Aiscto;ii, NEWSLETTERVolume 3 Issue 10

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Autumn 2011

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(lenient Attlee statue restored and moved to Queen Mary, University of London, see John Renniearticle

CONTENTS:Cemetery Notes and News 2 Overshadowed by Churchill. hut rims 8

Attlee takes pride of place - John RennieProgramme Details 3 Correspondence 10Obituaries - Res.Michael Peet and ♦ Book Revie‘%s 12Jennifer WorthCockney, and the Music Hall - Pat Francis S Man's Rents, Bromley St Leonard - 15

Robert Barber

HMS Newsletter Autumn 21111

Editorial Note:The Committee members are as follows:Philip Merrick, Chairman. Doreen Kendall.Secretary. Harold Memick. Membership.David Behr. Programme, Ann Sansont.Doreen Osborne. Howard Isenberg andRosemary Taylor.

All queries regarding membership should headdressed to Harold Memick. 42 CampbellRoad. Bow. London E3 4DT.

Enquiries to Doreen Kendall. 20 Puteaux[louse. Cranhrook Estate. Bethnal Green.London E2 ORE. Tel: 0208 981 7680. or PhilipMernick, email: phil a memicks.com. Cheekout the History Society's website athttp://w \A w.eastIondonhistory.org. a k.

As always we arc indebted to the contributorsof this edition of the newsletter. Letters andarticles on East End history and reminiscencesare always welcome and we make every effortto publish suitable material. Items of interest,and any queries can be emailed to PhilipMemick, who has provided us with a veryinteresting and varied selection from hismailbox.

David Behr. our Programme Organiser. hasfinalised the lectures for 2011. We areappreciative of the time and effort David putsinto contacting potential lecturers. andarranging the programme.

The Newsletter is edited and typeset byRosemary Taylor with assistance of PhilipMemick. and an editorial team comprising.Doreen Kendall. Da\ id Behr. and DoreenOsborne.

Cemetery Notes and News

fyou would like to join Doreen and Diane,and other volunteers of the East LondonHistory Society in the Tower HamletsCemetery Park. on the second Sunday of everymonth. recording, memorials off gra.estones,you \\ ould he most welcome. hut he warned –it can become addictive! The thrill ofdiscovering another fascinating nugget ofinformation and uncovering vet another facetof history hidden within the walls of thecemetery keeps our members working away.

Other activities in the Tower HamletsCemetery Park include Open City London(formerly Open House) which takes placethis year on Sunday■ 18''' September. from 11am to 4 pm.

In September the cemetery will he I 70■rs oldand the Friends 2lyrs. Diane has been busyresearching the cemetery's history with a littlehelp from Doreen. for the next Stone Stories.

So on 18 `h September Open House weekendthere ‘1, ill be walks. games. cakes etc \\ itheveryone involved dressed up as Victorians.Guided walks start at 11 am. 12 noon. 1.00 pmand 2.00 pm.The A.G.M will he at four with Jeremy Batch.the lock keeper giving us lecture on -Tw icethe height of Canary wharf'. All are welcome.

Doreen and Diane are still hoping to pilltogether a walk around Tower HamletsCernetert Park highlighting grates ormemorials with a sporting connection. Theproject needs to he completed before theopening of the Ol mpics in 2012, so this hasnow become a matter of some urgency. To datethe% has e conic up with six, hut they need a lotmore to make this a iahle project.

If any members base information on any-oneith a sporting connection buried or connected

to the cemetery . , please email them at anisod03-thenru hoo.co.uk or write to Doreen Kendall.address at the front of the newsletter.

ELM Newdetter Autumn 11)1 I

East London History SocietyProgramme 2011 - 2012

Thursday September 22The Tower: the epic history of the Tower ofLondonSpeaker - Nigel Jones

Thursday October 6Images of the East End: the photographiccollections of Tower Hamlets Local HistoryLibrary and ArchivesSpeaker - Malcom Barr-Hamilton

Thursday May 17East End film night

Introduced 11% Rai Newton and John Tarby

The lectures are usually held on Thursdayevenings at 7.30 pm in the LatimerCongregational Church Hall, Ernest Street,El. Ernest Street is between Harford Streetand Whitehorse Lane. off Mile End Road(Opposite Queen Mary and WestfieldCollege). The nearest Underground Stationsare Mile End and Stepney Green. Bus No.

(preceded by AGM at 6.10pm.)

Thursday November 17East London cholera and the beginningssanitary reformSpeaker - John Marriott

Suggestions and ideas for future topics and/orspeakers for our Lecture Programme arealways welcomed. If you can su ggest someoneor indeed if you would like to else a talk

of yourself, please get in touch with David Behr.our Programme co-ordinator. either at one ofour lectures or. alternatively . email ourChairman Philip Mernick with your commentsand suggestions. Email: phiLiimernicks.com Thursday December 8

Early and East London county courtsSpeaker - John Bradbury

2012January & February- to he confirmed

Thursday March 1Stepney Green since the Great Fire Speaker- Isobel Watson

Thursday April 26Exca ‘ ations of king John's Tower andCourt - Worcester House a late medieval?and Tudor mansion at Stepney. GreenSpeaker - Da‘ e Sankey.

2012 update

The structures associated w ith the 2012Olympic games and the new WestfieldShopping Centre ha‘c received plenty ofpublicity but somethin g that has openedquietly is the re% amped Three Nlills Green. Itwas used to house the practice area for theMillennium Experience (Dome) acrobaticshow then went hack to sleep as just anotheropen space. It has just reopened after a majormake-over and looks really good. Thevandalised monument to the four men whodied in I 9(11 has been replaced by a moderndesign and its northern section has beenreshaped and laid out with large sculpturedblocks of stone that I suspect could he thefragments of the demolished Euston Archrecently dredged front the Bow Back Jtkers.

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wis No% sletier Autumn 201 1

OBITUARIES

the East London History Society has lost twohighly regarded members. and it is with deepregret that we announce the deaths of the Re%Michael Peet and Mrs Jennifer Worth.

Reverend Michael Peet1944 — 9 April 2011

The Re% Michael Peet. Rector of St Mary's &Holy Trinity Church in Bow died on April 9.at Bans Hospital. after battling cancer over thepast 18 months.

Born in Hertfordshire in 1944 Reverend Peetwas ordained priest and served at Battersea.Peckham. St Dunstan's in Stepney andStamford Hill before coming to Bow. Mr Peetwas vicar of Holy frinity. Mile End and AllHallows Devons Road from 1989 until 2006w hen Holy Trinity merged with St Mary's toterm the present parish of Bow. The successoldie merger was said to be down to his"enthusiasm and energy and his wholeheartedcommitment to the people of Bow.-

His commitment to the commun it% and love ofLondon led to his interest in local history. andhe was well known for his encyclopaedicknowledge of e% ents in and around Bow. Ana% id historian, the rector was also an authorittyon the past events of the area and wrote ahook. Seven Parishioners of Bow. chartingseven centuries of goings-on in the area.

Two years ago Mr Peet organised a weekendcelebration of the life of former Poplar mayorand Bow & Bromley . NIP George Lansbury,

ho was a member of the St Mare'scongregation for 40 years. Sadly Rev. MichaelPeet did not live to enjoy a ceremony on therh May unveiling a memorial plaque to thepolitician. He was also denied the opportunityof leading the celebrations. thiN sear. of the700th anni%ersary of Bow Church.

He %%as a leading figure in pushin g inclusiverights for all and he helped firm the Lesbianand Gay Christian Movement.

