Joseph Rogers, M.D., is a name that may well be unfamiliar to readers. The fact is, though, that Dr Rogers was a very remarkable man. Principally, he was a workhouse medical officer, and he devoted his energies to the care of some of the poorest members of Victorian society. In doing so he forfeited the social advancement and financial rewards …
The Man Who Stole a Knighthood
One of the strangest stories in the long history of investiture must be the knighting of Francis Columbine Daniel early in the reign of George IV. The occasion was marked with the usual pomp and ceremony, and was widely reported in the newspapers. However, not everything was quite what it seemed, and not everyone was impressed. So who was the …
The Railway Children, or, A Moving Story of Youthful Heroism
If, like me, you enjoy looking at old maps of London, the name Edward Stanford will have a familiar ring. Stanford was a leading figure in the world of Victorian map-makers, and his Library Map of London, which was first published in 1862, is cartography at its finest. You can access various editions of Stanford’s map online. The 1872, for …
Leda and the Swan, or, Vandalism at the National Gallery
On Tuesday the 23rd of January 1844 Mr Edward Grant—a belt, braces and breeches maker of 23 Piccadilly—was enjoying an afternoon of art appreciation in the Great Room of London’s National Gallery. Although some might have criticised the appearance of the building designed by William Wilkins, Grant enjoyed the privilege of free admission to see great art, as did many …
A Thief by Any Other Name, or, The Adventure of the Vicar’s Boots
On Sunday the 24th of June in the year 1888 Amos Axell was busy performing his familiar routine before going home. He was a builder in his mid thirties, but he was also the verger of All Saints Church in Kenley in what is now the London borough of Croydon. He did a circuit of the vestry, checking that the …
Lights Out, or, The Strange Story of the Plaistow Ghost
You may have read my recent piece on the Woburn Square ghost, which can be found by following this link. The essence of that affair, which occurred in 1867, was that rumours of hauntings and other supernatural phenomena were liable to whip up a sort of collective hysteria. A desire for free entertainment combined with honest curiosity was able to …
Drunk on Love, or, A Victorian Postman’s Valentine’s Day Disgrace
Valentine’s Day was as significant in the Victorian calendar as it is today. The Globe newspaper of 1855 estimated that all the cards delivered in London, if stacked on top of each other, would be taller than the Monument, which stands at two hundred and two feet. If laid in a line they would run from London to Dover, a …
The March of Time, or, A Portrait of Sergeant Drummer Henry Gribble
A while ago I wrote about the artist George Percy Jacomb-Hood in an article that can be found on the London Overlooked website by following this link. Jacomb-Hood, who was born in 1857, was as versatile as he was talented, and his output ranged from society portraits to illustrations for the Graphic. One minute he was working on Andrew Lang’s …
The Poisonous Pownall Sisters of Stoke Newington
The respectable Misses Pownall—Martha and Sarah—were certain that their brother was being slowly poisoned by his wife, no doubt to get her hands on his army pension. They had not liked Emma from the start: she was much too young at twenty-seven to make Thomas at fifty-one a good wife. This suspicion turned to certainty when they saw her and …
Thrills and Spills, or, The Ghost of Woburn Square
In May 1867 a boy by the name of Frederic Horgan, a carpenter’s labourer, appeared before the police court in Bow Street. He was about sixteen years old, and was charged with creating a disturbance and causing a crowd to assemble in Woburn Square in Bloomsbury. He had been taken into custody by Police Constable James Hogan of the ‘E’ …