31 August 2012

Virginia Woolf in Richmond and Bloomsbury: London #18

 
Hogarth House, Richmond: T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land was published here in 1922, in the same year Sylvia Beach published Joyce's Ulysses.
 
'In this house
LEONARD and
VIRGINIA WOOLF
lived
1915–1924
and founded the
Hogarth Press
1917'

 
'VIRGINIA WOOLF
1882–1941'
 
'Virginia Woolf
lived in a house formerly on the south side of
Tavistock Square from 1924 to 1939 where most of her
greatest novels were written and published.
 
"Then one day walking around Tavistock Square I made up,
as I sometimes make up my books, To the Lighthouse; in
a great, apparently involuntary, rush."
 
This memorial was erected by the
Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
26th June 2004'.

The Ian Dury Memorial Bench, Richmond Park: London #17

The Ian Dury bench is in Poets Corner, not far from the James Thomson memorial, in Richmond Park, Richmond upon Thames. The backrest is inscribed after his song 'Reasons to Be Cheerful'.
 
The bench was designed by Mil Stricevic to be solar-powered and play eight Ian Dury songs and one interview that anyone could listen to by just plugging in a regular set of ear phones. Unfortunately, it no longer works because of vandalism. Now, I can understand that sometimes there are motives behind acts of vandalism, but what possible reason could anyone have for this? It's mindless.
 
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Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Reasons to be Cheerful

Brompton Cemetery: London #16

 'GEORGE ALFRED HENTY,
DIED 16TH. NOVEMBER 1902, AGED 69.
FOR MANY YEARS
WAR CORRESPONDENT OF "THE STANDARD"
AND WRITER OF MANY BOYS' BOOKS.'

I was more interested in finding George Borrow's grave, but unfortunately this cemetery is as untended in places as Abney Park in Stoke Newington, and without risking my legs being lacerated by brambles (which is something that later happened at Ladywell Cemetery ) there was no chance of finding it. In fact, there was no chance of finding it anyway.
 
However, I did find the grave of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (1852–1928), which was in a much better tended area.
 
And, by chance, I discovered this (obviously newly restored) one, although I made the mistake of including my own reflection:
 
'JOHN WISDEN
Born September 5 1826
Died April 5 1884
Sussex and All-England cricketer
Founder of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'
 
Luckily, the far more recent grave of the writer and critic Bernard Levin was easy to find, and this accidentally helped me to find others I didn't know about, as this seems to be one of the places where a number of writers, actors and artists, end up.
 
'BERNARD
LEVIN
1928–2004)'

Around the tombstone these words are inscribed: 'WORDS HAVE AN EXISTENCE OF THEIR OWN. THEY ARE NOT OURS TO COMMAND ALTOGETHER FREELY; BUT WITHOUT US THEY CANNOT COME TO LIFE.'
 
'BRIAN GLOVER
1934–1997
Wrestler Actor Writer'
 
'PETER
STUART-HEATON
1919–1997
 
WRITER, PAINTER,
BUSINESSMAN & FATHER
 
R I P'
 
Up to this point all the people mentioned are included in the Friends of Brompton Cemetery's 'Fifty Notable Personalities & Monuments', but not Peter Stuart-Heaton, and it's difficult to get much information about him online, apart from his books. Peter Stuart Heaton appears without the hyphen in a number of entries in the British Library catalogue, and in the 1940s wrote a series of books for children – The Holiday Train (1945), The Holiday Train Goes to America (1946), Dobbish the Paper Horse (1946), and finally The Holiday Train Goes to the Moon (1948). Apart from a book on jazz, all (Stuart-)Heaton's other books are about boating, particularly yachting.
 
'DAVID ANTHONY
MACSWEENEY
DOCTOR AND POET
26th JANUARY 1930
26th MAY 2010
 
'And therefore I have sailed
the seas and come
To the Holy City of Byzantium'
 
The quotation is from William Butler Yeats's 'Sailing to Byzantium' of course, and not Dr MacSweeney. In fact, he's a more elusive person to pin down than Stuart-Heaton, although he appears to have been a psychiatrist,  and although the Times published his obituary, it's not freely available. I can find no record of publications by him.

'CHRISTOPHER GILBERT
 
FATHER,
JOURNALIST AND SPORTS FAN
1950–2004
LOVED AND MISSED
BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM'
 
Christopher Gilbert worked for the Daily Telegraph, and apparently talked about his glioblastoma multiforme tumour with relish, according to his obituary, which is here.

