Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Common ground: horticulture and the cultivation of open space in the East End of London, 1840-1900 Thesis How to cite: Matheson, Julia (2010). Common ground: horticulture and the cultivation of open space in the East End of London, 1840-1900. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2010 The Author Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000751b Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Common Ground: Horticulture and the Cultivation of Open Space in the East End of London, 1840-1900 This thesis re-examines the characterisation of the East End of London as an area associated with poverty and urban degradation. It uses a wide range of sources to show that there was more open space and a greater interest in horticulture within the population than has hitherto been recognised. Local newspapers, gardening journals and maps have been used to demonstrate that among East Enders were both amateur and professional gardeners. Amateurs gardened in backyards and window boxes, but horticultural expert Shirley Hibberd compared their flower shows favourably with those of the Royal Horticultural Society. There was a wide range of nurserymen and market gardeners supplying local individuals and the London markets. These industries have not featured in any discussion of East End employment. There were also open spaces which served many functions for the district. Victoria Park, the largest landscaped open space in the East End, provided both an example of horticultural excellence and also a site for recreation; cemeteries, in their early days, had ambitions to provide pleasantly landscaped surroundings in which mourners could find peace, though these ambitions did not survive the pressure of numerous burials; the small parks and gardens provided by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association were an example of what could be achieved by the efforts of philanthropists who were anxious to help the poor at the end of the century. This thesis argues that gardening should be recognised in historical debate as a pastime that was popular with all classes, not just the elite. It also suggests that most studies of the East End have underestimated the presence and importance of open space even in such an overcrowded and poverty-stricken area. ii Julia Matheson M.A. Common Ground: Horticulture and the Cultivation of Open Space in the East End of London 1840-1900 Thesis submitted for award of Ph.D Appropriate discipline: History Date of submission: September 2010 iii Acknowledgements I should like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of John Golby, who supervised my MA studies and gave me encouragement to undertake the further research for a PhD. He became one of the supervisors of that further study, but sadly died before it was completed. I am immensely grateful to Dr. Donna Loftus, who was my supervisor from beginning to end, and to Dr. Deborah Brunton who took over from John Golby. I could not have done it without them. I am also grateful for the support of my fellow PhD students of the Open University and, last but not least, my friend Anita Crum – who put up for years with a dining table covered with papers and rooms full of files. iv Table of Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………………...………..p. 1 Part One Chapter One: The Men Who Gardened: Amateurs …………………………………..p. 28 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..p. 29 The Gardeners and Their Gardens………………………………………………p. 31 Horticultural Societies and Their Shows………………………………………..p. 41 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………p. 54 Chapter Two: The Men Who Gardened: Professional.………………………………p. 57 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..p. 58 Nurseries………………………………………………………………………...p. 62 Loddiges………………………………………………………………...p. 64 Hugh Low and Company……………………………………………….p. 67 Fraser’s Nursery………………………………………………………...p. 69 Nurseries For ‘Small Customers’……………………………………….p. 71 Smaller Scale Nurseries…………………………………………………p. 80 Market Gardens…………………………………………………………………p. 84 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………p. 98 Introduction to Part Two………………………………………………………p. 102 Part Two Chapter Three: Victoria Park ………………………………………………………..p. 104 Introduction……………………………………………………………………p. 105 Laying Out The Park………………………………………………………......p. 115 Recreation In The Eastern Section Of The Park………………………………p. 133 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………......p. 140 v Chapter Four: Cemeteries …...…………………………………………………….p. 142 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..p. 143 Background to the Development of Cemeteries……..