CRIME TOUR LONDON

The Krays were pair of  gangsters who became the most infamous of all the  East End  and bizarrely sought out the society of celebrities . Eventually, both twins ended up convicted with life sentences for murder and the whole story came to its grim conclusion when Reggie Kray’s funeral cortege passed by the Carpenters’ on its way down Cheshire St on 11th October 2000. A visit to the East End opens an often unexpected window into British life. Five-hundred years ago the area became home to London's smelly, dirty trades; breweries, slaughter houses and factories were all established downwind of the wealthier West End. The working-class poor who labored at such industry swiftly earned the area a reputation for criminality, and American author Jack London described it as "outcast London."kray school below That notoriety was cemented by the Whitechapel "Jack the Ripper" murders in the late 1880s and the Kray twins' gangland empire of the 1960s.
 Reggie and Ronnie Kray ruled the East End underworld like feudal lords, and many of the locations made famous by their escapades still remain and can be visited. 
Although 178 Vallance Road in Bethnal Green -- where the twins grew up -- has long since been demolished, the road itself is still there, as is their first school, Wood Close in Brick Lane. The twins owned The Speakeasy Club (thespeakeasyclub.com) at 48 Margaret Street, which hosted performances by The Beatles, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and The Who. The Speakeasy Club was a late-night haunt for the music industry from 1966 to the late 1970s. The club was managed by Laurie O'Leary (a lifelong friend of the Kray twins) from 1968 to 1977 and Roy Flynn, who was also the first manager of Yes.
 Known in the business as "The Speak", it included a restaurant and music room. The club took its name and theme from the speakeasies of the American Prohibition era, but in 1967 it changed its theme to an Indian pavilion. Since the club was frequented by record industry and artist agency executives it attracted bands who played for low fees in the hope of being spotted and who would form the basis of the emerging British rock scene as well as international touring bands. The Who refer to the club in their song "Speakeasy" ("Speakeasy, drink easy, pull easy") from the album The Who Sell Out (1967), as does Elvis Costello in his song "London's Brilliant Parade" from the album Brutal Youth (1994).Ronnie Kray was drinking either in The Lion  The Widows Pub on Tapp Street when he heard George Cornell, a member of a rival gang, was on his territory.below capenters arms then and now, a kray owned pub. He was driven home to get a gun, then went to the Blind Beggar pub at 337 Whitechapel Road where he murdered Cornell. Although Bow Street Magistrates at 28 Bow Street is now a hotel, the building still looks much as it did when the Krays were charged there. Insider fact: Oscar Wilde was also a reluctant guest. St Mathews Church at Hereford Street hosted horse-drawn funeral services for Reggie and Ronnie Kray that famously brought the East End to a halt. Detrain from the Tube at Whitechapel.

victorian reforms

In Italy today many are calling for revolution as the government create  new economic problems every day for the people and the poor.As we drift back to what the Victorian worker experience in his period it well to remember exactly what the period was as regards its impact on the working class and the poor.
There is a general feeling present within most people's minds today that the Victorian age was one of total misery and alienation where people's lives were subjected to constant abjecation to the needs of capitalism and that of the British Empire, much of this might be true but it was also an age where reforms were carried out for diverse reasons,some because of genuine concern as regards the workers and poor classes and others because of the need to forstall revolution. Marx had said that the first worker revolution would come in the industrialised countries, he thought that no one could withstand the lives that the workers led in the United Kingdom. He was wrong revolution came in a peasant Russia.
 The Russians did not carry out reforms and so the revolution came . All revolutions only happen because of one thing , that of dire and unlivable circumstances. The French and the Russian are examples.Both of these revolutions were followed up with blood thirty vendetaas on the part of the workers and the poor, the French one the more bloody of all.
 The main reforms were made principally by Gladstone and Disraeli. But both wanted all reforms to be gradual. The idea of reforms was to have an educated work force and to avoid revolt or revolution.These reforms created one of the most advanced states in the world compared to what was happening worldwide 

Victoria’s reign (1827-1901) was an age of important reforms in the political and social fields.
The three Reform Acts:
* (1832) First Act abolished rotten boroughs, redistributed seats on a more equitable basis in the counties, and extended the right to vote to any man owning a household worth £10. For many conservatives, the effect of this act was revolutionary.A rotten, decayed, or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament.

A rotten borough was an election borough with a very tiny population, often small enough that voters could be personally bribed. These boroughs had often been assigned representation when they were large cities, but the borough boundaries were never updated as the town's population declined. For example, in the 12th century Old Sarum had been a busy cathedral city but was abandoned when Salisbury was founded nearby; despite this, Old Sarum retained its two members. Many such rotten boroughs were controlled by peers who gave the seats to their sons, other relations or friends; they had additional influence in Parliament because they held seats themselves in the House of Lords.

