1. HERITAGE
TALES
52 STORIES OF
WIMBLEDON
Compiled by
Tony Matthews
on behalf of
The Wimbledon Society

2. 2

3. HERITAGE
TALES
52 STORIES OF
WIMBLEDON
Compiled by
Tony Matthews
on behalf of
The Wimbledon Society
3

4. The Wimbledon Society, Registered Charity (No 269478),
was founded in 1903 and has had its present name since
1982. (Originally the John Evelyn Club, it was known as the
John Evelyn Society from 1949-82.) Its main objectives are
to preserve Wimbledon’s amenities and natural beauty, study
its history, and ascertain that urban development is
sympathetic and orderly.
Published by the Wimbledon Society Museum Press.
Sales and distribution: Museum of Wimbledon, 22 Ridgway,
London, SW19 4QN. Open 2.30-5.00 pm Saturday and
Sunday. Admission free.
Go to www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk to purchase online.
Copyright: The Wimbledon Society 2013
Text and design: Tony Matthews 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced, stored in a retrieval system, copied or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the copyright owner. A catalogue record for
this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-9576151-0-6
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Intype Libra Ltd,
Units 3-4 Elm Grove Industrial Estate, Wimbledon, London,
SW19 4HE (www.intypelibra.co.uk).
Covers: Wimbledon Village Green (early 19th century).
4

5. CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION…………………………………….8
1. The Last Headmaster of Eagle House……. ………10
2. Wimbledon’s Long Links with Dolls……………...13
3. Was the real Robinson Crusoe from
Wimbledon?.............................................................16
4. Farewell to The Firs………………………………..18
5. Lost Forever -The Priceless Ceiling
of Lauriston House………………………………...20
6. From Thebes to Wimbledon Common
- The Tale of Howard Carter………………………23
7. Murray and the Lions of Wimbledon Lodge………26
8. Hundredth Pantomime Opens at
Wimbledon Theatre………………………………..29
9. The Last Link with Merton
Grove Disappears…………………………………32
10. A Century of Christmas Greetings……………….35
11. The Day Harry Lauder Left the Gloaming
to Come to Wimbledon……………………..........37
12. The Wimbledon Journalist who
Sank with The Titanic……………………………40
13. Wimbledon’s Dickensians…………………..........43
14. Hillside Was Transformed in
Just a Few Years……………………….…………46
15. Wimbledon Schoolboy Founded
Record-Breaking Radio Show……………............49
16. Historic Watercolours Launch
New Exhibition Gallery………………….………52
17. Copse Hill Loses its Last Hospital
after 140 Years……………………………………55
5

6. 18. Oliver Reed - Wimbledon’s Wildest Rebel………58
19. The World Famous Viola Player
of Marryat Road………………………………….61
20. Colourful Story of Cannizaro
Gets Another Hearing…………………………….64
21. Wimbledon’s Most Successful
Publishing Family………………………………..67
22. The Wimbledon Radical who
Rivalled Doctor Johnson……………………........70
23. From London’s Sewers to the
Fresh Air of Wimbledon………………………….74
24. Wimbledon’s First Garden Centre…………..........78
25. Music Hall Singing Star Hetty King
Lived in Wimbledon………………………….......81
26. Wimbledon’s Worst Vandalism…………….........83
27. The Triumph and Tragedy of
Wimbledon’s Own Sandy Denny………………..86
28. Wimbledon Home was London’s First
with Electricity and a Telephone………………...90
29. The Stop/Start Story of Wimbledon’s Trams…….94
30. From Wimbledon to The Stars……………….......98
31. When Trains First Arrived at Wimbledon………101
32. Miss Marple was a Wimbledonian………...........104
33. The Last Time Wimbledon Celebrated
a Diamond Jubilee………………………………107
34. Why the Man who Overthrew Russia’s
Last Tsar has a Wimbledon Grave……………..110
35. The Engineer Who Completed
Brunel’s Dream………………………………….114
36. Inventor of Penicillin Settled in Wimbledon……117
6

7. 37. The African Emperor Who Found
Refuge in Wimbledon…………………………..120
38. The Sad Fate and Priceless Legacy
of Joseph Toynbee……………………………...123
39. When Archery Was All the Rage………….........127
40. The Poet Who Took a Grave View
of Wimbledon Life……………………………..130
41. Merton’s 2012 Olympics Contrast
with Earlier London Games……………………..133
42. When the Greatest Defender of French
Justice Sought Exile in Wimbledon…………….136
43. Captain Marryat - The Wimbledonian
Who Never Was…………………………………140
44. Georgette Heyer - Wimbledon Novelist
Extraordinaire……………………...……………144
45. Epstein’s Peaceful Grave and
Controversial Life…………………………........148
46. Paradise Lost -Wimbledon Common
Wildlife We May Never See Again……………..151
47. The Wartime Minister Whose Wimbledon
Hideaway was Bombed………………………...154
48. Frequent Change in Wimbledon’s
Century of Cinemas……………………….........157
49. Satisfaction Guaranteed on the Commons………161
50. Vesta Tilly -Truly a MajorStar………………….165
51. Wimbledon’s Swedish Nightingale……… …….168
52. The First Lady Went to School in Wimbledon…........171
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………....174
INDEX…………………………………………...….175
7

8. INTRODUCTION
Every year has its contemporary events as well as
anniversaries and commemorations of those long past -
some of course much more significant than others. The
smaller a geographical area of concentration, the fewer
really memorable years there are likely to be. Wimbledon,
a small part of London, surely has its limits.
But occasionally a year arrives bringing so many
important events and anniversaries that it demands
special recognition of its own.
The year 2012 was such a year for Britain as a whole.
Staging the Olympics and Paralympics, celebrating the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, commemorating the sinking
of the Titanic, the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens
and so on. No-one can possibly have missed them all.
However, for Wimbledon, the year had even greater
resonance. Not only did each of these national events
have special local significance, they also happened alongside
a whole string of other notable anniversaries.
Wimbledon’s local history is as rich and diverse as
that of any town in the country. Originally its natural
attractions as well as its proximity to London made it a
favourite venue for settlement by the wealthy and powerful.
The past two centuries have seen that popularity extend
to a much wider segment of society as urbanisation
transformed its identity and a small rural population
grew into a large suburban residential one.
In 2012 anniversaries came thick and fast of the
births, deaths or significant activities of famous people
linked with Wimbledon. Those concerned were associated
8

9. with just about every imaginable field from the arts,
sciences, archaeology, architecture, entertainment and
sport to education, politics, health, warfare and even
crime. In most cases they were figures of national or
global reputation who happened to live in Wimbledon
itself or have their final resting places beside the Common.
Equally notable were anniversaries of developments or
change - some gained for the area such as the first trains,
trams, theatres and cinemas, others lost such as the old
hospitals, schools or pubs. The flow of history means, of
course, that such anniversaries will continue to be noted
as long as civilization exists and in the case of Wimbledon,
as long as it is a recognised entity within London.
Many - but not all - of these events were captured by
the Wimbledon Society for a weekly Heritage series in the
online version of the Wimbledon Guardian newspaper.
All of those that appeared in the first full year of this
series are included in this book. It reads as it did when
published on each occasion by the newspaper, using the
present tense where relevant rather than a generic past
as in a conventional history book.
If you didn’t see each story then, you can do so now.
I do hope you enjoy the experience.
Tony Matthews, April 2013
9

10. 1. THE LAST
HEADMASTER
OF EAGLE HOUSE
21 October, 2011: The second oldest building in Wimbledon,
the 400-year-old Eagle House, has been empty for two
and half years and its future remains unknown. But the
Wimbledon Society has just acquired a photograph of the
last headmaster from the days when the building was a
prestigious private school for boys.
Dr Arthur Malan succeeded his father-in-law as
headmaster in 1874. Said to have a “magnetic” influence
on the pupils, he taught classics, mathematics, science,
drawing and religion, coached them in cricket and foot-
ball, and wrote stories for the popular journal, The Boy’s
Own Paper, in his spare time. His picture will now be
added to the extensive collection of the Museum of
Wimbledon at 22 Ridgway which is run by the
Wimbledon Society.
In his day, the school prepared pupils for entry to
Eton, Harrow and other top public schools. It had been
known as Eagle House only since 1860 when an existing
school of that name moved there. But it had been taking
pupils since 1790 when a local parson and former
schoolmaster, Thomas Lancaster, had bought the building.
Originally known as Wimbledon School for Young
Noblemen and Gentlemen, it had been renamed Nelson
House School after a visit by Lord Nelson in 1805,
shortly before the Battle of Trafalgar. In the 1840s it had
become a Military Academy for future army officers heading
for Sandhurst. Then in 1860, Dr Malan’s father-in-law,
10

11. Dr Arthur Malan
11

12. the Rev Edward Huntingford, had moved Eagle House
School there from its former home in Hammersmith.
In 1886, at the end of the summer term, Dr Malan
announced the school was moving once more, this time
from Wimbledon to Camberley. Although Eagle House
School has continued to the present day elsewhere, the
building in Wimbledon Village has never again been
used for this purpose.
It was saved from demolition after the school’s
departure and restored as a family home by the architect
Sir Thomas Jackson. After the Second World War it was
used for offices and from 1988-2009 was an Islamic Heri-
tage and Cultural Centre. Since that too moved else-
where, Eagle House has been awaiting the next phase in
its ever colourful history.
12

13. 2. WIMBLEDON’S LONG LINKS
WITH DOLLS
28 October, 2011: There’s little evidence today in local
toy shops but Wimbledon has longstanding links with
dolls. Lucy Peck, one of the country’s top manufacturers
of wax dolls in Victorian days, lived here and her great-
grandson still does. Today he is proud owner of Rebecca
and Lucy, among the last remaining dolls she produced.
Each has flowing christening robes and real Titian hair.
Lucy Peck was uniquely skilled in fashioning angelic
dolls from wax moulds. From the 1890s until the 1920s
she ran the Dolls Warehouse and then the Dolls’ Home
shop in London’s West End. One of her best known
creations was the Princess Victoria Doll, based on a
picture of the young Queen by the artist Mary Gow,
now in the Royal Collection at Windsor. The original
doll is thought to be one now displayed at the National
Trust’s Museum of Childhood in Derbyshire.
Lucy’s notebooks containing the recipes for her wax
models and her sculpting tools are in the Bethnal Green
Museum of Childhood. As the popularity of wax dolls
waned, replaced by bisque, she switched to making
mannequins of real people - debutantes and titled ladies.
She lived in Mansel Road, Wimbledon, and spent her
final years in Kingston, attending Kingston Art College
where she continued to sculpt and model in clay.
But Wimbledon’s links with dolls continued. The
Museum of London has one whose head was replaced at
the Dolls Hospital and Pram Shop at 138-140 Merton
Road. The owners Bailey and Bennett were described as
“doll factors” and later as “baby carriage specialists”
13

