A mutiny which occurred at Upper Norwood library was among the historical gems revealed to members of Norwood Society’s local history group at their latest meeting.
Jerry Savage, the library’s reference and locaql history specialist, told how the first chief librarian William A Stobie was challenged for control of the library by his senior assistant George Churchill and two junior assistants George Stevens and George Allard.
Stobie was told his behaviour was being monitored and written records kept.
“Effectively they started to blackmail him and warn him that if he did not like the new regime they would go to Mr Jast, the chief librarian at Croydon”said Jerry – even though, strictly speaking, Jast did not have jurisdiction over the independent Upper Norwood library.
Stobie was accused of being overly strict – an accusation he rejected. “All I have done is to encourage them to be more industrious in their work” he said.
Jerry Savage told the meeting at the Phoenix centre, Westow street: “I suspect that Churchill was someone who would have been an awkward employee anywhere. Churchill had a total lack of interest in his work. What he did like to do was disappear off to the basement to read books like Moll Flanders.
“What I think is the clincher for me is that Stobie altered the staffing timetable so Churchill could have two-hour breaks to travel to Croydon and back for hot dinners which I think we can consider to be bending over backwards!”
Churchill and Stevens were sacked by the library’s joint committee – but allowed to work out their month’s notice.
Stobie – who had been chief librarian from the start, left shortly afterwards – possibly quite traumatised by events – to become chief cataloguer in the public library of South Australia in Adelaide. In the same year – 1906 – he was succeeded by Walter Henry Ransome from the Lambeth library service.
The other chief librarians have been Dorothy Owers (1925 – 1952) and the library’s first female librarian . A flamboyant and well-known figure in Upper Norwood she did a lot to expand the library, making it a place where lectures were held after the library had closed its doors for the night and a place where exhibitions were staged.
Owers had joined the library as an assistant in 1916 although there is some doubt she ever became a qualified librarian, he added.
The 1930s saw the opening of the children’s library by W C Berwick Sayers, chief librarian of Croydon for many years and author or co-author of two books on Croydon in the First and Second World wars. The guest speaker was A E W Mason, author of ‘The Four Feathers’.
Among the regular visitors to the library during this time were William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) who lived in Farquhar Road and actress Margaret Lockwood who borrowed ‘The Wheel Spins’ by Ethel Lina White – the book on which one of her best-known films ‘The Lady Vanishes’ was based.

During the Second World war the library basement also housed a 14 -strong team of fire watchers who worked on a rota made up of 117 people.
The other chief librarians have been Lawrance H Cuddy (1952 to 1977); Pat Scott, the second lady librarian (1978 – 1990) who was succeeded by her deputy Christopher Dobb (1990-2000) who standardised the library’s name as Upper Norwood joint library after noticing people giving the library various names and Bradley Millington (2001 – present).
The idea for the library began in 1895 when representatives from Croydon and Lambeth – then the Lambeth Vestry – met to discuss the possibility of setting up a library to serve the border area where the two boroughs met. The contract to build the library was awarded to Henry Leney, an Anerley builder.
Opened on July 4th 1900 it had a ground floor lending library with 8,500 volumes and a newsroom. The first floor was left unused until 1903 when the reference library was established.

Palace Mag Jan 07

By Jerry Green

The Photodrome c. 1922

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away – well actually it was Crystal Palace in the 1930s…

Back then the area had four cinemas – and not a lot of people know that.

The area’s first cinema was the Photodrome, which opened around 1909. Situated off Ranger Road – now Jasper Road – it would later become the premises of the Jacatex mail order company and the Crystal Palace snooker and social club before being demolished and replaced by housing.

The building began life as a swimming pool – a lease having been granted for the land to the Norwood public hall and baths company in January 1887 – before being covered over with a false floor. It reopened as the Electra in September 1909 with 500 seats and room for 200 standing.

In 1912 a new entrance for the cinemas was created through a former hosiery shop at 63 Westow Hill. In April 1913 the lease of the cinema was assigned to Tom Naylor of the Norwood public house, Ranger Road, the cinema “having been used as the Electric Picture Palace.”

The cinema had changed its name from the Electric to the Palladium by 1921 before closing in 1933. It reopened in November 1935 but in less than a year had closed forever. Insurance documents of February 1933 for the building refer to dressing rooms, studio and set making and stipulate “scrap cinematograph film to be collected at frequent intervals each day and placed in a metal receptacle with the words: film waste.”

A lease dated June 1937 shows the building being leased to the Religious Film Society, which was founded, by Joseph Arthur Rank of Heathfield, Reigate Heath, and Surrey. The lease excluded the premises at 63 Westow Hill which in 2005 closed its doors as a launderette after more than 50 years.

Rank, a devout Christian, had produced a religious film called The Turn of the Tide (1935), which failed to get general distribution. Rank eventually became a cinema magnate in his own right.

The second cinema to open was in the Crystal Palace itself. Little is known about the cinema but it would inspire one young girl who lived locally to become an actress. Margaret Lockwood lived at 2 Lunham Road and later at 18a Highland Road. Her two aunts lived at 30 Highland Road where one source says she also lived at a later date.

She recalled going to the cinema in the grounds of the Palace where she was inspired by Betty Bronson – a leading lady of the 1920s who did not succeed in talkies – in the film of Peter Pan (1924) which the young Margaret managed to watch every night for a week.

Allen Eyles and Keith Skone in their book ‘The Cinemas of Croydon’ record that a grand bioscope and gramophone entertainment was being offered as one of the sideshows in the Palace by August 1910 with no admission fee.

On Saturday September 19, 1925 the Norwood Press and Dulwich Advertiser reported: “On Monday week the cinema will be reopened when the West End Scala Theatres success The Epic of Everest will be shown”. New seating, carpeting and heating apparatus has been installed for the comfort of patrons and popular prices including admission to the Palace will be charged.

The cinema must have closed again because the programme for the 22nd annual band contest held at the Crystal Palace on September 24 1927 announces that: ”The Picture House Crystal Palace will be re-opened on Monday October 3rd with the screen sensation of the age – Metropolis.”

The programme for the same event the following year – held on September 29, 1928 – has the cinema screening Pola Negri in The Secret Hour and Horseman of the Plains starring Tom Mix. The band contest programmes are held in the local studies library at Bromley. There is no programme available for 1929. No advertisement for the cinema appears in the 1930 programme.

The exact location of the cinema in the Palace is a bit of a mystery. It may have been in the Palace’s Variety theatre. The 1911 auction catalogue for the Crystal Palace states the theatre has an iron lined cinematograph box with shutters.

The area’s third cinema – the Rialto – opened on Saturday October 6, 1928 with Ramona starring Dolores Del Rio. Anna May Wong and John Stuart were guests at the opening night where Miss Wong addressed the crowds with a few words of Chinese.

An Australian, A C Matthews, built both the Rialto and the neighbouring Albany cinema. He also built the State cinemas in Sydenham and Thornton Heath. In September 1950 the Rialto was renamed the Granada.

The Albany opened in January 1930 being built on derelict land in just 15 weeks. The opening attraction was The Glad Rag Doll starring Dolores Costello, and High Society starring Laura La Plante.

On the outbreak of World War Two the cinema was closed and requisitioned as a Government food store. Released in January 1948 it reopened as a cinema that October before being acquired by the Granada group. Closed for reconstruction it reopened its doors on Boxing Day 1950 as the Century.

