Wakefield and Toc H

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philanthrophy

At 41 Trinity Square an unusual plaque can be found for one Wakefield. The unusual bit is not that the plaque has a relief bust of Wakefield himself – that is not unique, although not very common, see for instance the memorial for William Vincent – but above the head is a small oil lamp. What does an oil lamp have to do with this Wakefield? And to begin with, who was Wakefield? A separate stone underneath the portrait bust tell us that Viscount Wakefield of Hythe led the Tower Hill restoration and that he gave the house at Trinity Square to the church and the people in 1937. Nice as that gesture obviously is, that is not the whole story.

Viscount Wakefield started life on 12 December 1859 as Charles Cheers Wakefield, the son of a customs official at Liverpool (Cheers was the maiden name of his mother). He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and became an oil broker. In 1899, he set up his own firm which specialised in lubricating oil. And that is why you all know him, although you may not have realised that it was Wakefield who was behind the ubiquitous Castrol motor oil. Castrol was the name chosen because researchers at the Wakefield Company added quite a lot of castor oil to their lubricants.

Old advertisement for Castrol (Source: gracesguide.co.uk)

Wakefield promoted aviation where he could; he supported Alan Cobham and Amy Johnson in their effort to fly to the other end of the Empire and he set up the Wakefield scholarships for Royal Air Force Cadets. But motor-racing was another passion and he financed speed trials at Daytona and Miami; not surprising really for someone in the oil and lubricants business.

But he was also heavily involved in the civic government of London. At various times, he was a member of the Court of Common Council, Sheriff, Alderman, and Master of various Company’s. In 1915 and 1916 he was Lord Mayor of London and in that capacity he visited the troops at the front. His philanthropic interests were varied and included Bridewell, Bethlehem, St. Thomas’s and St. Bart’s Hospitals, the Mental Aftercare Society, the National Children’s Home and Orphanage, but more importantly for this post, he was president of the Tower Hill Improvement Society. This Society, now known as the Tower Hill Trust, had been inspired by the reverend Phillip Byard (‘Tubby’) Clayton, from 1922 until 1962 Vicar of All Hallows by the Tower, who, together with Dr Bertram Ralph Leftwich published Pageant of Tower Hill, “which outlined a scheme to improve Tower Hill by removing from it certain ugly buildings which at that time disfigured it and hampered its use.” “The Trust set about purchasing a number of the buildings about which it was concerned, and these were demolished in order to provide gardens and open public spaces.”⁽¹⁾ Clayton lived next door to Wakefield at 43, Trinity Square (see for his blue plaque here).

In 1937, Wakefield set up the Wakefield (Tower Hill Trinity Square) Trust, known usually simply as the Wakefield Trust (and now amalgamated with the Tetley Trust). Wakefield gave a number of houses in the vicinity of Tower Hill, including his own at 41 Trinity Square, to the Trust to be used “for such charitable purposes as will be most conducive to the development of Tower Hill and Trinity Square as a centre of welfare work or as a centre from which welfare work can be conducted”. Included should be: “a headquarters of Toc H or another suitable charity; a hostel for young men engaged in welfare work clubs for young men and women; and educational or recreational use in connection with any of the above”.⁽²⁾

Toc H had been set up by Tubby Clayton in WW1 while he was the army chaplain in Poperinge, Belgium, which was a busy transfer station for troops on their way to and from the battlefields of Flanders. Clayton was instructed by his senior chaplain, Neville Talbot, to set up some sort of rest house for the troops. He rented a hop merchant’s house and set up a house that was open to men and officers alike. It contained a library, a kitchen, a walled garden and a chapel. Here, the soldiers could forget about the war for a while before returning to their duties. The house was named Talbot House in honour of Gilbert Talbot, the brother of Clayton’s superior, who had been killed earlier in the year. The soldiers quickly shortened the name to TH and then, in radio signallers’ parlance, as Toc H.⁽³⁾ The symbol of the Toc H Movement is the oil lamp known as the Lamp of Maintenance, hence the lamp above Wakefield’s relief bust.

After the war, the house was relinquished to the hop merchant again, but in 1930, with the generous help of Wakefield, it could be bought back and it is now a museum where the military past can be seen from its more peaceful side – if that is not too much of a contradiction.

