London – South of the Thames: Chapter I

CHAPTER I
HISTORIC SOUTH LONDON

The history of nearly all the districts in South London is the same. We may except Greenwich, Deptford, and Woolwich, which have been towns for many years.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century such places as Streatham, Eltham, and Penge were entirely rural. These villages, with their orchards, their meadows, their
woods, and their wild heaths, were really lovely. When South London was built over, one of the most truly charming parts of the country was destroyed. Nothing of the old loveliness is left. It was early in the eighteenth century that the more wealthy merchants of London began to acquire land and to build stately mansions among these villages of the south. The improvements of the roads enabled them to drive in and out of town with ease ; the journey from Dulwich or from Sydenham with a pair of good horses along a smooth road took no more time, from door to door, than it now takes by rail, when we consider the walk to and from the station, the waiting for the train, and the frequent delays of the suburban line. The younger men rode in and out. And in every street of the city there stood the men in red jackets waiting for the job of taking the horses to the stables.

These mansions in no way destroyed the rural charm of these villages. But
the suburban omnibus began. Then along every road began to rise the villa for
the City man of small income. The villages of Kennington and Stockwell were
united by lines of houses ; the gardens were cut up into new roads. Even in the
‘fifties Kennington and Stockwell were already joined by a line of terraces ; large and
handsome villas stood along the Clapham Road ; there were fields between the
Kennington Road and Vauxhall, and all that part known as Loughborough Road
was still covered with fields. The houses at this time were not creeping out along the roads, they were
growing up in the villages. The older residents of Sydenham regarded with some
contempt the new-comers, but still they came ; and when the railways made places
ten miles out as convenient and easy of access as had been those three or four miles
out in the times of the omnibus, then the suburbs nearer town began to lose their
former status and the better class removed farther out of London.

Brixton is now a great and crowded town, it is a centre, it has its town hall,
it has its theatre, it has its boulevard, it has its covered arcade, yet it is but a daughter of the City, and by day the men are few who walk about its streets. Before we enter upon the perambulation of these suburbs it will be well to pass
in review briefly the association, historical or literary, of the larger divisions or
districts on the map.

There were formerly commons at Lambeth, Stockwell, and Kennington. That of Kennington is now preserved as a small park ; the others have disappeared.

Clapham Common is the first of the old commons which is reached on the way south.

Clapham, with Tooting Graveney, Streatham, Wandsworth, and Putney, is included for purposes of Local Government in Wandsworth. Clapham itself was
one of the earliest of the resorts of the wealthy City merchants. Their houses
stood round the common ; many of them are still to be seen there, but the old
gardens are for the most part gone. It is a very ancient village, supposed to be
named after Clapa, at whose daughter’s marriage King Hardacnut fell down in a fit. But the name Clappenham is found much earlier, while in Domesday Book it is Clopeham. The common, of 220 acres, was planted and perhaps drained by one
Christopher Baldwin in 1722. It has been a good deal changed of late years.
Formerly it was a wild and beautiful heath with pretty ponds, and covered with
gorse. It has now become too much like a park, owing to the ignorance of the
authorities, who seem unable to discern any difference between a heath and a park.
It was probably on this open heath that the usurper Allectus engaged with the
Romans and was defeated and killed. If so, it is the only event in history which
belongs to Clapham. Here, however, have lived many distinguished men of letters,
science, and politics, including Henry Cavendish the chemist. Dr. Gauden, Bishop of
Exeter, Sir Duncan Gauden, and William Wilberforce, all of whom are mentioned in connection with the houses they occupied in the detailed account of Clapham.
Wandsworth, formerly Wandelsorde, situated on the little river Wandle. The
common, some of which still exists, was formerly a wide and beautiful expanse
larger than that of Clapham, which it concluded on one side, while it reached as far as Putney Heath on the other. It was famous for its Black Lake, in which were very
fine pike. But encroachments and buildings have greatly diminished its area. Wandsworth had formerly a settlement of Dutch, who carried on the manufacture of
brass plates, kettles, and other metal ware. Here came also a settlement of French
Protestants, for whom there was service in French every Sunday in the Presbyterian
Chapel. They had a burial-ground, which still remains with the tombstones and the
French names. Wandsworth was the birthplace of Alderman Henry Smith, who
in 1620, having arrived at seventy-two years of age and having neither wife nor
children, made over the whole of his estates to charitable purposes.
Not far from Wandsworth on the south-west is the village of Garratt. The
little place was remarkable, during forty years at least, for an annual burlesque
election of a Mayor. At this ceremony the people of London assisted by tens of
thousands ; the thing was kept up by the publicans, and was an occasion for any
amount of drinking and merriment. The best known of the Garratt mayors was a
fellow named Dunstan, a dealer in old wigs, who called himself Sir Jeffrey and spoke
of his daughter as Lady Ann after she married a dustman. The thing died out in the year 1787. An excellent history of the Garratt election may be found in Chambers’s Book of Days.

