Victorian Middlesex: Bromley by Bow, Poplar, Hackney

• Alfred King Lewis, The Royal Navy, 1840's
• Bargebuilding
• St John at Hackney, ca. 1810
• Wades Place, Poplar
• London slums 19th century
• Thomas John Lewis

Alfred King Lewis was born on 20 Nov. 1818 in Poplar on the Isle of Dogs near the docks in London. His father, Thomas Lewis, was a bricklayer. Little is known of his childhood but writings of the time tell us that Poplar was a tough area even then. Alfred King lived near the West India Docks surrounded by gin palaces, beer halls, and all kinds of services to sailors, including brothels. Poplar was crawling with crimps of various kinds who sent runners to meet sailors off the ships to lure them in. Crimping was the enticing of sailors into cheap lodging houses, getting them drunk and involved in prostitution. Shortly after his birth, in the 1820's missions were set up in the area to save seamen from this exploitation. They cleaned up sailor town by offering better,cheaper, alternative lodgings.

As a child, Alfred King learned to write so he must have had some schooling. He probably spent some time mud-larking along the Thames; collecting coal in the river that had spilled from barges.

EARLY LONDON THE THAMES AND ISLE OF DOGS

Today, the Thames River is quiet and the famous East and West India Docks have been replaced by the tallest building in Europe: Canary Wharf. Few boats ply the shores of the Thames -- even the Tourist River Bus can't find sufficient business to make a profit (it recently shut down). But 176 years ago the Thames was the lifeblood of the capitol and the Docklands rang out with the noise of the city as ships sailed in and out on the tides and the Thames sailing barges or lighters wove amongst them transferring their cargoes to wharves along the water front. Skiffs and wherry's loaded with passengers crossing the Thames added to the bustle of the river. And there were Thames Paddle steamers taking commuters between Dundee Arms, Wapping and Gravesend.

In the early 1800's the Docklands were developed along the Thames. These were large areas of specially dug lagoons, connected at the river by locks, walled in and surrounded by warehouses.

This was a time of dock and warehouse building as the traders of London expanded to meet the increasing trade coming in from Europe, America, the East Indies and China. Thomas Lewis, Alfred's father could have worked building the St. Katherines Dock in the 1820's. This dock was carved out of a heavily populated part of London and was regarded widely at the time as an act of terrible vandalism. No less than 11,300 people were evicted, only those of any substance receiving compensation. These docks are today a quaint tourist centre.

Alfred King Lewis' father, Thomas, might also have worked on the first successful tunnel under the Thames. Nicknamed, The Great Bore, Brunel began this tunnel between Rotherhite and Wapping in 1824 taking 18 years to complete. The tunnel was constructed in much the same way used today in the construction of the Chunnel under the English Channel linking Folkestone and Calais. The tunnel was constructed by forcing an iron cylinder through the ground with men behind bricking up the tunnel as they went.

Most children worked after age 12and Alfred King may have worked with his father as a bricklayer until he became apprenticed. Certainly Alfred King Lewis and his family must have been affected by the living conditions in London at the time. Population was increasing at a rapid rate resulting in greater crowding, poorer living conditions and unsanitation. The drinking water came primarily from the Thames and this was so fetid that it resulted in the first epidemic of Asiatic cholera in 1832 which is believed to have killed 5,300 Londoners. However, at the time no-one linked the cholera with the drinking water!

LEARNING HIS TRADE: BARGE BUILDING

At the age of 18, on 7 November 1836, Alfred King Lewis was apprenticed as a barge builder to James Cornwell in West Ham in Essex. James Cornwell is listed in the 1837 London commercial Directory as a Carpenter at 33 York J. (Commercial Rd) . This was to be a seven year apprenticeship, however, 4 years later on Nov. 10 1840, Alfred Kings' apprentice papers were purchased by Wm. Goodchild, a bargebuilder at Windmill Row in Poplar .

Barge-building was central to the Commercial trade of Britain. Alfred King could have learned to make Thames Sailing Barges. It is said that the Thames Sailing Barge could sail wherever a duck could swim, as they were flat-bottomed, with no keel. Lee-boards, which hung like hinged fins from either side of the hull, prevented them drifting in the wind. Some of the larger barges would go out to sea, down to Cornwall to bring back china clay. Some would make trips to the continent, but most plied the Thames, supplying London with hay in the days of horse-drawn traffic and taking manure out.

Alfred King may also have built traditional barges. These barges were known as lighters because they would draw up next to a ship and take off goods to lighten the load. Lighters were large vessels with no motor or sail. They were moved by the force of the tide. The lighter man merely steered the barge using enormously long oars.

Alfred King Lewis did not work for William Goodchild for long as the following August, he journeyed down to Sheerness, Kent and signed on to the Paddle Sloop Styx newly built for the Royal Navy.

After serving seven years, Alfred King left the Royal Navy and resumed his occupation of barge builder. When he returned to London in 1848, many things had changed. The railways were replacing canal and river traffic, thus reducing the need for new barges. Victoria Park, in Hackney had opened in 1845. Alfred King married Mary Ann Kendall who was three years his junior and settled down in Pulchess Cottage on the Old Ford Road near Victoria Park in the Tower Hamlets area. He took up his old trade of boat barge building (probably working in Regent Canal) . They soon had a daughter, Caroline Eliza born 17 July 1851.

