses in the close by were demolished at the same time, and the graveyard, thus curtailed by the widening of the road, was set in order and opened to the public as a garden. The whole is enclosed by some neat iron railings and gates; and a handsome Gothic clock-tower has been erected on the site of the church. This tower is feet square at the base, and carried up in stages with buttresses to a height of about a feet. The clock-face is placed at the height of feet. In the lower part of the building the material is Portland stone, the remainder being of Bath stone, and the front to , as well as the sides, is enriched with carvings in florid Gothic. There is a doorway in the centre of the front, with windows in the upper part. On the left side of the doorway is the following inscription: -- This handsome gift, which has the great advantage | |
of a position in which it can be well seen, cost the donor . | |
The old parsonage-house, which stood in the rear of the church and of Mr. Spurgeon's and which was reputed to date from the century, was built of wood, and surrounded at time by a moat, over which were several bridges. The land in the immediate neighbourhood was formerly intersected by numerous diches, some of I which existed till quite recent times. They ran in various directions, completely surrounding the rectory grounds. To reach the tea-gardens, which occupied the site of the present National Schoolroom, it was necessary to cross some of these ditches by a small wooden bridge. The tea-gardens were in a line with , at the western end of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Indeed, so well watered was the neighbourhood of , that, if we may believe tradition, in occurred a great flood, so that the people were obliged to be conveyed in boats from the church
| |
Among the residents of in the middle of the last century, was James Short, an eminent | |
265 | optician, and a native of Edinburgh. He enjoyed a high reputation in his day for the excellence of his reflecting telescopes, of the Gregorian kind, by the sale of which he amassed a large fortune. He died at in . |
On the east side of , near the junction of that thoroughfare with and , is , through which is of the approaches to the Surrey Gardens, formerly known as the . This place of entertainment, which has undergone many vicissitudes, is thus described by a writer in the Almanack for :
| |
The principal walks and avenues were planted with every description of native and exotic forest trees that would endure the climate; whilst the beautiful sheet of water, mentioned above, was spotted with islands, shrubberies, and plantations of great richness. Numerous rustic-looking buildings, with thatched roofs, were to be seen in different parts, each of them adding to the picturesqueness of the grounds. Mr. Loudon, the editor of the , thus speaks of the buildings in these gardens at the time of their opening:-- | |
| |
The grounds were laid out under the superintendence of Mr. Henry Phillips, the author of and it is almost impossible to give the reader an idea of their beauty and variety. Besides the large glass building mentioned above, there were several movable aviaries and cages for the feathered tribes; whilst of the prettiest spots was the a small pond partly enclosed by rockwork. Altogether, at time these gardens offered a great rival attraction to those at the , which we have already described. In a live female gorilla was added to this menagerie, and proved a great favourite of the visitors. The collection here was not so extensive as that in the , but some of the animals were much finer, particularly of the lions. | |
A story--we fear rather apocryphal--is told of of the lions here in the early part of their existence. A small black spaniel being thrown into his cage, instead of killing and eating it, the king of beasts took it under his protection, fondled it, and played with it; and when it died, the lion was so deeply grieved that he survived the loss of his companion only a few days! | |
The volcanic exhibitions at the [extra_illustrations.6.267.1] probably had their origin in the Ranelagh spectacles of the last century; for in was shown in the latter gardens a beautiful representation of Mount Etna, with the flowing of the lava | |
267 | down its sides. The height of the boarded work which represented the mountain was about feet, and the whole exhibited a curious specimen of machinery and pyrotechnics. Of the Surrey Gardens, as they existed in the year of grace , Mr. H. Mayhew wrote,
|
During the last few years of their existence, these gardens added the attractions of music. A large covered orchestra, capable of accommodating a large number of performers, was fitted up on the margin of the lake, for the purpose of giving openair concerts on a gigantic scale; and this was retained during the summer months by Jullien's band. Jullien led the orchestra at the concerts here in , the year of the Great Exhibition. | |
The Surrey Music Hall, mentioned above-a large oblong building--is admirably adapted for the purposes for which it was built. At each corner are octagonal towers containing staircases, originally crowned by ornamental turrets. An arcade surrounds the ground-floor, whilst to the and floors are external galleries covered by verandas. The great hall, which holds persons, exclusive of the orchestra, cost upwards of . It is feet longer and feet wider than the Great Room at Exeter Hall. | |
On Sundays it was used temporarily for the religious services held by Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, on | |
his sudden rush into popularity in London; and on the occasion of holding these services, --the evening of -it was the scene of a serious and fatal accident, persons being killed by a false alarm of fire raised by some reckless and wanton jesters. We have already spoken of Mr. Spurgeon in our account of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, but we may further remark here that, notwithstanding the abovemen- tioned occurrence, large numbers continued for the space of years to hear Mr. Spurgeon on Sunday mornings. A letter, signed , and dated from appeared at this period in the part of it ran as follows:--
| |
In , shortly after being vacated by Mr. Spurgeon, the Music Hall was destroyed by fire. It was, however, rebuilt, and for a time was occupied as a temporary hospital during the demolition of [extra_illustrations.6.268.1] at and the erection of the new building near . | |
The old of is kept in remembrance by Manor Road and , the last-named thoroughfare uniting with . Close by, in , is a commodious lecture-hall, built in , under the auspices of the Mechanics' Institute. This institution was founded in , in , and is the only literary and scientific institution on a large scale on the south side of the Thames; the library contains some volumes, and it has a reading-room in the . | |
Since the commencement of the present century a considerable advance has been made in the way of buildings in this neighbourhood, particularly on the east side of the . , formerly a dreary swamp, and , which was at time an open field, have been covered with houses. In the Fishmongers' Company have erected several model dwellings, with the aim of benefiting a very poor locality. The dwellings have been built on the system, realising as nearly as possible the idea of the cottage character, and replacing old and dilapidated houses of an inferior class. | |
Whatever this locality may be in the present day, it has not been without its places of amusement in former times, for we learn from Colburn's for , that the Marylebone and Oxford cricket clubs played a match in that year at the grounds, . | |
In the stone of , , was laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury, immediately after the performance of the like ceremony at , in this parish. The church, which is situated at a short distance on the eastern side of the , is built of brick, with the exception of the steeple and architectural ornaments, which are constructed of stone. The basement is occupied by spacious catacombs. | |
, which stands a short distance backward on the eastern side of the , near , is a lofty and handsome Gothic building, in the Decorated style, and was erected in , at a cost of upwards of . It was endowed by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, who are the patrons. | |
is not entirely devoid of historical memorabilia, if tradition is to be trusted; a native of this village--for such it must have been in his day--was William , the celebrated Lord Mayor of London, who slew Wat Tyler with his own hand, and who, in memory of the deed, caused a dagger to be added to the arms of the City. | |
269 | |
Footnotes: [] See Vol. V., p. 253. [] See ante, p. 5. [] See ante, p. 29. [extra_illustrations.6.260.1] Mr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon [extra_illustrations.6.262.1] unsightly structure [] See Vol. V, p. 282. [extra_illustrations.6.267.1] Surrey Zoological Gardens [extra_illustrations.6.268.1] St. Thomas's Hospital [] See ante, p. 253. |