Pocket boroughs were boroughs that could effectively be controlled by a single person who owned most of the land in the borough. As there was no secret ballot at the time, the landowner could evict residents who did not vote for the person he wanted.

In the 19th century there were moves toward reform. This political movement was successful with the Reform Act 1832, which disfranchised the 57 rotten boroughs and redistributed representation in Parliament to new major population centres. The Ballot Act of 1872 enacted a secret ballot, making vote bribery impossible as the briber has no way of knowing how the person voted.

* (1867) Reform Act extended the right to vote to all settled male tenants (the electors were two millions in England and Wales). Before the Act, only one million of the five million adult males in England and Wales could vote; the act doubled that number. In its final form, the Reform Act of 1867 enfranchised all male householders and compounding was also subsequently abolished in the process. However, there was little redistribution of seats; and what there was had been intended to help the Conservative Party . The idea of giving workers the vote may have been simply that of making them feel a part of society thius enabling them to feel they were also running the country or contributing to it. This of course may have been very far from the truth.
* (1884) The Act and the 1885 Redistribution Act tripled the electorate again, giving the right to vote to most agricultural labourers.
Women weren’t granted voting rights until the Act of 1918, which enfranchised all men over 21 and women over 30.Most women were considered to have a lack of understanding in things that needed real logic and contemplation and one gets the feeling at least myself that the powers that were thought that the vote would have been wasted on them, and of course women were not seen as a threat. Government and the powers that were had been shaken by huge mass meetings of workers, one of which on Kennington Common had drawn over a million workers.

The factory act 

The Factory Act (1833) prevented children from being employed more than 48 hours a week and no person under eighteen could work more than 69 hours a week. Adult workers, however, continued to work long hours and remained unprotected by the State until 1847, when the Ten Hours’ Act limited the working hours to ten a day for all workers. 

In 1862 the Mines Act banned women and children under 10 from working in mines. Poor law amendement act

The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) refused outdoor relief to those people who could not support themselves by admitting them to a workhouse.Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. This removed the political disabilities imposed on non-Anglican Protestants by legislation passed in 1673 and 1661 respectively. Following the repeal of these Acts, Dissenters could sit in parliament and participate in local government. The Act changed the Anglican constitution into a Protestant constitution.

1829        Catholic Emancipation Act. This controversial legislation allowed Catholics to sit as MPs for the first time since the Elizabethan Act of Settlement (1558/9). The Act was passed by Wellington's government despite huge opposition; the constitution now became Christian but non-denominational.
Metropolitan Police Act. This was the culmination of the work of Robert Peel to establish a civilian, unarmed police force. It was the foundation of policing in Great Britain and was based on his work in Ireland.

1831        (Hobhouse) Factory Act. This was the third Factory Act, its predecessor being the 1801 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act and the 1819 Factory Act. Hobhouse's Act forbade night work for persons under the age of 21.

1832        Reform Act. It took almost two years for this Act to reach the Statute Books and brought Britain to the verge of revolution. The Reform Act was the first systematic change to the constitution; it extended the franchise to include those who did not own landed property and was the first of a series of constitutional changes.

1833        Factory Act. Passed by the Whig government, this Act was an attempt to regulate the working hours of women and children. It left much to be desired but was a step towards government regulation of working conditions.
Abolition of Slavery Act. This was the culmination of a lengthy campaign that had begun during the 18th Century. The legislation was finalised by the Jamaica Act of 1839.
first Education grant. Although not a piece of legislation, the grant of £20,000 for the provision of schools was the first time that the goverment had involved itself in education in any way. The first Education Act did not reach the Statute Books until 1870.

1834        Poor Law Amendment Act. Following the 1832 Reform Act, the PLAA was intended to reduce the poor rates; it was not intended to help the poor who suffered as a result of the legislation. The PLAA replaced the existing poor laws and was responsible for the establishment of workhouses throughout the country. The poor were treated as criminals and people starved rather than apply for poor relief because that meant that they would become inmates of the dreaded "poor law bastilles".

1835        The Municipal Corporations Act was a local government version of the 1832 Reform Act. It made existing municipal corporations more answerable to the electors and allowed other towns to apply for incorporation.

1836        Civil Marriages Act: after the passing of this law, non-Anglicans were able to marry either in their own Church or in Registry Offices. The Church of England lost its monopoly over marriage services
Tithe Commutation Act: this provided for the payment of tithes to the Church of England in cash, depending on the price of wheat.
reduction of Stamp Duty. The Government's decision to reduce the stamp duty was primarily due to the success of the "war of the unstamped", and in 1836 the duty was reduced from 4d to 1d, in order to take the unstamped newspapers off the streets while allowing legal newspapers wider circulation.