Reverend Peet leaves behind a partner. very'many friends and a thriving. active. parish.Bow Church hellringers rang a special quarterpeal in the rector's memory at 6pm on•riday14 April.

The Funeral was held on 5 th !Ma% at BowChurch.

Jennifer Worth -25 September 1935 - 31 May 2011

Jennifer Worth. author and musician. died on31' 1 May: 201 I . aged 75.

Many of you have no doubt enjoyed readingher bestselling Call the Midwife series. atrilogy based on her own experiences of

orking as a midwife in the East End ofLondon in the 1950s. now being made into atelevision series for the BBC.

At the age of 22 she moved to Poplar asdistrict midwife attached to an Anglican orderof nuns. The area still bore the scars of theSecond World War: one in four houses hadbeen demolished, and the overcrowding — sheoften found 12 people living in two rooms —N1as appalling.

Jennifer's job was to deal with some of the 50per cent of babies horn at home, often bygaslight and with the aid of little more thanwater heated in the "copper-. towels andwords of encouragement.

Yet despite the squalor, she found that the EastEnd of the 1950s still retained a sense ofcommunity. Front doors were left unlocked,and extended families lived round the cornerfrom each other. Her narrative was full of talesof resilience and good humour even in thegrimmest conditions.

ELI IS \ o%sletter Autumn 201 1

In her trilop - Call the Midwife (2002).Shadows of the Workhouse (2005) andFarewell to the East End (2009) - JenniferWorth described a world before thecontraceptive pill and legalised abortion. Hertrilogy sold almost a million copies in Britainalone. Last year she published In the Midst ofLife. a call for a re-evaluation of the way oursociety treats death and the unnecessarysuffering caused b ∎ the resuscitation of theelderl ∎ and terminalk ill.

Jennifer Worth was horn Jennifer Lee onSeptember 25 1935 at Clacton-on-Sea. whileher parents were on holiday. and grew up inthe Buckinghamshire town of Amersham. Shewas educated at Belle Vue School in LittleChalfont. but left at 14.

After taking a course in shorthand and typingshe became secretary to the headmaster of DrChalloner's Grammar School. Amersham. Shethen trained as a nurse at the Royal BerkshireHospital in Reading. subsequently mos ing toLondon to train as a m idw ife.

After workin g in Poplar. Jennifer became astaff nurse at the Royal London Hospital.Whitechapel. then ward sister at the ElizabethGarrett Anderson Hospital in Euston and laterat the Marie Curie Hospital in Hampstead.Jennifer Worth always loved music, and inI973 she left nursin g in order to devote herselfto her passion. She gained the Licentiate of theLondon College of Music in 1974 and wasawarded a fellowship 10 sears later. Shetaught piano and singin g for about 25 yearsand san g in choirs across England and Europe.

Jennifer Worth. who died on May 31. kstirs iced by her husband Philip Worth. and hertwo daughters.

COCKNEYS AND THE MUSICHALL

The poet T S Eliot reputedl ∎ admiredMarie Lloyd. My mother. a factory girl fromBethnal Green. thought she was ul gar. Later.in the days of radio. Mum would not go to seeMax Miller for the same reason.B∎ the nineteen-twenties. sin gers andcomedians were popularised b ∎ film and theBBC. Before that, people learned songs andcateh-phrases from printed sheet-music. orsitup!. h ∎ hearing them es erywhere. in thepubs and in the street. If you could afford apiano – and only the poorest could not get oneon hire-purchase – someone w ou ld Id hash outthe latest numbers at parties. or on Sundayevenings when the famil y came round to tea.Many of these songs emanated from the musichall. The Musical Herald ( I .1.1910) reportedthat

London children can get a gallery seat at amusic hall (early performance) for twopence.and that they carrs home the songs and singthem. At twelve L.C.C. Schools in London.the favoured songs of the playground are"Boiled beef and carrots." and "Has anybodyhere seen Kefts?-.

If. around the turn of the 19th and 20thcenturies, you had asked an% member of thepublic to name two music-hall stars. theymight well 'lase said Marie Lloyd and AlbertClic\ al ier. While Marie Lloyd is stillremembered. and has TV programmes madeabout her. Chesalier is largely forgotten. ButClic% al ier. 'the Costers' Laureate'. was a majorfigure. not on l\ because he was well–known.but because he played an important role inmaking the music hall respectable.professional. and commercial. This wasalready evident in 1893. when an articleappeared in The Morning Leader: (30 Ma ∎I 892):

But to Mr C'hesalier. I take it. belongs thecredit of has ing raised music-hall songs to thehighest level they can attain. Ile is the Kipling

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Newslcuer Autumn 201 1

of the music-hall. for he takes the commonclay of Whitechapel. and fashions it into realworks of art.

Music hall had its ori g ins in places wherepeople met to eat. drink. and he entertained.By the middle of the nineteenth century, hallswere being built speciall y so that largeaudiences could listen to singers andcomedians. The crowd joined in w ith thechoruses, and went on drinking. There were31 such halls in London in 1871.

By the mid 890s. the London County Council(LCC) existed, and its regulations. along withparliamentary laws. began to control suchthin gs as safety. At much the same lime.empires of theatres were being built up by afew management syndicates. such as Stoll andMoss. In reaction against this. the VarietyArtists Federation was set up. Major artists.such as Marie Lloyd. could earn large sums ofmoney. but performers were expected to rusharound London sometimes to four or fivetheatres in a ni ght. and undertook provincialtours. The halls w here they performed becamethe 'Palaces' and 'Empires' many of LIS

remember.

Marie Lloyd came from a poor family; shewould have had few opportunities in lifew ithout her performing abilities. Not soAlbert Onesime Britannieus GwathveoydLouis Chey slier. horn in 1861 of a Welshmother. and a father who tau ght French inKensington. At 16 Albert became an actor onthe 'legitimate' stage. He evolved charactersketches. which he wrote himself, and waspersuaded to try them out in the music halls.Initially reluctant. he gave in and made hisfirst appearance as an entertainer rather than asa serious actor in 1891 at the new LondonPavilion. Piccadilly Circus. His costercharacter was an immediate success not onlyin England. but also in American vaudeville.

He married Florrie. the daughter of'Champagne Charlie'. and it is supposed hededicated his most famous number. 'My Old

Dutch'. to her. ('Dutch' is said to he Cockneyrh■nling slang of the period: I )uchess of Fife= wife.)

Chevalier's act was sentimental. but notwithout a critical bite to some of the lyrics.'The Workouse Man' begins:There's a refuge for all as is broke to theworld.Where one looks like another perhaps at firstsight.Where the dresses ain't smart. an' the 'air isn'tcurled.Where the heart's mostly heavy. an' diet islight

Later on in the ly ric. the wife says:

They're kind as they can be to paupers like us,So long as w e makes neither bother nor fuss

Chevalier must have imitated the cockneydialect well. His popularity with the Londoncrowd would have meant that he affected theirown image of themselves. and young menprobably imitated his dress and mannerisms.and even some of his ways of speaking. A lotof what the English thought of as Londonspeech stemmed from a vetry stylised writtendialect evolved first from writers such asDickens and his imitators, and then from suchperformers as Chevalier. 'The WorkhouseBoy' was published around 1837. and sopredates the rise of the music hall. It is anattempt at imitation of London speech of theday:

The towels were spread in the VorkhouseOur tiles were hung up on the vity-brown wall.[sic]Ve'd hoshens of soup. and nothing to pay.keeping our Christmas holy day.

