CHAPTER XVII.
PADDINGTON.
PADDINGTON CANAL, 1820.
"And the Bishop's lands, too, what of them? I'll warrant you'll not find better acres anywhere than those which once belonged
to his lordship."—Boz.
Rustic Appearance of Paddington at the Commencement of this Century—Intellectual Condition of the Inhabitants—Gradual Increase of the
Population—The Manor of Paddington—The Feast of Abbot Walter, of Westminster—The Prior of St. Bartholomew's and his Brethren—Dr. Sheldon's Claim of the Manor—The Old Parish Church—Hogarth's Marriage—Building of the New Parish Church—A Curious Custom—Poorness of the Living—The Burial-ground—Noted Persons buried here—Life of Haydon, the Painter—Dr. Geddes—The New Church of
St. James—Holy Trinity Church—All Saints' Church—The House of the Notorious Richard Brothers—Old Public-houses—Old Paddington
Green—The Vestry Hall—The Residences of Thomas Uwins, R.A., and Wyatt, the Sculptor—Eminent Residents—The Princess Charlotte and
her Governess—Paddington House—" Jack-in-the-Green"—Westbourne Green—Desborough Place—Westbourne Farm,
the Residence of Mrs. Siddons—The Lock Hospital and Asylum—St. Mary's Hospital—Paddington Provident Dispensary—The DudleyStuart Home—"The Boatman's Chapel"—Queen's Park—Old Almshouses—Grand Junction Canal—The Western Water-Works—Imperial
Gas Company—Kensal Green Cemetery—Eminent Persons buried here—Great Western Railway Terminus.
Paddington, or Padynton, as the name of the
place is often spelled in old documents, down to
the end of the last century was a pleasant little
rural spot, scarcely a mile to the north-west of the
Tyburn turnpike, upon the Harrow Road. Indeed, it would seem to have preserved its rustic
character even to a later date; for it is amusing to
read without a smile the grave expressions in which
Priscilla Wakefield describes, in 1814, a visit to this
then remote and rustic village—a journey which
now occupies about three minutes by the Underground Railway:—"From Kensington we journeyed
northward to Paddington, a village situated on the
Edgware Road, about a mile from London. In
our way thither we passed the Lying-in Hospital at
Bayswater, patronised by the queen." The place
is described by Lambert, in his "History and
Survey of London and its Environs," at the commencement of the present century, as "a village
situated upon the Edgware Road, about a mile
from London"—a description which, perhaps, was
not wholly untrue even at the accession of Queen
Victoria; in fact, until its selection as the terminus
of the Great Western Railway caused it to be fairly
absorbed into the great metropolis.
The parish, being so rural, and so very thinly
populated, was, doubtless, far behind its "courtly"
sister suburb of Kensington in mental and intellectual progress; so that, perhaps, there may be
little or no exaggeration in the remarks of Mr.
Robins, in his "History of Paddington," when he
remarks:—"Although the people of Paddington
lived at so short a distance from the two rich
cathedral marts of London and Westminster, they
made apparently no greater advances in civilisation
for many centuries than did those who lived in the
most remote village in the English 'shires.' The
few people who lived here were wholly agricultural,
and they owed every useful lesson of their lives
much more to their own intelligence and observation than to any instruction given them by those
who were paid to be their teachers." But if "the
schoolmaster" was not "abroad," and if the education given in the parish church and other public
buildings was deficient, it is a consolation to learn,
from the same authority, that the defect was supplied, in some measure, at least, by the ale-houses
in which debating clubs were established. A
correspondent of Hone's "Year-Book," in 1832,
remarks of Paddington as well as Bayswater, that
they were both quite rural spots within his own
remembrance, little as they then deserved the name.
What would this writer have said if he could have
looked forward to their condition in the year of
grace 1876?
THE PADDINGTON CANAL, 1840.
Its population seems to have been always scanty.
As the earliest parish register goes back no further
than 1701, we are driven to draw our inferences
from the Subsidy Rolls. Probably, in the reign of
Henry VIII., the entire population did not exceed
a hundred, and at the accession of James II. it had
risen, according to the same calculation, to only a
little over three hundred. Even as lately as the
year 1795 the hamlet appears to have contained
only 341 houses, which, allowing five souls to a
house, would give a population of about 1,700.
Indeed, so small and insignificant did the village
continue down to our own times, that George
Canning instituted a witty comparison between a
great and a small premier, when he uttered the
mot:—
"As London to Paddington
So is Pitt to Addington."
The old stone indicating the first mile from
Tyburn turnpike towards Harrow still remains in
the road. In 1798, when Cary published his
"Road Book," there were ten "stages" running
every day from London to Paddington. William
Robins, in his work on Paddington, already quoted,
which was published in the year 1853, says:—"A
city of palaces has sprung up here within twenty
years. A road of iron, with steeds of steam,
brings into the centre of this city, and takes from
it in one year, a greater number of living beings
than could be found in all England a few years
ago; while the whole of London can be traversed
in half the time it took to reach Holborn Bars at
the beginning of this century, when the road was in
the hands of Mr. Miles, his pair-horse coach, and
his redoubtable boy," long the only appointed
agents of communication between Paddington and
the City. The fares were 2s. and 3s.; the journey,
we are told, took more than three hours; and to
beguile the time at resting-places, "Miles's Boy"
told tales and played upon the fiddle. Charles
Knight also tells us that "at the beginning of the
present century only one stage-coach ran from the
then suburban village of Paddington to the City,
and that it was never filled!"
A map of London, published so lately as 1823,
exhibits Paddington as quite distinct from the
metropolis, which has the Edgware Road as its
western boundary. A rivulet is marked as running
from north to south through Westbourne Green,
parallel with Craven Place; and Westbourne
House is marked with the name of its resident
owner, Mr. Cockerell, just like a country manor
house fifty miles from London; while half a mile
further are two isolated farms, named Portobello
and Notting Barns respectively. The present
parish includes in its area a portion of Kensington
Gardens.
How little known to the inhabitants of the great
metropolis this suburb was in the middle of the
last century may be inferred from the silence of
"honest" John Stow, and even of Strype, who,
in treating of London, make no mention of Paddington. Indeed, though they devote a chapter of
"The Circuit Walk," which concludes the "Survey
of London," to Kensington, Hammersmith, Fulham,
and Marylebone, we do not find any mention of
the names of Paddington or Bayswater; the only
hint in that direction being an entry of "Lisham"
(i.e. Lisson) "Grove" in the index as "near Paddington." The whole neighbourhood, indeed, is
passed entirely sub silentio by Evelyn and Pepys;
it is not mentioned by name by Horace Walpole;
and, though so near to Tyburn, it is apparently
ignored by Dr. Johnson and Boswell. It may be
inferred that even Mrs. Montagu scarcely ever
drove so far out into the western wilds. Charles
Dickens and George A. Sala, too, say but little
about it. It is clear, then, that we must go to
other sources for any antiquarian notes on this
neighbourhood, or for anecdotes about its inhabitants.
Paddington is not mentioned in the "Domesday
Book;" and it is probable that in the Conqueror's
time the whole site was part of the great forest of
Middlesex, of which small portions only appear to
have been at any time the property of the Crown.
The district, nevertheless, was, in remote times, a
part of the extensive parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, as appears from the fact that its church
was for a century or two, if not longer, a sort of
chapel of ease, subject to the Rector or Vicar of St.
Margaret's, as, indeed, it continued to be down to
the dissolution of monasteries, under Henry VIII.,
when the manor of Paddington was given to the
newly-founded see of Westminster. The manor
of Paddington was given in 1191, by the Abbot
Walter, to the Convent of St. Peter's, Westminster;
and from the close of the thirteenth century the
whole of the temporalities of the district, such as
the "rent of land and the young of animals," were
devoted to charity. We read that, in 1439, a
"head of water at Paddyngton" was granted to the
Lord Mayor and citizens of London, and to their
successors, by the Abbot of Westminster. On the
abolition of the see of Westminster, shortly after
its establishment, Edward VI. gave this manor to
Ridley, Bishop of London, and his successors. It
will be observed that the names of many of the
streets around Paddington, especially to the north,
perpetuate the names of several successive Bishops
of London, such as Randolph, Howley, Blomfield,
and Porteus. "Crescents and Colonnades," writes
Hone in his "Table-Book," in 1827, "are planned
by the architect to the Bishop of London on the
ground belonging to the see near Bayswater."
