The Dulwich Society Journal for Autumn 2016.
On a Sunday afternoon in May my wife drew my attention to an agitated Herring or possibly Lesser Black backed Gull flying northwards high over our house. Binoculars proved that it was mobbing a large bird of prey which to all appearances was a Buzzard. However it was significantly larger than the pursuing gull, the behaviour of the gull was unusual, and I was unable to see the usual wing markings of a Common Buzzard with which I am familiar. I wondered then whether it might have been a Honey Buzzard, a rare bird in the UK being a summer migrant nesting in very small numbers in the New Forest. The identification of high flying raptors is notoriously difficult and so I was prepared to write the record off. Then an E-mail from Dave Clark informed me that a Honey Buzzard had indeed been seen flying over North London so I would like to believe that this was indeed my bird and if so a first for Dulwich. To those of us brought up on the stories of Uncle Remus we may remember that Brer Honey Buzzard was a bit player in the ongoing conflicts between Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. It has however acquired its name from its major diet items being the contents of bee and wasp nests. Of additional interest is that the bare patch known as the cere at the base of the bills of most raptors is in the Honey Buzzard covered by feathers which protects it from stings whilst feeding.
Apart from this the records have been more mundane. Red Kites are now more regularly seen overflying us as might be predicted by their large populations west of London. A migrating male Wheatear was seen in May on the Alleyn playing fields. This is a strikingly attractive silver grey, black and white member of the Robin family most distinguished by its white rump when it flies away. This bird was probably of the northern variety as most of those breeding in England will have been on site for a month. A Reed Warbler briefly visited the reed bed in Dulwich Park and a Whitethroat has been singing in the velodrome site along with the breeding Blackcaps throughout the early summer hopefully breeding also.
Last year Hobbys were thought to have bred in the woods and a Hobby has been seen this year but with no evidence of breeding so far. However Kestrels are once more breeding in the tower of St Peter’s church at the entrance to Cox’s walk and have three chicks. Brown Long eared Bats and Pipistrelles continue to occupy their roost in the High level Railway Tunnel whose legal status of protection will act against any possible suggestion of running a cycle route through the increasingly valued nature reserve.
The Swifts arrived as usual in May in apparently bigger numbers than in recent years but we have not seen the screaming parties around our houses particularly in July when the young fledge so I fear they may not have bred this year. The sole surviving pair of our House Martin colony eventually turned up rather late at the end of May and have reused their old nest for the third or fourth time. Luckily the house owners tell me that there is a clause in their house painting contracts that the nest should be preserved. It is to be hoped that the fledged young will return to breed although the four that fledged last year have not obliged. The nest is being included in the British Trust for Ornithology House Martin National Survey as there is a wish to find out reasons for the species’ decline.
It has not so far been a very good year for butterflies, probably as a result of the amount of heavy rain, the problem being of course the loss of caterpillars from foliage, and this of course can have a knock on effect in the feeding of fledgling small birds. One or two Comma butterflies are appearing so there may be more to come. It has however been an extremely good year if you happen to be a Snail which ought to be a bonanza for the Song Thrushes.
Peter Roseveare Wildlife Recorder (please telephone 020 7274 4567 with any sightings)
By Daniel Greenwood
In the midst of a heatwave, it’s easy to forget the deluges that characterised June 2016. A month that is intended to be sunny and warm instead was a time of unsettling damp for our wildlife. On the night of the 22nd June, 40mm of rain fell. A month’s worth of precipitation in one hour. The next morning Sydenham Hill Wood was flooded like no other summer month that I can recall. Our base around the Crescent Wood tunnel could only be waded through at ankle-height. Still, our volunteers arrived to repair the damaged paths, barrowing gravel up and down the steps to seal up holes and cavities wrought by the rain. ‘This is more like winter work,’ we all said, and it was. The mud that usually disappears in summer was back, and it stayed for weeks.
Before the rains of June, London Wildlife Trust worked in partnership with the Dulwich Festival and the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery to hold a wildlife painting event led by outdoor artist Louis Masai. The Crescent Wood Tunnel has endured a chequered history of late. In 2014 we suffered mindless arson attacks on our timber stores and subsequent silver sheeting installed by Southwark Council has been daubed in graffiti. Thanks to the Dulwich Festival with vital support from Dulwich Going Greener, Louis Masai has painted a wonderful image of two brown long-eared bats flying between decaying silver birch trees in reference to Adam Paynacker’s Landscape with sportsmen and game (1665). The painting is in the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Louis Masai’s bats are the latest addition to the burgeoning Dulwich Outdoor Gallery. It is to our sheer delight that children and adults alike can arrive at the tunnel and instead find an illustration of the amazing creatures that live in secrecy in the woods.
The impact of the rain hardly registered on many of our lives but for our wildlife it has hit some species hard. Whereas brambles drank in the rainwater and raced across the footpaths, only halted by the blades of our volunteers’ loppers, butterflies were uncommon. Early suggestions from Butterfly Conservation are that 2016 could be the worst year on record for butterflies. For those of us who have undertaken weekly surveys in the past 5 years, 2012 stands out as a nadir for British butterflies. In 2013, however, they bounced back. Nature’s ability to respond is great and we should not let inclement weather dampen our spirits for too long. Late July has shown a surprising boost, with a new record for Sydenham Hill Wood in the form of a marbled white. This butterfly is common on our chalk grassland reserves in Croydon and Bromley, but to find it in the Dulwich Woods is unusual. It has locally been seen at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve and 52 were counted at Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery on 9th July. Further to this, our butterfly walk on Sunday 24th July resulted in another unusual record, a brown argus in the main glade. This relative of the holly blue is rarely seen in Dulwich.
