Who was Janusz Korczak?

Amongst the reasons given by English Heritage for making Louise House, Dartmouth Road a Grade II listed building was the “decisive impression” it made on Janusz Korczak when he visited in 1911. Korczak is little known in this country and it seemed worth finding out about him.

Born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw in 1877 he took “Janusz Korczak” as a pen-name when he began writing in his early 20s. He studied medicine, became a paediatrician, a teacher and then worked in an orphanage, where he began developing his ideas about working with children.

In the Autumn of 1911 Korczak visited London. Political unrest in Warsaw, with rising anti-Semitism, left him uncertain about his future, feeling that his life was “unordered, lonely and alien” and he hoped his visit would relieve this depression. While in London he came to Forest Hill. It seems highly likely that he already knew about the two industrial homes established here in the mid-1870s and he came specifically see how they cared for destitute and orphaned children. Louise House and Shaftesbury House (in Perry Rise and demolished a few years ago) were founded on principles similar to those Korczak was developing; giving respect, care and support to needy children.

The founders of the industrial homes believed that children thrived best in a secure and supportive family environment. Because of unemployment, sickness or death some families were unable to provide this support and the industrial homes attempted to offer their children something approaching a family life, away from their home environment. They also offered a basic education and taught skills that would allow the children to find employment.

His visit to the industrial homes made a deep impression on Korczak. In a series of brief notes he described his visit. There were two houses, similar in style (they were designed by the same architect). In each house there were 30 children. The girls had a laundry, and were also taught sewing and embroidery. They walked each day to the local school (Kelvin Grove). Korczak also mentions an aquarium and rabbits, guinea pigs and pigeons kept as pets “like a miniature zoo”. There was also a kitchen garden, where the children could grow food, and a small museum.

In a letter written many years later Korczak described how affected he was by this visit and added: “I remember the moment when I decided not to have my own family. It was in a park near London…” He decided that rather than having children of his own he would “serve all children”.

Thus inspired, Korczak returned to Warsaw to develop his own orphanage along similar lines to those he saw at Louise House. In one of his books he wrote: “Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with tenderness and respect, as equals. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be.”

Korczak believed that children had rights and his proposals were eventually incorporated into the United Nations 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Rules in his orphanage were discussed and agreed by the children, who also imposed sanctions on those who broke the rules. The children were also encouraged to write their own newspaper which was published as a supplement with the Warsaw daily newspaper.

His orphanage thrived, his enlightened ideas influencing teachers across the world, until 1 September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. In 1940 the Warsaw Ghetto was created, a small area of the city to which Jewish people were confined. Korczak was told that he would have to move his children and staff to premises within the ghetto. Korczak was given many opportunities to leave, but each time he refused saying he would not abandon his children.

On the morning of 6 August 1942 German soldiers ordered the occupants of the orphanage to line up in the street. Korczak made sure his children were dressed in their best clothes and carried a favourite toy. The orphanage staff and 192 children were then herded through the streets of Warsaw towards the railway station, with Korczak at their head. During that fateful walk Korczak was again given the opportunity to escape, and again refused. Eye-witnesses said that his only concern was to comfort, reassure and support his children. The group was forced onto a train bound for Treblinka extermination camp. That is the last that was heard of them.

By an extraordinary coincidence Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another anti-Nazi who also chose death rather than betray his principles, had strong links with Forest Hill. There is a plaque on the house in Manor Mount where he lived for 18 months before returning to Germany to oppose Nazism. He is commemorated as a “protestant martyr” with a statue above the entrance to Westminster Abbey. Janusz Korczak is also revered as a martyr.

To have two such courageous and principled people, who died for their beliefs, so strongly associated with our area is a rare privilege, and something we should cherish and celebrate.

President Obama at a Korczak memorial
ceremony in Janusz Korczak Square, Jerusalem.
Behind him is the statue “Janusz Korczak and the Children”.

Louise House, Dartmouth Road

To the “disappointment” of some but the delight of many the Girls’ Industrial Home, between Forest Hill pools and the library and popularly known as Louise House, was recently listed Grade II by English Heritage. The EH report noted the building’s historic and architectural interest, its association with several distinguished people and its value as part of a group of striking Victorian buildings.

Industrial Homes developed from the Ragged School movement of the mid-19 century. These schools sought to give children a basic education and sufficient training to earn an honest living. However, it was believed that some children would only prosper if they were removed from the corrupting influence of their home environment; the industrial homes, often established in pleasant locations, provided that refuge; they were intended to be “home” for the children.