The above-mentioned abbot of Westminster,
Walter, appears to have purchased the interest in
the soil here from two brothers, who were called
respectively Richard and William de Padinton;
and on his death the manor of Paddington was
assigned to the almoner for the celebration of his
anniversary, when a solemn feast was to be held.
The almoner for the time being was directed to find
for the convent "fine manchets, cakes, crumpets,
cracknells, and wafers, and a gallon of wine for
each friar, with three good pittances, or doles, with
good ale in abundance at every table, and in the
presence of the whole brotherhood; in the same
manner as upon other occasions the cellarer is
bound to find beer at the usual feasts or anniversaries, in the great tankard of five quarts."
Maitland, in his "History of London," tells us
that, in 1439, "the Abbot of Westminster granted
to Robert Large, the mayor, and citizens of London,
and their successors, one head of water, containing
twenty-six perches in length and one in breadth,
together with all its springs in the manor of Paddington; in consideration of which grant the City
is for ever to pay to the said abbot and his successors, at the feast of St. Peter, two peppercorns.
But if the intended work should happen to draw
the water from the ancient wells in the manor of
Hida, then the aforesaid grant to cease and become
entirely void." Mr. Robins, in his "Paddington,
Past and Present," remarks that, "although the
abbots at length, and by slow degrees, acquired to
themselves and their house, either with or without
the sanction of the Crown, both spiritual and temporal dominion over these places, we must not
imagine that all the tenements in Westbourn and
Paddington had been by this time transferred by
the devout and the timid to their safe keeping; for
besides the few small holders, who obstinately preferred their hereditary rights to works of charity or
devotion, there is good reason to believe that the
ancient family of De Veres held a considerable
tract of land in this parish down to 1461."
The high road at Paddington must have presented
an amusing spectacle in the year 1523, when the
Prior of St. Bartholomew's and all his brethren,
with the lay brethren, and an array of wagons and
boats upon trucks, went along through Paddington
towards Harrow, where they had resolved to remain for two months, till the fatal day should
have passed on which it was foretold that the
Thames should suddenly rise and wash away half
London!
During the Commonwealth "the manor of Paddington, wth ye appurten'ces," was sold to one
Thomas Browne, for the sum of three thousand
nine hundred and fifty-eight pounds, seventeen
shillings, and four pence; but when Dr. Sheldon
was appointed to the bishopric of London, after
the Restoration, he claimed the manor and also the
rectory. Sheldon's relatives, it is stated, received
the profits of the manor and rectory for nearly
eighty years.
"In the middle of the last century," says John
Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," "nearly the
whole of Paddington had become grazing-land,
upwards of 1,100 acres; and the occupiers of the
bishop's estate kept here hundreds of cows."
Robins, in his work on this parish, writes:—"The fact of Paddington, in Surrey, or 'Padendene,'
as it was called, being mentioned in the Conqueror's
survey, while Paddington, in Middlesex, was not
noticed, inclines me to believe the dene or den, in
Surrey, was the original mark of the Pædings; and
that the smaller enclosure in Middlesex was at first
peopled and cultivated by a migration of a portion
of that family from the den, when it had become
inconveniently full. . . . At what period this
migration happened," he adds, "it is impossible to
say; but there is very little doubt that the first
settlement was made near the bourn, or brook,
which ran through the forest." This brook, of
which we have already had occasion to speak in a
previous chapter, was, at the beginning of this
century, a favourite resort for anglers.
There is extant a curious etching of the old
parish church of Paddington, dated 1750. It stood
about eighty yards to the north of the present
edifice, and its site may still be seen among the
tombs, which were ranged inside and outside of it.
It was a plain, neat building, of one aisle, consisting
of only a nave, and with a bell-turret and spire at
the west end, not unlike the type of the country
churches of Sussex, and its picturesqueness was
heightened by the dark foliage of an ancient yewtree.
This church was built by Sir Joseph Sheldon and
Daniel Sheldon, to whom the manor was leased by
Sheldon, Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Charles II.,
and it replaced a more ancient church, which had
become "old and ruinous," and which was taken
down about the year 1678.
In this second church, which was dedicated to
St. James, were married, on the 23rd of March,
1729, Hogarth and Jane Thornhill, the daughter of
Sir James Thornhill; the marriage, it is said, was
a runaway match, carried out much against the will
of the bride's father.
Mr. J. T. Smith, the antiquary, states that the
walls of the demolished church were adorned with
several texts from Scripture, in accordance with
the instructions of Queen Elizabeth:—
"And many a holy text around she strews
To teach the rustic moralist to die."
In 1788 an Act was passed for rebuilding the
parish church and enlarging the churchyard, and
accordingly St. Mary's Church, on the Green, was
erected. The preamble of the Act tells us that its
predecessor "is a very ancient structure, and in
such a decayed state that it cannot be effectually
repaired, but must be taken down and rebuilt;
besides which, the same is so small, that one-fourth
of the present inhabitants within the said parish
cannot assemble therein for divine worship. The
new church was built partly by subscription and
partly by assessment of the inhabitants.
A print of the church, in the European Magazine
for January, 1793, shows the building exactly in its
present state; but on the other side of the road,
opposite to the south entrance, is a large pond, in
which stakes and rails stand up after the most
rural fashion. The village stocks, too, are represented in this engraving. So much admired was
this church at the time when it was built, and so
picturesque an object it is said to have been, "particularly from the Oxford, Edgware, and Harrow
Roads," that almost all the periodicals of the day
noticed it. The following description of the building, given in the European Magazine, was doubtless
correct at the time it was written:—"It is seated
on an eminence, finely embosomed in venerable
elms. Its figure is composed of a square of about
fifty feet. The centres, on each side of the square,
are projecting parallelograms, which give recesses
for an altar, a vestry, and two staircases. The roof
terminates with a cupola and vane. On each of
the sides is a door: that facing the south is decorated with a portico, composed of the Tuscan and
Doric orders, having niches on the sides. The
west has an arched window, under which is a
circular portico of four columns, agreeable to the
former composition." The church, in fact, is a
nondescript building, though it pretends to be
erected after a Greek model.
The old and present churches are described
(with illustrations) in the supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1795. The writer of the description says that the monuments in the former
building were transferred to a light vault under the
new one.
Lysons mentions the custom of loaves being
thrown from the church tower to be scrambled for—a remnant, no doubt, of the old Easter "largess;"
and Priscilla Wakefield, in her "Perambulations of
London" (1814), writes—"The strange custom
is observed, on the Sunday before Christmas Day,
of throwing bread from the church steeple, to be
scrambled for by the populace, in consequence
of a gift from two maiden ladies." Under date
of Tuesday, December 21, 1736, the Grub Street
Journal gives the following account of the "Bread
and Cheese Charity:"—"On Sunday, after divine
service, was performed the annual ceremony of
throwing bread and cheese out of Paddington
Church steeple among the spectators, and giving
them ale. The custom was established by two
women, who purchased five acres of land to the
above use, in commemoration of the particular
charity whereby they had been relieved when in
extreme necessity." It is almost needless to add
that this custom has long since been allowed to fall
into disuse.
The living of Paddington is said to have been
formerly so small that it was a difficult task for the
bishop to find anybody to discharge its duties. In
fact, it would appear that during the Tudor and
early Stuart reigns, the parson of Paddington did
not come up even to the standard of Goldsmith's
model—
"Passing rich on forty pounds a year;"
for as late as the year 1626 its value was just ten
pounds a year. Yet even its poverty had its
advantages; for when Bishop Aylmer's enemies,
among other charges accused him of ordaining his
porter, the fact was admitted, but justified on the
ground that the man was of honest life and conversation, and proved to be an earnest and zealous
pastor, by the scantiness of the stipend which he
was content to receive, and less than he had
actually received in a lay capacity.
In the new burial-ground rest the remains of
William Collins, R. A., the painter of "As Happy as
a King," who died in 1847, at the age of fifty-nine;
of Banks, the Royal Academician, the sculptor, who
was buried here in 1805, at the age of seventy;
and of George Barret, one of the founders of the
Society of Painters in Water-Colours, who died in
1842. Here, too, are buried the celebrated singers,
Antonio Sapio and Antonio Zarra; and at least one
centenarian, John Hubbard, who is recorded on
his tomb as having been born in 1554, and having
died in 1665, at the ripe age of one hundred and
eleven. Here, too, lies buried George Bushnell,
the clever but vain and fantastic sculptor, to whom
we owe the statues on Temple Bar, and who
executed those of Charles I., Charles II., and Sir
Thomas Gresham for the first Royal Exchange.
