Bloody London: 20 Walks in London, Taking in its Gruesome and Horrific History

By David Fathers

An entertaining, revealing and beautifully illustrated walking guide to London's horrific history, Bloody London features walks that take in everything from Jack the Ripper's haunts, to the 'Route of the Damned' from Newgate Prison to Tyburn, to Gangland London, to the plague outbreak hotspots and burial pits, to the key places involved in the Great Fire of London, plus many many more iconic and delightfully gruesome moments in London's history.

Each walk is beautifully illustrated with a map and gorgeous illustrations, and the book is perfectly pocket-sized so you can easily take it around with you as you go. David Fathers is the king of London walking guides, and Bloody London will delight both those who live in London and those visiting who are looking for a walking guide that's a little bit different.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781844865512

David Fathers

David Fathers is the creator of beautifully illustrated London walking guide books. These include The Regent's Canal, The London Thames Path, London's Hidden Rivers, Bloody London and Diverse London. An avid walker and artist, he is constantly looking for new ways to map London and to encourage others to see parts of the metropolis from different perspectives. He lives in north London.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Using this book

Holloway & Islington

Regent’s Park, King's Cross & Camden

Fitzrovia & Soho

Covent Garden & Holborn

Marylebone & Paddington

Tyburn

Imprisonment & Execution

Kensington & Notting Hill

South Kensington, Knightsbridge & Belgravia

Westminster: Assassination, Terrorism & Regicide

The Gordon Riots 1780

Westminster

Death & the Thames

The Great Plague 1665

The City of London

The Great Fire of London 1666

The East End

Jack the Ripper

The First Zeppelin Raid on London

Southwark & Lambeth

Acknowledgements

Selected bibliography

1. Holloway & Islington

2. Regent’s Park, King's Cross & Camden

3. Fitzrovia & Soho

4. Covent Garden & Holborn

5. Marylebone & Paddington

6. Tyburn

7. Imprisonment & Execution

8. Kensington & Notting Hill

9. South Kensington, Knightsbridge & Belgravia

10. Westminster: Assassination, Terrorism & Regicide

11. Westminster

12. Death & the Thames

13. The Great Plague 1665

14. The City of London

15. The Great Fire of London 1666

16. The East End

17. Jack the Ripper

18. The First Zeppelin Raid on London

19. Southwark & Lambeth

FOREWORD

It is one of the occupational hazards of being a crime writer that one cannot pass a moment in idleness without contemplating murder. So, for us crime writers, the streets and parks of our cities have long been a playground of imagined mayhem. Would it be, we ask ourselves, a crime of impulsive anger? If so, would our killer escape the scene and cover their tracks? Or was it planned? Was the victim lured into a position where they could be shot, stabbed or poisoned? When our fictional detectives arrive on the scene – what clues will they find?

It is also one of the joys of being a writer who lives and tells stories in London that you are surrounded by history. Not just the big obvious glamorous stuff such as the Tyburn gallows, the plague pits and the rookeries of St Giles, but also the little stories of the everyday – the Piggeries and Potteries in Notting Hill, the homeless shelter at Arlington House and the unassuming riverside villa where Holst lived.

This is doubly so for a writer like me, who has so often used the history of London as a springboard for my imagination. I have frequently written myself into a corner in some forgotten corner of the capital, confident that London will provide some piece of history or folklore as a lifeline.

So, imagine my joy when David Fathers asked me to write a foreword for his latest book. When I got my electronic preview copy, I opened it up expecting to know most of the horrible events – but I was wrong.

I’d never heard of the trap door into the Fleet for inconvenient corpses at the Red Lion, mirroring the notorious Beale Street establishment known as the Castle of Missing Men whose back door led directly into a funeral parlour.

Or that Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm were favoured spots for duelling in the 18th Century. Two naval officers clashed there in 1803 and the survivor only escaped hanging due to the intervention of Lord Nelson. I’ve also learned of the French-Canadian gangster who ran Soho in the 1920s and ended up dead in a ditch in St Albans and the murder in the household of the exiled King of Greece.

David Fathers has managed to cram two thousand years of bloody London history into his book complete with beautifully clear maps and illustrations. His twenty walks each provide even the most jaded Londoner with a unique perspective on their city and will, I suspect, be a delight for any visitor.

Ben Aaronovitch

INTRODUCTION

Take a walk through Bloody London; from the once squalid East End, home of the country’s most infamous killer, through the City with memories of fire, prisons and plagues, to the West End of gangland killings, serial murders and ruthless conspirators (not forgetting those who accidentally drowned in beer). Moving beyond, to the execution fields of Tyburn and, further, to the white stuccoed terraces and verdant squares of west London with gruesome tales of acid baths, terrorism and a missing, murderous Lord. Stroll through north London past the homes of poisoners; sites of disaster, duels and prisons. Then onwards to south London with its own ample share of poisoners, murderers and a hapless Victorian parachutist. Journey through Westminster, where a prime minister was shot dead and a king beheaded, and along the Thames to a bridge that once displayed decapitated heads as a warning to all. And finally venturing downstream to the Tower, infamous for torture, imprisonment and death.