14. in the 1930s.
A family bought the business from Miss Bailey in the
early 1950s and continued running the shops as before
but added more toys, renaming the place the Dolls
Hospital and Toy Shop. This sold prams, pushchairs and
wooden nursery furniture.
It continued until the early 1960s when imported
plastic dolls made in Hong Kong took over the market.
With moving limbs, closing eyes and rooted hair, they
were unbreakable and much cheaper than the breakable
ones Lucy Peck had manufactured. Gradually the hospital
work reduced and the business closed in 1969.
But that was not entirely the end of the story. The
digital doll, Lara Croft, star of computer games whose
Tomb Raider adventures involve finding hidden relics,
solving mind-numbing puzzles, scaling cliffs, jumping
crevasses, and beating fearsome beasts, was created by
the team at Eidos Interactive, based at Hartfield Road in
Wimbledon town centre. She is said to have been born
in Wimbledon and to have attended Wimbledon High
School where she acquired her “authoritative, but sexy,
cut-glass vowels”.
14

15. 15
Rebecca and Lucy – two of the last remaining Victorian dolls made by Lucy Peck.

16. 3. WAS THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE
FROM WIMBLEDON?
4 November, 2011: The classic tale of Robinson Crusoe,
stranded for years on a desert island, is usually thought
to have been inspired by the real life castaway Alexander
Selkirk, who was similarly marooned in the Pacific
during the 17th century.
But now it seems the actual inspiration for author
Daniel Defoe may have been a Wimbledon land-
owner, one Robert Knox who was held captive for 19
years in what today is Sri Lanka. Knox, a resident of
Wimbledon Village who also owned land in today’s
Colliers Wood, finally escaped and wrote a best-selling
book about his adventures entitled An Historical
Relation Of The Island Ceylon, In The East-Indies:
Together With An Account Of The Detaining In Captivity
Of The Author And Divers Other Englishmen Now
Living There, And Of The Author's Miraculous Escape.
Some of his descriptions bear an uncanny resem-
blance to Defoe’s story of Robinson Crusoe, published
in 1719, and as Defoe would have read the book before
writing his own, it may be more than a coincidence.
Modern writer Katherine Frank will reveal all at
Wimbledon Village Hall on Saturday, 12 November
(2pm) when she gives a talk on her new book Crusoe:
Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth.
Her Richard Milward Memorial Lecture will mark the
fifth anniversary of the death of the Wimbledon historian
who first confirmed Robert Knox’s local links but with-
out any reference to Crusoe. Knox (1642-1720) was a
sea captain working for Britain’s East India Company.
16

17. He was captured by Rajasingha, a Sinhalese despot,
while visiting the country to repair his ship’s masts.
In his book published in 1681, Knox wrote about
leaving misleading footprints in the sand by walking
backwards, also an important part of the Robinson
Crusoe story. It was Defoe who made the first mention
of Ceylon in English fiction. Katherine Frank spotted
this when researching a biography on him and believes
she has found the true origins of Robinson Crusoe after
nearly 300 years.
17

18. The Firs where the classic novel Tom Brown’s
Schooldays was written in 1857.
4. FAREWELL TO THE FIRS
11 November, 2011: After more than eight years of
standing derelict, the staff accommodation blocks at the
former Atkinson Morley’s Hospital in Copse Hill, West
Wimbledon, were demolished last week to make way
for new housing.
The three blocks were known as The Firs and will be
replaced by eight smart new houses as part of a much
bigger re-development of the hospital site by Berkeley
Homes which bought the 23 acres last year. Although
The Firs were regarded as setting a national standard for
residential provision when they went up in 1967 and
increased the available accommodation for doctors,
nurses and other staff, they had long become an eyesore
and will not be missed.
Ironically, that probably would not have been true
18

19. had their predecessor on the same site still been there
today. The hospital blocks took their name from The
Firs, a single large house built in 1854 as an experiment
in communal living for the families of two young barristers.
The families kept open house and famous visitors in-
cluded prolific authors Charles Kingsley (1819-75) who
wrote The Water-Babies (1863), Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell
(1810-65) who penned Cranford (1853) and The Life of
Charlotte Bronte (1857), and Alexander Macmillan who
founded one of Britain’s best known publishing companies.
Moreover, one of the two barristers was himself the
author Thomas Hughes (1822-96), who wrote Tom
Brown’s Schooldays (1857) while living at The Firs.
The book was inspired by his own son’s experiences at
a public school. Sadly the boy, Maurice, died aged 11
and his parents left The Firs soon afterwards because of
its tragic associations for them.
Atkinson Morley’s Hospital bought the house in
1950 for £5000 and used it to accommodate junior
medical staff until the blocks went up 17 years later. It
was also used as a sports pavilion in the late 1950s and
as an outpatient clinic.
House is
demolished
in 1967 to
make way
for nurses’
flats.
19

20. 5. LOST FOREVER - THE PRICELESS
CEILING OF LAURISTON HOUSE
18 November, 2011: A large new residence is going up
on the site of one of Wimbledon’s most historic homes,
Lauriston House off Southside, Wimbledon Common.
When this was demolished in 1957, a priceless ceiling
painted by the famous Swiss Neoclassical artist Angelica
Kauffmann (1741-1807) was lost forever. The house
had also been the home of the anti-slavery campaigner
William Wilberforce.
Originally known as Laurel Grove, Lauriston House
was built in 1724 for William Jackson. It was set in
three acres and next to four cottages pre-dating 1684
which became the stable block. Jackson’s widow sold
the house in 1752 to Wilberforce’s uncle. He commis-
sioned Kauffman to paint magnificent murals for the
main stairwell and in 1782 his famous nephew moved in
to enjoy them.
Wilberforce’s friend, William Pitt the Younger, was
then Chancellor of the Exchequer and about to be-
come Prime Minister. He became a regular visitor and
he and Wilberforce became known for their drinking
sessions there. One morning the flower beds were found
to have been sown with fragments of a guest’s dress hat.
Wilberforce left the house in 1786 and launched his
long anti-slavery campaign the next year but Pitt continued
to visit Wimbledon regularly as his Cabinet colleagues
Richard Grenville and Henry Dundas also lived nearby
in what later became Eagle House and Cannizaro
House respectively.
Laurel Grove was renamed Lauriston House in the
20

21. Lauriston House in 1913 when known for its family
concerts and parties. Priceless Angelica Kauffmann
murals, commissioned by William Wilberforce’s
uncle were still in place at the time.
21

22. 1870s. It had many subsequent owners and at one point
when it was run as a school for girls, the Kauffmann
murals were covered up because of the nudity of some
figures. In 1902, the house was bought by Sir Arthur
Fell, a wealthy solicitor and international businessman
who had earlier lived first in Worple Road and then
Ridgway Place. As MP for Great Yarmouth from 1906-
21, he became an early campaigner for a Channel Tunnel.
He was also a painter and Lauriston House was be-
decked with his works. It became known too for musical
parties where two orchestras performed classical and
dance pieces.
Fell died suddenly in 1934 while cashing a cheque at
Barclays Bank in the Village. When his widow died 23
years later, Lauriston House was demolished and the
garden sold for housing development. All that remain
today are the adjacent Lauriston Cottage and the name
Lauriston Road.
Neoclassical
artist
Angelica
Kauffmann
(1741-1807)
22

23. 6. FROM THEBES TO WIMBLEDON
COMMON – THE TALE OF
HOWARD CARTER
25 November, 2011: Exactly 89 years ago this weekend,
one of the world’s most famous archaeologists made a
discovery that would inspire millions right up to the
present day.
Howard Carter himself now lies buried beside
Wimbledon Common in Putney Vale Cemetery. But on
26 November 1922 after many years of searching on
behalf of his private financier, the Earl of Carnarvon, he
23

24. finally reached seals guarding the 3245-year-old tomb
of King Tutankhamen of Egypt (pictured on Page 23).
The young monarch had died aged around 18 and his
burial chamber remained intact for thousands of years
beneath the tomb of a later king. Beyond the seals,
Carter found an antechamber leading to the burial chamber
itself. It contained a huge quantity of gold and hundreds
of antiquities – so many that it would take another
decade to unearth and catalogue them all.
Carter had originally suspected the existence of
Tutankhamen’s tomb at the turn of the century when
supervising excavations at Thebes in the Valley of the
Kings on behalf of Egypt’s government antiquities
department. Since 1914 he had been working for Lord
Carnarvon but years of searching for the tomb had
passed without success. Finally Carnarvon, having lost a
great deal of money, suggested they give up but Carter
persuaded him to hold out for one more season.
On 4 November 1922 he found the entrance to a
tomb but was not yet sure of the identity. He telegraphed
Carnarvon to come at once as he dared not enter without
his patron. On 26 November, with Carnarvon behind
him, he breached the doorway and by candlelight saw
the gold and ebony hoard with two statues guarding
the entrance to the burial chamber itself. He had to
await permission from the Egyptian authorities before
entering but on 16 February 1923, he and Carnarvon
opened the doorway and found the sarcophagus of
Tutankhamen.
There was worldwide press coverage and rumours
arose of a curse on those who had disturbed the boy
king. Lord Carnarvon’s untimely death and those
24

25. of others reinforced them. Many books and films about
the curse of the mummy’s tomb followed and for a
while Carter gave illustrated lectures on his discoveries.
Eventually he retired to an isolated life of failing health
and collecting antiquities until dying of cancer in 1939.
Carter’s own grave beside Wimbledon Common has
no golden artefacts but the stone contains the inscription:
“May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years,
You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the
north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness.”
The golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamen remains
one of the world’s greatest museum attractions.
Howard Carter
25

