Joseph Bramah's Royal Flush

Joseph Bramah was born at Stainborough Lane Farm, Wentworth in Yorkshire, in 1748, and was an inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press, yet it was for a more domestic invention which had Georgian and Regency society had reason to thank him. He married and moved to London in 1783, where he worked for a Mr. Allen, installing water closets (toilets) which were designed to a patent obtained by one Alexander Cumming in 1775. He discovered that this model had a tendency to freeze in cold weather, and therefore improved the design by replacing the usual slide valve with a hinged flap that sealed the bottom of the bowl. Bramah obtained the patent for it in 1778, and began making toilets at a workshop in Denmark Street, St Giles. By 1797 he had sold over 6,000 of his water closets. The design was so successful that production continued well into the 19th century, and his original water closets are still working in Osborne House, Queen Victoria's home on the Isle of Wight.

Hannah Glasse's cookbook

Hannah Glasse was christened on 28th March 1708 at St Andrews church in Holborn. Yet while her father, Isaac Allgood, was a landowner from Northumberland who had recently married one Hannah Clark, her mother is said to have been the widow Hannah Reynolds. Scandal! Young Hannah was removed to Hexham in the north-east of England and brought up by the Allgoods with their legitimate children. In 1724 she married an Irish soldier, John Glasse, and returned to London. Her identity as the author of one of the most popular of 18th-century cookery books was not finally confirmed until 1938. The book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was published by subscription in 1747. It did not reveal its authorship, except generally with the signature By a Lady, which permitted an erroneous claim that it had been written by a man! Yet is was highly popular, and a second edition was soon printed. The same year as the book was written, John Glasse died, and Hannah set herself up as as a dressmaker in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in partnership with her eldest daughter Margaret. Unfortunately in 1754 she became bankrupt, though her stock was not auctioned as it was all held in Margaret’s name who continued to trade. She was, however, forced to auction her most prized asset, the copyright for The Art of Cookery. Plagiarized editions of her book became popular in the American colonies, and she unsuccessfully tried to repeat her success with The Servants Directory and The Compleat Confectioner. She died on 1st September 1770, aged 62.

Royal Hospital Chelsea

The Royal Hospital was founded by King Charles II, to succour and relief of veterans broken by age and war. Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to design and erect the building, which was based on the Hôpital des Invalides in Paris. The Hospital’s chapel was also designed by Wren and is a fine and rare example of his pure ecclesiastical work. It was designed to accommodate about 500 people. 

As a retirement and nursing home for British soldiers who are unfit for further duty due to injury or old age, it is a true hospital in the original sense of the word - that is a place where hospitality is provided. There are over 300 soldiers resident in the Royal Hospital, referred to as "in-pensioners", and when out and about can be seen in their traditional scarlet coats and tricorne hats.

The Hospital is open to visitors (see www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk) Nearest tube Sloane Square.

Chelsea Physic Garden

In 1673 the Society of Apothecaries of London founded a physick garden at Chelsea so that their apprentices could learn to grow medicinal plants and study their uses. At the time Chelsea was already famed for its market gardens, and while the garden struggled in the early years, by 1685 the diarist John Evelyn described the heated glass-house, which it thought to be the first in Europe. In 1712 Dr Hans Sloane bought the Manor of Chelsea, along with the freehold of the garden. He had studied in the garden in his youth and was sympathetic to the Apothecaries, to whom he granted a lease on the land for a rent of £5 a year in perpetuity, on condition it be for ever kept and maintained as a physick garden.

In 1983 the garden became an independent charity, and is now open to the public (see www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk)

(Nearest tube Sloane Square.)

Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth

Henry Addington was the son Anthony Addington, who was physician to William Pitt, the 1st Earl of Chatham and Prime Minister during the Seven Years War against the French in the 1760s. Young Henry therefore was a childhood friend of William Pitt the Younger, who was to dominate the political landscape during the wars against Napoleon. And this friendship was to later lead Henry to climb to the top of the greasy pole.
In 1784 he became Member of Parliament for Devizes, and within five years Speaker of the House of Commons. in 1801 Pitt the Younger fell out with George III over Catholic emancipation – Pitt wanted it, the King didn't – and so Pitt nominated his childhood friend to take over as Prime Minister. Addington's first task was to negotiate peace with Napoleon - the Treaty of Amiens – which gave him time to recover the country's finances, build a string of defensive towers along the south coast of England and create a large standing army of 600,000 men. Thus emboldened he re-declared war of France. Addington's greatest failure was to cultivate a strong following in Parliament, and when in 1804 Pitt and others decided his time was up, Addington was forced to step down. He instilled more loyalty in the King, however, who created him Viscount Sidmouth and Deputy Ranger of Richmond Park.
He returned to government in 1812, first as Lord President of the Council and later as Home Secretary, where he was tasked with countering sedition in the country.