The first industrial home in Forest Hill, for boys, was opened in 1873 at 17 Rojack Road. In 1881 a girls’ home was opened at 16 Rojack Road. These two houses (which still survive) proved too small and in 1884 a purpose built boys’ industrial home, Shaftesbury House, Perry Rise, was opened by the Lord Mayor of London in the presence of the Earl of Shaftesbury, patron of the home. This building was needlessly demolished in 2000.

The four buildings fronting Dartmouth Road comprising Holy Trinity School, Forest Hill Library, Louise House (all three listed Grade II) and the pools were built within 25 years of each other and shared a common purpose, the welfare of less advantaged people in Forest Hill, Sydenham and beyond. They provided opportunities for education, religious instruction, exercise, cleanliness and training for a trade. Until fairly recently all four buildings were in use for the same, or very similar, purposes as those for which they were intended.

The history of the site began in 1819 when Sydenham Common (500 acres of open land in Upper Sydenham and Forest Hill) was enclosed. Since time immemorial the common had provided local people with certain rights such as free access, grazing livestock, gathering firewood, hunting and holding fairs. With enclosure the common was divided into small plots that were fenced to keep out trespassers. These plots were awarded to those who already owned land in Lewisham. Thus, as so often happens, the wealthy benefitted at the expense of the poor.

One of the beneficiaries was the Vicar of Lewisham who was awarded the large field on which these four buildings were to be erected. This field, known as Vicar’s Field, was originally let as allotments to those who had lost their common rights. As circumstances changed, the vicar (from 1854 the Vicar of St Bartholomew’s became the freeholder) was persuaded to make parts of this field available for purposes he deemed to be socially worthwhile. During the early 1870s Vicar’s Field was one of the sites proposed for a public recreation ground but the vicar decided such a use was not a good enough reason to deprive the poor of their allotments. An alternative site was found, now known as Mayow Park.

However, the vicar did agree to make part of the field available for a church school and in 1874 Holy Trinity School was opened. This was followed by the pools in 1885, Louise House in 1891 and finally the library in 1901.

Among local benefactors of the industrial homes FJ Horniman was one of the most generous as were several members of the Tetley family, Forest Hill’s other famous tea merchants. Princess Louise retained an interest in the building that bore her name.

Thomas Aldwinckle (1845-1920) was the principal architect of both the pools and Louise House. Although he built hospitals and workhouses across the south east (including Brook Hospital and the water tower on Shooters Hill, and the important Kentish Town baths) he was very much a local architect. He lived in Forest Hill for almost all his working life, at 1 Church Rise, Forest Hill from the mid-1870s until the mid-1880s and then at Saratoga, 62 Dacres Road until about 1908. His house in Dacres Road survives between Hennel Close and Catling Close, and was almost certainly designed by him.

Perhaps the most important person connected with Louise House was Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jew from Warsaw who wrote that he was inspired by a visit to Louise House in 1911 to found a similar institution in Poland. As a result of his experience at Louise House Korczak developed the idea that “the key to a happy and useful adult life lay in childhood; hurt the child and you hurt the adult.” He became an active campaigner for children’s rights which culminated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, later adopted by the United Nations. In 1942 Korczak, 12 members of his staff and 192 children at his orphanage were rounded up by the Nazis. Korczak was given the chance to escape but he would not abandon his children. The group was transported to the Treblinka extermination camp; that is the last that was heard of them.

Louise House remained a girls’ home (the word “Industrial” was carefully removed in about 1930) until the mid-1930s. By 1939 it was occupied by Air Raid Precautions and after the war it became a child welfare centre. Louise House was closed and boarded-up in 2005. The crèche in the laundry block at the back of Louise House, which continued the tradition of caring for young people, finally closed earlier this year after more than 25 years service.

Louise House is a rare survivor of a purpose built industrial home, made all the more important because it is largely intact, both inside and out. We are fortunate that its importance has been recognised and it has been saved for posterity.

W Reginald Bray, the autograph king

For more information, and examples of some of his cards, there is an excellent site on W Reginald Bray here

In 1899 a young man began sending postcards to people who had achieved some measure of success or notoriety. He asked them to sign the card, and return it to him. In time he accumulated several thousand cards, autographed by soldiers (for example, Lord Roberts, who had a house in Sydenham for a short time), politicians (Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson), sportsmen (including W G Grace, who lived in Lawrie Park Road), churchmen (he wrote to the Pope in Latin), actors, explorers (including Shackleton, who lived next to St Barts), scientists (John Logie Baird, who lived in Crescent Wood Road) and authors.

