Cheers,
We’d been having such wonderful weather and now we have mostly rain. In very damp weather thousands of folks, literally thousands, watched the fireworks over Big Ben. We watched them today on Randal’s computer. We did venture out yesterday to Covent Garden and then Chinatown where we ate in O’Neill’s Pub; not the best choice. We arrived at 1 pm and our food arrived at 2 pm. My stuffed potato was okay, but Singkey’s chicken and mushrooms had too much salt and no visible mushrooms. Randal ordered fish and chips which they were sorry, but were out of so he had fishcakes. Bland fishcakes with no chips. That will teach us for eating at an Irish Pub in London’s Chinatown. We got fairly wet and then returned to our bit of London first making a run to Waitrose for veggies and fruit. We spent a quite night on the boat and all slept late today waking to more rain. Tomorrow is forecasted to be better. We plan to hear the visiting Canadian Choral group at St Paul’s tomorrow for evensong.
This email is about our Boxing Day stroll to the Surrey Quay. It turned out to be a longer walk than we thought but that meant coming across interesting bits of history. I just finished a book called, Keeping The World Away fiction by Margaret Forster, (the author of Georgie Girl) about women and art and relationships. This line was on one of the very last pages but it really struck me as what life in London has been like for me. “There was a subtle advantage she was learning, in being a foreigner in a city, a matter of seeing things differently than the resident population saw them. She felt the shock of the new every time she turned a corner she did not know and was surprised.” To me that captures so much of what it has been like to be in London.
Like the small mice sculpture on Philpot Lane with the recent terrible paint over. Today I wrote to the Canary Wharf Corporation whom I was told owns the building where the mice sculpture is located. I asked them to please repaint the mice so they are recognizable as mice. We’ll see what happens.
Luckily with my tangents below I only have to go far enough to satisfy my own curiosity and then can stop.
Ru
Boxing Day Walk to Surrey Quay Mall
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Jacob The Circle Dray Horse : Queen Elizabeth Street among new a new residential complex that supposedly resembles the old dock buildings around it. Not to me; not that color; Yuck! We actually found this on our way home. “On a bronze plaque attached to the front of the plinth:} Jacob, the Circle dray horse The famous Courage dray horses were stabled on this site from the early nineteenth century and delivered beer around London from the brewery on Horselydown Lane by Tower Bridge. In the sixteenth century the area became known as Horselydown, which derives from ‘horse-lie-down’, a description of working horses resting before crossing London Bridge into the City of London. Jacob was commissioned by Jacobs Island Company and Farlane Properties as the centrepiece of the Circle to commemorate the history of the site. He was flown over London by helicopter into Queen Elizabeth Street to launch the Circle in October 1987. We are not convinced by the derivation of Horselydown. Horses don’t lie down to rest, do they? We imagine this horse is named Jacob after the commissioning property developers, Jacobs Island Company, who took their name from the Victorian name for this area, Jacob’s Island, at the time a notorious slum, celebrated in ‘Oliver Twist’ as the scene of Bill Sykes’s death. According to the sculptor: My objective was to portray the dignified tolerance and the power of these horses plus the hint of resignation to men’s direction and the vagaries of a cold wet windy winter.” http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/jacob-the-dray-horse |
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Shirley Pace came out of retirement to produce the sculpture of Drummer The latest stage in production of a dray horse sculpture for a Dorset town centre development has been completed. The 5m (16ft) tall statue, which is the latest work by 80-year-old equine artist Shirley Pace will stand in Brewery Square in Dorchester. …Drummer is the second dray horse sculpted by Mrs Pace for a former brewery development. Her bronze artwork of a horse named Jacob was flown over London to The Circle, near Tower Bridge, slung under a helicopter in October 1987. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-24076586 tells the story though not much about Shirley Pace. |
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http://www.secret-london.co.uk/Horses.html is a great link to different horse statues around London http://takecourage.info/Horselydown.html is the story of the Courage Brewery with some interesting tidbits including the patent information described on their website. “Horse Harness Quick Release Gear – Patent All rights reserved. COURAGE & Co. Publications etc. In 1891 Mr Frederick Shepherd, a blacksmith and farrier, of 53 Lafone Street, Horeslydown, took out a patent for ‘an improved slip hook for instantly releasing a fallen horse from the shafts or pole of a waggon or cart’. This patent was subsequently sold to Courage and Co. by Mr Shepherd – see Patent” |
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The day had been overcast, but when we arrived back at the Tower Bridge the sun was shining and the light was amazing.