The country at that time was marked by incredible wealth and poverty. This was the reign of Victoria and Alfred: Victorian England. Alfred King may have found things a bit dull after his years in the Navy. There were no restaurants until the 1860's and everyone ate at home. Chop houses, coffee houses and coaching inns were considered unsuitable for ladies. Shops were small and independent. They were open all hours and allowed credit and delivered. Food shops were the most numerous but not bakeries. Most bread was baked at home and milk and dairy were delivered. In the 1850's labourers had 80-90 hour work weeks. The streets were alive with costermongers dealing in fruit, vegetable and fish with barrows on rounds.

The East End of London where Hackney, Bromley and Poplar are located has always been a rough area. And so it was in the 1850's. On Saturday night and Sunday morning the poor did their shopping. They could buy anything on the streets: hot eels, pickled whelks, sheep trotters. Itinerants sold fly papers, cutlery, old clothes, rat poison. There were dog sellers, bird sellers, blind selling matches or needles. The entertainments of the day included acrobats, jugglers, conjurers, singers, Punch and Judy men and strong men.

Social conditions in London were such that there was great danger of cholera due to the foulness of the Thames. Just after returning to London in 1848-49 there were further cholera outbreaks. It wasn't until the Metropolis Water Act of 1852 that water supplies were filtered and covered over. Even then the people of East London were still unable to obtain decent water supplies. Sewage was another major problem of the day. Until 1855 there was no centralised system for carrying sewage out of town and it was dumped unfiltered and unprocessed into the Thames.

Things did not go well for Alfred King. His wife, Mary Ann died 1 December 1855, of Morbis Cordis perhaps contracted in childbirth or due to the unsanitary conditions.

Eliza Fenn, from Woodbridge, Suffolk came to Hackney. She may have stayed with Samuel Fenn, a Corn chandler and Stabler, on Morning Lane in Hackney. Alfred King and Eliza met and fell in love. They set banns in the local Parish Church of Hackney and were married August 1856 by Thad.O. Goodchild. He and Eliza lived at 20 Roman Road (although listed on their marriage certificate as living at Morning lane, Hackney). Witnessing the wedding were Richard Harrison and Ann Mace.

Lithograph of St John's Church, Middlesex, ca 1850

Thomas John (TJ) Lewis was born on Maundy Thursday, 9 April 1857 while Alfred King and Eliza were living at 20 Roman Road, Bromley by Bow, Middlesex, England. Alfred King Lewis, age 39, was still working as a journeyman barge builder.

Bow is on the east side of London or Middlesex as it then was. If you have a map showing the main road east out of London, Mile End Road - Bow Road - and then Stratford High Street after it crosses the river. There is a junction Grove Road/Burdett Road, the west boundary of Bow is just to the west of this, on the canal. The east boundary is the River Lea. North it's bounded by Victoria Park and on the south by St Pauls Way/Devons Road.

The London Encyclodedia, Ed.Weinreb & Hibbert, says: "Bow. E3. An important bridgehead on the main road from London to Essex over the River Lea. The crossing used by the Romans at Old Ford had become inadequate and too dangerous by the early 12th century, so the highway was diverted further to the south (now the Whitechapel, Mile End and Bow Roads). Maud, the wife of Henry I, is said to have had the original stone bridge built here. Shaped like a bow, it gave the area its name, and has been rebuilt many times, most recently in 1973. Bow became a centre for the unloading of goods, especially grain, brought down the River Lea from Hertfordshire for the London market. A Milling industry grew up along this part of the river, and by 1311 Bow was sufficiently populated to have its own chapel. St.Mary's was enlarged in the 15th century but Bow did not become a parish separated from St.Dunstan Stepney until 1719. The church in Bow Road is the only relic of the former medieval village that once surrounded it."

Alfred King Lewis became quite ill in 1858, possibly from an illness caught in the China sea but most likely from the poor sanitary conditions in Poplar at the time. He died of phthisis (tuberculosis) at 7 Wades Place, Poplar on 20 Sept. 1860. Eliza Fenn Lewis, his bride of just two years was by his side. TJ Lewis was staying with his grandparents in Woodbridge. The population of London continued to swell. In 1861 some 2,800,000 people lived in London.

Eliza Fenn Lewis later remarried to a George Newton and had additional children. Tj Lewis lived a rough life on the streets of London. Children did shoe blacking or crossing sweeping or collected cigar ends, horse droppings to sell by the pail full to tanneries. There were a great number of very young boys engaged in petty theft. Orphans learned to pick pockets and were into crime. Young girls went from theft to prostitution by age 12. Drunkenness was a terrible problem. There was terrible debauchery and violence outside pubs on Saturday nights.

TJ Lewis ran away to sea at a very young age and shipped aboard a British Merchant man. He may have been following in his fathers footsteps. It is fairly clear that he wanted to get away from his step-father. Alternately, his stepfather may have signed him aboard a merchant ship at age 12 to get money. As we know, Thomas John did not like life at sea and jumped ship in San Francisco in 1871 at the age of 14. He met and married Agatha Olanie, a refugee from Alsace Lorraine in France and they later settled in Kitsap County, Washington Territory.