Beyond the Colony of the Pigkeepers

‘Beyond the colony of the pigkeepers at the end of Pottery Lane’, the ‘Old Inhabitant’ anonymous vicar historian wrote of an outpost alongside the Counter’s Creek boundary stream (by then the Common Sewer) and the West London Junction Railway line; where Latimer (formerly Boundary) Road was coming into existence (as Latymer Road, named after the 17th century philanthropist Edward Latymer): ‘But what a place it was when I first discovered it – comparatively out of the world – a rough road cut across the fields the only approach. Brickfields and pits on either side, making it dangerous to leave on dark nights. A safe place for many people who did not wish everybody to know what they were doing.’

Latymer Road first made the news with the 1860 ‘Death in a London Bog’ of Frances Dowling, ‘a poor woman’ who suffered the worst fate that could befall anyone in the area. ‘In returning to her home about 11 O’clock, she had missed the crossing place and stumbled into one of the miry pits.’

Her cries for help went unheeded, as women screaming in drunken brawls was a common occurrence in the vicinity of the Latymer Arms inn. This horrific incident was used to launch an appeal that led to the founding of the Latymer Road Mission Hall and Ragged School.

The building duly appeared in the middle of a ‘primaeval swamp, blossoming in broken bottles, pots and pans.’ It was originally accessed by a narrow track lined with white posts and two pathways; one from the Lancaster Tavern at the junction of Lancaster Road and Walmer Road, the other seems to have become Blechynden Street.

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