Foundling tokens

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charity

When walking the streets of London, one tends to look up at the houses and buildings, but looking down at the pavement has its rewards as well. Outside the Brunswick Centre in Marchmont Street, for instance, peculiar objects appear in the paving slabs. They are a public art installation by the artist John Aldus⁽¹⁾, based on the tokens left by the mother with a child when leaving him of her in the care of the Foundling Hospital. The idea being that the child could be identified if the mother reclaimed it at some point. The tokens were not just metal object such as the representations in Marchmont Street, but could vary from pieces of fabric to playing cards and from a ribbon to a string of beads. In the early 19th century, the practice of leaving tokens with the children was abandoned for a more sophisticated administrative system. For a picture of some original tokens, see here.

These tokens are the physical leftovers of what must have been heartrending moments in the lives of the poor of 18th and 19th-century London. Although the institution set up by Thomas Coram is called the Foundling Hospital, the children were often brought in by their own mothers and were no foundlings in the dictionary sense of the word at all. In the petition that Coram and 21 ladies “of quality and distinction” submitted for the Royal Charter of the Foundation, it was said that “no expedient has been found out for preventing the frequent murders of poor infants at their birth, or for suppressing the custom of exposing them to perish in the streets, or putting them out to nurses”. This last option would seem a good one, but unfortunately these rogue ‘nurses’ promised to bring up a child for a small sum, but then either starved them or brought them up to steal or beg. Coram proposed to set up a hospital for these unfortunate children “in order that they may be made good servants, or, when qualified, be disposed of to the sea or land services of His Majesty the King”. He received his charter in 1739 and the hospital was opened in 1741 in temporary accommodation in Hatton Garden.⁽²⁾

The building of a new hospital, designed around an open courtyard by Theodore Jacobsen in plain brick with two wings and a chapel, started soon after and in October 1745, the first children could be housed in the new grounds located to the north of Guilford Street. Several years later another wing was opened so that boys and girls each had their own wing.

©British Museum

Especially in the early years, the rules for admittance changed frequently. The original idea was not to ask information about the child’s background or parentage, but the applications became so numerous that a ballot system was introduced. In 1756, the House of Commons moved that all children offered should be received, but that decision opened the floodgates and was quickly rescinded. Then the idea was to only admit children with £100 attached to them, but that obviously excluded children from poor backgrounds. It was finally decided to admit only those children who had been abandoned by the father – read: were illegitimate – and where the mother had a reasonable chance of getting an honest livelihood if the child was taken care of in the hospital.⁽³⁾

In the first half of the twentieth century, the hospital moved the children out of London, first to Redhill in Surrey, and later to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. The original building was torn down and a new London headquarters for the Foundation was built. This building is now the Foundling Museum, located at the other side of the Brunswick Centre from Marchmont Street where the tokens can be found. The original site of the hospital, or a large part of it, has been kept an open space and is known as Coram’s Field.

Thomas Coram by William Hogarth ©British Museum

(1) Website John Aldus with photo gallery of the ‘Tokens’ installation here.
(2) E. Walford, Old and New London, vol. 5.
(3) Wikipedia

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Cattle troughs

Tags

philanthrophy, water

London’s very first public drinking fountain dates to 1859 and is set into the railings of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate on Holborn Viaduct, corner Giltspur Street. It was placed there by The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association and paid for by one of the founders, Samuel Gurney, to provide free and clean water to the people of London in the hope that it would encourage them to drink less (or preferably no) alcohol.⁽¹⁾

St. Sepulchre, notice the water cups

But hygiene was also an issue. Drinking water available to the poor, if available at all, was frequently contaminated and held largely responsible for the cholera outbreaks of 1848-49 and 1853-54. It was no wonder that the people turned to alcohol. The cholera outbreaks and the understanding that the water supply was to blame, actually exacerbated the situation, because many wells and pumps were shut down for fear of contamination. The water supply in the city was in the hands of a few private companies who completely failed to provide an adequate supply. Legislation was sluggish, but the Water Act of 1852 forced the New River Company to cover its reservoirs and to filter its water and in 1856, the Southwark Company was forced to move its inlet away from the sewage outfall. But it was a slow process and better water quality did not immediately mean better access to it. Victorian philanthropy, the call for temperance, and the practical accomplishments of the founders came together and the Drinking Fountain Association was set up and quickly produced results. The Association held its inaugural meeting on 10 April 1859 and a resolution was passed that set out the aim:

St. Dunstan Fleet Street

“That, where the erection of free drinking fountains, yielding pure cold water, would confer a boon on all classes, and especially the poor, an Association be formed for erecting and promoting the erection of such fountains in the Metropolis, to be styled “The Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association”, and that contributions be received for the purposes of the Association. That no fountain be erected or promoted by the Association which shall not be so constructed as to ensure by filters, or other suitable means, the perfect purity and coldness of the water; and that it is desirable the water-rates should be paid by local bodies, the Association only erecting or contributing to the erection, and maintaining the mechanical appliances, of the fountains”.

