The manor of Paddington, formerly held by Westminster Abbey, became in 1550 one of the estates of the Bishop of London. Thereafter the Bishop leased out the estate. An Act of 1795 permitted the granting of building leases and thus the gradual development of the estate. It reverted to the Church Commissioners in 1953. The records were created following the 1795 Act.
Philip Elias Twist decided in 1769 to build on his land in Oxford Street a building suitable for public entertainment, an 'indoor Ranelagh'. It was to be called the Pantheon. The project was financed by selling 50 shares in the building and its profit, in the form of leases for 61 years.
The main room was a huge and beautiful rotunda based on Santa Sophia, Constantinople. There were smaller vestibules, card rooms and tea rooms. It took more than two and a half years to complete and was opened in 1772. It was widely admired by Londoners and foreign visitors. The building was used for entertainments such as masquerades, ridottos, fetes and concerts. In 1791 it was decided to turn the building into a theatre, but it was burnt down in 1792.
The ruined building was restored by Crispus Clagett, the proprietor of the Apollo Gardens, and reopened in 1796. However, the project proved too expensive, and Clagett disappeared leaving his debts. The building changed hands several times, each owner finding it too expensive to adapt. In 1813 the owner Nicholas Cundy violated the terms of the licence by opening a theatre in the building and was closed down by the Lord Chamberlain. In 1814 it was stipped of its fittings and left empty. It was converted into a bazaar in 1833 and sold to Marks and Spencer in 1937. They demolished it and built in its place their Oxford Street shop.
The manor of Stepney, also known as Stebunheath, was recorded in the Domesday Book as owned by the Bishop of London, and was probably part of the lands included in the foundation grant of the see of London circa 604. At this date the manor included Stepney, Hackney, and parts of Shoreditch, Islington, Hornsey and Clerkenwell; although parcels of land were later granted to other institutions and people, such as lands in Clerkenwell given to the priory of St Mary, Clerkenwell, and the Knights Hospitallers.
In 1550 the manors of Stepney and Hackney were surrendered to the King, who granted them to Lord Chamberlain Sir Thomas Wentworth. The manor stayed in the Wentworth family until Thomas, Lord Wentworth, the earl of Cleveland. He incurred large debts and was forced to mortgage the manors. The family eventually lost Hackney manor but retained Stepney until 1695 when it was sold to William Herbert, Lord Montgomery. In 1710 he sold it to Windsor Sandys. By 1754 it belonged to the Colebrooke family who held it until 1939. In 1926 all remaining copyholds were converted into freeholds.
The manor house at Stepney was used as a residence of the bishops of London and the Stepney meadows provided hay for his household's horses. The house later became known as Bishopswood or Bishops Hall, and later Bonner Hall.
Information from: 'Stepney: Manors and Estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 19-52 (available online).
Members of the Penhall family mentioned in the documents include John Penhall of St John's Wood, gentleman; John Penhall of Soho, wine merchant; John Thomas Penhall of Sussex, surgeon; John Thomas Penhall of Worcestershire, medical doctor; and William Penhall of Brighton, gentleman.
William Pym, a gentleman resident in Clerkenwell and Holborn, is frequently mentioned in these documents.
Richard Stuart Lane was a Baltic shipping agent and London-Baltic merchant of Lane, Hankey and Company, based at 251 Old Broad Street and 8 Chesham Place, SW.
J. and W. Nicholson & Co. Ltd., gin distillers, owned a distillery at Three Mills, West Ham.
Miss Lizzie Alldridge lived at 2 Victoria Road, Old Charlton, when she began compiling her commonplace book on 29 October 1891. Of her we know only that she had an interest in art, was probably non-conformist, that she had probably been to Paris, could read German, French and Italian, and had a niece called Lois of whom she was fond.
The most prominent member of the Angerstein family was John Julius Angerstein (c 1732-1823). John Julius was apparently from a Russian family, although his precise origins were unclear. A family story maintained that he was the son of Empress Anne and a merchant Andrew Poulett Thompson, and that the name Angerstein came from the doctor who delivered him. He came to England aged 15 and worked in the counting-house of Andrew Poulett Thompson. By 1770 Angerstein was established as a broker, with an office in Cornhill. He worked in a succession of partnerships until his retirement in 1810, by which time he was handling 200 accounts.