26. 7. MURRAY AND THE LIONS OF
WIMBLEDON LODGE
2 December, 2011: Pet-owners using the Stone Lion
veterinary surgery in High Street, Wimbledon Village
will notice the two stone lions outside which give the
practice its name. They have nothing to do with pets.
They were acquired from the front of Wimbledon
Lodge, a Greek Revival style mansion which stood
on Southside, Wimbledon Common, from around 1792
until 1905. Its grounds ran right down to the Ridgway
and also included a field further down the hill.
The house was built for a French Huguenot’s son,
Gerard de Visme, who died in 1797 and was buried at St
Mary’s Church in the Village. The house was left to his
daughter Emily and her husband, Major-General Sir
Henry Murray (1784-1860), son of the Earl of Mans-
field. He fought against Napoleon in Egypt and Spain
and rode his horse, St Patrick, in a heroic cavalry charge
at Waterloo in 1815. A drawing from 1806 shows the
house had Egyptian sphinxes on the roof and a statue
above the porch as well as the stone lions on each side.
With his military career behind him, Sir Henry became
a notable figure in local Wimbledon affairs and was active
in the Vestry, the local authority of the day. He strongly
opposed the banning of Wimbledon’s annual Easter fair
in 1840, calling it one of the few festivals “the labouring
classes have the opportunity of enjoying”. He and
Emily had five children, including Arthur, a soldier son
killed fighting the Boers in South Africa in 1848, and a
daughter named Gertrude. After Sir Henry’s death, the
family donated heavily to the new St John’s Church
26

27. In 1806, the lions could be seen on plinths
on each side of the porch.
The lions were gone 99 years later when this picture
was taken. Now they stand outside the veterinary
surgery in Wimbledon Village.
27

28. when it was built in the 1870s.
Gertrude lived to the age of 90 and never left the
house. She died in 1904 and it was pulled down and the
grounds sold for development. Murray Road now covers
the site but the original semi-circular drive which once
led up to the entrance remains at the junction with
Southside.
The two stone lions somehow made their way to the
veterinary practice where they used to stand immedi-
ately outside the front door. When a new extension to
the surgery opened in the 1990s at the rear, they were
moved around the side and can now be seen in front of
the present entrance.
Two new lions replaced them outside the old front
door on the High Street itself. In Sir Henry Murray’s day
the British lion was frequently used to represent national
pride. Best known were those in Trafalgar Square.
Sir Henry Murray
28

29. 8. HUNDREDTH PANTOMIME OPENS AT
WIMBLEDON THEATRE
9 December, 2011: When the stars of this year’s pantomime
at Wimbledon Theatre walk on stage for the first time
today, they will be the 100th cast to do so.
Pantomimes have been performed every year bar two
since the theatre opened its doors for the first time on
Boxing Day 1910. Only the winters of 1941-2 and
2003-4 saw no performances as a result, respectively, of
war and refurbishment.
This year’s pantomime starring Barry Humphries as
Dame Edna Everage will be the 12th time that Dick
Whittington has been performed. Once more the legendary
fortune seeker will be “turning again” towards his destiny
as Mayor of London, accompanied of course by his cat.
It is nine years since Whittington’s last appearance
when comedian Russ Abbott headed the cast. The previous
ten times before that began in 1932 with Patrick Colbert
and continued every few years until 1997 when the cast
included John Nettles and Lesley Joseph. Between those
came an extraordinary assortment of Dick Whittington
stars including Jon Pertwee in 1949, Adam Faith in
1960, Norman Vaughan and Jack Douglas in 1971,
Jimmy Tarbuck in 1975, Eric Sykes and Roy Kinnear in
1981, and Les Dawson in 1991, appearing alongside
John Nettles the first time round.
Only two other pantomime favourites have outnum-
bered Dick Whittington over the past century: an impressive
19 productions of Cinderella and 14 of Aladdin. Clearly,
Wimbledon audiences have taken well to the Ugly Sisters
and Widow Twanky. Today’s generation of pantomime
29

30. An earlier production of Dick Whittington
over 50 years ago.
30

31. fans have even been treated to two productions each of
these since the theatre reopened in 2004. They have also
had two Peter Pan productions, although the perennial flying
youth and his fairy accomplice have only ever appeared
four times in Wimbledon, the first as recently as 1988
with Lulu.
Jack and the Beanstalk has made it a more respectable
eight times, the Babes in the Wood six times and Mother
Goose five. Also-rans have included four Little Red
Riding Hoods and two productions each of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears, Humpty Dumpty and Puss in
Boots.
By contrast, Robinson Crusoe has been a compara-
tive favourite with six productions since 1913 and most
recently in 1987 with Dennis Waterman and Rula Lenska.
Whether the recent Wimbledon Society lecture which
suggested a special link between Wimbledon and the
fictional castaway will make any impact on planning of
future productions remains to be seen. However it may
be worth noting that earlier Crusoes included the Goon,
Michael Bentine, in 1953.
Ugly Sisters have
appeared in no
fewer than 19
productions of
Cinderella.
31

32. The Grove Hotel as it was known c 1910.
9. THE LAST LINK WITH MERTON
GROVE TO DISAPPEAR
16 December, 2011: Yet another local pub, The Grove,
on the corner of Morden Road and Kingston Road at
South Wimbledon, is currently under threat of closure.
In recent times we have lost many of our local pubs and
each time we do so we lose another little bit of local
history. Already gone recently is the Emma Hamilton
at Wimbledon Chase, recalling the time when she and
Lord Nelson lived nearby until his death at the Battle of
Trafalgar in 1805.
The Grove has been there since 1865 and was named
after Merton Grove, the estate which stood on the opposite
corner bounded by Merton Road, Kingston Road, Mon-
tague Road and Pelham Road.
This estate was owned by Sir Richard Hotham, the
previous occupant of nearby Merton Place before Nelson’s
32

33. time there with Lady Hamilton. Merton Grove was built
in 1792 and had a large orchard, grapery, paddocks,
coach house, stables and pleasure grounds.
Sir Richard Hotham was a colourful character who
was involved in local affairs, stood as an MP and was
knighted by King George III in 1769. He was also
responsible for turning Bognor from a small fishing
village into what he hoped would be a fashionable
resort, like Brighton, to attract dignitaries and royalty.
He had originally wanted to call the town Hothampton.
(Its official royal link had to wait until a 20th century
visit by King George V after which it became known as
Bognor Regis.)
After Hotham’s death Merton Grove went through
several hands before finally being demolished in 1896.
Merton Place in 1803. It was Sir Richard Hotham’s
residence before he moved to the neighbouring
Merton Grove.
33

34. When South Wimbledon tube station was built 30 years
later in 1926, one of the names considered for it was
Merton Grove. Curiously, “Merton” Grove was actually
in what was then the borough of Wimbledon while what
became South Wimbledon station was actually in Merton!
The anomaly continued until the present Borough of
Merton was created in 1965, merging Wimbledon
with its neighbour.
If the Grove pub is closed down the last remaining
connection with what was once Merton Grove will be
lost. True, there is a Hotham Road off Merton High
Street which commemorates Sir Richard but there will
be no remaining direct link with what was once described
as “a rural spot with shady groves and views over fresh
unbroken country.”
Every time we lose a pub we lose much more than
just a place to drink.
FOOTNOTE: The Grove did close finally during 2012.
34

35. 10.A CENTURY OF CHRISTMAS
GREETINGS
23 December, 2012: The season of goodwill is one of
the few aspects of Wimbledon life that has remained
basically the same for the past 100 years.
Back in the early years of the 20th century, Wimbledon
Village Club produced a sepia Christmas card showing
the Village Hall entrance in Lingfield Road. It is shown
above. Since 1916. the building has also hosted what
was originally called the Wimbledon Museum of the
John Evelyn Club. Today it is simply the Museum of
Wimbledon with its entrance at 22 Ridgway. Run by
Wimbledon Society volunteers, it opens free of charge
every Saturday and Sunday.
The Museum of Wimbledon produces Christmas
cards every year, now of course in glorious colour rather
than sepia. This year’s card depicts children playing in
35

36. snow at West Place on Wimbledon Common, painted
by local artist John Field. It is shown below.
Christmas decorations too date back a long way in
Wimbledon. But today’s electric lights have succeeded
the bunting that bedecked the streets a century ago. The
photo below shows the Christmas scene around 1908
when a carriage driven by Santa Claus and advertising
Teddy Bears passed the old Wimbledon Town Hall.
36

37. 11. THE DAY HARRY LAUDER LEFT THE
GLOAMING TO COME TO WIMBLEDON
30 December, 2011: As Hogmanay approaches once
again, it is worth remembering the day 101 years ago
when one of the country’s most famous Scotsmen, the
music hall entertainer Harry Lauder, made a star appear-
ance before a crowd in Wimbledon.
The later Sir Harry Lauder (1870-1950) was then
synonymous with the image of Scotland, singing songs
like Roaming in the Gloaming and Keep Right on to the
End of the Road before audiences in Britain and around
the Empire. He performed before royalty and would stir
patriotic hearts during both world wars.
The Museum of
Wimbledon recently
received a photograph
of the day in late 1910
when he appeared in
the town. He was invited
to the formal opening
of the Wimbledon
Hippodrome, a new
cinema (known as an
“electric theatre”) and
skating rink opposite
Ely’s store in Worple
Road where the Bath
Store stands today.
Sir Harry Lauder at
the height of his fame
37

38. The cinema showed silent films, of course, and the
skating rink was designed to meet a new craze at the
time for roller skating. Lauder’s son happened to belong
to a local hockey club so he was conveniently nearby to
attend the opening.
He told the Wimbledon crowd that he had personally
resisted the lure of roller skates until his son had
persuaded him to put on a pair in his billiard room. He
had careered across the room, crashed into the fireplace,
and never worn them again. After commenting on the
presence of a large group of ladies, he sang a few lines
of the song Goodbye Till We Meet Again and left to
loud applause. His departure in his motor car was filmed
and later shown at the cinema.
But as it happened, despite the great man’s rousing
launch, the Hippodrome did not prove successful. It had
replaced a similar establishment on the same site called
Wimbledon Olympia Ltd which had lasted less than a
year before being wound up, owing £10,461 9s. 9d. The
Hippodrome didn’t even make it that long. It closed
after just five months.
Local entrepreneur Alfred Hewitt Smith of 10 Home
Park Road had achieved a triumph in getting Harry
Lauder to open the place. It was his only success in a
career of continued business failure which eventually
saw him go bankrupt.
38

