— Down to the Crossroads . . .
— Traffic lights, 1936 . . .
— The death of a young woman motor-cyclist, Ethel Hearn, in a collision with a bus, 1929 . . .
— "Bus and Car Collide", 1934 . . .
— "Extraordinary poisoning case", 1907 . . .
— A dispute between neighbours on Honeywell Road: A pet monkey poisoned and corrosive liquid thrown, 1890. . . .
— "Curious Discovery of an Infant at Clapham Junction", 1878 — was she thrown from a passing train? . . .
— The Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Boys up for sale, 1872 . . .
— Girl found wandering on the Common seeks adoption, 1909 . . .
— Burntwood Cottage young gentleman accused of theft, 1843 . . .
— The burial of Peter Le Neve Foster, 24 February 1879 . . .
— Feedback from Peter Santo Warner about an item in December 2023's Chronicles . . .
— 8 February 2024: "Edward and Helen Thomas on Wandsworth Common", for the Friends of Wandsworth Common . . .
— May Talk: "Stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Burntwood Lane — the early years" . . .
— News of a 75th anniversary special . . .
Before the First World War, this junction was a popular subject for postcards. It's a little less "picturesque" now. The island and the slip road towards Bolingbroke Grove have gone (though you can still see a suggestion of the old road sweeping away left through the trees towards Bolingbroke Grove).
[Shortly after I posted Feb's Chronicles, Alan Underwood (Wandsworth Historical Society) got in contact with very useful information about the Nightingale Lane horse trough shown in the 2 photos. Thanks, Alan!]
Here's more or less the same view today:
Today's curved footpath (now on the right) follows the old route. (So it's yet another "ghost road".) The larger trees on the Common-side of the path seem to be older than than those on the road side, and some may have been growing there since before the changes we're just about to explore.
Here are some maps of what is now a crossroads:
Here's (nearly) the same area in maps from the 1860s and 1890s, both showing an island. The junction wasn't yet a cross-roads since Ravenslea Road was not built until c.1900.
Traffic crossing Bellevue Railway Bridge either flowed slightly right towards Clapham along Nightingale Lane, or in a smooth curve left into Bolingbroke Grove. (And vice versa, of course.)
Before the railway cut through (in the 1850s), St James's Drive continued across the Common until it met Bolingbroke Grove (opposite the top of what will be Granard Road). On the left of the map, see the remains of this now redundant section of road apparently passing through a gravel pit.
The new railway therefore caused road vehicles to take a more indirect, zig-zag route — concentrating traffic at this junction, and causing a century-and-a-half of traffic jams. (I wonder how many millions of hours people have wasted here?).
It also led to some very serious accidents, as we shall see.
I was prompted to write about this junction because of a chance reading of a February 1936 news item about the introduction of traffic lights here. I'd never given traffic lights any thought before, but reasoned that they too must have a history. And indeed they do.
Nightingale Lane Traffic Lights.
Estimates have been submitted to the Highways and Works Committee by Borough Surveyor with respect to the cost of the works involved and of the installation of traffic control signals at the junction of Bolingbroke-grove, Nightingale-lane, and Ravenslea-road.
The Committee recommended that, subject to the Ministry of Transport contributing 80 per cent of the cost of the work and of the installation and future maintenance of the traffic control signals, the improvement and the provision of traffic-signals be carried out in accordance with the plan already approved, at an estimated cost of £4729 10s 5d, chargeable to the Borough of Battersea.
The estimated cost of the future maintenance of the signals is £83 10s for the first year and £118 for subsequent years for the whole installation, towards which the Ministry will contribute 80 per cent of the cost.
The Wandsworth Borough Council will also contribute 25 per cent of the net cost of the installation and future maintenance of the traffic signals.
The report was adopted.
[BNA: Link]
Electric traffic lights were still new at this time — London's first was installed on Piccadilly in 1926, and roll-out was slow. So far as I know, the new lights would have been two-colour (there was no amber), and probably looked like this:
Speed limits too were in flux. Between 1903 and 1930, the national speed limit was 20 mph (like most residential streets again today), but this was widely ignored and difficult to enforce since cars were not required to have speedometers. Drivers accused of travelling at more than 20 mph could simply say they thought they were going more slowly.
