Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: The Half Moon

Voting has opened for this year’s Southwark Heritage Association Blue Plaques scheme. There are seven worthy nominees, of which only one will get a plaque this year. But who are they and why should they get your vote? To help you decide we’ll be featuring one nominee per week over the next 7 weeks of voting.

This week, read on to discover more about The Half Moon

The Half Moon has had more celebrities pass through its doors than any other pub in this borough. In recent years musicians like Kate Tempest, Anna Calvi and La Roux have made important debuts here. The pub has also been a major comedy venue, attracting performers like Eddie Izzard, Omid Djalili and former local resident Jo Brand. To some, it would be performances by the likes of U2, Van Morrison and the Police in the 1980s that make the Half Moon worthy of a blue plaque, while if you are a fan of folk music, the 1960s were the pub’s heyday, when acts like Bert Jansch and Gerry Lockran performed for the proprietors Ed Parslow and Charles Pearce.

Stepping back a little further, the 1950s was the era of one of the pub’s most celebrated regulars, the poet Dylan Thomas, who may well have named his famous drama Under Milk Wood after nearby Milkwood Road. He was one of many Welsh visitors who came for a drink and a sing-along after matches played by the London Welsh Rugby Football Club. The team had their home at nearby Herne Hill Velodrome, where drinking was not permitted by the landlords, the Dulwich Estate.

The land on which the Half Moon stands is also owned by the Dulwich Estate, (formerly Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift). An inn has stood here since the 17th century. One particularly longstanding and enterprising tenant, John Webb was somehow in the possession of the original tombstone of the Elizabethan actor and founder of Dulwich College, Edward Alleyn. The stone had apparently been used by Webb and his father before him as a talking point for visitors to the pub’s tea gardens. It was presented back to the college in 1844.

The imposing grade II* listed Jacobean revival edifice we see today was built between 1894 and 1896 to designs by local architect James William Brooke. It boasts a number of fine interior features, including six newly restored back-painted mirrors depicting aquatic birds. After four years behind builders’ hoardings these features can now be seen again. The Half Moon reopened in March 2017 and in May hosted its own Dylan Day celebrations in honour of the Welsh poet.

In summary:

South London’s premier music venue for half a century, frequented by poets and an official asset of community value. Will you #VoteHalfMoon?

Voting ends on 15 September 2017. You can vote by emailing Southwark Heritage Association: admin@southwark.org.uk or the Southwark News: owen@southwarknews.co.uk. You can also vote in person at all Southwark libraries and at both the Mayflower, Rotherhithe Street and Half Moon, Herne Hill.

Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: The Mayflower Pub

Voting has opened for this year’s Southwark Heritage Association Blue Plaques scheme. There are seven worthy nominees, of which only one will get a plaque this year. But who are they and why should they get your vote? To help you decide we’ll be featuring one nominee per week over the next 7 weeks of voting.

This week, read on to discover more about The Mayflower Pub

The Mayflower Pub in Rotherhithe Street takes its name from one of the most famous ships in history, but the inn first recorded at this site from around 1550 was known simply as ‘The Shippe’. This is the name by which Captain Christopher Jones would have known it, when in the summer of 1620 he might have popped in on the way to fit out his ship, the Mayflower for its trans-Atlantic voyage. The money for Captain Jones’s pint of ale came from the proceeds of the Mayflower’s regular trips across the Channel, exchanging English woollens for French wine, to Norway with hats, hemp, salt, hops, and vinegar, and perhaps occasionally to the North Atlantic for whaleing.

On its more famous voyage in 1620 the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, some of whom were English puritans, seeking religious freedom in the New World. The ship took several weeks preparing for the trip, moving from Rotherhithe to Southampton and then to Plymouth before setting sail for America, finally arriving there in November of that year.

In 1780, just four years after the United States of America declared its independence The Shippe underwent its first change of name. At that time the voyage of the Mayflower would have been a rather unpatriotic thing to commemorate in England. It was renamed the Spread Eagle and Crown. This conincided with the rebuilding of the inn, bringing it more or less to the configuration that we see today.

During the Second World War the pub was badly damaged, losing most of the upper storey. This was carefully restored to match the ground floor and to retain the character of the original rooms. After the war, Anglo-American relations were seen as something to be celebrated so in 1955 the name The Mayflower was finally assumed.

The Mayflower in 1955, still missing its top floor

The Mayflower Pub still celebrates its transatlantic connections, with both the Union flag and the American stars and stripes waving over the Thames from the outside terrace. To this day it is the only public house licensed to sell postage stamps, so American tourists can easily send a postcard home from Rotherhithe.

In Summary:

A fine pub with a link to Rotherhithe’s proud maritime past and to one of history’s most famous ships. Will you #VoteTheMayflower?

Voting ends on 15 September 2017. You can vote by emailing Southwark Heritage Association: admin@southwark.org.uk or the Southwark News: owen@southwarknews.co.uk. You can also vote in person at all Southwark libraries and at both the Mayflower, Rotherhithe Street and Half Moon, Herne Hill.

 

 

Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: Sir James Black

Voting is open for this year’s Southwark Heritage Association Blue Plaques scheme. There are seven worthy nominees, of which only one will get a plaque this year. But who are they and why should they get your vote? To help you decide we’ll be featuring one nominee per week over the next 7 weeks of voting.

This week, read on to discover more about Sir james Black

The story of Sir James Black (1924 – 2010) is closely tied to Kings College Hospital on Denmark Hill. The hospital itself has a fascinating history, which began in 1840 on Portugal Street, close to Lincoln’s Inn Fields and King’s College London itself. The move to the present site came about in response to the increasing population in the suburbs of Camberwell, Peckham and Brixton towards the end of the 19^th century. The new hospital opened in 1909, incorporating modern features such as electric clocks, an internal phone system (the second ever to be installed in the U.K.) and electrical power produced by its own diesel generators.

Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, c.1980

In 1984 Sir James Black became Professor of Analytical Pharmacology at the Rayne Institute, part of King’s College Hospital Medical School. During that time he established his own research laboratory, the James Black Foundation and led a team of 25 scientists. In 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in drug development (along with two American scientists, Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings). His major breakthroughs included work on gastrin inhibitors which can prevent a number of stomach cancers, anti-ulcer drugs and most famously, propranolol, the first generation of a range of drugs known as beta blockers, which are now commonly used to treat angina and to protect the heart from future attacks. They have benefited millions of people around the world.

Black was well known for his modesty and desire for privacy. He described his feelings on learning that he had won the Nobel Prize like this: ‘It was like being kicked in the stomach; I was in an absolute funk. I went to the pub and contemplated my fate.’ But he should have been used to the limelight by this time. As well as the Nobel Prize, he had won the Wolf Prize for Medicine in 1982 and had been knighted for services to medical research in 1981. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Societ0,y and in 2000 was appointed to the Order of Merit.

In Summary: A great example of the hard work and innovation that goes on to this day at King’s College Hospital in Camberwell. Will you #VoteSirJamesBlack?

Voting ends on 15 September 2017. You can vote by emailing Southwark Heritage Association: admin@southwark.org.uk or the Southwark News: owen@southwarknews.co.uk. You can also vote in person at all Southwark libraries and at both the Mayflower, Rotherhithe Street and Half Moon, Herne Hill.

Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: The Kennington Theatre

Voting has opened for this year’s Southwark Heritage Association Blue Plaques scheme. There are seven worthy nominees, of which only one will get a plaque this year. But who are they and why should they get your vote?

The Kennington Theatre is one of the nominees. For all the lowdown on its history we couldn’t really improve on this article on the Arthur Lloyd Music Hall and Theatre History Website!