Glorious autumn colour and beautiful bark are two reasons why the Persian Ironwood, Parrotia persica, deserves to be grown more widely. The broad, scalloped leaves are apple green in summer, but shift to a dramatic and prolonged show of red, pink, apricot and yellow through September and October. The patterned, flaking bark is less distinctive on younger trees, but on a mature tree the patchwork of grey, pinkish brown and cream makes for great winter interest. An added - although perhaps rather subtle - bonus are the late winter flowers, quietly showy tufts of dark crimson stamens borne along the bare twigs. The similarity of these flowers to the witch hazel show how closely the two are related - both belong to the family Hamamelidaceae.
The drawback of this tree for most gardens is its sheer size. Although slow growing, Parrotia persica can reach over 15m high and its long horizontal, characterful branches can easily take the width to 8m - definitely not for every London garden. The best place in Dulwich to see a Parrotia with the space around it that it needs is the Dulwich Picture Gallery garden, which has a very bushy, medium-large domed specimen that is a beautiful autumn sight. Dulwich Park is another good place to spot them; there are at least five specimens growing around the perimeter of Dulwich Park - a bit hemmed in by the surrounding trees and shrubs, but lovely nonetheless.
This natural range of this beautiful tree is from North Iran through to the mountains of the Caucasus, so it has no trouble with tough winters. There is only one other member of the Parrotia family, and that is Parrotia subaquaelis or Chinese Ironwood. Rare both in the its native China and in cultivation, the Chinese Ironwood has a more upright habit than its Persian cousin, and its smaller stature may make it easier to fit in the average garden.
Sue Chandler Trees Committee
The Dulwich Society regrets the sad death of Jill, who capably chaired the Trees sub-committee from 2008-16. Jill’s love of trees and impressive knowledge was partly instilled by her family as a child, but was also built on by her own disciplined efforts; she completed a garden design course at Greenwich University in the ‘80.s.
A vicar’s daughter, Jill was blessed with a sparkling mind, a firm sense of duty and bundles of energy. She took on church roles, including organising home church groups, children’s holiday activities, food-banks, as well as a school governorship at a C. of E. Primary.
Besides her happy duties of wife and mother, she served as a J.P. for ten years, took an Open University degree in French in the ’90.s, and as one writer to her son and daughter remembers “ did a great deal of good by stealth”.
“What gardens and gardening events can I attend locally?” a member of the Society emailed recently. Luckily, Dulwich is a great area to live in if you’re interested in gardens, gardening and related topics, and here is a longer version of my reply.
Dulwich - and London - gardens to visit
The Society produces a “Dulwich Gardens open for Charity” brochure each year with details of local openings, this year with over 30 gardens included. The gardens range from the truly magnificent to the small and stunning, but all providing ideas and inspiration (and many providing fine teas as well).
More widely in London, there is an embarrassment of gardens to visit. Abigail Willis’s The London Garden Book A-Z (try Amazon for copies) is a good place to start for self-guiders, with www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk covering the UK as well as London. The London Parks & Garden Trust has maps for self-guided garden walks through great swathes of London (www.londongardenstrust.org). The National Trust has gardens at Fenton House (Hampstead), Ham House and Osterley Park. The London Open Squares weekend (www.opensquares.org) in June each year sees many private gardens open on that day only, and there are many National Garden Scheme (“Yellow book”) openings throughout the year as well.
Readily accessible to Dulwich is the lovely Chelsea Physic Garden; the Geffrye Museum garden at Hoxton (an easy trip Overground from Forest Hill etc); and a trip on the Dockland Light Railway to see the Crossrail Place Roof Garden at Canary Wharf and then on to see the Thames Barrier Garden (and the astonishing amount of building going on in East London) makes an interesting morning.
Guided garden walks
City of London guides have inexpensive, regular walks in the City as well as the Inns of Court, the Hill Gardens in Hampstead and other locations (www.citygardenwalks.com).
Coach trips
The Society’s Garden Group organizes an annual coach trip to important gardens such as Great Dixter and Nymans, and a more local visit or walk as well, open to all members. The praiseworthy Lambeth Horticultural Society (www.lambethhorticulturalsociety.org.uk) also organizes regular coach trips - membership costs just £7 a year.
Talks
The Lambeth Horticultural Society has monthly evening talks open to all as well as organizing a Spring and Summer flower show and having its own garden shop. The South London Botanical Institute (www.slbi.org.uk) in Tulse Hill organizes talks, workshops and events. The Society’s Garden Group organizes a yearly gardening talk, and U3A Dulwich has a garden group with monthly meetings (www.u3asites.org.uk).
Learning to garden
The Dulwich Vegetable Garden behind Rosebery Lodge (www.dulwichgoinggreener.org.uk) and Brockwell Community Greenhouses in Brockwell Park will help volunteers develop their gardening knowledge and skills. Walworth Garden Farm offers hands-on gardening courses (free to Southwark residents) as well as accredited training (www.walworthgarden.org.uk), as does Capel Manor Crystal Palace (www.capel.ac.uk). The Chelsea Physic Garden also offers courses.
Wildlife gardening
We’re lucky to have the London Wildlife Trust’s Centre for Wildlife Gardening on our doorstep in Peckham, with its demonstration wildlife gardens, mini habitats and advice (www.wildlondon.org.uk).
