No22 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY FEB1974

The February Talk The March lecture- A last-minute reminder that the February Underground London event is a lecture entitled Painters in Mr Ellis Hillman. GLC councillor and Camden, by Mrs Evelyn Meetham. The chairman of its Arts Board, is an expert lecture will be illustrated by slides. on what is underneath London. He is Chair- man of the London Subterranean Survey Mrs Gwynedd Gosling, Librarian of the Association. He will be giving what will Literary and Scientific Institution, undoubtedly be a popular talk called The will be in the chair. Secrets of Underground London on 14 Time and place - 7. 30pm. 21 February at March at 7.30pm at Library. Swiss Cottage Library. April Event Meetings for new members Many members will recall the lecture given The membership of the Society is now at two years ago in Rosslyn Hill Chapel by its highest number - 404 - with the intake members of the Street Research Group, of new members now increasing. The after the publication of Streets of Hamp- Committee is worried that it may become stead. A companion volume, More Streets remote from new members because at of , has just been published, the normal lectures it is difficult to meet covering the southern sector of the old people afterwards. As an experiment we borough, from Downshire Hill to Swiss have invited all those members who joined Cottage. Another lecture has been arrang- the Society in the last three months to meet ed, at which members of the Group will the officers of the Society for an informal talk about their work. evening to discuss what the Society does, This meeting will again be held in Rosslyn what the members would like to do or Hill Chapel, Rosslyn Hill. NW3 (between what particular interests they have so that, Willoughby Road and Pilgrims Lane, about perhaps. more research groups could 400 yards down the hill from Hampstead flourish. Tube Station) on TUESDAY, 2 APRIL at There are probably quite a few other mem- 8pm. PLEASE PUT THIS DA TE IN YOUR bers who have joined and who have been DIARY AT ONCE, as the next Newsletter only to lectures and do not feel closely in- will not be issued in time for a reminder. volved with the Society. If there are such The speakers will be Wilfrid Meadows. who members who feel 'new' in that sense, we led the Group. Shirley Harris, Jenepher do hope that they will contact our Secretary Hawkins, Brenda Tyler and Christopher so that they too might be invited to future Wade, who together did most of the work. 'new member meetings'. The talk will be illustrated by slides. This SUBSCRIPTIONS UP promises to be an interesting evening. and Regrettably we are having to raise sub- we hope for a good audience. scriptions as the cost of administration, PLAQUE FOR VIRGINIA Newsletter and postage etc. is only just The Greater London Council are to erect being covered by income. The Committee a blue plaque commemorating Virginia feels that there has to be a reasonabl~ sur- Woolf's residence at 29 Fitzroy Square. plus on subscriptions so that more publica- tions, which might not sell so well as our early ones, may be contemplated. More Streets of Hampstead Letter Let me make one point that was excised Our new publication (with High Hill Press) from my review by our Editor. doubtless was duly launched and toasted on 11 Jan- for reasons of brevity. Had this book come uary at Swiss Cottage Library - but with- from a publisher specialising in mystic, out the book itself. At "the last moment the "Atlantis" or occult books, I should not printer discovered that the cover plate had have spent any ink on it. But The London been scratched and anew block was needed. That Was Rome was issued by a highly res- It was this sort of uncertainty about deli- pected publishing house known for a long very - there were power problems, too - list of properly scientific works. Any that made us reluctant to take orders for reader might therefore reasonably expect the new book at the time of the last News- that this book could be taken at its own letter: but copies have now safely arrived valuation as ''scientific'' evidence. In other and a special order form is enclosed. Note words, it lays itself wide open on account that the reduced price for members will of its imprint. only apply until the end of April this year. As with all our publications we encourage Now, our Society's aim is to further the members to buy early: it helps pay the study of local history (not merely to amuse printer's bill. or even to· soothe its members) and so it seemed to me, and still seems, perfectly What The Papers Say: legitimate to expose the muddled thinking " ... More Streets of Hampstead is invalu- of this book lest others be taken in by it. able. Like its companion volume The Heaven forfend that someone should start Streets of Hampstead, it has been compiled researching for The Camden That Was by the Camden History Society. to whom Rome! (And I know from long experience residents and tourists alike should be ever that people who should know how to weigh grateful. .. " The Times 31. 1. 74. evidence can be seduced by just such books as this. ) I tried to make a re~dable and "People, not places or events,· make the amusing review. and am only sorry that kind of history that ordinary people want to Mr. Barnett was not amused. Incidentally, read about. And it is the people who lived I look forward to seeing our Editor's com- in More Streets of Hampstead who make ment on this correspondence, since he is Camden History Society's latest publication also, by implication, being taken to task so successful. ... {The) members of the for publishing my review~ Society's Street History Group have done their research thoroughly - both walking Cherry Lavell (Miss!) the streets themselves and scouring libra- ries and reference collections .... The effort was unquestionably worthwhile. The result- ing book is a continuing source of pleasure ST. MARY'S and interest to anyone who lives in the area, Miss Gladys Beck writes: knows it or wants to know it better ... " The Hampstead & Highgate Express "I am afraid that in the review of 'St. 1.2.74. Mary's. Primrose Hill' in the December issue of the Newsletter of the Camden His- "The Streets of Hampstead and More tory Society I have received credit which Streets of Hampstead, well illustrated is not due to me. None of this publication with reproductions of old maps. drawings was written by me. and paintings are a credit to the local pub- lisher who has issued them in association I think the mistake may have arisen because with the Society. Solid research is enliven- some years ago I did write a few articles ed by good gossip ... " The Daily Telegraph on~the early history of St. Mary's for the 7.2.74. parish magazine. Please will you publish this disclaimer in the next issue of the Newsletter." The Fight for MOVING PICTURES As most members probably know, a con- Our exhibition Nineteenth Century Hamp- siderable battle is in progress between stead and Belsize was opened at Swiss Camden Council and the now dissolved Cottage Library by Margaret Drabble, who Government on the future of that part of called Hampstead 'indescribably lovely' Bloomsbury directly opposite the British and expressed her gratitude for 'those who Mt:1.seum. The proposal is to demolish have the time and energy to ,preserve it this area so that the may and write up its history . be built there. No one is opposed to a new The exhibition has already left Swiss library being built - indeed it is a matter Cottage and reopened at the Keats Grove of great urgency as users of the British Branch, where it will stay until 16 March. Museum Library will know. Camden's From 23 March to 6 April, a smaller ver- argument is that there is no need for it to sion of it will be at Sharpleshall Street be so near. the Museum and have offered Library. alternative sites in the borough. REVIEWING THE FUTURE Many members of this Society are anxious The first edition of our Camden History that the area is preserved for both his- Review has nearly sold out (750 copies) torical and conservationist reasons.. We and we are reprinting, This is encourag- have received a letter from Cllr Frank ing at a time when I am beginning to put Dobson, Leader of Camden Council, asking together the second issue and hoping to for support in their fight; with the advent produce a bigger, better magaziLe with no of a new Government their efforts will be increase in price. There are alre 1.dy a redoubled. Camden has published an excel- number of talks from our Social H, story lent booklet on the area and he refers to symposia awaiting publication and :=ts many this in his letter: of these concern Edwardian Camden a large "May I ask you - who perhaps have no con- part of the next edition will be devoted to nection with Bloomsbury or Camden - to this theme. I would welcome a few short read our case for preserving an important contributions from other members on this seven acres of Central London. What we subject, e.g. brief reminiscences or re- have to say is brief. It relates to the im- search reports of life in Camden at the portance of this neighbourhood: to the hun- beginning of this century and any interest- dreds of people who live there; the dozens ing pictures of the area. These and any of publishers, bookshops and other sn::iall other contributions for the Review should businesses. The government wants to reach me by 28 February. (Address: 28 destroy it to make room for the British Willoughby Road, London, NW3 lSA), I Library. Yet even the National Libraries will also welcome any general comments Committee under Dr. F. S. Dainton said and suggestions about the contents and tliat hardly anyone really needs it there. production of the magazine - but there is We want to ensure that everyone, as far no need to write about the smallness of as possible, who has an interest in the the print. We will make it all large and and the British Library clear next time, if only because it may knows our side of the argument and our have to be read by candlelight. constructive alternatives. From those who, on examining our case, feel convinc- Christopher Wade ed that it is a good one. we should welcome a statement of support. CUBITT'S BLOOMSBURY On 22 March at the Bishopsgate Institute We will willingly show you round the the London and Middlesex Archaeological threatened acres. If you cannot manage Society have Miss Hermione Hobhouse this, please wander in imaginatiop along talking on Thomas Cubitt 1788-1855: the streets of Bloomsbury that line the Builder of Belgravia and Bloomsbury. pages of this booklet. They are the em- For details of meetings please contact Mr bodiment of a typical part of our architect- F. J. Froom, 7 Henry's AvE>nue, Woodford ural heritage, a townscape diverse in his- Green, Essex. (504 3767} tory, form and usage. domestic in scale but destined for destruction unless people realise what is at stake. " THE ROLL$ RENT STRIKE PUBLICATION The history of Kentish Town is, it seems, The St Pancras Rent strike in 1960 was a much more popular subject than we imag- accompanied by some of the most violent ined. At the talk given by our Chairman, clashes between population and police since John Richardson, chairs were put out for the last war. A booklet has recently been 70 people, which is more than we expected published called Rent Strike in St Pancras to''come, and eventually about 120 people 1960 by Dave Burn and can be obtained, arrived. price 15p, from Pluto Press Ltd, Unit 10, Two interesting things emerged from the Spencer Court, 7 Chalcot Road, NWl. Hugh evening. First, there seems to be a healthy Kerr, in his introduction, says: demand to purchase copies of•the Kentish "For me, St Pancras was the first example Town Rolls. Second, very topically as it of working-class action I saw in England. happened, questions were asked about the I remember getting off the train from Scot- Grafton Road farm buildings. land in 1960 as a young man who had just Your Committee is to ask Camden if they moved to England. I stepped out of Kings would consider republishing the Kentish Cross Station and into a battle between Town Rolls for sale to the public. They mounted policemen and demonstrators out- were printed many years ago and were side St Pancras Town Hall. I remember sold, presumably at a subsidised rate, of thinking 'England can't be as bad as I 37½p. They would probably cost about £5 thought! ''' to reproduce now! However, they are a LEIGH HUNT'S COTTAGE IN unique piece of local history which deserve THE VALE OF HEALTH to be widely available and we are hopeful According to Helen Bentwich's The Vale that a joint effort by Camden and the So- of Health on , 1 777-1961, ciety may have some result. Leigh Hunt occupied, in 1821, a cottage formerly occupied by RowlandH,unter from The Grafton Road farm buildings are the 1816 to 1818. Rowland Hunter was Leigh subject of pressure by local residents. Hunt's stepfather; by profession he was a They want to see them retained. The ,build- ings are a rather puzzling left-over. They bookseller and publisher. In particular. he was Maria Edgeworth' s publisher from do not appear on a map until about 1880 1809to 1827 and it is interesting to find, in which is a bit late to be building a farm as was being redeveloped about Maria Edgeworth's Letters from England 1813-1844, the following passage from one this time. One can only surmise that they of her letters, addressed and dated from were left off earlier maps and were out- Hampstead. (Thursday October 15th - she buildings of a farm, possibly Mortimer's. was staying with Joanna and Agnes Baillie which fronted on to Highgate Road, being at Bolton House): cut off and forgotten when the railways went across the land. It would be interesting to "I believe I left off on Tuesday when we discover the full history of them. were just going to the Vale of Health to see Mrs Hunter in her baby house cottage - HENDON EXCAVATIONS very nice it is with a swarm of singing The Hendon and District Archaeological birds in cages in the trelliced room and Society are doing an interesting excavation an open book of mathematics which Miss at Church End, Hendon. Weather permit- Hunter was reading on the table. She is a ting the dig takes place from 10. 30am to pleasing, unaffected sensible girl with dusk on Saturdays and Sundays. Evidence wonderfully good manners ... When we were has been found which might be Roman, and going away I whispered a request to kind they are working on what might be a Late Joanna ... and s.he invited Miss Hunter to Saxon ditch system. A Henry VIII silver spend the next evening with us; she asked penny has been found and quite a lot of Mr Hunter also to bring his daughter. " 18th century remains. The Hendon So- ciety would welcome helpers from the Since there has been much speculation Camden Society. The Hendon Society about Leigh Hunt's cottage, this descrip- has recently started a project to survey tion may prove helpful. and record the industrial archaeology of Barnet. Paul Ricard No23 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY APR 1974