39. Harry Lauder stands with his hands on his hips at
the opening of the Wimbledon Hippodrome in
December 1910. Also in this photo of the day are his
wife and, standing on the right, local businessman
Alfred Hewitt Smith whose only career success was
arranging the star’s appearance on that day.
39

40. William T.
Stead,
journalist,
spiritualist,
and
victim of
the last
century’s
most
notorious
tragedy at
sea.
J Bruce Ismay
of the White
Star Line
survived the
Titanic
sinking and
was never
forgiven
for it.
40

41. 12. THE WIMBLEDON JOURNALIST
WHO SANK WITH THE TITANIC
6 January, 2012: Journalist W.T. Stead, one of the best
known victims of the Titanic disaster exactly 100 years
ago in April this year, was also one of Wimbledon’s
most famous residents.
William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) lived at
Cambridge House, Wimbledon Park Road South (now
part of Church Road). At 2.20am, 15 April 1912 he was
on the world’s most famous ship as it sank into the
North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
An ardent spiritualist as well as editor of The Pall
Mall Gazette, he seems to have foretold the disaster. In
1886 he had written a story about the sinking of an
ocean liner and how lives were lost because of an
insufficient number of lifeboats. At the end he warned
that this would really happen.
Later, in December 1892 he had written another
story entitled From the Old World to the New in the
Review of Reviews in which a ship sank in the North
Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The White Star liner
Majestic saved some survivors and was commanded by
Edward J. Smith. Twenty years later the same man
really was captain of the White Star liner, Titanic.
The Titanic disaster ended a career that had made
Stead a household name many years earlier. Son of a
Congegationalist minister, he wrote for the Northern
Echo, Darlington, before coming south to The Pall Mall
Gazette in 1880, becoming editor in 1883. He turned it
into a “lively, amusing and newsy” populist campaigning
41

42. newspaper. In 1884 he interviewed General Charles
Gordon shortly before his notorious murder by Jihadists
in the Sudan and in 1885 he launched a campaign to oppose
child prostitution in London and raise the age of consent
at the time from 12.
Stead’s campaign put him in prison. To publicise the
plight of child prostitutes, he arranged to buy a young
virgin for £5 and then tell the tale. Helped by Rebecca
Jarrett, a former prostitute, he convinced the mother of
13-year-old Eliza Armstrong that the girl would just go into
domestic service. Eliza was taken to a house in Poland
Street, chloroformed and taken away to Paris while
Stead published a story said to “set London and the
whole country in a blaze of indignation”.
But while securing massive newspaper sales, he was
widely criticised for publishing obscene material. The
missing Eliza was eventually discovered in Stead’s
Wimbledon garden and he was convicted of having
fraudulently taken her from her parents. He spent three
months in Holloway Prison (not then all-female) but his
campaign was vindicated when the Criminal Law
Amendment Act raised the age of consent from 12 to 16,
banning procurement of minors. To mark the Act, Stead
would henceforth travel by train from Wimbledon to
Waterloo in his prison garb every 10 November.
Stead’s remains now lie beneath the North Atlantic but
the Titanic story has another permanent local link. Joseph
Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, was also
on board and afterwards criticised for escaping in a life-
boat while 1500 people drowned. His career was ruined
but when he died on 17 October 1937, he was buried at
Putney Vale cemetery, next to Wimbledon Common.
42

43. Charles Dickens and his son,
Henry Fielding Dickens, in youth.
13. WIMBLEDON’S DICKENSIANS
13 January, 2012: Charles Dickens may never have
lived in Wimbledon but he sent four of his seven sons to
school here and a link remains to the present day.
Britain’s greatest novelist, whose birth bicentenary falls
next month on 7th February, selected Wimbledon School
for his sons Walter, Alfred, Edward and Henry. When
the first two arrived in the 1850s, the school was based
at what was to become Eagle House in the Village but
in 1860 it moved to specially built premises in Edge Hill
which was where the younger two sons started.
It had a reputation for training future military entrants to
Sandhurst and Walter went on to a brief but successful
army career in India before dying suddenly aged just 22.
Neither Alfred nor Edward proved able to follow him
43

44. into the military and both later sought new lives in
Australia, but Henry was well regarded by the headmaster
who recommended him for Cambridge. He went on to a
long and highly distinguished career and is now buried
beside the Common at Putney Vale Cemetery, along
with his wife and one of his own sons.
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, the writer’s last surviving
child, was born exactly 163 years ago this week on 16th
January 1849. Charles and Catherine Dickens had ten
children in all and Henry Fielding – named after one of
the writer’s own favourite novelists - was their sixth son
(Edward was the seventh). He lived to the age of 84 and
died on 21 December 1933, two weeks after being hit by
a motorcycle on Chelsea Embankment.
He was brought up at Dickens’s home in Gad’s Hill,
Kent, and was also educated at other schools in Rochester
and Boulogne. At Wimbledon he did well and achieved
the position of Head Censor. However, in view of his
brothers’ records on admission to the army, his father
planned to enter him for the Indian Civil Service instead
until the headmaster recommended him for Cambridge
University. He duly went on to Trinity Hall. There he
thrilled the great novelist by winning the college’s best
scholarship for mathematics. But sadly he was still at
the university when Charles Dickens died in 1870 and
never saw his father alive again.
After graduating he switched to law, was called to
the bar in 1873, appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1892,
became a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1899, and was
a Recorder in Kent for some years before his appoint-
ment as Common Sergeant of the City of London in
1917. In that post until his retirement in 1932, he
44

45. presided over many criminal cases at the Old Bailey. He
was knighted in 1922.
Although he didn’t inherit his father’s genius as a
writer, he was a great impressionist and started at a very
young age, performing the role of Tom Thumb along-
side his father and sisters at a school production when
just four. In later life at family gatherings he would imitate
his father’s famous reading performances, wearing a
geranium in his buttonhole and leaning on the same velvet
-covered reading stand the novelist had used on his
tours. He celebrated his 80th birthday by reading the
whole of A Christmas Carol perfectly. He also per-
formed for charity, raising funds for the Red Cross and
was Life President of the Dickens Fellowship.
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens and his French wife
Marie were married for 57 years and she joined him at
Putney Vale when she died in 1940. They had seven
children and one of their sons, Philip Charles Dickens,
is also buried there.
Sir Henry
Fielding Dickens
in later life as an
Old Bailey
judge.
45

46. 14. HILLSIDE WAS TRANSFORMED
IN A FEW YEARS
20 January, 2012: New building developments are
happening all the time these days and no-one alive now
remembers when Wimbledon’s long hillside sloping
down from the Ridgway to the railway line into London
consisted entirely of market gardens and pasture for
livestock. The fields had names such as Little Ladies
Close and Cater Gutters. Yet the change to today’s
residential slopes was made within a very short space
of time.
At the top of the hill, the Ridgway stretches from
Wimbledon Village to Copse Hill while at the bottom,
the railway line beside Worple Road links the town
centre and Raynes Park. In the 1820s a few cottages
were built in South Place behind today’s Thornton Hill
and by 1855 a beer shop stood on the present site of The
Swan pub in the Ridgway. But these apart, the entire
hillside consisted largely of fields in 1858 when the first
houses appeared at the top end of Ridgway Place and
Hillside.
Within a year or so, houses were built in Thornton
Road, named after the wealthiest man in Britain and
local landowner, Richard Thornton. By 1860, model
cottages and other houses had arisen in South Road –
later renamed Denmark Road - with more in what became
St John’s Road. The Ridgway’s other shops appeared
too during this period.
It was the wedding of Edward, Prince of Wales, to
Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863 that brought
that country’s name to Wimbledon, remembered today
46

47. Watercolours
painted before the
disappearance of
rural Wimbledon.
Shown above is the
view from the top
of Thornton Hill in
1873. Seen right is
Worple Road at
the bottom of the
same hill a
year later. It
was a typical
Surrey scene.
by the Princess Alexandra pub in the town centre.
Building began at that time on the lower part of the hill.
It would give rise to Denmark Avenue and at the same
time Thornton Road was extended to become Thornton
Hill. St John’s Church was built in 1873-5 and its road
widened. The first houses in Spencer Hill were built in
47

48. 1879, as was Berkeley Place on land owned by one
Edward Berkeley Philipps.
In just a few years the rural atmosphere had gone.
Not long afterwards virtually the entire hillside had been
transformed into a suburban area but there were still a
few patches of greenery left.
Gertrude Murray of Wimbledon Lodge, beside the
Common (see page 28), owned a nearby field which
was developed into Murray Road South immediately
after her death in 1904. As late as the 1920s the lower
part of Ridgway Place was still a wildflower meadow
but it eventually went under the bulldozer too.
Finally, a century after it all started, Savona Close
and Thackeray Close went up in the late 1960s, the
latter named after the famous novelist whose daughter
had lived in Berkeley Place.
48

49. 15. WIMBLEDON SCHOOLBOY
FOUNDED RECORD-BREAKING RADIO
SHOW
27 January, 2012: Today marks the 70th anniversary of
the world’s second longest running radio show, invented
by a former pupil of King’s College School, Wimbledon.
Exceeded only by the Grand Ole Opry in America,
BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, brain-child of
broadcaster Roy Plomley (1914-85), was first recorded
on 27 January 1942 and aired two days later. Nearly
2900 programmes in the series have been heard since
then, of which Plomley presented the first 1784 himself
over 43 years.
Roy Plomley lived with his parents in Trinity Road,
Wimbledon. He left the area after his school days but
the link remains to this day, as when he died he was buried
in Putney Vale Cemetery beside Wimbledon Common.
The son of a pharmacist, after King’s he worked for an
estate agent, an advertising agency, a publisher and as
an actor before joining a commercial radio station in
France as an announcer in 1936.
Escaping the Germans in 1940, he returned to England
and in 1941 wrote to the BBC with the idea for a weekly
programme in which a well known guest was asked
which eight records they would like with them if cast
away on a desert island. The first castaway ever was Vic
Oliver, a Viennese comedian, actor and musician who also
happened to be the son-in-law of Winston Churchill. His
first choice was a piece by Chopin.
Desert Island Discs proved an immediate success thanks
49