The century closed for a ‘rest period’ on May 30 1958. It never reopened. In March 1960 the Norwood News reported the opening of Selhurst Park Garages new showrooms in the former cinema.

The Granada was the last to close, shutting its doors on Saturday May 26, 1968; its final screening was Reflections in a Golden Eye supported by Assignment to Kill.

Sources:

The Crystal Palace Sydenham to be sold by auction. (Knight Frank and Rutley 1911).*

The Cinemas of Croydon by Allen Eyles and Keith Skone (Keystone Publications in association with Croydon public libraries 1989)*

Focus on Film No. 6 Spring 1971 article on The Cinemas of Norwood by Allen Eyles assisted by Kevin Wheelan*

Once a Wicked Lady a biography of Margaret Lockwood by Hilton Tims (Virgin Books London 1989)*

Lucky Star the autobiography of Margaret Lockwood (Odhams Press London 1955)*

The Dictionary of National Biography 1971-1980 (Oxford University Press 1986)*

Halliwell’s Filmgoers Companion 12th edition edited by John Walker (Harper Collins London 1997)*

Minet library, Brixton, archives

Thanks to Jerry Savage at Upper Norwood reference library for his help in providing information towards this article.

*All items marked with an asterisk may be found in Upper Norwood’s reference library

Photodrome picture courtesy of Croydon Local Studies Library & Archives Service, Central Library, Katharine Street, Croydon

The Crystal Palace Fire

The Crystal Palace at Sydenham was destroyed by fire on 30 Nov 1936,  The “people’s palace” which had stood dominating the skyline of Upper Norwood for over eighty years as a beacon for culture and enlightenment and an emblem for Victorian invention and engineering was no more.

“A dramatic cliff of glass which had the quality of changing its colour with the changing of the weather or the time of day”, was how Alan R Warwick described Crystal Palace in The Phoenix Suburb. This otherworldly structure not only awed the local inhabitants of Norwood but also captured the imagination of the general population. Famous throughout the UK and visited by millions.

The “Crystal Palace”, as Punch dubbed it, was originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Hyde Park. It was the brainchild of Joseph Paxton, Head Gardener to the Duke of Devonshire who had a passion for building giant conservatories, which he constructed on the grandest scale. It housed art and craft treasures from all over the world and the best of the Industrial Revolution’s new technology.

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Open for only five months, it attracted 6 million visitors. Due to the great success of the exhibition, a newly formed Crystal Palace Company purchased the Palace and it was dismantled and re-erected at a new permanent location on the crest of Sydenham Hill, alongside what was to later become Crystal Palace Parade. Queen Victoria reopened it here on June 10th 1854.

In 1866 a fire destroyed the north wing and transept. As the Crystal Palace Company was underinsured the north transept was never rebuilt and the building was unsymmetrical from then on. The night the Palace burnt down was a more spectacular event than could ever have been dreamt up by the Palace trustees. The irony was not lost on them or many of the national newspapers. The Palace’s swansong brought the largest crowd ever to assemble at the top of Anerley Hill. The event was deeply ingrained on the memories of Londoners with crowds thronging to investigate the red glowing sky and witness the collapse of their “Palace”.

At approximately 7.25 pm on 30th November 1936 a staff fireman noticed a flame at the rear of the staff offices. Three staff firemen began fighting it but with no dividing walls to resist it and fanned by a strong northwest wind the fire spread rapidly. The Palace had been almost empty at the time apart from the Crystal Palace Orchestra rehearsing in the nearby Garden Hall. BH Matthews later said that the band didn’t take much notice when told there was a fire in the Palace. They soon fled after a staff member ran in crying, “Run for your lives! The Palace is blazing!” Thick smoke was by then bellowing out of the main door and glass was raining down “like red hot treacle”, according to Dorothy Crump of Sydenham.

Crystal Palace on Fire At 7:59 the Penge Brigade received the call and got reinforcements from Beckenham Fire Brigade. West Norwood Fire Station received a street alarm call from Farquhar Road at 8.00pm and New Cross Fire Station received a call at 8.02pm. The call to West Norwood brought the whole of the London Fire Brigade into action.

The crowd of spectators gathering around the Crystal Palace soon grew to enormous proportions. The police estimated 100,000 people watched the fire. This caused inevitable delays. Seven hundred and forty-nine police were kept busy controlling the milling crowds. The BBC Radio News contained the first reports of the fire at 9 o’clock. This had brought many people rushing to the scene. Others had seen the glare of the fire, which lit up the sky like an exaggerated sunset and were mesmerised.

The whole of the Crystal Palace area was ankle deep in inter-woven fire hoses, and within an hour of the arrival of the first Penge fireman, over 70 pumps and other appliances crewed by over 400 fire-fighters were at work. Every available fire appliance from the London Fire Brigade had been summoned, totalling 90 engines and 500 firemen. According to some reports, the flames reached 300 feet. The glare could be seen from Brighton and by ships on the English Channel. Hills for miles around were packed with people watching the blaze. The rich could charter private aeroplanes from Croydon Aerodrome at £1 per trip to get a spectacular view over the fire. Motorcars were also arriving from the West End filled with the more well heeled who had finished watching the evening performances at the London shows.

The fire raged until midnight. Of serious concern to the residents of Anerley Hill was the safety of the 275-foot south tower. Not only did it have vast densely populated streets in its shadow but also the top of the tower held approximately twelve thousand gallons of water. Residents of nearby homes were evacuated in fear of it collapsing. Luckily, the London Fire Brigade managed to stop the fire some 15 feet from the tower.

The next day all that remained were the two water towers blackened with smoke and a few hundred feet of the nave to the north. About two hundred of seven hundred Palace employees received their notice the morning after the fire. Some were re-employed to clear the debris. Six years later the towers were demolished as they were thought to be an easy navigation point for German bombers. Explosives felled the North Tower and the South Tower was dismantled brick by brick due to the proximity to housing. Metal from the towers was sold off to the German manufacturers Krupp who later became involved with making bombs for the German war-machine. Therefore, some of the metal from the Palace may well have returned during the war!

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Although there were a number of conspiracy theories as to the cause of the fire, the most logical seems to be explained as an electrical fault. The floor of the structure was made up of thick planks of wood with half-inch gaps to aid under floor heating. The floorboards themselves were extremely dry due to the constant exposure to the under floor heating. Many people felt that the poorly insulated wiring short-circuiting and creating sparks that fell onto the dry timber framing and accumulated dust in the centre of the building could have been the cause of the fire breaking out.

Thus the largest peacetime fire Britain had ever seen signalled the end for Paxton’s Palace.

Whatever happens with the current development of the Park we will never quite see the scale and grandeur of what went before.

Palace Mag Dec 2007

In July 1944 two of Hitler’s V1 rockets hit Upper Norwood. The first rocket killed eight people, fatally injuring another five and demolishing houses in Palace Square and Belvedere Road, when it landed at 5.58pm on July 10th 1944. The second, which came just over 24 hours later at 6.10 pm on July 11th, killed 12 people, fatally injured one other person and and demolished a huge swathe of houses on Anerley Hill and neighbouring side streets.