Angerstein was among those who subscribed to the 1771 fund to find premises for a new Lloyd's Coffee House and in 1773 negotiated with the Gresham committee for the lease of rooms in the Royal Exchange. He served on the Lloyd's Committee from 1786 to 1796, and in 1810 represented those doing business at Lloyd's at the select committee on marine insurance. Angerstein's interests extended beyond Lloyd's and he was chairman of 5 subscription funds, as well as having varied private philanthropic interests.
Angerstein lived at 103 Pall Mall and Woodlands, Blackheath, built for him in 1774. He accumulated a notable private art collection and was an active patron of contemporary artists and writers, particularly Sir Thomas Lawrence who painted his portrait. Angerstein died in 1823. 38 paintings from his collection, by artists including Titian, Claude, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez and Van Dyck, were acquired by the government and formed the basis of the National Gallery collection.
He was married twice, first to Anne Muilman who had two children, John and Juliana. Anne died in 1783 and John Julius married Eliza Payne, who died in 1800. John Angerstein devoted much time to developing the Woodlands estates, and was elected MP for Greenwich in 1835.
Information from: Sarah Palmer, 'Angerstein, John Julius (c 1732-1823)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.
The Calvert family had branches in Yorkshire, Kent and London (Fleet Street and Newington). Members of the family were barristers and churchmen.
The Chatterly family lived at St Martin in the Fields. Watermen were boatmen or licensed wherry-men who were available for hire on the river Thames. Lightermen owned and operated lighters, flat-bottomed barges which were used in 'lightening' or unloading ships that could not be unloaded at a wharf, and also used for transporting goods of any kind.
Willoughby Hyett Dickinson was born in 1859 at Stroud, Gloucestershire. He was knighted in 1918 and became a peer in 1930, taking the title Lord Dickinson of Painswick, where he had his family home.
In 1899 Dickinson became an Independent London County Council member for Wandsworth; his party came to be known as the Progressive Party. He was Deputy Chairman of the LCC 1892 to 1896, and Chairman in 1899. After serving as an alderman for a number of years he finally left the Council in 1907. Dickinson's career as an MP lasted from 1906 until 1918, for which period he was the Liberal member for North St Pancras; he joined the Labour Party in 1930.
The papers contain references to Reverend W Gambier and Reverend J E Gambier.
Arthur's Club, a social club for gentlemen, was founded in 1811, and originated in Arthur's Chocolate House, a club in St James's Street. The hall of the club had a portrait of courtesan Kitty Fisher, who by tradition had been kept for a time by a fund to which all the club members subscribed. Arthur's is now closed.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
Trades mentioned in the documents include carver, haberdasher, carman, fruiterer and loriner. Loriners made bits and bridles for horses.
Robert William Ramsey, FSA, was the author of Studies in Cromwell's Family Circle, 1930; Henry Cromwell, 1933 and Richard Cromwell: Protector of England, 1935. He was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and the Friends of the National Libraries. He died in 1951, aged 89.
These documents and newspaper cuttings belonged to, or relate to Canon John Otter Stephens. After a curacy at Belgrave, Leicestershire, in 1858, he became Vicar of Savernake, Wiltshire, in 1861, of Blankney, Lincolnshire, in 1879 and of All Saints, Tooting, 1903-1912. Made an honorary Canon of Southwark Cathedral in 1914, he died in 1925, aged 93.
In 1901 when Lady Charles Brudenell-Bruce died, she left money in trust for the creation of a new district and church in memory of her husband, Lord Charles Brudenell-Bruce. A tent church, established at Tooting in 1903 was succeeded by an iron church, and the consecration of All Saints took place in 1906.
No historical information has been found for the Thrift family.
JG Timms was the Head Teacher of the Rosendale Road School, West Dulwich.
Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.
Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.
From 1837 to 1845 Fulham parish was one of the parishes controlled by Kensington Poor Law Union. In 1845 it united with the parish of Hammersmith as Fulham Poor Law Union. However, in 1899 the Fulham Poor Law Union was dissolved and the Board of Guardians for the separate Parish of Fulham was constituted. The Fulham Palace Road Workhouse was constructed in 1848. In 1884 an infirmary was added to the north of the site, facing Saint Dunstan's Road.
In 1908 the Union took over management of school buildings in Sutton, renaming them the Belmont Workhouse. In the 1920s this institution began a scheme training inmates in key skills to improve their chances of gaining employment. When the London County Council took over the building it continued this work, renaming the institution the Sutton Training Centre.
Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.
