For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
Mary Ward House (01.02.13)
Running parallel to Euston Road, Tavistock Place is used by cabbies heading west towards Euston Station or Tottenham Court Road.
Camden Council in an effort to protect the many cyclists using the route has constructed dedicated cycle lanes. The result of which has been to narrow the road producing a perpetual traffic jam.
While sitting stationary you get to notice on the north side of Tavistock Place the stunning Grade I listed 1898 building – Mary Ward House.
But who was Mary Ward, and what was her ‘House’ for?
Mary Ward was known in her lifetime as Mrs Humphry Ward, a prolific Victorian novelist. Her novels are not much read now but were successful in their time and tackled the social subjects and issues of faith and doubt that were beloved of the Victorians.
She was also a noted philanthropist and socialist, she helped open up university education to women. She promoted the education of the working classes through the ‘settlement’ movement (which settled students in working-class areas where they worked among the poor). Curiously, she also became a leader of the anti-suffragist movement, campaigning against giving women the vote.
One of her most inspired initiatives was founding Passmore Edwards House in Tavistock Place. This building, funded by publisher and philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, was part of the University Hall Settlement.
Passmore Edwards House had the first properly equipped classrooms for children with disabilities and was also home to a centre where children could come to play in a safe, warm, bully-free environment. A hall, gym, library, and other communal rooms were provided, and there were also residential rooms for those living in the settlement.
Gustav Holst was for a while the settlement’s director of music.
The building’s young architects, Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, themselves lived in the settlement, so knew the background to the settlement movement and grasped the building’s purpose and potential.
They would go on to design the Welsh National Museum in Cardiff, they proved a good choice. The style the adopted for the building was that fruitful blend of Arts and Crafts with Art Nouveau that proved successful in London buildings for education and the arts at around this time. They brought together segmental arches, a variety of window shapes, fine stone detailing, and other features to make an arresting façade. The lettering over the entrances is also delightful.
In 1921, a year after Mary Ward died; the house was renamed in her honour. There is more information about this building and its current use here.
On 8 March 1934, the London County Council was taken over by Labour, where it remained the majority party until its abolishment in 1965
Wallace Walk traces a 4-mile route that William Wallace of Braveheart fame took from his trial at Westminster to his execution in Smithfield
Oliver Cromwell’s statute outside Westminster Hall depicts him standing without a horse but wearing his spurs upside down
The Monument was erected in memory of The Great Fire of London which 5 people died, 6 people have since fallen to their deaths from the top
Within 2 years of the start of World War II 26 per cent of London’s pets were destroyed, a quarter of a mile queue formed outside a Wood Green vets
Such was its worldwide renown that in the early days of the Savoy Hotel the house orchestra was led by Johann Strauss
Coram’s Fields the remnant of the Children’s Foundling Hospital only allows adults into its grounds if they are accompanied by a child
On Shrove Tuesday charity teams race up and down Dray Walk, Spitalfields flipping pancakes. The winning team receives an engraved frying pan
Queensway Station has its main entrance in Bayswater Road and Bayswater Station has its entrance in Queensway
In 1941 a new 3-mile stretch of the Central Line tunnel – Gants Hill to Leytonstone was given to Plessey for use as an underground factory
Cabbies are permitted to ask a police constable to shield them with his (or her) cape when urinating against the vehicle in a seemly fashion
CabbieBlog 