First drinking fountain from Illustrated London News, 30 April 1859

But is was soon realised that humans were not the only creatures suffering from the lack of (clean) water and quickly drinking troughs for dogs were attached to the fountains. But for horses and cattle the situation remained precarious. Pubs usually provided troughs, but the understanding was that the owner of the horse bought himself a drink when watering his horse or pay some money for the water. One pub trough was inscribed “All that water their horses here Must pay a penny or have some beer”. Local vestries sometimes objected to the erection of cattle troughs, often because they feared to become financially responsible for them, sometime just on the grounds that it would be an obstruction to traffic, but the Association steadily ground down the resistance and troughs sprang up all over the place. In 1867, the name of the association was changed to include their work for animal welfare and they became The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association.

West Smithfield

West Smithfield detail

By 1870, 140 fountains and 153 troughs had been erected and in 1879 (see illustration from Burke’s Peerage below) the numbers had already reached 575 and 597 respectively. The alternative the fountains provided to beer and stronger spirits greatly appealed to the Temperance Movement, and they became keen supporters of the Fountain Association. Many fountains were set up opposite pubs. The Evangelical Movement was also in favour of fountains, but they preferred them in churchyard in the hope that people would associate the water supply with the support of the church. The extension of the objective of the Association into animal welfare, provided them with a powerful ally, the RSPCA.

From Burke’s Peerage via Wikipedia

The Association began as a philanthropic organisation, depending solely on the money and connections of the founders and donations from private individuals, but from the 1870s onwards, the Association became more and more an established institution attracting legacies and larger donations. Unfortunately, more of these donations were received for special or memorial fountains, often of a highly ornate, Victorian gothic, design. These were more expensive to maintain and the donor of the fountain would usually only pay for the build and not for the maintenance or water supply. The Association developed a standard plain fountain which can still be seen in many London parks, but more elaborate models were built for donors willing to fork out the extra money. At the headquarters of the Association in Victoria Street, a book of designs could be consulted. An example of a privately paid for fountain, is the one on Commercial Road which was erected in 1886 by Harriet Barrett in memory of her brothers.
It unfortunately lost its animal trough sometime between 1886 and now (see here). From the end of the 19th century, more and more local authorities took over the maintenance and water provision for the fountains and troughs in their area, freeing up the Association’s money to finance more watering places.
The Association stopped building troughs in 1936 as the motorcar had taken over from the horse. While fountains are often noticed, the troughs are not, probably because they are not at head height, and these days, no longer contain water but flowers.

corner Farringdon Road / Farringdon Lane

The Association may no longer build troughs, but they, now as The Drinking Fountain Association, still build fountains, for instance in schools and in other countries where the provision of clean water is still an issue.

(1) Information on the history of the Association from their website drinkingfountains.org and from Howard Malchow, “Free Water: the Public Drinking Fountain Movement and Victorian London” in London Journal, vol. 4 (1978), pp. 181-203.

** More photo’s of troughs and fountains at Faded London and for troughs only London Cattle Troughs.

** A map of current fountains at Find-A-Fountain.

Torch extinguishers

As a follow-on from my post on link-boys, a few photos of torch extinguishers. But first a picture of a link-boy who would, for a small fee, light the way. Please note the torch or link extinguisher on the fence.

linkboy from tywkiwbi.blogspot

In 1878, the 4th volume of Old and New London was published. This volume was written, or compiled if you prefer, by Edward Walford. The previous volumes had been written by Walter Thornbury, but he died in 1876. Walford includes a section on Berkeley Square, illustrated by these lovely torch extinguishers. Although the ones left in the square are in most cases not quite as ornate, they are still well worth going to see as relics of bygone days. Does anyone, by the way, know what the rings on top of the ironwork are for? They look like basketball hoops without the net. [Update: thanks to the British Library Flickr photostream, I now know that these hoops contained upturned glass bowls which contained a light, illustration below]

E. Walford, Old and New London, volume 4, [1878]

Lamplighter, c. 1800 from Charles Knight, London (Source: British Library Flickr photostream)

Below photos of extinguishers that can still be found in London.