He also collected the signatures of many less well-known people: the first person to write while flying in an aeroplane, the policeman who stopped Churchill driving the wrong way up a one-way street and he wanted the entire population of Tristan da Cunha, although they didn't all sign. He claimed to be the owner of the largest collection of modern autographs in the world, and he proclaimed himself "The Autograph King".

He was, in reality, W Reginald Bray, born at 155 Stanstead Road (on the site of the present fire station) in 1879. Reggie (as he was called by his family), attended St Dunstan's College from 1889 to 1895. His family moved to 135 Devonshire Road in about 1899, and at this time Reggie began sending postcards and other postal curios.

Bray was a clerk in the City and each evening, on his return from work, he would write his cards, and post them. There was, and still is, a pillar-box almost directly outside his house in Devonshire Road. It is an octagonal "Penfold" (designed by the architect J W Penfold in 1866, with several variations). There are two Penfolds in Devonshire Road, both listed Grade II. The box outside Bray's house is of the fifth type, and is one of only eight surviving examples. One would like to think that the presence of such an unusual pillar-box outside his house provided the inspiration for Reggie's lifelong passion.

Between 1899 and 1939 Bray amassed a collection of over 15,000 autographs. He posted over 30,000 requests and, as he pointed out ruefully, half of those failed to respond, including George V, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. After several requests to Hitler he received a firm but polite refusal, stating that as the Fuhrer was already overburdened with work would Bray "refrain from further letters in this regard".

Many of Bray's cards were chosen to reflect the recipient's interests; the stationmaster of Forest Hill station signed a postcard of the station, MPs were asked to sign cards of the Palace of Westminster and I have a postcard of an advertisement for Nestlé's Milk, signed by Henri Nestlé.

During the 1930s Bray appeared on the radio programme "In Town Tonight", not because of his autograph collection but as "The Human Letter". Apparently, he posted himself. One imagines Reginald, wrapped in brown paper and stuffed into a mailbag, but the truth is simpler. He lived not far from the then newly opened Postmen's Office in Devonshire Road. I suspect he turned up there, perhaps with an address label and the correct postage, and was taken home by a postman. He also claimed to have posted, amongst other things, a turnip with the name, address and message carved on it!

Reginald seemed to enjoy challenging the postal service; his addresses were often inaccurate, sometimes misleading. One of his earliest postcards was addressed to "Daughter of the Postman who has walked 232,872 miles, Kirriemuir PO". It never reached its destination.

Between about 1909 and 1911 Reginald lived at 13 Queenswood Road, moving to Queens Garth, Taymount Rise in 1912. He lived at Queens Garth until 1938 when he moved to Croydon to be nearer to his family. He died in June 1939.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a theologian, author, vehement opponent of Nazism and martyr. He was also, for a short time, pastor of the German Church in Dacres Road.

The original German Church was consecrated in 1882, but was severely damaged during World War 2. It remained a burnt-out shell until the late 1950s when the present church was built on the site, and named after its most famous pastor.

Bonhoeffer was at the church for 18 months, from late 1933 to Spring 1935. During this time he lived at 2 Manor Mount, Forest Hill where there is a plaque, hidden by a large shrub. The Parsonage, as it was called, consisted of two rooms at the top of the house; the rest was occupied by a German girls' school. The house was described by one of Bonhoeffer's visitors as "uninviting and cold… damp air penetrated through the windows" and it was infested by mice. Things got worse. The same visitor wrote that the housekeeper had "all of a sudden gone mad and had to be taken to a home".

In 1935 Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to continue the struggle against Nazism. He was an active and outspoken critic, who offered one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler, and for this he paid the ultimate price. He was arrested by the Nazis in Spring 1943 for helping a group of Jews escape to Switzerland. He was held in various concentration camps, and finally hanged on 9 April 1945.

In 1998 Bonhoeffer was one of ten 20th century Protestant martyrs commemorated by statues on the west front of Westminster Abbey.

Boys' Industrial Home, Perry Rise

Early in 2000 Shaftesbury House, 67 Perry Rise was demolished. This building was the "Forest Hill Boys' Industrial Home".

The original Boys' Industrial Home was opened at 17 Rojack Road on 3 May 1873 "for the reception and industrial training of destitute boys". There were just six boys in the home in 1873. By 1875 the home included 16 Rojack Road (both these houses still survive), and the number of boys had increased to nine.