Garden events listings
We include details of the Garden Group’s events in the Society’s Journal, and try to list all local gardening events in the Society’s monthly eNewsletter, which is well worth signing up for (email
Jeremy Prescott Chair, Garden Group
By Brian Green
There could be no doubt, that if you received an invitation to dine with the Alleyns at their home in Dulwich you were in for a jolly, if noisy evening. On a number of occasions Edward Alleyn arranged for a group of trumpeters to come and play, another time it was a couple of drums and a fife. One time it was two of those the new fangled sackbutts and a cornet. Sackbutts? They say they are now called trombones.
Then there might be singers present, like Jack Wilson, the famous young singer and compiler of songs, or perhaps some musicians who also sat down to dinner….. or so the entries in Edward Alleyn’s diary and account book which survives from 1617-22, inform us. It also has some other interesting light to shed on this busy man. It is obvious that he had a great interest in music, probably as a performer but just possibly as a composer. Take the organ for instance. Soon after he built his Chapel and College (and Almshouse) in Dulwich 400 years ago, he bought a job lot of two, (presumably) second-hand organs from John Gibbs, the Master of Choristers of St Paul’s. One for the Chapel, and one for the schoolroom.
Was he persuaded by the various distinguished organists he employed in those early days of the College, to enlarge the one in the chapel still further? Well, something prompted him because on 13 April 1619 he paid John Burward (who had also done some work on the organ at the chapel at Hampton Court Palace) £5.10.0. for a dyapson stop and other work. Quite a sum, considering the price for the two organs together was only £8.2.0. But the organ now had added power or oomph, or in the jargon of organists - it could speak. It did not stop there, he also got Burward to build a new pipe a couple of months later. John Burward was still not finished with the Dulwich organs. On 13 May 1620 he was paid the more modest amount of fifteen shillings for ‘mending ye bellowes and tuning ye orgaine & making ye conveighaunce for ye stars turning ‘. This last item, a device for making the stars decorating the top of the organ turn while playing, sounds rather exciting.
By the time the diary ends, in 1622 still more work was being done to the Chapel organ, or perhaps this time it was for the schoolroom organ, or even both because opa Mr Hamden was paid for ‘ mending ye orgaines and making 3 or 4 newe pipes for a dyapason’. So who were the organists who were so, presumably, persuasive over the matter of the organ. We do not know very much about the first organist, Thomas Hopkins, except he was there from the beginning and witnessed the Foundation document. As he stayed six years he must have played the major role in decisions regarding the organ. Next was Benjamin Cosyns who was appointed in September 1622 and left in 1624. He was succeeded by Walter Gibbs. Whether Walter was related to John Gibbs, the master of choristers of St Paul’s we do not know. What is interesting however is that both Cosyns and Gibbs were noted composers of the English madrigal and both were also organists at St Lawrence’s Church, Ludlow.
In 1609 Edward Alleyn scrawled a note regarding his household expenses recording the purchase of a copy of ‘Shaksper sonetts 5d’. Not an extravagant outlay but interesting nevertheless as it is the only reference to William Shakespeare in the entire Alleyn archive that is not a forgery. So why did Alleyn splash out 5d on a book of sonnets written by his erstwhile rival? The obvious answer is that the sonnet was very popular in this period of English literature. The less obvious explanation is that the text of sonnets could form the lyrics of a madrigal. So was Edward Alleyn interested in madrigal singing? Well, just about everyone who enjoyed music was, in that brief period of flowering of the English madrigal tradition which arrived precisely at the time these numerous references emerge. Surely it is no coincidence that Alleyn notes the purchase on 17 December 1618 of a quire (25 sheets) of paper ‘with 5 rules for songs.’ Perhaps encouraged by early success in adding music to the words, he later makes further and larger purchases - June 1621 6 quires off royal paper pay off ye guift 0. 5. 0, July 1621 6 quires of ryall paper for songs 0. 5. 0. What is he doing with all this paper?
Another clue or perhaps red herring also appears in his diary. 11 July 1619 paid for 2 tennors and 1 treble viol £1.15.0. 17 May 1620 pd for another tenore vial which makes 6 IN ALL 0. 13. 0. So it would appear that he already had two viols and he certainly had a lute because another entry refers to spending 8d in buying new strings for the instrument.
How seriously Edward Alleyn took his music and presumably passed his enthusiasm down to the 12 poor scholars may be seen in an interesting inventory taken in 1634 by his cousin Matthias’ son John. Matthias was warden and general factotum while Alleyn ran the Foundation from 1616 until his death ten years later. He was succeeded by another cousin Thomas and then in turn by Matthias as master. We can safely assume that John Alleyne was a young man, probably a student and left Dulwich in 1634 to pursue his studies as a surgeon. We also know that he was not only keenly interested in music but actually ‘skilled’. It seems he was taking no chances when he left, that the College’s music tradition, inspired by Edward Alleyn would survive. He noted the contents of the inventory in the flyleaf of the Chapel Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, thus preserving it from interference.
The inventory records a large range of sets of madrigals by all the well-known composers of the day - John Wilbye, Thomas Morley, Nicholas Young and others. A set of Italian books 6 parts reminds us of the popularity and influence of Italian music at the time. There is also a set of songs 6 parts noted, are these the songs written on the sheets of music paper the Founder ordered?
In addition there is a list of musical instruments - the six viols mentioned in Edward Alleyn’s diary are all there, plus other instruments, the lute of course, but also a Pandora (also called a bandore) and a cythern, also called a cittern, These last two were large stringed instruments.
John Alleyne, now a qualified surgeon, returned to Dulwich as warden in 1669 and was appointed master in 1677. Were ‘the great lot of books for ye chapel of 6 parts another of 5 quarto’ still there over thirty years later, so surviving the Civil War and the putting down of music in church and the smashing up of the organ by Puritan zealots?.
