LONDON WALK NO 59– GROUP 3 – , , , & RAGGED SCHOOL VISIT ORGANISED BY IAN & MARY NICHOLSON – Wednesday, 20th November 2013

If ever we needed confirmation of the dedication of the Exploring on Foot Group 3, this was it. Not only was this the coldest day of our winter so far, but the forecast was not great, and of course we all know the style of walk we should expect from Ian and Mary – mostly outside, plenty of walking, and although hugely interesting with the vast amount of information Ian imparts in his amusing and enthusiastic style, not condusive to the four-season day we were to experience! So well done to the 22 group members who appeared on Tonbridge Station dressed in an amazing array of footwear, coats and headgear.

A sign on the station platform listed LEAF FALL TIMETABLE! I am amazed they can schedule the trains to cover the Autumn leaf fall when my garden is still full of glorious bedding fuscia and the wisteria has not dropped a leaf yet! Our day started with a problem. Pauline and Valerie didn’t turn up as they had been waiting for a lift to the station. A misunderstanding had seen Isabel and Joan thinking they didn’t need a lift. So yet again Pauline’s husband was called on last minute (two walks running is stretching it a bit!) to come out and do the station run. Because of this, they had missed out on the cheap group rail fares, and in fact Pauline had shot through the barrier without even getting a ticket. Julie offered to give Pauline her ticket, and bought one from the ticket inspector with her rail card. This was to prove to be a BIG MISTAKE for Julie as will be seen later on.

Our train journey to London Bridge was loud but uneventful. We then took the two stops to Canada Water then the Overground to Shadwell, where we passed some wonderful platform art by Sarah McMenemy, part of her Big Yellow Mural work.

Exiting the station, Ian hesitated! We were apparently doing Plan B instead of Plan A, and therefore all his route guide was now in reverse. However, we soon discovered the small station café and the manager thought his luck was in when we all crowded in. His current clientelle were not so impressed, and most left. We also commandeered the café’s single private toilet, which meant it was quite a time before every one eventually met up outside. The café sign amused some of us, and I wondered if a “Smothie” only had half the fruit!

As we left, so the rain started again and our group buttoned down, and umbrella’d up for the short walk along Cable Street (which started as a straight path along which hemp ropes were twisted into ships cables), passing St.George’s Town Hall. Here we admired an amazing mural on the end wall of the Town Hall, commemorating the Battle of Cable Street. A red plaque stands in Dock Street. This battle took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 and was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, overseeing a march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, socialist, anarchist, Irish and communist groups. An estimated 100,000 anti- fascist demonstrators turned out, and were met by 6,000 police. (My photo was too misty, and full of umbrellas and scaffolding!) Moving on, we passed a plaque to Dr. Hannah Billig, known as the Angel of Cable Street for her work in World War II.

Reaching St. George’s-in-the-East Church, we gathered in the courtyard to listen to Ian telling us about the bombing in the Second World War and rebuilding to retain the ‘pepper pot’ towers. One of six Hawksmoor churches, built between 1714-1729, it was designated a Grade I Listed building, and in 1964 a modern church interior was constructed inside the existing walls. We sheltered where we could as the howling gale and rain made us very uncomfortable.

Crossing the road to Tobacco Dock, I seriously wondered if we were being punished for not listening properly to Ian! The sky went black, the heavans opened, and we were subjected to thunder, lightening and seriously solid hailstones. We scuttled across the road, sheltering in one of the arches to the Dock. The rain letting up briefly, we walked along to the canal and the Pirate Ships but couldn’t get in to the Dock area, so had to walk back along the road to the entrance, where we were told the newly developed area was closed as they were putting up Christmas decorations. So yet again we gathered in a drafty entrance where Ian bravely soldiered on, telling us about the dock history and the story of the boy and the tiger.

Tobacco Dock is a Grade I listed warehouse now owned by a Kuwaiti investment company. It was constructed in approximately 1811 in the Docklands area of East London and it served primarily as a store for imported tobacco. At its north entrance stands a 7 ft tall bronze sculpture of a boy standing in front of a tiger. In the late 1800s, wild animal trader Charles Jamrach owned the world's largest exotic pet store, located on Ratcliffe Highway, near to Tobacco Dock. The statue commemorates an incident where a Bengal tiger escaped from Jamrach's shop into the street and picked up and carried off a small boy, who had approached and tried to pet the animal having never seen such a big cat before. The boy escaped unhurt after Jamrach gave chase and prised open the animal's jaw with his bare hands.