I was astonished to learn that the 1930 Road Traffic Act removed speed limits althogether for most cars. True, there were penalties for reckless, careless or dangerous driving, but you were allowed to go as fast as you liked wherever you liked — with predictable results in increased deaths and injuries.
In 1934 a new limit of 30 mph was set for built-up areas, but the rapid increase in vehicles meant the number of deaths continued to grow.
[See the summary by Readcars of the The History of Speed Limits in the UK.]
Reading about the changes led me to look back for reports of accidents at the junction. It soon became clear that it was not a single fatality that led to the changes but several.
The first that I know of concerns the death of a young woman motor-cyclist, Ethel Hearn, in a collision with a bus in 1929.
CRASHED INTO 'BUS.
Girl Motor Cyclist Was Killed.
PILLION RIDER INJURED.
"Ethel not to blame," said the young man pillion rider, now in hospital, concerning Miss Ethel Florence Hearn (22), shop assistant, of 868, Garratt-lane, Tooting, who was killed last Saturday night while driving a motor-cycle in Nightingale-lane. Wandsworth Common. when she came into contact with an omnibus.
Miss Hearn was killed on the spot, and a young man named Fennell, who was riding pillion, is suffering from serious injuries.
The inquest on Miss Hearn was held Tuesday at Battersea. Mr. Ingleby the coroner, sitting with a Jury,
Richard Hearn, blacksmith, of Garratt Lane, Tooting, the father of the girl was very distressed. He said his daughter had ridden a motor-cycle for three years, and knew well the district where the accident happened.
[more . . . ]
[There were full accounts of the accident in the South Western Star and the Streatham News on 27 September 1929.]
But it was another accident a few years later, when three people died in head-on collision, that seems finally to have precipitated action.
I came across this photograph of the scene on sale as a (rather macabre) stock image in the Shutterstock photo-archive:
DEAD DRIVER BLAMED
Three Persons Killed in Midnight Smash
TRAVELLING AT FIFTY MILES AN HOUR.
The inquest into the deaths of the three victims of the accident at Nightingale-lane on Friday night, April 20, was concluded by Dr. Edwin Smith at Battersea Coroner's Court on Wednesday.
The accident occurred close to the corner of Wexford-road, and near the point where Nightingale-lane and Bolingbroke-grove join Bellevue-road. It occurred at 11.12 p.m. As a 67 bus, travelling towards Clapham Common, approached Nightingale-lane it was struck, almost head-on, by a car coming along Nightingale-lane. The car had drawn out to pass a car stationary on its near side.
Several eye-witnesses put the pace of the moving car at 50 or 60 miles an hour. The jury found that it was being driven negligently.
[more . . . ]
I know vanishingly little about motor cars, but I think this is something like the model of car involved in the crash: a 10-horsepower Rover from 1934:
An inquest was held the following week.
[You may notice how much speedier legal procedures were at that time. Today it can be months (or even years) before a final hearing, though most Coroners aim to complete inquests within 6—9 months of the initial report of the death.]
[I have collected a number of accounts of this accident, including from the Streatham News and South Western Star.]
Witness: "There is one other point I wanted to speak about. There seems to be no telephone box near there.
There's another point. I am up and down Nightingale-lane two or three times a day. Traffic is very fast there. There seems to be a tendency for cars to speed down one hill to get up the other.
I should also like to attention to people parking their cars opposite the big house. They could be put round Ravenslea-road."
The coroner said the jury had suggested in their written replies that some sort of control might be instituted at the spot. It was wise of them to word their recommendations broadly rather than go into details. "You have cars rushing along like a train, in London suburbs," he added.
Inspector Bottoms said the particular spot and the whole of Nightingale-lane was under discussion.
The Coroner: The jury's recommendation will reach the proper quarter?'
"Yes," replied the inspector.
"You may add that I regard this as a place where some control is necessary. It's a very dangerous place."
"Yes, sir," again said the inspector.
