| THE NORWOOD OF YESTERDAY
by Ben Murray (an ex-resident of Ravensroost)
Most of the land in Norwood originally belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury and the Whitehorse family, whose name is commemorated in some local roads. James Thomson, the eighteenth century poet, extolled Norwood's oak-clad hill, "where meditation has her fill." These oaks were a valuable source of timber for the Deptford shipbuilders, and two of Sir Francis Drake's ships, the Revenge and The Golden Hind in which he circumnavigated the globe, were both built from Norwood trees. The woods were the haunts of gypsies! and some of the local roads and pubs are named after them. They were also the haunt of smugglers! who brought contraband goods from the South Coast, as well as footpads the historical counterparts of today's muggers) and charcoal burners. John Evelyn, the seventeenth century diarist. was once dragged from his horse and robbed by some of them, and even Dick Turpin is said to have once gone into hiding in Leather Bottle Lane, now known as Spa Hill. The gypsies remained in the area until the middle of the last century. Margaret Finch, the Queen of the Gypsies who lived to be over one hundred and smoked a pipe, had sat so long that when she finally died in 1709, she had to be buried in a deep rectangular box. Despite the footpads, the people of London sought refuge in the woods from the Great Plague of 1665, and even in the 1840's there was a local mansion called Smugglers Hall. There were frequent complaints from London and also from the Archbishops of Canterbury in their palace at Canterbury about the smoke from charcoal burning. Two hunting lodges still survive in Church Road and remnants of the Great North Wood are believed to be Beaulieu Heights and The Lawns at the back of Ravensroost. Beulah Hill was once a gravel path across Croydon Common. The name is probably derived from Bewlys Coppice, and from the early part of the nineteenth century it developed into a fine road lined with villas and mansions, a few of which still survive. These include Innisfail, and part of St. Joseph's College, once known as Grecian villa. Ravensroost is on the site of three large Victorian houses. Norwood was famed for what was described as the salubrity of its air, and the beauty of its surroundings with smiling villas and blooming flower gardens." In the early part of the nineteenth century, Thomas Attwood, a pupil of Mozart and organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, lived at Roselawn in Beulah Hill, a house which survived until the 1960's, and Mendelssohn visited him there when he visited this country. Beulah Hill in particular inspired several of Mendelssohn’s compositions. His "Evening Bell" was written as the result of the coachman who was to take him back to London. ringing the doorbell when he arrived at Roselawn. The bell is still in existence. Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor to Springfield on the corner of Beulah Hill and Biggin Hill. He is said to have written some of "David Copperfield" under the cedar tree in the grounds. The house was demolished 76 years ago, but the cedar tree is still there behind a modern house. Dickens was supposed to have Springfield in mind when he described the first meeting between David Copperfield and Dora Spendlow, and the runaway coach incident is believed to have been down Knight’s Hill. Some maintain that Dickens also had All Saint's Church in mind for the wedding of Dora and David Copperfield, but others believe it to have been St. Luke's Church in West Norwood. Little Menlo, Beulah Hill, the site of which is now flats! was the home of Col. George Gourand. He was Thomas Edison's representative in this country and named his house after Menlo Park, where Edison had his new Jersey laboratory. Little Menlo was the first house in this country to have a telephone, and also the first to have a gramophone - one of Edison's early phonographs. Charles Hadden Spurgeon, the famous Victorian Baptist preacher lived at Westwood, and the present school was built in the grounds. The grounds of Ravensroost back on to the woodland known as The Lawns. This was the site of the famous Beulah Spa, which was converted into a health resort and place of entertainment by Decimus Burton, who in 1825 designed the new layout for Hyde Park and the triumphal arch at Hyde Park Corner. It was opened in 1831 by the Countess of Essex who lived at Essex Lodge, Central Hill, and was patronised by royalty, and by the rich and famous. Mrs Fitzherbert, actress wife of George IV was a visitor, so was the Duke of Gloucester, brother of William IV. Queen Victoria and her children, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, who planted a tree there, visited the Spa. Edward VII also made visits to Norwood, and he was a frequent caller at the White Lodge now known as 'The Heights') at the top of South Norwood Hill, to see his friend the actress Lily Langtry. A play was written about the Spa; Punch lampooned it and there was a popular song called "I met her at Beulah Spa." There was even a plan to build a town of Beulah, with a crescent that would rival the one at Bath. but the plan was eventually abandoned. There were parking problems even then, for when Field Marshal Soult. one of Napoleon’s generals visited the Spa, the carriages stretched from All Saints Church back to Crown Point! The Beulah Spa Hotel, where the present pub stands, had its own supply of Spa water, as had Westwood. But all that remains of the Spa now is Tivoli Lodge at the top of Spa Hill where the entrance once was. A mansion called The Lawns was built on part of the site, and used to house homeless families towards the end of the Second World War, but in the 1960's it was pulled down after a fire. Apart from St James Church, All Saints Church was only the second church to be built in the Croydon area. The foundation stone was laid by Viscountess Falkland in 1829. She and her husband Viscount Falkland lived at what is now Spurgeon's College in South Norwood Hill. The estate was eventually broken up and houses built on it, but one of its lodges survives at the top of Grange Hill. All Saints Church is 378 feet above sea level, one of the highest points around London, and it is said that on a clear day its steeple can be seen from Harrow. Buried in All Saints Church is Admiral Robert Fitzroy, a meteorologist, a pioneer of weather forecasting, and the inventor of the Fitzroy barometer. He commanded the ship The Beagle, in which Charles Darwin, at the time the official naturalist to the government, was making his observations which led to the book 'The Origin of Species'. The Queen's Hotel in Church Road was built in 1860 and was once the largest privately owned hotel in the country. It was patronised by royalty: the Emperor Frederick and Empress of Germany stayed there. She was Victoria, the daughter of Queen Victoria. Their son was the First World War Kaiser, who praised the air of Norwood, and had apartments at the Hotel from 1900 until 1906, and Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark also stayed there. Other famous guests included the French novelist Emile Zola, who had to leave France because of his defence of Dreyfus. It was at the Queen's hotel that a telegram came for him saying it was safe to return to France. so ending his exile. His correspondence was so vast that the staff of the Westow Street post office suspected him of being a spy. Camille Pissarro, the French impressionist painter was another famous Norwood resident. He fled to this country during the Franco-Prussian war with his mistress and their family. They were married at Croydon Register Office. He lodged where the National Westminster Bank used to stand in Westow Hill, (now a firm of chartered accountants) and there is a plaque on the wall commemorating his stay there. The family later lived off Palace Road. Pissarro painted a number of local scenes, and one of the, which hangs in the National Gallery is believed to be of Fox Hill. Logie Baird, one of the pioneers of television, conducted experiments from the south tower of the Crystal Palace, where in the thirties, coloured television pictures could be viewed on a tiny screen. The famous Beulah Spa by Colin Evans |
