Charles Bradlaugh
Church and school in Hackney
Charles Bradlaugh’s father, also called Charles, worked for a solicitor in Bishopsgate. He supplemented his income by selling legal stationery. His work may have been less dirty and onerous than a labourer’s but his wages and position in society were still low and the family was considered poor.
Bradlaugh Senior married Elizabeth Trimby, a former nursemaid. They moved to a four-room house at 5 Bacchus Walk, Hoxton. In 1833 she gave birth to her first child, Charles Bradlaugh. The building no longer exists but a plaque on a nearby council block records his birth. He was baptised at St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch. Elizabeth would give birth to seven more children, two of whom died early.
Top: Birdcage Walk in 1830. Bottom: the area to the south of Hackney Road in 1837. Charles Bradlaugh would grow up here, the family living at several addresses. The open spaces were filled with houses in the 1840s / 50s
The Bradlaughs moved to Birdcage Walk to accommodate their growing family. The street is now well-known as Columbia Road Flower Market but in the mid-1830s it was under-developed. Charles Bradlaugh Senior enjoyed gardening but when house building began in the long gardens, the Bradlaughs moved out, eastwards to Elizabeth Street, later renamed Mansford Street.
Terraced housing as
built in the area south of Hackney Road in the
mid-1800s. The cost of renting such a property at the time
was £20 per year, which might come as a surprise to the current homeowners.
The area to the south of Hackney Road was under development by small local house builders. On the north side, attractive Georgian terraces had been erected for the ‘better sort’ in the 1820s which can still be seen today. To the south, the houses were ‘fourth grade’, usually two-storey with no water or toilet, sharing pumps and privies with several houses. Nevertheless, these were an improvement on tenements and slums and at rents just affordable by a diligent clerk or artisan.
The Anglican Church and the Government were concerned about this urbanisation and its godless population. It was not just a concern for spiritual health that prompted action. The French Revolution, still in living memory, showed how an ungodly mob could bring down both Government and the Church.
Acts of Parliament in 1818 and 1824 provided the funds to build new churches by the new Church Building Commission. Eventually, 612 new churches were built. In 1840-41, St. Peter’s, Bethnal Green, was built by the Commissioners. This church would have great significance for young Bradlaugh. Although he was a parishioner in its first decade of ministry, the church would singularly fail in its aim of dampening down his radical ideas.
St. Peter’s Bethnal Green.
House building was now well under way between Birdcage Walk and Bethnal Green. From 1845 to 1853, 24 houses were built in Warner Place and eight in Wellington Place. Around the new church, 35 houses were built between 1852 and 1855. The pond to the south was filled in and more houses erected in the 1860s at Nelson Place.
Although the date has not been established, it is likely that the Bradlaughs moved to Warner Place South at about the time the new church was built. The house no longer exists, and some assumptions must be made. The house at 13 Warner Place South may have been newly built, possibly between 1835 and 1837 and is likely to have been a typical ‘fourth grade’ terraced house as illustrated above. It is described as having seven rooms. The location is now the site of a park, opposite the entrance to Nelson Gardens.
Despite its simplicity, and lack of amenities, this was suitable for a clerk with a growing family, at a rent of seven shillings a week. It would be the Bradlaugh family home for some 20 years or more.
The new home provided a settled existence. As was usual for such a family, they were church-going orthodox Anglicans, with St. Peter’s, across the road, providing a community and spiritual focus.
Schools attended by Charles Bradlaugh to age 11.
Charles
was sent to school nearby in Abbey Street, Bethnal Green, in 1840, age 7.
However, his parents removed him following excessive capital punishment, the
scars still showing when he joined the army. He moved to another school for a
short time and then to Marshall’s Boys Academy in Coldharbour Street. He
remained here until 1844 when, age 11, his formal education ended.
Copyright
Derek Perry 2021