The purpose of the home was to ensure that "a boy is rescued from the perils of the street, fed, clothed, housed, educated [they attended Christ Church School] and taught a trade [shoe-mending for the older boys while the younger ones made bundles of firewood to sell], and finally started in life with a fair prospect of doing well".

The home was largely supported by voluntary contributions. As usual, F J Horniman was a major benefactor - he subscribed 18 guineas a year, the annual cost of supporting one child. Further support came from the Reformatory and Refuge Union. This was a national organization, founded by the great philanthropist the Earl of Shaftesbury, to offer grants and advice to homes set up to help deprived and destitute children. The Union also provided annual inspections and reports on the homes.

Admission to the home was carefully controlled. Children needed a recommendation, and the committee offered places to "those whom they know to be destitute, or the children of poverty-stricken parents".

By 1881 there were 25 boys in the home. The committee felt that having the school in two houses was inefficient. Finally they found a suitable site for a new home in Perry Rise. Thomas Aldwinckle, an active member of the committee, was a young architect living at that time in Church Rise, Forest Hill. He agreed to make plans for the new home. Aldwinckle was responsible for several other local buildings including Forest Hill Pools, the old Ladywell Baths and the Girls' Industrial Home at Louise House, Dartmouth Road.

As the president of the Boys' Industrial Home the Earl of Shaftesbury laid the foundation stone on 18 June 1883. The 83 year-old earl returned to Forest Hill on 13 May 1884 to attend the formal opening. This was clearly quite an event. The Daily Dispatch reported that the Lord Mayor of London "attended in state". Other guests included Viscount Lewisham and the Hon and Rev Canon Augustus Legge, vicar of St Bartholomew's Church. "The road from the Forest Hill station", the paper continues, "which is known as Perry Rise, was gaily decorated with bunting...a large number of residents turned out to cheer the Lord Mayor". The Home was called Shaftesbury House, in honour of its president. Shaftesbury House continued as the Boys Industrial Home until at least 1939.

The Girls' Industrial Home originally opened in Rojack Road on 20 July 1881. In 1891 Louise House, Dartmouth Road had been completed, also to the designs of Thomas Aldwinckle. The Girls' Industrial Home gave girls the skills needed to become domestic servants.

When I realised that the building had been demolished I contacted the Council Planning Department to find the reasons. They knew nothing about it. I finally spoke to someone from the Education Department who admitted that they were responsible for the demolition. The principal reasons he gave were that squatters had occupied the building, and the land would allow an extension to the adjacent school. He was unaware of the historical significance of the building, or that an important local architect designed it. When I mentioned these points to him he implied that they were irrelevant. He also saw no need to consult with, or even take account of, local opinion. Four years on the site is derelict, with only a pile of rubble to show where the Forest Hill Boys' Industrial Home once stood.

Scandal of Lewisham's first mayor

The closure of the Sydenham branch of Barclays Bank and its reopening as the ACTS Credit Union, opposite the Greyhound, set me thinking about the colourful career of one of its former employees. During the 1880s the bank was known as the London & South Western Bank (it was taken over by Barclays in 1918) and its manager was Theophilus William Williams, a man described (perhaps with some exaggeration) as "the biggest crook the borough has ever known". He was also, for many years, the most powerful political figure in Lewisham (one account describes him as "virtually dictator").

Williams came from humble origins. He was born in a workhouse in East London in 1846. By March 1871 he was lodging in a house in Longton Grove and working as a bank clerk.

In December 1871 he married Jane Dexter, a wealthy heiress, at the Church in the Grove, Jews Walk (now the Grove Centre). Although only a bank clerk his marriage certificate describes him as a "gentleman". Probably from the time of his marriage (he has, after all, married into money) he was living at Shirley House, 133 High Street (now Dartmouth Road, on the site of Sydenham School). By 1876 he had risen to become the manager of the L&SW bank. He had also moved house, to Borrowdale, 13 Westwood Hill (this still survives, on the corner of Lawrie Park Gardens).

Williams was a lay preacher at the Church in the Grove during the 1870s and, apparently, could draw large crowds. However, it was in local politics that he used his oratorical skills to best effect, and through which he pursued his ambitions. In 1876 he was elected to the Lewisham Vestry, and was elected to the Lewisham Board of Works the following year. In 1882 he became Chairman of the Board of Works, a position he held until the board was dissolved in 1900, when the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham was formed. He was then elected Mayor of Lewisham and, in 1901-1902, served a second term in that office. During this time he represented Sydenham on the council. For twenty years, between 1882-1902, he was the most powerful politician in Lewisham. He was also a magistrate, and he represented Lewisham on the LCC.