John Alleyne’s fascinating inventory also mentions ‘A set of consort books’ by Thomas Morley. So it appears that Edward Alleyn either had some pals round for a music session on a regular basis, or persuaded his colleagues at the College to play his viols, pandora and cythern in his own chamber orchestra. Or might it also have been to provide some sacred music during the chapel services? He certainly makes provision in his Statutes for six paid ‘chaunters’. Two were also to double up as Junior Fellows - the organist and usher. These two were also required to teach the boys, prick-song, the ability to sing from written music. They must also have been instrumentalists because they were required to pay for replacement strings for them. Whilst Alleyn entertained hopes that other members of his Foundation would accompany the singing at chapel services, he aimed to ensure that good singing was performed by envisaging employing the remaining four chaunters at other times as additional handymen, who, when not singing in the Chapel would mend shoes, make clothes or gloves or perform embroidery. Every afternoon these craftsmen would instruct those boys unfit for university, in these useful trades.
Of course, it was all pie in the sky. They were never so engaged although the instruments and music were definitely there. What we can say with certainty was that in Alleyn’s ten years administering his Foundation, the boys learnt to sing, possibly play an instrument and that a good deal of music was made and composed in Dulwich.
There can be no doubt of Edward Alleyn’s dedication to music making. Did he, one might wonder, actually sing in any of the plays he performed, during the play, between the acts or as an after-show as was the custom? With his powerful frame and strong voice there is every reason to suppose he did.
By Sharon O’Connor
Normanby Building
During WW2 the 4th Marquess of Normanby (1912-1994) had taught Braille to prisoners of war blinded in action. He said he was the only person who could read braille by sight and upside down. After the war he was involved in St Dunstan’s, the charity for blinded service personnel, before becoming chairman of the board of governors at King’s. He often personally intervened with cabinet ministers in order to defend King’s interests. He raised funds to endow a department and a chair of child health in 1968 and the (renamed) Normanby College of Nursing; he personally paid for its canteen.
Oliver Ward
Percy Lane Oliver, OBE, (1878-1944) lived in Colyton Road in East Dulwich. He was a librarian for Camberwell and a founder member and volunteer for the Camberwell Red Cross. During WW1 he was stationed at Crystal Palace with the Royal Naval Air Service and when off-duty he and his wife worked tirelessly, managing four refugee hostels in Camberwell for which he received an OBE in 1918. With his wife he established the voluntary blood transfusion service for King’s in 1922; it later became the National Blood Service. He ran this free service from Colyton Road, raising most of the running costs himself and also advising other countries who were setting up similar schemes. In particular, he advised that donors not be considered heroes, in order to counteract any ideas that giving blood was risky.
Pantia Ralli Ward
Originally named the Nightingale Ward, it was funded by the Nightingale Fund and entirely reserved for midwifery students: medical students were not allowed to enter. It closed in 1867 after a severe outbreak of puerperal fever and when it was ready to be reopened King’s wanted to make it a children’s ward but the Nightingale Fund disagreed and withdrew funding. Peter Pantia Ralli (1837-1868) stepped in and donated £6,000 in memory of his father, Pantia Stephen Ralli, nicknamed Zeus, a hugely successful Greek merchant and leader of the Greek community in London whose firm employed over 40,000 people at one time. In 1869 the ward reopened as the first specialist children’s ward in a general hospital. The new endowment ensured it was renamed Pantia Ralli ward but locally it was known as Pansher Alley. Peter Ralli himself died of consumption aged 31, leaving an estate of over £500,000; both father and son are buried at West Norwood. During a financial crisis the ward was leased to the Maudsley for psychiatric patients and when it reverted to King’s after WW2 it was no longer used as a children’s ward. It is now Cotton ward.
Philip Isaacs Day Treatment Ward
Philip Leonard Isaacs (1923-1995) opened Britain’s first bingo hall in 1961 and went on to create the Ritz casino. He was active in many charities but was especially generous to the Variety Children’s Hospital at King’s.
Princess Elizabeth Ward
Originally one of two children's wards, called the Wigram Department after Edward Wigram, hospital treasurer; the other was Pantia Ralli. In 1929 the Duchess of York visited and named a cot for her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth II. The whole ward was later renamed Princess Elizabeth.
Rayne Institute
Sir Max Rayne, Baron Rayne of Prince’s Meadow, (1918-2003) was born into a cultured but impoverished family of Polish migrants in the East End and attended Central Foundation School (a minor beneficiary of the Dulwich Estate). He became a hugely successful property developer and an outstanding philanthropist, giving away millions every year since the 1960s. He said ‘I don’t think there’s any merit in amassing huge fortunes…. if you’ve got it, it’s easy to give it away’. In 1979 he funded the £1.2m Rayne Institute for research which opened on a site reputed to have been occupied by Fred Karno’s army and Charlie Chaplin in WW1.
Rays of Sunshine Ward
Formerly the Mountbatten ward, it was renamed in 2009 following a £500,000 donation from the Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity and specialises in paediatric liver conditions.
RD Lawrence Ward
Robert Daniel Lawrence (1892-1968), always known as Robin, joined King's in 1919. He developed diabetes following a serious infection caught while working in the post mortem department. At that time such a diagnosis was a death sentence. In 1923 Lawrence left King’s to go to Florence, believing he was soon to die and not wanting to be a burden on his family. However, insulin was discovered the same year. A colleague, Dr Harrison, sent him a telegram: ‘I’ve got insulin. It works. Come back quick’. Lawrence drove across Europe, reaching King’s in severe ketosis to become one of the world’s first recipients of insulin. It saved his life and he went on to play a leading role in diabetic research including founding the diabetic department at King’s in 1932 and researching how best to use insulin. With H G Wells, one of his patients, he founded the Diabetic Association. He was said to know all his patients by name and had a highly informal style, popular with patients but less so with the medical establishment who did not always appreciate formal letters being signed ‘Lorenzo il Magnifico’.