43-44 Berkeley Square

49 Berkeley Square

48 Berkeley Square

47 Berkeley Square

46 Berkeley Square

44 Berkeley Square

50 Berkeley Square

More information on Berkeley square itself can be found in the posts by Exploring London and London Life with Bradshaw’s Hand Book.

St. James’s Square

Amen Court

Victoria and Albert Museum

Dolphin lampposts

Tags

dolphin, lamppost, Vulliamy

Oystergate Walk gets its name from the Oystergate, not a real gate, but one of the wharfs where goods were offloaded from ships for the London markets. Other ‘gates’ were Billingsgate, Botolphsgate, Ebgate, Puddledockgate and Wolfgate. They derived their names either from the goods that were landed there, or from the owners or neighbouring places. Oystergate is easily recognizable as the place where oysters were brought into London. Oystergate Walk is located on the Thames side of Fishmongers´ Hall and is graced with several ´dolphin lampposts’. These lampposts were originally to be found on the Albert and Victoria Embankments (the ´Dolphin Zone´), but they have spread themselves across to South Bank and to Oystergate Walk. They are said to represent sturgeons rather than dolphins, but ‘dolphin lamppost’ is the accepted name, so I’ll stick to that.

dolphin lamppost Oyster walk

The Victoria Embankment was built in the 1860s and 1870s and provided a perfect opportunity for a walkway along the Thames. The Metropolitan Board of Works displayed several designs under consideration and the Illustrated London News and The Builder of 19 March 1870 published pictures of the designs. A favourite was an elaborately ornamented design by Timothy Butler, cast by the Coalbrookdale Company, with climbing boys and overflowing cornucopias. You can still see a Coalbrookdale lamp on the Chelsea Embankment, at the east end of Albert Bridge Gardens (see here).

Illustrated London News Butler/Coalbrookdale design

Illustrated London News Bazalgette design

Joseph Bazalgette designed a more restraint lamp with lion’s paws (modelled by S. Burnett) and you can see those on the Chelsea Embankment. See the last picture in this blog post for the construction of Chelsea Embankment with the Bazalgette lampposts. But for the Victoria and Albert Embankments the design of George John Vulliamy (1817-1886) was chosen. His lamps were said to be designed after the examples Vulliamy had seen on the Fontana del Nettuno in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. They were modelled by C.H. Mabey. See here for the reasoning behind the choice for Vulliamy’s design.

Illustrated London News Vulliamy design

The dolphins on the Fontana del Nettuno, Piazza del Populo, Rome

Vulliamy was educated at Westminster School and started his career at Joseph Bramah & Sons, engineers. In July 1836, he came to work for Charles Barry, but in 1841 he left to travel through France, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt. He returned to England in 1843 and set up his own business as an architect. He was a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was elected superintending architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works in March 1861 and in that capacity designed several fire-brigade stations, the pedestal and sphinxes for Cleopatra’s needle on the Embankment and the Embankment lampposts. He resigned in 1886 for health reasons and died in November of that same year.

The building of the Embankments offered a perfect opportunity to install electric light. Charles Dickens in his Dictionary of London of 1879 reports that

The electric light first practically introduced into London by Mr. Hollingshead at the Gaiety Theatre, has been made, during the last few months, the subject at a great number of experiments both public and private. Of the former the most important has been that on the Thames Embankment where the great width of, and the entire absence of all extraneous light from shop windows or public houses on either hand, enabled the rival systems of gas and electricity to try their strength against each other on equal terms. On the conclusion of the period allotted to the first experiment the Board of Works decided upon continuing it on a somewhat larger scale, and an additional length, of the Embankment parapet has accordingly been supplied with electric burners.

The dolphin lampposts have spread from their original location and can now be found in various places, one of them being Oystergate Walk where I took my pictures, another location is Queen’s Walk, which follows the south bank of the River Thames from Lambeth Bridge to Tower Bridge. Queen’s Walk is part of the 1977 Jubilee Walkway and became part of the Thames Path national trail in 1996.

The lampposts have even inspired Moorcroft’s for their London Vase (designer Paul Hilditch).

Moorcroft’s London Vase