Six months after the jury had urged action, specific proposals for the complete reconstruction of the junction were announced in the South Western Star (12 October 1934):
— the slip road portion of Bolingbroke-grove west of the island should be closed and thrown into the footway including the major portion of the island;
— that the curb lines of each side of Bolingbroke-grove should be extended southwards so as to form a straight crossing;
— that a refuge be erected at the mouth of the newly aligned Junction referred to;
— that the existing fences and curb on the south side be set back on each side of Ravenslea-road and the corners splayed back;
— and that the junction should be controlled by vehicle actuated traffic signals.
[BNA: Link.]
I'm not sure exactly when the work was carried out, but the island was still intact in October 1935. We know this because the South Western Star for 4 October 1935 reports a court case in which a "man in the motor trade" (who claims he had driven a racing car for fourteen years, averaging 20,000 miles a year) knocked a cyclist off his bike at the island but failed to inform the police.
Neither is there any mention of traffic lights, because of course their installation would have been contingent on the removal of the island and the simplification of the cross-road. [BNA: Link.]
But the triangle had definitely gone by 1947, and probably before the start of WWII:
EXTRAORDINARY POISONING CASE
Mr. Troutbeck held an inquiry at Battersea yesterday with reference to the death of William Thomas, aged seventeen, a bottle wirer, residing at Beaufoy-road, Battersea, who died in Bolingbroke Hospital Sunday last from the effect of poison taken under singular circumstances.
Jane Basten said Thomas was her adopted son. She had brought him up from infancy. He was acquainted with a girl named Alice Allen, but witness thought Allen's parents did not like it.
On the evening of New Year's Day Thomas went out with the girl, saying he was going to a music-hall. The next witness heard of them was at midnight, when the police informed her that they were both in Bolingbroke Hospital suffering from poison.
Witness went to the hospital next morning and saw Thomas. She asked him why he did it, and all said was "Through her mother."
Witness: I said, "Who took it first?" and said, "Alice." I asked him, "Who took the most?" and he said, "I did."
Annie Coles, a probationary nurse at Wandsworth Union Infirmary, said she was on Wandsworth Common the evening of January 1 when a man and a woman came to her, and the latter asked witness to help them. She said: "We feel very queer."
Witness said, "What has happened?" and the girl replied, "We have taken spirits of salts." Witness sat both of them on a seat and tried to induce them to vomit, at the same time sending passer-by for policeman. She found a bottle under the seat which had contained spirits of salts.
["Spirits of salt" — hydrochloric acid.]
Police-constable William Brice said he conveyed Thomas to the hospital, Allen walking there. He asked the girl what she had done, and she said, "We have taken poison from that bottle." At the hospital she said, "We took the poison because my parents would not allow us to keep company."
Witness added that on January 7 girl was arrested and charged with attempting to commit suicide. After several remands she was bound over to be of good behaviour for twelve months. She promised not to do it again.
Mrs. Alice Allen, mother of the young woman, of High-street, Stockwell, said she had known Thomas for two years. He worked at the same factory has her daughter, who was sixteen years of age.
At the hospital her daughter told her she took the poison because witness would not let her out with Thomas. Witness had corrected her daughter for being out late one night. The daughter had answered she was out with Thomas, and witness said she could not allow such a thing. Her objection was that her daughter was too young.
Alice Allen, in reply to the Coroner, said she wished to give evidence.
The Coroner: "Do you wish to say anything about what you did?"
Witness: "Yes."
The Coroner: "Who got the spirits of salt?"
Witness: "I did, on New Year's Day, and gave it to Thomas. He handed me the stuff on the Common and I drank some."
The Coroner: "Do you remember Thomas taking any?"
Witness: "No, sir."
The Coroner: What did you mean to do?"
Witness: "I don't know, sir."
The Coroner: "Did you mean to die?"
Witness: "No, sir."
The Coroner: "Did you wish the man to die?"
Witness: "No, sir."
The Coroner: "You did it to frighten your mother?"
Witness: "We did, sir."
The Coroner: "You thought it a very grand thing at the time?"
Witness: "Yes."
The Coroner, in summing up, said it was an old-established principle of law that where two persons agreed to commit suicide and one died the survivor was guilty of murder.