Ruskin Wing
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was an art critic, writer and social reformer who spent his most creative years in the area. Nearby Ruskin Park is used as a landing site for the London Air Ambulance (until the King’s helipad is built).
Sam Oram Ward
Sam Oram (1913-1991) was born in Peckham and after leaving school he worked as a laboratory technician before winning an LCC scholarship to study medicine. He trained at King’s, qualifying in 1939 and winning several prizes including the medical school’s senior scholarship. In 1941 he was awarded London University’s gold medal for his doctoral thesis. After serving in WW2 he became a cardiologist at King’s. He was a superb teacher and his skill as a poker player (acquired in the army) was brought into use when questioning his medical students, many of whom went on to become consultant cardiologists themselves. With Mary Holt he was the first to describe a condition of limb abnormalities and congenital heart disease that became known as Holt-Oram syndrome. He introduced the technique of synchronised electrical defibrillation to the UK and helped establish open heart surgery at King’s. He lived in Dulwich from 1952-1983.
Sambrooke Ward
Thomas Godfrey Sambrooke (1839-1871) was chairman of the Eagle Insurance company and a vice-president of the hospital. He endowed a medical and surgical registrarship and left £10,000 to fund scholarships.
Sheikh Zaid Centre for Liver Research
In 1979 the president of the UAE, Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan Al-Nahiyan arranged for his government to fund a centre for liver research.
Storks Ward
The surgeon, Robert Reeves Storks (1820-1902), left the hospital £60,000 in memory of his barrister father, Serjeant Henry Storks, who had himself been a supporter of the hospital.
Sylvia Henley Ward
Sylvia Laura Henley OBE (1882-1980) was a close friend of Winston Churchill and a cousin of his wife, Clementine; Churchill’s wartime diaries contain many references to her. She began running a children’s clinic before WW1, almost as a prototype health visitor. During WW1 she ran a canteen for war workers in the hospital. In 1920 she was asked to join the board of governors but this was not without controversy as there were objections to a woman governor. She did join however, and was a member until 1973. It was said she had an incisive mind, a forthright manner and inspected the hospital kitchens ‘like the C.O. of an army hospital’.
Thomas Cook Children’s Critical Care Centre
The centre was opened in 2008 thanks to donations from the staff and customers of the travel company Thomas Cook and the Variety Club Children’s Charity.
Todd Ward
The Hospital owes its existence to Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860), a doctor who became a professor at King’s medical school at the age of 27 when it had no teaching hospital. He bombarded the powers-that-be until, ‘seeing that Dr Todd would not be happy until he got it, and until Dr Todd got it we would have no rest’ they agreed to set up a teaching hospital. Todd then helped plan and fund it and also organised a major reorganisation of the medical school, establishing standards and disciplines which were then followed all over the world. He helped popularise the microscope as a means of diagnosis and was the first to describe cirrhosis of the liver. A renowned neuroscientist, he was the first to apply Faraday’s concept of electricity and magnetism to the brain and he developed the first electrical theory of epilepsy. His statue, which once stood in the entrance hall of the old hospital in Portugal Street can be found outside the Hambleden Wing on the Denmark Hill site. Todd’s name lives on in his prescription of a hot drink of brandy, cinnamon, sugar and water, known as a hot toddy. He took this prescription in great amounts himself and it undoubtedly contributed to his death from alcoholic cirrhosis, a disease he had himself researched and which at the time was called Todd’s Disease.
Toni & Guy Ward
The Toni and Guy Charitable Foundation was founded by Toni and Guy Mascolo, owners of the global hairdressing company. It donated £700,000 to renovate a ward as part of the Variety Children’s Hospital
Trundle Ward
George Trundle (1831-1923) was a wharfinger, an owner or manager of a wharf, at Bankside in Southwark who became a very successful businessman. Passing King’s one day in 1918 he saw a poster appealing for funds and donated £10,000 ‘as a thank-offering for his success in business’. The gift funded a men’s ward.
Twining Ward
The 19th century tea merchants and bankers were the hospital’s bankers for many years. Samuel Twining (1853-1916) left the hospital a bequest to commemorate Richard (1772-1857) who was a member of King’s first committee of management. Many Twining family members served the hospital, in particular two of Richard’s daughters, Louisa (1820-1911) and Elizabeth (1805-1889), were great benefactors and social reformers. Louisa was a friend of Florence Nightingale, secretary of the ladies’ appeal committee and was instrumental in raising £10,000 for the second King’s building in Portugal Street.
Variety Children's Hospital
Variety, the children’s charity, undertook a major fundraising project which enabled the hospital to open the £2 million special hospital for children and young people in 1985. Originally three wards called Mountbatten, Butlin and Princess Elizabeth and an operating theatre, it now consists of a dedicated critical care centre, a day care unit, an outpatient department and four in-patient wards: Lion, Princess Elizabeth, Rays of Sunshine, and Toni & Guy.
Victoria and Albert Ward
Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort, gave permission for two wards to be named after them; oddly, the men's ward was named after Victoria and the women’s ward after Albert. They were provided for the sole use of Lord Lister and he made the condition that no other member of staff be allowed to use them, at the time it was the fashion to be able to say ‘my ward’. So many members of the public came to see Lister, especially to see him dress wounds in the wards, that it was necessary to print ward notices in three languages. Victoria and Albert became a single ward in 1913.