Those who died in the July 10 blast were:

Edith Lavinia Aldred aged 60 of 53 Belvedere Road

Valerie Roythorne (Raythorne)* aged nine of 19 Palace Square

Patricia Stenhouse (Stinhouse) aged nine of 19 Palace Square

George Stenhouse (Stinhouse) aged 42 same address

Kate Simms (Sims) aged 75 of 53 Belvedere Road

Annie Marshment aged 63 of 70 Whiteley Road SE 19 who died at 57 Belvedere Road

Frances Wixey aged 35 of 13 Palace Square

Her mother Kate Julia Wixey aged 67 of 13 Palace Square.

Alice Violet Dunn (Quinn), aged 52 of 57 Belvedere Road died in Beckenham hospital that night.

Her husband Charles Dunn (Quinn) aged 69, same address, died in Beckenham hospital the following day as did Ivy Irene Winn aged 24 of 13 Palace Square and Robert Leslie Childs aged 25 of 32 Belvedere Road SE19. Mrs Elizabeth S Lorimer aged 74 of 53 Belvedere Road died in the County hospital Farnborough on July 26th. 14 other people were taken to hospital – 12 to Beckenham, 2 to Mayday.

The first aid post at St Paul’s, Hadlow Place dealt with 35 injured including 10 from Belvedere Road, 11 from Palace Square and 4 from Cintra Park. The Ashfield Road clinic first aid post SE 20 dealt with five people injured from Palace Square. Numbers 9 to 19 Palace Square and 51 – 53 Belvedere Road were demolished in the blast.

In the July 11 blast those who died were:

Eric John Dove aged 11 of 66 Anerley Road

Private George Still RASC aged 38 from Charsfield, Suffolk, living in Selsdon at the time

Elsie Maud Davies aged 44 of 9 St John’s Grove, Croydon

Charles Norton Dale aged 60 of 257 Croxted Road SE21 died at 4 Crystal Palace Station Road

Lily Elsie Smith aged 32 of 32 Belvedere Road SE19

George Robertson Carns (Cairns)* aged 69 of 35 Palace Road SE19

Kathleen Fanny Elizabeth Coppin aged 40 of 5 Seymour Villas

Frances Jean Bradley aged 24 of 68 Eden Road, Elmers End

Maurice John Stedman, aged 13 of 17 Anerley Vale

William Henry King aged 57 of 43 Palace Road (initially unidentified)

George Stephen Smith aged 14 of 67 St Hugh’s Road SE20 who was found on July 21st

James Foster aged 64 of 8 Thicket Road who was found on July 26.

Mrs Emily Collins aged 78 of 13 Anerley Vale, died in the County hospital, Farnborough on September 4.

St Paul’s first aid post dealt with 35 injured people including 8 from Palace Road, 3 from Crystal Palace Station Road, 2 from Hadlow Place and a soldier named Charles Gully, aged 43, who gave his address as c/o petrol dump, Crystal Palace. Ashfield Road dealt with 8 injured people including 3 from Palace Road and 2 from Brunswick Place.

Numbers 54 to 70 Anerley Road, 1 to 13 Anerley Road and 1 Crystal Palace Station Road were demolished in the blast. A public shelter (location unspecified) was damaged. A 20 page booklet ‘The Battle of South London’ by Arthur L Woolf published by Crystal Publications says a bus had just moved away from its stop shortly before the VI landed. Otherwise casualties would have been far worse.

*The names of Valerie Roythorne and George Carns are taken from John Hook’s book (see below). For the purposes of this article I have used the spellings and ages listed on the CWGC website. Names in brackets are the spellings in the Civil Defence records.

Sources:

Handwritten records of Penge Urban District air raid casualties moved direct to hospital (no details listed 16 April 1941 to 25 March 1944)

Handwritten records of St Paul’s first aid post Hadlow Place SE19 (no details listed between 24 October 1940 and 18 June 1944). Both available on request

Books:

The Beating of his Wings – The Air Raids on the County Borough of Bromley 1940-45 by John Hook based on Bromley Local Studies Library Archives.

Civilian War Dead. Imperial War Graves Commission London 1954.

A truncated version of the Kent section covering the Urban District of Penge, the Urban District of Orpington; the Urban District of Chislehurst and Sidcup; the Municipal Borough of Beckenham and the Municipal Borough of Bromley (available Bromley Local Studies Library).

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website lists civilian dead. Go to www.cwgc.org

For further information on VI attacks in south London go to www.flyingbombsandrockets.com

Photographs reprinted by permission of Everitt Photography, Oxted, Surrey.

Thanks to staff at Bromley local studies library for their help in compiling this article.

Palace Mag Jan 08

View of Church Road 1904. The gate on the right has now been replaced by Nightingale Court. From John Coulter’s Norwood in Old Photographs

In his book ‘The Great North Wood’ J Corbet Anderson says that no old church or ancient building of any kind has been found within the wide area known by the general denomination of Norwood.  Alan Warwick, author of ‘The Phoenix Suburb’ says in a smaller work of his: “The truth is that Norwood has no real history before the beginning of the 19th century.” A map of the 1800 Enclosure Act for the borough of Croydon shows the area we now know as the Triangle as just common with the exception of two buildings on or near to the site now occupied by the Holly Bush pub on the corner of today’s Westow Hill and Westow Street.

In the 1850s two individuals moved into the area that would, much later, recall their early days in Norwood. Mrs. Elizabeth Louisa Dee published her ‘Memories of Norwood since 1852’ around 1909. Mr. William Farmer, editor and proprietor of the Norwood Review started his recollections in 1888 in an occasional column in the Review entitled ‘Bygone days in Norwood’.

ANERLEY HILL Mrs. Dee recalls how from Anerley station – at that time the only rail station in Norwood – there was nothing on the right hand side up Anerley Road but rough ground and fields from the station and Anerley Gardens until one reached the White Swan. On the left there were only fields until one reached Anerley schools then the wooded slope all the way up to the top of Anerley Hill until, on the site of the Cambridge hotel, stood the large iron gates of Aubin’s school which extended to and included St Aubyn’s Road right down to Stoney Buildings.

CHURCH ROAD TO ALL SAINTS CHURCH Aubin’s school had been founded by Frederick Aubin and his mother who first took charge of six boys. By 1852 Mrs. Dee, whose father-in-law worked there, recalled: “Many boys were employed there in the cultivation of vegetables for their own consumption, others were taught by competent workmen to make their own clothes or boots whilst others were taught the trades of painters and glaziers. “Everything that it was possible for the boys to do for themselves they did here but, the ground becoming very valuable later in consequence of the building of the Crystal Palace, the school was transferred to a farm at Acton, near Hanwell, my then father-in-law and his fellow employees going with the boys.”

After Stoney Buildings there were three or four very old cottages, which only had a ground floor with very long gardens. “They were very straggling and only wooden houses painted or tarred but of the houses themselves not much was to be seen on account of the lovely creepers and ivy. Next to them was the White Hart pub.” The tea gardens of the White Hart were on the other side to the left where Mr. Farmer kept a bookshop now W H Smith and Sons. The gardens were very beautiful. The signpost stood in the middle of the road capped with a large board with a white hart painted on it.

On the other side of Church Road from the top of Anerley Hill were “about three houses in the valley, almost hidden by trees then Mr. Edward’s nursery and shop. Mrs. Edwards was a Miss Sheldrick, daughter of our landlord and a friend of mine. It is now Mr. Walter Taylor, florist. At that time all rough ground extended to the top of Belvedere Road where some houses built like almshouses and called Spring Grove were situated. Some still remain.”