50. One of BBC Radio 4’s best-loved programmes. By
Sean Magee, published by Bantam Press. Used by
permission of The Random House Group Limited.
50

51. to Plomley’s skill
as an interviewer
and meticulous
research on each
interviewee. A
few months later
he became the
castaway himself
for one show,
interviewed by the
head of popular
programmes.
Eventually,
each guest was
also asked to
choose one book
and one luxury
item for the is-
land. However, as
everyone asked
for either the Bible or Shakespeare’s plays, these
were assumed to be awaiting them on their arrival and
another work had to be named.
Over 43 years Plomley interviewees included among
others 842 stage, screen or radio stars, 469 musicians,
367 writers, 117 sports champions, 75 art or fashion
designers, 66 politicians or public servants, 60 academics,
and four royals, including Princess Margaret and Princess
Grace of Monaco.
He continued to present the programme until his
death in 1985. He was succeeded by Michael Parkinson. Sue
Lawley took over in 1988 and Kirsty Young in 2006.
51

52. Copse Hill,
Wimbledon,
1931 by
Kate Sidford.
The Salon at
Wimbledon
House,
Parkside,
c1815 by
Maria
Marryat.
52

53. 16. HISTORIC WATERCOLOURS
LAUNCH NEW EXHIBITION GALLERY
3 February, 2012: Some 55 historic watercolours of
Wimbledon, painted over two centuries between 1780
and 1985, will go on display in the first ever exhibition
at the brand new Village Hall Trust Gallery, opening
tomorrow Saturday, 4 February.
The show, entitled Town and Country Wimbledon, is
the first opportunity to see many of the works collected
by the Museum of Wimbledon since its foundation 96
years ago in 1916. The paintings have been acquired
through donations, bequests and works by new local
artists. The new gallery provides an extension to the
Museum itself at 22 Ridgway and entry to this exhibition is
via the Museum’s Perry Room on weekend afternoons.
The watercolours depict Wimbledon’s rural and urban
heritage through works by local painters over 200 years.
The earliest painting, by John Melchior Barralet, depicts
St Mary’s Church c1780. It is the collection’s only
contemporary drawing of the medieval church and was
made shortly before its rebuilding in 1788. A tithe barn
shown was dismantled in the 1860s to allow for an
extension to the churchyard.
Other very early works include Maria Marryat’s The
Salon at Wimbledon House, Parkside, c1815 and John
Chessell Buckler’s monochrome of Eagle House in
1827. Wimbledon House Parkside, which had one of the
region’s finest gardens stretching over 100 acres, was
demolished at the start of the 20th century but Eagle
House, still standing in the High Street, is Wimbledon’s
second oldest building, dating back to 1613.
53

54. By contrast, other works in the exhibition include a
rural Copse Hill as recently as 1931, Croft’s Timber
Yard at West Place in 1910, and scenes from the annual
National Rifle Association camp on the Common in the
1870s.
Public art exhibitions in Wimbledon date back to
1876 when the Wimbledon Art & Benevolent Society
staged its first charity fund-raising show of oils and
water-colours in the Village Hall. This became an annual
event and gradually diversified to include photographs,
wood carving, sculpture, book binding and needlework.
The Art & Benevolent Society changed its name in
1906 to the Wimbledon Arts and Crafts Society. In that
year, Richardson Evans, then a recent founder of what
later became the Wimbledon Society, appealed to local
artists to lend pictures for an exhibition illustrating “Old
and Picturesque Wimbledon” before it disappeared for-
ever. Many of the pictures loaned became permanent
and helped create a collection for the Museum after it
was established at the Village Hall during the First
World War.
Future Museum of Wimbledon exhibitions in the
new gallery will feature the hundreds of other images
from the collection, which also includes photographs,
topographical engravings, sketches, 19th century steel
engravings and newsprint, original drawings and etchings.
Town and Country Wimbledon runs until 25 April 2012.
After that, until the next exhibition by the Museum it-
self, the gallery will be used by local artists and schools
with access via the Village Hall entrance in Lingfield
Road.
54

55. Atkinson Morley’s Convalescent Hospital
opens in 1869.
17. COPSE HILL LOSES ITS LAST
HOSPITAL AFTER 140 YEARS
10 February, 2012: Next month’s closure of the 32-bed
Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre will mark the end
of 143 years of hospitals at Copse Hill, West Wimbledon.
Not that long ago there were three of them - Atkinson
Morley’s, Wimbledon Hospital, and the Wolfson itself.
The first hospital building work started in 1867 on
what had previously been part of the 300-acre estate of
the late Lord Cottenham, Lord Chancellor. Two years
later, Atkinson Morley's Convalescent Hospital took in
its first patients for the recovery process following treat-
ment at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. It was
55

56. named after Atkinson Morley, a governor of St
George’s, who had bequeathed £150,000 specifically for
construction of a peaceful convalescent home. The
building in rural Wimbledon was the first purpose-built
facility of its kind associated with an inner city hospital.
The following year, 1870, saw opening of Wimbledon
Cottage Hospital just across the lane from Atkinson
Morley’s. Among its founders was the Chancery barrister,
Edward Thurston Holland whose name lives on today
through Thurston Road. It was rebuilt in 1912 and re-
opened with 37 beds, simply named Wimbledon Hospital.
For more than a century the two hospitals operated
on each side of the road. A sixth of all St George’s
patients from Hyde Park Corner convalesced at Atkinson
Morley’s, with patients and laundry transported to
Wimbledon at first in horse-drawn carriages and after
1888 in an omnibus. Wimbledon Hospital, on the other
hand, was primarily for local patients, although both
establishments were used by wounded servicemen during
the First World War and Wimbledon Hospital in particular
treated over 500 men, with marquees in the grounds
complementing its capacity.
Both hospitals were upgraded during the Second
World War with much greater bed numbers and both
had their own homes for staff on site. In 1942 Atkinson
Morley’s original convalescent role was permanently
changed when its surgical wards were taken over for
neurosurgery, and after the war this became its primary
role. It specialised in head injuries, attaining an interna-
tional reputation for excellence.
Wimbledon Hospital, meanwhile, joined the NHS in
1948 with 84 beds under the control of the South-West
56

57. Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
In 1949 departments of psychiatry and neuroradiology
were established at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital and by
1954 it had 44 neurosurgical beds, 16 neurological and
50 psychiatric, with 14 beds available for continuity and
recovery. Then, in 1967, exactly 100 years after the first
building work on site, the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation
Centre opened next door as Britain’s first facility dedicated
to neurological recovery. It provided rehabilitation for
patients needing intensive therapy for physical or psy-
chological disabilities following brain or spinal cord
injuries.
But only 14 years later Copse Hill’s association with
hospitals suffered its first hit. In 1981 it was decided to
close Wimbledon Hospital and move its services else-
where. This finally happened in 1983 when services
moved to the Nelson at Merton Park and the hospital
was demolished the following year to be replaced by a
housing estate. Nearly 20 years later in 2003, Atkinson
Morley’s also closed and its services were transferred to
St George’s Hospital, now in Tooting since being
moved from Hyde Park Corner in 1980.
Closure of the Wolfson in March 2012 will set the
final seal for Copse Hill as its beds are also moved, first
to St George’s in Tooting and later to Queen Mary’s at
Roehampton. Some 147 patients had been treated in
the last year when the closure announcement was made
public. More new housing is expected to replace it.
FOOTNOTE: The site has since been renamed
Wimbledon Hill Park by the developer.
57

58. Oliver Reed told his own story in this paperback
published by Coronet Books in 1981. Used by
permission of Hodder & Stoughton.
58

59. 18. OLIVER REED – WIMBLEDON’S
WILDEST REBEL
17 February 2012: The Wimbledon-born screen actor
Oliver Reed would have celebrated his 74th birthday this
week on Monday, 13 February. As it was, after appearing
in well over 60 films, he died suddenly on 2 May 1999
while making his last one, Gladiator. It was completed
without him - using special effects.
Reed’s whole life was a special effect. Born at No 9
Durrington Park Road, near Raynes Park, his family
background was spectacular. He was a grandson of the
famous Victorian actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm
Tree by his mistress Beatrice May Pinney. She changed
her name to Reed because she felt she was “a broken
reed at the foot of the mighty Tree”. In later life she
lived at 12 Lingfield Road, Wimbledon Village, and two
of her illegitimate children were Oliver Reed’s father, Peter,
a well known sports journalist, and the film director Sir
Carol Reed.
After being expelled from 13 other schools, Oliver
Reed succeeded in becoming captain of athletics and
junior cross-country champion at Ewell Castle School.
He left age 17 and worked as a strip club bouncer, fair-
ground boxer and mortuary attendant before National
Service where he was rejected for an officer’s commis-
sion while serving in the Army Medical Corps.
Afterwards he drifted into acting as a film extra in
1958. Carol Reed offered him a small part and advised
him to enrol at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but
he refused to work for his uncle before achieving star
status. He rejected RADA too - curious perhaps, as his
59

60. grandfather had been its founder in 1904.
In 1959, Oliver Reed married his first wife, Katie. He
lived in various Wimbledon flats in Marryat Road,
Woodside, Homefield Road and Arterberry Road but by
the late 1960s had become one of Britain's highest paid
actors and moved into a large house in Ellerton Road,
off Copse Hill. He became a keen horse-rider on the
Common and the lounge was said to resemble that of a
country squire with military and hunting prints, a gun
collection, and of course a well stocked bar. He was also
well known at the Hand in Hand pub and developed a
reputation for drinking with companions on a monu-
mental scale as well as chasing women. Not surprisingly
he and Katie were divorced in 1969.
He had already appeared in several Hammer horror
films and many other pictures before playing Bill Sykes
in the musical Oliver in 1968 which made him an inter-
national star. In 1971 he left Wimbledon for good, moving
to a gigantic house in Dorking. He became even more of
a household name by starring in several of director Ken
Russell’s most controversial films including Women in
Love, The Devils and Tommy.
From then on his career was always associated with
an off-screen lifestyle as wild as that of anyone in show
business. He was 61 when – fittingly enough – his last
role was in a film about fighting. The night before he
suffered a fatal heart attack he was drinking heavily as
usual and arm wrestling five sailors. Russell Crowe was
the star of the film but Gladiator was dedicated to Reed.
He was posthumously nominated for two screen awards.
60