The song is not sentimental, as might besupposed from its chorus of 'Oh. the poorVorkhouse Boy!'. The verses pun on 'go topot' and 'in the soup' :one boy drowns in thesoup). The workhouse was known and feared(and consequently joked about) in all the

ELM Newsletter Autumn 201 1

working-class communities where music hal kflourished.

We also find songs that mentioned Londondistricts such as Poplar. Bethnal Green. and soon. As Londoners were performing all overthe counts. presumably they sang some ofthem in other parts of the country. 'The WildMan of Poplar' would not have been veryrevealing if audiences were hoping to learnsomething about the place and its inhabitants.as it was a simple ditty that builds up in thesame way as 'Ten Green Bottles'. 'Dancing tothe Organ in the Mile End Road' makes theMile End Road sound a !ix el. but dangerousen‘ iromnent. It tells of a blue-eyed Irish girl

ho takes a sailor's fancy while they aredancing in the street. Inevitably. he getsrobbed.

It was probably the newspapers rather than thecrowds at music halls w ho dubbed AlbertChevalier as 'The Costers' Laureate'. but hisgimmick of the cosier character caught on.Other singers followed suit, among them AlecHurley. w ho became Marie Lloyd's secondhusband in 1906. Before going on the stage hehad worked as a tea-packer in the Londondocks. and as a boxer. He is buried in TowerHamlets Cemetery.

Marie Lloyd famously sang in the witness boxto prove that her songs were innocent. Shewas called to appear before the VigilenceCommittee after being dramaticall y accusedfrom the stalls in the Empire Theatre LeicesterSquare by Mrs Ormiston Chant.

Laura Ormiston Chant has had a bad press.speaking as she ‘‘ as against the ever-popularMarie on behalf of the unattractively namedNational Vigilance Association. She isfrequently portrayed as an ultra-puritanicalbusybody. but in fact she was a strong andintelligent women. a feminist and a Christian.witwitlm some ideas ahead of her time. whocampaigned vigorously for w hat she believedwas right. She denied wanting to close musichalls down. It was the sale of alcohol in the

auditorium she disapproved of. She alsowanted the Promenade closed at the EmpireTheatre in Leicester Square. as she claimed itencoura ged vice. She is almost certainly rightthat prostitutes patrolled the Promenade there.The Empire closed for a short time in 1894 asa result of her campaigning. hut thePromenade stayed open. and the halls had hadtheir licences renewed h‘ 1896.

Music hall was perhaps the only place w herethe working-class population could feel theysaw aspects of their own lies reflected back atthem. in something like their own ways ofspeaking and helm% ing. There were of coursemany teetotallers in East London. andindk iduals w hose moral convictions wouldhave made them more in sympathy with MrsOrmiston Chant than w ith the acts they saw onthe state. There were romantics in London.and those who had aspirations towardsgentility. Nevertheless. many people foundrelief from hard lives in the halls in theirheyday. But from the last years of theVictorian era. music halls changed in nature.First there came the move towards makingacts appeal to a w ider audience. by makingsthem more sentimental. less coarse and ital. achan ge in which Albert (lies alier. 'the Costers'Laureate'. played a leading role. AlthoughAlec I lurley's roots lay genuinely in the kindof people he was singing about. some of hissongs are pretty and moralising. (He mostlyperformed other people's material. unlikeChex

The Barrow in the Mile End Road'. forexample. begins:

There is nothing like contentmentWhen a man has got to liveHe should always be contented with his lot.There are lots of other lots for which my ow n Iwouldn't give.For I'm happy with the little bit I've got.I'm a humHe sort of fellow. but I've got a tidyhome.And w hat is more. a little tidy wife.

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ELIISNeusletter Autumn 2(111

And the landscape from the w indow where I'msitting w ith the kidsIs the prettiest I've seen in all my life.

The scenery is of course his barrow in theMile End Road.

Another change in the halls was officialdiscouragement of drinkin g on the premises.Alcohol was prohibited in all new halls b ∎1909. In 1914 the LAX banned eating anddrinking altogether. Meanw hile, thedifference between straight theatres and thehalls was diminishing. Theatres frequentl■featured variety shows. and both theatres andhalls made use of the new media.incorporating short films and (bizarrel y . to us)gramophones in their shows. The cinema wasto prose one of the means tbr communities tolook be∎ ond their ow n localit ∎ in theirunderstanding of the world. and in theiramusements.

The Daily Mail (25.1 1.1913) carried an articleby Charles E Hands headed 'A Commonperson's complaint. Music-halls improved outof existence'. 'If you look into it you ∎∎ ill find'.he says. 'that the improvement of theentertainment amounts to no more than theexclusion from the auditorium of the vulgarworking-class population'. He goes on:We see people dri ∎ ing up in their motor-carsto the reformed places that used to he our littlemusic-halls. The seats w hich we used tooccup y at a cost °fa shilling or so are nowhooked by telephone at half a crow n withsomething extra for hooking fee. ... [theMiddlesex. formerik the Mogull was a toodreadful place. because it was infested h ∎ themasses. reeked of their beer and their coarsesense of humour and their even more offensivesentimentality.'

He concludes that the workin g man 'wantsmusic and songs and tim at his price and

ithin his comprehension. Ile has noobjection to art in moderation. hut he willinsist on its being decent'.

And so music hall was transformed into thevariety show: by the Second World War. theold entertainers were known chiell ∎ throughradio. and later television used the format ofvariety to sonic extent. But the days of themusic hall as the hub of a locality were over.

The songs mentioned can all he (mind in thePrinted Music Re fi.'rence section at the BritishLibrary.

Pat Francis

Overshadowed by Churchill, but nowAttlee takes pride of place

For many years it made a sad sight atthe side of the Commercial Road. Crawling b ∎in traffic. out to Stratford or in to the City, youwould see the hoarded up façade ofLimehouse Libran and, out front. theneglected and bird-spattered statue of ClementAttlee. What a contrast to the monumentalbulk of Winston Churchill. massive in bronzeon his plinth in Parliament Square. WhenChurchill's statue was defaced durin g the MayDay riots a decade ago. there were howls ofprotest from the press.

Yet. Attlee. the man who shared power withChurchilt during World War II (Churchillhandlin g the military side of government.Attlee the civil). could he daubed with graffitiand forgotten on an East End trunk road andnobody seemed to care. If you asked passers-b ∎ who that moustachioed fi gure as the∎probabl ∎ couldn't hake told sou. Indeed Attleehimself was largel∎ forgotten by a youngergeneration. Hut an LIM eiling this week w illbegin to put things right.

Clem has been cleaned up and mo ∎ ed to a newhome at Queen Mark. University of London inMile End. The statue will he unveiled by PeterMandelson. grandson of Herbert Morrison.one of Attlee's colleagues both in oppositionand in government during the 1940s and 50s.

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11.11S Newsletter Autumn 2011

(Attlee didn't like or trust Morrison much. hutit's a link w ith Labour's past nonetheless).And the occasion will be marked by a speechfrom Peter Hennessey. historian and student ofthe Labour movement. Attlee was born intoprivilege in 1883. but was politicised bycoming to the East End.

