Return to London

Terence Jenkins

Description

Full of entertaining bite-size chunks of London's history, this book tells tales that will inspire you to explore a place you thought you knew. In this historical handbook, author, journalist and London guide Terence Jenkins hopes that the tales of England's capital city will inspire readers to explore this unique part of our country. It is a place rich in history and known for its extensive culture. Following the success of Another Man's London, he gives us an idiosyncratic look in bite-sized chunks of London's exciting history that are fascinating and easy to read. Amongst other characters you will meet Bulbous Betty and the Black Prince who had a surprising effect on the course of London's history. Discover why 100 shrouds were requested and what really happened to that polar bear in Piccadilly... Find out who was exiled in SE19, and what was all the fuss about a fig leaf? The book was written to follow Jenkins' trilogy of London books, Another Man's London, London Lives and London Tales, and also as a return to the city following his explorative book Further Afield. Not just an entertaining read but also an educational pocket guide, Return to London covers some of the unique facts about London's history that have largely remained unknown.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Gran Londres
• Greater London
• Grand Londres
• London

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783066063
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

RETURN TO
LONDON
TERENCE JENKINS
Copyright 2014 Terence Jenkins
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 978 1783066 063
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Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
For those who take the road less travelled
Also by Terence Jenkins:
Another Man s London
London Lives
London Tales
Return: A Collection of Short Stories
Co-Author of The Book of Penge, Anerley and Crystal Palace
Further Afield
CONTENTS
100 Shrouds Requested
Seafarers on the Albert Embankment
The Black Prince? Who s he?
Episcopal Pads
Bermondsey - an Unknown Corner of London
The Heart of the Borough
From the River to the Obelisk
A Polar Bear in Piccadilly?
A Very Narrow and Ill Passage Out of Strand
In the Fields?
Life with the Lions
St Benet s Church, Paul s Wharf
Bridge
J.K. and Me
Trust
Fig Leaf
Exile in SE19
Dandy Street
Mendoza the Jew
Vulcan
A Tragic Economy
A Posthumous Existence
Bulbous Betty and the War Effort
100 SHROUDS REQUESTED

100 SHROUDS REQUESTED
Have you ever noticed how straight is the stretch of road that runs almost from the confusion of highways that meets at the Elephant and Castle roundabout right down almost to Clapham Common? At the northern end is Newington Butts (so-called because it is where medieval youths were sent to the butts, or mounds, for archery practice in an attempt to wean them off the growing popularity of football, which wouldn t have been much use in warfare), then Kennington Park Road, which leads into Clapham Road and on to the Common, which lies a little further south. This is the A3 but was once the Roman road, Stane Street, which started at Borough High Street and led from London to Chichester.
Much of the road runs through the south London district of Kennington, which itself is mostly in the Borough of Lambeth though some part comes under the jurisdiction of the Borough of Southwark. It is mainly a residential district and a Royal Manor, for the Duchy of Cornwall has land holdings there. Harthacnut, King of both England and Denmark, died there and Harold Godwinson placed the crown of Edward the Confessor on his own head at Kennington in the year of three kings, 1066 (though some claim it was four kings for after Harold s death at Senlac Hill, Edgar Atheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, was elected king and crowned by Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury. However, his reign was not to be for William the Bastard advanced on London, demanded the crown and was elected king by the Witan.) Geoffrey Chaucer was Clerk of Works at Kennington Palace where Henry IV, Henry VI and Henry VII stayed. It was the final royal Henry, the Eighth, who dismantled the 181-year-old palace and used the materials to construct the Palace of Whitehall.
It was the opening of Westminster Bridge in 1750 that began the development of the area for housing. In 1751 Kennington Road (now called Kennington Park Road) was cut from the Common and it is with this area that we now concern ourselves. By the early nineteenth century, the village of Kennington had become a semi-rural suburb with many grand terraces and squares, homes to those who wanted to be out of the crowded centre of the capital and yet near to the seats of power at Whitehall and business in the City.
The main green lung in the area is Kennington Park, carved out of what was once the 20-acre Kennington Common (although the Park is now larger with the addition of some land from the Saint Agnes development). This green acreage in the centre of a busy, built-up, multi-racial London suburb has played its part in the history of the area.
At its southernmost part, standing on what was once a part of the Common, is St Mark s church, one of the four Waterloo churches in south London, so-called because they were built in celebration of Britain s defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. It was opened in 1824 at a cost of 15,274. One of the vicars was H.H. Montgomery, the father of Field Marshall Montgomery of El Alamein. At one time this was the spot where the Surrey County gallows stood, where in 1746 21 members of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 were hanged after their capture at Culloden Moor and the attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne was finally thwarted.