In after life he embarked in several mad schemes,
which nearly ruined him; among other "crazes"
of his, which are recorded, is an attempt to build a
model of the Trojan horse in wood and stucco;
the head was large enough to hold twelve men and
a table, and the eyes served as windows. It cost
£500, and was demolished by a storm of wind;
and no entreaty could induce him to put the
monster together again. He died in 1701.
Mrs. Siddons and Benjamin Robert Haydon,
the painter, lie quite at the northern end of the
burial-ground, not far apart; their monuments are
simple and plain; that of Haydon bears upon it a
quotation from King Lear, in allusion to his life
of fretful disappointment; that of Mrs. Siddons is
a flat stone, surrounded with a plain iron railing.
We shall have more to say of Mrs. Siddons when
we come to Upper Baker Street. With reference
to Haydon, of whose last abode in Burwood Place
we have spoken in the preceding chapter, we may
state that he was the son of a bookseller, and was
born at Plymouth in 1786. He came to London
at the age of eighteen to seek his fortune—at all
events, to make his way as a painter—bringing little
with him except introductions to Northcote and
Opie, the Royal Academicians. His career was
eccentric and fitful; at one time he basked in the
sunshine of public favour, and then again lost it,
and with it, what was worse, he lost heart. From
time to time he exhibited historical pictures at the
Egyptian Hall, and had the mortification of seeing
them eclipsed by the most common-place sights
which drew crowds together, whilst his pictures
were neglected. The slight, added to the pressure
of debt, was more than poor Haydon could stand,
and on the 22nd of June he died in his own studio,
by his own hand, in front of one of his historical
paintings. "Thus died poor Haydon," says his
biographer, "in the sixty-first year of his age, after
forty-two years of struggles, strivings, conflicts,
successes, imprisonments, appeals to ministers, to
Parliament, to patrons, to the public, self-illusions,
and bitter disappointments." His first picture was
exhibited in 1807; the subject of it, "Joseph and
Mary resting with our Saviour after a Day's Journey
on the Road to Egypt." It was sold; and the next
year he exhibited the celebrated "Dentatus," which
he considered badly hung by the Royal Academicians, and forthwith proceeded to make enemies of
those forty potentates of art—a most imprudent
step for so young an artist to take. Lord Mulgrave
bought "Dentatus;" and in the following year it
obtained the prize at the British Institution, and
soon became very popular. The "Judgment of
Solomon" appeared next; but during its progress
Haydon's resources failed, and the directors of the
British Institution voted him a present of one
hundred guineas. Previous to this the artist had for
some time devoted ten or twelve hours a day to the
study of the Elgin marbles, which had just arrived
in England; and he wrote and talked about them
so enthusiastically and eloquently that he mainly
contributed to their being purchased for the nation.
He went, accompanied by Wilkie, to Paris in 1814,
to study at the Louvre, and on his return commenced his largest work, "Christ entering into
Jerusalem." This picture was exhibited in 1820,
both in London and the provinces, to visitors at a
shilling each, and he gained a considerable sum by
it. It was considered a triumph of modern art.
But, with all his acknowledged powers, Haydon
mistook or disdained to follow the more certain
path to fame and fortune. While his more successful brethren were engaged on cabinet pictures,
his works were on too large a scale to be hung in
private rooms; hence, the orders he obtained were
comparatively few, and he became embarrassed.
In 1827, Haydon gave the following melancholy
account of the fate of his great pictures:—"My
'Judgment of Solomon' is rolled up in a warehouse in the Borough! My 'Entry into Jerusalem,'
once graced by the enthusiasm of the rank and
beauty of the three kingdoms, is doubled up in a
back room in Holborn! My 'Lazarus' is in an
upholsterer's shop in Mount Street! and my
'Crucifixion' is in an hay-loft in Lisson Grove!"
In 1832, Haydon painted at Paddington his great
picture of the "Reform Banquet;" and here most
of the leading Whigs—Macaulay, among others—gave him sittings.
Few diaries are more sad than that which
Haydon kept, and which accumulated to twentysix large MS. volumes. At one time he mourned
over the absence of wealthy patrons for his pictures;
at another, of some real or fancied slight he had
received from other painters; while in his entries
repeated reference was made to debts, creditors,
insolvencies, applications to friends for loans—in
fact, despondency marked every line.
And now the time arrived when his cup of
bitterness overflowed. One great and honourable
ambition he had cherished—to illustrate the walls
of the new Houses of Parliament with historical
pictures; but this professional eminence was
denied to him, and the rejection of his cartoon by
the Royal Commission was the death-blow to his
hopes. He would have borne up had he but
realised the hope of painting one of the frescoes,
or been cheered under his disappointment by
popular support!
Such was the mental condition of the unhappy
painter in the early part of the year 1846, when
the so-called "General Tom Thumb" came to
England. Haydon had then just finished a large
picture, on which he had long been engaged,
"The Banishment of Aristides." He hoped by it
to redeem his fallen fortunes, and to relieve himself of some of his debts, by exhibiting the picture
in London. He engaged a room in the Egyptian
Hall, under the same roof where "Tom Thumb"
was attracting crowds, and sent out invitations to
several distinguished persons and critics to attend
a private view. The following entry in his diary
on April 4th showed how acutely the poor man
felt his comparative want of success:—"Opened;
rain hard; only Jerrold, Baring, Fox Maule, and
Hobhouse came. Rain would not have kept them
away twenty-six years ago. Comparison:—
"1st day of 'Christ entering Jerusalem,' 1820 . . £19 16 0
1st day of 'Banishment of Aristides,' 1846 . . 1 1 6
I trust in God, Amen!"
MAP OF PADDINGTON, IN 1815.
Shortly afterwards Haydon wrote—and we can
readily imagine the spirit in which he jotted down
the lines—"They rush by thousands to see Tom
Thumb. They push, they fight, they scream, they
faint, they cry 'Help!' and 'Murder!' They see
my bills and caravan, but do not read them; their
eyes are on them, but their sense is gone. It is
an insanity, a furor, a dream, of which I would not
have believed England could have been guilty."
Mr. Cyrus Redding thus speaks, in his "Fifty
Years' Reminiscences," of Paddington Green and
its churchyard in the year 1806:—"At such times
I crossed Paddington Green, and the new part
of the churchyard, since thickly encumbered with
memorials of the dead. There were then only
three or four tombstones to be seen in that part.
One nearest the iron palisades was placed by
Lord Petre in memory of an excellent man and
scholar, Dr. Geddes. He was the author of a new
translation of some part of the Holy Scriptures.
The Catholics and High Church Protestants did
not approve of his conduct, because, in place of
vindicating the authority of their churches in
matters of religion, he supported the right of
private judgment. His stone I saw in perfect
preservation but a few years ago, in the same
place as at first. It must have been designedly
removed. Perhaps the epitaph displeased some
strait-laced official. I will repeat it from memory,
though I am not certain I am correct to a word.
'Christian is my name, Catholic my surname. If
I cannot greet thee as a disciple of Jesus, still I
should love thee as my fellow-man.'"
PADDINGTON GREEN IN 1750. (From a Drawing in Mr. Crace's Collection.)
The Church of St. Mary ceased to be the parish
church of Paddington in 1845, when it was superseded by the new Church of St. James, at the
west end of Oxford and Cambridge Terraces, and
the south end of Westbourne Terrace. "By these
means," says the Report of 1840, "accommodation
will be provided for 4,000 persons, or including
Bayswater Chapel, which may hereafter be made a
parochial chapel, for more than 5,000 persons, in a
parish supposed to contain 20,000 souls." The
edifice, we are informed, was originally designed
for a secular building, but was altered to suit the
"taste of the times." In 1844–46 was built a new
church, in the elaborate Gothic style, dedicated to
the Holy Trinity, in Gloucester Gardens, Bishop's
Road. It is a large church, capable of accommodating nearly 1,600 worshippers, and is built in
the "Perpendicular" style of architecture, from
the designs of Mr. Cundy. It has a very richly
crocketed spire and pinnacled tower, upwards of
200 feet high, and a beautiful stained glass window
in the chancel. The crypt is said to be on a level
with the roofs of the houses in Belgrave Square.
