Robinson Crusoe and Friday in Tooting

Norfolk House, Trevelyan Road, Tooting.

 

I noted this some weeks ago, and just had to see it for myself. The blog Faded London, in a post which was also picked up by London Remembers, finds a fascinating 'ghost door' in Trevelyan Road, Tooting, with two faces on the capitals that surely must represent Robinson Crusoe and Friday. Why are they there though, and why 'Norfolk House'? Clive Yelf of Faded London then did some research and found out not only that Daniel Defoe's A Tour Through the Whole Island of  Great Britain mentions that the author was impressed by King's Lynn, but that St Nicholas Chapel in Kings Lynn actually has a tombstone of a Robinson Cruso.* Of course, whatever this tells us it still doesn't tell us what the figures are doing in Tooting, although in a comment to the post a Divine Mrs M says that there's long been a rumour that Defoe once lived in Tooting, and she also reveals that there's a Selkirk Road in Tooting. That of course may be a coincidence, but...

 

*Tour was published between 1724 and 1727: several years after Robinson Crusoe (1719), but then I don't know how long the research took him.

 

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Faded London

John Milton in St Giles without Cripplegate Church: London #23

St Giles without Cripplegate, within the Barbican complex, London.

 

 

John Milton was buried here in 1674. The statue is by Horace Montford.

 

'JOHN MILTON

Author of Paradise Lost

Born Decr. 1608.

Died Novr. 1674.

 

His Father JOHN MILTON,

Died March 1646.

They were both interred in this church.

SAMUEL WHITBREAD posuit 1793.'

 

Under this is an allusion to Paradise Lost: a flaming sword with a snake wrapped around it, an apple in its mouth.

 

Another bust of Milton, this time looking older and frailer.

 

 

The west window of the tower, showing in detail the Milton coat of arms.

 

There is also a bust of Daniel Defoe, who died in the parish in 1731.

 

John Bunyan, who attended the church, is also remembered.

 

'JOHN SPEED

1552–1629

Citizen and Merchant Taylor,

historian and map-maker

who was buried in this Church.

 

This monument, which was

badly damaged in 1940, was

restored by the Worshipful

Company of Merchant Taylors

in 1971.'

 

Below is a link to a related post I made earlier.

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John Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

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

John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, and William Blake in Bunhill Fields, London

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in the borough of Islington is between Bunhill Row to the west, Featherstone Street to the north, and City Road to the east, which is the entrance shown in the above photo. Pevsner called this 'the most celebrated Nonconformist burial ground in England', and it is certainly very unusual that the graves of three famous and major figures of literature can be found within such close proximity.

This monument to John Bunyan (1628–88) is from the 19th century.

'JOHN BUNYAN,

AUTHOR OF THE

PILGRIMS PROGRESS

OBT. 31ST AUGT. 1688,

ÆT. 60.'

An engraving of Pilgrim on the monument.

On the other side of the path, just several paces away, are two more monuments:

This obelisk marks the grave of Daniel Defoe.

'DANIEL DE-FOE.

BORN 1661,

DIED 1731,

AUTHOR OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE.'

'THIS MONUMENT IS THE RESULT OF AN APPEAL

IN THE "CHRISTIAN WORLD" NEWSPAPER

TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF ENGLAND, FOR FUNDS

TO PLACE A SUITABLE MEMORIAL UPON THE GRAVE

OF

DANIEL DE-FOE.

IT REPRESENTS THE UNITED CONTRIBUTIONS

OF SEVENTEEN HUNDRED PERSONS.

SEPR. 1870.'

And right next to Defoe's grave is this monument.

'NEAR BY LIE THE REMAINS OF

THE POET-PAINTER

WILLIAM BLAKE

1757 –– 1827

AND OF HIS WIFE

CATHERINE SOPHIA

1762 –– 1831'

Blake's grave is in fact about 60 feet away from this memorial stone: originally Blake's grave was unmarked, although in 1927, to commemorate the centenary of his death, this stone was placed over his grave. However, the stone was moved here in 1965 when the lawns were created. The Friends of William Blake are now petitioning for a stone to be erected over his grave, and the extremely detailed seven-page link below describes exactly where it is.

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How To Find William Blake's Grave