Workshops for the Blind
Benedict asked me about this so long ago that I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only just got to it today. He says:
"I am always intrigued by the old bits of carved masonry that sit in the Clock Tower Market area. There is a sign saying they were from the old Workshops for the Blind. Do you know any more?"
The Phantom replies:
I've not been able to find out huge amounts, but here's what I've gleaned so far. They were set up in 1877 as Workshops for the Blind of Kent by the fabulously-monikered Major-General PJ Bainbrigge, R.E. It started out with 15 blind workmen (I can't find any evidence of women)
It seems to have been pretty much where the horrid Ibis Hotel is now (God, I hate that chain,) and the various ornate bits of masonry that lie around the place are indeed from the old workshops. I can't find any pictures of its exterior, though there is one of the interior in Mary Mills's book Greenwich and Woolwich at Work, showing a large tiled room with various men in shirtsleeves making wickerware - baskets, shopping bags and chairs. There's a letter in an old edition of Greenwich Industrial History Society's bulletin from Beryl Mason, whose father worked there. She talks about a shop attached to the workshops where people could buy the baskets.
The business grew slowly - from 20 workers in 1911 to 41 in 1930. I suspect there may have been an increase, too, after WWII. I can't quite work out when the business was moved to Eastney St - what is now Feathers Place, but when it did, they branched into making mattresses and rope 'fendoffs' for ships. According to Beryl Mason, who visited her father at the workshops, they worked in the cold and dark - saving on lighting - (though as far as I know blind people feel the cold as much as anyone else...)
By the 1970s, blind people were finding work in the sighted world and demand for specific jobs 'for them' was falling. When the workshops finally closed, the foreman, a 'local character' known only as 'Jim,' started a basketware shop in Greenwich High Road. I have no idea where it was.
So there you have it Benedict. Bet you'd forgotten you asked that one...
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
17:10
22 Comments:
Thank you for that Phantom, I had'nt forgotten as I pass by there most days. I shall now have a picture of its "inmates" working on their baskets shivering away in the cold. I dont know why but there is something rather grand about all that carved stonework, a monument to Victorian altruism, and yet something that is rather sad for some reason, demise ,change, decay. Still I am really glad it is still there as a good example of building recycling!
Can we start a petition to demolish the hideous Ibis hotel? It's an affront to the World Heritage Site...
Only Greenwich council would ever have let it be built in the first place ("whadda wonga bung!").
I just hate it. I don't hate that one exclusively of course - I hate all Ibis hotels - believe me I've stayed in enough of the bloomin' things to know just how awful they are both inside and out. They are the epitome of bland, corporate nothingness - dismal holes for transient life - no character, no humour, no quirkiness. Some of the very old ones have rooms a bit like ships cabins - all done out in 1970s plastic - bright greens, reds and yellows, with strip lighting and portholes - and yet they STILL manage to have no personality whatsoever. I haven't actually made it any further than that depressing reception area in Greenwich - but I know people who have stayed there and describe it as - well - somewhere to rest their heads. Nothing else.
Trouble is - what else would go there if it was torn down? Ideas on a postcard, please...
Actually. Come to think of it - if Frank wanted to take that place over, I wouldn't object. Hoorah. I found a place (along with The Old Friends) where I would positively welcome his input.
I must admit its not a design classic but at least it is "softened" by having Cafe Rouge on its corner, which is not a bad spot for a terrace beverage of a sunny evening. It is unfortunate that there are no period buildings on that whole block which is a real shame and I am sure that even a "workhouse" would have looked a squillion times better. Now the Novotel down the road, "Restrained Italianate", it most certainly is not!
An INCified Ibis? Shudder. Breath. Retch.
But, I guess even FtW could have it - as long as he promised to knock it down and flay alive any locals who ever patronised Cafe Rouge.
Benedict! You never!?
Chains are like bullies - ignore them and they'll go away eventually.
If I ran the world, I'd knock down the Ibis, dig up some old photos of the Workhouse, rebuild it exactly (stealing BACK the memorial stones from Clock Tower Market), and install a microbrewery-wine shop-second-hand bookshop and invite all my friends to come live with me...
Nice Idea Franklin, I would certainly give you my Patronage. The problem I have is to find somewhere I can have a drink and a smoke get the evening sun and indulge in my hobby of watching wornout Tourists!
But you do have a serious point in that the town centre is becoming one big chainlandia!
Ufortunately they wont go away with 9 million people coming through here each year.
