I've written two previous posts about researching extinct addresses, and somehow there is still more to discuss. This case study is going to be focused on using historical newspaper articles to research the Wink's Buildings located in St Jude, Chelsea, London, England up to the 1860's. I conduct my newspaper research through the British Newspaper Archive and the Newspapers section on Find My Past.
One thing that is important to note is that there were multiple Wink's Buildings throughout the greater London area. I have found record of their also being buildings located in Battersea and Islington. Despite being located in different boroughs, the buildings were all in poor neighbourhoods and consequently had poor sanitation. As a result, there are many newspaper articles that describe criminal activity and prolonged outbreaks of disease.
The exact location of these buildings has been highlighted on Charles Booth's map in green. It should be noted that this map was produced approximately 20 years after the time period of interest and therefore is unlikely to reflect the socio-demographics of the 1860's.
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| The location of the Winks Buildings has been highlighted in green. Booth never assign a 'class' to this street as much of the surrounding area is said to have been demolished. |
Although Booth's map precedes this case study by approximately two decades, it can still offer some insights into the surrounding area. Most notably, there are two ragged schools located within the surrounding two blocks. These types of institutions were established to educate poor children and thus were typically constructed in low income areas and slums. This means that, although Booth describes the area as being "generally respectable", at one point in time this likely wasnt true. Additionally, there appears to be a ragged school constructed at the end of the street, which implies that by the 1880s (at least part) of the buildings had been converted for an alternate use.
The St Jude Wink's buildings were first mentioned in the newspapers during the 1840's. During the early years of this decade, they are mentioned in affiliated with petty crime such as "obtaining funds under false pretences" and committing an unspecified theft. Based on the criminal behaviour, it would be fair to assume that the buildings had been constructed in an already poor neighbourhood and thus was quickly and cheaply constructed in response to the emerging crisis. The developers who built these types of homes often did not give much consideration to sanitation and the long term structural integrity. An article published in April 1865 provides a better description of the surrounding neighbourhood. It claims that in 1836, a room in the Wink's building was opened as a place of worship and was considered to be a "temporal and spiritual welfare of mankind". The article goes on to say "scriptures were expounded for such of the poor the neighbourhood could be inclined to attend". This converted room is more than likely the ragged school that Charles Booth's map shows as being located at the end of the street.
By the early 1850's, the building has began experiencing mass outbreaks of disease. During December 1850, a 'medical man' attended to a fatal case of typhus and described the buildings as "pestilential in the extreme". He noted that six other cases of fever had already occurred in that home. Four years later, a young child died from cholera. The description of these two deaths indicates that the buildings had inferior sanitation.
After this decade, there is little mention of these buildings. Based on Charles Booth's notebooks, it appears that following the demolition of Turk's Row, some of the surrounding area began to deteriorate. He does not provide a reason for the demolition, but one can only assume that it was related to the buildings become dangerous and/or uninhabitable.
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