In 1990 the structure was converted into a shopping centre at a development cost of £47 million and it was intended to create the "Covent Garden of the East End"; the scheme was unsuccessful mainly due to its location, and it went into administration. From the mid-1990s the building was almost entirely unoccupied, with the only tenant being a sandwich shop, and a plan to convert it into a factory outlet did not come to fruition. In 2003, English Heritage placed it on the Buildings at Risk Register. Because of its bad state, it was used for a music video by Orchestral Manoeuves in the Dark and filming for the TV series Ashes to Ashes. Following a meeting in 2005 the owners announced that they were working on a mixed-use scheme for Tobacco Dock to incorporate a four-star hotel, shops, and luxury apartments. During the summer of 2012, Tobacco Dock found itself playing an unexpected key role in the London Olympics. With thousands of soldiers drafted in to provide security for the epic event, the former warehouse and shopping centre was quickly transformed into a large barracks, providing a unique setting for the troops to bed down in. Re-launched in October 2012, its new owners are developing this incredible space (comprising over 16,000m2 over two floors) to create London’s newest and most flexible events’ venue, where exhibitions such as The Scandinavia Show, Erotica, and Wired are being shown. (No pictures here!).

As it continued to rain, we moved on, heading towards our lunch venue, The Prospect of . Ian told us that in its heyday there had been 36 on Wapping High St. During the entire walk he also pointed out when we moved through the various districts, of Rotherhithe, Wapping, Shadwell, Limehouse and Mile End.

From Tobacco Dock, we walked down Wapping Lane and embarked on a round of pubs and eateries. Firstly to Turner’s Old Star pub – the story of the artist Joseph Turner, the Thames- loving womaniser, is shown on a plaque outside the pub. (zoom up to read it on screen.)

Then on to the Turk’s Head café, Green Bank, once a pub. Now owned by a charitable trust, the original building was said to be that local inn where a last quart

of ale was served to condemned pirates on their way from Newgate to (now the site of Wapping station).

Walking on down to Scandrett Street we passed St. John’s Old School, Wapping. The school was founded in 1695, but the present building dates back to 1756. On the front of the building are Coade stone statues of two of the pupils in their traditional uniforms. Boys and girls were segregated in schools until the middle of the twentieth century, and used to enter the school buildings by separate entrances. There was some discussion about the fact that the boys’ entrance was visible, but not immediately the girls’, but we thought they probably went in through the front door – or maybe not!

Our next port of call was the , and you could be forgiven for thinking that we had found a tardis for time travel! But this pub was indeed called the Town of Ramsgate, a Grade II listed building dating from the 17th century, so called because the fishermen from Ramsgate landed their catches here to avoid tax by Billingsgate Market. One of its earlier names was the Red Cow, after the barmaid. Press Gangs were said to recruit drunks and imprison them in the cellars of the pub, prior to them taking up their new career in the Navy. The Wapping Old Stairs, beside the pub, lead down to the and it is these steps that are said to be haunted by George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, The Hanging Judge. His apparition has apparently been seen by River Police patrolling the Thames. Amongst its other history, John Banks came here with Captain Bligh to inspect the Bounty before purchasing it for the ill-fated voyage to Tahiti, and Thomas Blood was apprehended here with the coronation crown (flattened with a mallet) stolen from the .

We carried on past the Metropolitan Police Marine Support building and the pub along Wapping High Street, until we reached the Prospect of Whitby pub where we were to stop for lunch. I had arranged to meet an old school friend for lunch, so ducked inside, whilst Ian gave the group a brief history of the pub.

Originally built in 1520, and called The Pelican, its clientelle list ranges from Captain Kidd, Samuel Pepys, Turner, Whistler and , to Rod Steiger, Frank Sinatra, Richard Burton, Paul Newman, Judy Garland, Mohammed Ali, Joan Barry and Kirk Douglas, with Princess Margaret often meeting Lord Snowden here. Used for TV and film, the Prospect of Whitby was granted Grade II listing in 1950. Ian had pre-booked our group and we were fortunate enough to be given the full run of the window tables, looking out on to the river, and the hanging noose swinging in the strong Autumn wind!

As you will have probably realised, the picture of the pub is a web photo, taken on a sunny day and when the tide was out!

Leaving the pub we walked along theThames Path into Narrow Street, where we passed The Narrow gastropub (formerly the Barley Mow) now owned by Gordon Ramsey and given Grade II listing in 1950. Crossing from Shadwell to Limehouse, passing over entry bridges to Limehouse Basin, we walked off our lunch via The Grapes (Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on his third voyage to the New World from directly below the pub and it also has strong links to Dickens and has a complete set of Dickens in the back parlour.) En route we had passed Lamb Court and Shoulder of Mutton Alley, relating to past food markets. Opposite the Grapes stood a huge seagull looking down on us with his beady eyes! (Commissioned in bronze by the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1994 at the entrance to Ropemakers’ Field, by Jane Ackroyd). Ian also pointed out a house on the corner, and told us the story of the house at the end of the terrace. Almost every house on one side of Narrow Street was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. One notable exception is a former public house, known locally as 'The House They Left Behind', because it was the only Victorian terrace to survive. It still stands today, with the aid of three large supporting pillars.

