David Charnick - The Dark Side of East London

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This book is dedicated to the members of the Tower Hamlets Walkshop, a group which is working to develop a structured guiding culture in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The group is creating guided tours in the less obvious parts of the borough in order to explore and share the rich heritage of the Tower Hamlets, an area with a long and complex story.

One of the members is Alan Tucker whose photographs, taken especially to illustrate this book, locate the following stories in todays East End.

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright David Charnick, 2016

ISBN: 978 1 47385 644 8
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47385 647 9
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47385 645 5
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47385 646 2

The right of David Charnick to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England
by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Typeset in Times New Roman by
CHIC GRAPHICS

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Social History, Transport, True Crime, Claymore Press, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

For a complete list of Pen and Sword titles please contact
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Contents

Illustrations

Bethnal Green Watch House

The former King and Queen Public House

The Salmon and Ball Public House

The former Dolphin Public House

1920s Spitalfields Market extension covering Crispin Street

Hare Street sign, Cheshire Street

Tesco Metro covering much of Wilmot Square

Black Lion House covering Black Lion Yard

West Dock, St Katharines Docks

Virginia Street

St Pauls Church School, Wellclose Square

Memorial to Ulrika Eleanora Church, Swedenborg Gardens

Church of St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney

Parochial School, Church of St Matthew Bethnal Green

The grave of Joseph Merceron

Rectory, Church of St Matthew Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green Library

Boundary Plaque, Bethnal House

Reflection Works

Site of Boars Head Yard

Site of 29 Sandys Row

Site of Old Gravel Lane Bridge

Former Bethnal Green Police Station

Former London Hospital Medical College

Entrance to Gunthorpe Street

Thrawl Street

Site of Shadwell Police Station, King David Lane

Site of Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel

Introduction

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows

On the south-western corner of the churchyard of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, there is a small building. Constructed in 1754 and extended in 1826 to accommodate a fire-engine, it is the only one of Bethnal Greens two watch houses to survive. The other, on the east side of the parish near the Green itself, has long since disappeared. The watch house was relocated here from the junction of what are now Bethnal Green Road and Brick Lane so that the watch could keep an eye on the graves to prevent body snatching. It was on the pavement outside this watch house that a woman was left by the watch to die of exposure, one of their many misuses of power which helped pave the way in the 1820s for Robert Peels Metropolitan Police Act.

Ann Ashley

At about two oclock on a cold, rainy Wednesday morning in November 1825, a woman called Ann Ashley was found in the gutter by a watchman. Much the worse for drink, she was also soaking wet from the rain. The watchman hauled her to the watch house where Constable Simkins took over. Though he didnt charge her he did put her in the cell, which from descriptions of it as a hole and a dungeon was presumably below ground level. It should be remembered that as well as being wet and cold, she had been drinking; alcohol increases the susceptibility to cold.

Ann was left in the cell to shiver while Simkins and his men were nice and warm before the fire. At five oclock, when the watch house keeper came off duty, she was taken out and dumped on the pavement outside. By this time she was far too ill to stand, so she was left to sit on the cold ground until about nine oclock when she was taken to the workhouse, the only place in Bethnal Green where an infirmary could be found. She was dead on arrival.

The inquest into her death was heard the following Saturday before coroner John Wright Unwin at the King and Queen pub on the corner of Hare (now Cheshire) Street and Wood Close. Unwin himself died just five years later, at the age of 58. During the hearing one of the jury suggested a visit to see the cell where Ann was confined. Accordingly, the jury went to the nearby watch house to investigate. They found what The Examiner later called a horrible hole and a diabolical purgatory, describing the cell as:

about six feet square, with a damp gravelly floor, and reeking with the smell of human excrement to such a degree that it is really astonishing that any person who had been confined there, even but for an hour, could escape contagion.

Another contemporary source announced that Ann was thrown into a sink of pestilence which was streaming with damp, and reeking with human ordure.

At the inquest the surgeon confirmed that Ann Ashleys death had been caused by wet and cold, combined with intoxication. The jury concluded that the constable and the watch should be brought to account for their neglect which, the coroner admitted, had accelerated Anns death. However, there was a limit to what the jury could do. Though the coroner admitted that Ann Ashleys death might have been prevented by proper care on the parts of the night constable and watchmen, and that it was accelerated by the treatment she received, he had ruled at the commencement of the hearing that the evidence did not warrant a charge of manslaughter. Instead, this was to be an inquest into a misdemeanour, and no other verdict could be brought in.

The Coroner

This ruling was completely unacceptable to one journalist, who called for a proper trial for the brute Simkins and his myrmidons, designating them her murderers and homicides in law. If this is not manslaughter, the article says, a judge and jury should say so. To rule that this death was the result of a misdemeanour is one of the grossest jests on justice we have ever heard.

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