This fabric is the "pet church of Paddington,"
and its "fair proportions and elegance of form"
were said in those days to be "pleasing to the
eye of all who admire the architectural art." The
building cost nearly £20,000. In 1847, All Saints'
Church was erected in Cambridge Place, at the end
of Star Street. It occupies a portion of the site of
the old Grand Junction Waterworks' reservoir.
There is an ancient house still standing at the
right-hand corner of Old Church Street, going from
Paddington Green. The uppermost storey of the
building slightly overhangs the lower one, and the
ground surrounding the house has been so raised
that a descent of a step has to be made on going
into it. In this house, which was for some time a
disagreeable-looking butcher's shop, and now serves
as the office of the district surveyor, lived formerly
the religious fanatic, Richard Brothers, who is said
to have represented himself to be the "Nephew of
God, and His prophet and preacher." His grave
is in St. John's Wood Churchyard, appropriately
opposite that of Joanna Southcote.
Paddington has long been noted for its old
public-houses. In the etching above referred to is
represented, apparently about a hundred yards to
the south-west of the church, a large and lofty
building, presumably an inn, as a large sign-board
projects into the street in front. This there can
be little difficulty in identifying with the "Dudley
Arms," in Dudley Grove, Harrow Road, or, at all
events, with its predecessor on the same spot. At
the corner of Old Church Street and the Edgware
Road is the "Wheatsheaf" Tavern. There is an
engraving extant of this old tavern, which represents it as a lowly, thatched, roadside hostelry;
and, notwithstanding the visits of Ben Jonson,
tradition says the house bore no very good repute,
as both that and the old "Pack-horse," in the
Harrow Road, were the favourite resorts of the
masked and mounted gentlemen who made the
Uxbridge and Edgware Roads perilous to travellers
down to the close of the last century.
The "White Lion," another old tavern in the
Edgware Road, dates from 1524, "the year when
hops were first imported." George Morland is said
to have been the painter of the sign of the "White
Lion," which used to hang in front of this tavern,
where he used to carouse, along with his friends
Ibbetson and Rathbone. At the "Red Lion,"
near the Harrow Road, tradition says that Shakespeare acted as a strolling player; another "Red
Lion," formerly near the Harrow Road bridge over
the bourn, is described in an "inquisition" dated
as far back as the reign of Edward VI.
As recently as 1840, the year of the opening of
the Great Western Railway, a wide and open space
of land in this vicinity was occupied by market and
nursery gardens, and the red-tiled weather-boarded
cottages of labourers and laundresses. Eight or
ten years later, the appearance of the district was
entirely changed: terraces and squares of fine
houses had risen up in every direction west of the
bourn; but the approaches to it from the Edgware
Road, whether by Praed Street or the Harrow
Road, were very deplorable. They are not much
better even now; but as the grimy-looking houses
at the entrance to the Harrow Road are in the
course of removal, some improvement will eventually
be brought about. We are informed, by a resident
of some years' standing, that "anything more disgraceful than the appearance of the portion that
remained of old Paddington Green it is impossible
to imagine; all the refuse of the neighbourhood
was heaped upon it, and the hollows filled with
stagnant water, which made the place horrible to
every sense. It was the play-ground of idle boys,
and children uncared-for and squalid, who spent
the day in fighting, swearing, shouting, crying, and
throwing stones, so as to make the passing-by as
dangerous as it was disagreeable. On all Sundays,
and, in summer time, on week-day evenings, two
or three self-constituted preachers, whose doctrines
were as extraordinary as their English, were wont
to establish themselves there, and rant and vociferate even louder than the boys; and, not unfrequently, a bold Freethinker stood up in opposition
to them to propagate his reckless creed."
In 1865, the ground was at last enclosed and
ornamentally laid out, and in the summer of the
next year it was thrown open to the public. How
great the improvement to the neighbourhood can
be known only to those who saw it in the days of
its degradation. The fine old houses skirting the
further side of the Green put on a renovated appearance, and rents rose immediately; and now,
instead of squalor and unruliness, decently-dressed
people and children daily enjoy the grassy lawns,
and flower-beds, and seats beside the gravel paths,
and order and neatness reign there. The poor,
too, are not excluded.
The Vestry Hall is another improvement of the
last ten years; and the building of St. Mary Magdalene's Church another.
On Paddington Green was for some years the
residence of Thomas Uwins, R.A., and here he
painted his picture of "The Little Girl in the
Brigand's Hat," so well known to us by the engraver's art. Here, too, was the studio of Wyatt,
in which the equestrian statue of the Duke of
Wellington, now at Hyde Park Corner, was moulded.
The Rev. J. Richardson records, in his amusing
"Recollections," the fact that twelve gentlemen
sat down to a repast in the interior of the horse,
like the Greeks in the belly of the Trojan horse, in
imitation of Virgil's Æneid.
Literature and art have been represented among
the inhabitants of this neighbourhood. Robert
Browning has lived for some time in Warwick
Crescent; and the venerable Chevalier de Chatelain, who has done useful work in translating
various poems, and also Shakespeare's works, into
French, resides next door to him, at Castelnau
Lodge. At one time Mr. Babbage was resident
here; and close by the canal lived the great lineengraver, Henry Robinson. George Colman, too,
died here; he was buried, as already mentioned,
at Kensington. (fn. 1) The Princess Charlotte was an
occasional visitor at Dudley House, Paddington
Green. The fields about there were pleasant places
for a country ramble, even at the beginning of the
present century. The author of the "Old City"
writes:—"On a September day in 1807, I was
walking on the banks of the Grand Junction Canal,
at Paddington, and then quite in the country, when
a plain private carriage drew up. Two ladies, one
very young, and the other of middle age, got out,
and commenced promenading. It was the Princess
Charlotte and her governess, the Duchess of Northumberland, I think. They were both in plain
morning dress, and evidently sought to avoid notice.
The princess, tall and stout for her age (she was
then eleven), wore a white muslin frock, and a straw
bonnet, crossed by a plain white satin riband. The
waist of the frock, according to the ugly fashion of
the time, was placed high up under her arms, much
as may be seen in her more mature portrait by
Sir Thomas Lawrence. Her forehead was broad
and rather high, her face full, and her nose prominent, but not disagreeably so. She might have
been styled pleasing, but she had no pretensions
to beauty; and she was more womanly than is usual
with girls of the same age. She frequently asked
questions of her elder companion, and the tones of
her voice were soft and musical. Once, apparently
forgetting her studied school-step, she was breaking
into a run, but the duchess checked her by a look,
and the decorous step was resumed. For a few
minutes she escaped notice, but the instant that
her rank was known, importunate promenaders
began to throng about, and soon obliged her and
the duchess to beat a retreat to the carriage." It
is satisfactory to find that the fathers and grandfathers of the present generation were quite as
ill-mannered and vulgar as the Englishmen and
Englishwomen who "mobbed" Queen Adelaide
when she paid a visit to the palm-house at Kew,
or intruded their gaze upon Queen Victoria at
Brighton, on her accession to the throne, and so
drove her from the place. Dudley House is kept
in remembrance by the "Dudley Arms" Tavern
and Dudley Grove, in the Harrow Road.
At the close of the last century, Mrs. Hutchins
and Mr. Samuel Pepys Cockerell were the two
principal residents in Westbourne Green; and Paddington Green boasted John Chamberlain and
John Symonds amongst its inhabitants.
Paddington House is described, at the commencement of the present century, as "a handsome
brick edifice, on the east side of the Green." It is
said to have been built by a certain Mr. Dennis
Chirac, who, having made a fortune as jeweller to
Queen Anne, chose late in life to retire here into
the country. Having long since been converted
into shops, it was pulled down in 1876.
Hone, in his "Every-Day Book," mentions
Paddington as one of the suburbs of London
which formerly were enlivened by the "Jack in the
Green on May Day." "The last specimens of the
'Jacks in the Green' that I remember," he writes,
in 1827, "were at the Paddington May-dance, near
the 'Yorkshire Stingo,' about twenty years ago,
whence, as I heard, they diverged to Bayswater,
Kentish Town, and the adjoining neighbourhood.
A 'Jack o' the Green' always carried a long walkingstick with floral wreaths; he whisked it about in
the dance, and afterwards walked with it in high
estate, like a Lord Mayor's footman." We have
already mentioned the May-pole in our account of
the Strand. (fn. 2)
"It was a pleasant sight to see
A little village company
Drawn out upon the first of May
To have their annual holyday:
The pole hung round with garlands gay,
The young ones footing it away;
The aged cheering their old souls
With recollections and their bowls,
Or, on the mirth and dancing failing,
Then ofttimes told old tales re-taleing."—Hone.