Tooting and Tooting Graveney have commons which adjoin each other, forming an area of nearly 200 acres. The pious labours of Morden, historian, of Tooting Graveney, have recorded the principal residents in this village.

There were many clergymen and Nonconformist ministers at this village.

Among them were Dr. Oldfield, Dr. Henry Miles, Dr. Samuel Lisle, and James Bowden and Dr. Anderson (d. 1895). Defoe is also reported to have been a resident of Tooting Graveney, but there seems no proof of this. The name of Tooting is derived from that of the Saxon family of Totinges.

The manor of Tooting Beck was formerly held by the Abbot of St. Mary de Bee. It was assigned to an alien Priory, that of Okebourne, Wiltshire, a cell of the Abbey of Bee. When Henry V. confiscated the Alien Houses he gave this manor to his brother, John Plantagenet. After his death it went to Eton College, was taken over by Edward IV., and given to the Bishop of Durham for life. On his death it was granted to the Guild of AUhallows, Barking. In 1553 it came into the possession of the Earl of W^arwick, and so on. The last occupant of the manor house was the 7th Earl of Coventry, who pulled it down at the end of the eighteenth century.

Close by, on the east side, was Leigham Manor, also belonging to a Religious House, viz. Bermondsey Abbey. This place belonged at one time to Lord Thurlow. Balham, another manor, belonged also to the Abbey of Bee.

On Streatham Common was a spring, the medicinal properties of which at- one time rivalled those of Epsom on the south and Hampstead on the north. Here was the residence of Henry Thrale, at which Johnson was a frequent and an honoured visitor. The house was taken down in 1863. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a series of portraits, twenty-four in number, of Thrale’s guests. They included Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, Garrick, and others. This gallery was dispersed in 1816.

Putney was formerly Puttenheth, as Stepney was Stebbenheth. Here was a ferry. There was also a fishery of considerable importance down to 1810 and after. In 1647 the Parliamentary forces occupied Putney. Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, and Fleetwood were lodged at different houses. They met and held council in the church. Famous duels were fought on Putney Heath, and as late as 1809 Lord Castlereagh shot George Canning in the thigh. The bowling-green of Putney was long famous while that game was to the citizens of London what the game of golf has now become. On the east of Streatham and Tooting lie the group of Dulwich, Penge, Norwood, and Sydenham.

Norwood, which retained much of its old forest into the nineteenth century, was formerly the haunt of gipsies. They received in the woods the people who came to consult them about their fate or fortune. Here, at Knights’ Hill, Lord Thurlow built a house which he never inhabited. An attempt was made in 1831 to create a spa here by means of a spring impregnated with sulphate of magnesia. The place is now little better than a crowded town.

Penge was formerly nothing but Penge Common and Penge Wood. The hanging woods of Penge were most lovely in spring and in autumn. Horn, in 1825, laments the approaching destruction of the woods.