Artisan dwellings designed by Prince Albert
Once the Common had been just that, common land where cattle and sheep were grazed. Its open space was ideal for large crowds to gather to hear such people as John Wesley, the founder of Methodism who preached to over 50,000 people at one gathering. His fellow preacher, the evangelist George Whitefield, also preached there. William Booth, who worked in a pawnshop in nearby Kennington Park Road, continued the tradition of open-air ministry. He and his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army.
It wasn t only religious gatherings that met on the Common. In 1848 the Chartists who petitioned for political reform had a mass demonstration there, asking for things we now take for granted: a secret ballot; universal suffrage (admittedly for males only); no property qualification for M.P.s.; and other such democratic rights. The Establishment were so frightened by this that the Common was enclosed. The Prince of Wales gave 200 towards the cost of the fencing. The Common became a Royal Park, open to the public, the first such park in south London. However, it passed into the control of the London County Council in 1887.
Political gatherings have continued into the present day. In 1986 the Gay Pride March assembled there. In 1990 so did a crowd of over 200,000 which went on to Parliament to demonstrate against the Community Charge, called by many the Poll Tax . In 2007 the Archbishop of Canterbury preached there to commemorate the bicentenary of the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.
When passing, I had often been intrigued by the small attractive brick building that stood near the main road. It proved to be well worth investigation. Now called Prince Regent Lodge and containing the offices of that admirable charity, Trees for Cities, it had originally been built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, as the date in contrasting bricks attests on a gable. So do the monograms V and A on another gable. Queen Victoria s consort had been President of The Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes and as part of his duties had erected these Model Houses for Families which after the Exhibition were transported to the park. They contained four dwellings, two on each floor, with three bedrooms, a living room and separate scullery which had a sink, coal bin, ventilated meat safe and a rubbish chute. Perhaps, best of all, they had flushing toilets, a rarity in working-class dwellings.
On 14 th October, the Mayor of Lambeth unveiled a memorial of Caithness stone by the sculptor Richard Kindersley, a local artist. It was in memory of those who died in the Kennington Park tragedy of 15 th October 1940, an event which few people know of. The Blitz, which began in the autumn of 1940, was one of the most destructive and sustained attacks on Britain and its capital. 57 consecutive nights of concentrated bombing by up to almost a thousand German aircraft killed about 30,000 Londoners and left many more injured. In preparation for such attacks, the Government had ordered local authorities to erect air raid shelters. We are all familiar with pictures of people huddled into Underground stations, even though such places were regarded as potentially dangerous. To supplement and/or replace such places of refuge, other alternatives were sought, such as Anderson shelters and trench shelters. It was in one of the latter that one of the greatest losses of life in London occurred, the one in Kennington Park.
A trench-shelter was made up of two long trenches joined by four short ones, a bit like a ladder. The walls were reinforced with sandbags and the metal roof was covered with soil. They sound like a good idea but in reality they were a bit like those trenches of World War One, liable to subsidence and flooding. They were not very comfortable for the 50 people who were supposed to fill each section of the ladder . There was only basic sanitation and bench seating but they provided shelter for those caught out when an attack was imminent.
On the night of 15 th October 1940, a 50lb German bomb made a direct hit on the Kennington Park trench, which was jam-packed with folk taking shelter. It is claimed that the authorities failure to give an official death toll was to prevent loss of morale among our citizens and rejoicing among the enemy. However, it is now believed that that there were 104 fatalities, of which only 48 bodies were recovered for proper burial, the rest were left to lie where they fell. Not that much could be done to recognise the remains for there were body parts everywhere: men could not be told from women, so badly mutilated were they. So upsetting was the scene that curtains were erected around the demolished trench. At one time a request went out to the Air Raid Precaution Department: 100 more shrouds needed . At almost