Edgar Allan Poe in Stoke Newington: London #12

The Fox Reformed restaurant and wine bar, Stoke Newington Church Street, Hackney, London.

 

'EDGAR ALLAN POE

1809–1849

Writer and Poet

Was a pupil at the

Manor House School (1817–1820),

Which stood on this site.'

 

'POE

 

unveiled by Stephen Berkoff

on 4 June 2011

 

the flicker club

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The Edgar Allan Poe Society'

 

Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and became an orphan in 1811, when he was fostered by the self-made merchant John Allan and his wife Frances of Richmond, Virginia, which is how his middle name came to be 'Allan'. In 1815 the Allans, including Edgar, left for England where John Allan had business, and after eventually settling in London Edgar had three years' education in Chelsea. After that he continued at the Rev. John Bransby's school in the then small village of Stoke Newington, where he was very much an outsider: his accent and lack of skill at sport were laughed at, he had his own sleeping accommodation away from the dormitory, but his skills in literature and French  surpassed those of even older students. Bransby thought John Allan spoiled Edgar, but with Allan's business failing (temporarily as it happened), the family were forced to leave England and return to the States in May 1820.

 

(The photo at the top of my blog is, of course, Poe's Cottage in The Bronx, New York City.)

 

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Richmond, Virginia: Edgar Allan Poe Museum

Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, Massachusetts

Eric Walrond in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, Hackney: London #7

The grave of the Harlem Renaissance writer Eric Walrond (1898–1966), who was born in Georgetown, Guyana. Mentioned on his tombstone is Tropic Death (1926), his collection of short stories of which the autobiographical title story involves Barbadians moving to Panama.

 

Walrond shared an appartment for a time with fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Countee Cullen, who dedicated his famous poem, 'The Incident', to him: twelve brief lines relating an instance of non-physical racist abuse at an early age that have an intense effect on the narrator.

 

Eric Walrond died in London.

Henry Richard and Anti-Militarism in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

'HENRY RICHARD,

BORN AT TREGARON,

CARDIGANSHIRE

3, APRIL 1812.

MINISTER OF MARLBOROUGH CHAPEL, LONDON,

1835–1850.

SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY

FOR PROMOTING PERMANENT AND UNIVERSAL PEACE,

1848–1884.

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

FOR MERTHYR TYDFIL,

1868–1888.

DIED 20, AUGUST 1888,

AGED 76 YEARS.'

I had not as far as I'm aware heard of Henry Richard, who wrote several books – one of them on the abolitionist Joseph Sturge – until last month, when by chance I discovered his tomb in Abney Park Cemetery. Richard was widely known as 'The Apostle of Peace', and this post is particularly relevant in that this year marks the bicentenary of his birth. I was a little too late, as the celebration took place on 1 April this year.

Diane Abbott was present at the ceremony, and she's MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She's also the first black woman to enter the House of Commons, but more importantly she was a Labour MP in a New Labour government who voted against the destruction of Iraq, as of course Henry Richard would have done.

Below is a list, taken from the Guardian,  of MPs who voted aginst the destruction of Iraq, and is very revealing:

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Diane Abbott, Graham Allen, John Austin, Tony Banks, Harry Barnes, John Battle, Andrew Bennett, Joe Benton, Roger Berry, Harold Best, Bob Blizzard, Keith Bradley, Kevin Brennan, Karen Buck, Richard Burden, Anne Campbell, Ronnie Campbell, Martin Caton, David Chaytor, Michael Clapham, Helen Clark, Tom Clarke, Tony Clarke, Harry Cohen, Iain Coleman, Michael Connarty, Frank Cook, Robin Cook, Jeremy Corbyn, Jim Cousins, Tom Cox, David Crausby, Ann Cryer, John Cryer, Tam Dalyell , Valerie Davey, Ian Davidson, Denzil Davies, Terry Davis, Hilton Dawson, John Denham, Parmjit Dhanda, Jim Dobbin, Frank Dobson, Frank Doran, David Drew, Huw Edwards, Clive Efford, Bill Etherington, Mark Fisher, Paul Flynn, Hywel Francis,George Galloway, Neil Gerrard, Ian Gibson, Roger Godsiff, Win Griffiths, John Grogan , Patrick Hall, David Hamilton, Fabian Hamilton, Dai Havard, Doug Henderson, Stephen Hepburn, David Heyes, David Hinchliffe, Kate Hoey, Jimmy Hood, Kelvin Hopkins, Joan Humble, Brian Iddon, Eric Illsley, Glenda Jackson, Helen Jackson, Jon Owen Jones, Lynne Jones, Martyn Jones, David Kidney, Peter Kilfoyle, Mark Lazarowicz, David Lepper, Terry Lewis, Tony Lloyd, Ian Lucas, Iain Luke, John Lyons, Christine McCafferty, John McDonnell, Ann McKechin, Kevin McNamara, Tony McWalter, Alice Mahon, Jim Marshall, Robert Marshall-Andrews, Eric Martlew, Julie Morgan, Chris Mullin, Denis Murphy, Doug Naysmith, Eddie O'Hara, Diana Organ, Albert Owen, Linda Perham, Peter Pike, Kerry Pollard, Gordon Prentice, Gwyn Prosser, Ken Purchase, John Robertson, Joan Ruddock, Martin Salter, Mohammad Sarwar, Malcolm Savidge, Philip Sawford, Brian Sedgemore, Debra Shipley, Alan Simpson, Marsha Singh, Chris Smith, Llew Smith, George Stevenson, Gavin Strang, Graham Stringer, David Taylor, Jon Trickett, Paul Truswell, Desmond Turner, Bill Tynan, Rudi Vis, Joan Walley, Robert Wareing, Alan Whitehead, Alan Williams, Betty Williams, Mike Wood, Tony Worthington, David Wright, Tony Wright, Derek Wyatt