1837        Registration Act (of Births, Marriages and Deaths). Although the 1833 Factory Act restricted working hours for young people, there was no means of telling the age of a person since no official records existed. Anglican churches had to recorde baptisms, marriages and burials but there were few records for non-Anglicans. This legislation made it compulsory for all births, marriages and deaths to be registered at a Registry Office; certificates were issued for each event and a second copy was retained at Somerset House in London. The administration of this Act was within the remit of the Poor Law Commission.

1838        Irish Poor Law Amendment Act. After a Commission reported that the 'importation' of the English 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act was inappropriate for Ireland, the government brought in its own "experts" and the 1834 PLAA was passed for Ireland. It was implemented just before the outbreak of the potato blight and proved to be inadequate to meet the crisis.

1839        The Jamaica Act finalised the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act, setting the remaining slaves and apprentices free in the British colonies.
The Rural Constabularies Act extended the 1829 Metropolitan Police Act and required counties to establish their own police forces. The Act was passed in the face of Chartist activity.

1840        Penny Post. This was the idea of Sir Rowland Hill. Prior to this, recipients paid for any letters that were sent to them. Hereafter, the sender attached an adhesive, pre-paid label to any items that were posted. The most famous 'stamp' of this period is the Penny Black.

1842        Railway Act. This first piece of railway legislation was mainly a safety Act to ensure that railways ran safe services. New lines had to be inspected by the Board of Trade, which could demand traffic returns and inquire into accidents.
The Mines Act prohibited the employment of all females and boys under 10 years old from working underground in mines.

1844        The Railway Act ("Parliamentary Train Act") followed Gladstone's Committee of inquiry into railway policy. By this law, the government assumed the absolute right to take control of all railways in times of national emergency and to fix fares and freight charges. It also said that railway companies had to provide a minimum service of one train each day each way, travelling at not less than 12 miles per hour and stopping at every passenger station, charging no more than 1d. per mile for third class passengers.
Bank Charter Act. This Act tied the issue of bank notes to the Bank's gold reserves and required it to keep the accounts of the note issue separate from those of its banking operations. The Bank of England had to produce a weekly summary of both accounts.
This Factory Act legislated only for textile factories and was the successor to the 1833 Factory Act. It said that women and young persons (13-18) were to work no more than 12 hours per day; children under 13 were to work no more than 6½ hours per day and no child under 8 was to be employed.
The Companies Act aimed to prevent 'reckless speculation' and to prevent the establishment of dubious compaines by making it compulsory for all companies to be registered officially. The companies also had to issue prospectuses and publish accounts regularly.

1846        Repeal of the Corn Laws. The Corn Laws had been passed in 1815 and had raised the price of wheat artificially, leading to an economic depression. A concerted campaign for the repeal of the Corn Laws had been going on since 1838. Consequent upon the repeal, the career of Sir Robert Peel was terminated.
Gauges Act. This was another piece of railway legislation that prohibited the extension of the 7' gauge, except on the Great Western Railway and said that a third line of 4' 8½' had to be laid where 7' track met 4' 8½" line.

1847         Factory Act. Yet another piece of compromise legislation by the Whig government, this so-called '10-Hour Act' said that women and children between the ages of 13 and 18 could work a maximum of ten hours a day or 58 hours a week. The precise times of work were not set down and the 'relay' or shift system survived. Working hours for men were left untouched.
Poor Law Act. This Act followed on from the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and replaced the Poor Law Commission with a Poor Law Board headed by a government Minister. Poor releif became more responsible to parliamentary control.

1848        Public Health Act. This was the first piece of legislation that attempted to deal with issues of public health. However, it was permissive rather than compulsory in towns other than Municipal Corporations. The Act established a central Board of Health and allowed Local Boards of Health to be set up if more than 10% of the population petitioned for one. No central inspection was required for authorities that had Boards of Health outside the legislation. Towns where the death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000 were obliged to set up a Board of Health.

1849        Repeal of the Navigation Acts. These laws had been introduced in the Seventeeth Century and said that goods being imported into Britain and her colonies had to be carried either in British ships or the ships of the country where the goods had origin. The laws had been modified during the 1820s but finally they were repealed.

1850        Factory Act. The law dealt only with textile factories. Women and young persons (13-18 years old) were to work in factories only between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. or 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. but working hours were raised from 10 to 10½ per day.
Coal Mines Inspection Act. The 1842 Mines Act had not dealt with safety in the mines; this legislation attempted to rectify that omission. More inspectors were provided to enforce the 1842 Act and were to produce reports of conditions and safety standards in the mines. The coal mine owners opposed all attempts to regulate conditions in the mines and many of these men sat in the House of Lords; one of the most influential was the Marquis of Londonderrry who owned many of the coal mines in the north east of England, particularly around Durham.