Mrs. Dee tells her readers she will not attempt to describe the main Church Road but will point out a few familiar spots: “Amongst the houses standing in their own grounds were Rose Cottage, then two at the corner of Fox Lane which have been brought out and enlarged with different windows. These were also Mr. Sheldrick’s, standing quite in fields then.  The next one I remember quite well was a four roomed cottage, very large rooms but only a ground floor, with what they called a lean to, a kind of out-house attached to the house at one end with a loft over it. The front of the house was covered with a most beautiful fuchsia which, when it was in bloom was so attractive that everyone stopped to admire it. It had two windows on either side of the street door.” There was also a very large garden growing both fruit and vegetables, she recalled. “The house…stood where Newport Villa now is, but not so near the road. Another house I remember was the one before you reached the Queen’s hotel (not built then), falling right back from the road. By the side of this gate was this inscription: Street, Sharp and Hetley, Dr Frederick Hetley.”

(ITALICS: William Farmer recalled the industrial school, then a row of little white cottages; Stoney buildings; a large detached house called Woodside then occupied by Mrs. Forsteen and afterwards by the Rev H Nelthropp and two wooden cottages next to the White Hart. A butcher’s shop on the corner of Westow Street and Church Road was kept by Mr. Rogers and next to it Rutland Cottage “a pretty country-looking building with creepers growing up the walls and palings and trees in front” which belonged to a Mr. and Mrs. Turner who let furnished lodgings and were “a rather peculiar couple given to quarrelling and fighting.” Between Rutland Cottage and the Queen’s hotel most of the present houses were there with the exception…of Silverton, Windermere, Argyle and Beaufort Lodges. The house immediately preceding the hotel known as The Cottage was a very pretty place with well-kept gardens and an abundance of foliage about it. There Dr F Hetley then resided with his mother, a dear old lady beloved by everyone. The Queen’s hotel, though not so nearly as large as now, was a most imposing building effectively arranged in three sections and commanding extensive views of open country back and front. Beyond the hotel came two or three detached villas and a little wooden cottage afterwards occupied by Mr. F Heron, late of the Crystal Palace.” Between there and All Saints church were the fields. William Farmer recalled the footpath, which was closed during haymaking time. “These fields were very popular with the numerous visitors and invalids who came to Norwood as also with the residents and on fine days many persons might be seen sitting about reading or doing needlework while the children played about, gaining health and vigour from the refreshing breeze. A footpath led to Beulah Hill passing a row of little thatched cottages and coming out nearly opposite Leather Bottle Lane. At the exit stood a baker’s shop kept by Mr. Wright, father of the builder now residing on the same spot.”

On the other side of Church Road he recalled that from the Crystal Palace hotel to Belvedere Road was a house called Cintra, occupied by a solicitor named Elmslie; “a house in which Dr Haughton lives; Swiss Villa now a florists; the other angle of the almshouses (now shops) with rails and garden in front; Izod the chemist and the Alma Tavern.” There were only two houses between Beaulieu, the residence of the late Mr. Welch; and Fox Lane. The old white house known as The Grove still remains as does also the other, the vicarage. The latter has yet the same occupier The Rev J Watson. Where the row of stately mansions now stands there was then only the fields and meadows attached to The Grove. There was one other residence, a little cottage just opposite the Queen’s hotel occupied by a plumber named Vinal. At the top of Fox Lane where Dr Hetley’s house now stands there was a one-storey rambling old house inhabited by a Mr. Gittings and his son. It lay behind a high fence and little of it could be seen except the roof. Two or three villas had just been built below this and then all was open fields and hedges till you reached the bottom of the hill where was Hayes farm, better known as Ruskin’s farm from the name of the occupier – a wooden house in which Mrs. Apted and her daughters lived and worked, and still occupied by some of the family and a nursery garden kept by Mr. Fox after whose ancestor the lane was named. Opposite the house of the Apted’s was Thorn Cottage, a rural dwelling, picturesque and interesting, as the occupiers were wont to keep numerous domestic pets. In this cottage for some time there resided a Mr. Strange, an enterprising London publisher, who obtained the right to cater for the workmen when the Crystal Palace was building. He was allowed to erect large temporary premises in the grounds in which he provided meals for the workmen of various nationalities.” END ITALICS

Mrs. Dee recalled: “The vicarage, now slightly altered, was on the other side of the road. Crossing the road again to church fields now called Upper Beulah Hill at this end there was an old waggon wheel meant for a stile. It was a short cut to avoid passing round the church to Beulah Hill. I remember quite well the beacon fires being lighted in the church fields when peace was proclaimed after the Crimean war.” Across the footpath and turning to the right “we reach in a very few moments, on the right hand side of the road, a few cottages. The first one, built out to the path with a half circular window…all the front doors faced the church with nothing but fields between them. They had long gardens with only a path between each garden to divide them, looking like allotment grounds, for vegetables were chiefly grown on them. All the houses had creeper up the front and a small flowerbed close to the house. The first one had a few apples, nuts, sugar sticks and bull’s-eyes in the window, and was occupied by a woman the name of Dyke. A little farther away there were three more cottages with the fronts to the road all built with a ground floor only, and detached, each with a lot of ground at the back. The last had a fairly large shed built away from the house and, plainly seen from the road, was a dairy kept by Mrs. Matthews who sold butter and milk, eggs, pork (fresh or salt), lard and almost any kind of vegetables and fruit in its season. Mr. Matthews had been the driver of the ‘bus from Lower Norwood to London for 40 years. He was an old man when I first knew him and his son, who lived a few doors off, took his place as driver. The old man attended to his garden, killed his pigs and was always ready for a chat while you waited to get your greens cut, your potatoes dug, parsley or mint gathered etc.

“A little further on was a baker’s kept by a Mr. Wright, then the Beulah Retreat, a funny little straggling cottage…All on one floor it was kept as a beerhouse by Mr. Isaac Smith who afterwards kept the Eagle public house in New Town when the Beulah Spa Tap was finished and opened by Mr. Preddy.” Next to the Retreat was the ‘Rectangle’ and only a little way down from it was Mr. Day’s forge and blacksmith shop and a very pretty old cottage where he lived almost behind the Beulah Retreat, close to Harold Road.

“Now we will cross the road and stand at the top of Leather Bottle Lane. The view then in 1852 was most glorious. Looking over the few scattered houses to the left and right nothing was to be seen but cornfields and when the sun was shining on them they were so beautiful. On the left was the Beulah Spa. I never went into the grounds until 1858. Then I lived in the first cottage with two floors. The top house built with bricks was occupied by John Tanner, gentleman (as he was always called). This was one of two storeys. Then there was the one house in the middle of the garden with only a ground floor, next two houses attached adjoined by one unattached. They were all wooden houses painted black or else tarred, then two brick cottages. The one that I lived in was known together with the rest as Martin’s Cottages. Mr. Martin (our landlord) lived next door in a double fronted house with steps leading to the front door. He was also conductor of the ‘bus from Norwood to London. There were a few more brick houses but very much scattered and the Old Leather Bottle beer shop. Opposite where I lived in Leather Bottle Lane there were two houses not facing the road but looking down the lane. When I lived there we used to get over a ditch at the bottom of our garden into the Spa grounds, which at that time were all in ruins. The beautiful rosary running wild, the camera table (part of which I have in my possession) was falling to pieces. My husband Thomas took a piece of it, polished it, then drew the outline of Sir Charles Napier’s bust from a picture published in Bow Bells.