An ual General Meeting at the St Pancras Library, 100 Euston Rd NWl at 7 pm.The talk will be illustrated The date of this year's AGM is 13 May. by slides and a small exhibition. The business meeting will be preceded by a visit to St Etheldreda 1 s, Ely Place, There will be no further reminder of ECl at 6. 30 pm. We will then assemble this event - please put it in your diary in St Andrew's Church Hall () now~ EC4 at 7. 45 pm for the AGM. Although the Society's Patron, the Worshipful the Canal Trip in July Mayor of Camden, Councillor Richard Collins, cannot be present, we are de- We are sharing the Jenny Wren with a lighted to know that he will be represent- group from the Hampstead Centre of ed by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor B J the National Trust on Saturday, 13 July Taylor, who will be accompanied by the for a day trip from the Deputy Mayoress. Lock to Limehouse. Embarkation will be at 9. 30 am at Camden Town Lock or, These arrangements are in keeping with if preferred, at 1O.30 am at City Road our ;usual practice of holding our AGM in Basin, Islington. A short walk from the

an interesting building1 and we are most Limehouse Basin brings us to The Grapes grateful to St Etheldreda' s for being so Inn overlooking the Thames for a drink willing to receive us and to provide a and lunch break. Thence up the Lime - guide and to St Andrew's for allowing us house Cut to the River Lea and back down to hold the business meeting in the Church the Hertford Cut, alongside Victoria Park Hall. We hope that as many members as to rejoin the Regent I s Canal at Bethnal possible will come to both parts. The Green. The return to Camden Town will usual order has been reversed to ensure be at about 3.30 pm. the best possible light for the visit to The tour will be guided by Crystal Hale, St Etheldreda I s. Our thanks to Mr who is a member of the Inland Water- Horace Shooter for the suggestion and ways Association and founder of the for making the arrangements. Islington Sailing Club and organiser of the Islington Boat Festival last year. Event- Archaeology She believes that there are new functions for London I s old canals and will explain the next newsletter there w:l:'11 almost these as well as the history and archite- certainly be news about the appointment cture of the canal as we go along. There of a consultant archaeologist by the will be a small exhibition on board. Borough Council. He ( or she) will act as a focal point for the many volunteers Tickets for the round trip cost £1. 75 each 1n the Society whom we know are anxious and can be obtained from the Secretary to offer their services. With this in at St Pancras Library, 100 Euston Road, ~ind, we have arranged a meeting with London NWl 2AJ. Cost of lunch is not an archaeological theme in June. For included. so~e time past, two young archaeologists, ;, ally Kington and Joanna Bird have been 5 8 MEMBERSHIP UP AGAIN /:Plotting the archaeology of London on a 1'' OS map. They will both come to speak The Society's membership has increased 0ut their survey on Wednesday, 19 June to a new high level - 433. New Light on a Holborn The book names many of the buildings Conspiracy associated with Thistlewood's extraorct·1na:r,, career, a few of which can still be seen J REGENCY REVOLUTION: THE CASE wa Stone Buildings, for example, where on~ OF ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD, by to of the men who spied on Thistlewood re- David Johnson. ported to the Treasury Solicitor, is part Ei Published by Compton Russell Ltd., of Lincoln's Inn; and the stable' in which lH Compton Chamberlayne, Salisbury the plotters fought their famous battle irn Wilts. Price - £2. 7 5p. Publication :"ith the police has miraculously survived a J date - 6 May 1974. 1n Cato Street, one minute's walk from the an On May Day 1820,Arthur Thistlewood and Edgware Road, Because Thistlewood - ] four other men were hanged at Newgate killed a police officer and managed to we for their part in the Cato Street Conspir- escape, the little street in Marylebone acy; five accomplices were transported became notorious, and gave its name to a conspiracy which was largely plotted in A to Australia for life. This conspiracy has NI, always had a powerful hold on Londoners' Holborn. Thistlewood, who lived at Stan- Cr imaginations, for the plotters meant to hope Street, Clare Market, held his most Ga murder members of the Cabinet at a secret meetings either at a room in Fox· in dinner party in Grosvenor Square, seize Court, off Gray's Inn Road, or at the re control of the capital, and proclaim Thistle - White Hart Inn in Brooke's Market. ch wood President of an English Republic. The fate of the spy who became Thistle_ on REGENCY REVOLUTION is based on a wood's right-hand man, and who fled 111( wh mass of largely neglected material at the from England in 182 0, has intrigued AI Public Record Office. For leading a riot hiSt orians for well over a century. The sit in 1816, Thistlewood was indicted for High auth0r of REGENCY REVOLUTION puts we Treason, but the Government's case against forward fresh evidence to show that by him failed and he was released. During the George Edwards died under an a'.ssumed last few months of his life he was closely name at Cape Town. He also illuminates Th watched by the police", and his words and the remarkable character of John Staff- eel actions were minutely reported to the Home or_d, Chief Clerk at Bow Street for over wic Office, mainly by spies posing as his follow- th1_rty_ years_, who played a vital role in Sec ers. By extensive research their manu- brrngn~g Thistlewood to the gallows. arr script notes and reports, David Johnson !here. is much else of interest in the book, wit has built up a highly detailed account of rncludrng a somewhat gruesome account Thistlewood' s bizarre and almost in- of what became of the corpses at Newgate. is , credible conspiracy. When the prison was demolished in 1903, Of I abc Cai the

Th( Sto 'Ki :or

01

Bow Street Runners confront Thistlewood and his men as they plot to murder the Cabinet. (From a contemporary print in the possession of the author). Thistlewood and 96 other felons were in 1948; in this way he Christianised a still buried under the flags of a passage- site that apparently had a long tradition way. {They were exhumed and transferred as a pagan sacred centre. In 983 the to a well-known London cemetery). Danes expelled the Germans from the south of their country, but Harald lived Eight pages of illustrations include a only another couple of years, with declin- likeness of George Edwards, two artists' ing powers and finally in flight ·from his impressions of the fight at Cato Street, own son. a photograph of the Newgate passageway, The cast of the stone was placed in the .e and a drawing of the house in Moorfields long ago pulled down - in which Thistle - garden of the Danish Church in 1955; wood was captured. the design has been picked out in rather bright colours, though I have not so far A Bit of Denmark in Camden been able to discover whether there is evidence for these on the original monu- Many people know that St Katharine's ment, all the photographs of which are Church in Regent's Park near Gloucester plain. One thought lurks - will the Gate is now the home of the Danish Church archaeologists of the far-off future be in London; but not everyone, perhaps, baffled· by this monument being "in the realises that on the south side of the chur- wrong place"? ch is quite an amazing sight, a- copy of Cherry Lavell one of Denmark's finest ancient monu- ments. This is the famous Jelling Stone THE GOVERNESSES' INSTITUTION which Harald Bluetooth (King of Denmark, AD 940 to 985) set up at the ancient sacred In the Survey of London Vol 19 there site of Jelling in eastern Denmark. It is appears to be an error. On p.155 under well worth a detour if you are walking near- provisional Grade III listing it has 'Prince by in the Park. of Wales Road, gates and railings at The Jelling Stone is an irregularly-shap- Camden School for Girls (c.1780-90, 11 ed boulder, about 8 feet high by as many "G.S. )'. wide. On one face is carved the earliest Scandinavian representation of Christ - This building, now the annexe of St arms outstretched, the whole body twined Richard of Chichester School, was of c, with ribbons in the typical late Viking course originally the Governesses' st:yle of decoration. On the second side Institution, and the G. S. over the gates is a great beast caught up in a vine, a is obviously G. I. The design of the gates beast surely ancestral to a fine monument and railings suits the layout of the build- of our own, the carved tombstone from ing and they must have been erected with about the time of Canute found in St Paul's it in 1848 or 49. It seems unlikely that Cathedral in 1852 and now to be seen in second-hand railings of 17 80-90 were the Guildhall Museum. adapted.