After prep school. public school and OxfordUni yersit.. it was coining to manageHaile.bury House in 1906. a descendant of theold middle and upper class 'missions' toTower Hamlets, that formed his politics.lie combined his charitable work AA ith hiscareer. lecturing at the London School ofEconomics hetbre militar■ service in 1914. Itcaused a rill with his pacifist brother. andAttlee detested war himself. But he did his hitin the worst of it. Captain Attlee fighting atGallipoli. at Suvla Bay and then getting hisreward in the the dyin g months of the conflicton the Western Front.

'Major' Attlee emerged from service evenmore determined to build a new world tit forheroes to live in. He was elected ma.or ofStepney in 1919 and in 1921 voiced hissupport for his friend George Lansbury andthe Poplar rates strikers. w ho would he sent toprison. It brought him into conflict w ith otherLondon Labour leaders and was the beginningof a simmering feud ith another risingLabour man –Herbert Morrison. ma yor ofnei ghbouring Hackney.

Attlee entered Parliament in the 1922 GeneralElection. \ inning the Limehouse seat. and in1924 he took his first Cabinet position, underprime minister Ramsa> MacDonald's short-li■ ed go■ erntli ern, Labour \\mild hold powerfor just 11 months.

In Ma% 1929. in the wake of the GeneralStrike. with industn in decline. an Exchequerstruggling to pay for the Great War of adecade betbre and mans fearing socialcollapse. Labour were re-elected. Withinmonths. the Wall Street Crash wouldprecipitate a worldw ide financial crisis - and

Britain. along with the rest of the world. wouldlurch into the Great Depression.Attlee entered Mac Donald's beleagueredgo% eminent, soon replacin g Oswald Mosle. asChancellor of the Duch. of Lancaster. Withintwo years. that Labour government would falltoo, w ith the cabinet split down the middleover how to tackle the budget deficit. At theurg ing of King George V. MacDonald termeda national government (or coalition), bringingConsen atives into the cabinet.

He was immediately expelled from Labour bya furious part.. and so began a confusing andunstable era of British politics. with theLabour PM no longer head of the party. Thatrole passed to Arthur Henderson. w ho wouldin turn make way after losing his seat inLabour's near wipe-out in the 1931 election.Now the Labour leadership passed toLansbur.. an able politician and much-loved

ithin the party and the count,. but a pacifistincreasin g ly at odds w ith the mood of hiscolleagues. Amid arguments aboutdisarmament and appeasement. Lansbun wentin 1935. w ith Attlee beating off the challengeof Arthur Greenwood and Herbert Morrison tolead the part.. He would head Labour until1955. Ironically. w hen government came toLabour, it would be as part of another nationalgovernment.

In 1939 Neville Chamberlain resigned andChurchill formed a wartime coalition w ithAttlee as depot. PM. And in 1945. w ithChurchill expected to return to power. therewas a Labour landslide. Many (including theRoyal Family and Fleet Street) were outragedthat Britain had turned from Churchill, theman who had saved the countn. It's a viewthat ignores Labour and Attlee's huge role inthat wartime administration. Neither is itcorrect to see the huge strides made b. thatpost-war government as simpb. Labourachievements. This would he the goN eminentthat created the welfare state hut. after all, thefoundations had been laid b ∎ the Be\eridgeReport, commissioned under Churchill andAttlee. But what were Attlee's achievements

11.1-1S Ness sleiter Autumn 2011

before Labour lost power (to Churchill) in1951?

His administration set up the NHS, the socialsecurity system and the welfare state.nationalised steel, coal, the canals, wirelessand telecommunications. and railways. Itpushed forward independence tbr India.Burma. Ce) Ion and many others. dismantlingthe last of Empire. Attlee the man was no lessimpressive. He continued to support Britain'swar effort when man) were for settling withGermans in the dark days of 1940. And mostof all. he believed in the necessity ofgovernment to engineer the big social changesin societ).

One wonders What Attlee would have made ofa Britain struggling out of recession. reelingfrom stock market and financial collapse. andstruggling to deal w ith the cost of war - andattempting to till the welfare gap with a 'BigSociety'. The celebration of a refurbishedClem couldn't he more timel).

John Rennie

This article first appeared in the April 4 th 2011issue of East End Life and is reproduced w iththe author's permission. John's weekly historypage s ill he familiar to all residents of TowerHamlets receiving the Council published freenew spaper. Members living outside TowerHamlets are still able to read many of his veryinformative articles as the) are available onthe internet at w k .eastiondonhiStOlA e0111

Whitechapel 1600 -1800

The next hook in Derek Morris's series onearly East London. Whifechapel 1600 - 1800,should be going to the printer very soon.Hopefully it will he available in time for ournext Newsletter.

Correspondence

Philip Mernick has recei%ed the follow ingcorrespondence, which We thought might he ofinterest to our members -

From Peter Moss, 44 Wood AN : ens Way,Wy mond ham Norfolk NR18 OXPThank )ou for the continued receipt of theEast London History newsletter.I was sorting out some family history papersof m father recent!), and came across the(attached) letters together w ith a map of detailof a di g undertaken prior to the WW2 atWapping Stairs. supervised by a Mr Gent thesuperintendant of the Wharf there. I havelodged the letters and map in the BancroftRoad Library. If the. are of interest to you forthe Newsletter you ma) use them. I will alsoattach the letter to the Librar).

My father Harry F Moss initiated a number of-Walks- around East London in about 1974the last of w !licit was taken h) my youngerbrother Laurence after his death in 1978. Ishould be interested to hear from anyone w howent on one of these walks and what theirresponse was. The detail of these walks hasbeen lost to the family.

From Chairman A H French, East LondonHistory Society to Harry F Moss dated 4February 1974Dear Mr Moss. Thank you for your letter. I amnot concerned about expenses or putting myname in the programme. In both these cases Ithink you should predominate. They are afterall your idea and w ill he -supervised - by you.Proposed plan:-

Walk No 1 Limehouse.

Meet St Ann's Limehouse 2.15 pm SaturdayNol, ember 2nd 1974.Suggested Itinerary:- Limehouse Church /Newell St / Oak Lane/ Northev St/ Narrow StLimehouse causeway/ MingSt/ Saltway St.Finish Junction Upper North Street/ East IndiaDock Road 4-4.30 pm.

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EI.HS No% sleucr Autumn 2911

Walk No 2 Poplar

Meet All Saints Poplar 2.15 pin SaturdayNovember 16 th 1974.Suggested Itinerary:- East India Dock Road/Robin I lood Lane/ Blackwali Way /Coldharhour/ Prestons Rd/ Poplar High Street/I lale St. Finishing East India Dock Road.roughly the same time as the Limehouse walk.I therefore suggest. if you can arrange it. thatthe look around St Ann's should be at about2.15 on the 2°`' November and round StMattias at about 3.30 – 3.45 on the 16November

Letters between Bryant Pears and HectorGent and Harry Moss

To Bryant Pears (London AppreciationSociety) front Hector Gent dated Nov 121975.Dear Sir. A few months ago I went on one ofyour "Two Cities Tours" and have just comeacross your souvenir booklet again. As I spentover 30 years as Superintendent of a wharfnear Wapping Old Stairs I thought that youmi ght he interested in one or two little matterswhich you may not be know n to yoll. Whenwe built our Air Raid shelter we dug down tothe w harrs foundations and although we wereabout 25 ft below high water level the millionsof oyster shells we were now standin g on werequite dry. This was rather strange hutunderstandable as you will see from theenclosed rou gh draw ing.