In 1930, Wakefield was raised to the peerage as Baron Wakefield of Hythe in the County of Kent, and in 1934 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Wakefield of Hythe. Wakefield died on 15 January, 1941. According to his obituary in The Times, he and his wife, Sarah Francis Graham, had no children and the peerage became extinct, but according to Wikipedia, they had a daughter Freda.
41 Trinity Square, by the way, is a Grade II property for which a building application to add a few doors inside the house has recently been submitted (see here).

——-
Most of the information on Wakefield has come from his obituary in The Times of 16 January 1941. Surprisingly enough, the Times article said that Talbot House in Poperinge was “since destroyed”, but they were obviously wrong as it is still very much there.

(1) http://www.towerhilltrust.org.uk/about-history.php
(2) http://www.wakefieldtrust.org.uk/about-history.php
(3) http://www.toch-uk.org.uk/History.html
(4) http://www.talbothouse.be/en/museum/home and http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/museum-talbot-house-history.htm

See also the entry for Wakefield and Clayton at London Remembers.

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A Reading Room & Library

Tags

Billingsgate, library, philanthrophy

On the corner of Lower Thames Street and St. Mary at Hill stands a late Victorian red brick building which would not have merited a place in this blog if I had not noticed the lettering on the building on the St. Mary at Hill side. Halfway up the building, in large white letters, can the words ‘Reading Room & Library’ be seen. And at the same level as the reading room letters, but around the corner in Lower Thames Street, three spaces seem to have been left open for more words. Were they never put up, or were they removed at some point? It turns out to have been the latter.

In the old photograph above, you may just be able to make out that the lettering in the three spaces between the first and second floor read: Billingsgate Christian Mission. This organisation was set up in 1878 to combine the work of the former Billingsgate District Association with Christian missionary work within Billingsgate Fish Market, working from Weigh House Chapel, 31 King Street, until their new building was ready. This new building opposite the fish market was designed for the Billingsgate Christian Mission by the architect George Baines (1852-1934) and erected in 1889. In 1897, the mission set up a dispensary where free first aid was offered to those working in and around the market. The name of the organisation was then lengthened to the Billingsgate Christian Mission and Dispensary. Besides treating the workers at the market, they also trained nurses and missionary workers prior to going abroad. The British Journal of Nursing of 18 November, 1905, reports on the opening at the mission of an ophthalmic ward where on Tuesday evenings the “poorer working men are able to obtain the best advice” without having to lose half a day’s wages to go to the regular ophthalmic hospital.

A newspaper report⁽¹⁾ on a meeting held in connection with the laying of the memorial stones of the new mission premises relates that fourteen years before, the London City Mission had appointed an agent for ‘aggressive’ work in the district and that various agencies had been involved and that now (that is, in July 1889) “a well-chosen library of 1,000 volumes was established, a reading room and a day refuge” and that “Gospel services and temperance meetings were initiated”. The new Mission building was to combine many of these initiatives and was to include a coffee tavern, a Gospel hall, reading rooms, library and refuge. The ground floor also included a post office, but I presume that was not part of the Mission activities, but a commercial enterprise.

C. Oakey, Billingsgate from Within

In c. 1933, Charles Oakey, secretary to the Mission, wrote a book on the organisation, Billingsgate from Within, An Account of the Work Carried on at The Mission and Dispensary, in which he says that the Mission took care of both the physical and moral welfare of their ‘target group’ with temperance meetings, tract distribution, a Sunday school, sleeping accommodation and, where necessary, food, but above all, medical attention. No one was asked for a fee, but all contributions were gladly accepted. Oakey says that the first-aid department treated some 20,000 people yearly. The building was closed in 1990; most of its charitable work had relocated with the Fish Market to Canary Wharf.

What I unfortunately do not know is what books could be read in the Reading Room, but we may guess that Christian tracts made up the majority of the reading material. I have written to the LMA to ask if the records of the Mission contain any information on the library and if there is any insight into the library holdings to be had, I will share the information with you in an update.
UPDATE: No, there is nothing to be seen in the papers at the LMA to deduce what books they had, but LMA suggested asking the Fishmongers’ Company as they also hold records. Have asked, so to be continued.

(1) The Morning Post, 24 July 1889.