The third, largest side of the Jelling I have been told that the railings have ~tone carried an inscription in runes: since been listed and I don't know if the King Harald had this memorial made mistake has been perpetuated. They are for Gorm his father and Thyri his mother; nice railings anyway. that Harald who won for himself all Den- Anthony Cooper lh.ark11 but the inscription carries on at the bottom of the other two sides: "and Archaeologist to be appointed Norway, and made the Danes Christian" The London and Middlesex Archaeological So it is a very appropriate monument for Society will be advertising this month for the Danish Church here, even though its the archaeologist who will concentrate on Splendours may look rather barbaric to Camden for the next year. This has been lh.odern eyes. made possible by the decision of Camden Council to provide funds for the appoint- ~- a sequel to his conversion, Harald ment. llt a small wooden church at Jelling, of whi<'h 1MPrP fn11n11 hv PY0::1,r:=itinn CHANGES IN THE ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT I can find no reference to his successors Mrs Christina Gee, Camden's Archivist or the fate of his enterprises. Certainly, since 1965, is soon to relinquish the post the Endless Railway was out of favour by and concentrate on being Assistant Cura- 1866. tor of . She has been of enormous help to this Society and to the I am intrigued to notice a large block of ma'lly members of the public with local flats at Swiss Cottage named B,oydell Court history inquiries. She will be greatly and wonder if there is any connection with missed. my man or his family.

Likewise Miss Beverley Monchar, Senior Michael R Lane Assistant Librarian specialising in archi- ves is also leaving, to take up an appoint- JESSICA DISMORR ment with the British Library. She has A member writes: Jessica Stewart We specialised in St Pancras history and has Dismorr (or Dinsmoor), a Hampstead eve contributed to local history study by her artist, is to be the subject of an exhibition gra reorganisation of the St Pancras records. to be held in April 1974. She was born in 1886, was educated at Kingsley Ladies 1 19 , 7 pl THE ENDLESS RAILWAY COMPANY School, 3 College Villas Road, NW3 (later renumbered 35 College Crescent) and I am currently researching one_, James possibly Forgnal School for Girls. Boydell Jnr., who died in St Pancras in December 1859. He was a man of many Registered as an elector at 4 Cannon parts but is mainly remembered as the Place NW3 from 1924 to 1931: she was fl 1 inventor of the Boydell Endless Railway, resident in 1938-1939 at 17 Willoughby 11. a system employed on the first heavy road Road and also stayed at 32 Glenloch locomotive built in 1856. Road, then a nursing home. Jessica Dismoor apparently committed s_uicide He was a Machinery Agent and Valuer with and died on 29 August 1939. offices in the City, and a partner in an ironfoundry and manufacturing concern Information is sought regarding this Sep named Boydell and Glasier, Hawley Cres- Hampstead artist, and also about two of cent, Camden. Latterly he lived in Glou- her painter colleagues Bertha A Jones, cester Terrace, Regent Is Park. In 1856 who lived at 4 Cannon Place from 1924 he promoted a new company, The Endless to 1939, and Catherine Giles, living at Railway Company, in partnership with that time in London. Any other informa- Messrs Hamilton and Hemming. Many tion, possibly from residents at Cannon and various patents are registered in his Place or Willoughby Road, would also be name. very welcome.

Several leading traction engine manufactu- WAS BETJEMAN RIGHT? rers employed Boydell Is system and an en- In "Small Boy on a Kentish Town Tram", gine took part in the 1856 Lord Mayor's Camden History Review I, Miss Howells C Show, causing, one gathers, quite a stir. concludes that "Charrington, Sells, Dare Heavy artillery used in the Crimea was . 4E & Co" is a figment of Mr Betjeman's fitted with his wheels and engines employ- imagination. However, in the,st Pancras ing the system went to India, Egypt, Russia Street Directory of 187 4 (Swiss Cottage and South America. Legislation and the Library), I today noticed "Charrington, notorious "Red Flag" Act prevented the Sells & Co. Coal Merchants", of 35, further exploitation in this country. Highgate Road. I presume this must be the actual firm referred to by Mr Betje- Ne The Illustrated London News 1856 illustrates man, though obviously not at that date'. . 3C an engine with Boydell wheels giving a demonstration of direct traction ploughing Barbara Prowse (Mrs) at Lough in Lincolnshire. Other demons - trations were given subsequently in Hyde Park.

I should be extremely grateful to have in- t'"-,..m"'+i rvn ,:ihr\11+ thiQ m,:i:n ,:inrl hiQ urnrk- ,No24 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY JUN 1974

School of Speech and Drama. Calendar of Events 1974-75 See note elsewhere in this We have now planned the main monthly issue by Coral Howells who events for the remainder of the pro- is arranging this event for gramme year to February 1975: the Society. Embassy Theatre, NW3. 19 June Archaeology and development 7pm in Greater London: an illus- 1975 trated talk by Sally Kington 16 Jan. Old Camden po st cards: an and Joanna Bird. 8pm illustrated talk by John St. Pancras Library Richardson. Polytechnic of North London, fl Aug. A Bloomsbury walk which is Prince of Wales Road, NW5. 11. 30 am being arranged by Mr Malcolm Holmes. Would interested Feb. Romney: an illustrated lec- members please contact Mr ture by Roger Ellis. Holmes at the Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage Libra:ry. Library. The Canal Trip Sept. Exhibition - please see August Newsletter for details. The response to the announcement of the Regent's Canal Dock trip in our last issue 1 Oct. An evening with the Hendon was immediate and greater than for com- 8pm & District Archaeological parable trips in the past. Once again, Society. Members will our apologies to those members whose present 11Aspects of archae- cheques had to be returned but good news ology, covering excavation, too! Mrs Hale has kindly agreed to re- field archaeology and record- peat it on a Saturday in September. Those ing in the London Borough of members whom we were unable to accom- Barnet. 11 modate for the first trip will be notified Central Library, Hendon, NW 4. individually of the date and there will be further details in the August Newsletter. 26 Oct. Aspects of Victorian Camden; In the meantime would anyone likely to be 2. 45 pm a symposium to be presented interested in coming please tell the Sec- by the Society's social history retary. No money at this stage please. group. Further details and booking form with the August The Coach Outing Newsletter. An interesting day has been planned for Hall. Saturday, 17 August. The two places to be visited, both near Winchester, are the 5 Nov. The work of the Greater Lon- Weald and Downland Open-Air Museum at 7. 30-pm don Industrial Archaeology Singleton and the Roman Palace at Fish- Society: a talk by Michael bourne. Details and booking form are Robbins. enclosed with this Newsletter. Holborn Library Hall.