“To return to Beulah Hill I cannot attempt to describe it minutely as I have some parts of it. There were not many houses to be seen. They all stood in their own grounds mostly hidden by hedges and trees. Some little distance past Harold Road we come to a very quaint shop where almost anything you wanted was sold. It had a lot of outbuildings and was occupied by Mr. Howard the Norwood Carrier. Now cross the road a little obliquely and you come to two houses built out to the path with large bow windows at the corner, leading to Mr. Pringle’s nursery, then the Crown pond and on the other side of the road at the top of Crown Hill there was a shop kept by Mr. Rose who I understand was one of the oldest residents in Norwood and brought the first Mrs. Rose there, a bride on horseback, sitting on a pillion in front of the bridegroom through the Great North Wood to her home on top of Crown Hill.

(William Farmer, in another Bygone Days in Norwood column, recalled: “Continuing from Mr. Wright’s shop only two houses broke the line of fields to Crown Hill. One the cottage and stabling of Mr. Howard, the famous Norwood carrier, the other a cottage in a fruit garden where strawberries and other fruit might be bought and eaten in rustic arbours. Howard, with another carrier called Keen who resided in Westow Street, were then our principal means of our getting down the various supplies from London. Nearly opposite the baker’s was the Beulah Spa hotel that, after various vicissitudes, had hydropathic appliances connected to it by Mr. Sowter who for many years carried it on successfully as a hotel and hydropathic establishment. Close by is Westwood, now the reference of the Rev C H Spurgeon. It was formerly known as Beaumont and prior to that Beulah Spa Villa. On the other side of Beulah Hill “there were then, as now, a number of old houses with ample grounds and gardens. Perhaps the most interesting of these is The Priory, then occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and their daughter… At the time of which I am speaking none of the houses in Grange Road were built, the road itself being a semi-private one, entered by large old gates. On Grange Hill there were three houses and an entrance to the servant’s department of Admiral Carey’s mansion. The corner house facing Thornton Heath and commanding a lovely view of the valley and hills beyond was a young gentlemen’s school kept by the Misses Fletcher who afterwards removed their pupils to Brighton. The next house was occupied by a family called Nugent. The only other house was a wooden structure at the bottom of a garden, abutting close upon the servant’s apartments of Admiral Carey, the residence of a Mr. Morrison…who refused many offers of Admiral Carey to buy the place).

CROWN HILL TO GIPSY HILL

Mrs. Dee told her readers of the trip down Crown Hill. On the right hand side down to the junction of Elder Road “there was nothing but fields and woods to the Convent which was a very different building to what it is today. The other side there were a few houses falling back in their own grounds, then a row of very poor looking cottages, very much in want of repair. Two of them had nearly all the windows broken and of course they were called ‘haunted houses’.

After the convent wood there was one large field called Billy Wood’s field, four cottages until you reached the corner of Oxford Road then Bernard Villa in which a Mrs. Clarke lived where at the time of Mrs. Dee’s book three houses occupied the same ground. There were no houses then until one reached the Lion, the landlord of which was a Mr. Bond. Built by Mr. Masters who also built the Crystal Palace hotel at the corner of Church Road. The site of Essex Grove and Rockmount Road were then fields. Then came Essex Lodge “now altered into two houses, then occupied by Mr. Truscott, where we got milk before nine in the morning at one penny per quart.” More fields until one reached two cottages called Central Hill cottages “which have been enlarged but are not much different in appearance abut upon a narrow lane through which cows were driven down to their sheds.” Then came Effingham Lodge “much the same except for the absence of a very large tree which nearly hid the house from view”, Franklin Cottage was the property of Mr. Franklin who had a little shop with a high window adjoined where he used to sit mending boots and shoes “a typical cobbler, very little, thin and bent, with spectacles and leather apron fringed at the corners.” Then came a field “which is now Harold Road” two houses called 1 and 2 Rushmore, Central Hill Lodge “just the same now as then”, a young ladies seminary “that is not altered at all”, Rose Cottage, Cedar Cottage and then, on the corner of South Vale, a large high flat looking house including coach house, stables and garden. This “barn of a place” was pulled down and three houses built in its place, a ball being held in the original building the night before its demolition commenced. “Two lodges marked the commencement and end of the frontage of Scotland House now 23 Central Hill; to the other corner of South Vale. Then came the Baptist chapel and two houses owned by Mr. Bligh “Not much altered now, excepting the top storey has been made higher”, Mount Pleasant – “did not look very pleasant with high brick walls and a large iron gate always kept locked”; some very rustic cottages with lattice porches only one storey high; the Mission Room and then, on the corner of Westow Street, was a chemist shop owned by Mr. Ravis “with a long garden in front and a low wooden fence all round a gate at the corner with a path leading to the front door, the gardens each side being distinctly triangular. The shop itself had two very high bay windows, one in Westow Street, the other in Central Hill.”

Up the other side of Central Hill from Elder Road were the strawberry gardens at the end of Elder Road. After passing Salters Hill there was Bloomfield Hall, the residence of Mr. Joseph Tritton now that of Sir Ernest Tritton his son; Ainsworth’s school for young gentlemen (afterwards Pope’s) at the corner of Angels Lane, now Roman Road then open common right up to the top of Gipsy Hill.

ITALICS William Farmer recalled that between Salter’s Hill and Gipsy Hill there were Bloomfield, Mr. Pope’s school and Kilburn Villa. An anonymous correspondent of Mr. farmer’s said that some 60 years previously – around 1828 – Salter’s Hill had been known as Hamilton’s Hill after the family which had occupied Bloomfield before the Trittons lived there. END ITALICS

Sources: The Great North Wood by J Corbet Anderson (printed for the subscribers 1898); Some Glimpses of Norwood by Alan Warwick (Norwood Society 1961); Memories of Norwood since 1852 by Elizabeth Louisa Dee; Bygone Days in Norwood folder. All four items are available on request from Upper Norwood reference library. Thanks to Jerry Savage of UNRL for his help.

(Note: In 2008 Leather Bottle Lane is now Spa Hill, Fox Lane is now Fox Hill.) To be continued…

Palace Magazine Mar 08

In last month’s article we referred to Mrs Elizabeth Louisa Dee’s recollections taken from her book ‘Memories of Norwood since 1852’ which was published around 1909 along with those of William Farmer, editor of the Norwood Review whose column ‘Bygone Days in Norwood’ also recalled times gone by. Part one took readers up Anerley Hill, along Church Road to All Saints church, then from Upper Beulah Hill to Crown Hill and then down Crown Hill and up Central Hill to its junction with Gipsy Hill and Westow Street,  Mrs Dee’s reminiscences included the opposite corner of Westow Street to the Holly Bush where “a chemists kept by a Mr Ravis with a long garden in front and a low wooden fence all round a gate at the corner with a path leading to the front door, the gardens each side being distinctly triangular. The shop had two very high bay windows, one in Westow Street, the other in Central Hill.

WESTOW STREET

Mrs Dee described Westow Street as “a very straggling street with cottages and shops all mixed up together”. Next to the chemist “was a corn chandlers occupied by Mr Haynes, afterwards Constables, with a notice board that round the turning at the side cabs were on hire, then Mr Wheeler’s forge, Mr Clewlow’s boot shop; Miss Watson, draper andf Mrs Grist, grocer. This was a double-fronted shop with high windows which brought one to several fair-sized houses since converted into shops. A draper’s occupied by Mr Harris, then Mr Deacon, still later Mr Alexander and is now the large establishment of Messrs Evans and Williams which in the early times was adjoined by Miss Smith’s school and Mr Weller the undertaker’s brought us to The Mount.”

