Pages

Sunday 25 April 2021

I have been to ... Charlton Village

I have lived in South East London for forty-five years, but there are still parts of the local area that I know very little about. When I worked in Greenwich and Brockley, I drove through Charlton Village at least three or four times each week, and yet it was only very recently that I have actually stopped there and had a walk around. On Saturday, Sue and I drove to Charlton Village, and parked in the car park outside Charlton House.

This building is one of the best examples of Jacobean architecture in London and was build between 1607 and 1612 to provide a home for Sir Adam Newton and the eldest son of James I, Prince Henry. Newton was Dean of Durham and tutor to the prince. Unfortunately, Prince Henry died very soon after he moved into Charlton House, and thereafter Sir Adam Newton occupied it as King James's Receiver-General.

The Newton family remained as tenants of the house until 1658, when the house and its surrounding land was sold to Sir William Ducie. It changed hands again in 1680, when it was bought by Sir William Langhorne. It then passed to Sir John Conyers (Sir William Langhorne's nephew) in 1715 and was eventually inherited in 1777 by Jane (née Weller), the wife of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson.

During the First World War, the Wilson family loaned the house to the Red Cross, who used it as their district headquarters before converting it into a 70-bed hospital. It was sold the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich in 1925 (now the Royal Borough of Greenwich), who subsequently used the house as a museum and library, and - more recently - as a community centre, and who turned its surrounding parkland and gardens into a public park. Although the main building is currently shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, part of the building is being used as a COVID-19 vaccination centre.

Sue and I walked past the recently restored Summer House ...

... and out onto Charlton Road (the B210). We turned right toward St Luke's Church, ...

... crossing Charlton Church Lane and walking past the local war memorial in the process.

Sue and I had particularly wanted to visit St Luke's because it houses the graves of two men who were the victims of politically motivated murder during the first half of the nineteenth century. The first of these is that of the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated, Spencer Perceval. He was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham, who was a merchant who thought that he was entitled to compensation from the government after being unjustly imprisoned in Russia.

The second is that of Edward Drummond - who was personal secretary to several Prime Ministers, including George Canning, Lord Goderich, the 1st Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel - and who was assassinated by Daniel McNaughton in 1843 whilst walking down Whitehall towards Downing St. Drummond was shot in error, as McNaughton - who was later judged to be mad - thought that Drummond was the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel.

The church also has the almost unique honour of being allowed to fly the ensign used prior to the 1800 Acts of Union on its Saint's Day and St George's Day. This honour was bestowed on the church because of its historic role as a landmark used by ships navigating the River Thames.

Due to the pandemic, the church was not open to the public, but Sue and I were able to wander around the graveyard and memorial garden, and to have a very interesting chat with one of the volunteer gardeners.

By the time we had left the church, it was time for lunch, and Sue and I went to the nearby 'The Baguette Café' to eat.

It has an outdoor seating area and serves basic but well-cooked (and generously sized) lunches, sandwiches, and drinks. Sue ate scampi, salad, and chips, and I had their burger breakfast (two beef burger steaks, a fried egg, fried onions, baked beans, and chips), and we each drank a café latte.

We then returned to Charlton House to collect our car, pausing en route to look at the oldest mulberry tree in England!

It was planted in 1608 and was intended to be the first of many such trees in the area, and to become the basis of a domestic silk industry. (A large plantation of mulberry trees was also created in the grounds of former Greenwich Palace.) The arrival of cheap silk thread from China and Huguenot silk weavers from France brought an end to the project, and this tree is the last reminder of this failed attempt to create a new English silk producing industry.


Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval was the seventh son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, being the second son of the Earl's second marriage to Catherine Compton, Baroness Arden.

Spencer Perceval's links to Charlton are interesting. As a boy, he lived in Charlton House whilst his father was First Lord of the Admiralty. The house was close to Woolwich Dockyard, which was the Royal Navy's main shipyard at the time.

Perceval returned to live in the Charlton area in the late 1780s when he and his brother - Charles, the Lord Arden - rented a house not far from Charlton House. The two brothers fell in love with two of the daughters of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson. Sir Thomas had no objections to Lord Arden marrying his oldest daughter Margaretta but did object to the marriage of the then impecunious young lawyer Spencer Perceval to his youngest daughter, Jane. When she was 21, Spencer and Jane eloped, and were married in East Grinstead. They seem to have enjoyed a happy marriage and had thirteen children.

He was buried in the Egmont family vault in St Luke's Church on 16th May 1812, the day after his assassin was found guilty and sentenced to death.


