A surprising journey round the world, starting a few days before Christmas 1877 at "The Beeches", on the edge of Wandsworth Common, where Edwin Wilson is writing a letter...
Here's a link to a recent post about the connection between Alice Through the Looking Glass, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes, and Wandsworth Common.
Email me if you want to comment on anything you've seen or read on the site, or would like to know more about something, or just want to be kept in touch.
Philip Boys
(HistoryBoys)
Uncovering the life and times of a remarkable mid-Victorian photographer who recorded daily life — in his family's leather works in Bermondsey, his family holidays, and his home on the edge of Wandsworth Common.
His most famous photographs include one of the very few images of the Craig Telescope, once the world's largest, erected on Wandsworth Common in the 1850s but demolished within a few years.
A fairly brief (20 mins) illustrated talk given via Zoom to the Wandsworth Historical Society.
On this site: View the Geoffrey Bevington video here.
Anyone interested in the Common simply must get a copy of this book — it's terrific.
Great praise is due to the editorial team (and others) who have done such an excellent job to make the book such a good read. It also looks superb — lots of lovely images and a very handsome and engaging design.
(In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit to a personal involvement. I was part of the part of the "Friends of Wandsworth Common Heritage Group" that conceived and developed the book, and many of the stories derive from the more detailed research I've been conducting over the years. I also wrote the Map section and a number of other bits.)
Here's where you can buy a copy ...
The Friends of Wandsworth Common: History Blog.
The Friends of Wandsworth Common: Talks [recorded via Zoom]
Watch again on the Friends of Wandsworth Common video page.
"The first part of the story about the fight to save Wandsworth Common in 1871. By local historian Philip Boys. A sequel to his earlier talk "What a Carve up" in March 2021."
"The Battle for Plough Green, April 1870: the second part of Philip Boys's tale about the suburban warfare and riots culminating in the Wandsworth Common Act of 1871. Possibly the most important 24 hours in the history of the Common."
Drone footage set to contemporary music.
A short video using drone footage shot by Chris Van Hayden with music by Richard Wagner, put together by me, Philip Boys. Great views of the former Crimean War-period orphanage for girls, and the nearby Fitzhugh estate.
A sequence of images set to contemporary music.
YouTube: The Three-Island Pond (Magic Lantern Show #2)
A second HistoryBoys virtual Magic Lantern Show. Scenes and closeups set to a contemporary soundtrack — from Debussy's Children's Corner, published 1908. The pond has been there from at least the eighteenth-century, and probably started life as disused gravel pit. The road alongside, once called Five Houses, is now Bolingbroke Grove.
A sequence of images set to contemporary music.
The lake on Wandsworth Common as seen in Edwardian postcards. My first attempt at making a virtual magic lantern show. The music is Claude Debussy, Clair de lune (published 1913) — roughly contemporary with the images.
Watch again on the Friends of Wandsworth Common Vimeo page.
I understand that a platform was eventually built on the side of the nearby railway to bring injured men into the building more speedily. But at this time, transfer seems to have been by ambulance, as shown.
The music, by the way, is contemporary with the image. Although now often identified with the Second World War (because it was used so memorably in David Lean's Bridge on the River Kwai), the"Colonel Bogey March" was written in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881-1945) (pen name Kenneth J. Alford), a British Army bandmaster who later became the director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth.
My very first Zoom talk — now on YouTube.
What links Wandsworth Common, a Woolly Mammoth, Gravel, the Northern Line, Thomas Cromwell, Endymion Porter, The Elephant and Castle, the Cottage Ornee, Fulham Football Club, Trafalgar Square, the world's largest telescope, Earl Spencer, quack medicines, Magdalen College, the Toast Rack, WWI funerals, and Graham Greene's phenomenal friend Phyllis Yvonne Betts?
Listen and you'll find out.
Send me an email if you want to comment on anything you've seen or read on the site, or would like to know more about something, or just want to be kept in touch.
Philip Boys ("HistoryBoys")