(owch! that flaying didnt half smart)
Hmm, yes, I can see your dilemma - a drink, a smoke, evening sun and watching tourists all at the same time is a bit of a tall order. The Trafalgar's outdoor seating area seems to lose the evening sun rather early. Maybe the new Meantime microbrewery at the ORNC will have outdoor seating?
Sorry Phantom, I know we're going OT here, but I do wonder what the balance of purchasing power between tourists and locals is, in terms of keeping local places open? I long ago vowed never to go into any of our chain joints (except maybe the occasional Pizza Express). But perhaps I'm kidding myself that this will make a difference - and the tourist dollar/euro will always trump my local pounds?
Moving even further away from the topic - and please delete this if it's a step too far, Phantom - I noticed at the weekend that several of the Hospital's long-empty shops in Nelson Rd and around the market have 'Under Offer' signs in the windows.
Anybody have any idea of what's coming?
Please Cod a bakery. Failing that, a branch of the Theatre of Wine would do.
Oh, see I LOVE cafe Rouge! It's that great balance between The Rivington and curry/pizza. I'd love it if there was an equal type place that wasn't a chain but I've yet to find one?!
I know that some people don't like it, but I always find Inside to be a good halfway kinda joint - good food but not too 'speniv. SE10 on more special occasions. The Ashburnham Arms or - of course - the Union for good 'gastro' pub grub.
But it sounds like I'm in a minority here, so - when I rule the world - I will keep a token Cafe Rouge in the corner of my microbrewery/ wine shop/ second-hand bookshop, to keep you guys happy. ;-)
Thanks Franklin, and we will let you have a little Pizza Express.
The more I think about the new ORNC brewery ....oooh.... the more excited I get.
Anyway what happened to those Victorian Blind basket weaving urchins?
I'd always understood that the discarded masonry and ruins were the remnants of Greenwich Park Station whose line ran thru to Nunhead and under the A2 where the underground walkers were recently shown the tunnel
Yay. I love the idea of a little mini Pizza Express, with little mini Bulgarian and Portuguese waiters who mix up chianti and chardonnay.
Actually, since I'd be living there, it could be just a Pizza Express takeaway. Except that I would order take-in.
On the new brewery - I went around the Foundation office a few weeks back and asked whether I could have a tour of the cellar and a gander at the well. They said No. :-(
I don't hate cafe rouge - though I have stopped going there quite so much since they took that roasted veg tart-y toasty thing off the menu.
sadly I suspect that the tourist pound is stronger than the local pound (unlike Blackheath which is why they get consistently better restuarants than us on the whole.) The problem is that locals will not go back somewhere they've had a bad time, and tourists don't generally tend not to come back anyway. So it's easier for bad restaurants just to accept that they won't woo any locals and put their energy into getting tourists inside. Once they're there they can give them a bad time - but don't care as there will be another lot tomorrow.
It means, of course, that tourists think we have terrible food here.
I don't have any idea of what's coming on Nelson road, but I would assume that anything not a fishmongers or an aquarium shop would please 'Cod.'
As to what happened to the basket weavers after the workshop closed down in the 70s, I understand they have recently had a major job, re-thatching Boris Johnson for the pre-election baby-kissing-fest...
Heh heh heh.
"Boris Johnson - the lovechild of Bill Clinton and Mr. Bean."
In terms of bad restaurants being able to stay open because they can attract the one-off tourist footfall, I have only three words on that:
Green Village Restaurant.
Defies all logic by managing to stay open despite attracting neither local nor touristic customers... and despite the wooden stake in its heart and the garlic stuffed into the mouth of its severed head.
I've never dared go in there. But your report is so damning, it's almost worth a go, just for the crack...
*correction*
"Boris Johnson - the illicit lovechild of a drunken threesome involving Bill Clinton, Mr. Bean and The Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz."
Franklin, Your ideas are fab!
Also, I would like to give a special mention to the pizzas at the Ashburham Arms. They are delish!
The shop, which was sort-of opposite the bank, always had a wonderful smell.
Does anyone know if the James Naysmith in the inscription was the inventor of the steam hammer? It would fit with his interest in astronomy to give a bequest to a Greenwich workshop. His steam hammer which was in Woolwich Dockyard was rumoured to go to the museum at Coalbrookdale, but not sure whether it has ever gone on display.
Sorry, more usually James NASMITH. Bequests are a good tradition in Greenwich - see the boards of benefactors in St. Alf's!
I think it must be the same James Nasmyth. Nasmyth was a Civil Engineer, so had 'C.E.' after his name, had connections with Greenwich, and died in 1890, which would fit with a bequest resulting in construction in 1892.
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