Victor Parsons Ward
Victor Parsons (1929-1995) was born in London but grew up in the Far East where his parents where missionaries. He studied at Oxford and Harvard before completing his medical training at King’s. Apart from national service and a short spell at Guy’s he spent his career at King’s where he set up the renal unit. He made many contributions to renal medicine, in particular he furthered the understanding of bone disease in long-term dialysis patients and he and his colleague, Peter Watkins, were pioneers in the treatment of kidney failure due to diabetes. He was very public-spirited and accepted patients who were refused treatment elsewhere, e.g. hepatitis B carriers. He was also active as a surgeon commander in the naval reserve. He retired early in 1989 and took a theology degree, was ordained and became vicar of All Saints in Upper Norwood. He continued to research and analyse medical data right up until his death from prostate cancer
Waddington Ward
In the 1880s £1,500 towards the cost of opening a ward at King's, was given ‘in memory of Anne Waddington, per Sir George Johnson’, her surgeon and friend. Johnson was a distinguished member of the medical faculty at King’s and one of Queen Victoria’s personal physicians. It was said that he divided the scientific world into two classes - those who agreed with him, and the others.
Wigram Department
Edward Wigram (1802-1870) was treasurer of King’s in the 1860s. The two children’s wards, Princess Elizabeth and Pantia Ralli, were jointly known as the Wigram Dept.
William Bowman Ward
Sir William Bowman (1816-1892) trained at King’s, practised there until the 1860s and retained a connection with the hospital for the rest of his life. With Dr Todd he helped establish the St John’s House nurses at King’s and was a friend of Florence Nightingale, sending her trained nurses when she was out in the Crimea. A research scientist as much as a surgeon, he was a leading figure in using microscopes to study the human body and there are several structures named after him, such as Bowman’s glands and Bowman’s membrane. He devoted the early part of his career to research in anatomy and the later part to ophthalmology. At one stage he was London’s leading eye surgeon and he established the department of ophthalmology at King’s, probably its first specialist department.
William Gilliatt Ward
Sir William Gilliatt (1884-1956) joined King’s in 1916 and helped found its department of gynaecology and obstetrics. He was also a guiding light in the administration and organisation of the hospital as a governor, its first medically qualified vice-chairman and as acting chairman during the handover to the newly-formed NHS in the years leading up to 1948. He was known to pay particular attention to the needs of the nursing staff. He was obstetrician and gynaecologist to the royal household, attending at the births of Princes Charles and Princess Anne and consequently had a large private practice which included royal mothers around the world; it was said of him that he walked with queens but never lost the common touch and all the thousands of babies he brought into the world received the same care and attention.
By Bernard Nurse
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Grange, the house between the golf course and the tollgate, was the home of a group of ladies brought together by tragic circumstances. Three of them, Helen Atkinson, Arabella Atkinson and Frances Bailey with a visitor, are shown outside the front entrance in a photograph taken about 1896. Helen Atkinson, the young lady on the left, kept this picture with a quantity of papers and other photographs relating to her time in Dulwich and left them to my parents with the contents of her house when she died in 1967. The photographs give the impression of elegantly dressed ladies enjoying a peaceful and idyllic life in a country house. Other evidence throws a different light on the residents’ background, as well as a rare glimpse into the interior of a middle class house of the time.
Helen was the lady next door when I was growing up in Carshalton, but rarely left her room. She lived the life of a recluse in a four bedroomed house which was darkly painted and full of the Victorian furniture that she had brought from Dulwich. She lived with two companions and when they died, my mother looked after her with local help. I knew little of her background until after her death and nothing about her time in Dulwich. The papers give tantalizing clues. A letter from the 3rd Earl Nelson dated 18 May 1863 addressed to Mrs Atkinson gives his condolences on the death of her husband. The 1894 will of Arabella Atkinson leaves her possessions to her granddaughter, Helen Atkinson. The will of William Swaffield Bailey, a retired commander in the Royal Navy, dated 1878 leaves his estate to his wife Frances Magdalene Bailey. A Christmas card in the form of a cut out sailing ship from Helen addressed to Uncle Willie suggests he was still alive around 1890. An undated letter from Harriet hopes that all is well in Yarmouth.
From the evidence in the surviving papers, together with census returns now available up to 1911 and certificates of birth, marriage and death, it is possible to identify the residents of the household and something of their past history. On the night of the census in 1891, they consisted of: Frances M Bailey (head) married, aged 64, living on her own means, born in Weymouth; Arabella Atkinson, aged 67, widow also living on her own means, born in Salisbury, Ethel Vaughan, niece, single, born in Herstmonceux, Sussex; Helen Atkinson, niece, single, aged 13, born in Bristol; two female servants, Harriet Eldridge and Fanny Matthews, and a visitor, Albert Cockcroft, a cousin aged 18.
As women were not entitled to vote then, the only person on the electoral register for the Grange was William Swaffield Bailey, and the Dulwich College lease was assigned to him from 1882 until surrendered by his widow in 1901. The reason why he never lived there is explained by the address on the probate of his will, the Royal Naval Hospital, Great Yarmouth. This was a mental hospital for navy personnel and although the admission registers have not survived, the 1891 census records him there under his initials, B.,W.S., commissioned officer, lunatic. In 1881, he was living in Penge with his wife and servant, Harriet, so it is likely that he was admitted to the hospital soon afterwards having set up his wife in the house in Dulwich. All the invoices for the Grange in Helen’s papers are made out to his wife, Frances. Having retired on half pay and worked for a few years in the City as a broker, William died reasonably well-off, leaving the equivalent of about £400,000 to his widow.