1851        Ecclesiastical Titles Act. In 1850 Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy in Britain, giving the Catholic Church a hierarchy like that of all Catholic countries.Th Ecclesiastical Titles Act was an anti-Catholic measure intended to prevent the newly createdCatholic dioceses from taking existing Anglican diocesan names. Ironically, many of the Anglican dioceses had continued to use established Catholic names after the Reformation. The law was repealed by Gladstone in 1871.

1855        Abolition of stamp duties on newspapers. In June the final remaining penny of the British newspaper duty was removed and in September the Daily Telegraph appeared at the price of 1d. For the British working man, the newspaper became what reformers in the 1830s had predicted: 'the readiest, the commonest, the chief vehicle of knowledge'.

1856        County and Borough Police Act. The Metropolitan Police was established in 1829; in 1839 the Rural Constabularies Act was passed. This third piece of legislation obliged the counties to organise police forces, subject to government control and devised a system of inspection already in use in factories, workhouses and education. Grants to the police became dependent on the efficiency of the force: it was estimated that half of them were not efficient. The Act shifted the emphasis from the prevention of crime to its detection.

1857        Matrimonial Causes Act. By this Act, divorce courts were established. Women were given only limited access to divorce which could be obtained only on a specific cause other than adultery. Right of access to children after divorce was extended and women were able to repossess their property after a legal separation or after a protection order given consequent upon the husband's desertion.

1858        Abolition of the property qualification for MPs: this was one of the demands made by the Chartists. From this date, men did not have to own property in order to stand as candidates in parliamentary elections.
Jewish Disabilities Act implemented. In 1847, Baron Lionel de Rothschild was elected as an MP for London but objected to taking the oath which included the phrase "on the true faith of a Christian". He asked to be sworn in on the Old Testament. It took eleven attempts in the House of Lords to have the oath changed. Subsequently, Jews were able to take their seats in both Houses.

1859        Molestation of Workmen Act. This Act allowed peaceful picketing in the event of strike action taking place. The Act said that 'no person, by reason merely of his endeavouring peaceably and in a reasonable manner, and without threat or intimidation, direct or indirect, to persuade others to cease or abstain from work, in order to obtain the rate of wages or the altered hours of labour agreed to by him and others, should be deemed to have been guilty of "molestation" or "obstruction".'

1860        Food and Drugs Act. This was the first attempt at legislation to prevent the adulteration of food. It was common to find harmful additives in staple foods: white lead in flour, ground glass in sugar, red lead in coffee for example. The new law made the inclusion of additives a criminal offence. However, it was not very effective and had to be amended in The Mines Regulation and Inspection Act increased the number of mines inspectors and prohibited boys below the age of 12 from working underground.

1861        Repeal of paper duties. Gladstone helped the publishing industry by abolishing the excise duty on paper. This made producing newsapers cheaper still; it revived rural paper works and encouraged the growth of London newspapers and the provincial press.

1866        Sanitary Act. Finally, it was recognised that the 1848 Act had failed to produce the desired results: this was due mainly to that Act being permissive rather than compulsory. The 1866 Act compelled local authorities to improve local conditions and remove nuisances (health hazards). They became responsible also for the provision of sewers, water and street cleaning. The Act enforced the connection of all houses to a new main sewer; it set definite limits for the use of cellars as living rooms, and established the definition of 'overcrowding'. Every town was to appoint Sanitary Inspectors and the Home Secretary was empowered to take proceedings for the removal of nuisances where local authorities failed to act. 

1867        the second Reform Act. This extended the franchise to most urban working men.
Master and Servant Act. This Act amended an existing piece of legislation; strikers could now be prosecuted only for breach of contract. The Trade Unions were still dissatisfied, however, because it was possible for criminal proceedings to take place on the grounds of 'aggravated causes'.

1869        Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church. This Act came into effect on 1 January 1871. All ecclesiastical property belonging to the Church of Ireland, except churches in use, was vested in the Commissioners. Compensatoin was set at £16 million: half of the capital of the confiscated property and surplus funds were to be used for the relief of suffering. The Act also said that no Irish bishops were to sit in the House of Lords. Nonconformist ministers were to be given a grant from the Regium Donum (gift of the monarch) The Church of Ireland was to have a General Synod that was elected triennially by the dioceses.

1870        Irish Land Act. This law was passed by Gladstone's government and was intended to protect tenants against unfair eviction. Landlords were required to pay up to £250 to tenants who had been evicted unfairly and tenants were assisted in the purchase of their holdings by being able to borrow up to ²/₃ of the cost from the government.
Married Women's Property Act. This piece of legislation allowed women to keep £200 of their own earnings.
(Forster's) Education Act. This Act was intended only to 'plug the gaps' in the educational provision that existed. The two religious organisations that ran schools were given grants and the Act provided for the establishment of so-called 'Board Schools'. Education was neither free nor compulsory under this legislation.
Cardwell's army reforms begin. Cardwell was the Secretary of State for War; his reforms continued for over ten years.