You may also like to read my post on Old Billingsgate Market

Robert Clayton

Tags

medicine, philanthrophy

Portrait Clayton from Old and New London, vol. 1

Robert Clayton (1629-1707) came originally from Northamptonshire, but became an apprentice scrivener to his uncle in London. A scrivener can be described as a cross between a moneylender and a scribe, often acting as a broker or notary. After Clayton’s apprenticeship, he set up on his own and, together with a fellow apprentice, John Morris, took over his uncle’s bank. They renamed it Clayton & Morris Co. His uncle left him a fortune and when Morris died without issue, he also left a considerable sum to Clayton, so he became very wealthy. Clayton had a finger in many pies, first as Alderman of the Cheap Ward, as sheriff, as Lord Mayor, as MP, as colonel in the militia, as governor of the Bank of England and much more.

statue of Robert Clayton at St. Thomas’s Hospital

On 26 September, 1672, John Evelyn wrote in his Diary that he went to dinner at Sir Robert Clayton’s with Lord Howard and they had “a great feast” there. Clayton was at that time Sheriff of London and had just built himself a new house at 8 Old Jewry. Evelyn remarks that the house was “built indeed for a great magistrate, at excessive cost. The cedar dining-room is painted with the history of the Giants’ War, incomparably done by Mr. Streeter, but the figures are too near the eye”. A few years later Clayton bought an estate at Marden, Godstone, Surrey, from a kinsman of Evelyn. They travelled together to Clayton’s new home on 12 October 1677 where Evelyn saw that Clayton had transformed “a despicable farm-house […] into a seat with extraordinary expense”. Evelyn’s description gives us a good idea of Clayton’s house and grounds:

The gardens are large, and well-walled […] The barnes, & the stacks of corn, the stalls for cattle, pigeon-house, &c. of most laudable example. Innumerable are the plantations of trees, especially walnuts. The orangery and gardens are very curious. In the house are large and noble rooms. He and his lady (who is very curious in distillery) entertained me three or four days very freely. […] This place is exceedingly sharp in the winter, by reason of the serpentining of the hills: and it wants running water; but the solitude much pleased me. All the ground is so full of wild thyme, marjoram, and other sweet plants, that it cannot be over-stocked with bees; I think he had near forty hives of the industrious insect.

Clayton’s house at Old Jewry ©British Museum

Clayton’s house at Marden Park (Source: Grosvenor Prints)

Clayton did use his wealth for numerous good causes and he was a major benefactor of Christ’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, but it is for the latter that he is probably best remembered. Thomas’s Hospital was first located in Southwark, but in the 1680s, it was considered to be in such a state of dilapidation that patching up was not an option and a complete re-building was envisaged. Funds were, however, a problem. A subscription scheme was set up in 1693. Clayton contributed £600 towards the rebuilding and was later to endow the hospital in his will with a further £2300. But Clayton was not the only major benefactor: Thomas Guy and Thomas Frederick paid for wards to be put up, Sir John Wolfe gave fifty pounds and portraits of the King and Queen, Thomas Gudden gave reading desks and bibles for the patients, Captain John Howard paid for the interior of the chapel, and many lesser-known people gave sums between 10 and 100 pounds. And money kept flowing in even after the new hospital had been built. Benjamin Golding gives a complete list of benefactors in his book on the history of the hospital.⁽¹⁾

Site of St. Thomas’s Hospital in Southwark on Horwood’s map of 1799

In 1701 (Matthews says 1702), a statue of Clayton was erected in the square built at his expense. According to Golding, it had Clayton’s arms on the south side of the pedestal and a – rather wordy – inscription on the north side. The statue had been ordered from Grinling Gibbons, although it was possibly made by his workshop rather than by the artist himself.⁽²⁾ By order of the Governors of the hospital, the inscription was altered slightly in 1714 when the statue was “beautified and improved” “as a compliment to his virtues and to perpetuate his memory”. In 1862, a compulsorily purchase order had forced the hospital to make way for the Charing Cross Railway viaduct. It temporarily moved to Newington until, in 1871, the new building further west along the Thames at Lambeth was opened. Fortunately for us, the hospital had the sense to take Clayton’s statue with them when they moved from Southwark to Lambeth. The right hand and scroll are replacements to rectify the damage done by a medical student climbing the statue when drunk.⁽³⁾ The statue itself was moved several times, but since 2000, it stands in a small garden in a quiet corner of the hospital grounds, close to the river.