8 Dec. A Camden miscellany, in 8pm association with the Central Book Review Danebury. Slips appear to be few. but the Anstiebury hillfort (pp 63-4) went out Discovering Regional Archaeology: South- of occupation finally in mid-1st century Eastern England AD and did not continue into the 2nd cen- by Edward Sammes. Shire Publications tury. Ltd (Aylesbury). 1973. 40p. Mr Sammes is an enthusiastic field archae- Tl;).is useful little paperback is an essential ologist and aware of much information companion for everyone who wants to ex- from recent excavations not yet recorded plore the visible remains of the past in in print. He is an indefatigable attender Greater London, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey. of archaeological conferences and meet- and Sussex. Like the others in this excel- ings. as well as currently directing the lent series, Mr Sammes' book gives clear Church Terrace dig for Hendon and Dis - though brief, descriptions of the best sites trict Archaeological Society. His booklet to visit, provides a map reference for each, is therefore as up to date as anything in a and (most useful of all) gives directions fast-moving subject like archaeology can for the best approach to the site. (It is ever be. He does not take up space to one thing to locate a hillfort. say. on your explain key archaeological terms, since map, quite another to find unaided the these are, as he explains, set out in most convenient way up to it.) The book James Dyer's introductory booklet to the is planned with the motorist in mind, and whole regional series; but he usefully most sites in it entail no more than a one mentions that, for instance, military exer- mile walk. cises may occasionally prevent access to certain sites in Hampshire. He also gives For Greater London Mr Sammes has listed the location of excavated finds, as well as 9 sites plu~ 11 in the City that he recom- listing eight major museums to visit in mends as worth a visit. Many people are London. Thorougq.ly recommended: and, vaguely aware that great chunks of the N. B. , most bookshops keep stocks of this Roman and medieval wall of the City are rightly popular series so it should be easy still visible somewhere; this booklet shows to find. exactly where they are. It also lists the all-too-few other standing remains of the Cherry Lavell past. such as the church of All Hallows- by-the-Tower with its Saxon features and WORKING PARTY ON SPECIAL TOPICS' its Roman tessellated floor in the crypt. Camden is rich in sources for research Outside the City proper, sites noted as into the many aspects of social history, worth a visit include the group of Saxon and especially in those related to the poor burial mounds in Greenwich Park, the and poverty, the housing of the people and length of Grim's Ditch inHarrow-Stanmore, growth of the new suburbs, working class the Iron Age camp on Wimbledon Common. movements and so on. Some of the records and the moated medieval site at N ortholt. involved are available for use out of nor- As for the burial mound on Parliament mal office hours. Richard Conquest is Hill, Mr Sammes evidently has not quite willing to act as leader to a working party made up his mind about its antiquity - on these special topics and members in- compare his statements on pp 7, 15 and terested in researching in depth on these plate 4 - but this reviewer is quite happy projects are asked to contact Mr Conquest that the mound is an absolutely typical at q5 Lissenden Mansions, Lissenden Gar- Bronze Age barrow. and has so argued dens, Londpn. NW5. As a first step the previously in these pages. The dig in initial meeting would survey the material 1894 was not well enough executed to con- available for the chosen topics. stitute reliable evidence. HENDON DISCOVERIES Moving away from Greater London, Mr The Hendon Archaeological Society report Sammes directs us to sites as diverse as the finding of ancient human burials at the spectacular Roman villas at Bignor. their Church Terrace dig. Judging by the Brading (IoW) and Fishbourne, the Meso- pottery finds at the same level the burials lithic rock shelters at High Rocks near appear to have taken place in the 13th or Tunbridge Wells. the (? ) Saxon figure cut 14th centuries. They are, mysteriously, in the Downs at Wilmington, the deserted outside the known original churchyard Roman town at Silche ster. and the Iron area. Age defences at Hengistbury Head and at Have you renewed The Annual General Meeting your Subscription? At the Society's Annual General Meeting Membership subscriptions were due for on 13 May all the officers were re-elected. renewal on 1 March for all members who Mrs Burt resigned from the Council and joined the Society before 1 October 1973. Miss Cherry Lavell was elected in her Three months later there are still over place. 100 subscriptions outstanding. represent- In his report to the Society. the Chairman, ing about a quarter of our membership. John Richardson, said that membership Later in the summer a personal letter will was at its highest level yet and that atten- be sent to each member whose subscription dances at lectures had been good through- remains unpaid but, as this will involve out the year. On the subject of a central considerable work, it will be appreciated archives centre for Camden, he said that if these members will respond at once to the Society was unhappy with the proposed this notice and send their subscription to Holborn location. We felt that this would Mr W. H. Meadows, 9 Pilgrims Lane, make it difficult for the bulk of our mem- Hampstead, NW3. Renewal forms were bers, who lived in the northern parts of sent out with the February Newsletter the borough, to use the archives effectively but in case these have been mislaid, the because of travelling and parking difficul- current subscription rates are as follows: ties. He reported that there were now street Full membership ...... £1. 50 history groups working on three areas - Joint membership , Highgate and Kentish (husband and wife) ...... -... £2. 00 Town. Photography of the borough, on a systematic basis, had started, and the Full-time students and Social History group was flourishing. He pensioners ...... £1. 00 hoped to see the revival of the archaeo- Associate membership ...... £2. 00 logical group once an archaeologist had been appointed to the Camden area. A CAM DEN EVENING In December we are arranging a Camden The Publications Secretary. Christopher evening in the Embassy Theatre. There Wade, reported a lively year. The Cam- will be poetry. prose, drama, and music den History Review had sold out and after all about Camden and all by writers who reprinting was approaching 1000 sold. The have lived or are living in the borough. Streets of Hampstead had now sold 4000 The programme will be performed by and More Streets of Hampstead over 1500. students from the Central School of Speech Future publications included another Re- and Drama. view and Medieval Camden. There is clearly an amazing variety of We were pleased to welcome the Deputy material from which to choose, and we Mayor an.ct Mayoress, Councillor and Mrs want to create a programme which re- Bernard Taylor. flects Camden in all its aspects, factual and fictional. Already we have in mind NEW MEMBERS a melodrama, extracts from newspapers, Mr A Astles, Miss Jane Wrigley, Mr and letters and novels, poems, as well as Mrs J Hodgson, Mr M Klug. Professor Elgar's music, ballads and colour slides. and Mrs Leslie Collier, Miss Mary Lewis, Mr B Holbrough, Mr J Walmsley, Mr G We would be very glad of any ideas or Forsyth. material from members which you feel would contribute to the interest of the The Membership total is now 442. evening. If you have any suggestions, could you please send them to Coral Howells, 5 Hadley Street by September RESEARCHER WANTED for Kilburn at the latest. Priory area. to help with information and HAMPSTEAD SUNDIALS illustrations for publication of Pocock Do members know of any interesting sun- Diary. dials in Hampstead? The only one I have Please ring Christopher Wade, 794-2752. found is on a house on Holly Bush Road. Mrs P. Gibber The Streets of Hampstead legs ... and the artist might have been Max 11 Reluctant as I am• to disagree with the Ernst or Penrose himself. hard workers who produced the splendid With this confusion of artists and anatomi- Streets of Hampstead, I thought one small cal parts, I felt I must get to the bottom item might be of interest to your research- of this story and belatedly wrote to Sir ers. On page 21 (Prince Arthur Road) Roland himself. He has now replied that the following passage is written .... "The (a) Picasso never visited hi!I}. in Hamp- m~dern block of flats called Greenhill are stead (b) there were some hands on a on the site of a long-lived mansion called ceiling, put there by Sir Roland, but ( c) the Rookery or Mount Grove. the home of he cut them out of a photograph. Thomas Longman, the publisher. The house had gone by 1872, when a short-lived So, though there is no need to scrape the Wesleyan Chapel took its place." I would ceilings of Downshire Hill, I have to point out that a house called 'Mount Grove' scrape a little egg off my fallen face. did in fact exist at 102 Fitzjohns Avenue Christopher Wade until early 1964 when it was demolished to make way for Henderson Court. The present flats are on the site of both the THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED IN CAMDEN old house and the beautiful garden which I am presently completing a special report ran right down to the boundary wall with as part of a study program supervised by the Greenhill flats. This was really a London University Institute of Education. splendid house inside, although it looked The area of special interest to me is: rather grim from the outside view. provisions for the Mentally Handicapped. Whether this and the 'Mount Grove' In compiling a history of services in referred to in the book are one and the England I found reference to a Park House same, I do not know, but as the two (1846), Highgate wl;iere the first asylum sites are adjoining and as the name was (to use the term of the day) for. mentally always given as part of the postal address, handicapped people was opened. This one assumes that this was either the facility is of historical value because Park original Thomas Longman mansion or House marked the first separation of the another house with the same name built mentally defective from the mentally ill. after the Wesleyan Chapel. I hope this might bring forth some more information Shortly, Camden Social Services Depart- on the building. ment is to open a home for the mentally handicapped at Highgate. I would very Julia Smith much like to know if Park House, Highgate was in fact in Highgate, now part of Cam- I have to confess that my story in More den. Streets of Hampstead that Picasso painted My interest was aroused through ad- two hands on a ceiling at 21, Downshire ditional research which showed that the Hill has proved to be without foundation. first "day care centre" for mentally The story came from the present owner handicapped children in England was of the house who had had it from one of operated around 1919 near Kings Cross his predecessors, who thought it came by Elfrida Rathbone. from Sir Roland Penrose, who lived in this house in the late 'thirties. Sir Roland If Park House was indeed in Camden and was Picasso's friend and biographer, so if Elfrida Rathbone did indeed operate it seemed a likely tale, and the current the first day-care facility in Camden then owner was even contemplating scraping I can fruitfully "string" much of my his- his ceilings to find the hands. But last torical data together, concluding with a month an urgent despatch reached me from coverage of to-day's provisions in Cam- our publisher, Ian Norrie: "Fred Uhlman den as an example of a typical community writes from Venice, where he has gone on approach to the care of the mentally han- holiday with MORE STREETS OF HAMP- dicapped. STEAD, to say that Picasso never visited I would be most grateful if vour society Hampstead and never painted those hands could provide me with answers to my on Penrose's ceiling. Furthermore, he queries. says that they are not hands but female Neil Reid •(:,o~

