On that recent trip to London, and wandering through Bloomsbury to lunch and revisit The Lost Words exhibition, I walked along Great Ormond Street with Adele Geras and Helen Rappaport and took them into the children's hospital to see the chapel.
I'm afraid it's exquisite beauty and peace passed me by as a young student nurse taking children to services on a Sunday afternoon.
It seemed over-the-top and garish to me in the 1970s, but I go in every time I am passing now and it never ceases to take my breath away.
And, as you know, I credit that little corner of London with helping to shape my formative years, because whilst that time probably seems a little rose-tinted over forty years on, there are many happy memories in amongst the rest, so when Alec Forshaw's book An Address in Bloomsbury came to my attention I ordered a copy immediately...
'This is the tale of two houses, which at different times have had the same address of 49 Great Ormond Street. Built at the end of the 17th century on what was then the northern edge of London, this street has a complex history, famous today for its hospitals, but remarkable for much more besides. Superbly illustrated in full colour with photographs, drawings, prints and maps, the book traces the life and times of both No.49s and the people who lived and worked there. It embraces the development of institutions such as the Foundling Hospital, the church of St George-the-Martyr, the Hospital for Sick Children, the Working Men's College and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, together with the involvement of great figures such as Nicholas Barbon, Richard Mead, William Stukeley, Earl Grey, Charles Dickens, Louisa Twining and William Morris. With over 350 years of history packed into 400 pages it is a rich and compelling story.'
Built in 1686 when the street was first laid out isn't this one of the best and most entertaining ways to tell history...take a house and write its story and Alec Forshaw does so in meticulous detail having bought 49 Great Ormond Street at auction in 1993.
But think on it...1686, barely any time at all since the the monarchy had been restored following Cromwell's rule, a mere twenty years on from the Great Fire of London which destroyed 90% of the inner city buildings, St Paul's Cathedral, eight-seven parish churches, 13,200 houses and then the Great Plague... 100,000 Londoners, about 15% of the population would die. It is only the first page of the book and it has my full attention because the statistics are staggering, even by today' standards, when our perceptions of numbers and population are so much greater.
The book embraces every aspect of history...social, political, architectural, medical, decorative, artistic, transport. map-making and more...
And then there are the details that I had never really given a thought...
'There were no street lights. Individually oil lamps were hung outside houses...people lived by daylight. While the affluent, replete with candlebras and oil lamps might dine fashionably late at 5.00 p.m., the more usual time was 3.00 p.m., while it was still light...'
Another very interesting (to me) fact came to light too...
'The Duke of Bedford flatly refused to allow the railways to encroach on any of his land south of the New Road...'
Not only did the Duke own great swathes of Bloomsbury but he owned great swathes of the Tamar Valley and in particular our parish of Milton Abbot too. Indeed I think it was our end that helped supply the wealth for the other end thanks to the mining boom here in the mid-nineteenth century. Many local names are reflected in the Duke's London estates...Tavistock, Russell and Endsleigh featuring large in both but, as in London, the Duke (the old misery) also objected to the location of the railway through Milton Abbot. There was no argument, he owned most of the village and employed most of the population after all; the line and the station were diverted across to nearby Lydford as the old sign at the end of our lane attests.
The book is lavishly illustrated with maps, paintings, portraits and many fascinating photographs and I relished every turn of the 400 pages. This one has proved to be a really good investment and one that makes me realise how little I really knew and how much more I will have to explore on my next (now very well-informed) visit.
Meanwhile I am sure there are a lot more books out there telling history in this compelling and fascinating way, through the life of a house...
Recent Comments