The London Hospital

[auspirograph]

Thanks Stewart, Kevin and everyone who contributed to this thread. It is not very popular but an important Victorian Whitechapel institution I think. I was getting the idea it was big but not that enormous.

Great photo of the hospital with the view of Bucks Row.

[m_w_r]

Merrick's Model

Hi everyone -

Before this thread expires naturally, I wonder whether we can work out which church / cathedral (etc) Merrick's model is a model of. I reckon it's not British. I have looked through the pictures of German and Austrian churches in Wikipedia but I didn't find it there.

Any suggestions about how to proceed?

Regards,

Mark

[John Bennett]

At a family gathering a few weeks back, I was talking to my cousin's husband who is a fireman.

Apparently, he and his team were allowed to see Merrick's skeleton at the hospital (somebody pulled a few strings I think). Quite a scoop as I believe viewing is limited to researchers and medical students.

Having said that, when I enquired about viewing the skeleton as part of my book research, I was pooh poohed because it was in storage at that time owing to renovation work within the hospital.

Another time, perhaps!

JB

Ooh, I just noticed an earlier post by Doctor X, who has also seen it. Lucky chap.

[Scott Nelson]

Did anyone catch the recent issue of Ripperana? Apparently there was a tunnel between the Whitechapel station and the London Hospital used to transport bodies to and from the morgue. It was bricked up sometime after the murders. Speculation is that it was used by the Ripper as a "bolt-hole." Anyone have any old public works plans for this area?

[Monty]

Hi everyone -

Before this thread expires naturally, I wonder whether we can work out which church / cathedral (etc) Merrick's model is a model of. I reckon it's not British. I have looked through the pictures of German and Austrian churches in Wikipedia but I didn't find it there.

Any suggestions about how to proceed?

Regards,

Mark

Hey Mark,

Thanks to Scotts interesting post Ive just noticed yours.

You wont find the exact church as it was based on nearby St Phillips in Newark St.

It wasnt an exact replica.

Cheers
Monty

[Tom_Wescott]

Did anyone catch the recent issue of Ripperana?

I think you're the only one who gets it now, Scott.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[m_w_r]

You wont find the exact church as it was based on nearby St Phillips in Newark St.

It wasnt an exact replica.

Hi Monty,

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think it's St Philip's at all: see my reasoning in post #20. I also think that, even to the untrained eye, the model is plainly not that of a church built in the Church of England tradition. To me, it's European. When did you last see a church with those features in the UK? The idea that Merrick reproduced - from scratch - what he saw from his bedroom window is a romantic one, but I can't subscribe to it.

Regards,

Mark

[Debra A]

It is interesting that Howell and Ford mention that the surviving model was one of many - there is no particular reason to think that Merrick confined his modelling to ecclesiastical subjects, but could he not have been using modelling plans and templates in a bit-part series, having taken out a subscription to some publication or another?... This seems, to me, more likely than the hypothesis that he was using St Philip's, Stepney, as a starting point.

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark, I wonder if he could have been using kits like the company Schreiber-Bogen make nowadays?
Here's an example of some of the kits on Amazon. it wouldn't surprise me if companies like this existed back then and were producing similar products to what is available today.

Schreiber-Bogen card kits

[m_w_r]

Hi Debs,

Yes, anything like that seems more plausible to cynical old me than Merrick reproducing in card the church he saw from his window.

Regards,

Mark

[Monty]

Mark....and Debs,

You are absolutely both correct. I took the info from a distant relative who admitted to me she was not certain herself.

This from The Joseph Carey Merrick tribute site.

http://www.jsitton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/elephantman/church.htm

Monty

[m_w_r]

Monty,

What we need, really, is a copy of Dame Madge Kendal by Herself, the autobiography of the original recipient of the church. I imagine this is the source for the account given on the website to which you provided the link.

And then there's the matter of whether one takes this at face value, or whether there is room for a kind of structuralist interpretation of Merrick, critiquing what he represents. But we'd best not start that, I think.

Regards,

Mark

[Luke111]

Accurate location of Joseph Merrick

In assessing the question to the nature of Currie ward of the London Hospital in Whitechapel that the 16 October 1888 letter by D’Onston to the City Police was referring to, it is important to take into account that his 1889 admission only records his staying at Davis ward. This indicates that they were two separate wards during the Whitechapel murders.

According to the 1889 annual report of the London Hospital [LH/A/15], the Davis ward was on the second floor. It comprised of 4 small wards for men and two for women these wards being known by numbers.

’50, Currie Wards’, the return address of D’Onston letter to police, was situated on the second floor of the Grocer’s Company wing of the Hospital suggesting 50 wards but the Currie ward at the time did not have such arrangements as the smaller Davis wards. I think that it would indicate a bed number in a traditional hall-type hospital ward as shown in contemporary photographs and as Currie ward is known to be a large arrangement.

The crossing out of D’Onston’s ward placement during 1888 from Currie to Davis wards in red was Victorian hospital best practice for the transfer of patients from general to recuperative wards. This is consistent with D’Onston’s recorded diagnosis of Neurasthenia requiring eventual rest in a smaller ward arrangement. It is also consistent with the mistakes that are made by researchers taking D’Onston’s word on his hospital administrative statements found in his police file. That is, his claim of Davis as a ‘private’ ward, which did exist, but was not private in a modern sense. London Hospital wards during the Victorian period were not private arrangements but a free public hospital in a slum area of the East End with private paying patients not introduced until the 1930’s.

Here is a small diagram of the layout of the hospital as a guideline. It is not the best but simply to give an idea of its wards in Victorian times.

Thanks for the map.
Is there anyone here who can tell me where Beadstead square was.
A map would be great. I am doing some research on Joseph Merrick/ the elephant man, so any information would be greatly appreciated
greetings
Lukas

[chrisjd]

Hi Lukas,
Merricks rooms were about where the red X is.
Don't worry about the arrows, they are from a different discussion.
I fear Bedstead square has gone by now.
Christian

[Luke111]

Hi Lukas,
Merricks rooms were about where the red X is.
Don't worry about the arrows, they are from a different discussion.
I fear Bedstead square has gone by now.
Christian

Thanks, I have been looking all over the internet for that.
Thats great
This is what Merricks entrance door looks like in modern times.

[Luke111]

By the way, are there any files of the police, the hospital etc, that mention Joseph Merrick in connection with the murders? Or any newspaper articles?
greetings
Lukas