Colney Hatch Asylum opened at Friern Barnet in July 1851 as the second pauper lunatic asylum for the County of Middlesex. The first Middlesex County Pauper Asylum, now Saint Bernard's Hospital, had opened at Hanwell in 1831 (see H11/HLL). In 1851 Colney Hatch, designed in the Italianate style by S. W. Dawkes, with 1,250 beds was the largest and most modern institution of its kind in Europe. Within ten years it was enlarged to take 2,000 patients. It had its own cemetery (closed in 1873 after which patients were buried in the Great Northern Cemetery), its own farm on which many patients were employed, its own water supply, and its own sewage works built after local residents complained of untreated sewage from the asylum flowing into Pym's Brook.
On the creation of the County of London in 1889 Colney Hatch Asylum was transferred from the control of the Middlesex Justices to the London County Council, although it remained geographically within the administrative county of Middlesex. The need for more accommodation for lunatics led to construction in 1896 of a temporary wood and iron building for 320 chronic and infirm female patients in five dormitories. This was destroyed by a fire in 1903 with the loss of 51 lives. Between 1908 and 1913 seven permanent brick villas were built, one for behavioural disordered subnormal and epileptic boys, two with verandas for tubercular and dysenteric cases, and the remainder for women who had survived the fire. In 1912 a disused carpenter's shop and stores at the railway siding were converted into additional accommodation for male patients. Brunswick House at Mistley in Essex was leased in 1914 to provide 50 beds for working male patients supervised by a single charge attendant and four assistants. After the First World War, Brunswick House became a separate unit for higher-grade “subnormals”.
Construction of a male admission villa in 1927 and a female nurses home in 1937 freeing 89 beds for female patients brought the number of patients to its highest total of almost 2,700. In 1937 it was renamed Friern Hospital. Patients were admitted from the Metropolitan boroughs of Finsbury, Hampstead, Holborn, Islington, Saint Marylebone, Saint Pancras and Shoreditch. Jewish patients from the whole of the County of London were as far as possible congregated at Friern, which provided special arrangements for the preparation of food and religious ministrations. The staff included nine full time doctors, 494 nurse and 171 probationers.
On the outbreak of the Second World War 12 wards along the main front corridor containing 215 male and 409 female beds were taken over by the Emergency Medical Service run by units from Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. Patients were sent to other hospitals or distributed around the remaining wards. Five villas were either destroyed or damaged by air raids in 1941 in which 36 patients and 4 nurses died. Shortage of accommodation resulted in acute overcrowding.
In 1948 Friern Hospital became part of the National Health Service under the control of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. It had its own Hospital Management Committee, which was renamed the New Southgate Group Hospital Management Committee on the opening of Halliwick Hospital in 1958. This was a new 145 bed block built in the grounds of Friern at a distance from the main hospital. It was intended to serve as an admission unit to separate recent cases from confirmed, long stay patients. In practice it became a 'neurosis unit' for 'less sick, socially superior, and fringe patients' (Hunter and MacAlpine p.50) selected by the medical staff. By 1972 it ceased to be treated as a separate hospital and, now known as Halliwick House, provided admission and convalescent beds for the main hospital.
By 1973 the official maximum number of patients in Friern had been reduced to 1,500. On the reorganisation of the National Health Service in 1974 the hospital became the responsibility of the North East Thames Regional Health Authority and Camden and Islington Area Health Authority. On the abolition of area health authorities in 1982, Friern was transferred to Hampstead Health Authority, which in 1993 merged with Bloomsbury and Islington Health Authority to form Camden and Islington Health Authority. By 1989 it had been decided that Friern Hospital should close as part of the policy of replacing large long stay mental hospitals with care in the community. The hospital finally closed on 31 March 1993.
In 1883, the Countess of Dufferin arrived in India with her husband, who had been created Viceroy. She had been asked to take an interest in the medical relief of Indian women by Queen Victoria, who had been upset by the accounts of Mary Scharlieb and Elizabeth Bielby (both graduates of the London School of Medicine for Women), regarding their experience of this matter. Strict purdah was kept at this time by Muslim, but also some Hindu women, with the result that many suffered and died unnecessarily through lack of medical care. The Countess of Dufferin's Fund was established in 1885, to provide financial support for a "National Association for the Supplying of Female Medical Aid to the Women of India". This Association, which was formally registered in 1888, aimed to train women as doctors, nurses and midwives, to provide female wards in existing hospitals, and to endow hospitals for women and children. The Association consisted of a Central Committee which acted as a link between a number of local branches based in India. These branches were expected to contribute financially to the central fund, and to adhere to the objects of the National Association, but were otherwise independent. The Association celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1935.