Westbourne Place, situated close to the Green,
was the residence, successively, of Isaac Ware (the
architect, and editor of Palladio's works); of Sir
William Yorke, Chief Justice of the Court of
Common Pleas; of J. Coulson, Esq.; of Mr.
Samuel Pepys Cockerell; and, lastly, of the veteran
Peninsular General, Lord Hill, who here entertained
William IV. and Queen Adelaide. In the Universal Magazine for September, 1793, appears the
following notice of the mansion and its surroundings:—"Westbourne Place, the handsome villa of
Jukes Coulson, Esq., an eminent anchor-smith in
Thames Street, London, is situated at Westbourne
Green, one mile and a half from Tyburn Turnpike,
and three-quarters of a mile from the new church
at Paddington. This green is one of those beautifully rural spots for which that parish, although
contiguous to the metropolis, is distinguished. The
house is situated on a rising ground, which commands a pleasing view of Hampstead and Highgate; the village of Paddington, with the elegant
new church, produces a pretty effect when viewed
from hence; and as no part of London can be
seen, a person disposed to enjoy the pleasures of
rural retirement might here forget his proximity to
the 'busy hum of men.' The house was built by
Mr. Isaac Ware, who quitted the ignoble profession
of a chimney-sweeper, and commencing the man
of science and taste, was employed in building
many houses, and distinguished himself, moreover,
by some books on the subject of architecture.
The gardens and pleasure-grounds are laid out
with great taste; and close to Mr. Coulson's
elegant mansion is a farm-house, which is occupied as an occasional country residence by the
Most Noble George Grenville Nugent, Marquis of
Buckingham."
Hughson, who published his "History of London
and its Neighbourhood" in 1809, and who, by the
way, does not appear to have had a single subscriber for his work in this neighbourhood, writes
of Westbourne Green, that "it is one of those
beautifully rural spots for which Paddington is
distinguished. It occupies rising ground, and commands a lovely view of Hampstead and Highgate,
with the distant city. An important mansion,
called Westbourne Place, is situated here, built
by that born architect, Isaac Wàre, the editor of
Palladio's works, who, originally a sweep, became
conspicuous as a student of art and science, and
the proprietor of the estate of Westbourne Green."
Mr. Coulson inhabited Westbourne Place when
Hughson wrote. At that time this house and
gardens must have occupied the ground on which
the Lock Hospital stands; this institution remaining at Grosvenor Place till 1842. "In the reign
of William IV.," writes the Rev. J. Richardson, in
his "Recollections," "this spot was really what its
name implied," a green. It was not built over till
long into the reign of Queen Victoria.
Desborough Place, a small row of the houses
to be seen on the south-west side of the Harrow
Road, before reaching the Lock Hospital, adjoins
an old mansion, now partly pulled down, called
Desborough House, after John Desborough, or
Disbrowe, the brother-in-law of the "Lord Protector Cromwell"—that "ploughman Desborough,"
as Oliver would often style him, half in jest and
half in earnest.
There is a discrepancy between Robins and Mr.
Peter Cunningham as to the whereabouts of Mrs.
Siddons' residence in Paddington, the one placing
her in Desborough Lodge, the other in a house
and grounds levelled to make room for the Great
Western Railway; but Incledon, the singer, describes a visit to the great tragedienne, at her villa
on "Westbourne Green," which is situated at the
top of the Harrow Road, close to the Lock Hospital, and where formerly several genteel houses
stood; but now only the name remains.
Westbourne Farm—for so, as we have stated
previously, Mrs. Siddons' cottage was called—was
standing down to about the year 1860, when it was
demolished to make room for a row of shops and
houses. It was a little retired house in a garden,
screened with poplars and other trees, resembling a
modest rural vicarage. This was at one time the
residence of Madame Vestris; but, before her, Mrs.
Siddons liked to withdraw here from the noise and
din of London. The following amusing description
of the place is said to be from the pen of her
husband:—
"On Mrs. Siddons' Cottage at Westbourne.
"Would you I'd Westbourne Farm describe?
I'll do it, then, and free from gall;
For sure it would be sin to gibe
A thing so pretty and so small.
"A poplar-walk, if you have strength,
Will take a minute's time to step it;
Nay, certes 'tis of such a length
'Twould almost tire a frog to leap it.
"But when the pleasure-ground is seen,
Then what a burst comes on the view!
Its level walk, its shaven green,
For which a razor's stroke would do.
"Now, pray be cautious when you enter,
And curb your strides with much expansion;
Three paces take you to the centre;
Three more, you're close against the mansion.
"The mansion, cottage, house, or hut—
Call't what you will—has room within
To lodge the King of Lilliput,
But not his court nor yet his queen.
"The kitchen-garden, true to keeping,
Has length, and breadth, and width in plenty;
A snail, if fairly set a-creeping,
Could scarce go round while you told twenty.
"Perhaps you'll cry, on hearing this,
'What, everything so very small!'
No; she that made it what it is
Has greatness that makes up for all."
The great actress was certainly living here in
1806, and the following year, for Cyrus Redding
thus mentions her abode, in his "Fifty Years'
Recollections:"—"I did not slumber in bed, often
rising at four o'clock, walking to Manchester Square,
calling up a friend there, and then going into the
country to an inn near Mrs. Siddons' villa, a little
on the town side of Kensal Green, but then far in
the green fields. We breakfasted together. I
returned to Gough Square, sometimes before my
fellow-lodger had left his bed, and generally before
ten o'clock; thus I gained six hours on the day."
The Lock Hospital and Asylum, which stand
on the opposite side of the Harrow Road, derive
their name from the "Loke," or "Lock," in Kent
Street, Southwark, an ancient hospital for lepers.
The name may have been derived, as suggested
by a writer in Notes and Queries, from the old
French word loques, "rags"—referring to the linen
rags applied to sores; but with more probability
it comes, as Archer is inclined to believe, in his
"Vestigia," from the Saxon log or loc, equivalent
to "shut," or "closed," in reference to the isolated
condition of the leper.
This hospital was founded in 1746, and the
asylum about forty years later, mainly by the
efforts of the Rev. Thomas Scott, the well-known
Biblical commentator; and it is mentioned in
Strype's edition of "Stow," in 1765, as being "at
Pimlico." It was removed hither from Grosvenor
Place (fn. 3) in 1842. A chapel has been attached to it
since 1764. In 1849 its authorities were able to
double the number of patients and penitents,
through the help of the late Duke of Cambridge,
who issued an autograph appeal on behalf of the
charity. This establishment is in reality a branch
of the Lock Hospital, and is intended for the
reception of females only; the branch for males is
situated in Dean Street, Soho. From the published
report, we learn that since the foundation of the
asylum, the institution has been the means of
giving the advantages of domestic training to
about three thousand females. During the year
1875, no less than fifty young women were fitted
for service, nearly all of whom have given satisfactory proof of real amendment by their conduct
in their situations; whilst of those sent out in
previous years, many have earned the reward given
by the committee of the institution for remaining
twelve months in the same situation; several
have been restored to friends; whilst others have
testified to the great change that has been effected
in them by contributing from their scanty earnings
to the support of the institution, which has rescued
them from a life of misery. The buildings here
cover a large extent of ground, and the gardens
surrounding them are well planted with trees and
shrubs.
Although not in the immediate vicinity of the
Lock Hospital, it may not be altogether out of
place here to speak of one or two other institutions,
devoted to charitable purposes, which exist in the
parish. St. Mary's Hospital, originally styled the
Marylebone and Paddington Hospital, stands in
Cambridge Place, on a site which once formed
the reservoir of the Grand Junction Waterworks,
between the Great Western Railway Terminus and
the Harrow Road, in the centre of a crowded
neighbourhood. The first stone was laid by the
Prince Consort, in June, 1845, and the first ward
was opened in 1850. It is built of red brick, with
stone dressings, and was erected from the designs
of Mr. Thomas Hopper and Mr. J. H. Wyatt. The
building will accommodate 180 beds, and in its
construction the greatest attention was paid to the
ventilation and warming. Twelve hundred cubic
feet of space, at least, is allotted to each bed. This
is the only general hospital for an extensive and
populous district of the metropolis, and its doors are
ever open for the relief of the sick and maimed.