The Mount was the residence of Mr Sinclair. It had previously been the residence of Sir George Sinclair and later Lady Exeter and was now the “beautiful premises” of the Royal Normal College for the Blind. Mr Rogers butcher’s shop, Mr Cooper’s greenhouse and a very tall brick house “only recently demolished” completed this side of Westow Street.

WESTOW STREET (The White Hart to the Holly Bush)

“Opposite Mr Rogers’ shop was the White Hart, a very old-fashioned bow window wooden public house with chains and posts all round. Then Mr Beck, builder; also a large wooden house similar to the White Hart (only with flat windows) two storeys high, double fronted, standing a long way back with a beautiful lawn on either side of the path to the street door. A decorator’s kept by Mrs Clark adjoined and here my husband first worked in Norwood. It was afterwards Mr Woodward’s then Poole’s. Next door to this Miss Clark kept a young ladies school. The postman, Mr Young, had a stationers and newsagents shop adjoining, then Mr Jinks a builders brought us to several cottages standing right back in long gardens. In one of these Mr Martin sold milk, in another Mrs Fisher carried on dressmaking whilst Mrs Todd kept a young ladies school in another and here I taught the scholars music. then we reached Mr Warren, butcher, afterwards kept by Mr Carberry; next a funny little shop with a pump in the corner near the window kept by Mr Oakes, baker and parish beadle. At this time and for many years afterwards he was attached in his official capacity to All Saints church, and opened the carriage doors on the occasion of the marriage of one of my daughters in 1883.”

In his ‘Bygone Days in Norwood’ column in the Norwood Review Mr Farmer recalled how there was a corn merchants opposite the Holly Bush, then Wheeler’s village smithy “where the children watched the sparks fly and saw the horses shod. Some cottages and small shops with a more pretentious row of villas, completed that side up to what is now the Royal Normal College but was then the private residence of Mr Tyre. It stood back from the road with a hedge along the front and two gates for the entry and exit of carriages. The house afterwards became the residence of Mr (now Sir) Tollemache Sinclair of Caithness who built the long wall and enlarged the house, adding the tower and other parts. On the other side of the road was Mr Buck’s wooden house. Then came Mayhew Cottage, also a wooden structure having a large garden and then occupied by a Mr Hansford who contracted for the waiting rooms at the Crystal Palace and afterwrds became landlord of the Swan. “Part of this place (1888) is now used by Mr Prince for his dog hospital. Mr Young, quite a character in his time…but now its chief newsagent and stationer occupied the next premises which afterwards were taken by Mr Pringle and upon the site of which his present shops were built. One or two other shops followed and then came a row of little cottages with gardens and pumps in front – very primitive structures indeed. Then followed a few little shops two of which were bakers – Halley and Oaks.

WESTOW HILL (to the White Swan)

On reaching Westow Hill from her home “in what is now Oxford Road” Mrs Dee recalled a few shops standing back known as Otway Terrace. “The first was a linen drapers with a long, low flat window kept by a Mrs Burningham and presenting a very different appearance to Mr Leighton’s which now occupies the site. The second was a grocer’s occupied by Mrs Almonier and next, approached by two or three steps, a double-fronted shop in which Mr Carr of Leadenhall market carried on the business of a poulterer’s and pork butchers. “Then followed about three more shops, the exact occupation of which is not in my memory. Frogget’s Cottages, the Queens Arms (now Holborn Bars), a barber’s shop whose proprietor rejoiced in the name of Godbehere which, with a few scattered houses, brought us to the picturesque White Swan which stood back well off the road with seats in front and here, later, during the construction of the Crystal Palace often as many as 200 men, principally ground workers, took their meals al fresco.”

WESTOW HILL (Holly Bush to the Cambridge)

The Holly Bush stood back from the road (its front door was in Westow Street) with a latch to press down like an ordinary back door fastener. “The entrance was so low my father had to stoop down to get in the door. There were a few funny settles in front of the window. As you turned into Westow Street there was a very stunted holly bush in a corner.” Next to the Holly Bush on Westow Hill was Covell’s a butcher’s, which had previously been a butcher’s called Billy Bridge who made oils for stiff joints, rheumatism and bruises which he gave away freely. This was followed by a grocer’s named Pocknell; a tiny fishmongers called Tagg; Grays the bakers described as a “high-windowed crooked fronted shop up a few steps” and Mr Baker the pork butcher. Next came the Old Mill tea gardens, a few ‘poor shops’ and then the Woodman pub with its signboard of the woodman returning from his work in the ‘North woods’ carrying his axe and a bundle of faggots “a very different house to that now occupying the site.”. Then came a “few  tumble-down houses known typically as the Rookery” before you reached St Aubyn’s school.

Mr Farmer recalled the Swan: “not the present building” which “had been but recently built on the site of a smithy kept by Mr Adams. Near the Swan was a small white house in which Mr Milner, the landscape gardener, resided for a time. It has not long been removed and the site is now occupied by the London and County Bank. The Woodman “was then an  old-fashioned country-looking inn, lying well back from the road with horse-trough in front. The Chatham and Dover railway company had not then touched the district and all along the front of the Crystal Palace was a fine open common with a flagstaff facing the centre transept.”

SOURCES: Memories of Norwood since 1852 by Elizabeth Louisa Dee; Bygone Days in Norwood folder. (Both items available on request from Upper Norwood reference library. Thanks to Jerry Savage of UNRL for his help – and a special thanks to Chimeby Links internet cafe in Church Road for their help (and patience).

Palace Mag Nov 2007

1915 - 1916: Motor ambulances on their way to “somewhere in France” from Christ Church, Gipsy Hill. The church was the first organisation in the country to purchase one of the ambulances. Envelopes were issued to the congregation at Easter, raising between £600 and £700. This was made up to £800 enabling two ambulances to be purchased which were driven to the church one Saturday and dedicated before going to France

On April 29 1922 Upper Norwood’s war memorial to those who had died in the Great War was unveiled by Sir William Treloar. The Croydon Advertiser described the memorial as “a lofty stone obelisk” which when originally unveiled stood at the junction of Church Road and Westow Street on land donated by the City of London brewery company. The Advertiser described the memorial thus: “It is a simple monument, with a little ornamentation on the top stone including honeysuckle and a cross – the emblems of Paganism and Christianity respectively. Of Portland stone, it is 18 ft high and rises from a massive plinth. At the top is this inscription: ‘To the memory of the men of Upper Norwood who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914 – 18. At the base are these words:

As a lasting memorial an endowment for the Norwood Cottage hospital was provided and this monument erected.

For their country they died

In its memory they live.