Years ago . I understand the ri y er used to floodright up to the I iighway. before London Dockwas constructed and oysters were to he had forthe taking. Opposite the Wharf- Orient Wharf-was the Old Vestry Hall owned by the localcouncil people. This we rented and until it wasdestroyed'in the Blitz was used by us asoffices. We owned some houses adjoining.w Inch were also destroyed and when we builtnew offices after the war. we found many claypipes. These were probably relics of the

pla gue and used to a great extent to ward offany infection.

Adjoining the vestry Hall was a school. thentwo houses, then St Johns Church. The schoolwas seriously damaged and the church exceptfor the tower destroyed in the Blitz. The tower.although badly damaged. was considered to heworth saving as it was, with the rest of thechurch. constructed by our old friend SirChristopher Wren. Therefore. the powers thatbe had three wide steel bands put around thetop to prevent collapse and this was at the timewe were losing our iron gates and railings forthe war effort.

Up to the time of my retirin g in 1967. theschool frontage was also being preserved. Itamused me %ery much when I first went to theWharf to hear the operator of one of the sightseeing motet boats say as they passed by "Onmy left you w ill see Wapping Old Stairs whereJud ge Jeffries escaped from. and where theyused to han g Pirates for three tides. until theywas dead!" I think Jud ge Jeffries was caughtand ended his days in the Tower and I shouldimagine one tide was enough to polish off apirate. but expect he allowed to hang (them I inchains for three days as an example to others.

Another interesting fact is that up to about1950 or e y en later. one could obtain a pint offresh milk from real live cows from a dairy inSwedenborg. Street. This was a turning off theHighway and I imagine that the two cowswere walked around w hen it was quiet in theevenin g and replaced with others every weekor two. I expect that this is about w here cattleused to graze along the edge of the riYer athigh tide before the building of the St bath'sand London Docks. I have always understoodthat the walls of these docks were constructedlargely by convict labour. with the help ofprisoners from the Napoleonic Wars.In your booklet you mention W W Jacobs.Apparently he was brought up in the houseadjoining a small wharf and these were justnear the entrance of St Katherine's Dock. Iexpect his father was the Wharf Manager and

1I

ELM Nes% sletter 21)1 1

W W J got his local colour from this spot andthe small Inn nearb y . See Sketch. This wharfetc.. came into the possession of rit ∎ Companyand the house was used as offices. It was thepractice in the Old Days for the Mana ger orowner of the small Wharves to Ike in a houseadjoinin g or in Yer∎ dose proximity. I know ofse% eral places %% here these homes weredestroyed in the Blitz. It seems that most ofthe Old property %%as destroyed then ( in theblitz) . hut the flats etc: erected just before thewar seemed to escape. w ith relatively minordamage. Are you aware that the hulk of theinhabitants of Wappin g settled there at thetime of the potato famine in Ireland?Well sir I could ramble on and on but I teelthat you w ill know most of what I could talkabout. hut if you w ish to have a chat with me.please phone me up any time. I am veryinterested in all sorts of things and it grievesme to think that so little w ill he rememberedof this particular area in a few ■ears time forpeople like your good self. With all goodwishes I am yours Sincerel y Hector Gent.

To Hector Gent of Thornton Heath fromBryant Pears dated 20 November 1975.Dear Mr Gent. How very kind of \ ou to sendme such an interesting and intOrmative letter. Iam g lad that you enjoyed the tour with me. butwhile I do know a lot about London. I am notan expert on the east side. although I schoolmastered in Fairclough and latter!. in JubileeStreet for almost 20 years.

In addition to my work. w hereby learn mybread. I run this London Appreciation Society,syllabus for your interest herew ith. One of myCouncil Members and Vice Presidents isAlderman Harry Moss and he is mostinterested in your letter and map \\ Rich I ha% epassed on to him. I think you and he mightha% e a lot in common and if you care to drophim a line his address is Alderman I in fact heis now retired and whilst fully entitled to thetitle. he is such a modest chap he drops it). MrHarr Moss 74 Elms Farm Road Elm ParkHornchurch Essex.

Book Reviews

SEVEN PARISHIONERS OFSTRATFORD BOW.Michael Peet. Price £7.50 88 pages.paperback with many sketches and photos ofthe area..

This hook produced b y the author before hisdeath \\ ith the help of his parishioners and hispartner Ra\ ►ond Port is based on his lectures

hich tell the history of Bow. Research intothe Iiistory of this area was complicated bytheir being two Stratford and two Bowchurches.

The name Stratford is the name of the oldRoman ford across the Lea. In time theMiddlesex side became Bow after the shape ofthe bridge. The Essex side became StrattbrdLangthorne after the near by abbey. St MaryLe Bow Cheapside was the church of themedieval curfew hell hence the Bow hellsconnection.

Next year . 2012 Bow w ill become theimportant Gateway to the Ol mpic Games.Chapters capture the lies es of our outstandingmembers of the communit y from Mary Tudorriding through to take her crown. SamuelPepys enjoying his drinking and %%eliciting. thecork screw in% entor Rector Samuel Henshall.George Lanshurs our east end member ofParliament. The there was the rector GeorgeTow vend Driffield and Priscilla Coburn thebenefactor who founded schools in the area.and Bow china.

We are indebted to Michael for working sohard through his illness to ensure we can enjoyIris lectures through his book and lea% ing allhis research lOr posterity. Members of localsocieties enjo\ ed Michael's lectures \\ hickhad been so thoroughl \ researched b y hint.\\ Rich he del k ered in a loud booming voice\\ ith great passion. We have trul ∎ lost a greatlocal historian and friend

12

ELMS No% sletter Allitfilln 2011

DIVIDED BY THE BOUNTY .Alan Adams ISBN 978 0 956 7732 0 3Price £8.00. paperback. 132 pages with manyillustrations and author's photos

I have for many years been fascinated bydifferent accounts in articles and books on thevoyage of H.M.S. Bounty in the search for thebread fruit, and the mutiny of the ships crew.For in Bow cemetery we have a memorial toI lannah Purcell widow of William Purcell who‘'as loyal to Captain Bligh.

The author set out over eight years ago toresearch his family history, many of the familyseem to have lived in the area from Spitafieldsto the ri p er. Among them ..atermen.lightermen. river police men. carmen. Firemenand beadles.

Alan also found some disturbing facts - alunatic who committed suicide and aphilanderer NS ith four wives and twelvechildren. The trail led back to his Gt GtGrandfather Jonathan Adams (1767-1829).Orphaned at an earls age. he was brou ght upwith his brother John in a Hackney orphanage.Through Alan's interest in Captain Cook hebought a booklet by Madge Dark called-"Captain Bligh in Wapping - and found theyhad both sailed together. and on the last page areference to John and Johnathan Adams saving_goodbye as John under the name of AlexanderSmith sailed from Deptford under thecommand of Captain Bligh in search of thebread fruit and became a mutineer in I 789.Alan visted Norfolk Island near Australia andmet the decendants of John Adams.

This hook is fascinating to read w ith all thetwists and turns of an east end familyincluding social history of the time. and afterover 200 years the fate of H.M.S Bounty andthe ships Crew can still be researched andthrow new light on the out come of themutiny.

PIETY AND PIRACYMadge Darby. Paperback 96 pa ges . ISBN078 I 87 3086 06 3. Price £9.95.