………………………p. 148 Abney Park Cemetery………………………………………………..p. 151 City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery…………………........p. 157 Setting Up The Cemetery…………………………………….p. 158 The Cemetery, Appearance and Use………………………….p. 171 Victoria Park Cemetery………………………………………….........p. 179 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….p. 188 Chapter Five: The Open Spaces Movement ………………………………………...p. 189 Introduction……………………………………………………………………p. 190 The Commons Preservation Society and the Kyrle Society…………………..p. 195 The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association………………………………..p. 197 Running The Association……………………………………………...p. 205 Middle Class Professionals……………………………………p. 205 Employees of the Association…………………………………p. 209 Summary………………………………………………………………p. 215 Examples of Work Undertaken By the Association…………………..p. 216 Disused Burial Grounds and Cemeteries East London Cemetery………………………….…………….p. 217 Victoria Park Cemetery……………………………………….p. 223 Disused Burial Ground, St. Dunstan’s, Stepney………………p. 228 Summary………………………………………………………………p. 234 Secular Spaces…………………………………………………………………p. 236 Trafalgar Square, Stepney and Carlton Square, Mile End Old Town…p. 236 Main Drainage Embankment…………………………………….…….p. 243 vi Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...p. 251 Conclusion ….……………………………………………………………………….p. 255 . Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………...p. 263 Illustrations NOT INCLUDED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS 1. ‘If It Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses In Between’. Song Sheet Cover 1894. Sheet Music Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Department.......after p. vi 2. A London Gardener. Photograph c. 1890. From exhibition ‘Faces in the Victorian City: Photographs of People Who Worked In the City Of London’. Guildhall Library, London, 2008, source unknown………………………………………………………...p. 28 3. A London Street Trader. Etching 1819. From ‘Street Cries of London’. Collage No. 26275, London Metropolitan Archives…………………………………………………p. 54 4. Victoria Fountain, Victoria Park. Lithograph 1862. Collage No. 19718, London Metropolitan Archives …………………………………………………………………p. 100 5. City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Lithograph c. 1860. Collage No. 19718, London Metropolitan Archives………………………………………………..p. 137 6. Lord Meath, President of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. Photograph n.d. From ‘The Diaries of Mary Countess of Meath, edited by her husband. (London: Hutchinson, n.d.), facing p.280………………………………………………………..p. 184 7. Gustave Doré: Work-A-Day London: Over London – By Rail. Engraving c. 1872. From London: A Pilgrimage (London: Grant, 1872; repr. New York: Dover Publications, 2004)…………………………………………………………………………………..p. 249 Maps (in folder at rear) NOT INCLUDED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS 1. Cross’s New Plan of London: 1835 (London: J. Cross, 1835; repr. Guildhall Library Publications, 2007). Item 1 in folder. 2. London 1843, drawn and engraved from authentic documents and personal observation by B. R. Davies (London: Chapman & Hall, 1843). Pr.Gp.4, London Metropolitan Archives, London. Repr. Old House Books, n.d. Item 2 in folder (North East section only). 3. Stanford’s Library Map of London and its Suburbs (London: Stanford, 1862; repr.: Guildhall Library, 1980), Control No. k1285387, London Metropolitan Archives, London. Item 3 in folder (collage of sheets 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12). 4. Charles Booth, Descriptive Map of London Poverty 1889: North Eastern Sheet. Life And Labour In London. rev. edn. vol. v (London: Macmillan, 1902; repr. Old House Books, n.d.). Item 4 in folder. 1 Introduction In 1894, Gus Elen, the popular Cockney music hall star, sang of his garden in the East End of London, in a song that is still occasionally heard today: ‘If It Wasn’t For the ‘Ouses In Between’, with the subtitle ‘The Cockney’s Garden’. 1 In the song, a costermonger has used his leftover vegetables to create the effect of “a puffick mass o’ bloom” in his backyard a mile from Leather Lane. In fact, in exactly the same district, at that time, as in most of the nineteenth century, there were gardens that would have been full of flowers. Today, however, more people probably know of Gus Elen’s fictional backyard than of those East End gardens and their gardeners. This thesis will endeavour to go some way towards remedying that situation by using a variety of underexploited sources to examine the horticultural community of the area and the gardens, parks and open spaces among which they lived. The nineteenth century East End of London is not an easy area to define – but whatever definition historians have chosen, they have rarely associated it with horticulture and open spaces. Two quotations, one from the beginning of the period and one from the end, show how the built up area spread