1871        University Test Act. Until the passing of this Act, all academics and students at Oxford and Cambridge Universities had to be practising members of the Anglican Church. By this legislation, the privileges of the Anglican Church were removed and the universities were open to all with suitable abilities regardless of religious faith.
Civil Service reforms. Posts in the Civil Service were dependent upon privilege and connection with the 'right' people until this legislation. Thereafter, positions were open to all who could pass the examinations. The Foreign Office was excluded from the legislation, however, and continued to be the domain of privilege and connection.
Trade Union Act recognised unions as legal bodies with the right to own property and funds. Unions were allowed to protect these at law and they were also allowed to conduct strikes.
Criminal Law Amendment Act. This took away the power of strike action: although TUs could conduct strikes under the Trade Union Act, this second piece of legislation forbade the use of picketing of any description )even peaceful picketing). Consequently, it would be almost impossible for a strike to be conducted.
Abolition of the purchase of Commissions. This was one of Cardwell's Army Reforms by which officers in the British Army were to be appointed by merit and ability rather than being able to buy rank. The legislation met great opposition.

1872        Licensing Act. Gladstone believed that drink was the curse of the working man and wanted to introduce sobriety as a character-reform. He also believed that a sober, hard-working man would be able to save money and therefore have savings for his 'retirement'. This Act

• gave magistrates the power to issue licenses to public houses; where it was thought that there were too many of these, magistrates were able to close down some of them
• public houses now had to close in towns at midnight and at 11 p.m. in the countryside - so that agricultural labourers could walk home and arrive before midnight
• the adulteration of beer was made illegal: it was common for salt to be added to it, to make the consumers thirsty and so drink more.

1872        Ballot Act: this was one of the things that the Chartists had demanded. The Act introduced the secret ballot to all elections, making them less corrupt and less subject to bribery and corruption. The legislation was opposed by landlords and employers who could no longer control the votes of their tenants and workers.
Coal Mines Regulating Act. This insisted on the introduciton of safety methods such as fan ventilators, stronger timber supports, wire ropes, imporved winding gear and better safety lamps.
Public Health Act. This divided England and Wales into Health Authority districts, each of which had to have its own Medical Officer of Health and accompanying staff. The duties of the Health Authorities were not specified and most Health Boards were unwilling to spend the required money on radical reforms.

1873        Judicature Act. This Act rationalised the legal system in Britain by united seven different courts into one High Court of Justice.

1874        Licensing Act. This was an amendment to Gladstone's Act and provided for longer opening hours.
The Factory Act reduced working hours to 10 per day; it also said that no child couild be employed until the age of 10 and no young person could work full time until the age of 14.

1875        Artisans' Dwelling Act: local authorities were given the power to buy and demolish slum houses and replace them with modern, healthy housing. Because of severe opposition, the powers were permissive rather than compulsory
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act. This again legalised peaceful picketing and allowed unions to cary out as a group whatever individuals could do in law. Unmions could no longer be charged with conspiracy for taking such action.
Public Health Act: This legislation was the work of Richard A Cross. The Act set down in detail what local authorities had to do in terms of public health:

• ensure that there was an adequate water supply, drainage and sewage disposal
• nuisances were to be removed
• offensive trades were to be regulated
• contaminated food was to be found, confiscated and destroyed
• cases of infectious diseases were to be reported to the local Medical Officer of Health who then had to take appropriate action
• further regulations dealt with matters concerning: markets; street lighting; burials

Employers and Workmen Act: this put workmen and their employers on the same legal footing in cases of breach of contract: breach of contract was a civil offence. Prior to this legislation, if a workman broke his contract it was deemed to be a criminal offence, whereas if an employer did so it was only a civil offence.

1876        (Sandon's) Education Act. School Attendance Committees were established to encourage as many children as possible to take advantage of educational opportunities and parents were made responsible for ensuring that their children received basic instruction. The Committees could help to pay the school fees if parents were too poor to do so themselves - but this was not compulsory.
Merchant Shipping Act: this was the work of Samuel Plimsoll and was aimed at preventing ship owners sending unseaworthy or overloaded ships to sea, at the expense of the sailors' lives. The Act required a series of 'lines' to be painted on the ship to show the maximum loading point. It was not until 1890 that Board of Trade officials applied the regulations that Plimsoll had intended.Plimsoll is still a household name because of what is known as the Plimsoll line, this governs the cargo of a ship as regards its weight.

1878        Factory and Workshops Act. All workshops and factories employing more than 50 people were now to be inspected regularly by government inspectors rather than by local authorities (as previously).

