The Faraday Legacy in Southwark: Celebrating his 230th Birthday

By Jessie Goodison Burgess, Heritage Officer

When you come home after work or school, what do you do?  Turn on the lights, put the kettle on, start making dinner…? Maybe you play some music, or, if you really want to relax, turn on a dehumidifier. All these processes require the flick of a switch or press of a button to turn on electricity. It is these everyday, routine actions that remind us of the continual significance of Michael Faraday, who’s discoveries on electromagnetic induction enabled the development of electricity and its wide spread use across the world. Today we celebrate his 230^th birthday, marking the date 22 September, 1791 when he was born.

Michael Faraday, Southwark-born scientist, b.1791 – d. 1867

In the 1830s, Faraday was building on the research of the scientific community into electricity. He discovered that a magnetic field could produce an electric current, paving the way for generators to produce electricity and transforming how electricity could be applied to technology. Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction has reverberated through the years to the point that, now, his principles are continuously put to use, from using our phones to driving a car.

Faraday is considered a giant of the scientific community due to this discovery and his contributions to the understanding of electromagnetism and electrolysis: no one can doubt the relevance of his legacy in our everyday lives.

But nowhere is his legacy felt more on a physical scale than in the borough of Southwark. Take a walk around the borough, and you will find his name in several places. He was born in Newington Butts (around Elephant and Castle, now part of modern Southwark) but his family moved to north London soon after and so, there is not much said about his time in Southwark.  Despite this, Faraday may be the most prominent of Southwark’s former residents: From his ambiguous blue plaque on Larcom Street (which gives no hint as to why it is located there), to Michael Faraday Primary School, Faraday Gardens and even an entire Electoral Ward named Faraday, Southwark remembers the scientist.

Faraday’s plaque on Larcom Road, as voted for by the people of Southwark

His legacy is loudest and shiniest in the middle of Elephant Square thanks to the Michael Faraday Memorial. This is not a public toilet, an ill-timed realisation that many (myself included) have come to, but is, more appropriately, an electricity substation for the Northern and Bakerloo tube lines that go to Elephant and Castle. The modernist architect Rodney Gordon designed a stainless steal box structure emulating the endless possibilities of science hailed in by Faraday and his contemporaries, and in 1961 it was constructed in proximity to Faraday’s birthplace. There is not a lot of visible interpretation that explains the Faraday connection and many pass the monolith everyday without acknowledging the reason behind its existence. Despite this, the memorial is still considered an iconic part of Elephant and Castle. In the 2012, Southwark Council implemented a new disco-themed lighting scheme that reflected pinks and purples off its stainless steel sides, following a nation-wide competition to improve public space. This Blue Peter competition was won by a local schoolgirl who wanted to see the memorial lit up in colour.

Michael Faraday Memorial forms the heart of Elephant Square

This year, another dedication has been made to Faraday further down Walworth Road where the Southwark Heritage Centre and Walworth Library has recently opened – here you can experience one of Faraday’s electromagnetic experiments.

Walk through the doors of the library, go up the stairs, and you will discover at the very back a room you probably weren’t expecting. The walls are lined with copper, and it is dimly lit with two low hanging lights, creating the atmosphere of a secretive World War 2 bunker. This is a real Faraday Cage, invented by Faraday in 1836 to block electromagnetic fields. The effect of this is used in microwaves and to protect planes from lightening. In the library, it stops you from accessing the internet while in the meeting room. Visitors to the library will be able to book the room (Covid allowing) and immerse themselves in an authentic experience free from the distraction of phones and the Internet. This experience is supported by a display of objects from the Cuming Collection that were owned by Faraday: his watch, a family bible with notes marking births and deaths, and a disk dynamo (which was shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition) as well as a bust of his likeness – all creating a personal insight into the man behind the science. These are set next to another display of early 19^th century scientific instruments, illustrating the transformative scientific world that Faraday and his contemporaries both were shaped by and contributed to.

The Faraday Room with displays on Michael Faraday and Science and Technology

Readers can use the Faraday Room to get their scientific fix and be inspired by the wonders of physics and electricity. The placement of this room in a library, surrounded by books, has more meaningful depth than meets the eye. Faraday did not have a formal education, but left school early to work in bookbinding. While surrounded by books, he discovered his passion and drive for science and looked to improve his knowledge through reading and attending lectures. We are left with another of Faraday’s legacies: the legacy of the joy of learning, discovery and experimentation, which was key to Faraday’s success and enduring memory; and can now be discovered in the Southwark Heritage Centre and Walworth Library.

Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: Southwark Charities

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’re featuring one nominee per week over the 7 weeks of voting.

This week, read on to discover more about Southwark Charities.

