There is a brooding presence just beyond the north west corner of Wandsworth Common. Gothic in temperament, constructed from cold-hearted grey brick, all towers and turrets, the Royal Victoria Patriotic Buildings look like a stage set lfrom a horror movie. They stand out like a sore thumb in leafy Wandsworth.
On a recent scordhing hot day I bought an ice cream from the cafe on the Common and went to have a closer look.
The buildings were constructed in the late 1850’s to house the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for the “Education and Training of three hundred Orphan Daughters of Soldiers, Seamen and Marines who perished in the Russian War, and for those who hereafter may require like succour.” A section of Wandsworth Common was enclosed and provided the land. I was gob-smacked to find this out; I’d assumed the Common would have been protected from such developments. I was even more gob-smacked when I read up on the history of the Common and found that this enclosure was one of 53 separate enclosures between 1794 and 1866 which provided land for houses, schools and hospitals most of which are still with us.
Costing £35,000, the buidlings were funded by the huge £1.5 million Royal Patriotic Fund established by Prince Albert an opened for business in the summer of 1859.
It was not a happy place. Imagine the workhouse in Oliver Twist and you would not be far wrong. The poor mites who lived here were not well treated. Their fate in life was to go into domestic service and they spent much of their time learning to cook, clean and wash clothes. The girls’ heads were shaved, to discourage head lice, and the girls were made to assemble in the courtyard each morning to be hosed down with cold water. The warm air heating system didn’t work and although fire places were put into staff rooms the children just had to shiver. Solitary confinement was used to maintain discipline. In 1862 a young girl, Charlotte Jane Bennett, was accidentally burned to death when a section of the building caught fire. Legend has it that the poor girl’s ghost still haunts that part of the building.
The building was requisitioned as a hospital during the First World War and a temporary station, now long gone, was built to bring the injured troops up from the South Coast. During the Second World War it was used by the British Secret Service to hold and interrogate prisoners and was probably used to question Rudolf Hess who flew to England in 1941 on his so-called peace mission. After the war it briefly became a teacher training college and then a school before lying empty and vandalised. The GLC sold it for £1 to a developer who turned it into flats and offices and a restaurant.
In the 1980’s it became a bit of a home for pop stars. Andy Taylor of Duran Duran lived here, as did one of the Thompson Twins. In Debbie Harry’s autobiography she recalls coming to a party here.