Edward Drummond

Edward Drummond was a member of the Drummond banking family. He was buried at St Luke's by his youngest brother - the Reverend Arthur Drummond - who was the church's Rector in 1843. Drummond was distantly related by marriage to Spencer Perceval, whose sister - Mary - had married Drummond's uncle, Andrew Berkeley Drummond. The families were further linked when Andrew and Mary's daughter Catherine married one of Spencer Perceval's sons - the Reverend Henry Perceval - on 27th March 1826. 

14 comments:

  1. It must have been a refreshing visit after a long dry spell of staying home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ross Mac,

      It almost felt like it was a very short holiday. Somewhere new to explore on a day when the weather was wonderful. Hopefully, this will be the first of many such days.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Certainly some very nice architecture on show Bob, which is always nice to see. It shows oyu that there are many parts of our own towns and cities that we barely know about, despite havin glived in them for many years. Hopefully lockdown has allowed people to explore their locales more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve J.,

      There has been a church on the site since 1077, but the bulk of the current building was constructed at the same time as Charlton House was built.

      On our drive back we passed Hornfair Lido, which is located in a small park. Although I have no intention of going there to swim, the park looks as it will be worth a visit.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Interesting walk Bob. London’s suburbs are full of history. Hope you enjoy walking SE London as much as I have walking SW London.

    Charlton House looks very similar to Ham House, near Richmond.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nundanket,

      Cheers! The numerous ‘villages’ that make up London all have hidden little gems that need to be ‘discovered’. We are very lucky that we have a plethora of them in the surrounding area.

      I’ve never visited Ham House ... but it’s been added to our list of ‘possibles’ for the future.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. A wonderful day out from the look and sound of things.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heinz=Ulrich von Boffke (Stokes),

      It was a great way to spend part of our Saturday.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  5. We had a Bar-meal the other day a refreshing novelty to eat something we've not cooked ourselves - and no washing up !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Good SoldierSvjek,

      It is difficult to describe just how nice it is to eat something that you haven’t had to go out to buy, cook, and then clear up afterwards. During lockdown, we tried to have a takeaway delivered once a week just to feel that freedom.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  6. Hi Bob, so glad you are moving towards some normality again, albeit locally! I know Charlton Village very well, used to cycle past the house twice a day on my commute from Plumstead Common to Waterloo (IPC Magazines), got it down to 25 minutes at my physical peak! As for Hornfair Lido, well that's changed since I lived there! I see it's now an Olympic sized HEATED pool, I'm guessing that it's no longer operated by Borough of Greenwich?

    Glad to read you are recovering well Bob, I'm a bit under the weather at the moment myself with an almost 5 week to see a GP following blood tests, sleeping through much of the day.

    All the best,
    Lee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ‘Lee,

      Plumstead Common to Waterloo in 25 minutes! Boy, you must have been fit! It sometimes takes me that long just to drive to Welling and park.

      Hornfair Lido seems to have had quite a lot of work done to it. I think that it is still owned by Greenwich but managed and run by an organisation called ‘Better’. This probably accounts for the apparently better management and improvements.

      I’m sorry to read that you are not feeling well. In normal times I expect that your doctor would have had you on a course of something to make you better, but until the pandemic is over, ‘normal’ medical care is difficult. I am experiencing a minor problem (a weak bladder) as a result of my operation, but I am told that it is not unusual and should settle down as I gradually recover.

      Keep safe and keep well,

      Bob

      Delete
    2. I guess that we can't complain too much about delays under the present circumstances, at least my tests have come back 'non urgent'.

      As for cycling, it was my passion alongside wargaming! I rode time trials as a member of Catford Cycling Club and rarely missed a day off the bike, 20 miles a day on weekdays and longer training rides weekends, 40 to 60 miles and home for a long soak in the bath. Would probably kill me if I tried it now days :)

      Look after yourself Bob and maybe later in the year (with luck) we can have a meet up?

      Lee.

      Delete
    3. ‘Lee,

      ‘Not urgent’ is reassuring, although whatever the cause, the sooner it is dealt with, the better.

      I used to cycle when I was at school, but I haven’t been on a bike in nearly fifty years! Someone did suggest that when the lockdown began, I ought to buy a bicycle ... but living at the top of Shooters Hill makes that idea a non-starter as far as I am concerned.

      I do hope that we can meet up once life returns to whatever ‘normal’ is when the pandemic is over.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment. Please note that any comments that are spam or contain phishing messages or that come from Google Accounts that are 'Unknown' will be deleted.