(1) Benjamin Golding, An Historical Account of St. Thomas’s Hospital, Southwark (1819).
(2) Peter Matthews, London’s Statues and Monuments (2012), p. 187.
(3) Matthews, p. 188.

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.

Philanthropist George Peabody

Tags

Peabody, philanthrophy, Royal Exchange

On 23 July 1869, the Prince of Wales unveiled a statue of George Peabody (1795-1869), the American merchant banker and philanthropist. It stands at the north-east corner of the Royal Exchange in what was once St. Benet Fink’s Churchyard. It was designed by William Wetmore Story (1819-1895), a fellow American who spent most of his time in Rome. Story was chosen after a design competition and was paid £2,300 for the work. Sir Benjamin Phillips, the chairman of the Peabody Memorial Committee stated that the statue was a symbol of the gratitude of the English people to Peabody for all he had done for the poor of London.

Statue of Peabody

Designer and sculptor Story

Unveiling of Peabody’s statue
Source: Illustrated London News, 31 July 1869

Peabody had been born in New England in a time of rapid growth. He started collecting his fortune in Baltimore and did much to promote the railway lines to the West. In the Civil War, he acted as an unofficial diplomat to pave the way for Lincoln’s side, because he was a fervent abolitionist. After the War, he donated a large sum of money to set up an education system in the Southern States for both black and white people. Rather than collecting books, art or other things to be stored for private delight, he preferred “practical philanthropy as an investment for the sake of happiness”.⁽¹⁾

Portrait of Peabody in the London Illustrated News, 20 November 1869

In 1837 Peabody moved to London where he continued in business and also to share his wealth with those he thought needed it most. In a letter to his Trustees, published by The Times on Wednesday 26 March 1862, he announced the establishment of the Peabody Donation Fund to “relieve the poor and needy of this great city, and to promote their comfort and happiness”. The fund started with £150,000, but was increased by Peabody later in life and also by a bequest in his will, so that by 1873 when the bequest was made available to the trustees, the capital had grown to £500,000. The main activity of the fund was – and still is – to provide decent housing. The first Peabody Estate opened in 1864 in Spitalfields.⁽²⁾
Unfortunately, due to illness, Peabody could not be present at the unveiling of his statue. He had gone to America, according to the Illustrated Police News

“very unexpectedly, and without letting his departure to be known beyond a narrow circle of his friends. But the fact of his embarkation and of his extremely feeble health, found its way into the English journals, and soon came to the knowledge of her Majesty, who, with, that goodness of heart that has always characterised her […] gave immediate expression to her feelings in the following autograph note […] Windsor Caste, June 20, 1869: The Queen is very sorry that Mr. Peabody’s sudden departure has made it impossible for her to see him before he left England, and she is concerned to hear that he has gone in ill health. She now writes him a line to express her hope that he may return to this country quite recovered, and that she may have the opportunity of which she has now been deprived, of seeing him and offering him her personal thanks for all he has done for the people.”⁽³⁾

Source: openplaques.com

Peabody did come back to England, but he did not recover his health and died on the 4th of November that same year at Sir Curtis Lampson’s residence at 80 Eaton Square where a blue plaque can be seen on the wall.

It had been his wish to be buried in the tomb he had built for his mother in Danvers, but that did not happen before a service was held in Westminster Abbey attended by representatives of the American government, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary. The funeral procession from Eaton Square also included the carriages of the Queen and the Prince of Wales decked out in mourning. Peabody’s remains were transferred to H.M.S. Monarch on the 26th to be transported to the U.S. Most newspapers carried a story about Peabody after his death, but the Illustrated Police News and the Illustrated London News also included an illustration of the service in Westminster Abbey.

Illustrated Police News, 20 November 1869, front page

Illustrated London News, 20 November 1869

Peabody’s name is still found in combination with numerous social and philanthropic activities both in London and in America, some of which are known under various names, although they are in fact one and the same, but they are all part of the Peabody organisation, now known simply as Peabody: Peabody Dwellings, Peabody Estate, Peabody Buildings, Peabody Trust, Peabody Institute, Peabody Academy, Peabody Museum, Peabody Library and the Peabody Conservatoire.

I like to thank Christine Wagg of Peabody for her helpful comments.
(1) Illustrated London News, 20 November 1869, Obituary.
(2) The website of the Peabody organisation can be found here.
(3) The Illustrated Police News, issue 285, Saturday, 31 July 1869.