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1881 census entry for a police station, full of lodging constables...interesting

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  • 1881 census entry for a police station, full of lodging constables...interesting

    Just posting this out of interest. Not seen a census entry for a police station before:

    This one is in South London...on Ancestry:

    http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec/?...=&pid=21190915
    Liz

  • #2
    Even copy-pasting the link, I got an error message, so I'm not sure what the problem was.

    Christine
    Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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    • #3
      Christine - just clicked on the link on my post and it is coming fine. You need subs to Ancestry I suspect to open it as is an image and needs a moment to upload.
      Liz

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      • #4
        It's Camberwell police station. The Chief Inspector, his son and his minder (visiting), a prisoner (soldier in the Royal Artillery), a contractor's labourer, a police sergeant and a whole pile of constables who came from all over the country.
        Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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        • #5
          I think there was only 1 or 2 prisoners, weren't there, Uncle John. I bet their neighbours behaved themselves.
          Liz

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          • #6
            My great grandad was a P.C at Camberwell station, on the 1911 Census, aged 21, and it is same then, Sergeant and P.C's all living at the station, so it must have had lodgings for them. This was a brief interlude in his life as a professional soldier and later railwayman that I knew nothing about until the 1911 Census was released last year, but yes I too was suprised to see them all 'living in'!
            Last edited by Richard; 23-01-10, 23:57.

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            • #7
              Just rechecked and on the 1911 sheet I have for great grandad at Camberwell Station, there is the Inspector, a William Alfred Lee aged 46, his wife, 49, his children 17,13,8, and his widowed mother in law 73, and then 12 Constables, all aged 21-31, described as 'single police officers residing in the station'. No prisoners at all. Cosy!

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              • #8
                What a fantastic coincidence, Richard! I wish I could prove a link to the man with my family name on the census I gave the link to...perhaps in time I might. I remember tracing some distant ancestors to a place in Brighton where they all worked in a large store which provided accommodation for all their staff and apparently they were like well run hostels, with fairly strict rules (I seem to remember...).
                Liz

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                • #9
                  Is a coincidence yes, I wonder whether it was just Camberwell Station or this was 'normal' for all Met police stations those days? Interesting it was only the single constables that lived in too, the married chaps and their families obviously excluded, with the exception of the inspector. Actually it sounds a bit like it was run along army lines, where the sergeants and officers get married quarters, but not the ranks!

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                  • #10
                    I had 4 great-uncles who were Met or City of London policemen and they were all in these kinds of lodgings on censuses. They came from a tiny Norfolk village and one of my uncs was in a police house with another constable also from the same village so I guess they joined up together.

                    I also had a distant cousin who lived in the police house in Suffolk with his wife and a couple of police constables.
                    ~ with love from Little Nell~
                    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                    • #11
                      Great grandad was also from up that way Nell, Oulton in Suffolk. Looking at it none of the Constables living in on the 1911 are native Londoners, looks like it was common practise then.

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                      • #12
                        http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec/?...=&pid=13656887 - another one, this time from St James, Westminster iin 1881 - it runs on to a third page.
                        Last edited by Caroline; 24-01-10, 07:51.
                        Caroline
                        Caroline's Family History Pages
                        Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Liz from Lancs View Post
                          Christine - just clicked on the link on my post and it is coming fine. You need subs to Ancestry I suspect to open it as is an image and needs a moment to upload.
                          I have the sub - the problem (I have only just realised when trying to replicate it) was "less is more". In this case that meant looking more carefully to make sure that I copied only one set of the link, and not a double set!

                          Christine
                          Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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                          • #14
                            Glad you are in, Christine...

                            That last one Caroline is interesting...all the different places where the constables were born. You can imagine the accents...wonder if the locals understood them? And the police station is next door to the pub!
                            Liz

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                            • #15
                              No after hours drinking there then!

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                              • #16
                                My Great Grandfather is a police constable on this 1871 census in Bethnal Green. http://search.ancestry.co.uk/browse/...s&ln=Cuff&st=g

                                I also have him at the Old Bailey giving evidence in 3 cases.

                                If anyone would like me to see if service records exist for their Metropolitan Police Officer then please send me the details via pm with his details and I will check at Kew for you. I found the record for my ancestor there.
                                Last edited by Fi & Lilly; 24-01-10, 20:57.
                                Fi, aka Wheelie Spice

                                Why not learn British Sign Language: BritishSignLanguage.com; An Online Guide to British Sign Language

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                                • #17
                                  Fi - now that is handy - setting up a bakers next to the lodgings of all those hungry young police constables!
                                  Liz

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                                  • #18
                                    I think it was common for ANY young unmarried people living away from home to be living in lodgings provided by or approved by, their employers.

                                    Certainly shop assistants in large stores, nurses, policemen, seamstresses, factory workers and so on, all lived "over the shop". This was still quite common when I was a gel, lol. My first job was in the County Library and I lived near enough to walk to work (and lived with my parents of course) but other employees lived either in the YMCA or the YWCA. It was absolutely unheard of for a single person to set up home on their own and would have been viewed with deep suspicion. A friend at that time became a schoolteacher in a small village and was expected to live in lodgings approved (and vetted) by the County Council.

                                    Later I worked as a temp in London and many of the large department stores still had hostels where their young employees were expected to live.

                                    It was only really when everyone woke up to the price of land in London and other large cities that these hostels were disbanded, mostly in the 1970s.

                                    EDIT - LOL! I started this post intending to say "Of course, most of these men would have been on night duty" but forgot that bit.

                                    OC
                                    Last edited by Olde Crone Holden; 24-01-10, 23:35. Reason: Amnesia

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                                    • #19
                                      I thought that was probably the case OC...we forget how much things have changed!
                                      Liz

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                                      • #20
                                        Many police stations in the cities had barracks or 'section houses', as they became known, above the police station. These were lodgings for unmarried constables. During the 1910 - 30s many London police stations were rebuilt and the section house was located away from the station. Many section houses were very basic - even up to the early 70s. I can recall one section house in Beak Street, London, where the accommodation consisted of small cubicles, hardly any privacy, you could hear conversations in the next cubicle, and at change-over time, those asleep were soon rudely awoken by those going on duty.

                                        Any publican grabbed the chance of having a pub next door to the police station. Plenty of customers at all times of day, and 'afters' were no problem at all. Who would raid a pub full of policeman drinking after hours?
                                        Phil
                                        historyhouse.co.uk
                                        Essex - family and local history.

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