But they must be careful to see that there was a real intention to take life — they must be satisfied that these two young things really meant what they were doing.
It was evident that they wanted to do something striking, as suggested in penny novels, and did not realise what poison meant or what death really was.
After consulting in private the jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure, believing that neither intended to take his or her life but intended merely to frighten the mother.
[BNA: Link]
While researching the above item, I came across this story — another "Extraordinary Case" — which has some resonances with a recent attack near Clapham Common (31 January 2024):
EXTRAORDINARY CASE AT WANDSWORTH.
Wandsworth, to-day, Isabel Conway, a lady residing at 1, Honeywell road, Wandsworth Common, and her housemaid, Alice Saddler, were charged with being concerned in throwing some corrosive fluid in the face of Mrs Ruth Annie Firmin, who resided in an adjoining house.
Mrs. Conway had been summoned at the same court a few days ago for using abusive language to Mrs Firmin's boy, and about the same time a pet monkey, which was secured by a chain at the end of the back garden was found dead, having been poisoned by strychnine.
Margaret Barry, housemaid with Mrs Firmin, deposed that when with her mistress in the back garden last Monday, some liquid was thrown over the wall at her mistress. The only persons in the next garden were Mrs. Conway and her servant.
When a detective went arrest the defendants they barricaded the house and he had to enter by a window. The accused were remanded.
[BNA: Link.]
"Curious Discovery of an Infant at Clapham Junction"— was she thrown from a passing train?
Curious Discovery of an Infant at Clapham Junction.
On Tuesday afternoon one of the men employed upon the Brighton Company line discovered between the Freemason's bridge, Wandsworth Common, and the St. John's Hill bridge a female child a few weeks old. It was warmly wrapped up, the clothes bearing the marks of the Lambeth Union.
The surprised workman first thought his "treasure trove" consisted of a doll, but on picking it up discovered that it was an animate one, and at once conveyed it to the office of Mr. Came, the stationmaster, whence it was removed to the infirmary.
The police are making inquiries with a view of tracing the mother. It is supposed the child must have been thrown out of a passing train, but in that case it is miraculous that it escaped injury.
When found it was not only uninjured but hearty.
[BNA: Link.]
Given how distressing a number of the stories are in this month's Chronicles, we should remember that the baby "when found ... was not only uninjured but hearty."
The Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Boys up for sale, 1872
WANDSWORTH COMMON.
PROPERTY for SALE.
The Executive and Finance Committee of the Royal Commission of the Patriotic Fund invite PROPOSALS for the PURCHASE of that part of their PROPERTY on Wandsworth Common known as the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys.
The property consists of about 12 acres of land, with the large building arranged for 200 boys (built in 1871), with a chapel and all necessary offices, a swimming bath, play sheds and play ground; a detached infirmary, arranged for the isolation of infectious diseases; a detached iron and wood building. containing gymnastic appliances, workshops for carpenters, lora, and shoemakers, and a room for band instruments, and two cottages at the entrance of the ground.
The land is Freehold, and is near Clapham Junction. The use of the property is to be restricted to charitable, educational, or public purposes, and it will not be sold for a hospital for infectious diseases, nor will the land be sold for speculative building. The Executive and Finance Committee do not bind themselves to accept any proposal.
Proposals to be addressed to the Secretary of the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund, 5, St. Martin's place, W.C., marked on the outside "Proposals for Property on Wandsworth Common," and to be delivered not later than the morning of Thursday, the 16th of February, 1882.
[BNA: Link]
Notice the covenant: "The use of the property is to be restricted to charitable, educational, or public purposes, and it will not be sold for a hospital for infectious diseases, nor will the land be sold for speculative building."
After a bidding war, the purchasers were Emanuel School.
"The girl had been found wandering about Wandsworth-common, afraid to go home. Since, the step-mother had spent a term in prison for cruelty to the girl. He moved that she be adopted."
A QUESTION OF ADOPTION.
The Infirmary and Visiting Committee reported having had under further consideration the question of whether Emily Seakins, aged 15 years, should, under the powers conferred on them, be adopted by the Guardians, but were unable to arrive at a decision in the matter.