During the mid 1880s Williams retired from the bank and became proprietor of the Kentish Mail, a small chain of local newspapers. A sympathetic newspaper is perhaps the most useful aid an ambitious politician can have.

It is clear that Williams was a persuasive public speaker, and a person of some charm and charisma. Many years later a former employee described him as "a dominating personality … (with) tremendous charm and forcefulness". He was a veritable model of the Victorian self-made man, with a seemingly selfless devotion to public service. It was during his second term as Mayor, however, that "unwholesome rumours" began to circulate about his private life.

In fact, Williams was not self-made. Other people paid for his respectability and extravagant lifestyle. Through fraud and embezzlement he persuaded them to part with their money. He had, after all, been a bank manager, and people trusted him. He spent both his wife and sister-in-law’s inheritance, under the guise of managing it. He was the trustee of a widow, and lost her money; he embezzled his employees out of their savings (it was claimed he forced them to invest in his companies as a test of loyalty).

It was not until 1908 that matters finally came to a head. He was summoned to appear at Lambeth County Court to face bankruptcy proceedings. The investigation was impeded because Williams had burnt most of his business records. It is clear that his business affairs were highly irregular, involving his use of false names; business colleagues who had died, gone missing, or whom he simply couldn’t remember; loans to himself from trusts he was managing and gifts to people whom he "didn’t know". During the proceedings Williams attempted to flee to France, but was recognised and arrested at Liverpool Street Station.

As a consequence of his bankruptcy examination he was summoned to appear at the Greenwich Magistrates’ Court (where he himself had been a magistrate) to answer charges of obtaining money under false pretences.

However, the case never came to court. On the day of his trial, 11 Nov 1908, the magistrate was informed that Williams was dead. The inquest was held a few days later. Williams had taken an overdose of morphia (it seems that he was a regular user of this drug, at least during the last weeks of his life) and the jury returned a verdict of "suicide during temporary insanity". The coroner quibbled with this and the agreed verdict was "death from an overdose of morphia, self-administered". This avoided the stigma of suicide – clearly an attempt by the coroner to save something of the reputation of the former mayor and magistrate.

This was not the end of Theophilus William Williams. His name lives on, particularly in Sydenham and Forest Hill. It is to be found on the foundation stones of Forest Hill Library, Forest Hill Swimming Baths, and the Jews Walk fountain. Elsewhere in the borough it is on the foundation stones of the old Lewisham Central Library and Ladywell Swimming Baths. It is ironic that a man so corrupt should leave behind such a worthy legacy.

The Armoury, Perry Vale

At the junction of Perry Vale and Hindsley's Place, on the opposite corner to the Foresters Arms, stood a two storey cream-painted building with a slate roof. At one time, this building played an important role in the social life of Sydenham and Forest Hill.

It is possible that between about 1847-1849 the Foresters Arms originated in this building before moving to the opposite corner of Hindsley's Place. However, a decade later the building was used for a rather unexpected, although better documented, purpose.

During the first half of the 19th century there were periodic panics over the intentions of the French, and fears that they were planning to invade England. As a result of such a scare in 1859 the Government encouraged the formation of local volunteer forces, prepared to defend the realm (or, some cynics of the time suggested, the property of the wealthy) in the event of a French invasion.

Sydenham and Forest Hill were not slow to respond to this patriotic call. A public meeting was held at the Dartmouth Arms on 29 June 1859. John Scott Russell (a naval architect of considerable note, who constructed the Great Eastern steamship) was in the chair. The proposal put to the meeting was: "That in the present state of Europe and with the view of maintaining an imposing neutrality it is essential that the defences of the Empire should be such as to defy attack. That with this view it is desirable that a volunteer force should be enrolled & that a rifle company be raised within this district to be called the Sydenham Rifle Company." There were just three dissenters who supported an amendment that it was not desirable to raise a Volunteer Rifle Corps.

