Hello People
Today I’m outside the Angel in Rotherhithe, the
Angel is one of my favourite pubs, they serve a nice stout, it has a long
history dating back to the 19th century, and is a great stopping point for a
pub crawl along the Thames. However I won’t be learning about the Angel today;
I only popped in there for a pint.
Next to the Angel are the ruins of a Manor House built for
King Henry III in 1350, its unclear what the house was used for, but one
popular theory, is that it was a great location for King Henry III to practise
Falconry. Falconry is much less popular around South East London now then it
was in King Henry III's day, I guess people got fed up with falcons swooping
down on them as they sat in traffic on Jamaica Road, and lifting small children
off their bikes as they cycle around Southwark Park.
But I’m not here to learn about that Henry III house, don’t
get me wrong I love falconry as much as the next man, but the ruin is a little
bit boring, it’s just a wall with some grass growing over it.
Unlike Henry III I never had a pet Falcon, but I did have
lots of pet goldfish when I was a child, which my Uncle Ned won for me at the Southwark
Park Fun Fair, in a game where you throw darts at playing cards scattered along
the floor. If you successfully hit one of the cards, you won a goldfish; it was
the Darts World Championship of its day. Ned was great at darts, and I was so grateful
to him for winning me my first pet, I named the Gold-fish Cathy, after his
girlfriend. Ned married Cathy the girlfriend, sadly Cathy the gold-fish didn’t
last as long, she died a few days later. Ned went back to the fair and won me
many a Cathy the goldfish that summer, and I looked after the Cathy’s well, I fed
them, cleaned their tank, but sadly they never survived long in that little
goldfish bowl in our flat in Bermondsey. I of course will never know why they
all died, but I suspect it was suicide, I guess they just missed the bright
lights of the fair.
Southwark park is well worth a visit, opened in 1869 and
covering 25 hectares, it has an art gallery, a sports centre, a lake, football
pitches, a bowling green and some beautiful gardens, not least the Ada Salter rose
garden, built in 1936 by her husband Alfred Salter and attributed to her after
she died. It also boasts London's first public memorial to honour a working
class man; a drinking fountain to commemorate Mr Jabez West, a member of a
local Temperance Society.
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| Ada Salter's Rose Garden |
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| Drinking fountain to commemorate Mr Jabez West |
But I’m not here to talk to you about the Southwark Park Fun Fair either, although we are getting close with talk of the Salters and public
memorials.
No I’m here to find a statue of an old man sitting on a park
bench. I remember it from when I was a child. I’ve always wondered why it was
there, and who the old man was. People don’t tend to get statues for sitting on
benches and waving, statues are for soldiers, politicians and old Arsenal
football players. People who did great things and committed brave acts, the
bravest thing you can do on bench is feed some ducks.
After 31 years now I finally know why someone made a statue
of an old man sitting on a bench, and it’s one of the most inspiring and heart-breaking
stories I've ever heard. The statue commemorates a man called Dr Alfred Salter,
he and his family lived and worked in the area during the first half of the
1900's, when the Rotherhithe was a very different, and much more dangerous
place.
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| Dr Salter's Statue |
To say that Dr Alfred Salter deserves to have a statue is
something of an understatement, to list just a few of his achievements:
He gave his poorest patients free healthcare, something they
weren't entitled to in the back then.
He helped pioneer the NHS (which went on to do rather well).
He was MP for Bermondsey West from 1922 to 1945 (and he
never got done for fiddling his expenses).
And if Dr Alfred was impressive, his wife Ada sounds like
she was formidable:
She set up social clubs for working class girls in the slums
of London.
She set up a beatification committee to improve Bermondsey
promoting the planting of trees and flowers and the creation of playgrounds.
Her environmental work helped create the London Green Belt.
She became the first female Mayor in London (she swore
Alfred in as MP)
She became president of the women’s National League, which
helped progress the rights of workingwomen.
She was basically a cross between Ghandi and Kristy Allsopp
All this must make poor old King Henry III feel very
inadequate, but if it's any consolation to him, I couldn't find any evidence of
either Alfred or Ada knowing the first thing about Falconry.
In 1902 Ada and Alfred had a little girl, Joyce, and despite
them being well off enough to go elsewhere, they thought it right she be
educated in Bermondsey with the people they were trying to save. But disease
was rife in the area, she developed a very malignant form of scarlet fever, and
she died age 8.
The statue of the old man sitting on a bench I remember from my youth was made by Diane Galvin and is called Dr Salter’s daydream. It shows an elderly Dr Salter waving at his daughter Joyce, in Diane's words 'it represents a daydream of an old man remembering happier times when his sunshine was still alive.' Better writers than me have written about Alfred and Ada Salter, and I recommend you give them a read. I've attached a few links below.
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| Dr Salter and Joyce |
The statue of the old man sitting on a bench I remember from my youth was made by Diane Galvin and is called Dr Salter’s daydream. It shows an elderly Dr Salter waving at his daughter Joyce, in Diane's words 'it represents a daydream of an old man remembering happier times when his sunshine was still alive.' Better writers than me have written about Alfred and Ada Salter, and I recommend you give them a read. I've attached a few links below.
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| Alfred and Joyce Statues |
I like Alfred and Ada, and not just because they were good
people, great even, but because they sound like they were real characters,
people not afraid to stand up for what they believed in. I would have loved to
have met them, but sadly, I didn’t even get to see Alfred and Joyce's statues
because in 2011 they were stolen, most likely melted down, and all of the
efforts of the Salter’s who gave so much to improve Rotherhithe and Bermondsey
are commemorated by nothing but a small notice board, a cut up bench and an
open can of Strongbow left on its side.
But this is not the end of the story, the Salter spirit
lives on, a campaign to reinstate the statues has been running since the theft,
and last month, they reached their target of £50,000! And this time there will
be a statue of Ada too, so the three of them will be reunited in Rotherhithe
again. When it’s completed Ada's statue will be the only public statue of a
female politician in London, which sounds like a crazy thing to say in 2014.
Now if you'll excuse me, all this talk of the Salter’s and
Cathy the goldfishes have left me feeling emotional, so I’m off to the Angel for a pint of stout.
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