The head of Hannah Brown recovered from Ben Jonson Lock on the Regent’s Canal in Stepney.

One law for the rich and another for the poor

In 1765, Lord Byron, great uncle of the poet, killed his cousin in a duel. The House of Lords found him guilty of manslaughter, but he did not hang because Byron was able to read a verse of the bible in Latin, which gave him the ‘Benefit of Clergy’. He was therefore above the law and any punishment. Fourteen years later no such benefit was afforded to the Reverend James Hackman. After shooting his former lover dead, he was hung ignominiously at Tyburn. In the early nineteenth century, a glowing character reference from a previous employer could also save you from the scaffold. In 1803, Captain James MacNamara RN had killed a fellow officer in a duel, on Primrose Hill. Later in court, Lord Horatio Nelson stood up and gave MacNamara such an excellent reference that he was acquitted and walked free.

A bottle of tartar emetic from the cabinet of George Chapman.

Following the First World War, Dr Norman Rutherford shot his wife’s lover dead, an action that should have seen him hanged, were it not for the testimonies of his fellow military doctors, who supported the suggestion that he was insane. Dodging the noose, Rutherford was despatched to Broadmoor Hospital only to be freed in 1928. That same year, William Holmyard, a former soldier, attacked and killed his grandfather. Holmyard had no influential friends to stand up for him and was later hanged.

A sizeable number of women whose pitiful stories are told in this book were prostitutes. For these women, the very nature of their work placed them at great risk. Until the introduction of the welfare state, law and tradition put many women at an economic disadvantage.

A Victorian working class woman, without the financial support of a husband or partner, had to take low paid, menial work just to stay alive. No social security payments were available and the only alternative was the brutal regime of the workhouse. Faced with this choice, many women sold their bodies for money.

Execution and reform

In the eighteenth century, the day of an execution in London was often a holiday for many (though perhaps not for the condemned) with an excursion into the countryside west of London or Tyburn, as it was then known. Grandstands overlooking the gallows were constructed for those who could afford the admission fee. A carnival atmosphere developed before the ‘big event’ with food, drink and confectionery being sold. Afterwards, the executioner would often sell the clothes of the deceased and one-inch sections of the noose to the public as souvenirs.

Following the Gordon Riots in 1780, the government decided that it was no longer safe to move those condemned to die from Newgate Prison to Tyburn, as they might become a focus of opposition or insurrection. From 1783, hangings took place outside Newgate Prison. These events would still attract massive crowds if the felons were notorious such as the Edgware Road murderer, James Greenacre. In the case of poor Eliza Fenning, she was almost certainly not guilty of attempted murder by poisoning, but was hanged regardless in 1815. Forty-five thousand people turned up to witness this miscarriage of justice.

By the mid-nineteenth century, there was a steady call from some politicians and the public to ban public executions altogether. Not only were they a gruesome spectacle but numerous people and children were being killed trying to witness the event. The use of the death penalty for crimes such as theft and forgery was abolished in 1832. A Royal Commission set up in 1864 did not abolish the death penalty, but did demand that executions be carried out within prisons. The Fenian, Michael Barrett, was the last person to be publicly executed in the UK, in 1868. It was not until 1965 that the death penalty was finally abolished in the UK.

Memorials

Understandably the majority of memorial plaques to be found in this book are to those civilians, military and emergency service personnel killed by terrorist outrages and disasters. The biggest memorial is the Monument to the Great Fire of London (in which it is claimed only six people died). Probably the oddest plaque marks the site of the Cato Street conspiracy. Had it succeeded most of the Cabinet would have been killed and a revolution started. While a plaque marks the site of the first London house to be hit by an aerial bombing raid in 1915, there is no such memorial marker to the first victim, three-year-old Elsie Leggatt, killed during the same attack, less than a mile away.

A letter allegedly from Jack the Ripper.

Erased

Most of the houses where numerous murders took place are usually quite anonymous. Many, of course, are no longer standing; either through neglect or the actions of enemy attacks. A German bomb hit the house of Dr Crippen in Camden in 1940, which was replaced by flats several years later. The notorious Dorset Street in Spitalfields, site of at least five murders, including one by Jack the Ripper, not only had its name changed in the early twentieth century, it was also completely buried under a modern shopping and office development. In west London, the house at 10 Rillington Place, where John Christie murdered seven women, was finally demolished in 1970. Nothing was ever built on the site of the murder house but it is preserved as a small private garden.

This book is not a comprehensive guide to every murder and disaster within inner London, nor could it ever be. It is a selection, curated by geographical districts, that ranges from very mundane killings to the most gruesome attacks, murders and disasters. Out of respect for the victims themselves, their families and friends, I have not featured any event after 1984.

The house at 10 Rillington Place.

The heads of the executed displayed on London Bridge.

USING THIS BOOK

The ricin-tipped umbrella used to kill Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge.

This book features twenty walks of distances varying from 0.8km to 10km in length. These distances are shown just below each chapter title. Each route can be walked in a reverse sequence, but bear in mind that some of the longer stories with multiple incidents are usually arranged in chronological order. The book covers a total of over 110km or 70 miles of walks. I have, where possible, opted for quieter paths, away from busy main roads. Though they may not be the shortest route, they often prove to be more interesting.