A committee was formed, under the chairmanship of John Scott Russell, to carry through this proposal. Other wealthy and influential local people served on the committee, including Robert von Glehn of Peak Hill, Rev Taylor Jones of Sydenham College and Edwin Clark, an engineer who built canals in Russia, docks in India and Peru, and the time-ball on the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Before a local force could be recognised, the Government insisted that a number of conditions be met. These included an adequate and safe firing-range and secure storage for the weapons. The committee met regularly over the following months (principally at John Scott Russell's house, Westwood Lodge, or the Forester Inn, Perry Vale) to try to resolve these and other issues.

By the end of July 1859 the committee had found suitable land for their firing range. Mr William Dacres Adams had offered a strip of land between Forest Hill and Sydenham stations, on the eastern side of the railway line. The firing range followed roughly the present line of Dacres Road, from near its junction with Perry Vale to just past the junction with Inglemere Road. However, within six months Mr Adams was expressing concern at the amount of disruption caused by building the butts (banks of earth at the Inglemere Road end of the range, intended to stop stray bullets). He was also worried about the safety of the range, but the committee managed to reassure him. When completed the range was some 325 yards long.

The committee appointed a drill sergeant (a professional soldier who would train the volunteers). He demanded accommodation. The committee still needed a secure place for their weapons. They also required headquarters for the volunteers and a meeting room for themselves. They found a building that could combine all these functions. Mrs Goding offered a house on the corner of Perry Rise and Hindsley's Place, built about 1845. It would be rent- free on condition that the committee undertook certain repairs and improvements. This they accepted. The building was renamed The Armoury and, in early 1860, became the headquarters of the Sydenham Rifle Corps. It consisted of an armoury, committee rooms and accommodation for the drill sergeant. Outside, there was a drill ground. This would have been at the back of the building, on the area now covered by a large extension.

The next task was to enlist sufficient volunteers. This proved difficult, which is hardly surprising as drill practice was held three times a week, at 7 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 7 p.m. on Saturdays. They eventually mustered a roll of 60 volunteers.

By the end of December 1860 the conditions required by the Government had been satisfied and the Sydenham Rifle Company became officially known as the 8th Kent Rifle Volunteer Corps. The committee felt a little aggrieved that they were only the 8th rifle corps in Kent. They were, in fact, the first to pass a resolution to form a volunteer corps but because of difficulties of recruitment, only 8th to gain government recognition.

John Scott Russell was appointed the first Captain-Commandant of the Corps in 1859, a post he held until 1861.

Life for the Rifle Volunteer was not all drill and target practice. Several members formed a dramatic club and in 1869 they gave a performance of three one-act plays (including "the laughable farce of “The Charming Pair"') at the Foresters Hall, Clyde Vale.Political circumstances changed, and interest in the volunteer corps waned. The 8th Kent Volunteer Rifle Corps was disbanded in 1871. The Armoury survived until a couple of years ago.

Ted Christmas, builder

Estate agents are fond of describing certain local houses as “Christmas houses”. Of course, these houses have nothing to do with the festive season. They are the work of a local builder, Ted Christmas whose buildings have a reputation for quality and interesting detail both inside and out.

Edward Charles Christmas was born in Lewisham in 1867. By 1871 his family were living above the stables of Prospect House, which is now 79 London Road (on the corner of Taymount Rise). Ted’s father was the gardener at Prospect House. The garden extended from the rear of the house up Taymount Rise to the church (now flats).

At the age of 14, Ted was serving an apprenticeship with a local carpenter. By 21 was able to begin working on his own account so, in 1888, he moved into a small cottage, with a builder’s yard attached, at 55 Dartmouth Road.

In the early years, Ted installed “sanitary plumbing”, electric-bells, burglar and fire alarms, lincrusta wallpaper and “Roman mosaic tiles”. However, as a trained carpenter, his speciality was “artistic joinery” and there were, apparently, many fine shop fronts installed by him. It is unlikely that any of this early work survives.

By the turn of the century, Ted was building on a large scale. He began developing “most of the shops" on the east side of Dartmouth Road. His initials (ECC) are above the first floor windows of 49 Dartmouth Road and the date “1901” on 53 Dartmouth Road. He redeveloped the group of cottages, including his own, between 55 and 57a Dartmouth Road. There is a foundation stone at the side of 55 Dartmouth Road (the entrance to his yard), laid by his wife in 1900.

Ted also built houses. His best-known early development is between Perry Vale and South Road, Forest Hill. In 1901, he completed 108-116 Perry Vale, five substantial detached houses called Linstead (conveniently bearing the date 1901), Ashdale, Ulverston, Rosaville and Aberleigh in honour of his wife, Laura. A couple of years later 131-153 Perry Vale were completed. Their names spell “TED CHRISTMAS”. Round the corner, 72-64 Sunderland Road spell “GRACE”, his daughter. He also built houses in Gaynesford Road and there are several other groups in this area. They are distinctive, and easily recognised.

