Room 13 Miller's Court

[Sam Flynn]

I believe there was very little furniture in the room. So where did Blotchy Face sit and where did Kelly sit while she serenaded him for that long period of time?

There were two chairs, Chava.

[Sam Flynn]

The doorway that leads into the courtyard was to my eye, created after the house was built. Why would they have a second door on that wall when they had one under the archway to the stairs already?

Mary's door could have been the original "back-door", Mike - ideal if the room were originally a scullery or wash-house. No need to worry about wrestling with a basket full of laundry in that narrow passage-way if you had a door that opened directly onto the garden. I see no reason to suppose that it wasn't there from the start.

Since this seems to be nagging people I thought Id try once again to offer a solution to the issue of what a "partition" in this case refers to. The room was said to have been a parlour or sitting room, with a fireplace....although Chava has suggested it could have been a kitchen, there is no foundation that I have seen or read for that conclusion, no offense my LI friend.

The room had four walls, and an entrance to the parlour, that was located about where Marys head is, but on the wall behind her. I have personally seen a blowup of the faded remains of what seems like stenciled numbers, or the fresh wood under metal ones, that are "2" and "6". Sam has also, and likely has access to that shot easily.

One door....just one, "partitioned" off that room...and it was sealed in place in the old entranceway to the parlour, plastered I'd assume, and perhaps papered on both sides. I believe cracked plaster might account for the cracks that Elizabeth can see light through.

Best regards all.


editted: The doorway that leads into the courtyard was to my eye, created after the house was built. I would suggest that the time it was added was when the room became part of Millers Court and not 26 Dorset. Why would they have a second door on that wall when they had one under the archway to the stairs already?

[Ben]

Either way, it sounds out-of-character for Kelly to leave her room completely open and undefended when she went out.

She was probably drunk and absent-minded, Chava. Besides, I'm not sure how "out-of-character" it would have been for Kelly to leave her door on the latch. We know from Chief Inspector Moore than many East-Enders were in the habit of leaving their doors unlocked.

[Chava]

I was looking at this thread and a couple of things occurred to me:

- When Mary Ann Cox describes Kelly entering her room with Blotchy Face, she does not say mention anything unusual about how Kelly entered that room. She simply describes Kelly walking in and the door banging shut behind her. So either Kelly had found her key, or that door was left open. Which suggests she wasn't interested in security. But many witnesses claim that she was. Perhaps the door was left open as a courtesy to other prostitutes using the room when needed. If the door were bolted, then Kelly would know to stay away. Perhaps Kelly had found her key. In which case where was it at the crime scene? Either way, it sounds out-of-character for Kelly to leave her room completely open and undefended when she went out.

- I believe there was very little furniture in the room. So where did Blotchy Face sit and where did Kelly sit while she serenaded him for that long period of time? It's probably not germane to any investigation, but it interests me. We don't know when Blotchy Face left, and he may well have left almost as soon as he arrived. Leaving Kelly to sing to herself for an hour. After all, he clearly wasn't getting what he came for anytime soon.

- If Bowyer could push aside the 'curtain' that blocked the window in order to see inside the room, then the hole in the glass wasn't stuffed with material. If it were, he would probably hesitate to push it through since, for all he knew, there was a sleeping woman inside who might get very annoyed with him for waking her up.

[Veritas]

Wow thanks Stewart for that phot of Prater'swindow!

[Stephen Thomas]

Sam and Rob

I think that the word 'partition' is mentioned too many times (especially in the1898 Kate Marshall murder trial) for that wall to be anything else. If it had been a regular lathe and plaster non-loadbearing internal wall it would not have been referred to as a 'partition'. I'm starting to think that this partition and the staircase behind it were part of the original house and not a later add-on. The first house I bought, a London terraced house built around 1870, had a wooden partition in exactly the same place, ie about 3 feet behind the main back wall of the house, to allow access to the garden. There was a door in the partition to enter the back kitchen.

[Sam Flynn]

Just a thought, why does a partition have to be the whole wall? The door could have been sealed, papered over etc.

Precisely my thoughts, Rob. A sealed doorway is a more likely proposition IMO, especially when one considers the dimensions of the room - I can't see more than one door being fitted into a length of wall barely ten feet long.

[Rob Clack]

Just a thought, why does a partition have to be the whole wall? The door could have been sealed, papered over etc. So in effect it would be partitioned from the rest of the house.

Rob

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Glenn, yes that would be true if there were no dividing wall between the staircase and Kelly's room. What I was wondering was, if, as Rob seems to have suggested in his graphic of how he sees the original layout, there was a perfectly good dividing wall, then all you'd need to do would be to block the connecting door as I understand it, rather than building a partition where a wall already exists.

John,

I don't think there was a real, proper dividing wall to begin with.
The sources seem to indicate that it was a very thin partition wall, so it is most likely that it wasn't a proper wall belonging to the original layout, but that it had been in place somewhere else originally and had been put up as a divider at a later stage as a temporary solution in order to create the room #13.
I am no building expert but probably the partition consisted of only the pure wooden panels without the actual original wall material.

I can't give a good explanation for why the door is there, but most likely it was a 'blind' one and that it at one point was functional when the wall was at its original place, before it was moved to divide Kelly's room from the rest of the ground floor space.

All the best

[Sam Flynn]

We needn't assume that McCarthy put the partition in place - although he may have been the first to sequester the ground floor front room for use as a shed. Remember, Miller's Court had been divvied up for rental long before McCarthy took it over, and he'd only done that fairly recently.

[John Casey]

Hi Glenn, yes that would be true if there were no dividing wall between the staircase and Kelly's room. What I was wondering was, if, as Rob seems to have suggested in his graphic of how he sees the original layout, there was a perfectly good dividing wall, then all you'd need to do would be to block the connecting door as I understand it, rather than building a partition where a wall already exists.

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Rob, the only issue I can see with your reconstruction of the original layout is why would you need to build a partition once Kelly's room was converted to a bedsit? Sure, you'd need to block the door off, perhaps as someone said, with the original front door, but I cant see that being called a partition.......?

I am not sure what you mean here, John.
If McCarhty needed to create another room in order to cash in more rent, he would have needed to put up a wall in order to separate the room from the rest of the ground floor space of #26. And apparently a non-usable door was included in that partition wall.
I don't see any problem with this. It's common practice when you need to create more rooms, that you erase a partition wall. McCarthy just didn't bother to use a very high quality one; seems like he used what he could hold of or didn't use anymore.

All the best

Hi Jane,

Thanks for addressing the post, I was feeling invisible, but I have never, ever, heard or read anywhere that Marys room was anything but a sitting room or parlour before conversion. It was never a kitchen or scullery. Which means water obtained from the pump would not pass through that room at all, unless destined for use in that room. And since Prater seemed fine with transporting it through the archway door upstairs, maybe not such an inconvenience.

Anywho,....Im satisfied with what I feel is the answer here, so Ill bow out so others can gain their own sense of accuracy. Nice to see you Ms Coram...as always.

Cheers.

[John Casey]

Hi Rob, the only issue I can see with your reconstruction of the original layout is why would you need to build a partition once Kelly's room was converted to a bedsit? Sure, you'd need to block the door off, perhaps as someone said, with the original front door, but I cant see that being called a partition.......?