~'b,'Q ~~

Christopher Oxford The October Event Christopher Oxford has been photograph- The evening with the Hendon and District ing Hampstead for years. Many of his Archaeological Society on October 1 photographs are already historical docum- should not only be a boost to our resurgent ents and a public showing of his work is archaeological section but could provide long overdue. We are therefore grateful, us with several new ideas for our own then, that Christina Gee is mounting for local history research. HADAS will tell the Society, a retrospective exhibition of us, for instance, about hedge-dating, in- his topographical work. Its theme is cluding a 13th century hedge on the play- Hampstead Then and Now with archive ing fields of Hampstead Garden Suburb, prints side by side with recent photo- and churchyard recording, in which graphs of the same buildings or places members have logged 3, 000 graves and to point out the changes. As most of investigated the lives of some of their the photographs were taken in the early notable occupants. '50's the exhibition should, perhaps, be called Then and More Recently Then. The speakers will include Edward Sammes, whose book on archaeology His work is of the highest standard and it in S. England was reviewed in our last will be a fascinating and absorbing show. Newsletter. It opens, if all goes well, at Swiss Cottage Library on September 2nd and on Septem- He will be reporting on the significant ber 11th at 8 pm, at the same venue, he HADAS dig at Church Terrace, where will be giving a talk called 'A Photograph- actual evidence of the links with Saxon er in Hampstead'. Members are urged Hendon have at last begun to come to to come to both. To mark the events light. In addition, four unsuspected this Newsletter contains some of the medieval grave~ have been discovered exhibits. in an area outside the Churchyard. This and .other subjects will be illustrated Camden Town Walk by slides. The Society is to hold its first topo- Our meeting with HADAS starts at graphical walk round Camden Town and 8.15 pm in Hendon's Central Library, . Our guide will be Vivienne which is half-way along The Burroughs Judge and this promises to be a lively (off Watford Way). You can get there and informative event. We meet outside by 83 bus from Golders Green station, the Co-op opposite Camden Town Tube which passes the door, or by 113 from Station, at 3 pm on Sunday October 6th. the West End and Swiss Cottage, which stops at The Borroughs. Hendon Central NEW MEMBERS on the Northern Central on the Northern Line is about ten minutes walk away. If Mr Michael Doherty, Mr John B Frost, any.one would like a lift by car, could Mrs M Little, Miss M L Spencer, they let Christopher Wade know and he Miss Joanna Wade, Mr & Mrs Roger will do what he can. Could those memb- Robinson and Mr and Mrs Jacob Simon. ers going by car who have any spare. The membership total is now 450. seats also give him a ring on 794-2752? (He will have two spares from Hampstead himself). There is a car park, incident- ally, opposite Hendon Library. Book Review briefly explained. Heraldry and The Local Historian's Encyclopedia architecture are subjects each worthy by John Richardson, Historical of a book, but, bravely, the author has Publications Ltd., Orchard House, given us the elements - enough to 54 Station Road, New Barnet, Herts. satisfy the interested reader and get £1. 50. him under way. The same remarks can be said of the sections giving Latin More than ever before we are becoming work lists and archaeological periods. aware of our local history, and we may perhaps guess that in the next ten years Industrial Archaeology, though not the local histories published will number truly under this separate heading, is more than all those that have gone before. given ample comment in entries , some But they are histories involving specific of them fulsome, under the sections of people, places and events; what of publi- Public Utilities and Services, Transport, cations on how to find out the facts of and Trade, Commerce and Industry. local history? Well, just a few books of this kind have been published, but Many books of reference are given never, to my knowledge, has there been within the body of the book, but, never- an encyclopedia, something in easy theless, an adequate bibliography is reference form which covers the basic appended, one which recognises that information for those interested in local local history is not like, say, science, history. John Richardson, our Chair- a subject whose previous literature may man, has now given us such a book. be quickly obsolete.

The author has clearly recognised that And so one can go on citing what it con- local history is not a matter of just the tains in its 300 - odd pages; better, I lord of the manor, local notables and think, to buy the book and dip into, or the church fabric, but rather something like me, read it from cover to c0ver• which involves the whole essence of find that it contains all you want it to, local life, and the eighteen section head- and end up with the one regret that it ings and 1875 separate entries reflect is not published in hardback. this view. Some of the entries are single John Richardson is to be congratulated line ones; others take the form of an · on the writing of a u:0:ique book. essay. Do you know what a 'math' is? Leslie Newman (Unexpectedly, 'aftermath' is derived from it): a 'selion' and a 'shot'? These KE;ATS HOUSE CCOSING-TEMPORARILY are terms one meets with in .reference to medieval agriculture, and the book Keats House was built 1815-16 and has explains them. A most useful section been open to the public for nearly fifty of the book is Archives, Documents and years. Major structural repairs have Printed Records, wherein is given all been found to be necessary and the House the information for a researcher who will be closed for about six months after wishes to pursue the whereabouts of Saturday, 21 September 1974. documents relating to non-parochial registers, Civil and State ones, Army Camden Council has appointed Mr John and Navy Lists, county and Quarter Brandon-Jones, FSA, AADipl, ARIBA session records, and so on. Also in- as consultant architect. cluded, under county headings, are the Local Societies. The list of specialist The ~eats Memorial Library in the .libraries is, again, most useful. adjacent Heath Branch Library will remain open as usual. It will always be the endeavour of the local historian to determine the effect We will announce the re-opening as upon a community of Acts of Parlia- soon as the exact date is known. ment - things did not change suddenly at the exact time of an enactment. Most Incidentally, on sale at Keats House is of: the enabling Acts are cited and a ~ery attractive poster advertising it, price 50p. Kentish Town was a else, you had to do what was expected of Lovely Place you, or out. " One of the oldest inhabitants of Kentish Town, commercially speaking, is Mr At seventy, Mr Hamilton is inclined to ·Hamilton, whose well-stocked stationers mourn the days when an order placed in in the High Street is known and appreciat- the evening could be supplied by lunchtime ed from Camden Town to Highgate. The the following day. (The shop stayed open present facade, already almost a period then from eight in the morning ·till seven piece with its draw-down shutter and at night., nine on Saturdays and midnight lacquered advertisements for fountain on Christmas Eve). He also regrets the pens, bears the name 'Bishop and Ham- passing of the 'carriage trade' from the ilton': in fact it was in the early 1890~ big houses in Caversham Road and Barth- that the present Mr Hamilton's father, olomew Villas., and feels sad - and he is a ragged boy with little formal educa- not the only one - that Kentish Town High tion, joined Mr Bishop, bookseller and Street, once a place of private businesses stationer, as his hard-worked and held on modest rents, has now been batter- ambitious assistant. By 1914 he had ed and despoiled by alien commercial managed to buy Mr Bishop out: the pressures: photo above shows him(the one in the high collar fading spectrally off to the 1 'In the old days, we all knew each other. right) together with two assistants - Kentish Town was a lovely place then, it male, of course. Mr Bishop remained, really was. There was more violence in but retreated with his lack of business parts of course - you used to see some sense to the basement storeroom, where dreadful things, fights outside the pubs he spent his time writing. (I wonder and so on ••• But there was Mr Dunn, the what?) The elaborately-dressed wind- owner of the hatters next door to us; he ow in the picture is worth studying: the used to come and visit my father smoking lettering 'Discount bookseller' refers a big cigar., and when he died he .1eft it in to the shop's original speciality, the his Will that Dunns was to go on doing as sale of paperbound re-issues of three- much business as possible with us - of volume novels, marked .in:i.tially at six course that's all been forgotten now •.• shillings but bought in bulk by Mr And there was Mr Rex of Salter Rex with Bishop and sold off at 4/ 6. The shop a spade beard and a top-hat like Church- was also typical of its time in running ill's - they had a beautiful office down the a 'Twopenny Library' (see the notice road, all mahoganey., and when he came on the left): the days when a free Pub- in all the clerks used to get up and say lic Library would flourish in the High together Good morning Mr Rex •••• Street exactly opposite were still dist- And then there w13,s Mr Head., tli~ shop- ant. But, aware of changes blowing walker at Daniels., the big stores; he in the wind., Mr ·Hamilton senior set was ·always very smart in a frock coat., about expanding the stationery side of everyone knew Mr Head ... All gone now., the business. He also, in 1917., took all those people. Just gone, and nothing his fourteen year old son away from left of them. " the Acland Central School and took him into the firm as a parcels' boy., In the 192 Os the next -door shop was own- fetching the daily orders of books ed by a greengrocer (Walter Ansell) who from the City warehouses by tram. did a little horse-dealing on the side, Three years later., when his son did keeping the horses behind the shop on something he didn't like., he sacked some waste land backing onto the Midland him., and though he was afterwards Railway. He apparently looked as rural forgiven and reinstated the present as he sounds, being given to old-fashion- Mr Hamilton still rememb~rs the ed farmer's corduroy trousers with wads occasion with fear: ''My father was of cash kept inside the front flap. One day brought up to work and really that's all he he was standing before his shop in this did. He was a bit of a martinet - it was guise looking pleased with himself, and the style then, it didn't matter who you told Mr Hamilton senior that he'd just were working for, your father or anyone

THE PLUMBERS ARMS bought the freehold of the place for cash'. At 11 pm on Sunday June 25th, 1972 the He suggested that Hamiltons tried to do Plumbers Arms public house, on the the same and they took his advice and did corner of Hastings Street and Sandwich - which is how, today, Mr Hamilton junior Street, closed its door for the last time. comes to be his own master, still running In August of that year the final stones his,..admirable low-turnover business in an were taken from the site., and the Plumb- era when such useful shops are more and ers Arms is now but a memory. remem- more being squeezed out by huge rent in- bered by a plaque put up by Hughes Parry creases only payable by large companies HaH and a pane of decorated glass placed or by the proprietors of luxury high-turn- by the bar in the Hall. The Plumbers ove.r businesses such as restaurants and Arms-seems to have had a quiet history. clothes shops. But even he will not re - or at least records concerning it are few main forever: "I'm getting on, I suppose and undramatic, indeed it is not even I'll have to be thinking about retiring soon certain when the site became a public and letting the business go ... My wife and house, although it seems to have been I do discuss it.. But, the thing is, I'm there in 1902. It ser.ved the functions of too used to work and I'm too much of a a public house undramatically but effic - one for having things the way I'm used to iently, with a long tenure of occupancy them. I don't know what I'd do, with no- by Mr Roy Honey who, from 1933 to 1935 thing to do all day. The shop's been my was joint licensee with his sister and life, really. I've never had the time to then, from ;I. 935 to the end, was sole develop any hobbies .•• It was all so licensee. Then came the war. and different, long ago - I really can't convey the character of the area was changed, it• II with more offices appearing as bombed areas were rebuilt. The change in lay- Gillian Tindall out of the Plumbers Arms from 1932 to 1960 seems to reflect the growing import- ance of lunch-time trade provided by the THE STREETS OF HAMPSTEAD office workers, whilst the extension of the saloon bar and installing of off licence You mention in More Streets of Hampstead and club facilities would indicate that it that Thomas Danby resided in Parkhill was developing into a focal point for the Road. local flat dwellers. I would be interested in learning further However., time and tide wait for no man• about this man and would be obliged if you nor public houses, and the construction could advise me where I might find further of Hughes Parry,, Hall by the University of information regarding his life and his work London, who. had now acquired the lease, and indeed examples of his paintings. heralded its doom. It was understood that demolition of the Plumbers Arms was a H. M. Defries condition attached to planning permission for the Hall, A comparison of photo- RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY graphs of the Plumbers Arms (c 1932 - There will be a public lecture at the 1940) and of it in its last days make it Science Museum on Saturday, October very plain that whereas in the earlier 5th at 5.15 pm on Benjamin Outram - period it was in harmony with its surround- Civil Engineer by Dr R B Schofield. ings by the 1970s it was placed in an un- Tickets from A Roose Esq., 4a Alandale familiar and grotesque situation, a small Avenue, Pinner, Middlesex. old building crouching beneath the shadow of a 14 storey tower block. The contrast was ridiculous and from the moment the first bricks of the Hall were laid the shadow of death fell nearer and darkened the doorway of the Plumbers Arms. Tony Baugh Hughes Parry Hall Pictures fr~m the Christopher Oxford Exhibition