Ted and his family were living at Arundale, 151 Perry Vale in 1911. Clearly, his business was successful for in 1913 he moved to Newfield Villa, Dartmouth Road, a large semi-detached Victorian house on the corner of Derby Hill, on the site of the present Kingswear House and opposite his business.

The other major development of Christmas houses began about 1930 on a field behind Holy Trinity School when 58-92 Thorpewood Avenue were built. This development also included houses in Round Hill and Radlet Avenue. The Radlet Avenue houses were the last to be built by E C Christmas and were still being completed at the outbreak of war.

Ted Christmas also converted Victorian villas into flats. Perhaps the best-known example is Courtside, off Round Hill, converted from two Victorian villas in 1922. This has the small leaded-light windows that are characteristic of much of his work. Other distinctive features include the elaborately carved bargeboards over many of the porches and the patterns often cut in the lead flashing beneath the windowsills. Such features make Christmas houses distinctive, and quite easy to recognise, although there is a marked difference in style between his Edwardian and 1930s work.

Many Christmas houses and flats were built to let. Letting, and then later selling the properties, led the firm inevitably towards estate agency, particularly when Ted’s son (also called Edward) took over the firm in the late 1930s.

In 1933 Ted Christmas moved from Newfield Villa to Bolney Court, 3 Lawrie Park Road, where he died in 1936. E C Christmas continued to operate as estate agents until the early 1970s. The shop at 55 Dartmouth Road retained its original front until replaced a couple of years ago. There are other “Christmas houses” and conversions scattered around the area. Because of their distinctive style, it is not too difficult to recognise them. For some homeowners in Forest Hill and Sydenham, the spirit of Christmas lasts all year round.

First published in the Sydenham Society newsletter, Autumn 2005.

The Origins of Mayow Park

Click here for more pictures

On 29th May 1875, a "Plea for a People's Recreation Ground" appeared in the Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette. It regretted that "all available land in our neighbourhood is being taken for building purposes" and young people "meet and loiter about the roads, congregate at every street corner, becoming a moral pest and a nuisance". Furthermore, the poor had nothing but "the streets, the music hall, the penny gaff or the public house for their evening's resort".

This letter, written by Rev William Taylor Jones, headmaster of Sydenham College, led to the creation of Sydenham Public Recreation Ground (later renamed Mayow Park), the first public open space in the south of Lewisham. The following week, the Hon and Rev Augustus Legge, vicar of St Bartholomew's, wrote endorsing Taylor Jones' proposal. He also offered twenty guineas towards the cost.

Six months later, stung by an editorial in the Gazette that asked why so little progress had been made, Taylor Jones replied that he had hoped that "a more energetic person" would have taken up the reins. He then discussed the two major issues - how was money to be raised, and where was the ground be located?

Raising money was straightforward. The Metropolitan Board of Works (the London-wide local authority of the time) might make a significant contribution, and the rest would come from donations. The Lewisham District Board of Works (forerunner of Lewisham Council) could lay out and maintain the ground.

Finding a suitable site was more difficult. Several were discussed. One, "an excellent site", was not then available, but it would later become Wells Park. Another suggestion was glebe land (called Vicar's Field) in Dartmouth Road, where the Library, swimming pools, Thorpewood Avenue and Derby Crescent were later built. This was the preferred site. However, objectors suggested that as it was let as allotments to the poor, at a very low rent, it would be unjust to deprive them of this benefit.

By November 1875 Taylor Jones had formed a committee of two dozen of the more wealthy and influential residents, including Mayow Wynell Adams, F J Horniman, A G Hennell (architect of Forest Hill library), Rev Augustus Legge and T W Williams (embezzler, drug-taker, suicide, local politician and Lewisham's first mayor). Taylor Jones also published a list of those willing to give money, of whom F J Horniman (with £100) was the most generous.

By December 1875 the Lewisham District Board of Works had agreed that it would accept and "enclose, plant, and preserve [a suitable site] as an open space forever". Taylor Jones said, "The ground should be used for recreation, and not a mere ornamental or pleasure ground". By "recreation", he meant sports (football, cricket etc.). This comment makes clear the distinction between a "park", which was primarily ornamental, and a "recreation ground", which was primarily for sports.

