The Life House is fictional, but waiting mortuaries did exist although not in the UK. The first waiting mortuary, the Vitae Dubiae Asylum, was built by German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland in Weimar in 1792.
William Whiteley’s empire with his row of ten shops on Westbourne Grove and new ones being built in Queen’s Road (nowadays Queensway) was already a prominent feature of Bayswater life in 1880.
Providence Hall in Church Street was one of the locations where inquests were held in Paddington, often presided over by Dr William Hardwicke, the coroner for central Middlesex.
Reverend Benjamin Day was the curate of St Stephen’s Church, Paddington.
The Grand Junction Canal commenced construction in 1793. In 1929 it became part of the Grand Union Canal.
The Paddington Vestry was a forerunner of the Borough Council. Its sometimes tumultuous meetings are very well documented in the Bayswater Chronicle.
Dr Thomas Stevenson (1838-1908) was a noted chemist and toxicologist who was often called upon to give evidence at inquests and trials.
In 1877, some of the management and staff of the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Chest, Golden Square resigned after the death of a patient.
In 1880, the Aberdeen Hospital for Incurables was in Baker Street, Aberdeen.
On 2 September 1880, 10-year-old James Henry Robinson drowned while bathing in the Grand Junction Canal near Kensal Green Cemetery. The coroner commented that such accidents were all too common.
On 4 September 1880, the Balloon Society of Great Britain organised a number of ascents, one of which took place from Kensal Green.
The Monmouth Club opened at 7 Monmouth Road just off Westbourne Grove in 1877 and its activities were criticized in the Bayswater Chronicle from March 1879. In July 1880, David Copping, the club’s proprietor, commenced an action for libel against Henry Walker, the proprietor and editor of the Chronicle, and publisher George Walters. The case finally came to trial on 22 and 23 October and the defendants were not only acquitted but praised for having performed a public service. The club was closed down.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda Stratmann is a former chemist’s dispenser and civil servant who now writes full-time. She lives in Walthamstow, London.
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COPYRIGHT
First published in 2012
The History Press
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