Site of the Upper Flask Inn, Heath St Queen Mary's maternity Home, Heath C 1950 Street c 1950 (meeting place of the Kit -Cat Club)

Haverstock Hill by John Constable c 1839 Hill c 1949 with the Sir. showing Sir Richard Steele's cottage on Richard Steele on right and Load of right hand and Load of Hay on left. Hay on left

The Spaniards c 1820 The Spaniards c 1950 Keat'·s Seat, Well Walk c 1814 Keat's Seat c 1950

THE EASTERN FRINGE OF THE CITY War, only two short years later. A Photographic tour of the Bishopsgate area in 1912 Those 2 0 photographs of 62 years ago have now been reproduced by the Bishops - A Spring Saturday in 1912. In Parliament. gate Institute in a 32-page booklet. They a bill to give Home Rule to Ireland has . are arranged in the form of a continuous just been introduced. West Bromwich walk, starting in Norton Folgate, and Albion have held Barnsley to a goalless ending in Cutler Street. Each photograph draw in the Cup Final. The appalling has an historical commentary. and there tragedy of the Titanic has filled the world's is a map of the area in 1912, contrasted headlines for almost a week. with a map of the same area today.

Out on the eastern edge of the City. a As a record of an area changed out of all photographer walks round the area between recognition, much of it to disappear Bishopsgate and Commercial Road, taking in the near future, this booklet con- pictures of scenes in the streets - na-rrow stitutes a photographic record of the alleys full of grubby urchins; Georgian utmost interest. The price is 3 Op squares and grim tenements; public houses (+ 6p postage). and copies may be obtained from the Bishopsgate Institute, and small shops. It is an area dominat - 230 Bishopsgate, EC2. ed by the rag trade and the market. which in the succeeding decades was to engulf so many of these streets. Not a glamour- ous. · tourist - ridden part of the City. but a microcosm of that working-class London which was to change so drama- tically on the outbreak of the First World Transport Group PARK HOUSE The Transport Group is to start in earnest In answer to your correspndent Neil again. John Lawson has volunteered to Reid's queries, Park House, Highgate, help organise a new research programme was in the former Parish and later and there will be an initial meeting on Borough of Hornsey, which is now part Monday 30 September 1974 at ~- 30 pm. of Haringey, and not in St Pancras., AU-members interested in doing research which. has become part of Camden.. It iI1to transport in Camden - one of the most stood on the east side of North Hill., N6., interesting boroughs in the country in this on the site occupied by one of the first respect - are invited to attend. post-War Council housing schemes - the tower blocks of Hillcrest and the FOLEY CENTENARY surrounding grounds. A road called Spare a thought this August for the The Park., on the southern perimeter., sculptor., John Henry Foley, who died commemorates the former property, as in Hampstead exactly 100 years ago at does Park Walk on the north (connecting the ?eight of his fame. Born in Dublin North Hill with Southwood Lane)., and in 1818, he followed in the footsteps of Park House Passage from North Hill to his elder brother, Edward, who had set The Park. up as a sculptor in London. John Henry was a full member of the Royal Academy Prints of the House exist. It was once at the early age of 40 and produced a large the home of Squire Cooper-Cooper, a assortment of statues, busts and monum- well-known Governor of Highgate School., ents. They are now scattered around and after its asylum days became a II ·t t. II • h It England, Ireland and India and can be pem en iary ., 1. e. a ostel for fallen sampled in the National Portrait Gallery women''. and Kensal Green Cemetery. But his main claim to current fame is his seat- Joan Schwitzer Ph. D ed figure of the Prince Consort for the Hornsey Historical Albert Memorial, which he was working Society on at the time of his death. He had MEDIEVAL CHURCHES earlier modelled the 'Asia group' for the same monument and, working on In October the Hampstead Centre of the this in the open air, he caught a chill National Trust is having an illustrated which fatally affected his lungs. He series of lectures by Miss Rosemary moved from Osnaburgh Street, Regent's Manning on the interior decoration of Park, to The Priory, Upper Terrace medieval churches called The Imagery · (on the site of the present Priory Flats) of the Medieval Craftsman. These will presumably for the sake of Hampstead's be at St Saviour's Church Hall , Eton Road, healthy air: but he died soon after, in NW3, on October 2nd, 16th and 3oth at 8 pm. Members of this Society are August 1874, three months after his welcome. brother, who had drowned himself in the Regent's Canal. There is, incidentally, SOCIAL HISTORY GROUP no apparent link between these Foley's The Group meets next Monday, September and the Captain who left his name on Foley House in East Heath Road. 16th at 7. 3 O pm at Swiss Cottage Library. c. w. HARRY LLEWELLYN GORDON The members who missed the exhibition THE CANALSIDEWALK of contemporary drawings and paintings To mark the opening of the St Pancras of Camden by Harry Llewellyn Gordon section of the Regent's Canal towpath may like to know that Mr Gordon who is walk to the public, Camden Council has a member of the Society is always very published a well-researched ai,.d illustrat- willing to show them to interested mem- ed booklet on the building of th,e Canal with bers at his house. Just telephone help and advice from Mr Charles Lee. It 722 796.0 to make an appointment. is hoped to distrubute copies of this book- let with this or the next Newsletter. 0 oc1·1 . Victoria posa Ind h in Lon n- It ~~;.1,an·~· the • •.,..~ '\\1 v , !l. the rn talk . Members will have an opportunity of Mr R. Michael Robbins's lecture on Indus- attending on Saturday,· 26 October, a trial Archaeology in Greater London will symposium on ASP"RCTS OF VICTORIAN be given L."1 the Holborn Library Hall, 32- CAMDEN.. The pr)gr::tmme is a varied 38 Theobald's Road, WCl, on Tuesday, one and includes illustrated lectures on 5 November, at 7. 30pm. the Work of Norman Shaw; Aspects of working class Caxnden; the.North London Thi.s is one of the highlights of our pro- Collegiate School; and Social aspects de- 5ramme year and we hope that all mern- rived from studies of census returns. Dr be:.:;:; will make a very special effort to Barbara Ely will speak on Hampstead I s come. fir.st Medical Officer of Health and Prof- Mr Robbins is President of the Greater essor Ruth Bowden on the Royal Free London Industrial ArchaeologicaJ Society Hospital School of Medicine. and of the St Marylebone Society. The The photographic indexing group will second volume of the"' massive H:story present an exhibition. '."If prints and photo- of London Transpo:i~t. of i,,vhich Mr Robbins graphs of the per~oa. is jofot author, appeared rece11tly and he has also written numerous other books on The symposium, at the Holborn Library, railway and local history. starts at 2. L15pm and ends at 7pm. Aft<",.-· noon tea is included in the fee of 50p. 'lhe Another distinguished transport hir,torian, Chairrnan for the occasion will be Coral Mr Charles E. Lee, will take the chair. Howells. An evening not to be missed!