Ian took us to the riverside, where he indicated various points of interest, including the Antony Gormley statue in the middle of the water (sadly the tide was out.) A local newspaper reported that “Old Father Thames has finally turned up on the foreshore on a bend in the wide, sweeping river. A 9ft ‘fatherly’ figure standing on a 20ft plinth looking out on the tidal waters at Limehouse has mysteriously appeared on the waterfront. The incoming surge reaches the top of the plinth at High Tide, giving the appearance of ‘Old Father Thames’ walking on water. The mystery was solved when the Port of London Authority revealed that it had granted a permit, when the sculptor sold the artwork to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies—actor Sir Ian McKellen. It was erected near Sir Ian’s Grapes pub in Narrow Street.” We took the opportunity of a group photo – in the sunshine, as can be seen by the squinting and shut eyes in the photo! As we walked back into Ropemakers Field, Julie pointed out a sign high up on the end terrace house. Ian continued to educate us with information on the Limehouse Cut (first navigable canal to be dug in London), Nicholas Hawksmoor’s St.Anne’s Church with one of the highest church clocks in the country, Robert Stephenson’s railway arches, and numerous other pieces of fascinating information that we have come to associate with Ian & Mary’s marathons – oh sorry, walks!

We walked along the Regent’s Canal towpath, under bridges and dodging the bikes as they rang their bells and zoomed passed us. Climbing down the steep canalside steps to the Ragged School Museum, we discovered the canalside doors were locked, so we had to climb back up to the roadside front entrance. We had seemed to do a lot of walking back the way we had come in order to fit in everything there was to see.

The Ragged School Museum is housed in a group of three canalside buildings which once formed the largest “ragged” or free school in London. Thomas Barnardo came to London from his home city of Dublin in 1866, intending to train as a doctor and then become a missionary in China, but when he saw the effects of the cholera epidemic, in 1867 he opened his first “ragged school” where children could gain a free basic education. Ten years later, Barnardo’s Copperfield Road Free School opened its doors to children and for the next thirty-one years educated tens of thousands of children. It closed in 1908 by which time enough government schools had opened in the area to serve the needs of local families. The buildings, originally warehouses for goods transported along the Regent’s Canal, then went through a variety of industrial uses until, in the early 1980s, they were threatened with demolition. It was then that a group of local people joined together to save them and reclaim their unique heritage. The Ragged School Museum Trust was set up and the museum opened in 1990. The museum was founded to make the history of the Ragged Schools and the broader social history of the Victorian East End accessible to all. Within the original buildings, an authentic Victorian Classroom has been set up where each year some 16,000 children experience a school lesson as it would have been taught more than 100 years ago. They have also recreated a Victorian East End Kitchen from the 1900s, demonstrating what life would have been like in a simple, one-room home with no electricity or running water.

The museum has several gallery areas, a reconstructed Victorian Classroom and a Victorian East End Kitchen displaying its own collection of historical objects, all designed for hands-on inspection. This is a museum where you can sit at the school desks, use the tin bath and experience what life was like for the Victorian poor of the . I drew the line at sitting in the tin bath, but I did sit at a desk (just managed to squeeze in) and of course ended up being the one to dress up in the attire of the age. I was told the first photo had me looking too happy, so the silly face is supposed to be me looking sad.

Most of us managed to grab a hot drink in the tiny café and then visited the little rooms for Chimney Sweep Boys or Matchstick Girls. A quick visit to the Shop, before we all gathered at the Entrance, dropping our contributions into the collection box, as entry to the Museum was free.

Wrapping ourselves up warm again, we went out into the dusk to make the slightly more treacherous walk along the Tow Path to Mile End and through . Ian’s notes say “Read the Board”, so even here he was determined to keep us on our toes, but by then it was dark. The information offered was extensive, and too much to include here. The photo size ensures that you will have to go back in the daylight to read it! Reaching Mile End tube station, Ian asked us if we knew why it was unique. Apparently this is the only tube station where both deep level and surface trains come in at the same level. Mile End is purported to be so called as it is a mile from the limits of the . It is also where many of the plague victims were buried.

In their initial walk instructions, Ian and Mary had included their usual Quiz question relevant to the area:

“What links Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray and Doctor Fu Manchu?”

There were several answers – Limehouse and/or Opium. But many of us thought it was “The League of ExtraOrdinary Gentlemen”, as all three are listed as characters in the fictional League universe, the subject of a comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and subsequently a film, starring Sean Connery.

Retracing our steps, we caught the Central Line underground from Mile End to Tottenham Court Road, and from there on the Northern Line to Charing Cross. Julie was very miffed to find that having done her good deed for the day and swapped tickets with Pauline, her ticket decided to act up, either not working at all, or getting chewed up in the machines.

We were lucky enough to catch a train almost immediately from Charing Cross, and collapsed in a seat to nod off or silently review what we had seen today. A huge thankyou to Ian and Mary for the vast amount of research that must have been needed to cover this area which is steeped in so much interesting history. (Perhaps next time they could choose a summer walk though please!)

Google Maps tells us we walked over 4 ½ miles. My feet told me I had walked to the Moon and back, as they continued to walk all through the night! And I dreamt of Ian with a clip board in the Ragged School, asking me questions on everything we had learnt. Such Happy Days.