Charles Stennett, wine and spirit merchant

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street View: 29
Address: 44 Red Lion Street

And then in the blink of an eye
They were gone, gone, gone

Tallis mentions Charles Stennett as wine and spirit merchant at 44 Red Lion Street, but as so many of his wine-selling colleagues did, Stennett also ran a public house from the same address: The Dolphin. Or maybe we should turn that around and say that publicans were also wine merchants. From Michaelmas 1832, Stennett had been the tenant of The Dolphin at number 44 according to a report inquiring into charities, which lists the properties of Christ’s Hospital.⁽¹⁾ Before that, Stennett had been the proprietor of the Blue Last in Little Bell Alley.⁽²⁾ The 1841 census finds him at number 44 with his wife Eliza, whom he had married in 1823. Ten years later, the couple could be found at Devonshire Place, Streatham; the occupation of Charles is given as retired wine and spirit merchant, and indeed, the 1851 census for 44 Red Lion Street gives us the name of John Featherstone, victualler. Stennett must have relinquished The Dolphin after 1843 as he was still there in the Post Office Directory for that year, but the 1848 Post Office Directory lists a John Hadrell as the proprietor. The Stennetts later moved to Heathfield Terrace, Turnham Green, where Charles died in early 1878.⁽³⁾

Advertisement in Tallis’s Street View

There does not seem to have been any incident in Stennett’s time at The Dolphin to make it into the newspapers or the Old Bailey reports to throw any light on the pub building itself, but there are earlier clues. In 1789, one Helen Parry testifies that she keeps The Dolphin in Red Lion Street. A servant of the Bartholomew coffee-house in West-Smithfield was suspected of stealing from her employer and afterwards pretending to want to go back to the country as the town did not agree with her, but in fact, staying in London and meeting with her accomplices. The servant, by the name of Sarah Natchell, had called for a coach to remove her stuff from the coffee house, but in stead of going to the country, she went to Red Lion Street and asked Mrs Parry if she could leave her boxes there for a little while as she had left her place. The boxes were removed by a porter for Natchell in due course and all Mrs Parry could testify to was the fact that the boxes had been in the pub for a while. Whether there has been a mistake in transcribing the original Old Bailey case notes or whether Parry was the maiden name of Mrs Parry, but earlier in the transcript the keeper of the coffee house said that a Mr Farrell was the proprietor of The Dolphin. Mrs Parry/Farrell mentions a few rooms in the pub: bar, back kitchen, parlour and dining room, the latter probably upstairs as she says that Natchell’s boxes “were taken up into the dining-room” and when the porter came to take the boxes away, “she went up with him”.⁽⁴⁾

1799 Horwood map of the area with the pub indicated by a red cross

Another room is mentioned in the tragic case of James Wilson who came to The Dolphin on the 27th of September, 1802, and ordered a pint of beer. “Shortly after, he went down in the cellar; and Mrs Game hearing the report of a pistol, thought it was one of the barrels that had burst. On going into the cellar, however, there lay the body of the unfortunate man lifeless, weltering in gore. He had put the muzzle of a pistol in his mouth, and blown out his brains”. He had apparently been showing signs of “derangement” for several months prior to the incident.⁽⁵⁾

Now jump more than a hundred years forwards from this tragic event of 1802 to another one that took the drinkers at The Dolphin by surprise. On the evening of 8 September 1915, a German Zeppelin released its bombs over London. The newspapers in 1915 hardly reported on the raid and did not give much reliable information about casualties; information like that was suppressed, but a few more details came out in 1918. A 1918 newspaper report said that Red Lion Street was badly hit and that the blast “wiped out the lower parts of most of the houses, including a public house, which was left apparently supported by one pillar”.⁽⁶⁾ Although no name is mentioned, the public house was indeed The Dolphin. The pub apparently still has an old clock on the wall that stopped at 10.40 pm (the time the bomb was dropped) and a notice underneath it says that 3 men were killed.⁽⁷⁾, although Historic England says that only one person died. Mouse over the picture of the clock on their site where you can read more about the Zeppelin raids (here).

Damaged clock in The Dolphin (Source: Historic England)

The two lines above this post are part of the lyrics of the Crosby, Stills & Nash song ‘After the Dolphin’ which was inspired by the 1915 raid. For the complete lyrics, see here and for the song itself here.

—————————
(1) Report of the Commissioners Appointed in Pursuance of an Act of Parliament Made and Passed in the 5th and 6th Years of King William the 4th, C.71, Intituled, An Act for Appointing Commissioners to Continue the Inquiries Concerning Charities in England and Wales, until the First Day of March, dated 30th June 1837.
(2) Old Bailey case t18291203-132.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1878. Estate valued at under £6000. Probate is granted to his sister Sarah, the only next of kin.
(4) Old Bailey case t17890422-18.
(5) Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 72 (1802).
(6) ‘The air raids on London: hithertho unpublished details [of] the streets and buildings that were hit’, The Manchester Guardian, 18 December 1918.
(7) Have not seen the clock or the plaque myself, but it is reported by Orlicat in his blogpost on the Zeppelin raid (see here).

