One of the more striking sights in the Streatham Cemetery in Garratt Lane is the grave of a husband and wife by the name of John Baptist and Sarah Selfe Krall. The principal structure, which is dedicated to John Baptist, is a collection of three granite blocks set one on top of the other. They are roughly hewn and unworked, …
Smiles and Tears, or, Burman Cassin Goes Down to Kent
A while ago I published two articles on the London Overlooked website in which an important character was a fellow by the name of Hoppety Bob. The first of these articles, which can be accessed by following this link, introduced the kind-hearted toymaker who was good to the neighbourhood children of the London slum in which he lived, teaching them …
Lottie Stafford, Artist’s Model of Paradise Walk in Chelsea: Part Three
At the beginning of 1904 Mrs Charlotte Stafford—usually known as Lottie—was a young mother of two daughters, Elizabeth, who was two years old, and Florence, who was three months old. Like many of her female neighbours in Paradise Walk, she was said to be a laundress, and, unlike her neighbours, she had come to the attention of the artist William …
Lottie Stafford, Artist’s Model of Paradise Walk in Chelsea: Part Two
In the first part of this story we left Lottie and John Christopher Stafford with Elizabeth, their baby daughter. Early in their married life, in about 1901, the young couple moved to Paradise Walk, where John’s family were long term residents, and where Lottie and John would remain for the next thirty-five years. Let us look at this location in …
Lottie Stafford, Artist’s Model of Paradise Walk in Chelsea: Part One
This story starts with a painting called Lotty and a Lady in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. It was painted in London in 1906 by the Australian artist George Washington Lambert, and it depicts two women—a servant and an elegantly dressed “lady”— sitting in a kitchen. Initially I assumed that the same woman had modelled for both figures—they …
The Murderer’s Wife: Part Two
If you read Part One of the story of the murderer’s wife, which I published on the London Overlooked website last week, and which can be accessed by following this link, you will remember that the murderer of the title was a man by the name of Alfred Eldridge, and that in 1863 he was accused of a heinous crime …
The Murderer’s Wife: Part One
If you read my recent article on Joseph Rogers, of which the first part can be accessed on the London Overlooked website by following this link, you will no doubt have formed a very favourable impression of the man. He was a doctor, and, as well as campaigning for improvements in public health provision, he worked as medical officer in …
A Wife on Both Sides of the River, or, A Brush with a Bigamist
Regular readers of London Overlooked will recall our tribute to the “German siffleur”, the remarkable whistler who entertained certain quarters of nineteenth-century London with his imitations of birds and animals. He was of, course, the celebrated David von Joel. And it will be remembered that London could not quite decide what to make of him. The reviews that he received …
A Vision of Beauty, or, William Henry Hudson in Kensington Gardens
There is a curious link between Charles Dickens and rooks. Well, perhaps what I should say is that the great writer had a distant association with rooks, for when he was still only fifteen he worked in Gray’s Inn, where there was a famous rookery. Just to spell this out: Dickens was employed in 1827 as a junior clerk at the …
The Shoemaker’s Son: Part Three
If you have been following the story of Robert Collier on the London Overlooked website, you will remember that Part One explored his difficult life as a poor boy from the slums of St Pancras, while Part Two investigated his fraught relationship with his father. You will also remember that he was encouraged to make something of himself by Martin …