Arabella Atkinson was Frances Bailey’s sister. In 1848, she married a cousin, John Atkinson, a farmer with land in Downton, Wiltshire, the same parish as Trafalgar House, the home of the 3rd Earl Nelson. John was successful, winning a prize for the 100 best breeding ewes ‘ good on tooth’, but died in 1863 at the age of 44 in the last outbreak of cholera to affect Britain, leaving Arabella a widow to bring up four children under 12.
Arabella’s eldest and only daughter, Julia was Helen’s mother. The birth certificate from 1878 reveals that Julia was not married at the time, hence Helen was given her mother’s surname. It also reveals her father as Herbert Henry James, an accountant, and that they were married by the time, two months later, when the birth was registered. A year afterwards Julia died of scarlet fever, a common disease in the nineteenth century for severe cases of which there was no effective cure. Julia’s husband, aged about 22 when his wife died, moved in with his parents in Somerset, never marrying again and not apparently keeping any contact with the Atkinsons. Although no record has been traced of Helen or her grandmother’s whereabouts until 1891, it would seem that Arabella looked after her grandchild and they lived together until the older woman’s death in 1897 when Helen was 19.
The house they moved to in Dulwich was originally a cottage built in the grounds of a farmhouse on Dulwich Common. It had been enlarged and improved a few years earlier to create a spacious property with large garden and outbuildings. There were six bedrooms on the first floor; the dining room, drawing room, morning room, kitchen, servants’ quarters and bicycle room were on the ground floor. At the end of the garden were the greenhouse, vinery and tomato house. The previous farm buildings had been converted to stables, chicken house, coal house and dairy with a 2 bedroom gardener’s cottage. Photographs kept by Helen, unfortunately now much faded, show the Grange with much the same appearance outside as today. Although destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, it was rebuilt in the 1950s as close as possible in style to the Victorian house, but without the veranda.
From the number of religious calendars, tracts and Christmas cards sent to each other the ladies were devout members of the Church of England, and attended Christchurch, Gipsy Hill. Two distant cousins, and the only relatives mentioned in Helen’s will, married into the Deck family of evangelical missionaries active in the South Pacific. Lucy was acknowledged for her kindness in sending food parcels to Helen during the war. They had another interest in common, Norman Deck, the husband of one of her cousins, became a distinguished photographer whose records of South Sea Islanders are now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Helen also was interested in photography and left an album of Surrey street scenes taken around 1905, many of which have been copied for the Historic England Archive.
By then her grandmother had died and the lease of the Grange had been surrendered to the Dulwich Estate after the death of Commander Bailey. Little maintenance appears to have been carried out by Frances as the Estate charged her £285 (about £32,000 today) for repairs which were listed in great detail by the solicitors. They required the property to be completely redecorated inside and out and several areas of defective woodwork, plaster and tiles to be made good. Helen, Frances and at least two other ladies, Miss Mullins and Miss Ford then moved to Folkestone with all the furniture from Dulwich. Valued after Frances’ death in 1905 at £923 (about £100,000 today), the most valuable items were the silver, two large satsuma vases, the overmantel and some of the paintings. Helen’s share was a half, including one of the vases and the overmantel, and despite moving several times after the death of her great aunt brought most of these possessions to her last house in Carshalton.
Financially independent, with shares left to her by Frances, Helen led an active life in her twenties; a keen cyclist and photographer she is shown in one picture with a party enjoying themselves on a boat. However, she kept nothing after 1910 except one suffragette pamphlet, and after the Second World War she was already a recluse. One explanation I was given was that the man she hoped to marry died in Africa. The postcards she kept suggest a different story. The largest group is from a man who served in Africa in the Colonial Civil Service but he became Chief Constable of Nyasaland and did not die until 1943. Peter David Handyside Shute Piers was born in 1869 in Weymouth, where Frances Bailey was also born. His father had died when he was seven and the family moved to Camberwell shortly afterwards. By 1903 he had been posted to British Central Africa, later called Nyasaland and now Malawi. The postcards depict many scenes of the protectorate at the time and he writes affectionately of bringing back gifts and hoping to see Helen and her Aunt Fanny soon, but they cease abruptly in June 1908. Two years later The Times reported the society wedding in Chelsea between Peter Piers and his cousin Rose, the daughter of Sir Eustace Piers.
By Ian McInnes
The words ‘Dulwich’ and ‘Schools’ are synonymous, yet whenever Dulwich appears in press articles or on TV, it tends to be the local Foundation Schools, Dulwich College, Alleyns and JAGS, that are mentioned. Locals know we have excellent state schools in terms of academic performance, their children use them, but perhaps not everyone realises that we also have some of the best examples architecturally. Primary schools like Bessemer Grange and Dulwich Wood (formerly Langbourne School) were trend setters in the 1940s and 50s, as Kingsdale and Charter are in more recent times, and the Charter School East Dulwich will be. And, we should also not forget the Victorian Board Schools, East and West Dulwich have an excellent selection of them, in good condition and, more importantly, all in their original use.
'Forster's Act', the pioneering Elementary Education Act of 1870 was the first to establish a national, secular, non-charitable provision for the education of children aged 5-13. The Act required partially state-funded elementary schools to be established in areas where existing provision was inadequate. These were to be managed by elected school boards, and maintained out of the local rates. The two driving forces were the need for a literate and numerate workforce to ensure that Britain remained at the forefront of manufacture and commerce (where have we heard that recently?), and a genuine desire amongst many politicians to 'educate our masters' - the 1867 Reform Act had extended the franchise to the male urban working classes and they needed to be able to read and write.