The route is shown by a red dotted line. A couple of paths, on private land, are closed at certain times and where possible I’ve shown an alternative path. Occasionally a path or street may be closed due to building or engineering work. In these circumstances there are usually alternative routes signposted by the contractor.

All nearby Underground, Overground and railway stations are clearly marked on the maps throughout the book.

Symbols:

The route

Alternative route

Steps

Footpath/pedestrian area

Railway station

Underground station

Overground station

Clipper pier

HOLLOWAY & ISLINGTON

Total walking distance 8.9km

The districts of Holloway and Islington, once former villages beyond London, became heavily populated during the late Victorian period with a mixture of stuccoed and brick-built terraced rows for the newly emerging working and professional classes. This walk covers a great multitude of murders from notorious poisoners and baby killers to the tragic deaths of two of the 1960s most creative innovators within the space of seven months. This route also passes a former female prison that was, until its closure, the largest such prison in western Europe and a once ‘model’ prison. This was, until the early 1960s, the site of many notable executions.

Dr Crippen.

Walking these pages: 3.7km

1 Frederick Seddon In July 1910, Miss Eliza Barrow, 47, and an orphaned boy in her care moved into the top floor of 63 Tollington Park, as lodgers. The landlords were Frederick Seddon, an insurance supervisor, and his wife Margaret. Barrow was a wealthy woman, owning numerous properties and stocks. Over the period of a year, Frederick Seddon began acting as a financial adviser to her and persuaded her to transfer all her assets to him in return for an annuity and rent-free accommodation. Following a holiday with the Seddons in August 1911, Eliza Barrow became suddenly ill and took to her bed. Within a few weeks she was dead, but not before dictating her will to Seddon. A death certificate was issued without a doctor viewing the body. With Seddon acting as Barrow’s executor he had her buried as cheaply as possible. A cousin of Barrow’s, who lived close by, enquired about her estate. Frederick Seddon was not forthcoming and so the cousin, who may have been expecting an inheritance, became suspicious and informed the police. Barrow’s body was exhumed and the presence of arsenic was discovered. Prior to Barrow’s death Seddon had bought a large amount of arsenic covered flypaper. This evidence, along with his acquiring of Barrow’s estate, led to him being found guilty and hanged at Pentonville Prison in April 1912.

Packet of flypaper as used by Frederick Seddon.

2 Ronald Marwood While on patrol in Holloway, in December 1958, PC Raymond Summers came across a fight between two groups of Teddy Boys outside a dance hall (no longer standing) at 133 Seven Sisters Road. While he was trying to arrest one of the protagonists, PC Summers was stabbed in the back by Ronald Marwood and died before he could reach a hospital. Marwood went into hiding for several weeks before giving himself up to the police in late January 1959. At his trial, at the Old Bailey, Marwood’s defence barrister proposed a charge of manslaughter. However, the jury rejected this plea and he was found guilty of murdering a policeman and sentenced to death. Marwood was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 8 May. His hanging was one of several that motivated sections of the public and Parliament towards the concept of the abolition of the death penalty.

3 Joe Meek Violet Shenton was shot to death, by her lodger, at her flat at 304 Holloway Road in early 1967. She was murdered by Joe Meek, who then turned the gun upon himself. Meek had been a leading experimental record producer and songwriter, who became disillusioned with the standard procedures of music recording, so he created his own studio within the rooms at number 304 to create his own unique sound. Meek was responsible for several hits including Telstar by The Tornadoes, which reached number one in the pop charts in 1962. Later, troubled by financial problems, lawsuits and arrests by the police for homosexual acts, he finally snapped. On 3 February 1967, he killed his landlady and then himself. Buddy Holly, a hero of Meek’s, had died on the very same day eight years earlier.

Joe Meek.

4 HM Prison Holloway The prison opened in 1852, as a mixed-sex facility, though it became female-only in 1903. Some of the most notable inmates included Amelia Sach and Annie Walters (here), the suffragettes Charlotte Despard and Mary Richardson, and Ruth Ellis who was the last woman ever to be hanged in the UK. The original castle-like prison was finally demolished in 1971, and redevelopment began that year. Up until its closure in 2016, it was the largest female prison in western Europe.

The first Holloway Prison before its demolition in 1971.

5 Dr Crippen Cora Crippen, a 35 year-old music hall performer by the name of ‘Belle Elmore’, was last seen alive on 31 January 1910, at her home 39 Hilldrop Crescent (now Margaret Bondfield House), just off Camden Road. A few days later Dr Hawley Crippen’s mistress, Ethel Le Neve, delivered a letter to the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild stating that Cora had gone to America. ‘Doctor’ Crippen was an American trained homeopath, who was dominated by his second wife, Cora, yet managed to take a mistress. In early February he poisoned his wife with hyoscine, which caused her breathing to stop, and he buried her under the cellar floor. A few months later Crippen told friends that Cora had died in the States, but