'HENRIETTA
MORAES
writer
and
muse'
 
According to Tim Hilton in the Guardian, Henrietta Moraes (1931–99), who published her autobiography Henrietta in 1994, spent a section of her life on drink and drugs and another section sober and clean. She was part of the bohemian London scene and a muse for artists: Francis Bacon painted her naked on a bed in 1963, and earlier this year it sold for over £20,000,000. Her obituary is here.
 
'SUSAN
EINZIG
 
Artist, Mother
Grandmother
Teacher, Friend
 
1922–2009'
 
Around the tombstone is inscribed 'MY EYES PACIFIST | MY BLOOD REVOLUTIONARY | MY HEART ANARCHIST | MY BRAIN SOCIALIST'. Susan Einzig was the illustrator of a great number of children's books, but is perhaps best remembered for her illustrations of Philippa Pierce's Tom's Midnight Garden. Her obituary in the Guardian is here.

29 August 2012

James Thomson in Richmond Park: London #15

 
'JAMES THOMSON
1700–1748
AUTHOR OF "THE SEASONS"
RESIDED FOR THE LAST TWELVE
YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN RICHMOND
AND IS BURIED IN THE PARISH CHURCH.
THIS MEMORIAL, THE SUCCESSOR OF
SEVERAL EARLIER BOARDS, WAS ERECTED
IN 1895. IT WAS REPAIRED AND RE-LETTERED
FOR THE BICENTENARY OF THOMSON'S
DEATH 27TH AUGUST 1948. THE INSCRIBED
POEM IS BY JOHN HENEAGE JESSE.'
 
'YE, WHO FROM LONDON'S SMOKE AND TURMOIL FLY,
TO SEEK A PURER AIR AND BRIGHTER SKY
THINK OF THE BARD WHO DWELT IN YONDER DELL,
WHO SANG SO SWEETLY WHAT HE LOVED SO WELL,
THINK, AS YE GAZE ON THESE LUXURIANT BOWERS,
HERE, THOMSON LOVED THE SUNSHINE AND THE FLOWERS.
HE WHO COULD PAINT ALL THEIR VARIED FORMS,
APRIL'S YOUNG BLOOM, DECEMBER'S DREARY STORMS.
BY YON FAIR STREAM, WHICH CALMLY GLIDES ALONG,
PURE AS HIS LIFE, AND LOVELY AS HIS SONG,
THERE OFT HE ROVED. IN YONDER CHURCHYARD LIES
ALL OF THE DEATHLESS BARD THAT EVER DIES,
FOR HERE HIS GENTLE SPRIIT LINGERS STILL.
IN YON SWEET VALE – ON THIS ENCHANTED HILL,
FLINGING A HOLIER IN'TREST O'ER THE GROVE.
STIRRING THE HEART TO POETRY AND LOVE.
AND VIEW IN NATURE'S BEAUTIES NATURE'S GOD.'


The Marc Bolan Shrine, Barnes: London #14

In 1977 singer Gloria Jones was driving a car carrying her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Marc Bolan, when she lost control and crashed into a sycamore on Queen's Ride, Barnes. He was killed, but she survived with a broken arm and jaw. The site of the crash has since become recognized by the English Tourist Board and is place of pilgrimage for fans.

'IN RESPECTFUL MEMORY OF
 
MARC BOLAN
30th SEPTEMBER 1947
16th SEPTEMBER 1977
 
MUSICIAN, WRITER, POET
 
DONATED BY PERFORMING RIGHT SOCIETY
IN RECOGNITION OF HIS OUTSTANDING
CONTRIBUTION TO BRITISH MUSIC'
 
The 'Bolan Tree', exact site of the crash. In January 2000 the T-Rex Action Group (TAG), the legal leaseholder of the site, laid steps from Gipsy Lane to Queen's Ride.
 
'MARC BOLAN
25th Anniversary
16th September 2002
Sad to see
Them mourning you
When you are here
Within the Flowers & the Trees
Donated to TAG
by Fee Warner'
 
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Charles Dickens in London: London #13

St George the Martyr at the junction of Long Lane, Marshalsea Road, and Tabard Street in Southwark is also called 'Little Dorrit's Church' as it was here that Dickens's creation was christened and where she married Arthur Clennam. The church bears a Little Dorrit window but unfortunately it was closed when I was in the area.

St George's Gardens are nearby and there's an interesting plaque there.

'Marshalsea Prison

Beyond this old wall is the site of the old Marshalsea Prison, closed in 1842. This sign is attached to a remnant of the prison wall. Charles Dickens, whose father had been imprisoned for debt in 1824, used that experience as the Marshalsea setting for his novel Little Dorrit.'

Angel Place is through the gates.

'ANGEL PLACE
 
This alleyway lies on the site of the Marshalsea prison where the author
Charles Dickens' father was incarcerated, and which featured strongly in his great book 'Little Dorrit'. The old prison wall still stands.
 