The Act empowered school boards to educate children between the ages of 5 and 13 but exempted any child aged over 10 who had reached certain standards. The Act meant that attendance at school became compulsory and, although, the schools initially charged fees, poor parents could be exempted.
The School Board of London was the first to be founded in 1870. It was the most influential and one of the first truly democratic elected bodies in Britain, containing both women and members of all social classes. Its members included five MPs, eleven clergymen, the scientist Thomas Huxley, suffragist/educationalist Emily Davies, Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Benjamin Lucraft -, a working-class cabinetmaker, and city solicitor and local resident, Henry Gover (1835-95) - who lived at ‘Lyncombe’ No 1 Crescent Wood Road)
The Board's politics were ambitious and progressive, passing a by-law compelling parents to send children to school as early as 1871 - this was not compulsory nationally until 1880. However, while the stated intention was to keep children in school till aged 13, the reality was that many left by the age of 10 to earn money to help keep their families. It wasn’t until 1900 that 13 became the school leaving age.
Urban planning was not something the Victorians gave a great deal of thought to initially, and the piecemeal development of East Dulwich during the 1870s demonstrates this - it was left entirely to market forces. As a result, construction of schools usually came later than the housing and the buildings tended to have to fit onto the sites that were left - hence the frequent need to build them three floors high. Where a demand was identified, the Board would put up temporary corrugated iron huts to generate initial interest before building the actual school itself.
The schools themselves were designed to be architecturally imposing, to demonstrate that education was a noble purpose. By Victorian standards they were well built, light and airy, and the Board’s architects, E R Robson (from 1871-82) and T J Bailey (from 1882 onwards), created a distinctive and highly influential board school aesthetic. Their preference for the ‘Queen Anne style’ was then seen as forward looking, and was a reaction against the mid-Victorian Gothic Revival generally used for educational buildings up until that point - compare the 1860s buildings at Dulwich Hamlet with the later 1890s ones.
The schools did not escape contemporary criticism - both on the grounds of the expense to rate-payers, and for potentially radicalising the urban poor through secular education. Supporters like Charles Booth were unapologetic, believing in the power of universal education to transform society. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called Board Schools ‘'Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future'. The unpopularity of the Board with ratepayers, however, led to its abolition in 1902 and responsibility for educating London's children was transferred to the London County Council.
Bellenden Road School in Peckham (listed Grade II) was the first to open in the area in 1877. The first school to actually be built in East Dulwich was Heber Road Primary School in 1882. Designed by E R Robson, it is typical of his later work, and appears to be largely unaltered externally. The halls are located in the centre of the complex and an unusual tower marks the staircase at the west end. The twin facades to the north and south have flower motifs and plaques on every gable. The buildings were sympathetically re-roofed by Southwark Council about ten years ago.
Adys Road School was designed by T J Bailey when he was chief assistant to E R Robson - it is now the St Johns & St Clements C of E Primary School. Goodrich Primary School, T J Bailey's first school designed on his own, followed in 1886-87 and was published in the ‘Builder’ magazine the following year. There is a two storey (Boys and Girls) block with classroom façade facing to the north and hall façade facing south to the playground. The one storey (Infant) block to the south with has delicate bas reliefs on its gable ends. The roof which has been replaced, unfortunately without some of its original detail, and there is a later "bridging" block between the two main blocks which is less successful.
Goose Green Primary School (listed Grade II), originally called Grove Vale School opened in 1900. It sits on the site of a former plant nursery which was still in business as late as 1894. The body of the school consists of a three-storey block with the classroom façade to Grove Vale in the grand ‘late Bailey’ manner, rich in terracotta dressings. The style is neo-classical, almost baroque, with pediments, a cupola and a fleche but the building was never completed - the West wing is missing.
Moving westwards, Dulwich Hamlet School also received the Board treatment. Originally built in Gothic style by Charles Barry jnr. for James Allen’s Girls’ School in 1868 it was vacated when JAGS moved to East Dulwich Grove in 1886, the building was initially hired and later purchased by the Board. The result is a complex of Barry’s original building and one and two storey buildings, one of which appears to be an example of low key later Bailey.
In Lambeth, the Rosendale Primary School (also listed Grade II) dates from 1899. The site of this school was bought in 1894 for £2,800 despite some of the inhabitants of the adjacent houses protesting that the school would depreciate the value of their property and that there were “no poor children anywhere near”. Temporary iron school buildings for 360 children opened in January 1897. The permanent school provided accommodation for 476 children and 276 infants, and was built by Treasure and Son of Holloway for £15,589.
The Two-storey tall centre block has two wide bays whose paired central gables are divided by a tall chimney with a cupola on the ridge behind. The high-pitched tiled roof sweeps down to a moulded brick eaves cornice at much lower level. One-storey side wings have similar inner gabled sections and outer roofs with eaves much lower. Below the gables are tall windows; the flanking walls are blank but for ornamental panels with titles on the first floor of the central block. One-storey irregular return wings have projecting gabled ends and tall inner gables rising through eaves as in front. Curved brick shapes against a pale roughcast background give a Dutch appearance to the end gables
The other Board school in West Dulwich is the Kingswood Primary School, built (1878-80) by local Dulwich builder George Ward. Originally designed to hold 600 pupils, the substantial extensions in 1904-05 increased pupil numbers to 1200.