The author is well known to us all for herresearch into the lives of people SS ho residedin Wapping from the Roman occupation to theselling of the Hermitage riverside by theLOD(' in 2000 for privately owned tall bocksblocking out the river to local people.Wapping Trust have produced a hook with thehelp ofJohn Tarby the photographer and extraresearch by Ray Newton. The book isbeautifully illustrated w ith the text clearlyprinted

Whatever your interest in the area from Saxontimes. Queen Matilda's hospital, The TidalMills. the first docks and their closure later.Judge Jeffries. Dr Johnson. Charles Dickens.the destruction of St Katherines Dock. theBlitz, as well as our well known sailors are allresearched in this book. I hope that Madge andRay will come along and give us a lecture onthis book and the history of Wapping.

Doreen Kendall

STEPNEY: Profile of a London Boroughfrom the Outbreak of the First World Warto the Festival of Britain. 1914-1951ISBN (10): 1-4438-2582-4 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2582-5. Published 2011 by CSP

A new and exciting addition to academic workon Stepney and the East End of London!

Stepney: Profile of a London Borough fromthe Outbreak of the First World War to theFestival of Britain. 1914-1951 is the firstsingle volume of Stepney in modern times. Itsets out to pros ide a vivid and yet scholarl■portrait of an iconic London borough situatedin the heart of the East End. Stepney is anarea w ith yen mans well know n associationsand images. from the horrifying murders of-Jack the Ripper" to the soaking up of theheavy bomb damage during the Blitz, from theclassical confrontation between Mosley's

13

Eli Is Newsletter Autumn 201 I

fascists and the socialist left at the "Battle ofCable Street" to the dramatic "Sie ge of SidneyStreet" w hen Liberal Home Secretary WinstonChurchill rooted out an anarchist cell. Beyondthese dramatic episodes. Stepney witnessedthe perennial struggle for subsistence amongthe many poor. the rise and fall of the greatlocal docks. the immigration of large numbersof Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe andelsewhere. the growth of the Labour party andthe surprising local ascendancy of theCommunists. the desperate drive to improvepublic housing. the e% acuat ion of a largeproportion of its children at the start of WorldWar 11. and much more besides.

This is a truly ground-breaking. \ cr. readablehook that tills a surprisin g gap in ourknowledge and greatly enhances ourunderstanding of London. urban,working-class. inter-ethnic. industrial and British 20`hcentury history.

Two eminent historians. Professor Denis Juddand Professor Chris Wrigley both stronglyrecommend this book.

Dr. Samantha L. Birds bi RR 24 Zi hotin i 1 .com

BEYOND THE TOWER - A History ofEast London.John Marriott . 384 pp. 50 b/w illustrations£25.00. Published by Yale University Press.tel. 020 7079 4900 www.yalebooks.co.uk

From Jewish clothing merchants toBangladeshi cum houses. ancient docks to the2012 Olympics. the area east of the City hasalways played a crucial role in London'shistory. The East End. as it has been know n.was the home to Shakespeare's first theatreand to the early stirrings of a mass labourmovement: it has also traditional!. been seenas a place of darkness and despair. where Jackthe Ripper committed his gruesome murders.and cholera and pox erty stalked the Victorianstreets.

In this beautifully: illustrated history of thisiconic district. John Marriott draws on 25years of research into the subject to present anauthoritative and endlessly fascinatingaccount. With the aid of copious maps, archiveprints and photographs. and the words of EastLondoners from 17th-center. silk-weavers toCockneys during the Blitz. he explores therelationship between the East End and the restof London. and challenges many of the mythswhich surround the area.

John Marriott is Professor in History at theRaphael Samuel History Centre. Uni% ersity ofEast London. and author of The Culture ofLahourism: The East End between the Warsand The Other Empire: Aletropolis. India andProgress i» the Colonial hnogination.

New book on J PassmoreEdwards

Funding the Ladder: The Passmore Edwardslegacy. about the life and work ofJohnPassmore Edwards. the Cornish philanthropistwho also funded buildings in Tower hamlets.notably Limehouse and St Georges's in theEast and Whitechapel libraries as well as theWhitechapel Art Gallery. Available fromFrancis Boutle Publishers. 272 Alexandra ParkRoad. London N22 7BG

The book can he viewed on their web sitehttp://www.francishoutle.com

II

ter,A u. A. • ,r - 4

_ *".

".

ELI-IS No% slciter Autumn 21)1 I

Man's Rents, Bromley StLeonard

Introduction

Bromley in east London. now in the LondonBorough of Tower Hamlets and usually calledBronrley-by-Bow. was former!. known asBromley Saint Leonard after the ancient prioryfirst recorded in the 12th centur.. After theDissolution the Manor passed into privatehands and b. the beginning of the 19 th centurywas still a largely rural area dominated byfarming and w ith market gardens and nurseriesserving the ever grow ing demands of London.However, the area experienced great changesduring the 19th center. with rapidindustrialisation. The population of Bromic.grew from little more than 1500 in 1801 tonearly 25 000 by I 861. The rate of growth wasnot uniform. After an initial spurt at thebeginning of the centur the rate dropped untilrising again dramatical idler about 1840.with the population doubling in the decadearound 1850.

Where did all these people live. and whoprovided the houses? There were a fewcharitable concerns. like almshouses, but littleor no public!. funded housin g at this time.

Man's Rents., Bromley

What triggered my interest in this questionwas the birth certificate (figure I) of one ofm. ancestors, born in 1852. The certificatewas a cop. made some 70 .ears later by thelocal Registrar in Poplar. The birth wasregistered by the mother. and the birth placewas transcribed twice, on each occasionappearing to be ".Uteri's Reins-. Bromley. Ittook me some time until le% outtalk identifiedthe address as Man's Rents. more tOrmallyknow n as Man's Buildings. With subsequentredevelopment and changes of street names.by 1922 all memory of the area had been lost.even b. the Registrar. who would ha y e beenexpected to ha% e considerable localknkm ledge.

" 47,11:'11 or Orr..two.. •■•••• •

Copy of 1852 birth certificate made in 1922

Man's Rents were situated in Bromleybetween Devon's Lane (later Devon's Road)on the west and Four Mills Street (later StLeonard's Street) on the east. south of Grace'sLane (sometimes called Starch Lane and laterGrace Street) and north of Love Lane (at leastpart of which was called Prospect Place andlater Talwin Street). Colloquial names wereoften used for the streets in a neighbourhood.For example Man's Reniv was probabl. a localusage. Stanford's map of 1862 (figure 2)shows them as Man's Buildings, next to thestarch factory. north of the site of the Stepne.Union Workhouse {opened in 1863).

Stanfill-0"s neap of 1862 showing position ofMan's Buildings

What then were Man's Rents, and who wasthe man. Mr Man. who owned them? Initialenquiries showed that little or nothing is nowk1101% n about the area, and no contemporaryphotographs seem to exist. When were theybuilt. who lived in them. and for how lone?The 1862 map showed an area still partiall.

15

1'

HAS Nenslener Autumn 2011

undeveloped. w ith market gardens and openspace. Earlier maps. for example Green.% ood'smap of 1827 (based on a survey 1824-1826).shows several buildin gs abutting Devon's Laneand two parallel rows of buildings runningeast-west with the appearance of hack-to-hackterraces. idual plots are marked. Thesouthernmost row appears to ha‘ e gone in the1862 map. perhaps indicating a phase ofredevelopment.

A more detailed map of the area, dra g n by JWalker in 1812 (fi g ure 3), shows the layoutmore elearl ∎ .