CAMDEN ENTERTAINMENT: an anthology of poetry. prose and ~:rmsic for Christmas

Sunday 8 December at 7. 45pm

The Ernbassy Theatre, Central School of Speech and Drama, at Swiss Cottage

This is a joini; event with the Central School of Speech and Drama Application form enclosed a Provided Schools. His. numerous Chu,·c11 -A recent acquisition by the British Library interests included the Free & Open Church (British Museum) of considerable inter~st Association; he joined its Council in 1873, to the local historian is that of the Prosser became Chairman in 1913, and held that papers, which are now in the Department office until lifs death. of Jvianuscripts (Additional Manuscripts Although Prosser wrote many ,articles and 54,496 - 54,507). Those who have studied · I 11e tt ers t o e d.;.Hor, II an d was a frequent the "St. Pancras Notes an\'.1 Queries," which contrfbutor to Notes and QueriBs, bis only appeared in the St. Pancras Guardian from signed work in book form was '}3j_rmingham 3 February 1897 to 2 January 1903, must Inventors and Inventions," which appeared have become familiar with the initials II . II ' in 1881 in a limited edition of 50 copies. R. B. P. Some 315 of these notes were He supplied a great amo mt of material to reprinted in nine parts, and then were 1 the "New English Dictionary ' and wrote issued in 1903 in a bound volume limited numerous biographies of inventors and to 150 copies, of which only about 125 engineers for the "Dictionary of National were offered for sale. The editor of these Biography, 11 including Thomas and Wa:lter notes, and also the a11thor of many of them, ·Hancock, John Kay, Henry Maudslay. was Richard BisstoE :2rosser. Andrew Meikle, Patrick Miller, "William Prosser was born in Birmingham on 25 Murclocki Thomas N ewcorn.en~ and Denis August 1838, and was the eldest son of J?apin. Richard Prosser, an engineer and inventor F.ccsser died on 26 March l918, aged 79. of some note who had much to do with the Obituary notices included those in The introduction of the Patent Law Amendment Engineer of 12 April 191D (page 32of"""" Act, 1852. The father, moreover, was The Church Times of 5 A,pril 1918 (page described by The Engineer as one of the 266). and The Guardian (a Church journal, "founders" of the Pat~nt Office Library, not the Manchester Guardiaxi) of 4 April as his books were combined with those 1918 (page 263). His books were &uctioned of Bennet Woodcroft (1803-18'79} to form at Hodgson's, together with his co1lection the nucleus of tha.t fi:u2 collection, which of biographical notes in twflve foolscap was opened on 5 March 1854. boxes. These notes were sold for about R.B .P. was educated at University College £90; the Patent Office had sent a represen- School, where he was a fellow pupil whh tative to buy them, 'but he was authorised "Joe" Chamberlain. His father died when to bid on1y up to £20. These papers dis- he was 16, and two years later (in 1856} appeared from view until quite recently Prosser entered the office of the Com- when they appeared at Sotheby' s,, and rnissioners of Patents, where he rose to were acquired by the British Library. Chief Examiner. He retired on pension in For caning my attention to the acquisition, 1888, an early retirement on account of and for material help with various details an eye disease which left him for a time of Prosser' s activities, I am indebted to almost blind, but he recovered sufficiently Mr. John E. C. Palmer of the Department to continue his research work and writing, · of Printed Books, Antiquarian Section, and also to take an interest in local govern- British_ Library, who is himself a keen ment affairs, in education, and hi Church research worker. of England activ.,ties. Prosser was a Charles E. Lee member of the St. Pancras Vestry, but his failing eyesight prevented him from standing for the new Borough Council when CAMDEN PRINTS it was formed in 1900. He was keenly interested in the maintenance of Church The Director o(Libraries and Arts tells Schools, and was for some years a mem- us that sets of eight colour prints from ber of the old School Board for London, the local history collections are still which was taken over by the London County available for the bargain price of £2 per Council on 1 May 1904. To the last, he set. Ask at your local library for an was Foundation Manager of the St. M,:iry order fori-n. . Magdalene, Munster_Square, Church School, and of the North St. Pancras Group of The street history group led by Wilfrid The second revievv is now p'Jblished. Meadows has nearly completed its re- Edited by Christopher vVade and beauti-- searches into West Han.1.pstead but is fully designed by Roger Dinsmore it is a stuck with a formidable ~ollection of · highly desirable addition to your Camden unexplained street names. Does anyone bookshelf. It is packed with illustrations know the derivations or associations of and artides ranging from a section on the followJng streets: Edwardian Camden to Victoria.11. Highgate Aldred, Ariel, Broomsleigh, Burrard, Schools. · There is a reduced-rate offer Compayne, Cotleigh, Dornfell, Dynharn, to members and you are urged to complete Eresby, Fawley, Gascony, Gladys, Glas- . the enclos,~d application form. tonbury, Goldhurst, HoJ.mdale, Honey- ·bourne, Iverson, Kylemore, Loveridge, WHATV\/AS IT UKE ml 1884? Lyncroft, Maygrove, Messina, Mutrix, I should like to take the opportunity of Ravenshaw, Sumatra? appealing through the pages of the News- letter for information. In order to occupy M:r Winston Sparrow writes: myself when I move to Southport in the new 'My grandfather .owned 'Wildwood. farm' year (remaining a member of C.H. S.). I and sold out to Henrietta Burnett. He am making a study of Everyday Life in built the Express Dairy in No::h End des- Kentish Town and Gospel Oak in 1884-5. troyed by a bom.b in 1941. I n~member My idea is. not merely to get an overall playing in the fields just where the hospital view of things at that time, but to try and is now. There was a wonderful walled see the scene just as it was on any typical garden off Wildwood Grove - then more of day of the year in question. Seeing things a. cart-track than a road - wher_e I used to through the eyes of the ordinary people eat the fruit. " who were alive then, reading what they My mother was. born in the house still read in the pap8rs., and doing what they stanrling adjoining Wildwood Grove. 1 did. All this, cf com·se, requires a close . check of detail, and I should the refore be NEW BOOK very grateful for even the bit tiniest of LIVING IN LONDON ec~tDd by Alan Hoss information the members can give me. London Magazirie Editwns £2. 75 What stories would have been on news- The book is a collection of accounts by paper placards?. writers of different backgrounds and Does anybody know about stories of generations: the reader I s expectation of 1 . local characters'? plentiful references to Camden is amply Were there any local street:-traders rewarded in several' perceptive descrip- regularly eyeen? tions of local scenes and moeurs. Jonathan I appreciate, from my own experience, Raban finds his part of Highgate "anxious, that information on items like the above isolated, frightened ... looking hopefully is often nearly impossible to come by. out towards Great Turnstile~ Thurloe Any little things that readers can pass on Plac(?, Broadcasting House: Wood Lane ... 17 will be useful in building up to me most Two contributors fin,d something new to an overall picture of life in the period. say about over-described Hampstead; · So, _please, turn out the memory banks Peter Vansittart confesses that his love- and let me have what you can. affair with the place began at the age of eleven in the former Belsize Library, Richard Franklin ,1 my pwgm• , • un1vers1• ·t ':/ " w h'l1 e p atr1ck. 55 Shirlock Road . Chaplin writes a telling description of NW3 2HR that sordid frontier of NVv3, the low.er .

FD Cole NEW TRA.NSPORT GROUP

Mernbers will probably have heard that A transport research g11Up was one of Mr John Hinchliffe has been appointed as the first to be formed when the Society the Senior Field Officer to the Inner Lon-• cam<~ into existence in 19'70·. The group don Archaeological Unit, which has finan- achieved a great deal but its activities dcJ.l support from the London B0rough of have been in cnspense for some tirneJ Camden. following the departure of some of the early rnembers from London. The Unit's function, initially, is to sur- vey for archaeological potential, those Mr John Lawson, a young enthusiast hi boroughs in North London which are sup- this field, has now agreed to preside over- porting the scheme. In addition, Miss· the formation of a new group and he cor- Irene b, who has been appointed as dially fovites anyone interested to meet a Ji'ield Officer, wilJ concentrate on the him at the Swiss Cottage Library (meetings Camden area in the first year. Mr G. F. room) at 7pm on Thursday, 31 October Hoar, Deputy Director of Planning and 1974. Communications, has welcomed their ap- Mr Charles E. Lee, well-known transport pointment and offered all the appropriate historian and a men1ber of the Society's services of his depa.r.tment. council, has kindly agreed to act in an Until the survey of Camden is done - advisory capacity. probably by about the middle of 1975 - it Needless to say, in a borough -.-.,hich has is unlikely that the Unit will be excavating. three of the main railway term inf, the 'I'heir main task at the moment is to relate Re gent I s Canal and Euston Road ('.:o name . potential area3 with redevelopment maps but a few interesting transport features) so that a programme of excavation might a great deal of work is waiting to be done. be outlined.

Mr Hinchliffe has promised to involve NEV\/ rviEMBERSMiP Rl;COHD interested members of the Society at the Memhership has now reached 466 - the earliest possibk 1-.:10ment. high,;;;...;t total ever. Members recently · j0ined are: GEORGE EARL Mr & Mrs D. Fraser, Mr & Mrs B. Keeley, Mr Russell Jones at the School of Oriental Mr & Mrs C. Martyn, Mrs J. Banerjee, and African Studies h~'-S asked.if members Mrs ~.r. Berridge, Mr 8. Brocks on, can give any information about George Misi::~ K. Cabot, Mr J. Cadisch, Miss J. Samuel vVindsor Earl (1813-65) who was Davies, Miss W. Hall, Mrs J. Murray, born at North End, Hampstead, in a house Miss G. Newton, Mrs Anne Pete1~son, on the site of the present 'Wildwood'. I-Iis Mr P. Phillips, Mrs M. Pickardt, Mr :F'. parents were Elizabeth (nee S:C1arp) and Wagstaffe, Mrs R. Weinstein. Captain Percy, Earl a mariner with the It ..:is hoped to arrange a new members East India Company who died in Hampstead meeting soon for all those who have join- Ln. 1827. ed since the last one. George Earl must have left England in about 1829 (at the age of 16) and Mr Jones THE GOVERr\lESSES' lNSTiTllTiO.N is particularly interested in discovering Iii the extract from .Mr Anthony Cooper I s where Earl received his schooling. Did letter in Newsletter 23 there was a mistake he receive it locally? Which schools were in the first line: Volun.1.e 19 should have there in Hampstead at the time? Are there read Volume 24. any survivors of the Earl family in Hamp- stead? Edited by John Richardson and Published by Camden History Society H,is anyone an old plain concertina that c/o St Pancras Library, 100 Euston rd, :N\Vl they wo1J.ld be willing to lend for a pro- I duction of Shaw!s Major Barbara at the Central School of Speech and Drama. If you could help, please ring Cathy Moon No27 of the CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY DEC1974

January and February events gramme year from March 19,7 5 but would welcome further ideas from members. On Thursday, 16 January 1975, John Please write to the Hon. Secretary if you Richardson, our Chairman, will give an have any. illustrated lecture, entitled OLD CAMDEN POSTCARDS. This will be held at the Polytechnic of North London, Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town, NW5, at 7. 30 pm. Members may remember that we under-estimated the attendance at the HAMPSTEAD IN THE THIRTIES Chairman's lecture in January this year and will be pleased to know that we have booked a larger lecture hall for the next one. until 1 7 January The final lecture of the current program- me year will be on Thursday, 13 February An exhibition of unusual interest to mem- 1975, at the Swiss Cottage Library at 7. 30 bers can be seen at the Camden Arts pm. Mr Roger Ellis will give an illus - Centre in Arkwright Road until 1 7 January trated lecture on the life and work of 1975. Sub-titled "a committed decade", George Romney. Mr Ellis has lived in it records the political history of the area Romney's house in Hampstead since 1957. during the period. There are sections devoted to the Left Book Club and the Spanish Civil War and the organisers The Council of the Society have already promise that there will be many other planned some events for the next pro- items in the exhibition to enjoy. ~rnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrn~ ~r~v CAMDEN HISTORY REVIEW 'Camden History Society's annual delving into the more rewarding depths of local history .. ' (Hampstead & Highgate Express)

.~ Members are reminded that Review No. 2 is available to them at the reduced price of 65 pence (including postage) only until ·~ the end of 1974. Any number of copies can be ordered and, if intended as Christmas presents, will be despatched free to any U. K. address. After January 1st, Reviews Nos. 1 & 2 will each cost 75 pence, plus 7 pence each for postage/ delivery.