A public meeting at the Foresters' Hall, Clyde Vale (the building survives) on 24th February 1876 was a turning point. It was attended by "many well known ladies and gentlemen". The Earl of Dartmouth was in the chair. Sharing the platform with him was his younger brother, the Hon and Rev Augustus Legge. Their father, as Lewisham's major landowner, was a principal proponent and major beneficiary of the enclosure of Sydenham Common in 1819.

At this meeting, Taylor Jones announced that Mayow Wynell Adams had offered 17½ acres of land for £8,500 (about half its market value). The meeting unanimously accepted the site offered by Mayow Adams and accepted a motion, proposed by George Grove, to open a subscription list of those willing to donate.

In a book published in 1878, Mayow Wynell Adams wrote, "It had often occurred to me how pleasant a thing it would be if I could devote a portion of land for the amusement and recreation of the public, but … it was not in my power to give it." In 1874, Mayow Wynell Adams inherited the Old House, on the site of the present Earlsthorpe Road. After a legal dispute with his trustees, he was able to offer the site of the present park.

A deputation, led by William Taylor Jones, approached the MBW to apply for a grant. After much discussion (and an Act of Parliament, which was needed to allow the MWB to use ratepayers money to buy land, and to bind the Lewisham District Board of Works and its successors to care for the ground in perpetuity) the MBW agreed to contribute half the cost of the site. The trustees of the Lewisham Parochial Charities (of whom Taylor Jones was chairman) agreed to donate £1000. That left £3250 for local people to raise.

The Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette was vociferous in its support for the campaign. It pointed out that there was an obligation on the part of those who had benefited from the enclosure of Sydenham Common to give something back. "From those who received so much, something substantial is expected in return, and the public eye … will not fail to watch closely their response to the appeal for funds," the Gazette said, threateningly. Then there were those who lived near the proposed park, for their houses "will be considerably enhanced" by it. In fact, it concluded, everyone will benefit and therefore all should contribute.

By early May 1876, the treasurers held only £700 of the £3250 that local people needed to raise. William Taylor Jones wrote again to the paper, reminding people of their duty. Thomas Coleman Dibdin, a landscape painter well known in his own day, and local resident, donated "six delightful sketches" of the site of the park, for sale at £5 each, to raise money.

Eventually contracts were exchanged and the Lewisham Board of Works began the task of preparing the ground. The site consisted of four fields, and while the hedges were cleared, the ancient hedgerow oaks were kept. The site had to be levelled and drainage installed, particularly in the central area, which was to be used for cricket. The surviving bank around this area was for spectators. The original layout did not include the main entrance from Silverdale (that had to wait until the road itself was developed) but otherwise the design of the park has changed little, the bowling green and tennis courts being the main additions, and the lodge (part of the original design) the main loss.

On 1st June 1878 the Sydenham and Forest Hill Public Recreation Ground was formally opened. A procession left what is now Dalmain Primary School in Brockley Rise at 3 pm. It made its way along Dartmouth Road, down Kirkdale, Sydenham Road and Mayow Road to the park. Children from schools along the route joined it, as did many shopkeepers, who had closed their shops for the occasion. Buildings were decorated with flags and bunting hung across the roads. Members of local organisations marched (Kent Artillery Volunteers, West Kent Fire Brigade, Ancient Order of Foresters and others). There were also the carriages of those too important to walk. The "oldest inhabitant" said he could not remember an occasion to equal it. By four o'clock, the procession entered the recreation ground.

There were some 11,000 people in the park. The chairman of the Lewisham District Board of Works declared the park open "for ever", and added "those two words … signified that it was to be kept open and in good order for ever … in the same beautiful order to which it was now seen … never worse, but probably better". Another speaker showed a model of a drinking fountain to be erected in honour of the Rev William Taylor Jones. He also presented Taylor Jones with a silver inkstand.

Since the opening of Mayow Park, some ten open spaces have been created in the area. The significance of Mayow Park, however, is that it was the first. William Taylor Jones created something that few had done before. It was a typically Victorian venture, led and largely funded by the wealthy and influential, undoubtedly from the best of motives, for the benefit and improvement of those less fortunate.

Footnote: At today's prices, the 17½-acre site cost £378,057. The Metropolitan Board of Works gave £189,029 and Lewisham Parochial Charities £44,477. The local community donated £144,551. The largest individual donation (F J Horniman at £100) would be worth £4,447 today.