Walker's stirrer of 1812reproduced b y permission of Tower Him/letsLocal History Library and Archives

Laurie and Whittle's map of 1809-10 showsno buildings in the Man's Rents area. but afew buildin gs alon g. Devon's Lane. WilliamFaden's extended version of RichardHorwood's 1799 map, published in 1813 butdated 1807, shows a similar la ∎ out to Walker's1812 map. Thus the houses called Man'sRents would seem to have been built no laterthan I R 12. and possibly date from a few yearsearlier, perhaps responding to the initial surgein population at the beginning of the 19thcentury . It is difficult to be more exact, ascontemporan, maps were often dated andpublished some time after the surveys theywere based on. Many were not particularlyaccurate. the area bein g on the peripher■ ofLondon.

Four men called William Man

The land on which Man's Rents were builtwas that described in the w ill of William Man.written in 1792. William Man was the first ofburr generations bearing the name that I haveidentified. It might he helpful to brietl■tabulate their dates:

W i II iam Man I Farmer ?-1793

W ill iarn Man 11 Farmer. & el 751-1X20-(letalentan-

William Man III 1.anded 17/i9-1XX2Proprietor 6:"Gentleman-

Vs illiarn Man 1V Merchant Lk: 1815-1881"Gentleman'.

William Man I was a farmer who lived in ahouse called Homestead Garden. His wincludes some rather confusing instructions forthe division of the house and the adjoiningland between his sons Robert and William.However his farm is clear!) stated to be-* _bounded nil the sma► ir a lane called LoreLane". William Man I also bequeathed twocottages in Devon's Lane to his son William.

William Man II was also a farmer. at least tierthe early part of his life. and he was describedas such in the baptism records of his childrenover the period 1777-1785. Both he and hislather were mentioned numerous times in theLand Tax Assessments, and he also branchedout into property development. In 1808 heleased land abuttin g "Devlin Lane" for 45years to a bricklayer. Samuel Ellis of Bow,and this may refer to the same plot. It certainlyindicates the beginnings of housingdevelopment in the area. William Man II. inhis ‘% ill of 1812. left all his property to his son,also William. and in a codicil of 1820mentioned 12 tenements at or near BowCommon on land purchased from JohnLiptrap.

In 1802 William II had acquired the rectory.advowson and tithes of Brunt le ∎ from theLloyd and Booth thin i i ies. Lvsons' Ellt'in1S

16

Eli-IS Newsletter writ' 201 1

Later that year he Was elected aschurchwarden. There are numerous mentionsof William Man in the Bromley St Leonardparish documents, for example on theMichaelmas Quarter Day 1831 receivingnearl► £40 from the Overseers of the Poor topa∎ the rents of people recei. ing poor relief.On another occasion he was paid E 15 12s for"employing .■ und,71 . men 6 mouths-.

Man's Rents and the census

The earliest reference to Man's Buildings 1have found was as the address of a manenrolled as a substitute in the Second RoyalRegiment of Tower Hamlets Militia in 1826.None of the rate books 1 examined (up to1836) specifically used the term Ilan's Reinsor .Ilan '8 Buildings. but the∎ are mentioned assuch in the enumerator's description in the1841 census return:

All that part of Bromley which lies from the eastern endof Grace's Lane to the pound including Man's Rentsand the cottages in Devon's Lane.

The occupants were decidedly working class.the enumerator describin g 34 out of 47 of theworking age males as L[abourel or Ag Loh.Other trades included: rigger. pillbox maker.sawyer. starch maker, shoemaker andapprentice. engineer, seaman. brushmaker andboilermaker.

By. 185 I the enumerator covered a slightlydifferent area:

.-I// that part of the Parish of Bromley which includesthe Imperial Crown Public Muse the west side of HighStreet by rlaridges to Graces Lane and thewhole of Munv Buildings including Prospect Place andthose in Graces Lane but nut those in Devons Lane

Of the men living in Man's Rents (nowreferred to as Man's Buildings) 31 out of 43were recorded as labourer of one sort oranother. including 8 .4g Labs. The enumeratork% as more informative, and mentioned coal.rail and dock labourers, as well as reflectingemployment in the local starch works. calicoprinters and chemical works. More women

17

of London (I 795) gives an account of themanor of Bromley:

the manor of Bromley belonged to the ... convent... ofSt. Leonard. Bromley... After the dissolution it wasgranted, u . i/h tire site of the priory and advowson of thechurch. by Henry Ili/ to Sir Ralph Sadler...

Dunstan in his History of the parish ofBromley St Leonard (1862) described thesuccessive ow tiers of the tithes and the Lordsof the Manor. At one time there were twomanors in Bromley. but b ∎ William Man'stime the■, had been reunited. A.hhee (1900)described the two manors and their % ariousowners and concluded:

After passing through several hands. and being dividedand re-untied. the manor was purchased hi . tlr. WilliamHann [sic/. whose descendant Colonel .flan. is the

present lord of the manor.

In fact the Lordship of the Manor had beenbought by George Johnston and JamesHumphreys. and only the tithes were ownedby the Man family. They passed via WilliamMan III's son William Man IV in 1847. andthen in William Man IV's w ill in 1881 to hishalt-brother Colonel Man.

William Man Ill was one of the majorproperty owners in Bromley. In the BromleyPoor Rate Book of March 1821 he wasmentioned several times. as was his widowedmother (Elizabeth. wife of William Man 11). Inall he paid over £57 in rates for the finalquarter of 1820. including £8 15s for the-Grew Tithe-. The majority of the rating wasfor property listed under Hi gh Street. Man'sRents %%ere not speciticalf% mentioned. but thisenv% may refer to them. but listed underWilliam Man's main residence. In a later ratehook (I 834) he was listed as having 13cottages in I ligh Street East. 31 in Dyer'sLane. 5 more in High Street East. 6 in ThreeMills Labe. 108 in lila Street West and 28 onBow Common.

William Man III was clearly a prominentcitizen, and was one of the three men whocountersigned the rate assessment in 1821.

MIS Newsletter Autumn 2011

were recorded as employed. The enumeratormarked some of the houses as AlanBuildings. Aliddle Row.

Again in the 1861 census detailed street namesare given. It is interesting to relate them tocontemporary maps. for example Stanford'smap of 1862:

.4/1 that part of the parish which lies in Burdett Place.('<►tobridge Place. Sims Cottage. Love Lane.Nottingham Garden. Downs Rood to Grace Street.Grace Street to Starch Factor y . ilun's Buildings.Love Lane East and National and Infant Schools

The enumerator had reverted to the simplerdescription: 23 out of 31 males were labourers.No agricultural workers were recorded.perhaps indicating the changing nature of thearea. The main feature was the continuedreduction in the number of inhabitants inMan's Rents.

A simple summary of the number of people.houses and the density' of occupation (theac erage number of people living in a house) inMan's Rents is gi■ en in the table

ear Number ofpeople

houses densit)( persons/house)

1841 172 35 5.21851 141 32 ( I

empt■ )

4.4

1861 101 26 3.9

It is interesting to note that both the number ofinhabitants and the density of occupation inMan's Rents were declining, whereas theywere increasing in Bromley as a whole. Datain Dunstan's History shows that occupationdensity had reached over 7 persons/house inBromley by I 861. Thus w hen the populationwas increasing most rapidly and putting strainon the available housing stock. the occupationlevels in Man's Rents were falling. Perhapsthe houses were not in great demand. Theoldest were nearly 50 years old and probablyin poor condition and near the end of theiruseful life. 'Hie reason for the decline in thedensity of occupation is not altogether clear.There mac have been a higher proportion of

older couples with fewer children living withtheir parents. Considerable analysis of thecensus data could he done.