It receives annually, as in-patients, about 1,800
cases of serious accident or disease, and as outpatients and casualties about 20,000. All poor
persons applying for relief for accident or disease
of extreme urgency, are admissible, after due examination, without any letter of recommendation.
The laws of the institution provide that there shall
be "a chaplain, who is required to be in full
orders in the Church of England; and, in addition
to the ordinary duties of his office in ministering to
the spiritual wants of the inmates of the hospital,
he is to be the principal of the collegiate establishment." The staff of the hospital, according to
the original report, consists of three physicians,
three assistant physicians, three surgeons, three
assistant surgeons, a physician-accoucheur, a surgeon-accoucheur, an ophthalmic surgeon, and an
aural surgeon. The laws of the hospital provide
for four resident medical officers, all of whom are
to be fully qualified medical practitioners.
MRS. SIDDONS' HOUSE AT WESTBOURNE GREEN, 1800.
"In the Hospital Medical School and Medical
Collegiate Establishment the determination of the
course of education, the rules and regulations for
the government and conduct of the pupils, and the
appointment of all lecturers and teachers, is vested,
under the advice of the medical committee, in the
governors at large; and every pupil of the school
is responsible to the board for his good conduct."
The laws, it may be added, are framed in the
most liberal spirit towards the medical profession.
"The medical committee consists of the ten principal medical officers in the various departments
of the hospital for the time being, and ten medical
governors of the charity who do not hold any
office in the hospital or hospital school, elected
annually. All legally qualified medical and surgical
practitioners, being governors, are eligible to be
members of this committee; and legally qualified
medical and surgical practitioners, whether governors or not, are at liberty, on a proper introduction,
to attend the practice of the hospital. The medical
governors are also at liberty to attend all lectures
delivered by the teachers in the hospital school;
and if residing within half a mile of the hospital,
they are entitled to be summoned to all important
operations, on paying a trifling contribution towards
the expense of summoning. Thus the medical profession at large has every opportunity to form its
opinion of the principles and practice taught in the
hospital, an efficient voice in the management of
the medical affairs of the institution, and a direct
influence in the system of education to be adopted
in the hospital school, of which their own sons or
private pupils might be members."
PADDINGTON CHURCH; 1750 AND 1805.
St. Mary's Hospital, being without endowment,
is supported entirely by the voluntary contributions
and donations of the public at large; and when
the number of patients annually relieved is taken
into consideration, it is easy to imagine that the expenses of the institution are very great, amounting
as they do to something like £10,000 annually.
Within a short distance of St. Mary's is another
charitable institution, the Paddington Provident
Dispensary, which dates its career of usefulness
from the year 1838. Upwards of 7,000 persons
are relieved here during the course of the year.
Another very useful charity in the neighbourhood
is the Dudley Stuart "Home for the Houseless,"
in Market Street, close by. Here a temporary
home is afforded to destitute and houseless persons
of good character, and means are adopted for
restoring them to their position in life.
There is a chapel in the Harrow Road, on the
south side, at the entrance to Paddington Green;
it is for the use of the Irvingites, or members
of the Apostolic Church; and among those set
apart for the use of other denominations is one
called "The Boatman's Chapel," which stands
on ground leased to the Grand Junction Canal
Company. "This place of worship," Mr. Robins
tells us, in his book on Paddington, "was constructed out of a stable and coach-house, at the
expense of a few pious individuals, who saw how
much the poor boatmen wanted the advantages
which accrue from religious instruction, and how
little likely they were to get it in a parish-church,
which could not hold one-fourth part of the settled
inhabitants. This little place of worship is in
connection with 'Paddington Chapel'—a place of
worship belonging to the Independents."
The formation of the Great Western Railway
caused a slight diversion of the Harrow Road,
which was carried by a bridge over the canal, and
so round by what is now Blomfield Terrace to
Westbourne Green. It is on record that John
Lyon, the founder of Harrow School, left forty
acres of land in the parish of Marylebone, and
another plot at Kilburn, for the purpose of repairing the roads between London, Harrow, and
Edgware; and now the rents of Hamilton Terrace,
Abercorn Place, &c., are applied to the purpose.
The road, at a little distance from London, was
a dangerous one, being infested by footpads as
recently as the year 1827, when Mr. Allardin, a
respectable veterinary surgeon, residing at Lisson
Grove, was made to dismount from his horse,
robbed, and brutally ill-treated, about a mile from
Paddington Green.
On the north side of the Harrow Road, a short
distance beyond the Lock Hospital, a model town
has sprung up within the last two years, under the
auspices of the Artisans', Labourers', and General
Dwellings Company. Queen's Park—for so this
batch of dwellings is called—occupies a site about
eighty acres in extent, and the houses are designed
to accommodate no less than 16,000 persons. This
model city has (or will have) its own lecturehall and institute, its co-operative stores, coaldepôt, dairy-farm, baths and wash-houses, and
other buildings. It is the intention of the promoters of the company that there shall be no
public-house on the estate; while, at the same
time, every opportunity will be taken to promote
and develop temperance principles by the formation of temperance societies and "bands of hope;"
and reading-rooms, discussion clubs, libraries, and
other substitutes for "the house round the corner,"
will be a marked feature. This certainly is a sign
of improvement from the state of things which
existed a quarter of a century ago; for, apart
from the public establishments to which we have
referred above, there were no places for rational
amusement—unless, indeed, we consider such places
as the "Flora Tea-gardens," and "Bott's Bowlinggreen," to come under this designation. "In that
region of the parish, still devoted to bull-dogs and
pet spaniels," writes Mr. Robins in 1853, "the
bodies of broken-down carriages, old wheels, rusty
grates, and old copper boilers, little gardens, and
low miserable sheds, there is an establishment
which boasts of having the truly attractive glass, in
which, 'for the small charge of two-pence, any
young lady may behold her future husband.' But
although such attractions as these exist, the youths
who live on the celebrated Paddington estate have
not to thank the lords of the soil for setting apart
any portion of it for their physical improvement.
In Paddington there is no public gymnasium; there
is now no village-green worthy of the name; the
young are not trained to use their motive powers
to the best advantage; there are no public baths.
And when, on the establishment of the baths and
wash-houses in Marylebone, the governing body in
Paddington was solicited to join in that useful
work, that good offer was rejected, and the people
of Marylebone were permitted to carry out that
necessary and useful undertaking by themselves."
In 1874, however, any difficulties that may have
existed with reference to the above subject were
surmounted, and some extensive baths and wash-houses were erected in the Queen's Road, at a
cost, inclusive of land, of about £40,000.
In the Harrow Road, on a portion of what had
been Paddington Green, stood, till about 1860, the
oldest charitable building in the parish; it was a
block of small almshouses, said to have been built
in 1714. It afforded shelter for sixteen poor old
women belonging to the parish, who were supported
there out of the poor-rates. The inmates, doubtless, felt themselves more "at home" here than
they would do if compelled to take up their quarters
in the great parish poor-house, which is situated on
a portion of the land once known as "The Upper
Readings," purchased by the Bishop of London
and the trustees of the Paddington estate, immediately to the west of the Lock Hospital. In the
end, however, the almshouses were swept away in
the course of parochial improvements.
Running westward through the parish, almost in
a line with the Harrow Road, is the Paddington
and Grand Junction Canal. The success of the
Duke of Bridgewater's canal between Liverpool and
Manchester led to the passing of an Act of Parliament, in 1795, for the formation of the Paddington
Canal, which was opened for traffic on the 1st of
June, 1801, when the first barge arrived, with
passengers from Uxbridge, at the Paddington basin.
There were public rejoicings, and all the northwestern suburb was en fête in honour of the occasion. Bells were rung, flags were hung out, and
cannon were fired; and one enthusiastic Paddingtonian had good reason to remember the day, for
the gun which he was firing burst and shattered
his arm. But the Grand Junction Canal Company
were so elated at the thought of the public benefit
which they had bestowed on the country, that
they took a classical motto from Horace:—
"Æquè pauperibus prodest, locupletibus æquè."
