Biddy the Chiver’s Khazi

[Gary Barnett]

Biddy the Chiver (Bridget Enright/O’Rourke) died in 1934. Rather stupidly I ordered both her birth and death certs in the name of Enright - the birth cert arrived, but, of course, her death was recorded under her married name of O’Rourke, so I’ve had to re-order the death cert. I don’t yet know exactly where she died (her death was registered in Shoreditch), but the 1933 electoral register shows her and Thomas O’Rourke living at 3, Crooked Billet Yard, Shoreditch.

CBY was considered a picturesque slum at the time. I’ve been able to identify which house was no 3: it’s the one behind the cart in this rather romanticised image.



Immediately to the left of no. 3 is what would appear to be Biddy’s lavatory.

Merry Christmas all!��

[Gary Barnett]

The image can be found here:

https://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Beautiful_England/In_Londons_Byways.htm

[Howard Brown]

Thanks, Gary....

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks, Gary....

How,

Biddy’s is one of the files I’m working on at the moment. I have only just come across that image of Crooked Billet Yard as well as a few photos of it allegedly from the 1920s/30s - one of which shows the number 3 on the house in question. Crooked Billet is a common pub name.

The houses look very old - possibly 16th century. They appear to be timber framed. Picturesque as they may look in the painting, though, I suspect they were very run down when the O’Rourkes lived there. They had been ‘represented as insanitary’ in 1919.

I imagine the outhouse would have served all the households living at no. 3. and it would have taken a very brave neighbour to knock on its door and ask, ‘Will you be much longer, Mrs O’Rourke?’

Gary

[Anna Morris]

Great information and pictures, Gary! What does the term "Khazi" mean in the title? I can think of that word in a different language I don't think applies to this woman's story.

[Gary Barnett]

Great information and pictures, Gary! What does the term "Khazi" mean in the title? I can think of that word in a different language I don't think applies to this woman's story.

Thanks, Anna.

Khazi is slang for a toilet.

[Anna Morris]

Thanks, Anna.

Khazi is slang for a toilet.

Interesting! So I ran it through Wiktionary and it's Cockney slang for an Italian word. Minus the /h/, it means to dig or excavation in Turkish and that's not too far off the mark when you think about the Khazis in the East End.

[Gary Barnett]

Interesting! So I ran it through Wiktionary and it's Cockney slang for an Italian word. Minus the /h/, it means to dig or excavation in Turkish and that's not too far off the mark when you think about the Khazis in the East End.

The rhyming slang for khazi is ‘Benghazi’. I wonder if that was the case before the WW2 battles around Benghazi.

[Anna Morris]

The rhyming slang for khazi is ‘Benghazi’. I wonder if that was the case before the WW2 battles around Benghazi.

So, what provided the "ben" part of ben-khazi/ghazi? That could date the word. I kind of understand how rhyming slang works but I cannot yet think fast enough to figure out most of it. It is really an intellectual adventure.

[Gary Barnett]

I don’t want to give too much away about Biddy until I have the full, or at least a fuller, story, but having put up a photo of where she lived towards the end of her life - and where she may have died - it seems appropriate to add a photo of where she was born: Red Lion Square, Tredegar in Welsh Wales (I know you like all things Welsh, Anna).



I don’t know whether this photo shows no. 33 where Biddy was born. Perhaps Gareth will look in and perhaps he will be able to help.

[Anna Morris]

Thank you, Gary! Yes, I do want to go to Wales. I want to do that more than take a Ripper tour in London. Other than going to special events in big cities, I would rather see countryside and less population. Maybe some day I can search archives for MJK in Wales?

[Sam Flynn]

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I don’t know whether this photo shows no. 33 where Biddy was born. Perhaps Gareth will look in and perhaps he will be able to help.

Hard to tell, Gary. I've had a shufti, and what was Red Lion Square has been replaced by fairly nondescript housing, so it's hard to get a bearing.

[Gary Barnett]

Hard to tell, Gary. I've had a shufti, and what was Red Lion Square has been replaced by fairly nondescript housing, so it's hard to get a bearing.

Thanks anyway, Gareth!

Presumably there’s a Tredegar local history soc. of some kind. I’ll make some enquiries.

[Sam Flynn]

Thanks anyway, Gareth!

Presumably there’s a Tredegar local history soc. of some kind. I’ll make some enquiries.

I found a message board, www.tredegar.co.uk, which posted the photo below of today's Red Lion Square. The forum doesn't seem to be too active, but it might be worth you giving them a try.

[Gary Barnett]

I found a message board, www.tredegar.co.uk, which posted the photo below of today's Red Lion Square. The forum doesn't seem to be too active, but it might be worth you giving them a try.

Thanks, Gareth. I think that’s where I got the old photo from. l’ll check it out.

I think there may have been some kind of a lodging house in the square, but several of the Enright kids were born in Tredegar, so the family were established there for a few years and may well have had a house or some rooms in a house to themselves. After Tredegar they moved to Llangattock.