I’ve always resented the fact that north of the river hogs the London history sections when I browse the bookshops. I’ve always thought that south of the river could do better, and I’ve always known that here we have as much, if not mor,e to offer on many subjects.
For example, south London has countless riveting yarns to tell. Amongst these must be some of the most horrendous murders that both infected and affected the times in which they happened.
Murder affects us all. It is also, to some extent, a reflection of society as it is when it is committed. This is what fascinates me. This was what made me write my book South London Murders. Not all of the murders, although there is enough material to write several more books on them, but a selection of some of the most vivid ones that made an impact on the areas, on the collective consciousness and on the statute books.
Some of them I knew already; The Charles Bravo Case of Balham Priory is one of the ones that regularly crops up. It also remains a mystery. The handsome, vain and rich occupant of The Priory was poisoned by persons unknown – or was he? Victorians took rather large doses of ‘prescribed drugs’, some of which cannot be sold at chemists nowadays – you’d be refused a prescription for them. Another murder involved the chopping up and boiling the parts of the body until the oozy mess was small enough to be put into a box and dumped in the river near Barnes. Then the case of the body found in the woods near Clapham Common Bandstand in 1911… the list was endless!
My first port of call was my extensive library on London, followed by several successful ventures to the London Library in the West End. Then a trawl through the Local History and Archives sections of the South London Boroughs. The archivists were hugely helpful, selecting the areas I had earmarked and showing me exactly where I should look and what other documents could be useful. Trial transcripts were particularly useful in establishing what the accused’s rights were at the time of the murder.
The internet proved hugely useful, particularly the History of Crime websites and specialist bookdealers.
I also needed to get the flavour of the times in which theses murder were committed. I needed a short but intense historical, economical and social lesson. The London Library was the best source for this. It was then time for serious research into the crimes I had selected!
Did you know that the first recorded murder in the annals of Greenwich, let alone London, was the murder of St Alphege in Greenwich in 1016? One of the greatest playwrights, Christopher Marlowe, was murdered in Deptford in 1593 during a quarrel? These and countless others, were to cram the pages. The most horrific murders were to occur in the late 19th century when south London was slowly becoming part of the capital. My great favourite, if one can call it that, because it made me almost cry in indignation and at its horror when I researched about it, was the murder of the infant, John Walter Cowen in Brixton in 1870: the only way teenage girls were able to get rid of their unwanted babies without killing them was to pay self-appointed ‘carers’ to look after them. This is what happened to John Walter Cowen – and his mother paid the price for virtually selling him.
Visits to the areas where the crimes were committed and pictures taken all over South London, in graveyards, churches and streets associated with the crimes proved fascinating, particularly my search for the grave of one Maria Jane Clouson, clubbed to death outside Greenwich. Everyone knew who had killed her but there was no adequate proof. She was buried in a forgotten, overgrown Lewisham cemetery.
South London Murders by Peter de Loriol (Sutton Publishing, available January 2007)