1880        Employers' Liability Act aplied to all manual workers except seamen and domestic servants; it gave to injured employees or their dependents the same rights to recover damages from their employers that non-employees always enjoyed

1881        Irish Land Act. This was another piece of legislation passed by Gladstone and it gave to Ireland what Irish tenants had been requesting for many years: the so-called "3 Fs" - fair rents, fixity of tenure and free sale of the tenancy. The Act also provided for the establishment of Land Courts which would decide on what was a 'fair rent'. Unfortunately, the Land League did everything it could to prevent the Act from working and the evictions and violence in Ireland continued.
(Mundella's) Education Act. This made attendance at elementary school compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 10. Parents had to pay 'school pence' - about 3d. per child per week. Often, poor parents could not afford this sum of money.

1882        The Married Women's Property Act allowed all married women to continue as the separate owners and administrators of their property after marriage.

1884        third Reform Act. This extended the franchise to most adult males.

1885        Redistribution Act. This Act went hand in hand with the Reform Act: all boroughs with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants lost their MP; those with fewer than 50,000 MPs lost one MP. There were now 142 seats available for redistribution and these were given to densely populated areas. Constituencies were reorganised so that there were 647 single member constituencies of the 670 in existence.

1888        County Councils Act. This legislation established County Councils. The old local government boards (about 27,000 of them) were replaced by 67 elected County Councils which had extensive and compulsory powers to deal with matters such as road maintenance, the building of bridges, the establishment of a police force and the administrative duties that had previously been within the remit of JPs. Some sixty towns with populations over 60,000 became County Boroughs with the same powers as County Councils. Under this legislation, unmarried women were allowed to vote for councillors although they were not allowed to become councillors themselves.

1891        The Fee Grant Act effectively made elementary education free of charge

1894          Local Government Act (often referred to as the Parish Councils Act) . This Act divided the counties into Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils, each with its own elected coucil. Rural District Councils were divided into civil Parish Councils which had to be elected if the population exceeded 300. Generally, the civil parishes had the same boundaries as the ecclesiastical (Church of England) parishes. Women were now allowed to stand as candidates and sit as councillors on these councils.

1897        Workmen's Compensation Act. This law said that an employer should compensate a workman who was injured, and the dependants of a workman who was killed at work, irrespective of any negligence on the part of the employer or his other employees. The Act was restricted to a limited number of employments, the so-called "dangerous trades" that included the building trade.

Tower Hill as a place of Execution

Long before any memorials were built at Tower Hill, and close to the WW2 memorial to Merchant Seamen, Great Tower Hill was used for executions of important people. Further information about this is below, including photographs of the memorial to those who were executed. The approximate location of the scaffold is shown on the various historical maps and plans HERE.

The manner of execution depended on the status of the victim. Beheading was considered the least brutal method - though didn't always turn out that way with several accounts of botched executions. Beheading was reserved for the rich and famous; lesser people were hanged. Crimes considered the most heinous were dealt with by more appalling means such as "hanging, drawing and quartering".

Mostly it was members of the nobility that were executed at Tower Hill - usually after imprisonment in The Tower - but there were exceptions. In London most commoners were hanged at Tyburn, or later at Newgate, but there were many other locations for hangings across the country. Executions were a public event supposed to have a detterent effect. Members of Royalty, such as Henry VIII's unwanted queens, were executed in private within the Tower of London at Tower Green.

Tower Hill seems to have been on many occasions the place to dispose of those who had become "inconvenient" to the rulers of the country rather than genuine traitors. I have included information about two of these about whom I previously knew nothing at all as examples: Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, and Wiliam Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. I am sure that the stories of the others would be equally interesting and I may extend this site to cover them at a later date.

The following account of the history of execution at Tower Hill comes from the works of the Victorian Antiquarian Walter Thornbury - External Reference #15. Thornbury's work makes fascinating reading as it conjures up the spirit of the past rather than being "dry-as-dust" academic writing. His work is considered to be generally well-researched, but is rather opinionated but that does not detract from it as source material

Chapter X. The Neighbourhood of the Tower

Of Tower Hill, that historical and blood-stained ground to the north-west of the Tower, old Stow says:—"Tower Hill, sometime a large plot of ground, now greatly straitened by encroachments (unlawfully made and suffered) for gardens and houses. Upon this hill is always readily prepared, at the charges of the City, a large scaffold and gallows of timber, for the execution of such traitors or transgressors as are delivered out of the Tower, or otherwise, to the Sheriffs of London, by writ, there to be executed."