Dame Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-Blake was born in 1865, the daughter of the rector of Chingford. From an early age, she showed a natural gift for healing; when eight years old she organised an animal hospital and friends brought their sick and wounded pets for Louisa's attention. Her family was well-connected and she need not have worked for a living, but she decided to enter the demanding world of medicine. Graduating from the London School of Medicine for Women in 1893, she went on to take the University of London's higher degrees in Medicine and Surgery, becoming the first woman to obtain the degree of Master of Surgery. Throughout her career, Louisa Aldrich-Blake was associated with the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, becoming surgeon in 1910. At the Royal Free Hospital, she was the first woman to hold the post of surgical registrar and also acted as an anaesthetist. During the years of the First World War, many of the male surgical staff of the Royal Free went on foreign active service and Louisa took increased responsibility for the surgery, becoming consulting surgeon to the hospital. Louisa was a bold, meticulous and very successful surgeon, with great management and diagnostic skill. She was the first in Britain to perform operations for cancer of the cervix and rectum. Louisa Aldrich-Blake became Dean of the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women in 1914, and exercised an important influence on generations of women medical students. The climax of her career came in 1924 when, in the jubilee year of the medical school, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She died in 1925 and is remembered as a brilliant surgeon and wise administrator.
This Committee was established by the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board in June 1948 to carry out work under the National Health Service Act in anticipation of the creation of the National Health Service in July 1948.
Between 1948 and 1963 the Enfield Group administered the following hospitals:
Cheshunt Cottage Hospital
Enfield War Memorial Hospital
Enfield House (later St. Michael's Hospital)
Chase Farm Hospital
South Lodge Hospital (formerly Enfield Isolation Hospital)
The Group also oversaw the following health centres:
Waltham Cross Clinic
Southbury Road Clinic
Cuffley Clinic
Temple House Convalescent Home
Also mentioned in the records are Cheshunt Isolation Hospital and Cheshunt Smallpox Hospital and Enfield and Edmonton Infectious Diseases Hospital. It is possible that these are former or alternative names for hospitals in the Group.
In 1949 the Group renamed Enfield House hospital St. Michael’s Hospital and proposed the sale of Cheshunt Smallpox Hospital.
From 1965 onwards the Group was responsible for the administration of Highlands General Hospital which was transferred from the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board to the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board following regional boundary changes brought about by the London Government Act 1963 which meant that the former borough of Southgate was transferred to the North East Board.
In 1966 the Group decided to integrate South Lodge Hospital with Highlands General Hospital, South Lodge becoming a wing of Highlands General Hospital.
On 1 April 1966 Edmonton Group Hospital Management Committee amalgamated with Enfield Group Hospital Management Committee and the new Committee went under the name Enfield Group Hospital Management Committee. The amalgamation brought the following hospitals under the administration of the Enfield Group:
North Middlesex Hospital
Greentrees Hospital
Tower Maternity Annexe
St. [Saint] David’s Hospital
At amalgamation the Enfield Group comprised ten hospitals with 2,400 beds and 3000 staff and became one of the largest general hospital groups in the country.
Following amalgamation, the Group was divided into three Sub-groups: Highlands Sub-group; Chace [Chase] Sub-group; and North Middlesex Sub-group. Highlands Sub-group was responsible for South Lodge Hospital and Highlands General Hospital. North Middlesex Sub-group was responsible for North Middlesex Hospital, Greentrees Hospital, Tower Maternity Annexe and St. David’s Hospital. Chace [Chase] Sub-group was responsible for Chase Farm Hospital, Cheshunt Cottage Hospital, Enfield War Memorial Hospital and St. Michael’s Hospital. Each Sub-group had a Committee which reported to the new Enfield Group Hospital Management Committee.
In 1971 the Group decided to close St. Davids Hospital and transfer patients to St. Faith’s Hospital. The closure of Greentrees Hospital was also considered.
In 1973 the Group decided to combine Chace [Chase] Farm Hospital and Highlands Hospital and to rename the hospital Enfield District Hospital with Chace Wing and Highlands Wing.
In 1974 the NHS was re-organised and Enfield Group Hospital Management Committee was wound up. Administration transferred to the new Enfield and Haringey Area Health Authority.