61. Lionel Tertis
19. THE WORLD FAMOUS VIOLA
PLAYER OF MARRYAT ROAD
24 February, 2012: This week marked the 37th anniversary
of the death of Lionel Tertis of Marryat Road,
Wimbledon, said to have been the greatest viola player
of the 20th century.
Tertis, who died age 98, is commemorated by the
triennial Lionel Tertis International Viola Festival
& Competition, known throughout the musical world
and involving young players of any nationality aged
under 30. Participants from more than 30 countries
took part last time and the next one, the 11th, will be
61

62. held at the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man from
16-23 March 2013.
Lionel Tertis was born in 1876 in West Hartlepool. By
the time that he and his professional cellist wife Lillian
moved into Flat One at 42 Marryat Road in 1961, he
had been playing the viola for around 66 years. He
continued to perform in public until 1963 and then gave
private recitals in the garden.
Tertis is said to have revolutionised the viola as a
solo instrument. Although he studied piano at Trinity
College, London, before switching to the violin at Leipzig
Conservatoire, he took up the viola at the age of 19 to
play in a string quartet. In 1901 he became Professor of
viola at the Royal Academy of Music and was later
director of the ensemble class there from 1924-29,
teaching many distinguished players.
As well as playing with various orchestras and string
quartets and touring Europe and the US as a soloist, Tertis
arranged and edited many works for the viola, including
the Elgar Cello Concerto, Delius violin sonatas and
Brahms clarinet sonatas. He composed some works
himself and may have influenced William Walton in the
writing of his own viola concerto. Tertis attracted the
attention of many other great composers including
Vaughan-Williams, Britten, Bartók, and Shostakovich.
He gave first performances of many works for the viola
that had been written especially for him and he was
awarded the CBE in 1950.
Back in 1924 he had bought a 1727 vintage
Montagnana instrument from a Paris dealer although
it was said to be in an unplayable condition, without a
bridge, strings, fingerboard or case. It was also very big
62

63. and it was only possible to bring it back to London
by his then wife wrapping it in her waterproof coat to
get it across the English Channel. The large viola
provided an especially rich tone and Tertis went on to
create his own model instrument to achieve the tonal
advantages he sought.
The large house at 42 Marryat Road, Wimbledon,
had been converted into three flats in 1953, and Tertis,
Lillian, and her elderly mother moved into one of them
when he was already in his mid eighties. After his death
on 22 February 1975, Lillian, who was much younger,
remained at the flat alone until 2005 when she moved
into a nursing home in Kingston, dying there in 2009
aged 94.
The Lionel Tertis International Viola Festival
& Competition was founded in 1980, five years after
the performer’s death and in February 2007 the violist
Roger Chase initiated The Tertis Project, a series of
concerts of works that had been composed for him.
Chase performs on the same vintage instrument that
Lionel and his wife brought from Paris in 1924.
63

64. Frances, Count St Antonio, later Duke of
Cannizzaro, (centre profile) with a dance partner
20. COLOURFUL STORY OF CANNIZARO
GETS ANOTHER HEARING
2 March, 2012: The controversies and scandals that
beset Cannizaro House during its first two centuries will
feature in this week’s free Wimbledon Society illustrated
lecture at the Mansel Road Centre (Saturday 7 March,
starting 8.15pm) when writer Tony Matthews will talk
about the subject of his book Cannizaro Beyond the
Gates.
Known originally as Warren House, it was the country
home of many rich, high profile figures with interests in
the City and politics. William Browne, the merchant who
built it around 1705, was sued for defaming the local vicar
and excommunicated from the church. His successor,
Thomas Walker, was said to be a notorious usurer who
used political links with Prime Minister Robert Walpole
and others to amass a vast fortune. Lyde Browne, director
of the Bank of England, established a huge collection of
64

65. classical sculptures at the house but was cheated of half
the value when he sold it to Empress Catherine the
Great of Russia whose agent went bust.
Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, was a senior
government minister under William Pitt and the place
became known for their lengthy drinking sessions.
(See Page 20). Dundas won plaudits from King George
III during royal visits to Wimbledon but he later became
embroiled in a corruption scandal which destroyed
his career. His private life was disastrous too.
But most scandalous of all were the Duke and Duchess
of Cannizzaro whose residence there between 1817 and
1841 was marked by many years of critical and satirical
press coverage of their various infidelities and financial
peccadilloes. Both had scandal-ridden backgrounds but
were constantly in the public eye as they mixed in the
highest echelons of society. Even though they separated
in 1826, she continued to bankroll him until her death in
1841 when he casually returned to claim her fortune,
sold her treasured library, and died himself shortly afterwards.
Subsequent residents of Cannizaro House included the
highly controversial Maharajah Duleep Singh, just deposed
as ruler of the Punjab, and later Mrs Mary Schuster,
whose massive garden parties and musical soirees
were famed for including royalty and literary giants
such as Lord Tennyson and Oscar Wilde among the
guests.
The last of the great controversies happened in 1900
when Cannizaro House was largely destroyed by fire
because an inadequate water supply hampered efforts by
the fire brigade to put the flames out quickly. The
damage was catastrophic but it heralded a new era 20
65

66. years later when the rebuilt house would become
famous for its magnificent gardens, the forerunner of
today’s Cannizaro Park.
FOOTNOTE: The last private owner of the estate, the
Countess of Munster, sold it to Wimbledon Corporation
in 1948 and the park opened in 1949. Unlike the 18th
and 19th centuries, Cannizaro has seen no significant
scandals in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Sophia, Duchess of Cannizzaro
66

67. Three generations of John Murrays at the family
home, Newstead, in 1890. Photo used with
permission of The Murray Collection.
21. WIMBLEDON’S MOST SUCCESSFUL
PUBLISHING FAMILY
9 March, 2012: Exactly 200 years ago tomorrow on 10
March 1812, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the book that
made poet Lord Byron a household name, was pub-
lished by John Murray II (1778-1843), second head of
the publishing family that began in the 18th century and
continued right into the 21st. The book sold out in just
five days and Murray, whose family was probably the
most successful in publishing ever to live in Wimbledon,
had as much reason to celebrate as the poet himself.
67

68. The firm’s list of published writers since then is dazzling.
Byron’s contemporaries included novelists Sir Walter
Scott and Jane Austen. In time they were followed by
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, David Livingstone’s
Missionary Travels, the letters of Queen Victoria, William
Gladstone’s most famous book on the church and the
state, Murray’s Handbook for Travellers (first of all
modern travel guides), the travel writings of Freya Stark
and Patrick Leigh Fermor, the poems of Sir John Betjeman,
the cartoons of Osbert Lancaster, and jointly with the
BBC, Kenneth Clark’s Civilization.
Although the John Murray firm has always been
associated with its headquarters at 50 Albemarle Street,
Mayfair, members of the family lived in Wimbledon on
and off for around a century, from the days when John
Murray II was working with Byron until after the First
World War.
John Murray II had “a little cottage” in Wimbledon at
the time he published Lord Byron’s controversial poem
on Don Juan in 1819. It appeared without their names
but still attracted a mob outside Albemarle Street protesting
about its “bawdy” contents. Lady Caroline Lamb, a
passionate fan of Byron, wrote to Murray asking to meet
him at the cottage, which was serving as his bolthole
from the London crowd. Byron himself was away in
Italy at the time.
Murray’s son, John Murray III (1808–1892), bought
four acres of land off Parkside and built a villa at
Somerset Road on the brow of a hill with a lake. He
called it Newstead after Lord Byron’s seat, Newstead
Abbey in Nottinghamshire. The house became a
mansion with around 20 bedrooms. Every day, John
68

69. Newstead in the 1890s.
Murray III would walk the mile and a half down to
Wimbledon Station and could be seen correcting proofs
on the train into central London. When he died in
1892 he was buried in the family tomb at St Mary’s
Church in Wimbledon Village.
Within a year, Sir John Murray IV (1851–1928)
moved back to Albemarle Street with his wife and son -
later Sir John Murray V (1884–1967). However, his
brother, Alexander Henry Hallam Murray (1854-1934),
a designer and illustrator for the family firm until 1908,
stayed at Newstead until selling it after 1918. The firm
continued under successive John Murrays until John
Murray VII sold it in 2002. The family archive from
1768 to 1920 was sold to the National Library of
Scotland.
69

70. 22. THE WIMBLEDON RADICAL WHO
RIVALLED DR JOHNSON
16 March, 2012: One of the 18 th century’s most
controversial radical politicians died at his home beside
Wimbledon Common exactly 200 years ago this weekend.
John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) retired to Chester
House on Westside Common towards the end of an un-
conventional career which included being imprisoned in
the Tower of London, antagonizing both sides in
Parliament, libelling the Speaker, and successfully
campaigning for the public right to see printed accounts
of Parliamentary debates.
He was also a noted philologist and is said to have
rivalled Dr Samuel Johnson in his conversational and
writing powers. His sayings were published after his
death.
Born simply John Horne on 25 June 1736 in Westminster,
he was the son of a poultry merchant who insisted that he
become a clergyman. Reluctantly he did so and retained an
income from the Church until 1773 when he formally
resigned. However, for years before that, he was
involved in radical politics, supporting the notorious
demagogue John Wilkes and getting him elected to
Parliament.
In 1769, Horne and Wilkes founded The Society for
Supporting the Bill of Rights but the two rowed and the
membership split into opposing camps in 1771. In the
same year Horne obtained a Masters degree at Cambridge
and successfully achieved the publication of Parliamentary
debates as a matter of public right.
70