Neighbours:

<– 45 Red Lion Street

43 Red Lion Street –>

William Cazaly, linen draper

Tags

clothing

Street View: 29
Address: 48 Red Lion Street

Another member of the Cazaly family to get a blog post. This time William, or Guillaume as he was baptised in 1796, a linen draper in Red Lion Street. Like his brother Thomas he was baptised in the French Church L’Eglise de St. Jean, St. John Street, Spitalfields, but he did not keep to the family’s French heritage and married his wife, Susanna Brees in the church of St. George the Martyr. The census records for 1841-1861 show their children as Sarah (born 1836), Susan (1839), Marianne (1840), William (1841), Charles (1843), Emily (1847), Walter (1852), and George Ernest (1855). Libby Shade lists more children, but those are not mentioned in the census; they may have died young. William is referred to as ‘clerk to his father’ in the 1861 census.

Linen draper from The Book of English Trades (1818)

According to The Book of English Trades, “The Linen-Draper sells cloths which are made of flax and hemp; as Irish linens, Russia towelling, Cambrics, &c. and, also, shawls, printed calicoes, muslin, &c&c.” And London is noted for getting the most elegant articles in printed calico and muslin, hence ‘London prints’. Some of the London retailers employ twenty or thirty people – not that William Cazaly is likely to have traded on that scale – but, warns the author, it is a business in which “more people have failed than in any other in the united kingdom, owing to its being liable to partake of the fluctuations, unfortunately almost inherent in the manufacturing system, and to the great versatility in fashion and dress”.

In 1816, 48 Red Lion Street was occupied by one G. Spence, an upholsterer. In 1820 and 1821, Brooks Hinton, another linen draper, insured the premises. When he left and when William moved in is unclear, but William probably had the shop before his marriage in 1833. The earliest evidence I found is a notice in the London Gazette of 22 January 1833 in which the dissolving of the partnership between William Cazaly and Robert Hood is announced, and that certainly sounds as if the business existed before 1833. In 1839, William takes out an insurance for the premises with the Sun Fire Office. In 1858, the property at 48 Red Lion Street is offered as a “freehold business premises … let on lease at 80l. per annum. Sold for 1000l.”⁽¹⁾ Whatever the reason for this advertisement, Cazaly’s shop remained where it was, although he no longer lived above the shop. The 1861 census sees the family in Sheffield Gardens in Kensington, a new estate built on the grounds of Sheffield House (see for the history of the development here).

But things were not as rosy as they seemed. In 1864, the shop was burgled.⁽²⁾ and in early 1869, the Court of Bankruptcy files trust deeds by William as debtor for the benefit of his creditors.⁽³⁾ In it, one Peter Cazaly is mentioned as draper’s assistant, but how he is related exactly to the other Cazalys is not clear; Peter was a common name in the family. It may have been William’s brother, born 1794, who seems to have been living at 48 Red Lion Street at the time of the 1841 census, but perhaps it was one of the nephews. A few months after the bankruptcy notice, on 7 May 1869, William died at 14 Beacon-hill, Camden Road, and probate was granted to the widow. The effects were valued at under £100.⁽⁴⁾

portraits of William and Susanna, kindly provided by Andrew Cazaly, a descendant, for which my grateful thanks (see also the comments to this post)

(1) The Standard, 5 November 1858.
(2) Reynold’s Newspaper, 10 April, 1864
(3) London Gazette, 2 February 1869.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1869.

You may also like to read about William’s brother, Thomas Cazaly, who was an engraver and stationer at 48 Tottenham Court Road, or about Postman’s Park hero Herbert Peter Cazaly, the grandson of William’s brother James George. The post for Thomas Cazaly includes a simple family tree, but a far more elaborate one can be found here on Libby Shade’s page (click on ‘Cazaly family’ and then on ‘Cazaly.pdf’ to see the whole tree).

Neighbours:

<– 49 Red Lion Street

47 Red Lion Street –>

Robinson’s Barley water

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 29 (see header for detail elevation)
Address: 64 Red Lion Street

Advert for Robinson’s Patent Barley Groats (Source: http://www.robinsonsfun.com)

Who does not know Robinson’s Barley Water? But did you know that it started out as Robinson’s Patent Barley Groats? According to the OED, groats are “hulled, or hulled and crushed grain of various kinds, chiefly oats, but also wheat, barley, and maize”. You were supposed to dissolve them in water or milk and it was considered excellent nourishment for mothers, babies and invalids. The lemon variety we now drink was already mentioned in the advertisement in the Tallis Street View booklet: “the addition of lemon juce [sic] and sweetened, forms a most grateful beverage”.

Advert for Barley Groats in Tallis Street View 29

Advert from Pears Christmas Annual, 1906

Tallis describes Red Lion Street as a considerable thoroughfare composed for the most part of shops. At number 64, on the corner of Eagle Street “is situated the Shop, Warehouses, and Extensive Manufactury of Messrs. Robinson and Bellville, celebrated as the proprietors of the `Patent Barley and groats;’ their premises forms the most striking object of the street, and has been chosen for our Vignette.” The text above the shop tells us that Robinson and Bellville were tea dealers and grocers. According to the website of the Robinson firm, barley water/groats was a product they sold since 1823, but the drink really took off when they began supplying the Wimbledon tennis championships.

The shop of Robinson and Bellville in the vignette

The building no longer exists as a quick look at Google Street View shows, but Robinson’s itself does, see www.robinsonsdrinks.com.

Corner Red Lion Street / Eagle Street (Source: Google Street View)

Neighbours:

<– 65 Red Lion Street

62&63 Red Lion Street –>