In 1853, Mr. Robins, in his work above referred
to, writes:—"The glory of the first public company
which shed its influence over Paddington has, in a
great measure, departed; the shares of the Grand
Junction Canal Company are below par, though
the traffic on this silent highway to Paddington is
still considerable; and the cheap trips into the
country offered by its means during the summer
months are beginning to be highly appreciated by
the people, who are pent in close lanes and alleys;
and I have no doubt the shareholders' dividends
would not be diminished by a more liberal attention to this want. If every one had their right,"
continues the writer, "I am told there would be a
wharf adjoining this canal, open free of cost to the
people of Paddington for loading and unloading
goods. It is certain that the old road to Harrow
was never leased to the Grand Junction Canal
Company; but a wharf, upwards of one hundred
feet wide, now exists in a portion of that road;
and, as I am informed, the rent of this wharf is
not received by the parish." At its first opening,
passenger boats went about five times a week
from Paddington to Uxbridge; and the wharves
at Paddington presented for some years a most
animated and busy appearance, on account of the
quantity of goods warehoused there for transit to
and from the metropolis, causing the growth of
an industrious population around them. But this
was only a brief gleam of prosperity, for when the
Regent's Canal was opened, the goods were conveyed by barges straight to the north and eastern
suburbs, and the wharfage-ground at Paddington
suffered a great deterioration in consequence.
In 1812 the Regent's Canal was commenced.
This undertaking, which was completed and opened
in 1820, begins at Paddington, and passing under
the Edgware Road, Maida Hill, and St. John's
Wood, by a tunnel 372 yards in length, opens
into a basin near the "Jew's Harp;" thence the
canal passes on to Camden Town and Islington,
and then by a tunnel into the City Road, by
Kingsland and Hackney, and so on to Stepney
Fields and Limehouse, where it joins the Thames.
In its course through London there are no less
than twelve locks and about forty bridges. "On
the banks of the canal," says Mr. John Timbs,
"the immense heaps of dust and ashes, once
towering above the house-tops, are said to have
been worth £10,000 a heap."
At the western extremity of the parish an
artesian well was formed, to which the name of
"The Western Water-works" was given. The
water from this well supplied the houses which
were built on that clayey district; the West
Middlesex and Grand Junction Water-works Companies supplying the other parts of this parish.
In 1824 gas was first introduced into the parish,
on the establishment of the Imperial Gas Company.
Up to this time, during the long winter evenings,
the muddy roads which led to the cottages on the
Paddington estate were in total darkness, unless
the "parish lantern" chanced to offer its acceptable light. The parish surveyors, in a report to the
vestry on the state of these cottages, in 1816, say—"We cannot refrain from thus recording our expression of regret that the ground-landlords should
be so inordinate in their demands; the effect of
which is, the buildings are ill-calculated to afford
shelter from the inclemency of the weather, and
the want of drainage and consequent damp produce
disease, filth, and wretchedness." The cottages
here referred to, which were for many years so
prominent a feature in the parish, and so much
sought after by the poor, as a sort of "country
retreat," were, at the beginning of this century, the
generators of "disease, filth, and wretchedness."
As a proof of the poverty-stricken character of the
inhabitants of Paddington, it may be stated that a
wretched hovel here was, in 1813, the scene of the
death of a well-known beggar at the West End,
and that upwards of £200 was found hoarded up
in his chests—a sum which was claimed by a
female partner of his trade. Among his effects
was a paper in which were recorded the various
profits which he had made in different parts of
London by begging—a most interesting and curious
document, and one well worthy of the attention of
the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity.
"The transition state from an agricultural village
to the fashionable Tyburnia," writes Mr. Robins,
"was no very agreeable time for the majority of
those who lived in Paddington. When the cottages
were swept away, and the heavy poor-rates which
they had entailed were diminished, new burdens
sprang up, scarcely less grievous. Rents became
enormous; the Highway, Watching, and Lighting
Rates were excessive; and these were rendered
more oppressive, on account of those who received
the greatest benefit from the causes which necessitated the greater expenditure not bearing their just
share of this local taxation."
On the north-west side of the parish is Kensal
New Town, with its appendage of Kensal Green.
In his work already quoted, Mr. Robins writes:—"Kensell, or Kensale, comes, as I take it, from
King's-field. In the Harleian MS. (No. 606, f.
46 b.), the Green of this name is called Kellsell,
and Kingefelde. In Mary's reign, we perceive by
this document also that 'the Green Lane,' and
'Kingefelde Green,' were the same place. And as
'the Green Lanes' still exist—in name—we may
ascertain with something like accuracy the situation
of this field, or green, which formerly belonged to
the king." Here is the best known of the London
cemeteries. It occupies a considerable space of
ground between the Grand Junction Canal and the
North-Western Railway, and has its entrance lodge
and gateway in the Harrow Road. The necessity
of providing cemeteries out of town, though not as
yet enforced by Parliament, was felt so keenly, that
a company was formed in 1832, and fifty-six acres of
ground at Kensal Green—then two miles distant
from the metropolis—were purchased, laid out, and
planted. And no sooner was the cemetery opened
than the boon was eagerly embraced by the public,
and marble obelisks and urns began to rise among
the cypresses in all the variety which heathen and
classical allusions could suggest. In the course of
the next five years other cemetery companies were
formed at Highgate, Norwood, Nunhead, &c., and
now we have in the suburbs of London some ten
or twelve humble rivals of the Père la Chaise of
Paris. The Bishop of London, however, opposed
in Parliament the Bill for the formation of these
new cemeteries; and one of his archdeacons, a City
rector, wrote a pamphlet or a charge to prove that
City churchyards were rather healthy than otherwise! After overcoming all sorts of difficulties,
the cemetery here was laid out on the principle of
Père la Chaise. The principal entrance is a noble
erection of the Doric order, one wing of which
forms the office, and the other the residence of the
superintendent. Against the northern boundary
wall, and parallel with the Episcopal Chapel, is a
small colonnade, and beneath this are the old or
original catacombs. Every space in these vaults
has been long since occupied, but the same care,
it may be remarked, is nevertheless observable, on
the part of the company, to preserve them in that
orderly condition which is observable in the more
recent interments. The extensive colonnades and
chambers for the erection of tablets to the memory
of persons whose remains are resting in the catacombs below, are spots where the visitor to the
cemetery may find an almost endless number of
subjects for meditation. The names of statesmen,
soldiers, poets, and philosophers, are inscribed side
by side on the sculptured slabs which adorn the
walls. In a notice of it, printed in 1839, Kensal
Green Cemetery is described as "a flourishing
concern; the original £25 shares being already at
£52." Here are buried the Duke of Sussex,
Sydney Smith, Sir W. Beatty (Nelson's surgeon),
Sir Anthony Carlisle, Dr. Valpy, Anne Scott and
Sophia Lockhart, daughter of Sir Walter Scott and
John Hugh Lockhart, his grandson, the "Hugh
Little-John" of the "Tales of a Grandfather;"
Thomas Hood, Liston, Ducrow, Madame Vestris;
Calcott, Daniell, and Mulready, the painters;
William C. Macready, Allan Cunningham, J. C.
Loudon, William Makepeace Thackeray, Shirley
Brooks, John Leech, the well-known comic artist;
John Cassell, and many other men of mark;
indeed, Kensal Green may now be called the
"God's Acre" of London celebrities, a character,
however, which it divides to some extent with
Norwood, Highgate, and Nunhead Cemeteries.
The Princess Sophia also is buried here. Why
his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex chose
this spot for his last resting-place is told by Mr.
Mark Boyd, in his "Social Sketches:"—" At
the funeral of William IV. there was so much of
delay and confusion, and so many questions of
etiquette and precedence broke out, that the duke
remarked to a friend, 'This is intolerable. Now,
recollect what I say to you. If I should die before
I return to Kensington, see I am not buried at
Windsor; as I would not be buried there after
this fashion for all the world.'" It was at first
proposed that Thackeray should be buried in the
Temple Church, where lie the ashes of Goldsmith,
whom he so tenderly censured in his "Lectures on
the Humorists;" but after consultation with his
relatives, it was deemed better that he should be
laid to rest with his own family at Kensal Green.
Accordingly, on December 30th, 1863, a bright,
balmy day, almost like spring, Thackeray was here
consigned to his last rest, being followed to the
grave by his friends Dickens, A. Trollope, Mark
Lemon, Theodore Martin, G. H. Lewes, Robert
Bell, Millais, Robert Browning, George Cruickshank, John Leech, and Shirley Brooks.
