Then and now
The Hope Tavern then and now
A panel from Jennifer Penny's original U3L presentation in 2017.
[This image is a photocopy of an original. It would be good to scan a better copy.]
A panel from Jennifer Penny's original U3L presentation in 2017.
[This image is a photocopy of an original. It would be good to scan a better copy.]
[PB: I am very grateful to Wendy Leahy for colorising the original black-and-white postcard — the colours are unlikely to be accurate, of course.]
[Any idea what was being sold from the small hand-cart that appears in a number of views of the Hope? I can't make out the words. Clearly the cart was in a perfect position for people walking across the Common to and from the Station. I've seen photographs of small carts selling milk, toffee, and ice cream at this time — perhaps this was one? But if so, which?]
Notice on the right the iron fencing that appears on the edges of many [perhaps all?] parts of the Common at this time. Presumably these were intended to keep sheep in, and vehicles out. Also the substantial gas-lamp.
The scene seems very "respectable". People are smartly — and in some cases rather stylishly — dressed (e.g. the man with the straw boater and briefcase, left). Are the two women with the pram, left, nannies in uniform?
Notice a number of people waiting to mount the open-topped (horse-drawn?) omnibus in the centre. A strip up the side of the external staircase announces the destination as "TOOTING". Signs on the omnibus include NESTLES MILK [chocolate?] and JEYES [disinfectant, patented 1877] — both brands are still in existence today, which is unusual.
There are a number of "safety bicycles".
[PB: This image is scanned from a photocopy. It would be good to find a better version.
In the entablature at the top:
THE HOPE TAVERN
MEUX & Cos Genuine PORTER & Noted STOUT
Incidentally, there is a local connection. At this time, Meux's Horse Shoe brewery was in Tottenham Court Road, but it moved to Thorne Ltd's former brewery in Nine Elms, Battersea, in 1921. When this photograph was taken the owner of Thorne's Brewery, John Mills Thorne, was living only a few hundred yards away in Burntwood Lodge, at the top of Burntwood Lane.
[Detailed information and a splendid collection of images: Brewery History: Meux's Brewery Co. Ltd.]
The bold painted lettering above Millers Butchers [no.2] reads:
MILLER & SONS
BUTCHERS
WHOLESALE & RETAIL
CONTRACTORS
[to?] GOVERNMENT
[telegra]MS "OXGOAD, LONDON"
TELEPHONE 31, BALHAM [meaning?]
Query: Are the wheels pneumatic? Possibly not — they seem like narrow hard cartwheels, which were very laborious and inefficient for horses. Pneumatic tyres increased the comfort for passengers and brought down fares. The resulting increases passenger-numbers was associated with new houses being built and a great influx of people into the area. [Check info in Jerry White, London in the Nineteenth-Century.]
[Check e.g. Pneumatic tyres on buses, 1928.]
![](pc_bellevue_hope_snow_1908_1245px.jpg")
[PB: I think there is another, possibly better version of this image in the archive.]
Notice the no.49 buses. It was still the 49 here, and 19 along Trinity Road, at least until the 1980s when new bus numbers were introduced — the 349 replaced the no. 49, and 249 the no.19. When did that happen? I still can't get used to the new numbers.
Notice also the street-vendor's cart, in the same position even though decades have elapsed since the one seen the top of this page.
Here is St James's Drive . . .
Here is Althorp Road . . .
Here is Wiseton Road . . .
Here is Trinity Road . . .