The Marshalsea Prison

Most of the Marshalsea Prison, off Borough High Street in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames, was taken up with debtors. In 1799 a government report stated that the prison had fallen into decay, and proposed its re-building, which was completed in 1811. The second Marshalsea had two parts, one set aside for Admiralty prisoners under court martial, and the other for debtors. In 1827, 414 out of its 630 debtors were there for debts under £20.  Charles Dickens' father, John, was sent there as a debtor on 20th February 1824, under the Insolvent Debtor's Act 1813; he owed a baker £40 and 10 shillings, a sum equivalent to £2,939 in 2012. He was released after three months.
The prison was notoriously cramped. A report in 1833 said there were "an average of more than four persons in each room  which are not ten feet square! I will leave the reader to imagine what the situation of men, thus confined, particularly in the summer months, must be." The Marshalsea was closed by an Act of Parliament in 1842, and the inmates were relocated to either another prison or the Bethlem hospital if they were mentally ill.

All that remains of the Marshalsea today is the brick wall that marked the southern boundary of the prison, now called Angel Place. It is just north of the junction of Borough High Street and Tabard Street.


(Nearest tube stations Borough High Street and London Bridge.)

Mrs Sarah Siddons

Portrayed by Sir Thomas Lawrence (left) and Sir Joshua Reynolds (right)


Born on 5th July 1755 in Brecon, Wales, Sarah Kemble was the eldest daughter of Roger – manager of the touring theatre company The Warwickshire Company of Comedians – and his wife Sarah "Sally" Ward. In 1773, at the age of 18, she married the actor William Siddons. She gave birth to seven children but outlived five of them, and her marriage to William became strained and ended in an informal separation. He died in 1803. During the late 1770s Sarah gradually built her reputation on the London stage, before becoming a sensation in 1882 when performing the lead role in David Garrick's Isabella or The Fatal Marriage at the Drury Lane theatre. It was beginning of a 20 year reign as queen of Drury Lane, but her most famous role was that of Lady Macbeth.

Mrs Siddons formally retired from the stage in 1812 but made several guest appearances until 1819. She died in London in 1831 and was interred in St Mary's Paddington Green, where there is a statue to Britain's greatest ever actress.


(Nearest tube Edgware Road.)

Gentleman Jackson's boxing academy

John Jackson won the title Champion of England in 1795 at the age of 26, beating the celebrated boxer Daniel Mendoza at Hornchurch in Essex. Jackson was five years younger, 4 inches taller, and 42 lbs. heavier. The bigger man won in nine rounds, paving the way to victory by seizing Mendoza by his long hair and holding him with one hand while he pounded his head with the other. Mendoza was pummelled into submission in around ten minutes. Since this date boxers have worn their hair short.
Following this fight Jackson, who was friendly with the fencing master Henry Angello, set up a boxing academy for gentlemen at 13 Bond Street, London and which was next to Angello's fencing school, from where many gentlemen were directed. Jackson's Saloon soon became popular with the nobility and gentry. Lord Byron relates in his diary that he received instruction in boxing from Jackson.

Jackson died in 1847 and his memorial can be seen in Brompton Cemetery 

(Nearest tube Green Park for 13 Bond Street and Earl's Court or West Brompton for the cemetery).

Almack's Club

Unlike all other London clubs, Almack's, on King Street in St. James, was governed by a select committee of the most influential and exclusive ladies in London society. These fair arbiters imposed an aura of exclusivity on the balls held on Wednesday nights. They allowed only those whom they approved to buy the non-transferrable annual vouchers, which cost ten guineas, and to lose one's voucher meant that one had been tried and found wanting, in short a social disaster. Refreshments in the supper rooms consisted of thinly-sliced bread with fresh butter, and a dry cake similar to pound cake. To avoid drunkenness, only tea and lemonade were served in the supper rooms. Besides the dancing and supper rooms, Almack's also provided gaming rooms for those who preferred cards to dancing.


(Nearest tube Green Park).

White Lodge, Richmond, Surrey

White Lodge is a Georgian house situated in Richmond Park. The house was built as a hunting lodge for George II. It was later occupied by George II's daughter, Princess Amelia, who also became the Ranger of Richmond Park. She closed the entire park to the public, except to distinguished friends and those with permits, sparking public outrage. In 1758 a court case made by a local brewer against a park gatekeeper eventually overturned the Princess's order, and the park was once again opened to the public. After restoration of the house following disrepair in the late 18th century, George III gave the house to Prime Minister, Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, who enclosed the lodge's first private gardens in 1805. The King made himself Ranger, with Lord Sidmouth as Deputy Ranger. Among the more famous visitors to White Lodge during this period was Lord Nelson in the month before the Battle of Trafalgar. He is said to have explained his battle plan to Lord Sidmouth by drawing lines on the table with a wine-moistened finger. It is now occupied by the Royal Ballet School.


Nearest tube Richmond or Kew Gardens and a very, very long walk!