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Tower of London and the Tower Bridge lit up by the late afternoon sun. |
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Clouds were lifting to reveal the Shard |
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Looking east towards the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf |
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Modern London: I will definitely miss living on the river. |
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Singkey on Tower Bridge |
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Another tangent, the Helen Peele Alms Houses which we saw early in our walk to Surrey Quay Mall |
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Helen Peele Memorial Houses http://www.housingcare.org/housing-care/facility-info-86159-helen-peele-memorial-houses-rotherithe-england.aspx Main facts Age exclusive housing 7 cottages. Built in 1902 and renovated in 1977. Sizes 1 bedroom Community alarm service Garden Access to site easy, but less so for less mobile people. Distances: bus stop 0.5 mile(s); shop 0.25 mile(s); post office 0.25 mile(s); town centre 0.5 mile(s); GP 0.25 mile(s) New residents accepted from 55 years of age. Both cats & dogs generally accepted, but not to be replaced (by prior agreement) Rent (social landlord) |
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Rotherhithe: Peele Almshouses, Lower Road, SE16 Helen Peele died aged 68 in Chertsey in 1890 while her son Charles John Peele died, also in Chertsey, aged 45 in 1896. Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved] © Copyright Nigel Cox and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. year taken 2010 |
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Which led me to Samuel Brandram “Samuel Brandram (c.1743-1808) was an artists’ colourman, and a member of the Wax Chandler’s Company who both manufactured and sold paints. …….. The familiar Helen Peelealmshouses on Lower Road, which were built in 1901, were paid for in part by Charles John Peele, in memory of his mother. Charles Peele was a partner in Brandram’s at the time. According to the London Gazette of April 13th 1897, the executors of his will were Reverend Henry Evan Brandram Peele and Andrew Brandram, suggesting some family connection between the Peeles and Brandrams. Although neither Charles nor his executors were resident in or near Rotherhithe at the time of his death, all living in rather more privileged areas, the investment in the almshouses suggests a close personal tie with Rotherhithe. |
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CHARLES JOHN PEELE Deceased. Pursuant to Statute 22nd and 23rd Vic. cap. 35. NOTICE is hereby given that all creditors and persons having any claims or demands <upon or against the estate of Charles John Peele late of Childown Hall Chertsey in the county of Surrey Esqr. deceased (who died at Childown Hall aforesaid on the 3rd day of November 1896 and whose will with three codicils thereto was proved in London on the 18th day of March 1897 by the Revd. Henry Evan Brandram Peele of 43 Alexandra-road Lowestoft in the county of Suffolk and Andrew Brandram of 5 Philpot-lane in the city of London the executors named in the said will) are hereby required to send in writing particulars of their claims and demands to us the undersigned Solicitors for the said executors on or before the 28th day of May 1897 after which date the said executors will proceed to distribute the assets of the said deceased among the persons entitled thereto having regard only to the debts claims and demands of which they shall then have had notice and the said executors will not be liable or accountable for the said assets of the said deceased or any part thereof so distributed to any person or persons of whose debt claim or demand they shall not then have had notice.—Dated this 8th day of April 1897. HOLLAMS SONS COWARD and HAWKSLEY 30 Mincing-lane E.G. Solicitors. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/26841/pages/2107/page.pdf |
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HELEN PEELE, hired screw tug. Built 1901, (same year as the alms houses but I’ve no idea if it’s the same Helen Peele) 133grt. In service 10.8.17-16.4.19. Most hired screw tugs over 70grt used as expeditionary force tugs during part of the war; most of vessels released from naval service 1917-18 carried out similar duties. Nearly all were chartered as naval tugs and flew red ensign. http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishShips-Dittmar1.htm |
