On the evening of the 27th of July 1848—a Thursday—a remarkable meeting took place in one of the less hospitable corners of the capital. The venue was in Darby Street in Whitechapel, in a house that by day served as a Ragged School for the local Irish population. And those attending the meeting were just about as extraordinary a group …
How to Get Sent to a Victorian Reform School
Justice was quickly dispensed, and the trio found themselves appearing in the juvenile division of the South Western Magistrates Court on a charge of being in unlawful possession of a quantity of eatables. They were lucky, as before the 1847 Juvenile Offences Act children under fourteen would have been tried in an adult court, and punished as adults, and even …
A Short Fuse, or, Robert Milnes Newton and the London Fireworks Brigade
On the 8th of November 1886, which was a Monday, a raggle-taggle mob of youthful defendants found themselves in the dock at the police court in Great Marlborough Street, just off Oxford Street. The magistrate presiding over the proceedings was Robert Milnes Newton. You may well recognise the name from the infamous trial of February 1895, when Oscar Wilde had …
The Bermondsey Ghost, or, Terror on Jacob’s Island
In the year 1857 Sarah and Charles Bacon were terrified by the strange happenings in their small house in London Street in Bermondsey. Even Charles’s thirteen-year-old daughter Caroline, a sullen and resentful stepdaughter to Sarah, was disturbed by the goings-on. For five days mysterious noises resounded at all hours throughout the building. When Charles was at work during the …
Haunted by Sadness, or, Is 50 Berkeley Square London’s most Ghost-Ridden House?
50 Berkeley Square would appear to be an unlikely location for the most haunted house in London. This elegant Mayfair townhouse on the west side of the square certainly does not look from the outside as if it would be troubled by disturbed spirits. Its reputation is probably connected to the popularity of haunted house stories in nineteenth-century newspapers—for which …
The Bookseller’s Son, or, The Death of Henry Stanynought
On Monday the 7th of September 1835 a sombre meeting was convened at the Masons’ Arms in Titchborne Street, which runs north west off the Haymarket end of Piccadilly. Sixteen men gathered to carry out their civic duty as jurors at a coroner’s inquest. The coroner, with jurisdiction over the county of Middlesex, was Thomas Stirling, who was advanced in …
The Bookseller’s Son, or, The Crime of Henry Stanynought
That night―the night of Tuesday the 1st of September―Henry Stanynought stayed in the same room as his son. They were alone in the house. For a time, as the light began to fail, and the shadows lengthened across the floor, Stanynought sat deep in thought. Then, when the little boy had finally fallen asleep, he closed the windows and the door. …
The Bookseller’s Son, or, The Sadness of Henry Stanynought
In Kensal Green Cemetery there is a grave where five members of the same family lie buried. The headstone is rather featureless. The passing of the years has stained it with a dark patina, and the shifting soil has allowed it to tip slightly to one side. There is nothing about it that would make you stop. Countless visitors to …
William Herring, or, Charles Dickens and the Medical Man of Quickset Row
Readers of this blog with a keen eye for all things Dickensian will recall that the great writer’s ailing pet raven, Grip, was treated and quite possibly killed by a local veterinarian. He fed the wretched bird quantities of castor oil, which may well have hastened its end. However, we should not for that reason overlook the veterinarian, because he …
Caroline Crachami, or, The Sad Story of The Sicilian Dwarf
Had you been walking down New Bond Street in the year 1824, then at no. 23, which stood at the corner of Conduit Street, a sign inviting you to visit the “Naturorama” might have caught your eye. And had you put your hand in your pocket, you would have gained access to an inner room with seventeen dioramas displaying model …