Until the Sixteenth Century the Crown's main representative in the shires was the Sheriff, but in the middle of the century a new officer appeared to take over his military duties. The King's Lieutenants were first appointed in 1549 to organise the local militia - it was at first only a temporary appointment used in time of emergency. However appointments became more frequent from the late Sixteenth Century and in the first half of the Seventeenth Century as local unrest and the threat of invasion increased. Various Acts were passed reflecting the growing role of the Lord Lieutenant. The Milita Act of 1662 made the Lieutenant responsible for the entire county militia; and the post became personal to one man - in some cases even hereditary. The office was reorganised in 1757 when it was laid down that the sovereign would appoint them by Commissions of Lieutenancy; and Lieutenants themselves would have full authority to assemble, arm and command the militia, and appoint twenty or more deputy lieutenants to help them. The office was unpaid, but with deputies to carry out many of the tasks, it was in effect a post which did not involve much expense or onerous duties for the holder. It did, however, give the holder a great deal of social standing in the local community - he was a powerful man having close contact with both the centre of government and the local magistracy. It is not surprising to find therefore that the post was always held by one of the main county landowners, almost always a member of the nobility - hence the change (early on in the office's history) of prefix from 'King's' to 'Lord' Lieutenant. He was appointed directly by the sovereign - and still is, although now on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. He was responsible not to the Justices but to the Privy Council. It was the Lord Lieutenant's main duty in times of emergency to raise and supervise the local militia (see MR/ML), and from the Eighteenth Century to train it, although it remained very much an amateur force.
By the end of the Seventeenth Century the militia had all but disappeared due to low demand on their services, but with the regular army serving abroad in the Seven Years War, and subsequent conflicts, the need for them returned again in the 1740s. The 1757 Militia Act defined the role of the Lord Lieutenant and his deputy lieutenants in the militia, and addressed such practicalities as training, pay and billeting. However, whatever new regulations were introduced were not properly enforced until the 1770s during the time of trouble caused by the American War of Independence.
The main problem following the militia's downsizing was the shortage of volunteers. Lists of potential conscripts (Militia Ballot Lists) had to be drawn up; the Lord Lieutenant and his deputies formed a general meeting to issue orders to constables to return lists of eligible men; and names were then chosen in a ballot supervised by the Lieutenant.
Middlesex had a quota of 1600 men and the final list of volunteers which was drawn up was known as the Militia Muster Roll. New lists were to be made after each group of men had served three years (1757-1786, therafter five years service); exemption appeals were to be heard by deputy lieutenants in divisional meetings. The militia continued to be called into action at various times during the Nineteenth Century. Although the Lord Lieutenant's command over it was taken from him and given to the Crown under the 1871 Army Regulation Act, he was still able to make officer recommendations.
It was during the prolonged period of the threat of invasion caused by the Napoleonic Wars that the need for supplementary forces to the militia arose, and resulted in a variety of different forces which worked alongside, or was separate, from the main militia. None of these forces were under militia regulations, but they were all controlled to some small extent by the county lieutenancy. Special constables would occasionally be appointed (from 1831) to deal with areas of local disturbance, by the Justices although they had to send notice of appointments and circumstances to the lord Lieutenant.
The other major role of the Lord Lieutenant aside from his military one, was (from the reign of Elizabeth I) as (nominal) chief Justice of the Peace and head of the local magistracy known as Keeper of the Peace. He was the person who recommended the names of people to the Lord Chancellor as potential Justices of the Peace. Since the turn of the last century, this has been done through his chairmanship of the county's Advisory Committee on Justices. The links between Quarter Sessions and the work of the Lord Lieutenant were many and close. Perhaps the best example is that of the usual practice of appointing the Clerk of the Peace as Clerk of the Lieutenancy. Many more militia records than those required to have ended up among sessions records in local county record offices; a lot of the pre-Eighteenth Century records are in the National Archives. The Lord Lieutenant was by the end of the Seventeenth Century the Custos Rotolorum or Keeper of the Records, officially responsible for the care of the county records, although in practice it was the Clerk of the Peace who carried out this work (MC).
Pupil Teachers were employed by the School Board for London as a means of providing more teaching than would otherwise have been given by the small number of fully trained teachers. Pupil Teachers did receive some training.
The Labour movement was prominent in Ealing by the 1920s, particularly in the areas of Northolt and Greenford. Until 1945 Ealing returned one Member of Parliament. From 1945 until 1948, Ealing was divided into East and West. Further boundary changes in 1948 saw the establishment of Ealing North. Local party structure consisted of a General Management Committee and an Executive Committee which was formed from individual members of the local party and delegates from affiliated bodies.