Mr. Rees remarked that the girl was the daughter of a ticket collector on the railway, who earned 27s. a week. The girl had been found wandering about Wandsworth-common, afraid to go home. Since, the step-mother had spent a term in prison for cruelty to the girl. He moved that she be adopted.
Lieut. Sanders seconded.
The Chairman thought the best thing was to adopt the girl, who was in the infirmary. The father should not, however, be let off scot free. The adoption would not nullify the Guardians coming on the parents for some of her upkeep.
Mr. Rees moved that the father be ordered to pay 5s. a week.
Mr Wade said that if the Board were going to adopt children who were treated cruelly by their parents or step-parents they would have something to do. The ratepayers were sufficiently burdened already.
On being put to the vote the motion was lost by 13 votes to 12.
[BNA: Link.]
"Gentleman accused of theft . . . ", 1843
There is much of interest in this story — and much that is puzzling.
It appears to involve a possible theft by a young man, Charles Cook, who has recently arrived from India via "the Brazils", intending to live with his father, an "old East-Indian" (i.e. a member of the East India Company), who has retired to Burntwood Cottage, on the edge of Wandsworth Common. The young man says he intends to go into business as a surgeon.
But is he in fact not "Charles" Cook but his son, the colourful Henry Oceanus Cook (born 1821 "at sea", as his middle name implies)?
Nothing quite adds up.
Would anybody like to join me in filling out the details of this family saga?
A GENTLEMAN ACCUSED OF THEFT
At Marlborough-street, on Wednesday, a well-dressed young man, most respectably connected, of the name of Charles Cook, surgeon, Burntwood-cottage, Wandsworth-common was charged by a coffee-house-keeper of the name of Harris residing in the Haymarket, with stealing a sovereign under the following most peculiar circumstances:
The complainant, an Israelite, stated, that on Thursday evening the defendant came into his house and ordered a rump-steak and coffee. After he had partaken of them he paid the waiter, and then came to him and asked for change of a sovereign. He gave him the change on the counter; the defendant laid down the sovereign and took up the change. He immediately missed the sovereign, and on turning round to his wife to ask her whether she had taken it up, he found that the defendant had departed.
He looked after him, but saw no more of him till that morning, when he came in again and ordered another steak. He at once taxed him with having been in his house on the night in question, and with having taking the sovereign. The prisoner did not deny that he had been at the house and obtained change, but most positively denied having re.taken the sovereign, adding that if he had done so he must have paid it to a cabman for a shilling.
Mr. Cook most vehemently denied the imputation thrown upon him by the complainant, an imputation which was, he said, of a nature to injure him for life, and not only mar his prospects, but entail disgrace upon his family. He would state at once who and what he was, and all he knew connected with the transaction.
He was a surgeon, the son of an old East-Indian, who had retired to spend the remainder of his days at Burntwood-cottage; he had only five weeks since himself come from the Brazils, after travelling over nearly the whole continent of India, and also South Australia, and part of South America.
His father was a director of the Polytechnic Institution, and also most respectably otherwise connected. He had been at the complainant's house on the night in question, and paid 2s. for a rump-steak, and also gave the waiter some halfpence; he had afterwards, finding he had no silver, asked for change. He laid down the sovereign, and had never seen it afterwards.
So far from it being the fact that he had left the house directly, he had afterwards remained talking to Harris and his wife relative to a relation whom they said they had at Sydney. It was, besides, very unlikely, that if he had committed a theft, he should have again gone to the coffee-house, and risked being taken into custody.
The fact was, that he had, being a stranger in England, gone to the same house that morning, as he had found the refreshments good before. He was now on the point of going into business as a surgeon, and was going to pay £500 for a concern.
Mr. Maltby was perfectly satisfied that the complainant had made a mistake, and that the defendant left the bar without a taint. The defendant requested that, as he had been publicly disgraced by being accused of such a crime, the public press would, for the sake of his family, give the refutation. Mr. Maltby would repeat, that not the slightest imputation rested upon him.
Mr. Cook bowed and left the court.
[BNA: Link.]