Thanks to an active local steering group, we now have new lighting, paving, and a new gateway to St George's Gardens.'
 
'The wall mounted artworks adapt the original illustrations of Little
Dorrit. The themes of wealth and poverty, freedom and imprisonment,
which run throughout the book, are visually explored. Children from the local St Joseph's and Cathedral Schools collaborated on the project and appear in the scenes along with their drawings.
 
This project was completed and opened on 25th September 2004, and was funded by Southwark Couuncil to make the area safer and easier to use.'

Five of the paving stones in the alley are inscribed.

'JOHN DICKENS, THE FATHER OF CHARLES DICKENS, WAS IMPRISONED HERE FOR DEBT FROM FEBRUARY TO MAY, 1824'
 
'THE HEROINE
OF DICKENS' NOVEL,
LITTLE DORRIT,
WAS ONE RESIDENT
WHO WAS
NOT A PRISONER'
 
'BUT, WHOSOEVER GOES TO MARSHALSEA PLACE ... WILL FIND HIS FEET ON THE VERY PAVING-STONES OF THE EXTINCT MARSHALSEA JAIL ... AND WILL STAND AMONG THE CROWDING GHOSTS OF MANY MISERABLE YEARS'
 
This is a quotation from Dickens's Preface to the 1957 edition of Little Dorrit, which describes his visit to the site of the prison in the same year as the publication. The full sentence reads:

'A little further on, I found the older and smaller wall, which used to enclose the pent-up inner prison where nobody was put, except for ceremony. But, whosoever goes into Marshalsea Place, turning out of Angel Court, leading to Bermondsey, will find his feet on the very paving-stones of the extinct Marshalsea jail; will see its narrow yard to the right and to the left, very little altered if at all, except that the walls were lowered when the place got free; will look upon rooms in which the debtors lived; and will stand among the crowding ghosts of many miserable years.'

'MELANCHOLY STREETS, IN A PENITENTIAL GARB OF SOOT, STEEPED THE SOULS OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE CONDEMNED TO LOOK AT THEM OUT OF THE WINDOWS, IN DIRE DESPONDENCY'
 
This is from Chapter 3, which is a description of a Sunday evening in 'gloomy, close, and stale' London. Here is a slightly extended quotation:
 
'Maddening church bells of all degrees of dissonance, sharp and flat, cracked and clear, fast and slow, made the brick-and-mortar echoes hideous. Melancholy streets, in a penitential garb of soot, steeped the souls of the people who were condemned to look at them out of windows, in dire despondency. In every thoroughfare, up almost every alley, and down almost every turning, some doleful bell was throbbing, jerking, tolling, as if the Plague were in the city and the dead-carts were going round. Everything was bolted and barred that could by possibility furnish relief to an overworked people.'
 
'THERE WAS NOT ONE
STRAIGHT FLOOR FROM
THE FOUNDATION OF THE ROOF
THE CEILINGS WERE SO
FANTASTICALLY CLOUDED BY
SMOKE AND DUST THAT
OLD WOMEN MIGHT HAVE
TOLD FORTUNES IN THEM
BETTER THAN IN GROUTS OF TEA'
 
This is from Chapter 5, when Arthur Clenn looks through his dead father's house, and a longer reading of the paragraph gives a more graphic image:
 
'Dull and dark he found it. The gaunt rooms, deserted for years upon years, seemed to have settled down into a gloomy lethargy from which nothing could rouse them again. The furniture, at once spare and lumbering, hid in the rooms rather than furnished them, and there was no colour in all the house; such colour as had ever been there, had long ago started away on lost sunbeams—got itself absorbed, perhaps, into flowers, butterflies, plumage of birds, precious stones, what not. There was not one straight floor from the foundation to the roof; the ceilings were so fantastically clouded by smoke and dust, that old women might have told fortunes in them better than in grouts of tea; the dead-cold hearths showed no traces of having ever been warmed but in heaps of soot that had tumbled down the chimneys, and eddied about in little dusky whirlwinds when the doors were opened.'
 
Another view of the old prison wall, this time from Angel Place.
 
The presence of Dickens is all over this part of Southwark, as in Charles Dickens Primary School.
 
And the blue plaque is just about legible through the closed gates.
 
In George Inn Yard off Borough High Street:
 
'THE NATIONAL TRUST
THE GEORGE INN
It is known that the George Inn existed in
the late 16th Century although the present
building dates from 1677. Both Shakespeare
and Dickens knew the hospitality of the inn
which has continued right up to the present day.
The inn is now owned by The National Trust.'
 
