The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 4)

[Siamese Girl]

August 1st.

The storm in London made the newspapers. Some reckoned nearly £100,000 damage was done. Cellars were flooded and the "iron steamer" Citizen B was struck by lightening on the Thames which destroyed part of the starboard paddle box. Glass roofs were destroyed everywhere including the glass roof above the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace was almost totally destroyed and the gallery flooded. In fact it doesn't look as if much glass survived anywhere in London. The other big problem was it showed how inadequate the sewer system was as they were unable to cope.

 London is in desperate  need of Mr Joseph Bazalgette to sort it all out but it's another 10 years before he gets to work and in the meantime thousands of Londoners will die from cholera.

Carole

[steve_gus]

Interesting the picture with todays entry - Richmond buildings shown as a sketch in 1970! In my mind they had been long gone. Now we can also 'see' where nat lived

August 1st.
 London is in desperate  need of Mr Joseph Bazalgette to sort it all out but it's another 10 years before he gets to work and in the meantime thousands of Londoners will die from cholera.
Carole

Three or four years ago the BBC did a really great documentary on Bazalgette. he also did major streets in london (shaftsbury ave I think) and the Thames embankment. The embankment hides the lower outfall sewers from hsi scheme, all of which (apart from the pumping stations and tanks that released the sewerage furhter down the thames as the tide went out) is still in use. Crossness pumping station has some lovely old pumping engines Id love to see.

[Steven Bryceson]

Dear all, What an amazing entry today. Steve-gus, I am close to the cemetery too (in Walthamstow). Let me know when you are down at your parents. I hope to get to the grave soon. Great to see the sketch of Richmond Buildings! Peace and joy, Steven.

[Ruskie]

The storm Nathaniel mentions comes up on a google search with lots of hits, so a very noteworthy event:

One mention:
1st August 1846 - Hailstones broke 7000 panes of glass in the Houses of Parliament. The glass arcade that covered the pavements of Regent Street was smashed to smithereens.

I am curious about Richmond Buildings. To me it looks like a row of substantial houses. Does anyone know if they were originally built as houses for the wealthy, then split into rooms or bedsit type accomodation (similar what's happening today in large and not so large houses in cities in the UK, mores the pity  ) Or would they have been purpose built as rooms to let? 

I think someone posted a link to a drawing of Richmond Buildings possibly in Part 1 - it may even have been the same one.

Anyone who plans to venture to the grave, please go well equiped (with your cameras  . What an adventure! Wish I was there ... 

[ShaunJ]

Some history of Richmond Buildings http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41105

[ShaunJ]

Have we had Charles Booth's description of Richmond Buildings? http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b354/jpg/221.html

[Ruskie]

Thanks Shaun. Well, by that description  it sounds as though they were originally built as single dwellings with some fairly illustrious occupants in the early days. I would love to know what it was like inside in Nathaniel's day.  

Just saw your next post. I will read the Booth link now.
(added: Very interesting description  - but a few years after Nathaniel's time)

[deb usa]

Morning all

Great entry today ...must have been pretty scary!

I have forgotten who has been found re: NB's children .... and trying to find some living rellies for Steven.

John Shepard Bryceson was b 1869 1860 ...I can see a marriage for him in 1894 but cannot see him or his wife on the 1901. I believe he remarries 1907 .

1894 marriage John SHEPERD Bryceson to either:
Sarah Burnham or Alice Jane Burrows
Kensington
1a 271

jun q 1907 marriage John SHEPHERD Bryceson to either:
Emma Campion or Gertrude Lyne ... 3 men on page only 2 women ... 
Islington
1b 600

I think I need to reread the threads and possibly make a new summary 

deb

[avm228]

jun q 1907 marriage John SHEPHERD Bryceson to either:
Emma Campion or Gertrude Lyne ... 3 men on page only 2 women ... 
Islington
1b 600

His second wife was Gertrude - much younger than him! She may be the Gerty Lyne who in 1901 was at RG13/1399/76/52 - b abt 1879 Salford, Oxfordshire. Birth reg is Mar qtr 1879 Chipping Norton.