Leigh Hunt, too, lies buried here. His grave
was for years without a stone, or any other distinguishing mark, until, through the advocacy of
Mr. Samuel Carter Hall, in the columns of the
Art Journal, a subscription was set on foot,
and in 1874–75 a monument was erected to
the poet's memory. We may mention also the
names of George Dyer, the historian of Cambridge; Thomas Barnes, the "Thunderer" of the
Times; Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of Mechanics'
Institutions; John Murray, the publisher; and the
famous George Robins, the auctioneer, of whom
we have already spoken in our account of Covent
Garden. The following lines, though of a mockheroic character, which have been handed down
respecting him, serve to show that he was regarded
in his day as a typical personage:—
"High in a hall, by curious listeners fill'd,
Sat one whose soul seem'd steeped in poësy;
So bland his diction, it was plain he will'd
His hearers all should prize as high as he
The gorgeous works of art there plac'd around.
The statues by the Phidian chisel wrought:
Endymion, whom Dian lov'd distraught;
Dian herself, Laocöon serpent-bound;
The pictures touch'd by Titian and Vandyke,
With rainbow pencils, in the which did vie
Fair form and colour for the mastery;
Warm'd his discourse till ear ne'er heard the like.
'Who is that eloquent man?' I asked one near.
'That, sir? that's Mr. Robins, auctioneer.'"
Besides those whose names we have mentioned,
there are also buried here the Right Hon. Joseph
Planta, Sir George Murray, Sir Edward Hyde East,
Sir John Sinclair, Chief Justice Tindal, the Marquis
of Thomond, the Bishops of St. David's (Dr.
Jenkinson) and Quebec (Dr. Stewart), and a very
large number of the aristocracy.
The practice of burying the dead in cities is of
necessity injurious to the public health; and it is
strange that, in a city like London, where no
expense has been spared in promoting sanitary
measures, it should so long have been permitted
and tolerated. It was a custom of very early
antiquity to attach burying-grounds to Christian
churches, though both the Jews of old and the
heathen Romans buried their dead in caves and
tombs by the road-side, as shown by the constant
inscription of "Siste Viator," instead of "Sacred
to the Memory of." But when streets and whole
towns grew up around these consecrated spots, the
public convenience and decency could not fail to
suggest the expediency of having the depositories
of the dead at a distance from the dwellings of the
living. Accordingly, most Continental cities have
their cemeteries in the suburbs; but the servile
adherence of our people to ancient customs, even
when shown to be bad, kept up this loathsome
practice in the midst of our dense population until
some twenty years after the accession of Queen
Victoria, when many of the City churches, and
some at the West End also, were little better than
charnel-houses; and their dead increased in numbers
so rapidly that one sexton started the question
whether he might not refuse to admit an iron
coffin into a church or churchyard, because in that
case the deceased took a fee-simple in the ground,
which ought to be granted him only for a term of
years! It is perhaps a matter of complaint that it
has never entered into the contemplation of the
Legislature, or even of an individual, to form a
general and extensive cemetery in the suburbs of
the metropolis.
Although perhaps not actually within the limits
of Paddington, we may add that a plot of ground
on the west side of the cemetery, nearer Willesden,
was, about the year 1860, secured by the Roman
Catholics of London as a place of burial. Among
the earliest who were interred here was Cardinal
Wiseman, who, as we have already stated, (fn. 4) died
at his residence in York Place, Baker Street, in
February, 1865. The body of the cardinal was
taken first to the chapel of St. Mary, Moorfields,
where part of the service was celebrated, after
which the funeral cortége, of considerable length
and imposing appearance, passed on its way hither,
through the streets of London.
Beyond the cemetery there is but little of
interest to note in this part of Paddington. An
old tavern once stood here, called "The Plough,"
of which Faulkner, in 1820, says:—"It has been
built upwards of three hundred years. The timber
and joists, being of oak, are still in good preservation." George Morland, the painter, was much
pleased with this then sequestered and quiet place,
and spent much of his time here towards the close
of his life, surrounded by those rustic scenes which
his pencil has so faithfully and so ably delineated.
In the same neighbourhood, apparently, resided
Robert Cromwell, a near relative of Oliver, the
Protector. At all events, in the register of burials
at Kensington, under date 1691, is an entry of
"Cromwell," the "reputed" son of Robert Cromwell, of Kensal Green, and of Jane Saville, his
servant.
THE "PLOUGH" AT KENSAL GREEN, 1820.
In the matter of education, it is only within the
last few years that Paddington appears to have
made much progress. A Sunday-school, in connection with the parish church, was established here
during the last century; but it was not till the
beginning of this that any public means of instruction existed for the children of the poor on weekdays. Lysons, in his "Environs of London," tells
us that "a charity-school for thirty boys and thirty
girls was established in the parish in 1802," and
that it was "supported by voluntary contributions,
and the collections at an annual charity-sermon."
This public day-school for poor children was one
of the first established in the outskirts of London.
The building, which was capable of accommodating
only one hundred children, was erected on land
said to have been given by Bishop Compton. In
1822, new school-rooms were built on a part of
Paddington Green, on a spot which was formerly
known as the "town pool." Since the above
period, in consequence of the altered condition of
Paddington, the parish has gone on increasing in
the number of its schools, so that now it may
doubtless claim to be on as good a footing as any
other parish in the metropolis. A large Board
School was opened in the neighbourhood of the
Edgware Road in 1874–5.
We have already mentioned the naming of some
of the streets and terraces after various bishops of
London; one or two others, however, still remain
to be spoken of. For instance, Tichborne Street,
a turning out of the Edgware Road, although not
built so far back as the reign of Henry VIII.,
reminds us of one "Nicholas Tychborne, gent.,
husband of the second daughter and co-heir of
Alderman Fenroper;" and of "Alderman Tichbourn," one of Cromwell's peers and King Charles's
judges.
Praed Street preserves the memory of a banker
of that name, one of the first directors of the
Grand Junction Canal Company. This street
connects Edgware Road with the Great Western
Railway Terminus and Hotel. The latter is a
magnificent building, and was one of the first constructed on the "monster" principle in connection
with the railway terminus, with which it has communication by a covered passage. The edifice in
itself comprises five separate floors, containing in
all upwards of one hundred and fifty rooms, the
chief of which are large and lofty, and beautifully
ornamented; the designs generally, in the Louis
Quatorze style, were executed by Mr. Philip Hardwick, R.A., and the pediment upon the front is
surmounted by a piece of allegorical sculpture.
The Great Western Railway line, which communicates with the west and extreme south-west of
England, is situated close to and below the level
of the terminal wharf of the Paddington branch
of the Grand Junction Canal. The Act of incorporation, under which this line was formed, was
passed in the year 1835; and it was intended
to connect the seaport of Bristol and the great
towns of the south-west with London. The original
estimate for the construction of the railway was
£2,500,000, or about £39,000 a mile. The line
was constructed on that known as the "broad
gauge," and the engineer was Mr. I. K. Brunel, son
of Isambard Brunel. This estimate, however, was
largely exceeded, the directors accounting for it
by stating "that it is accounted for by the intended
junction with the Birmingham line at Acton." In
1838 the railway was open only to Maidenhead;
to Twyford in 1839; in the following year to
Faringdon Road; and in 1841 it was completed
to Bristol. It was at first proposed that this
line should be connected with the London and
Birmingham Railway at Kensal Green; but some
obstacles having arisen to the satisfactory arrangement of this plan between the two companies, the
intention was ultimately abandoned, and the Great
Western Railway had an independent terminus
erected here. To effect this it was necessary to
construct about two and a-half miles of additional
railway, while the total distance to be travelled
would be lessened by about three miles. The
Box Tunnel, on this line, is upwards of 3,000 yards
in length. The various lines and branches now
included in the Great Western system comprehend
about 2,000 miles of railway.
KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY.
The station itself, which, with its numerous departure and arrival platforms, offices, engine-sheds,
and workshops, covers several acres of ground, is
built close up to the hotel. Its chief feature, from
an architectural point of view, is its triple-spanned
roof of glass and iron; which, having been erected
shortly after the Great Exhibition of 1851, may be
said to have been one of the first adaptations of
that principle of construction upon a gigantic scale;
and it is almost needless to add that it has since
been copied, more or less exactly, at almost all
the large railway stations of the metropolis. The
length of this building of glass is 263 yards, its
breadth is 93 yards, and the central span of the
roof is no less than 70 feet in height.
As an instance of the improvement made in
travelling since the days of George I., we may
mention that, whereas in 1725 the stage-coach
journey from London to Exeter occupied four
long summer days, the express train on the Great
Western Railway now accomplishes the distance
in little more than four hours. In those good old
days, as we learn from letters still preserved in
families of the west country, the passengers were
roused each morning at two o'clock, started at
three, dined at ten, and finished their day's journey
at three in the afternoon!