The boundaries of Ealing North have altered greatly. However, by 1993 the constituency was broken down into the following wards; Argyle, Costans, Hobbayne, Perivale, Horsenden, Mandeville and Wood End, Ravenor and West End.
The London and North Western Railway was formed in 1846. It was originally planned as a freight only line, however, once it opened it ran a passenger service initially from Bow Junction to Islington. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the L and NWR connected to the Great Northern, Great Eastern, Great Western, London and North Western, London and South Western, Midland and Metropolitan District Railways. By 1922 the L and NWR had absorbed the North London Railway.
The Mornington Lodge was founded in 1877.
No administrative history has been traced for these photographs.
This series of family papers was deposited in September 1998 by Mr William Wild. The paper concern his family who farmed and owned land in Harmondsworth for over 200 years before moving in the 1940's to make way for Heathrow Airport.
The Association of District Surveyors of Buildings was appointed under the Metropolitan Building Acts subsequent to 1844. In 1845 the first meeting of the Association was called at a London Coffee house, Mr John White being the first Chair.
Acts of Parliament regulating the construction of buildings had been in existence since 1667 giving the Corporation of the City power to appoint surveyors. Building control in inner London was administered at a local level by district surveyors from the mid nineteenth century to 1986. District Surveyors were a statutory, independent body responsible for surveying and supervising all construction work in their districts. They inspected plans and buildings to ensure quality of construction and compliance with statutory requirements under London Building Acts and bye laws. Reports were made to the relevant central administrative authority. In latter years, together with the Building Regulations Division of the Greater London Council's Department of Architecture and Civic Design, district surveyors were responsible for executing the Council's statutory duties under the London Building Acts.
The Transport Salaried Staff Association was founded in 1897 and is a trade union for workers in the transport and travel industries, including railways, the London Underground, shipping, ports, haulage and buses.
Source of information: http://www.tssa.org.uk/sommaire.php3
UNISON is a trade union for public sector workers such as those working in local government, the National Health Service, the police, education, utility companies, transport companies, and the voluntary sector. The union was formed in 1993 after the merger of the National and Local Government Officers Association, the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service Employees.
Totteridge is in Barnet, north London. It was a small village until the opening of a railway station in 1872; which encouraged the building of new housing.
South Grove is one of the main streets in Highgate, leading off Highgate Hill and forming part of the triangle of Pond Square. Number 10 is known as Church House. It includes a staircase dating to George I's reign (1714-1727). The house was owned by antiquarian John Sidney Hawkins who, from 1802-1837, leased it to Hyman Hurwitz to be used as a Jewish school. It subsequently reverted to residential use.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980).
At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth many thousands of Jews, mainly from eastern Europe, emigrated to Britain as conditions at home made it difficult for them to practice their religion freely. Some immigrants became transmigrants and travelled onto the United States, South America and Africa. Many of the migrants were very poor and had little knowledge of English. Little however was done by the Anglo-Jewish community to welcome them or to provide any charitable relief. With some notable exceptions Anglo-Jewish leaders rather wished the immigrants would move on or return to their original homes.
An institution with the name "Poor Jews' Temporary Shelter" was opened in Church Lane in the spring of 1885 by Simon Cohen (sometimes known as Simha Becker) to provide a refuge for the homeless, the jobless and immigrants from the docks. The Jewish Board of Guardians had this shelter closed down for being insanitary soon afterwards. However, many people protested at this and a public meeting was held at the Jewish Working Men's Club. The idea of reopening the shelter attracted three wealthy and influential Jews, Hermann Landau (a Polish immigrant of 1864), Ellis Franklin and Samuel Montagu. Hermann Landau advocated "...an institution in which newcomers, having a little money, might obtain accommodation and the necessaries they required at cost price, and where they would receive useful advice." (Jewish Chronicle, May 15 1885).
In October 1885 the Shelter re-opened with the aim of helping immigrants, but not encouraging immigration. It gave aid only to immigrants in the form of shelter for 14 days and 2 meals a day (3 meals from 1897). Inmates were required to pay what they could afford for their keep and there was a labour test. As well as staff to run the Shelter, representatives of the Shelter would meet ships coming into dock in order to assist and protect the newly arrived immigrants who were vulnerable to waterfront thieves and fraudsters. In due course the police and port authorities took over these responsibilities. Transmigrants were helped to buy steamship tickets and get their currency changed. The Shelter was run primarily to help Jews but has always assisted small numbers of non-Jews. The name of the Shelter was changed to "Jews' Temporary Shelter" in the early 1900s.