The burial of Peter Le Neve Foster, 24 February 1879
The remains of the late Mr. Le Neve Foster, secretary of the Society of Arts, were interred on Monday, in the New Wandsworth Cemetery, Wandsworth Common, in presence of a large circle of friends.
[BNA: Link.]
Does anybody have any idea where he is buried in the Magdalen Road cemetery? I have tried Enable's online Wandsworth Cemeteries Registry. But so far as I can tell there is nothing (e.g. no "Peter Foster", or "Le Neve Foster" etc. for any year, let alone 1879. Deuced odd.)
Here's a very welcome letter from a reader in Cornwall, Peter Santo Warner, with a deep connection with Wandsworth — many thanks, Peter!
Following your extract in the Wandsworth Chronicles [December 2023], I thought readers might be amused at this characterisation of “Wandsworth Youth” (Yoof?), by my great grandfather, having attended a similar charitable function 28 years later at the Spread Eagle Hotel.
It is entitled “The Dinner for Poor Children of Wandsworth” which took place on the 29th December 1896. It was drawn and recorded by my Great Grandfather, Albert Ernest Coleman — the Colemans being a Wandsworth family going back several generations.
The youth is complaining: "O, yus, the dinner was alright, I had a good blow out of Rose beef an’ plumpudden but wots the use of a mug an a orange? Nar, if they only a given us a packet of Fags — eh? Anybody would fink that we were a lot o’ kids."
Even 28 years later an orange and a piece of cake seems to be standard fare but the response of the recipients as recorded is a little less charitable!
Kind regards
Peter Santo Warner
Cornwall.
No, not the length of time I've been doing these Chronicles (though it probably feels like it).
I will be 75 years old at the end of March, so I thought I'd slightly change the format of these Chronicles and think about what the Common, and its surrounds, were like in 1949.
I've nearly always lived round here. Three of my homes in the first 21 years of my life can be seen in this photograph. Another was built in 1957 on a bomb site on Heathfield Road, so that makes four. I lived on Calbourne Road between 1983 and 2003, which is off to the right. The house I live in now, on Loxley Road, is just off the bottom of the screen.
If you would like to help me celebrate the history of Wandsworth Common (and my birthday) by contributing memories or photographs or research about the area in 1949 PLEASE DO. I can also send some images and maps to discuss.
For the Friends of Wandsworth Common (8 February 2024).
"Edward and Helen Thomas on Wandsworth Common: Childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood-1878—1902."
Thanks to the marvel that is John Crossland, there's a video — so you can re-live every exciting moment.
View the video on the Friends website and/or on YouTube.
[The introductory music is Tchaikovsky, Children's Album, "Sweet Dreams", performed by Avril Crossland — thanks, Avril!
"Stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Burntwood Lane — the early years"
The opening of a new park in the grounds of Springfield Hospital has highlighted this extraordinary building (and its nearly 100-acre grounds) dating from 1840.
To some it looks more like an Oxford College (or Hampton Court) than a Victorian asylum.
So why was it built here in Wandsworth, in such an impressive manner, and surrounded by such spacious grounds? What was life like in the Asylum in the nineteenth century? What was its impact on the surrounding area?
This highly-illustrated talk may include a variety of significant episodes such as:
— the secret removal of "pauper lunatics" for anatomical dissection
— public outcry at the death of Daniel Dolley after "treatment" by freezing cold shower
— revelatory photographs of female patients, taken in the 1850s by Hugh Welch Diamond, now found in museums and art galleries around the world
— aeronauts who arrived and departed by gas-filled balloon
— the fate of cross-country runners lost in the grounds
— "A visit to Wandsworth Lunatic Asylum on a dark and gusty night" in 1880 to view a theatrical performance
— the home of "the nearest pigs to Piccadilly"
— reincarnation in WWI as the Springfield War Hospital for the treatment of soldiers suffering from shell shock.
SO many more stories still to tell. But that's all for now, folks.
If you would like to receive occasional notifications of new Chronicles, let me know.
This search box is not very consistent, but always worth a try:
Send me an email if you enjoyed this post, or want to comment on something you've seen or read on the site, or would like to know more —or just want to be kept in touch.
February 2024
Return to the top of this page . . .
