Adelaide Hall (1901–1993) was a black American singer who made her home in Britain. Her long career spanned eight decades. She is especially remembered by us for an occasion where she was reported to have bravely sung through the night – totalling fifty-four songs – in the Lewisham Hippodrome, during a particularly frightening wartime air […]
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx was born in London on 16 January 1855, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx and his wife Jenny von Westphalen. She was known as Eleanor, and, within the family, as “Tussy.” Eleanor’s father, Karl Marx, was a German philosopher and revolutionary socialist whose work has had a profound impact on the […]
A while ago we wrote about how Catford was named after a gang of wild cats who populated a ford over the River Ravensbourne. This week we want to share some more information about the European wildcat species. Wild cats are no longer a feature of the Catford environment, though thankfully Catford today is home […]
Darcus Howe was a civil rights activist who campaigned for racial justice and police accountability. He holds an especially important place in Lewisham history because of the prominent role he played in important local events, notably the Battle of Lewisham in 1977 and the Black People’s Day of Action in 1981 following the New Cross […]
According to the A. D. Mills’s A Dictionary of British Place Names, the name Catford can be dated back to 1240 and means ‘Ford frequented by wild cats.’ At that time it was spelt Catteford; a joining of the Old English words Catt and Ford. A. D. Mill’s A Dictionary of London Place Names further […]
Researching famous people with connections to Lewisham led us to conclude that Ernest Shackleton is probably the best-known figure. Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874–1922) was an Antarctic explorer. He is one of the main characters in the so called ‘Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’, which dates from the late nineteenth century to the end of World […]
Rosa May Billinghurst was born at 35 Granville Park in Lewisham on 31 May 1875, the daughter of Henry Farncombe Billinghurst, a banker, and his wife Rosa Ann (née Brinsmead). She was generally known as “May.” The Billinghurst family appear to have been comfortably well-off. At the time of the 1881, 1891 and 1901 Censuses […]