Sydenham also had its spring of medicinal water, warranted to cure scrofulous and scorbutic disorders. The water was recommended by John Peter, physician, in 1681. Evelyn, too, mentions the Sydenham Wells. The spring was on the common, now, like that of Penge, built over. Thomas Campbell the poet came to live at Sydenham in 1804, and continued to live there for sixteen years. He wrote Gertrude of Wyoming a.nd other poems at Sydenham. The Crystal Palace is always said to be at Sydenham. It belongs in reality to Penge.

Dulwich, which for a long time retained its rural character, though that is nearly all gone now, is famous for its College, that beautiful home founded by Alleyne. It will be found described later on.

Lewisham, like Balham and Tooting, was a manor held by an alien house. It was given in the year 900 by .^Elthruda, niece of Alfred, to the Abbey of St. Peter in Ghent. Henry V. gave it, 500 years later, to the Priory of Sheen. After the Dissolution it fell into the possession of Lord Seymour, the Duke of Northumberland, Sir Ambrose Dudley, the Earl of Holderness, and finally, in 1664, to Admiral George Legge, Baron Dartmouth. The manor still belongs to this family. There appear to have been no residents of importance at Lewisham. Rocque’s map of all this part represents a country of hill and forest which must have been most beautiful. In the land lying south-east of Lewisham, the only rural part of the County Council area, there are woods here and there among the fields and farms. These have now vanished, and although there are as yet few buildings in this corner of the County Council domain, the former beauty has departed.

Eltham, were it not that the builder has been here, would be one of the most interesting spots near London. Its very name denotes its antiquity. It is the “old village.” The manor belonged to Edward the Confessor ; to Bishop Odo ; to Anthony Bee, Bishop of Durham ; to Lord Vesci ; to Geoffrey le Scrope of Masham ; to Queen Isabella, and to the Crown. Henry III. came here often; once he kept his Christmas here ; this means that he received and entertained here the whole of his Court and his principal nobles with their following. Edward II lived here; in this house his son, John of Eltham, was born ; Edward III. was here often ; Richard II. took delight in the pleasantness of the place; it was a favourite place of Henry IV., and indeed of all the kings until Henry VIII. had completed Greenwich, when he went there. But Eltham was maintained as a palace till the Commonwealth. Among the residents of Eltham were the Earl of Essex, who died here, September 13, 1646; George Home, Bishop of Norwich (d. 1792); Thomas Doggett, founder of the ” Doggett coat and silver badge” rowed for annually on August I, the anniversary of the accession of George I. ; Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More; Vandyck the painter; John Lilburne, who died here; and James Sherard, the botanist.

Plumstead and Woolwich are on the lower levels. The Plumstead Marshes, not yet built over, cover a very wide extent of ground. Like those on the north of the Thames, they were protected by a river-wall. It was built, as reported, by the monks of Lesnes Abbey. The wall was frequently damaged; in 1527 it was so much broken down that the whole marsh of 2000 acres was laid under water, and so continued for thirty-six years. The drowned land was partly reclaimed by an Italian named Giacomo Aconzio. In two years he reclaimed 680 acres ; he then died ; the work was carried on, and by 15S7, 1000 acres more had been recovered; the remainder being got in soon after 1606, when an Act was passed for its recovery.

Woolwich, now so busy a place, was, until the erection of the Dockyard, but a small fishing village built where the ground sloped up from the river.

Charlton, the “husbandman’s” town, stood on the high ground. It was one of the many manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo. It became subsequently the property of Bermondsey Abbey, and has since passed through many hands. Charlton was famous for its fair—Horn Fair—at which all the rabble of London assembled on St. Luke’s Day, October 18. It was abolished in 1872.

These are the principal features of South London. Of the towns of Greenwich and Deptford and the present condition of the buildings and streets in the semi-rural districts we shall speak in the perambulation.