71. Chester
House
is seen
above
c1810
when
John
Horne
Tooke
lived
there.
The man
himself is
shown
right.
71

72. After switching from the Church to study law and
philology, he became embroiled in a controversy over
land ownership between a friend, William Tooke, and a
neighbour. Following many disputes, the neighbour’s
friends in Parliament tried to force through a Bill that
would enhance his interests at Tooke’s expense.
Horne drew public attention to the case by libelling the
Speaker of the House and although he was taken into
custody by the sergeant-at-arms, the clauses harmful to
Tooke were dropped. Tooke was so grateful he made
Horne the heir to his fortune. In return, Horne added
“Tooke” to his name in 1782.
In 1777 he was jailed for a year for soliciting sub-
scriptions in support of Americans killed by British
forces during the American War of Independence. Afterwards
rejected by the Bar, he tried farming and wrote political
treatises demanding reform. He was an unsuccessful Parlia-
mentary candidate twice in the 1790s and was arrested for
treason in 1794 for opposing the clampdown on dissent in
England during the French Revolution. Imprisoned in
the Tower for some months he was then acquitted.
Ironically for a radical reformer, he eventually secured a
Parliamentary seat in 1801 by being returned for the
pocket borough of Old Sarum rather than being elected
by a large number of voters. Even then his career in the
House was truncated after his opponents introduced a
Bill banning anyone in religious orders from sitting in
the Commons. His previous role as a clergyman, although
long over, was held as a reason for his exclusion.
At home in Wimbledon he hosted Sunday parties for
politicians and men of letters which were known for
their witty discussions. He suffered serious illness from
72

73. Horne Tooke suffering on a couch at Chester House.
1810 and planned to be buried in the Chester House garden.
However this was rejected after his death on 18 March
1812 and he was interred instead alongside his mother in
Ealing.
73

74. 23. FROM LONDON’S SEWERS TO THE
FRESH AIR OF WIMBLEDON
23 March 2012: Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819-
1891), the man who created London’s sewerage system
as well as the Thames Embankment and three major
London Bridges, died at his Wimbledon home 121 years
ago last week.
Only today, some 150 years after his sewers came
into use, is Thames Water having to plan a major up-
grade to meet modern demands. It is a mark of just how
much Londoners owe this 19th century engineering giant.
Bazalgette came to Wimbledon in 1873 with his wife
and ten children, moving into St Mary’s House, Arthur
Road. They had previously lived for a time in what was
then the Surrey countryside at Morden. Before that their
home was in St John’s Wood.
A former railway specialist, Bazalgette served as
Chief Engineer on London’s Metropolitan Board of
Works from 1856 until 1889. In the preceding years
thousands of Londoners had died of cholera epidemics
caused by contaminated water. As all drains emptied
their contents into the Thames and the streets sometimes
flowed with raw sewage, it is easy to understand why.
However at the time, bad air rather than contaminated
water was blamed for the disease.
By 1858 the river had become so badly polluted that
air conditions were unbearable and a Parliamentary
select committee was appointed to seek a solution.
Bazalgette proposed the construction of hundreds of
miles of underground brick sewers to intercept sewage
outflows and keep it from the streets. By improving the
74

75. Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819-1891).
Source: Men of Eminence, Vol 6, edited by Edward
Walford. London, 1867. Courtesy of Saffron
Walden Town Library.
75

76. air it was assumed that cholera would decline. It did -
but only later was it understood why. He secured the
funds to go ahead and as well as building the tunnels,
the scheme involved major pumping stations at certain
points on both sides of the Thames. The system was
opened by the Prince of Wales in 1865 but work continued
for another decade as further pumping stations were added.
Between 1865 and 1870, Bazalgette also directed the
construction of Victoria Embankment. This was
prompted both by the new sewerage system and the
need to relieve traffic congestion in Fleet Street and The
Strand. It involved building out on to the river foreshore
with a cut and cover tunnel for what is now the District
Line, and roofing this over for the new roadway. Once
the work was done, two public gardens were laid out,
giving a welcome green space between the government
buildings of Whitehall and the river.
From his Wimbledon home, Bazalgette was knighted
for his efforts in 1875 and elected President of the
Institution of Civil Engineers in 1883. His historic
contributions to London continued with designs for new
bridges across the Thames which opened at Putney in
1886 and Hammersmith in 1887. He also went on to
design Battersea Bridge which formally opened in 1890.
Bazalgette’s son Norman played a major role in
Wimbledon’s own history, campaigning for the first free
public library from 1880 onwards until it finally opened
at the bottom of Wimbledon Hill Road in 1887. When
Sir Joseph himself died five years later he was buried in
a family mausoleum at the parish church opposite their
house. A century later this was decaying badly and the
Wimbledon Society raised funds towards its restoration.
76

77. Memorial to Sir Joseph William Bazalgette on
Victoria Embankment.
FOOTNOTE: The television producer Peter Bazalgette,
great-great-grandson of Sir Joseph, was also knighted in
2012 and named as the next Chairman of Arts Council
England in September 2012.
77

78. 24. WIMBLEDON’S FIRST
GARDEN CENTRE
30 March, 2012: Wimbledon gardeners have to travel
slightly further nowadays to stock up for spring and
summer planting but their Victorian forebears could
simply shop at Thomson’s Nurseries at the bottom of
Wimbledon Hill Road, formerly the Lord of the
Manor’s kitchen garden.
Scotsman David Thomson (1816-1905) worked as a
gardener for Lord of the Manor Earl Spencer from 1838
until the Wimbledon Park estate was sold off in 1846.
Much local freehold land belonged to the Church
Commissioners but in 1852 Thomson leased some 12
acres between what is now St Mark’s Place and Wood-
side, and established a nursery and landscape gardening
business to serve the growing number of fine houses
being built on the Earl’s former estate and nearby.
He soon secured an excellent reputation for integrity
and professionalism and by 1871 was employing 12
people. Thomson himself lived with his wife and six
children opposite the end of Hothouse Lane (later St
Mary’s Road).
The nursery entrance was through a conservatory
containing palm trees and seasonal flowers. There were
30 greenhouses with geraniums, begonias, imported
Japanese aspidistras, vast numbers of chrysanthemums
and hundreds of climbing roses in pots. Outdoors were
many other plants and trees.
However the 30-year-lease ran out in the early 1880s
and the Church Commissioners sold part of the land for
further development, including what would become the
78

79. Thomson’s Nurseries shown
above in 1907. On the right,
David Thomson.
town’s first free public library
in 1887. Thomson retained
only his shop and land imme-
diately below Woodside for
the greenhouses.
As a result he bought the
freehold of an additional 50
acres of land south of the rail-
way, west of Merton Hall Road and established a second
base, the Branch Nursery. There he stocked a further
huge range of trees, shrubs and hardy perennials.
A gardening publication describing the Branch Nursery
later listed phlox, iris, lobelia, Michaelmas daisies, alpines,
masses of strawberries, roses producing 18,000 buds a
year, apple trees, plums, pears, cherries, peaches, hollies,
sycamores, planes, elms, birch and mountain ash and limes.
79

80. David Thomson remained active in his nurseries
right up to the age of 87 and died after a short illness at
his home in 1905. The rest of the original nursery at
Wimbledon Hill Road was sold in 1894 and Worcester
and Compton Roads were built on the site. By 1929
houses extended all along Woodside and only a flower
shop remained on the corner of Alwyne Road.
Thomson’s sons continued in the business at the
Branch Nursery but this too was compulsorily purchased
by the council for housing in 1920 and the Toynbee
Road area constructed.
David Thomson’s cottage on the old Spencer estate.
80

81. 25. MUSIC HALL SINGING STAR HETTY
KING LIVED IN WIMBLEDON
6 April, 2012: On 8 November 2010, the Music Hall
Guild of Great Britain and America erected a com-
memorative blue plaque at No 17 Palmerston Road,
Wimbledon. It was the last home of old time singer and
actress Hetty King (1883-1972) who lived there from
the 1950s with her sister Olive Edwards.
Hetty, whose 129th birthday fell this Wednesday, was
one of Britain’s most successful male impersonators,
starting her career in music hall in 1897. She topped
bills all over the world dressed in men’s costumes including
top hat and tails and military uniforms, the last especially
during the two world wars. Known particularly for her
renditions and recordings of All the Nice Girls Love a
Sailor, Tell Me the Old, Old Story, and Piccadilly, she
was a favourite for principal boy roles in pantomimes
but continued working in variety and summer shows
right into very old age in a career that lasted for more
than 70 years.
Born Winifred Emms King in New Brighton, Cheshire,
she was the daughter of William Emms (1856–1954), a
well known music hall comedian who had adopted the
stage name King. Always known professionally as
Hetty King, she first appeared on stage with him when
only six years old and performed at seaside shows
alongside minstrels. She adopted the debonair man-
about-town role for the first time in 1905, quickly
achieving fame and star bookings.
During the First World War she would perform
Songs the Soldiers Sing, a sanitized version of those
81

82. Sheet music cover from
1907 shown right.
Hetty King appears
below in uniform.
from the trenches, and was back with similar renditions
in the Second World War. In 1954 she appeared in the
film Lilacs In The Spring with Errol Flynn and Anna
Neagle. In later life she toured with the show Thanks for
the Memory and finally appeared in a film entitled Hetty
King – Performer aged 87.
She married actor and writer Ernie Lotinga (1876–
1951), another music hall comedian, singer and theatre
proprietor who also appeared in films in the 1920s and
30s, often as the comic character PC Jimmy Josser.
However her real married name was Winifred Lamond.
Her sister and fellow Wimbledonian, Olive, was also
an actress and her brother Harold wrote many of her
songs with his wife. Hetty died on 28 September 1972
aged 89 and was cremated at Golders Green.
82

83. 26. WIMBLEDON’S WORST VANDALISM
13 April 2012: Perhaps the worst vandalism ever
inflicted on Wimbledon outside wartime happened exactly
137 years ago. The culprits were a builder called
Dixon and a Member of Parliament, the local land-
owner John Samuel Sawbridge-Erle-Drax.
In April 1875, with Drax’s support, Dixon destroyed the
prehistoric Iron Age fort on Wimbledon Common dating
back to 700 BC or earlier. Known today as Caesar’s
Camp, the fort had included circular ramparts nearly 20
feet high, topped with mature oak trees and surrounded
by a 12 feet deep, 30 feet wide ditch, enclosing some
12 acres of relatively flat land with a view of Epsom
Downs. Its archaeological significance was incalculable,
its precise origins unknown to this day.
Drax, who became owner of land stretching from
Beverley Brook to Westside Common through his wife’s
inheritance, leased some fields to Dixon who then built
three large houses in Camp Road and moved on to the
area of the fort itself. Bricks and scaffolding for more
houses arrived on site, the trees were felled, the ramparts
leveled and the ditch filled.
Drax could have saved the fort by selling the land to the
campaigners who had successfully achieved Parlia-
mentary protection of Wimbledon Common four years
earlier. However he hated being thwarted and refused
to sell. Although the Commons Conservators stopped
any further action by securing a court order forbidding
use of Camp Road for anything other than agricultural
purposes, it was too late to save the fort.
Since 1907 it has simply served as part of the Royal
83