· 16 Tory MPs who backed the rebel amendment were: Peter Ainsworth, Richard Bacon, Tony Baldry, John Baron, Kenneth Clarke, John Gummer, John Horam, Douglas Hogg, Edward Leigh, Humphrey Malins, Andrew Murrison, Richard Page, John Randall, Jonathan Sayeed, Ian Taylor, Andrew Turner

· All 53 Liberal Democrat MPs and 11 other MPs also backed the amendment.

William Booth in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

'WILLIAM BOOTH

FOUNDER & 1ST GENERAL OF

THE SALVATION ARMY

BORN 1829

BORN AGAIN OF THE SPIRIT 1845

FOUNDED THE SALVATION ARMY 1865

WENT TO HEAVEN 20TH AUGUST 1912

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ALSO

CATHERINE BOOTH

THE MOTHER OF THE SALVATION ARMY

BORN 1829

WENT TO HEAVEN 4TH OCTOBER 1890'

'W: BRAMWELL: BOOTH

GENERAL OF

THE SALVATION ARMY

BORN 8TH MARCH 1856

BORN OF THE SPIRIT 1863

PROMOTED TO GLORY 16TH JUNE 1929

Servant of All

AND OF HIS WIFE

FLORENCE E: BOOTH

BORN 12TH SEPTEMBER 1861

BORN OF THE SPIRIT 5TH MAY 1880

PROMOTED TO GLORY 10TH JUNE 1957

They were united in love of God

and the Salvation Army'

Bramwell Booth was William's son who succeeded him, and the links below are to a previous post (plus a later one) I made on William Booth and his birthplace in Nottingham:

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William Booth in Sneinton, Nottingham, England

William Booth Birthplace Museum, Sneinton, Nottingham

Frank C. Bostock in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

'In Ever Loving Memory of

FRANK C. BOSTOCK.BORN SEPTEMBER 10TH. 1866.DIED OCTOBER 8TH. 1912. 

ON THAT HAPPY EASTER MORNING

ALL THE GRAVES THEIR DEAD RESTORE;

FATHER, SISTER, CHILD, AND MOTHER,

                                      MEET ONCE MORE.'

Frank Charles Bostock was a renowned animal trainer and menagerie owner whose career really took off when he shipped his animals over to the USA. It was his lion Wallace who drew a great deal of publicity for Bostock, who in later years became best known for his Coney Island show.

Bostock wrote a book called The Training of Wild Animals (New York: Century Co., 1903), and this gives me a good excuse to post a few photos of another wild animal that followed me around for a short time in Abney Park: this squirrel guy.

William Hones's Grave in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

'THE FAMILY GRAVE OFWILLIAM HONEWHO WAS BORN AT BATHTHE 3RD. OF JUNE A.D. 1780AND DIED AT TOTTENHAMTHE 6TH. OF NOVEMBER A.D. 1842'  William Hone was a writer and bookseller/publisher very much concerned with the injustices of the time and a strong advocate of political reform. His satirical writings against the government ensured that he would be prosecuted for treason, and his Frederick William Hackwood gives a fascinating account of his life in William Hone: His Life and Times (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912). His Wikipedia entry is unreliable: for instance, it states that Hone wrote a book about Elizabeth Fenning, who was wrongly hanged for poisoning her employers, whereas John Watkins in fact wrote the book which Hone edited and no doubt published.

Charles Dickens and Hones's illustrator George Cruickshank attended his funeral.

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William Hone: His Life and Times, by Frederick William Hackwood

Daniel Defoe in Stoke Newington, London

The pub the Daniel Defoe is on Stoke Newington Church Street and remembers its very famous resident.

This is the current pub sign.

And in the pub garden, this is clearly the old pub sign.

The above plaque is immediately opposite, at the side of 95 Stoke Newington Church Street:

'DANIEL

DEFOE

(1661–1731)

Lived in a house

on this site.'

In the link below, a local history website goes to considerable lengths to locate Defoe's house in Stoke Newington.
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Finding Daniel Defoe's House: A Modern Day Detective Story
John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, and William Blake in Bunhill Fields, London

William Patten School Wall, Stoke Newington, London

William Patten School in Stoke Newington, Hackney, dates from 1892, when it was known as Church Street School. But unfortunately I can't discover anything about the (obviously much more recent) artwork on the school wall in Stoke Newington Church Street, which I find quite original and attractive.

A multi-lingual 'Hello' or equivalent.

Various types of food, with three mosaics.

In other places, the content relates to more political matters: 'Unity is strength', 'Knowledge is power', 'Low pay', 'ANL', 'Blair Peach', 'Equal pay', etc, although the meaning of 'Cuts 2+2=1?' escapes me, and I'm unclear if 'Houghton strike' refers to political action or is something to do with sport. Any comments are welcome.

And while the meaning of 'Occupy County Hall' is clear, I have no idea what 'Victory 3. 3. 1982' refers to. Again, suggestions welcome below.