It may not be easy to see spacecraft from Vauxhall, but many’s the astronaut that’s been spotted on the South Lambeth Road having a last drag on a cigarette before entering the British Interplanetary Society HQ at Numbers 27–29 on the corner with Langley Lane. Indeed, writes space historian and Fellow of the Society Dr […]
Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen (1843-1902)
William Chandler Roberts-Austen was born 3 March 1843 in Kennington and became famous for his research into the physical properties of metals and their alloys. He developed procedures for the analysis of alloy constituents and an automatic recording pyrometer used to record temperature changes in furnaces and molten materials. He became a world authority on […]
Charles Pritchard
Charles Pritchard, headmaster of a private school in Stockwell in 1833, was an astronomer. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School and Christ’s Hospital and gained his degree from Cambridge in 1832. He then turned his attention to educational reform. In 1834 he moved from Stockwell to Clapham grammar school, which was founded to give […]
Sir Samuel Morland (1625-1695)
Samuel Morland was born in 1625, in Berkshire, the son of a clergyman. He studied mathematics at Winchester College, Cambridge University and became a fellow of Magdalene College in 1649. In 1675 he took a 31-year lease on the old Manor House of Vauxhall from the Duchy of Cornwall. This house was close to the […]
Robert James (1705-1776)
On a number of 18th-century maps of North Lambeth a property is identified as Dr Robert James’s Laboratory (1766 plan from the Gentleman’s Magazine). This doctor must surely have been the friend of Dr Johnson and inventor of James’s Powder, a ubiquitous medicine of doubtful effectiveness that was in use until the late 19th century. […]
William Curtis (1746-1799)
William Curtis was born in Alton, Hampshire, where he served an apprenticeship as an apothecary; he then moved to London and set up his own business. This proved sufficiently successful for him to sell out and he was then able to devote himself to the study of plants. Curtis cultivated some 6,000 species of plants […]
Brown Institute for Animals
The Brown Institute for Animals in Wandsworth Road was the first animal hospital in the country. In 1855 Thomas Brown M.A., LL.B., who lived in both Dublin and London, left £20,000 to the University of London to found ‘an Animal Sanatory Institution’ which was to be concerned with “investigating, studying, and without charge beyond immediate […]
The Dollond family
Just over 150 years ago, British optician and inventor George Dollond died. His passing marked the demise of his family’s century-old instrument-making business. The story of the Dollond enterprise starts with John Dollond (left), who was born in 1706. His father was involved in silk weaving, and John picked up that trade. Because his father […]
Tradescant family
Text taken from the Vauxhall Society’s “A guide to the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, London” by Francis Terry We are indebted for the material in this section of the Guide to Mea Allan, biographer of the Tradescants. Her book, although out of print, is obtainable from libraries in London and elsewhere. We are also […]
