Tales from The Ratcliffe Highway*

[Jerry Dunlop]

This is from an 1810 directory and seems to identify 79, Pennington Street as the first house after the Red Lion corner.

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Thanks Gary,

This is from the Old Bailey trial:

I am the wife of John McCarthy, of 1, Breeze Hill, St. George's; that is next to 79, Pennington Street

Next to each other with a Public House in between maybe?

[Gary Barnett]

Pennington Street

Jerry,

Doesn't sound quite right, does it, unless the pub was a ruin by then. What I can't get past is the Goad map which clearly shows no. 1 as a dwelling distinct from the pub.

Gary.

[Edward Stow]

I have had a look at the 1871 census for the Pennington Street area.
It runs like this:

Virginia Street – 1 Sugar House – inhabited by 21 Hanoverian sugar refiners.
4 Breezers Hill – a family of Hanoverian sugar refiners.
3 Breezers Hill – a family of Prussian sugar refiners and a Prussian lodging house keeper (Buck?)
2 Breezers Hill – John Williams and family – a Horse Clipper born in High Beach, Essex and the Luff family
1 Breezers Hill – a licenced victualler (can’t read name)
Red Lion – The Salter Family
80 Pennington Street - a family of Hanoverian sugar refiners – and some more Salters
81 Pennington Street – Swiss Blacksmith
2 Red Lion Court – German sugar refiners
1 Red Lion Court – German sugar refiners
3 Red Lion Court – a local painter and his family
82 Pennington Street – a Hanoverian blacksmith
87 Pennington Street – a boarding house keeper
88 Pennington Street – a sailors’ lodging house keeper.

This matches the 1887 Goad map exactly – bit some door numbers are not given on the Goad map.
This means that the Red Lion was no. 79.

I hope this makes up for the unpardonable sin of getting Shovel Alley in the wrong place.
I had to shift Ma Lechmere’s house over a tad as it would be obscured by the tower block.

[Edward Stow]

Can anyone still access the Sheldon's book on Kindle?
Mine has disappeared and I can't find it on Amazon anymore.

[Edward Stow]

There is some confusion over the location of the Red Lion as can be seen here:

http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/St...Breezers.shtml

But Red Lion Court is the give away.

[Gary Barnett]

Can anyone still access the Sheldon's book on Kindle?
Mine has disappeared and I can't find it on Amazon anymore.

Same here.

[Gary Barnett]

I have had a look at the 1871 census for the Pennington Street area.
It runs like this:

Virginia Street – 1 Sugar House – inhabited by 21 Hanoverian sugar refiners.
4 Breezers Hill – a family of Hanoverian sugar refiners.
3 Breezers Hill – a family of Prussian sugar refiners and a Prussian lodging house keeper (Buck?)
2 Breezers Hill – John Williams and family – a Horse Clipper born in High Beach, Essex and the Luff family
1 Breezers Hill – a licenced victualler (can’t read name)
Red Lion – The Salter Family
80 Pennington Street - a family of Hanoverian sugar refiners – and some more Salters
81 Pennington Street – Swiss Blacksmith
2 Red Lion Court – German sugar refiners
1 Red Lion Court – German sugar refiners
3 Red Lion Court – a local painter and his family
82 Pennington Street – a Hanoverian blacksmith
87 Pennington Street – a boarding house keeper
88 Pennington Street – a sailors’ lodging house keeper.

This matches the 1887 Goad map exactly – bit some door numbers are not given on the Goad map.
This means that the Red Lion was no. 79.

I hope this makes up for the unpardonable sin of getting Shovel Alley in the wrong place.
I had to shift Ma Lechmere’s house over a tad as it would be obscured by the tower block.

Sugar baking was a major industry in the East End at the time and quite a few of the bakers were German.

http://www.mawer.clara.net/white6.html
The man who runs this site is a descendent of the owners of the sugar house in Church/Hanbury Street. I was in touch with him last year and he now refers to the 'Incident in Church Street' on the site, although he didn't quite take on board the point I was making.

The Landlady's name was Mary Martha Blinkhorn, which sounds possibly Germanic, as does Bremm/Bromm of the White Bear.

[Edward Stow]

That is a strange website.
I had no idea the German community in that part of the East End was linked to the sugar industry - even the German Church on Alie Street was built by a sugar refiner.

I don't recall anyone mentioning that the revised e-edition of the Sheldons' victims book - with the extra info about Mary Kelly in Breezer's Hill - had been withdrawn. But I think it has been.
That is the trouble with Kindle books. You don't 'own' them.
I recall someone saying recently that the Sheldons had 'withdrawn' from 'the field'. Perhaps they simultaneously withdrew their book?
I wonder of anyone knows.

[Howard Brown]

Ed:

The first edition of Neal & Jen's book is still available, if anyone wanted to know.
I didn't know Neal had put out a revised edition.

[Edward Stow]

I hope this revised map is more accurate...

The Orange reflects the amendments - moving old Ma Lechmere's house to the east, shifting Shovel Alley and slightly changing the location of the Swedish Church.

[Edward Stow]

How
You must have known they put out a revised edition - it had all the stuff about the Bukis and Morgansterns.
Didn't it?

[Gary Barnett]

Ed,

The revised map is definitely an improvement on the first.

E for effort!

Gary

[Gary Barnett]

Pennington Street

This account of a boiler explosion at a sugar refinery in Breezers Hill is from 1853.

[Edward Stow]

Here is the 1881 Census for the area around Breezers Hill

4 Breezers Hill – Norwegian Lodging House Keeper
3 Breezers Hill – Hanoverian Sugar Farmers
2 Breezers Hill – Davies family from Bermondsey
1 Breezers Hill – Hart family from the East End and a couple of boarders and Garrett family from Worcestershire.

79 Pennington Street – Miller family from Germany (unemployed tailor) and some boarders
80 Pennington Street – Market porter and family from Holland
81 Pennington Street – A Swiss engine fitter and his family
82 Pennington Street – Watmore family from Buckinghamshire – a Horse Keeper
88 Pennington Street – a German Dyer and his family.
89 Pennington Street – a Hanoverian watchman and his family

[Gary Barnett]

Pennington Street

This has been posted at least twice before, first by Debra Arif and then again by me, but this lady rightfully belongs here. Presumably she lived at either 3 or 4, Breezers Hill since by 1905 1, 2 and The Red Lion had been replaced by Gooch and Cousens' warehouse.