The Shelter helped thousands of people every year: nearly 5,000 in 1903 - 1904 for example and over 8,000 in 1938-1939. Up until 1939 the majority of residents at the Shelter generally came from eastern Europe. Refugees came from Belgium during the First World War. German and Austrian Jews came in the 1930s. Between 1940-1943 the Shelter provided temporary housing for people who had lost their homes in the bombing of the east end of London. The Shelter's building in Mansell Street (headquarters from 1930) was requisitioned by the War Department for housing American troops in 1943, but the organisation continued to provide an advisory service. Help was givven to people trying to trace lost relatives immediately after the war and temporary homes to refugees from the countries formerly occupied by Germany and her allies in Europe.
Most residents in the post-war period came from eastern countries such as Egypt, India, Aden and Iran. By the 1960s the Shelter had started to help people find jobs and assisted in liasing with the Home Office on questions of nationality. There was also an advisory committee for the admission of Jewish ecclesiastical officers which made applications to the Home Office for the admission of clerics and talmudic students. A Luncheon Club and Kosher Meals on Wheels service were other facilities developed by the Shelter.
The Ritz was built for the Blackpool Building and Vendor Company Ltd on the site of the Walsingham House and Bath Hotels in Piccadilly, to the specifications of Swiss Hotelier Cesar Ritz. The hotel opened on 24th May 1906.
The Sunday School Union was formed to encourage the foundation of Sunday schools and to support them by raising funds for books, and teaching equipment. The Country Homes Committee was most likely involved in the provision of country holiday homes where inner London children could spend some time away from the city. Alternatively they could be residential care homes for children removed from their families.
These prints were acquired in 1998 and are of 'reconstructions', that is to say they give the artists impression of a particular aspect of London, set in Tudor times. On the reverse of each print is a diagram indicating the function of many of the buildings in the main image, and pointing out prominent landmarks.
These statistics were prepared by local judicial administrators for the Home Office.
The photograph appears to have been used by the Territorial Army magazine.
No administrative history has been traced for these photographs.
The administrative history of this photograph has not been traced.
The administrative history of this photograph cannot be traced.
The Standing Conference for Local History:
The Standing Conference for Local History was one of a number of bodies parented by the National Council for Social Service with a view to promoting the social and cultural well-being and activities of local communities. NCSS had taken an early interest in county local history work. In 1934 a Local History Sub-Committee was set up with the initial object of obtaining grants to assist development of local history work in rural areas, and in 1936 the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust allocated an annual grant for three years, to start in 1937, for an NCSS 'Local History Fund for Villages' The Sub-Committee set out the type and terms of assistance from the fund, but the Second World War intervened before real progress could be made, and matters lapsed until 1947. The Sub-Committee was revived in September of that year, and the NCSS soon took still more positive action by replacing it in December 1948 with the Standing Conference for Local History and so created the first national co-ordinating body for local history.
Although it does not show too clearly in the SCLH archives, the bedrock structure within which it functioned and which was crucial to its progress was the encouragement by the NCSS of its most important organisational adjuncts, the county-based Rural Community Councils, to promote and adopt a parallel parental role to County Local History Councils/Committees. Just as the NCSS provided a secretarial and administrative base for voluntary activity at a national level, the RCC's did this at county level, allowing the establishment as time went on of an increasingly viable and effective linkage between local societies and individual local historians, Local History Councils, and the Standing Conference. This linkage has been an important and arguably a key factor in the phenomenal post-war growth in interest in and enthusiasm for local history studies. It brought with it, no less importantly, the very needful link between the professional and the 'amateur' devotee of local studies which has both stimulated and vindicated that growth.
In its thirty three years of existence, SCLH was never permitted the luxury of complacency, being always too aware of the nagging of its grass roots volunteer constituency, whether at learned institution or parish pump level, for more effort at everything. All in all, the Standing Conference did a successful and important pioneer job, to be remembered with affection and recorded with respect.
The SCLH archives, despite some deficiencies, provide a reasonably good picture of its ambitions and the development of its activities and influence. Because the NCSS stood in loco parentis to it, it seems likely that the archives of the parent body will provide supplementary evidence of its work, not least in respect of the amount and disposition of its funding, which was always an NCSS responsibility.