Hatton, in 1708 (Queen Anne) mentions Tower Hill as "a spacious place extending round the west and north parts of the Tower, where there are many good new buildings, mostly inhabited by gentry and merchants." The tide of fashion and wealth had not yet set in strongly westward. An old plan of the Tower in 1563 shows us the posts of the scaffold for state criminals, a good deal north of Tower Street and a little northward of Legge Mount, the great north-west corner of the Tower fortifications. In the reign of Edward IV. the scaffold was erected at the charge of the king's officers, and many controversies arose at various times, about the respective boundaries, between the City and the Lieutenant of the Tower.

On the Tower Hill scaffold perished nearly all the prisoners whose wrongs and sorrows and crimes we have glanced at in a previous chapter; the great Sir Thomas More, the wise servant of a corrupt king; the unhappy old Countess of Salisbury, who was chopped down here as she ran bleeding round the scaffold; Bishop Fisher, a staunch adherent to the old faith; that great subverter of the monks, Cromwell, Earl of Essex; and the poet Earl of Surrey—all victims of the same bad monarch.

Then in the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, in ghastly procession after the masked headsman, paced Lord Seymour; in due course followed the brother who put him to death, the proud Protector Somerset; then that poor weak young noble, Lady Jane Grey's husband, Lord Guildford Dudley; and Sir Thomas Wyat, the rash objector to a Spanish marriage

The victims of Charles's folly followed in due time—the dark and arrogant Strafford, who came like a crowned conqueror to his death; then his sworn ally, the narrow-browed, fanatical Laud. The Restoration Cavaliers took their vengeance next, and to Tower Hill passed those true patriots, Stafford, insisting on his innocence to the very last, and Algernon Sydney. The unlucky Duke of Monmouth was the next to lay his misguided head on the block.

Blood ceased to flow on Tower Hill after this execution till the Pretender's fruitless rebellions of 1715 and 1745 brought Derwentwater, "the pride of the North," Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and wily old Lovat to the same ghastly bourne. In 1746 Mr. Radcliffe (Lord Derwentwater's brother) was executed here. He had been a prisoner in the Tower for his share in the rebellion of 1715, but succeeded in escaping. He was identified by the barber, who thirty-one years before had shaved him when in prison.

Chamberlain Clarke, who died in 1831, aged ninety-two (a worthy old City authority, who has been mentioned by us in a previous chapter), well remembered (says Mr. Timbs), as a child, seeing the executioner's axe flash in the sunshine as it fell upon the neck of Mr. Radcliffe. At the last execution which took place on Tower Hill, that of Lord Lovat, April 9, 1747, a scaffolding, built near Barking Alley, fell, with nearly 1,000 persons on it, and twelve of them were killed. Lovat, in spite of his awful situation, seemed to enjoy the downfall of so many Whigs.

There is a passage in Henry VIII.—a play considered by many persons to be not Shakespeare's writing at all, and by some others only partly his work—that has much puzzled those wise persons, the commentators. The author of the play, which is certainly not quite in the best Shakespearian manner, makes a door-porter say, talking of a mob, "These are the youths that thunder at a play-house and fight for bitten apples: that no audience but the tribulation of Tower Hill or the limbs of Limehouse are able to endure." This passage seems to imply that there were low theatres in Shakespeare's time near Tower Hill and Limehouse, or did he refer to the crowd at a Tower Hill execution, and to the mob of sailors at the second locality?

Although most of the executions recorded for Tower Hill were beheadings, this was not the only way of dispatching the condemned that was employed there. It is recorded that Richard Wyche was burned at the stake for converting to Lollardrism in 1440, and that John Goose suffered the same fate for the same reason in 1475. William Collingbourne was "hanged drawn and quartered" in 1484 for "favouring the cause of Henry Tudor", likewise three unnamed persons in 1532 for "coining" - the old term for making counterfiet coins which was a treasonable offence. Sir Thomas Wyatt was both beheaded and quartered in 1554, and  "five unruly youths" - unnamed - were "hanged and boweled" for causing a disturbance on Tower Hill in 1595.

gas worries 1939

Artists throughout centuries have often used mythical, historical or anthropological subjects as an excuse to portray the human nude, usually women of course. Carl Mydans – the Life magazine photographer – in rather an original way, used a WW2 Gas Decontamination centre in Westminster as his excuse. Great photos that they are.As the inevitable war with Germany came closer, the British government was terrified with the thought of gas or chemical weapons being used. The horror of the First World War meant that most countries, including Britain and Germany, were signatories to the Geneva Gas Protocol of 1925 which banned the used of chemical and biological weapons (although not the stockpiling of them).

The huge distrust of a re-armed Germany, however, meant that gas decontamination centres were set up all over London before the war. Seven of them in Westminster alone. The centres were often built in swimming baths and the only one in the West End of London was at the Marshall Street Baths in Soho. In the end chemical weapons were left unused throughout the duration of the war. It was said that Hitler was briefly blinded by mustard gas in the First World War and for this reason he was reluctant to use them.

real london

Tuesday, 18 August 1992




Thomas Albert Nutter, tailor, born Barmouth Merioneth 17 April 1943, died London 17 August 1992.