The wall opposite offers more information:
 
'Records of this coaching inn date back to 1542
although the current building dates back to
1676 when it was rebuilt following a devastating fire.
During 1874 the north range was pulled down,
however, thankfully the southern range has survived
to be London's last galleried coaching inn.
William Shakespeare often frequented the inn,
as did the novelist Charles Dickens who referred to
The George in his novel Little Dorrit.'
 
Shakespeare, of course, died in 1616, and so must have used the pub which formerly stood here.


Several places in the area, such as Copperfield Street and Weller Street, bear witness to the perceived importance of Dickens in Southwark.
 
Moving away from Southwark, to Bloomsbury:
 
'1851–1860
CHARLES DICKENS
NOVELIST
Lived in Tavistock
House near this
site'

To me, stating that Charles Dickens was a novelist seems a little like saying that William Shakespeare wrote plays, but no matter. Dickens bought this from his friend the artist Frank Stone for £1500, which probably sounded like a bargain even way back then, but it needed a large amount of work doing, and the family couldn't move in until about four months later. He bought Gad's Hill near Rochester in 1956.

Dickens separated from his wife Catherine in 1858: he had become obsessed with the 18-year-old Ellen (or Nelly) Ternan, who was living here with her mother and sisters – at Park Cottage, Northampton Park, Canonbury – at the time when he met her.

This building in Portsmouth Street (and Dickens was of course born in that town), is almost certainly the oldest shop in London, and may have been an inspiration to Dicken's novel The Old Curiosity Shop (1841).

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Charles Dickens in Portsmouth, Hampshire
Charles Dickens and Characters in Marylebone Road, London
Charles Dickens in Kingston upon Hull
Charles Dickens Connections in Kensal Green Cemetery, London
Charles Dickens, Edward Wortley Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Charles Dickens and Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia: Literary London #8
Claire Tomalin: Charles Dickens: A Life (2011)

28 August 2012

Edgar Allan Poe in Stoke Newington: London #12

The Fox Reformed restaurant and wine bar, Stoke Newington Church Street, Hackney, London.
 
'EDGAR ALLAN POE
1809–1849
Writer and Poet
Was a pupil at the
Manor House School (1817–1820),
Which stood on this site.'
 
'POE
 
unveiled by Stephen Berkoff
on 4 June 2011
 
the flicker club
–––––––––––––––––––––––
The Edgar Allan Poe Society'
 
Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and became an orphan in 1811, when he was fostered by the self-made merchant John Allan and his wife Frances of Richmond, Virginia, which is how his middle name came to be 'Allan'. In 1815 the Allans, including Edgar, left for England where John Allan had business, and after eventually settling in London Edgar had three years' education in Chelsea. After that he continued at the Rev. John Bransby's school in the then small village of Stoke Newington, where he was very much an outsider: his accent and lack of skill at sport were laughed at, he had his own sleeping accommodation away from the dormitory, but his skills in literature and French  surpassed those of even older students. Bransby thought John Allan spoiled Edgar, but with Allan's business failing (temporarily as it happened), the family were forced to leave England and return to the States in May 1820.
 
(The photo at the top of my blog is, of course, Poe's Cottage in The Bronx, New York City.)
 
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Richmond, Virginia: Edgar Allan Poe Museum

Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, Massachusetts

John Britton in West Norwood Cemetery, Thomas Britton in Clerkenwell: London #11

This 10 foot block of millstone grit is not at all difficult to find in West Norwood Cemetery. It marks the grave of the antiquary and topographer John Britton (1771–1857),  the author of a large number of books and the editor of the architectural journal The Builder. This is a Grade II* listed monument sculpted by George Godwin.

There is also a window in the parish church at Kingston St Michael, Wiltshire, dedicated to Britton and John Aubrey (1625–97).

There is no known relation between John Britton and Lionel Britton.

 
This monument is much smaller than John Britton's, but is just a few yards from his and shares the same basic shape. A series of photos on ceramics are of rock formations and are on two sides of it, although there appears to be no inscription, so this one defeats me.
 
'HERE STOOD
THE HOUSE OF
––––––––––––––––––––
THOMAS BRITTON
––––––––––––––––––––
1644–1714
THE MUSICAL
COALMAN'
 
This is on the corner of Artichoke Passage and Aylesbury Street, and is the kind of plaque that surely begs anyone who reads it for more information. Again, no relation to Lionel Britton as far as I know, and although Lionel hated music, Thomas seems to have a similar mixture of working-class credentials and intellectual curiosity. Perhaps one of the most informative articles about him is in the Cheapside Standard website, which I link below.
 
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Thomas Britton – Music Pioneer