The British Association for Local History:
The National Council for Social Service was itself replaced in the 1980's by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and this reflected, among other changes of emphasis, a requirement that the bodies previously funded by the NCSS should become independent, self-funding bodies. As part of this process the Standing Conference ceased to exist in 1982 and was replace by the British Association for Local History, which came into being on 1 April 1982.
To assist the new Association to establish itself, the NCVO continued to fund its secretarial and administrative work at the Bedford Square offices under the long serving SCLH Secretary Bettie Miller, for an initial period of some two years. Without this breathing space it would have been very much more difficult for the Association to get off the ground. That it has not only done so but has in a relatively short time established itself on a sound and effective footing is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of its voluntary officers and committees and of its growing staff. BALH can already be seen to be consolidating and expanding on the work of its pioneer predecessor.
The London Union of Youth Clubs is a youth association of over 300 clubs and groups with 4,000 adults and 50,000 young people from boroughs across London. Its aims are to build the skills and abilities of young people in London, so that they can seize opportunities to control their own lives, and contribute to the life of their clubs and groups and to society; and to involve young people in participating throughout the organisation, and to promote equal opportunities.
The LUYC provides youth work services to encourage young people to take responsibility in their club; to develop the personal and social skills of young people; to develop work with girls and young women; to work with young black and Asian people; to work with young people with disabilities; to provide information and advice, including a comprehensive newsletter; to provide a wide range of training opportunities, events and activities in arts and sports; to provide assistance with the running of clubs and groups.
Percy Jones began his business in 1905 from a small office in Cheapside. He was approached by an American businessman Mr. Charles Maltby who was travelling in Britain trying to find an agent for his loose leaf Twinlock ledgers. Percy Jones bought £100 worth of goods and six months later moved to a warehouse and office in Carter Lane near St Paul's Cathedral. Here Shelton Cox, who later became a Director of the company joined Percy Jones as a shorthand typist. As turn over grew and as a result of a fire in the Twinlock factory in America the first factory in Britain was established in Cowcross Street, Smithfield. In 1913 the Cowcross premises became too small so the factory moved to Little Sutton Street.
During the War the Twinlock News was founded (1916) and copies from 1916 to 1963 are included among the records. After the War Twinlock became a Limited Company, and in 1919 built a factory in Beckenham. The first showroom was built in 1921 in Charles Street, Hatton Garden.
The Twinlock Company also formed a company in South Africa to manufacture the Twinlock line and this is also represented in some of the photographs of the collection.
Tottenham Court Manor was usually known as Tottenhall Manor. It was a prebendary held by clergymen at Saint Paul's Cathedral. The manor was leased out by the clergy until 1560 when it was demised to Queen Elizabeth. In 1639 it was leased to Charles the First, but was seized during the Civil War and sold. It was retaken on the Restoration, and in 1661 was granted to Sir Henry Wood by Charles the Second. The lease was taken over by Isabella Countess of Arlington, and inherited by her son Charles, Duke of Grafton and later by his brother the Honorable Charles Fitzroy, first Lord Southampton (descendants of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, an illegitimate son of Charles the Second). In 1768 an act of Parliament vested the fee simple of the manor in Lord Southampton and his heirs, subject to an annual payment to the prebendary.
Part of the Tottenhall manor is now north-west Bloomsbury, while other parts of the manor stretched to Camden and St Pancras. Road names in this area reflect the family, such as Euston Road (Henry Fitzroy was also Earl of Euston) and Tottenham Court Road which is a corruption of Tottenhall.
Information from: 'Pancras', The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 342-382 and http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/streets/tottenham_court.htm.
Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726) was the illegitimate son of Charles II and Nell Gwyn. His father made him Duke of St Albans in 1684. He married Lady Diana de Vere, daughter and sole heir of Aubrey de Vere, the last earl of Oxford. They had 8 sons, including James Beauclerk, bishop of Hereford, and Aubrey Beauclerk, naval officer.
The documents in this collection appear to relate to the property of their 3rd son, Vere Beauclerk (1699-1781). Vere had a successful career in the Navy, rising to the rank of admiral. He was also a Member of Parliament for New Windsor and then for Plymouth. He was married to Mary Chambers, the daughter of Thomas Chambers of Haworth. Mary was said to have inherited £45,000. Vere was created Baron Vere of Hanworth in 1750. He lived in St James's Square, Westminster.
Information from: W. A. B. Douglas, 'Beauclerk, Vere, Baron Vere of Hanworth (1699-1781)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 and William Hunt, 'Beauclerk, Charles, first duke of St Albans (1670-1726)', rev. Jonathan Spain, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.