TOMMY NUTTER, the avant-garde Savile Row tailor, came to prominence in the late Sixties as a man who singlehandedly reconciled the traditions of Savile Row, laid down in the late 19th century, with the male peacock revolution of the Sixties and the often extravagant demands of his clients, the leading dandies of swinging London.



Born in Wales in 1943, Nutter spent his formative years in Edgware, north London, where his father was proprietor of a cafe catering to a clientele composed of truckdrivers, gas-fitters and builders. The family moved to Kilburn and Tommy and his brother David had a normal suburban childhood, punctuated by highly enjoyable holidays at Butlin's holiday camps. He attended the Willesden Technical College where, according to his brother, he studied plumbing.



In the early Sixties, Nutter obtained a position with Donaldson, Williams & Ward, traditional Savile Row tailors with premises in the Burlington Arcade. Here, starting as an apprentice, he absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentleman's classical wardrobe. His seven years with the firm gave him a thoroughgoing knowledge of his craft, and a lifelong respect for its rules.



In 1968, Nutter left Donaldson Williams & Ward to found his own business, first at 35a Savile Row, later in its present handsome double-fronted premises at No 19. He was backed by clients including Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, Peter Brown, then Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps, also situated in Savile Row, and by the lawyer James Vallance-White.



The business was an immediate success for, like Sir Hardy Amies, a Savile Row dandy of a previous generation, Tommy Nutter produced lively, contemporary tailoring whose roots were deeply embedded in the craftsmanship and knowledge of Savile Row. Indeed, he made suits for Amies as well as for newer residents of Savile Row, and in particular the Beatles. He was proudest of the fact that, for the cover of the Beatles' album Abbey Road (1969), he dressed three out of the four (George Harrison elected to be photographed on the road-crossing in denims). Other leading dandies of the period were also his clients, including Sir Roy Strong (then Director of the National Portrait Gallery), Mick Jagger and Elton John.



Nutter also applied his craft to dressing female icons of swinging London society at the time, including Cilla Black, a close friend, and Bianca Jagger, who was much photographed at the time in a white dinner jacket with white satin facings. Nutter also made a red velvet suit for Twiggy which became a celebrated and much-copied look when she was photographed wearing it in the early Seventies.



In 1971 he was elected to the Best-Dressed List in the United States, along with the Earl of Snowdon and Hardy Amies. At the time, American Menswear magazine said of Nutter that he was 'tradition spiced with daring'.



'He never got things wrong about clothes,' said the restaurateur and bookshop-owner Stuart Grimshaw, who was a client of Tommy Nutter's from the late Sixties. 'He really knew what he was talking about. One would go in and say, 'What do I wear to go on safari in Kenya?' and Tommy would make one an absolutely correct safari suit, a proper one with all the pockets in exactly the right place.



'This knowledge extended to such minutiae as the correct wearing of half or full brogues or co-respondent shoes. He was an encyclopaedia of correct, classical male style.'



Clients from the hipper purlieus of the aristocracy, from the media, pop stars, and even aspiring teenage dandies from the East End whose ambition, in the early Seventies, was to own a Nutter suit, were drawn to Tommy Nutter not only because of his ineffable sense of style, but also because of his peculiarly ironic personality.



Andrew Lloyd Webber was a client and friend. 'He made me a lot of things when one was younger and trendier,' Lloyd Webber said. 'There was a wonderful maroon coat I remember I wore for Ascot - he was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on - he made clothes for Tim Rice too - we were all great mates'.



Nutter was a gentle humorist who had a wide and interesting circle of friends attracted by his enthusiasm, by his gentle, self-mocking personality and his acerbic comments on the vagaries of others, always ending with the expression 'But who am I to talk?' He was a prodigious and witty correspondent and his letters to his many friends are treasured. In addition, he delighted in writing to the serious newspapers on topics as far-ranging as the correct buttoning of the suit on a statue of John F. Kennedy, to the scarcity of deckchairs in Green Park. He was always very ready to spring to the defence if his beloved Savile Row came under attack, as it so frequently did in the anarchic Sixties.



Nutter was also a firm believer in the supremacy of the English suit and of English cloth; during the Seventies and early Eighties he took part in huge international fashion shows put on by Reid & Taylor, the Scottish firm of woollen and worsted manufacturers.



With his untimely death, from complications arising from Aids, London society loses a witty and elegant dandy, whose hand-rolled lapels and insouciant manner masked a serious and continuing purpose; to make sure that the craft and traditions of Savile Row tailoring were preserved for, and valued by, his generation.

























































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