84. Wimbledon Golf Course. Only from the air could the
original circular shape of the fort still be made out,
barely possible today.
The name Caesar’s Camp was adopted in the 1820s
on the assumption that Julius Caesar might have built
the fort after invading Britain. However, there was never
any evidence for this and the structure had actually been
known locally for centuries as The Rounds. It was not
until 1937 that its possible age was discovered when the
Metropolitan Water Board decided to build a new main
across the site and allowed archaeologists to watch as a
trench was dug. Although restricted, they were able to
assess the age and possible purpose of the site in more
detail than ever before.
The fort had once had a palisade to defend occupants
against attack. Unearthed pottery suggested a date of
250 BC. But further studies have since concluded that it
was much older and possibly a trading base. Either way,
the sad remains are now a protected ancient monument.
Vandal and landowner,
John Samuel Sawbridge-
Erle-Drax (1800-1887).
84

85. Caesar’s Camp is shown above in July 1865, painted
by F C Nightingale ten years before its destruction.
An aerial view taken in 1923 showed the circular
shape of the fort, still visible after it was lost forever.
85

86. 27. THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF
WIMBLEDON’S OWN SANDY DENNY
20 April 2012: Sandy Denny (1947-78), the Wimbledon
songstress who became Britain’s most pre-eminent folk/
rock singer-songwriter in the 1970s, died exactly 34
years ago tomorrow, aged just 31.
Born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny on 6 January
1947 at the Nelson Hospital, Merton Park, she performed
with The Strawbs, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay
and even Led Zeppelin before becoming a soloist from
1971-77 when she released four albums.
Trained as a classical pianist, Sandy Denny started
singing as a child. A pupil at Coombe Girls School in
Kingston, she trained afterwards as a nurse at the Royal
Brompton Hospital before taking up a place in 1965 at
what was then Kingston College of Art, joining the
campus folk club, and beginning a singing career on
London’s folk club circuit. Her repertoire included both
traditional British and American songs.
She first performed at Cecil Sharp House, home of
traditional folk music, in December 1966 for a BBC
programme. A few months later she signed with Saga
Records and dropped her art studies in favour of a full-
time musical career. At the well known Troubadour
Club she met a member of The Strawbs and soon joined
the band but the following year became lead singer with
Fairport Convention, encouraging them to combine
traditional folk music with electric rock.
She left in 1969 to develop her own songwriting
career and formed the band, Fotheringay. Having re-
turned to the piano as her main instrument, in both 1970
86

87. Edna and Neil
Denny, Sandy’s
parents, appear
above at their
home in Arthur
Road, Wimbledon.
Sandy Denny,
The Lady, is
shown left.
Photos: Eric Hayes
Universal Music.
87

88. and 1971 she was voted Best British Female Singer by
readers of the leading musical paper Melody Maker.
In 1973 she married her boyfriend and producer and
recorded a third solo album. Despite her huge success, her
songs now stressed sad private preoccupations, possibly
due to problems with drink and drugs. Nevertheless,
between 1974 and 1975 they performed together with
Fairport Convention and enjoyed a highly successful
world tour.
In 1977 she recorded her last album and embarked
on a final UK tour, ending 27 November at London’s
Royalty Theatre. That year she also gave birth to a
daughter, her only child. Then, tragically, while on holiday
with her parents and baby in Cornwall in March 1978,
she suffered a head injury in a fall from a staircase. She
recovered briefly but on 17 April collapsed at a friend's
home and died four days later in Atkinson Morley’s
Hospital at Copse Hill (see Page 57). She was buried on
27 April at Putney Vale Cemetery beside Wimbledon
Common.
Her headstone describes her as “The Lady” and when
the second of two tribute concerts was held in 2008 at
the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, to mark the 30th
anniversary of her death, it was entitled The Lady: A
Tribute to Sandy Denny. There have been many musical
tributes to her over the years with members of both The
Strawbs and Fairport Convention recording songs in her
memory and many other artists performing her own
songs including Judy Collins, Kate Bush and the late
Nina Simone.
The picture with her parents on Page 87 appeared on the
album cover of Fairport Convention's LP Unhalfbricking.
88

89. Sandy is shown above, relaxing with other members of
Fairport Convention in her parents’ Wimbledon garden.
The title arose from the word-game Ghosts, played by
the band while travelling to and from concerts. Its ob-
ject was to avoid completing a real word and
“unhalfbricking” was Sandy's own creation.
The album also marked her maturity as a singer and
songwriter, including Who Knows Where the Time
Goes?, a song covered by many other performers and
now regarded as a classic. The only traditional song on
the album, A Sailor's Life, is seen as pivotal in the
development of English folk-rock music.
89

90. 28. WIMBLEDON HOME WAS LONDON’S
FIRST WITH ELECTRICITY
AND A TELEPHONE
27 April 2012: Electric street lighting in Wimbledon
dates back to 1899 when a brand new power station
opened in Durnsford Road. The designer was Arthur
Preece but it was his father, the famous engineer Sir
William Henry Preece (1834-1913), whom we should
really thank for the replacement of dingy Victorian
street oil lamps by modern electricity. Not just that – he
also introduced London’s first home telephone.
William Henry Preece lived with his family at Gothic
Lodge in Woodhayes Road, near Wimbledon Common,
from 1874 until his death in November 1913. Exactly
114 years ago this month in 1898, he became President
of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was knighted
the following year after retiring from a long engineering
career with the Post Office. Both moves were recognition
of his extraordinary contribution to technological progress
in Britain as a whole and he continued as an advisor to
the Government for some years later.
Preece, who came from Caernarvon in Wales, was
educated at King's College School when it was still
located in The Strand, long before its move to Wimbledon
in the 1890s. He later graduated from university in electrical
engineering after studying under the famous physicist,
Michael Faraday.
His career had begun at sea when he was chief
engineer with the Electric and International Telegraph
Company, repairing telegraph cables to the Channel Islands.
90

91. The watercolour above
depicts Gothic Lodge
from near the
Crooked Billet
Sir William
Henry Preece
is shown right.
91

92. From 1870 he worked with the Post Office telegraphic
system, eventually becoming its chief engineer and con-
tributing his own inventions and those of others to the
system. In 1877 he demonstrated the first of Alexander
Graham Bell’s new telephones at the year’s British
Association for the Advancement of Science gathering
in Plymouth. However, at the time he felt no need to
have one in his own home. There were plenty of human
messengers around who could be employed to run
everyday communications.
In 1880 he became President of the Society of
Telegraph Engineers and in 1884, by detecting electro-
magnetic radiation from buried telephone cables, came
up with the idea of wireless telegraphy. In 1889 he carried
out a successful experiment by transmitting and receiving
Morse radio signals over a distance of about a mile
across Coniston Water in the Lake District.
So he was already a longstanding pioneer in telecom-
munications when he befriended the young Guglielmo
Marconi in the 1890s and secured funding from the Post
Office for his practical experiments in wireless telegraphy.
Marconi often visited Preece in Wimbledon and established
a transmitter in the back garden of Gothic Lodge to
send messages to the Post Office in central London.
This time Preece changed his mind about a home phone
and Gothic Lodge became London’s first with its own
telephone.
He didn’t stop there. The house also became the first
with electricity installed for lighting, heating hot water
and supplying an iron. Eager to apply this experience for the
wider public good, in 1890 he urged the local authority
to build a power station to supply electric street lighting
92

93. for everyone. Amazingly with hindsight, the idea was
rejected. The authority preferred to rely on gas or oil
and as Wimbledon’s many new streets had no gas
mains, residents had to make do with oil lamps.
The Corporation of London was more imaginative
as far as Wimbledon’s interests were concerned. In
1894 it asked Preece to demonstrate the effectiveness of
public electric lighting and for three months he had 76
electric lamps suspended in Wimbledon High Street.
Yet although this was a great success it was another
five years before Preece’s son Arthur could convince the
new Wimbledon Urban District Council to support a
Parliamentary bill permitting it to create a local electricity
station. Eventually, the new station in Durnsford Road
was able to generate its first electricity on 17 July 1899.
Thanks to the Preeces, father and son, Wimbledon had
the public street lighting it deserved.
The rear of Gothic Lodge where Marconi set up his
first wireless transmitter in London.
93

94. 29. THE STOP/START STORY OF
WIMBLEDON’S TRAMS
4 May 2012: For the second half of the 20th century they
didn’t even exist, yet Wimbledon’s trams are now really
back in fashion. New cars have just been introduced,
route extensions are planned and there is talk of a second
dedicated platform at Wimbledon Station.
Curiously, each time trams have got under way in
Wimbledon it has happened in May - albeit 93 years
apart - on 2 May 1907 and 29 May 2000.
Today’s Tramlink between Wimbledon and Elmers
End via Croydon celebrates 12 years of operations this
month. But it was back in 1902 when London United
Tramways first received permission to extend its line
from Tooting to Wimbledon, en route to Kingston and
Hampton Court. What’s more, unlike today, earlier
trams would also be taking passengers the other way
right into central London.
It took five years from 1902 to complete the necessary
road widening before the first local service could start.
Shop frontages in Worple Road, Wimbledon, were drastically
cut back to make room for tracks in each direction. At
Raynes Park an avenue of 100 elm trees had to be felled
to double the width for trams travelling along Burlington
Road and West Barnes Lane from Kingston via Malden.
The first tram finally arrived at Ely’s Corner on a trial
run in August 1906 and the service itself began on 2
May 1907.
The trams ran every ten minutes with a fare of 4d -
less than two pence - between Hampton Court and
94