Lewisham

1/ Electric Picture Palace, Deptford, May 1917 (Four Children Killed)

Four children were killed due to mass hysteria at the Electric Picture Palace in the High Street, Deptford. The “Children’s Programme” was on and the place was full, with a few grown-ups supervising. Nearing the end of the show a few kids made a dash for the exits. People passing by outside thought there was a fire because of the scramble going on, and consequently, someone shouted “FIRE!”. Now the panic began, and there was screaming and shouting and trampling on those underfoot. In the melee, four lost their lives. Two were suffocated and another two died on their way to Miller General Hospital. The names of the dead are -Edward Webster, aged seven of Dorking Road;-Edward Turrell, also seven, of Berthron Street:-Mollie Ryan, only four years old of Junction Road and Sarah Johnston, aged nine of Watergate Street.

2/ New Cross Road, Lewisham, (Guillotine Suicide) February 1876

Francois Augustus Chere, a 38-year-old Frenchman was trying to scratch a living and pay the rent on his lodgings in New Cross Road. The penniless craftsman went inside and got two planks of wood and a large tanners knife, then with these items he constructed a home-made guillotine and used it to chop his head off.

3/ Catford Train Death, July 1895

4/ Barnes Terrace, Lewisham, January 1846

One Sunday morning, a young lady hopped into a cab and made her way to Barnes Terrace. While it was pouring with rain she got out, paid the fare, telling the cabman that she would “soon be very well” and then threw herself into the Thames. The body has not yet been recovered. (Who was she?)

5/ Deptford Child Murder, July 1871

The dead body of a new-born infant was found in a field on the Greenwich side of Deptford. It was partially clothed and had its throat slit from ear to ear.

6/ Deptford, April 1887 (Starving Child to Death)

7/ Deptford Manslaughter, July 1885

John Read, an ex-police sergeant at Deptford, was yesterday committed for trial for the manslaughter of his daughter, Emma aged twenty. The evidence showed that the prisoner was “continually drunk”, and that he abused his children if they did not bring him any money to buy a drink. The death of the poor girl Emma was traced to his violence.

8/ Bull Inn Suicide, Lewisham, November 1851

An elderly woman who was working as a servant at the Bull Inn, Lewisham, killed herself in the garden at the back of the property. While peeling some spuds she tried to commit suicide, but not finding the knife sharp enough she went off to sharpen it up then came back and tried again, this time being successful.

9/ Wesleyan Chapel Suicide, Deptford, March 1863

A suicide was committed in the Wesleyan chapel at Deptford by 60-year-old Thomas Redman. He was a builder doing some work on the chapel ceiling, and he left at six a.m.to go and start work. His son was helping him and he turned up later at nine a.m., and it was he that discovered the body swinging from scaffolding, hanging from a rope. The body was cut down and the surgeon thinks that he had been dead for some time probably as he first got to the chapel at 6 a.m.

10/ Deptford Poisoning Case, July 1889

11/ Forest Hill/Honor Oak Park Stations, July 1893 (Child Murder)

The corpse of a naked young boy was found by William Taylor, a plate-layer from Dalman Road in Forest Hill. It was on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway between Honor Oak Park Station and Forest Hill Station. The police surgeon stated it was a fully-developed infant and that it was probably thrown from a passing train.

12/ East London Industrial School Suicide, Lewisham, March 1899 (See No.18)

A fifteen-year-old boy named Julius Nathan committed suicide at the East London Industrial School in Lewisham, by hanging himself. A fellow pupil said that he had told him that he would “do for himself one of these day’s”, and he would amuse the other lads by enacting him hanging himself, when he stood on the bed and sang a song, then put his head in a noose.

13/ Lewisham Suicide, March 1892

14/ New Cross Station, March 1888 (Double Infanticide)

A dreadful discovery was made at New Cross Station in a London to Brighton train which was being shunted back again to New Cross. Underneath one of the seats was a flat basket, and on inspection, the two babies were found. It is thought they are about a month old and are twins. It said that it was obvious a murder was carried out because they had both been vaccinated and this is also a major clue.

15/ Deptford (Railway Deaths)August 1854

Some workmen were cleaning the underside of the railway carriages which had been hoisted by a machine called a jack, when a carriage slipped on its side and fell onto E.Baldock and Charles Grey. They were extricated and taken to Guy’s Hospital, but the severe injuries caused by the huge weights involved may prove too much and both are unlikely to recover. (Did they?)

16/ Lewisham, August 1889

17/ Dartmouth Hill House, Blackheath, (Greenwich/Lewisham) February 1892

During the excavations at Dartmouth Hill House, which is due for demolition, the workmen found a number of adult human bones. It is on the site of a former copper in the laundry. About 25 years ago a gardener and his missus lived there, and they argued constantly, and rather mysteriously the wife vanished off the face of the earth at the end of 1870. He told friends and family that she just got up and walked out on him. Police were sceptical but they had no body, so he might be telling the truth. The husband left after a year and got remarried. This is thought to be the wife’s corpse and police are trying to trace the whereabouts of the husband.

18/ East London Industrial School Suicide, Lewisham, March 1899 (See No.12)

19/ Loampit Hill, Lewisham November 1908 (Body under Floorboards)

The corpse of a woman named Bertha Hume aged twenty-seven, who was also married, was discovered under the floorboards in a house in Loampit Hill, Lewisham. Bertha had been strangled. The husband, George Hume aged forty-seven, was found wandering about and has been put in a padded cell in a lunatic ward of Lewisham Union Infirmary. She had been missing for a week and her husband was arrested, it was thought that she had legged it from her nutty husband. Police made a thorough search of the property and came up trumps when they pulled up the floorboards. He was arrested trying to strangle his son and they knew he was had lunatic tendencies so they had him incarcerated in a proper facility.

20/ Forest Hill Child Murder, October 3rd, 1885

At Greenwich yesterday, Martha Howard aged 27, married, of Forest Hill, was charged with the wilful murder of her female child, aged 5 months, by striking it with a chopper. The police were called to the house occupied by the prisoner and her husband when the woman said:”I’ve killed a child; I want to be hanged.” She had been previously found with the child, the head of which was almost severed from the body, lying across her knees. She was remanded.

21/ Forest Hill Child Murder, October 23rd, 1885

22/ Churchyard of St Paul, Deptford, October 1874

The bodies of five infants were found in an unused receptacle in the Churchyard of St Paul in Deptford.The remains of a child’s body were spotted by a man and when reported to police, they excavated the area around where the body was found and another four children’s bodies were unearthed. Two of them had died recently, the parents had momento cards of them being interred in the Deptford Cemetery by a local undertaker. Police are investigating the matter. (Have they been improperly buried or just dumped there by an undertaker?)