The plans for the memorial began at a public meeting held under the aegis of the Upper Norwood ratepayers association, which formed a war memorial committee. The MP for the newly-formed Croydon North constituency Major Borwick proposed the idea for the memorial at the meeting – much to the chagrin of Dulwich MP Sir Harry Samuels, Conservative, who declined an invitation to second the proposal, pointing out that as senior member in the district and a Privy councillor he took exception to the proposer being an MP whose constituency was only three months old. Treloar, a noted philanthropist and former Lord Mayor of London who lived at Grange Mount, Upper Norwood, agreed to act as president. He told the meeting their object was to do something for the men who died for their country and benefit everybody as much as possible. They wanted to do something for the Norwood cottage hospital where poor people could get proper medical treatment and nursing. There was something about the scheme that was unselfish, added Sir William. The young men of this country had done something, which we could never thank them enough for. They had saved this country and it was our duty to do something in honour of the poor fellows who had died. Major Borwick, proposing the memorial, said memories of men were short. They should get up a lasting memorial to remind those who came after that, for nearly five terrible years, England was united as never before. Major J M Hogge, Liberal MP for Edinburgh East and an Upper Norwood resident, supporting the endowment of the cottage hospital, said he and his wife wanted to endow one of the beds in memory of a young airman who was a friend of the family and, having gained distinction, was later killed. Already men who had fought in the war had gone into the workhouse. It would be to their eternal shame if these things were permitted. At a second meeting ‘held at the Crystal Palace Parade’ Hogge, who was now just Mr., said it seemed superfluous and strange that they should even attempt to advertise any such fund but the trouble with all British people in connection with the war – this war or any previous wars – was that their memories were as short as the proverbial rabbit’s tail. When the country wanted men it was full of promises, as some of the men in khaki knew far too well. Had it not been for the fight that had been put up against the present Government and previous Governments neither the soldier nor the sailor would have got one-tenth of what had been promised. There were widows today in Upper Norwood whose husbands were killed in the early days of the war who got a miserable £3 – 30 shillings at today’s prices. It was not British to give £100,000 to admirals and generals and £3 to women who had lost everything they held dear. (Hear, hear). The people who won the war were the ordinary man who went over the top at dawn and the men who sailed the ships at the mercy of the German submarine, the men who stood the fatigue and struggle. Mr. Hogge said Upper Norwood was a bit of a no man’s land and belonged to nobody. The £2,000 already given by the people of Upper Norwood he described as “nothing.” Upper Norwood could give £20,000. What was £20,000 compared with the lives of the men who were dead?

At the memorial’s unveiling it was announced that just over £2,400 had been raised altogether of which £1,500 had already been paid to Norwood cottage hospital. Bugles and drummers of the Welsh Guards gave the Last Post. The Mayor of Croydon Coun T W Wood Roberts, referring to the relatives of those in whose memory that monument had been erected, said he hoped that as months and years went by they might, perhaps, draw some comfort from the reflections that no-one of the generations to follow would pass that place without their minds being instantly drawn to the glorious example of those in whose memory it stood.

*On May 27 1922 the Croydon Advertiser reported a meeting of Upper Norwood ratepayers Association where Mr. Frank Martin, presiding, corrected certain mis-statements and erroneous impressions created in regard to the war memorial. He had been told the monument had been bought in Italy for more than £700 and had been made in Italy. (Crystal Palace’s rumour mill was going strong even then). Mr. Martin said the whole of the work was done in England, the masons were an English firm, the stone was English and the sculptor was educated at Dulwich College and, being well over age, served as an orderly in one of the military hospitals during the war.

And there were no funds in hand out of the subscriptions received, he added.

(The sculptor William Butler (or Bateman) Fagan was born in 1867 and died on April 9 1948. Elected a member of the Society of British Sculptors in 1908, an associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1923 and a Fellow from 1938 to 1948.)

The memorial was moved to its present site in Westow Street in June 1956.

Sources:

This article owes a major debt to Dr Ron Cox, who acted as Croydon borough’s recorder for the National Inventory of War Memorials, a copy of which can be found in Croydon local studies library.

At the going down of the sun… an account of Croydon’s war memorials, also by Dr Cox. 1992. Dedicated ‘to the men of the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry who died before their time.’ (Available Croydon local studies library)

Who was Who vol 4, 1941-50 (Adam and Charles Black London revised edition 1958) available Upper Norwood reference library.

British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 by FWS Craig (MacMillan 1977) Available at Westminster Reference Library.

Thanks to: Dr Emmanuel Minne of the Royal Society of British Sculptors; staff at Upper Norwood reference library, Croydon local studies library and Westminster reference library.

By Jerry Green

Palace Magazine Oct 2007

On parade with the Canada building and the Crystal Palace in the background

When the Admiralty moved into the Palace there was dust and dirt everywhere. With the aid of an unspecified number of vacuum cleaners and the cleaning of sections of Paxton’s glass house day by day it was all removed. The Palace’s statuary was packed up and, along with the Admiralty, the YMCA moved in. The Egyptian, Grecian and Roman courts in the Palace’s centre transept along with the Moroccan and Alhambra courts, North Tower gardens and the theatre – an area of 3,000 square metres - were placed at the YMCA’s disposal and used for reading, writing and concerts. The reading and writing rooms in the Egyptian and Roman courts provided accommodation for more than 700 men at one sitting. The Alhambra court had 14 billiard tables in constant use in the off-duty hours. The concert hall became a mess room but still staged many high-class concerts.

Bath time wasn’t a problem. There was a register of local houses where free hot baths could be obtained. For swimming lessons the men were marched along Church Road and down South Norwood Hill to the South Norwood baths, then in Birchanger Road. Regular field day sports were held on the football and sports grounds at the Palace.

In October 1914 the Benbow, Hawke and Collingwood battalions were sent to Antwerp to try and save the city from the invading Germans only to find they were too late. 1,500 were taken to neutral Holland where they remained for the duration of the war. They were first placed in a Dutch military barracks called Kazerne on the outskirts of Groningen. Christmas dinner was celebrated with turkeys, ham and puddings (and one bottle of beer per man) sent by the English people.

On January 16th they were moved into some wooden huts built on recreation fields opposite the Kazerne. Three huts, housing about 500 men each, became known as Timbertown.  Eight or nine other huts housed workshops, a recreation hall, gymnasium, post office, sickbay, cook’s galley and offices. In the workshops the men made fancy boxes and photo frames etc for sale in England. The workshops also had its own barber, tailor and boot maker. The recreation hall housed the Timbertown Follies started by Fred Penley, son of the author of ‘Charley’s Aunt’. There was also a Timbertown Operatic Society.

The Y.M.C.A. Billiard Room at the Alhambra Court

Among those who trained at Crystal Palace was Tommy Handley, who would become famous as a top radio star during the Second World War with the show ‘It’s That Man Again’, which was known and loved as ITMA. Thousands of mourners turned up for his cremation when he died in 1948. Another was A P Herbert who became famous for his books of  ‘Misleading Cases’, featuring Albert Haddock and sat as an MP for the Oxford Universities. And David Davies would find fame under a different name – that of Ivor Novello. Of the seven members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve who were awarded the Victoria Cross for heroic deeds during the Great War, at least one trained at ‘HMS Crystal Palace’. Daniel Beak joined as an ordinary seaman. While an adjutant with Drake battalion he won the Military Cross – and a second two months later. He briefly commanded both the Howe and Anson battalions before returning to Drake as temporary commander on March 12th, 1918. He remained in command until the battalion was disbanded in June 1919. After the Great War (which would become known as the First World War) he joined the army where he commanded the 1st battalion South Lancashire regiment and served in France in 1940 as a Major-General. He died in 1967. (Go to www.royalnavalmuseum.org for further information.)