~. Orders to CHS Publications, 28 Willoughby Road, London, NW3 lSA oornrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrn~ Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh in Camden

What better time than Christmas to turn our attention to that most interesting chap- ter in Camden history, the story of the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. The account which follows is by JimSwin- ley, the present Director of the Foundation and is reprinted, by kind permission of the editor, from the October issue of the Cam- den Council of Social Service newsletter. For an explanation of the title above, read on!

The story of the Coram Foundation begins in the eighteenth century. Thomas Coram was a master mariner. shipwright and trader from Lyme in Dorset. After mak- ing a modest fortune in Massachusetts he came back to live at Rother hithe. While commuting to the City to look after his business interests, he was frequently appalled at the sight of babies left to die by courtesy of the Governors of the Thomas Coram Foundation on dunghills. Kind-hearted seaman as he was, he determined to try to prevent this FOUNDLING GIRL AT DINNER waste of life. He knew the potentialities at the Hospital. This was the seed from of the empty lands across the Atlantic and which sprang the Royal Academy. wanted to preserve these children's lives so that they could he sent out as colonists. A further attraction to the rich and fashion- able people now be ginning to move into For 1 7 years he tried to enlist the support new houses and squares in Bloomsbury of influential people for establishing a was Handel. He, like Hogarth, took a keen Foundling Hospital. Eventually helped by interest in the Hospital. Not only did he "21 Ladies of Nobility and Gentry". he present the first organ, but he gave many obtained a Royal Charter from George II. recitals in the chapel and the proceeds He and his fellow Governors took premises were given to the Hospital funds. The in and, in a commendably Messiah was performed for the first time short time, the first children were admitted. in England in the chapel, and Handel be- The following year 56 acres of Bloomsbury queathed a fair copy of the score to the were bought for £ 7, 5 00 and the building of Governors. a Hospital began. So, the early years of the Hospital were Enormous interest was aroused and many enriched by many artists and craftsmen, offered their services free or at a nominal the majority of whom were elected Gov- cost. Hogarth, who had already painted ernors. With all the publicity, it is not a very fine portrait of Coram, offered surprising that the Hospital was besieged to decorate the Governors' room with pic- by requests to take in children. The selec- tures of himself and his friends. Others tion procedure was unusual. The mothers followed and many pictures and works of drew coloured balls from a leather bag. art we·re presented to the Hospital. "Being A white ball meant that the child would be exhibited to the public, they drew a daily admitted subject to a medical examination. crowd of spectators in their splendid equip- A black ball meant a refusal and if a mother ages'~ and a visit to the Foundling Hospital drew a red one, her child would be accept- became the fashionable morning lounge of ed if one of the "white" children was found the reign of George II. The artists were to be suffering from an infectious disease. delighted at their success and formed a Society of Arts which held an annual dinner On admission the children's names were changed, partly to safeguard the mother Redhill and then to Berkhamsted. The in later years from the embarrassment of buildings at Berkhamsted were sold in 11 a lost" son or daughter appearing on her 1955. Since then we have continued to doorstep, partly to protect the child from work with unmarried parents and their unscrupulous relatives or friends who children, but- in quite a different way. might claim him and put him to work. In First of all, we offer a counselling ser- the early days children were often given vice so that the parents may come to a the names of Governors until the latter considered decision about the future of discovered that this encouraged the child- their children. Then, where a mother ren to claim kinship in later years. In wants us to take a child into our care we some cases neither side knew whether the will arrange for him to go direct to a claim was true or not! Later. children foster home. The vast majority of the were called after famous people and we children are either adopted or restored can mention a Francis Drake, Emma to their mothers in the course of the next Hamilton, Isaac Newton, Walter Raleigh few years. Our well qualified team of and many other distinguished names among social workers have small case-loads so our former boys and girls. When a mother that they have time to deal with the so- was able to satisfy the Governors that she called "hard to place II children in which had adequate means to support a child~ the we specialise. child would be restored to her provided Since before the war our premises in she could describe the token which she had Brunswick Square have been used by a to attach to the child when it was admitted. number of agencies for work with local pre- Many of these tokens were coins or pieces school children. We have always been glad · of cloth. There is a large, rather sad to help them and have provided facilities collection of unclaimed tokens in our mus- rent-free or at advantageous rates. Now, eum. however, we have started our own venture, Until 1800 some children were admitted on a Children's Centre which seeks to com- payment of £100 and "no questions asked". bine the functions of a day nursery, play In those days £100 was a large sum and group and nursery school and to integrate one wonders who the parents were. the efforts of all those involved in bringing up children - parents, doctors, teachers, All the children were sent to foster-mothers social workers, nursery nurses, health in the country until they were 4 or 5 years visitors and so on. The Centre started old. Then they lived in the Hospital until with 47 children in December, we expect the Governors apprenticed them out. The to expand to about 70 places next Septem- Governors were careful in their selection II ber. Ourwork is monitored by a Research of "masters and took an interest in the children until they were 21. They also Unit, so successes and mistakes will be concerned themselves with the health and known to all interested in this field. The diet of the children and the archives (we Centre cuts across many of the present have ten tons of them) are full of references barriers between different professions and to the quantity of rice for puddings and the bureaucracies and offers hope of great price of eggs and butter. improvements in pre-school provision. It deserves an article in itself. For now, There was a disastrous period in the suffice to say that Thomas Coram's 1750 1 s when Parliament decreed that all pioneering spirit is working hard. children who came to the Hospital doors ,must be admitted. 15. 000 were taken in in 5 years, most of them just dumped in a basket in a niche in the gateway in Guil- ford Street. Later the Governors went TRANSPORT GROUP PLEASE NOTE! back to the billiard balls but gradually the rules developed which held good for many Mr Vic Stanton, Camden's new Director years - that the child be under 12 months of Works, writes - ''For information, a old and the first child of an unmarried fifteen year old ex-St Pancras Borough mother who had been of good character Council sweeper's barrow. painted up in prior to her fall from grace. the old Borough Council markings has The Governors moved the children into the been donated to the Cockney Museum, 4 better air of the country in 1926, first to Broom Lock, Teddington, Middx. " IN CAMDEN - let us know - better still, New Transport Group come and tell us. 11 John Lawson writes - FITZROY SQUARE QUERY 11After a few years of dormancy, the transport group has been revived following Mr P. Phillips of 22 Queen Anne's Place, the meeting at Swiss Cottage Library on Bush Hill Park, Enfield, Midp,lesex, ENl 31 October. Eight members were there 2PT, writes - and another three had written expressing "I am engaged in an investigation of the interest in the group. In view of the im,- social attitudes of the twenty-five (or so) minent developments, concerning especial- artist-painters who occupied residences ly the old railway goods yards, the first in Fitzroy Square between about 1835 and priority will be the recording of what about 1900. exists at present before going on to search for what used to exist. Thus the group will I am most anxious to trace any extant be very pleased to hear from anyone about correspondence written by, or addressed sites and relics which remain, especially to, any of the following:- those which are about to be demolished, William Charles Dobson (at No. 34, removed or modernised. For example, do 1856-58) you kn?W of any trolley bus poles remain- John Napier (at No. la, 1863-1875) ing in Camden or do you know of any traces Alexander Melville. (at No. 34, 1864-1874 of private commercial railway systems? and No. 6, 1890-1892} What do you know about the 3-foot gauge Richard Beavis (at No. 38, 1873-1889 and, tracks used for timber transport at the probably, at some time at No. 39}. west end of Drummond Street? Are there any remains of vehicle builders' premises? I should like, also, to know the present location of pictures painted by the three The first thing will be to survey and photo- latter artists and the location of pictures graph the British Rail sites in Camden by Thomas Gulli_ck who lived at No. 1 during which are about to be redeveloped. If, 1880-1881. however, anyone else has made recent plans or taken photographs of any of these I should be extremely grateful for any sites, please let us know, for there is no assistance which you, or the members, point in duplicating work already done. are able to provide. If any of your mem- bers is concerned with a similar inves- Much has already disappeared in recent tigation, I shall be happy to offer such years. Charles E. Lee mentioned that so information as is available to me. 11 far as he knew, no-one had ever taken a detailed photograph of the cab-men's rest hut outside King's Cross station. This was of interest, for at one time these doors BARONESS BURDETT COUTTS were the ones through which coffins passed before being put on the train for New South- Highgate members in particular will have gate Cemetery. If anyone has a photograph, can they let him know? Also do you know heard of Mrs Dennis Healey's research of any other small transport items of on the life of the Baroness Burdett Coutts. interest which may be overlooked? She ·:ts to give a lecture on the subject to the Dickens Fellowship in February and Dr Michael Slater, Editor of The Dickensian All over Camden the gas-men and others extends a warm invitation to Camden His- are digging up the roads. If there are tory Society members to attend. The lec- still setts or tramlines down there, it ture is to be given on Monday, 1 7 February vrould be interesting to know. Even though 1975, at 7 pm at the Swedenborg Hall, 20- we may be studying a particular topic we 22 Bloomsbury Way, WCl. Doors will be would still be anxious to know about any open at 6. 30 pm. other item related to transport, whether in existence or just in a book or magazine; the Railway Magazine for February 1964 Edited by John Richardson and had a very informative article on the North Published by Camden History Society London Line. IF IT IS OR WAS TRANSPORT c/o St Pan·cras Library, 100 Euston rd, NWl