Southwark Charities is an organisation with a history spanning four centuries, starting with a man called John Wrench, a tenant farmer who lived in the vicinity of what we now know as Stamford Street. In 1603 he left a bequest for the maintenance of the poor people of his home parish of Christchurch. This was the first of many charitable gifts and legacies that would form the Southwark Charities.

Over the course of the following 382 years 47 different charities were formed within Southwark with similar aims. The most recent was the Joseph Collier Holiday Trust, which started in 1985. From the 19^th century onwards the older charities had begun to form unions, and in 2010 all of them were brought together to form the organisation we see today.

One of the more significant early charities was founded by Edward Edwards and this year is the 300th anniversary of his death. In 1717 Edwards left the leases of his land and buildings to trustees, the income of which was to be used for charitable purposes. Some of the money raised was used for the construction of almshouses in the area bordered by Church Walk (now Burrell Street) and Charles Street (now Nicholson Street). The almshouses were rebuilt in 1895 with an inscription from one of the original buildings set into one a new wall. They were rebuilt once more in the 1970s and were officially opened in 1973 by Princess Anne. The new building, Edward Edwards House is now the headquarters of Southwark Charities.

In addition to the traditional functions of providing accommodation and maintenance grants for older people, Southwark Charities also delivers social and community events such as day trips, visits to the theatre, garden parties, and week-long holidays at a specially adapted holiday village. The number of participants in these outings and holidays in 2015 was almost 700.

In Summary:

A 400 year legacy of charitable works in Southwark, showing that the people of this borough have always looked out for each other. Will you #VoteSouthwarkCharities?

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 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!

 

 

Southwark’s Blue Plaque nominees 2017: Eric Allandale Dubuisson

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 Eric Allandale Dubuisson.

Eric Allendale was born in 1936 in Dominica. He came to Britain in 1954 and settled in Hammersmith, west London, where he took up the post of council surveyor and played the trumpet in the borough brass band. When a jazz splinter group formed outside of the main band Eric discovered that the role of trumpet player had already been filled. He decided to take up the trombone instead and this was to become his signature instrument, leading him on the path to success with his own band, the New Orleans Knights.

After many prolific years in London’s traditional jazz scene Eric moved into the world of soul music with the Foundations, a Motown-inspired group who had top ten hits with “Baby Now That I’ve Found You” and “Build Me Up Buttercup.” The group were renowned for their diverse mix of musicians from different backgrounds, (West Indian, British and Sri Lankan) and musical traditions. Eric wrote a number of songs for the group and for other artists. The first of his songs to be recorded was We Are Happy People”, the B-side to the Foundations third single, “Any Old Time (You’re Lonely and Sad)”.

Pecham Rye in 1981

After the Foundations split up in 1970 Eric spent time in Zambia and Kenya, playing in an African jazz band, teaching music and learning new skills. When he returned to London during the 1970s he ran a shop at number 38 Peckham Rye with his partner Olive. This three storey Victorian terraced building is still standing and is now a furniture shop. At other times he also lived in Hollydale Road, Peckham Hill Street and St Mary’s Road.

In summary:

A talented and ambitious musician who travelled the world but called Peckham home. Will you #VoteEricAllendale?

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: Thomas Middleton

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 Thomas Middleton.

Thomas Middleton (1580 –1627) was a prolific playwright and poet. T.S. Eliot described him as ‘second only to Shakespeare’, but he has not always been given the credit that he deserves. Until relatively recently Middleton’s play, The Revenger’s Tragedy was thought to have been written by his contemporary, Cyril Tourneur. Modern analysis of the style and language has dispelled this myth.  More recently, evidence has emerged that Middleton was the co-author of All’s Well That Ends Well with William Shakespeare. His work continues to fascinate and surprise researchers in the field of Jacobean theatre.

Middleton was born in the City of London in 1580 and moved to Newington Butts sometime between 1603 and 1608, soon after his marriage. His new home was near the theatres of Southwark and far enough away from London to avoid a recent outbreak of the plague. His time in Newington was very productive. In addition to his writing he took on the role of City Chronologer (a position that was something like the City of London’s official historian) and for a time he was also responsible for producing the Lord Mayor’s shows.

The biggest success of Middleton’s career was his play, A Game of Chess, which was performed by the King’s Men at the Globe Theatre for nine consecutive days in 1624. It would have gone on even longer but closed in response to a complaint by the Spanish ambassador. In fact, its allegorical portrayal of party politics upset quite a few people and Middleton had to go into hiding. His son Edward was arrested and brought before the Privy Council. Middleton himself was held for a time in the Fleet prison.

Middleton died in 1627, probably in somewhat reduced circumstance, having lost his position with the City of London. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Newington.

Newington Butts

St Mary’s Churchyard before redevelopment

 

In summary:

A talented playwright with a rebellious side who gave Shakespeare a run for his money. Walworth should be proud! Will you #VoteThomasMiddleton?

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.