Redevelopment

...Wit . a ladder and some glassesYou could see to Adorer Marshes-!fit wasn't far the 'oases in between

Shortly atler the 1861 census the whole area ofMans Rents was redeveloped. Powis Roadwas extended and two new streets of terracedhouses. Egleton Road (laid out in 1862) andGreetham Road (later called Stratfield Road).were built running north to south across theMan's Rents site, as indicated in the I871enumerator's description:

That part of the parish which lies and include LoveLane from the east end of the Edinburgh Arms, CrownPlace. Grace Street. Cottage Place, the whole of PowisRd. Egleton Rd and Stratflehl Road

The comprehensive redevelopment of the area,with widespread. densely packed housing. canbe seen from a later OS map of 1893 (figure

OS map► 41893 showing redevelopment oldie"Man's Rents - areareproduced by permission of the NationalL ihrary of Scotland.

An indication of the poverty or wealth of anarea can he found in the so-called Booth'sPovert■ Maps. published around 1898-99.Charles Booth graded streets on a scaleranging from ∎ ellow (upper-middle and upper

18

HMS Newsletter Autumn 2011

classes. wealth y ) down to black (lowest class.vicious. semi-criminal) and published colour-coded maps. Most oldie redeveloped "Man'sRents" area was graded dark blue (very poor.casual chronic want) or li ght blue (poorPis.to 2/s. a week tor a moderate famil•).Fortunately both the maps and descriptionssurvive for the area:

North again over the railway bridge & past the Bromleystation. (hi the west side a .set of blur streets leadingdown to the Stepney Workhouse 'natty ()I-theiroccupants on their way there too. Powis Stranield Streets /sic" heing a dark shade of light blue incharacter & Egleton Road between them decidedl y darkhlue (as map). Eggleton Road /sic/ on the west andhowock Road on the east of St Leonard's St are noted

thieves resorts. But all these streets hear a better policereputation Ikon Dews St.

The area suffered bomb damage during theSecond World War and has been redevelopedagain in modern times. The parish church of StMar Bromley St Leonard is no more and isnow, according to a recent study. one ofLondon's most damaged and neglectedmonastic and historic church sites.

The end of an era

The Man famik had left the area by the early1860s. William Man 111 %%as li% in g in HighStreet Bromle∎ in 1861 but he married tier thethird time in 1863 and rho% ed to Reigate. Hewas over 50 ears older than his third wife.and in 1871 she petitioned for di% orce on thegrounds of cruelty and desertion. and thefamily split up. William still lived on theproceeds of his property. w ith -income frontlands- in 1871 and -U1(.1)1'10)-011; lanckdproperty.. 1881. Almost certainly some ofhis property was passed to his son William IVduring his lifetime. William IV. long sincewidowed and childless, lied in Walthamstowand later in Woodford. Thus the y still hadinterest in property. but not it seems in landitself. Neither was listed in the Return ofOw ners of Land in 1873 for an y (lithecounties they were know n to hike lied in:Middlesex. Essex. Surrey or Sussex.

William Man III died in Reigate in 1882leaving a will. Any remaining property he stillowned was placed in trust for his three sons byhis third wife. but was not specified in thesill. Ilk son William Man IV had predeceasedhis father. dyinv. in 1881. In his w III hesimilark arranged for a trust for his half-sister,the daughter of his father's third wife. He alsoleft to his half-brother Colonel John AlexanderMan:

all the tithes tithe rent charge arising from lands andknements situate in the said parish qfSt LeonardBromley uforesaid which still belong to and are nowvested in me under or by virtue ofihe conrs:mneethereqfp•ont my father

Conclusion

Man's Rents were but one small part of thehistory of Bromley St Leonard. Many similarstudies could be carried out on a neglectedarea of research. As a study into the socialhistory of the area considerably more could hefound out about the inhabitants of Man'sRents. shat the> did and how often theymoved. Did the inhabitants see themselves as acommunity. or were they mainly transient?How many were born localk? Did they marrywithin the local families, or more widely? Ofparticular relevance to this study is w here theywent after the redevelopment of Man's Rents:they needed to he rehoused. or more likelythey had to find new homes for themselves. Icould illustrate all of these questions withexamples, hut I hike not attempted acomprehensive reconstruction of familygroups and their movements.

Robert Barberrw barber a)tiscali.coilk

Acknowledgments

My thanks for help and advice to MalcolmBarr-Hamilton and the stall' at Tower HamletsLocal History Library and Archives(TIILHLA). to Philip Mem iek of the EastLondon History Society and to Mike Elkton

19

EI.HS Newsletter ta Limn 2011

for his encyclopaedic know ledge of thetopograph y of Tower Hamlets.

References / sources

TNA PCC s i lk PROB 11/1227 (William Man II&11 - 1631 (William ManNational Probate Calendar for reference to sills ofWilliam Man III & William Man IV

(IR() censuses for Poplar/11m% 1841. 1851. 1861 &1871

1'111.111.A documents relating to Bromic>, St Leonard

19 `h century maps of Bromley/Btm area

Ashhce. C. R. (WI. 'The Manor House of the I pperManor, Survey of bmilon: vnlurne -hy-Bun(19001. pp 15 - 16. http://u w.british-histon.ac.uklreportaspx?compid=7-144 I

Dunstan. James. The History oldie Parish ofBromleySt Leonard. Middlesex. (1862)

Haskins. Duncan. & l'hi Ilpotts. Chris. 'The priory of StLeonard StrattOrd-at-Bow and parish church ()1St Mar.Bromic) St Leonard. London rirehaeoh,gist. ( Autumn20051. pp 38-46

L) suns. Daniel. 'Bromley St Leonard's'. The Environs ofLondon: volume 2: County of Middlesex ( 1795). pp 59-69. http:Pwww.british-histor. .ac.ukireport.aspx?compid=45405

FootnoteA ∎ ersioo of this article with a fuller set ofsource citations can be supplied as well asmore information on the Man famil y . WilliamMan Ill in particular has proved oninvestigation to he an interesting character.and I hope to publish a brief biography of him.

Former Jewish MaternityHospital or Mother Levy'sMaternity Home.

Tom Ridge writes:I am w riting to as many organisations andindi ∎ iduals as possible so that we can all writeto the Chief Executive of Peabody asking forsome of the above buildings to be retained and

adapted for residential use.

Peabody purchased the buildings from TowerHamlets Council earlier this year and Iunderstand it intends to demolish all thebuildings for a new residential development at22-28 Underwood Road.

As JMH was the only .Jewish MaternityHospital in England and represents thepioneering achievements of Alice ModelMBE. it seems to me that the buildingsfacing onto Underwood Road should beretained and adapted for residential use.And the buildings at the hack replaced byblocks of flats to achieve the requirednumber of residential units.

Because English Heritage's refusal to list thesebuildings will he used b) Peabody as ajustification for demolition, it is veryimportant that in writing to the ChiefExecutive you emphasise the historicsignificance of the buildings. Please write to:-

Stephen HowlettChief ExecutivePeabody45 Westminster Bridge RoadLondon SE I 7JBor email: stephen.howlettrOpeabody.org.uk

Rosemary said on hearing about this from me:

Your news has shocked and saddened me - somany peoples' memories are going to be sweptaw a) with the rubble from the demolition -until it can he halted! " I am sure man ∎ of youwill agree.

Lack of space prevents us from publishingTom's historical evidence sent in support ofhis EH application. but it can he found on theInternet at littp://residents-tirst.conik/?p=760.

Philip