The Blasted Heath

Osugi Sakae was a Japanese anarchist  murdered by the military police after the great earthquake in 1923. He has left behind his The Autobiography of Osugi Sakae (University of California Press, translation into English by Byron K. Marshall) which stands not only as a an important document  for the development of the revolutionary movement, but as a fine literary work.

Osugi is particularly evocative on the subject of prison, which he experienced several times because of his beliefs, and of food.

Here is an especially fine passage:
""There it is—where you're all going."

Labels: anarchism, food, Japan, Osugi Sakae, prison, Rice, white rice

Labels: Alleys, Courts, Land grabs, Lanes, London, Stopping up orders

Labels: Alleys, Courts, Dominic Pinto, Land grabs, Lanes

Labels: Black Lion Yard, East End, East London, Green Dragon Yard, Jacob A. Riis, Kings Arms Court

Among so many streets as there are in the city it is little wonder that there is one that has never been seen before; it is named Go-by Street and runs out of the Strand if you look very closely.

A Shop in Go-By Street, Lord Dunsany

Labels: Arthur Machen, London, Lord Dunsany

One of the many alleys, courts and lanes that are under attack in London, in the sense that though apparently public passageways, borough councils have allowed them to be colonised, and then blocked off or gated,  is Dunn's Passage.  The UCL Bloomsbury Project says that it is "also known as Dums Alley/Drum Alley/Dumb's Alley" and that it lies in south east Bloomsbury, running originally from High Holborn north to Hyde Street, and now running from High Holborn to New Oxford Street. It was there in 1720 and regularly appears, unnamed,, on maps.

As to the controversy over its name, Dunn was presumed to have been a local landowner, though it should be remarked that it is immediately opposite Smart's Buildings and Smart's Place  on the other side of High Holborn.

At first it is recorded on maps as having no residential buildings on either side. by the middle of the 19th century there was a Catholic Ragged School with 1000 children as its pupils. This was opened by Frederick William Faber in 1851. There was also a leather goods factory in the alley.

It managed to survive the development of New Oxford Street in the 1840s. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1867-1870 depicts it as a very tiny alleyway -information from UCL Bloomsbury Project Page 



www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/streets/dunns_passage.htm


"Dumb's Alley in Holborn"  the headquarters of The Silent Club, supposedly 

founded in 1694, is mentioned in a skit by Joseph Addison in the Guardian 

journal , no 121. This gives credence to the alley originally having this name. 

The cartridge maker George Bussey was active here as can be seen in this entry for him:


He first appeared in the London directories in 1855 when he was classified as 

a gun case maker at 173 High Holborn. The following year he moved to Arthur  

Street, St Giles, where he took out his first patent for an improved method of 

holding and carrying cartridges. He stayed there until 1859 when he moved to 

154A High Holborn and 485 New Oxford Street. Adjacent to, perhaps 

connecting, these two premises, was a narrow alley called Dunn's Passage 

where he installed his first factory. It was from "Dunn's Passage Factory" that 

he applied for his second patent for cartridge carriers.

www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/images/8/84/George_Bussey.pdf

The London Catholic Ragged School, run by the Servite Sisters, and payrolled

by the rich benefactor Anthony Hutchison appears to have moved into the 

factory, now disused, in 1852. It had 1,000 poor  children, mainly of Irish 

origin,  as pupils.It moved from Dunn's Passage in 1858.

At the top of the alley once stood the Bull's Head Inn. Dunn's Passage is now 

stopped up at both ends. It no longer features on London A-Zs.

Outside of the City of London, another neighbourhood that has many alleys

and passageways is Clerkenwell. St John's Path comes to mind as does

Jerusalem Passage and  Passing Alley. This  alley, like Dunn's Passage, 

originally went under other names.It runs between St. John's Lane and St. 

John Street. It appears on an old map as Pissing Alley, and like many such 

alleys, was used as a public urinal in previous centuries. The name was 

bowdlerised in Victorian times. Despite still retaining mephitic odours as in 

days of yore, Passing or Passing Alley is a very fine passageway indeed and 

all the better for not being gated.

Labels: Clerkenwell, Dumb's Alley, Dunn's Passage, George Bussey, holborn, London catholic Ragged School, New oxford street, Passing alley, Pissing Alley

This is probably a cliche by now, but always look up when you are wandering. Here's a little example, which you could carry out yourself, not necessarily in the same order.