On June 6th 1931 the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) unveiled a memorial – in those days termed a trophy – on the lower terrace of the Palace to the 125,00 men of the RNVR who had trained at the Crystal Palace. It was moved in the 1980s following increased vandalism and theft from the memorial and now stands near the entrance to the park’s Sydenham gate.

Sources

With the Royal Naval Division on board “HMS Crystal Palace” and elsewhere*

HMS Crystal Palace by Eric Price (Crystal Palace Matters No.5 Spring 1981)

www.bromley.gov.uk/warmemorials

http://freespace.virgin.net/jack.clegg/RND

www.britisharmedforces.org

Thanks to: David Britton, Crystal Palace Foundation; staff at Upper Norwood reference library and the Dome reading room, Imperial War Museum.

Further information: Bromley at war 1945 – 2005 produced by Bromley council. Parts of this leaflet may be disturbing to younger children.

Enrolment forms of anyone who joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve/Royal Naval Division who were sent to sea or the Crystal Palace can be obtained from the Public Record Office. Information on some of those who served in the RND is available from the Fleet Air Arm museum. Go to http://royalnavaldivision.co.uk/rnvr.htm for further details.

The ‘HMS Crystal Palace’ brochure and Crystal palace Matters are available on request from Upper Norwood reference library.

By T W Jenkins

Palace Magazine  Oct 2007

The terracota tomb of Sir Henry Tate and his family

Early nineteenth century inner London burial grounds were in a parlous state: they were so full that bodies were buried in graves so shallow that any scavenging animal could uncover them; and they were a ready source of income for grave robbers and body snatchers. Such was the outcry that Parliament was petitioned and between 1837 and 1841, six cemeteries were established on greenfield sites outside the city boundaries in Kensal Green, Highgate, Brompton, Abney Park, Nunhead and the hamlet of Norwood.

The West Norwood cemetery was formed when the South Metropolitan Cemetery Company bought 40 acres of land in the fields and wooded hills around the small village that has since become a London suburb. Apart from paths and the local unsurfaced track through the village, there was no major transport route nearby and all the funerals were by horse-drawn hearse followed by the carriages of the mourners and those on foot. When the Baptist Minister, the Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon died in 1892, his funeral was attended by more mourners that any other in the history of the cemetery, most of them on foot and, presumably, many of them being the same people who had attended his services at the Metropolitan Tabernacle where his “magnificent voice and command of pure idiomatic Saxon English” attracted huge congregations. The cemetery became, for south London and north Surrey and Kent, the fashionable place to be buried.

In 1842 the Brotherhood of the Greek Community in London, wealthy merchants, many of whom had fled persecution in the Ottoman Empire, bought five acres of the cemetery and in 1872 enlarged it, making a most remarkable cemetery within a cemetery. Grand tombs and mausolea were built, perhaps the most impressive of which is the mortuary chapel, a handsome Greek Doric style building, built in memory of Augustus Ralli who died at Eton in 1872. This chapel has a beautiful ceiling, which is richly coffered in blue and gold.

Over the next century or so, and before it followed the fate of its inner London predecessors, West Norwood cemetery became the resting ground for many famous people.

Perhaps the most famous grave is that of Isabella Beeton (1836-1865), whose book “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management”, with its 3,000 recipes and countless hints for running a Victorian household, was a huge success, selling more than 60,000 copies in its first year. She died young, being only 29 when she died if puerperal fever.

Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) was a surgeon with an abiding interest in geology. It was his discovery of a fossilised tooth from a creature he named “Iguanodon” that gave impetus to paleontology and the discovery and classification of dinosaurs, the creatures that inspired “Jurassic Park” and the monsters in nearby Crystal Palace Park whose construction benefited from his knowledge.

The tomb of Sir Henry Doulton (d.1897) is a handsome mausoleum in red brick and terracotta tiles, presumably from his riverside factory in nearby Lambeth. There used to be Doulton vases inside but these have been stolen.

Close by is another terracotta mausoleum, that of the art collector, philanthropist and Unitarian, Sir Henry Tate (d.1899) whose invention of the sugar cube made him a huge fortune and lead to the formation of the Tate Gallery and a number of libraries in south London.

Nearby is the grave of Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) whose process of converting cast iron into steel revolutionised steel manufacture by not only reducing the cost of production, but making it possible to use steel where previously only cast iron had been used.

Baron Julius de Reuter (1816-1899) first realised the importance of collecting and transmitting telegraphic news and he established his news agency in London, at the Royal Exchange, in 1851. His grave is marked by a pink granite monument.

Many wealthy and influential Victorians whose names are still remembered today are in West Norwood, but also lying there are those who in their time were famous for things more ephemeral than steel, cubed sugar or pottery.

The prize-fighter, Tom Spring (1795-1851), the Champion of England, lies beneath a monument showing a lion lying down with a lamb, now, alas, somewhat worn away and covered in ivy. His bare-fist fights attracted thousands, and he was so famous in his day that a weekly newspaper was named after him: “Tom Spring’s Sporting Chronicle”.

William Dufton (1830-1877) was a famous billiard-player who in one match won £1,000, a huge amount then. His other claim to fame was that he taught the Prince of Wales to play billiards. Was Queen Victoria amused by that? Dufton committed suicide and is buried in a common grave.

That great institution of Victorian life, the Music Hall, is also represented. Fred Kitchen (1872-1951) was a famous comedian on the halls. He was part of Fred Karno’s troupe and at one time he worked with Charlie Chaplin. Much of Kitchen’s humour was visual; with his large feet and bandy legs, his walk always raised a laugh and, some said, was the origin of Chaplin’s Little Tramp’s walk.

James Basseti (1854-1907) whose stage name was “Charles Bertram” was a leading conjuror on the Victorian stage. He was not only popular with audiences but with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to whom he bore a marked resemblance. He appeared before the Royal Household many times and earned the title “the King’s conjuror”.

Beneath the Dissenters’ chapel, now demolished, are the catacombs Although almost abandoned, they are dry, well ventilated and there are some lights.

In the central aisle of the catacombs is an ingenious piece of machinery, a hydraulic catafalque that silently brought down the coffins from the chapel above. The machine now is rusty and covered with spider’s webs and droppings.

From the central aisle, others run off, stacked with coffins. If a body was to be deposited in the catacombs it had to be encased in lead, then placed in a coffin which was then covered in either satin or leather on which many fine patterns were made with nails. Some coffins still had leather tatters hanging from them. The catacombs were intended to contain 2,000 coffins.

In the early 80’s criminals found it attractive for storing their drug hauls, for what better place was there for their nefarious activities than somewhere no-one went and which provided large, secure underground premises rent free?

Stories of ghosts and spectres have always been associated with graveyards and it was someone talking of “eerie” noises and “spooky” lights coming from the cemetery that alerted the police and eventually brought the drug runners to their end.

Since taking it over in 1966, Lambeth Council has done much not only to restore the cemetery to a semblance of its previous grandeur, but it has brought to the public the ecological value of such places in built-up areas.

There is a wide variety of shrubs and trees and in Spring daffodils and primroses flourish. The cemetery has wildlife also, being home to foxes, squirrels and owls and kestrels nest on the pediment of the Greek mortuary chapel. In Egyptian mythology, a hawk is one of the forms a disembodied person might adopt when visiting his body after it was mummified. What an appropriate visitor!

(If you’d like for information on West Norwood Cemetery please visit: www.fownc.org to go to the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery website – Ed.)