Stand at the northern end of Leicester Square. Look straight ahead and up, and then move your gaze to the left. after this direct your vision to the left and pan along the top of the Square until you have Cranbourn Strret and the Vue Cinema in your sights. Repeat this experiment facing south at the southern end of the Square. By the way,  did you know that the centre of the square with its lawns has its own name-Leicester Fields and that duels were once frequently fought there?

No matter how uninviting or foul smelling or sinister they might be, always make sure you go into any alley, court, narrow lane or passage you see. I have rarely been disappointed by the discoveries I have made. Do it soon, because increasingly many of these byways are being stopped up and privatised.

Finally always enter upon your wander, ramble, or drift or whatever you want to call it with a sense of adventure, playfulness, wonder and enquiry, if you like with the eyes of a child. Happy Blind Chivvying! ( See my entry on Blind Chivvy for April 5, 2005).

Labels: Blind chivvy, Leicester Fields, Leicester Square, London, Psychogeography, wandering

Labels: Greek Court, Little Compton Street, Rimbaud, Soho, Verlaine

Wilton Road, like the rest of the neighbourhood surrounding Victoria Station, is undergoing great changes. The fine cafe, the Wilton Snack Bar, stood on a corner at 78 Wilton Road. Road. It was described on the Classic Cafes website as "splendid "plain" cafe in the heart of Victoria: top sign, powder blue marbleised flooring, neat rosewood and black leatherette booths. Very cramped." and in the book London Caffs by Edwin Heathcote we can read about the "Big orange letters of the sign..the orange pendant globe lights in the window...the slender blue mosaic-tiled columns...the terrazzo tiled floors ...the brown leatherette and timber banquettes". Next to the big orange letters on the shop front you could read the motif: "Large selection of sandwiches to eat here or take away". Alas this wonderful caff has gone the way of many of its kin, and has suffered gutting and its replacement by a mediocre Mexicon food joint, Taquitos. The same fate has befallen its neighbour, the delightful Italian Restaurant around the corner at Rochester Row, where you could always be assured of a cheery Cockney-Italian welcome. Classic Cafes describes it in the following lines: "A real find. A great local in a brilliant little enclave off Victoria. Curvilinear counter in impressive beige dates from 1953. Classic b&w Formica wall covering. Absolutely superb."

Another feature of Wilton Road that has also made a disappearance is the mysterious street sign of, I seem to recall, Hindon Place, over an arched entrance to some flats at number 64. There is no street there at all, but investigation reveals that once Hindon Place led off of Wilton Road and that according to George Laurence Gomme in his London in the Reign of Victoria 1837-1897, published in 1898,  Hindon Place  (along with other Westminster streets like , Ship Court, Garden Place, Kine Court, and Pond Place)were destroyed "with their cottages, and gardens enclosed with wooden palings". Now the sign too has gone the way of those little Arcadian enclaves. ( I will be returning to the subject of disappeared London streets very soon).

One solace that Wilton Road offers is that the Le Monde clothes shop is still going strong at number 79. The window is crammed full of an enormous range of caps, trilbys, bowlers and other headgear in all manner of colours and patterns. They also sell second hand canes there! You can see one in the window. Perhaps the spirit of Padre Pio in the nearby shop dedicated to him on Vauxhall Bridge Road performed miracles, making the lame cast away their canes. You can also buy traditional suits and jackets and a range of garish sweaters. I once purchased three pairs of excellent pimp-style silk socks here.

Returning to the subject of Padre Pio, I remember from my Catholic childhood how the Catholic weekly , The Universe, used to boost the reputation of the Italian priest Padre Pio, who apparently suffered the stigmata just like St Francis, with bleeding holes right through both his hands and feet. The high camp and rococco shop front features rows of figurines of the Virgin Mary and of Padre Pio and you can read the slogan " Trust God's Mother Luke 1:48 Pray The Rosary Wear Her Scapular". The shop is full of Padre Pio medals, Padre Pio candles and so on and a life size statue of him stands in the back of the shop. There is a chapel in the basement and a service is celebrated here every day. In addition the rosary is recited regularly here, for example any transactions stopping automatically at 3 pm for such a recitation!! The shop also apparently possesses a pair of Pio's blood stained white gloves!!

Recently I was walking nearby of an early evening when I observed an old woman, hump backed and her body bent forward and sideways, standing for at least five minutes outside the front door of the closed shop. Was she asking Pio for divine intervention?

Labels: Le Monde shop, Lost streets of London, Padre Pio, Pimlico, Victoria, Wilton Road